5 THINGS ABOUT DRAGONS YOU MAY NOT KNOW

Dear Valued Member,

Gong Xi Fa Cai! We’re now in the Chinese Year of the Water Dragon. Whether you follow the Chinese Zodiac or not, here are 5 things about dragons worth knowing in 2012:

1. Dreams to Reality: The dragon is the ONLY mythical animal on the chinese zodiac. It is the link between the imaginary world and the real world and has a special place in Chinese culture (In the same way you cannot deface a US flag in America, you cannot deface a dragon image in China). In 2012, what is the one dream you will bring into reality? Pin it up with a dragon image. Or copy Angelina and get a tattoo...

2. The Symbol of Flow: The dragon symbolises the protector of flow, and in Chinese myths is always controlling the waters, floods, seas and rivers. Its three joints represent the trinity of flow (creation, preservation, destruction). In 2012, what will you begin, what will you preserve, and what will you end to stay in flow?

3. The Power of Nine: The dragon is related to the number 9, the highest single digit number and Chinese symbol of celestial power. The chinese dragon has 81 Yang scales (9x9) and 36 Yin scales (9x4). Nine dragons was the symbol of the Chinese Emperor (and if you have ever been to Hong Kong, ‘Kowloon’ means ‘nine dragons’ in Chinese). The chinese character for ‘nine’ is the same as the word ‘forever’. In 2012, what part of you will you develop - a skill or quality that will lift you higher, and be with you forever?

4. The Celestial Messenger: The dragon has spread through all cultures, and today are found in everything from Shrek to Harry Potter. The English word comes from the Greek ‘‘drakan” which means ‘water dragon’, derived from ‘drakein’ which means ‘to see more clearly’. Up to modern time, the dragon is seen as carrying a secret or message that it protects and passes to the select few. In 2012, what dragon will you seek out. In what area do you want to ‘see more clearly’?

5. A Sign of the Times: 2012 is the year of the Water Dragon, which only comes around every 60 years. The last Water Dragon year was 1952 (the first year to see a return-flight of a passenger plane across the Atlantic), and before that was 1892 (The year Edison got a patent for a two-way telegraph. It was also the year of the first basketball game). In 2012, what will you invent? What will you create that will leave a legacy?

Where to start with these five questions? Grab a blank sheet and start with that - A white space of unexplored, virgin territory: The kind that old map makers would leave blank on their maps because no one had been there yet; The spaces on the map where there were no coastlines or land masses; Just empty space with the words “Here be dragons.”

Gong Xi Fa Cai. Wishing you a prosperous lunar new year!,
- Roger James Hamilton

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IN 2012, WILL YOU SYNC OR SWIM?

Dear Member,

I hope you had a fabulous Christmas and are now looking forward to the New Year. As you plan for 2012, how about measuring success not on what you WILL do to achieve success, but what you WON’T do?

Here’s an example: Warren Buffett is one of the wealthiest people in the world. So he must have a big plan of action for each new year, right? Wrong. When asked to describe his day, he said: “It’s very scientific. Charlie and I just sit around and wait for the phone to ring. Sometimes it’s a wrong number.”

Buffett, along with so many other successful entrepreneurs, has reached success through absolute focus - on one thing. As the American industrialist, Andrew Carnegie said: “The men who have succeeded are the men who have chosen one line and stuck to it.” This does not mean sticking to a particular profession, industry or even country. It does mean sticking to your natural path - Your wealth profile. Warren Buffett attracts the deals that suit Berkshire Hathaway; Richard Branson attracts the businesses that suit Virgin, and Jack Welch - while CEO of General Electric - attracted the right people to join his leadership team.

Each different wealth profile has different values that result in different attractions – they are tending to different gardens. Welch used a similar metaphor when talking about his role at GE: “My main job was developing talent. I was a gardener providing water and other nourishment to our top 750 people. Of course, I had to pull out some weeds, too.”

I wrote about the metaphor of the garden and butterflies in my email last month. After a year of excessive rains, floods and tsunamis, I’ll offer the metaphor of the river - One path, constantly moving. You can water your garden with a bucket, or you can water it with a permanent river.

We can all relate to the idea of growing a garden. But running our own river? Every great Wealth Creator has created their own river. When we grow our river, we grow our flow. As we grow our flow, we grow our attraction. At first glance, the two metaphors are similar: as with the butterflies, the water in the river is temporary; as with the garden, the river is permanent.

There are, however, four important additions:

1. Water
Water, like money, flows. Money is already flowing around this planet at an unprecedented rate. Great Wealth Creators have achieved their wealth not by ‘making money’ but by ‘creating flow’. They have learnt how to redirect some of this money flow through themselves and their enterprises. Wealth then, is largely about good plumbing. There are rules to this plumbing, and the structure of Wealth Dynamics is based on these rules.

2. Flow
Flow is about more than cash flow. It is about life flow. Each of us creates our greatest wealth when we are in our own personal flow. Those of us who build a river around this flow attract all the resources, people and opportunities in the same way that a leaf thrown in a river will naturally be attracted to the central current. When we are creating the right river, it feels right for us. When you find your flow, you begin to love life and live life fully.

3. Path
There are different paths to running a river, and we each have a natural path of least resistance. Wealth Dynamics classifies these paths into eight profiles. Each is a different game with different players and different rules. Until you follow your natural path, life feels like a struggle and you will find little attraction. Many of us are operating at a fraction of our true potential. Focus on your natural path and life soon changes from hard-to-get to easy-to-give.

4. Purpose
In a river, flow assumes exit as well as entry. Giving more opens the way to receiving more. With flow, a bigger income goes hand-in-hand with a bigger outcome. In the limited time we have on this planet, we choose our power to create and our power to contribute. When you live in your flow you maximize this power. You attract the resources to leave a lasting legacy. Your path leads to your purpose. To measure your success in 2012, rather than plan what you will do, plan on your river. What will be the level of flow you intend to grow? What purpose will it serve? What part should you play to grow it with effortless ease - to do less and achieve more? Design around your river, not around yourself. Make the river bigger than you. Tap into the flow that’s all around us, and then design a life that sweeps you off your feet.

Have a magical 2012,
Roger James Hamilton

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THE NET & THE GARDEN ...

Dear Valued Member

How is the end of 2011 shaping up for you? Are you chasing money with a net, or growing an attractive garden? If you watch the world news, you’ll know the world is in crisis, with money eluding everyone from the record unemployed to European nations. On the other hand, online shopping over the Thanksgiving holiday has hit new records...

My newsletter this month is about this elusive thing called money, and how your wealth relates to your money:

Wealth is permanent, like a garden, while money is temporary, like butterflies. Using the analogy of money being as tricky and transient as butterflies is quite useful. It allows us to draw a clear distinction between the strategies of those who are busy trying to make money compared to those who are building wealth.

The NET ...

You want to catch butterflies, so you decide to build a net. Surely, with a net you can catch them more easily! You read books on the subject and you practice skills in butterfly catching. You find that you are making improvements. Your net gets bigger and smarter and gradually you do catch more butterflies, but there is something wrong.

After many years of this strategy you still need to wake up every day and go out to catch more butterflies. You need to hold on to the butterflies you have caught or they will fly away just as quickly. The more butterflies you have, the more difficult they are to hold on to. You are constantly in fear that the butterflies will disappear or that someone with a bigger net will beat you at your own game.

When the butterflies disappear, you’re left with nothing.

Many people have become experts at sales, marketing, management and customer service. Yet they still struggle to make money. We all know of people who have learnt the strategies of successful stock market traders, property investors and serial entrepreneurs yet are still left funding their losses. They carefully follow the strategies they learn and then remain baffled as to why they do not attract the same opportunities, resources and sheer luck as their role models. They are trying to make money without first building wealth.

They are trying to chase butterflies with a net.

The GARDEN ...

Successful Wealth Creators don’t worry about building a net. They grow a garden. By focusing on creating an inspiring garden, you are growing something permanent around you. As the garden grows, the butterflies come. As time goes by, the effort required to manage the garden falls as the number of butterflies rises. In fact, the butterflies, birds and bees end up pollinating your garden for you. You don’t fear butterflies leaving, as there are always more coming.

If anyone takes your butterflies, there will be more the next day.

Every successful Wealth Creator is focused entirely on building their wealth foundation rather than their moneymaking activities. They build a reputation, a powerful network, a knowledge base, a resource base and a track record. This is their garden, and it is built not around their expertise, but around their passion, their path and their purpose. Every day, they wake up to their garden, not to an empty net.

In a recent speech to a group of students, Warren Buffett said:

“I may have more money than you, but money doesn’t make the difference. If there is any difference between you and me, it may simply be that I get up and have a chance to do what I love to do, every day. If you learn anything from me, this is the best advice I can give you.”

Does the garden metaphor resonate with you? Are you busy chasing butterflies with a net or are you growing a garden?

Keep making magic,
Roger James Hamilton

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HOW TO CREATE LUCK ...

“Give luck a chance to happen.”
- Tom Kite, US Golfer

Dear Valued Member,

Once you begin following your natural path, luck happens as a result of the flow you grow. Here’s a simple way to build that foundation – to build your luck.

The foundation of luck is built on four conditions:

Location, Understanding, Connections, Knowledge

Think of a game of football. Think of David Beckham. Now, he’s lucky! The 30-year-old English footballer earns over $80,000 per week kicking a ball and, together with his wife, Victoria, has a net worth of close to $100 million.

So what is it that makes a footballer lucky? As we watch the game, there’s an opening and Beckham scores. We think “That was lucky. Out of all the spots on the pitch, he was exactly at the right place at the right time!”...

LOCATION | Who chooses where you place yourself each day? We each have an opportunity to be at the right place, at the right time. Many of us are so busy going to work every day, we’re always at the wrong place, wrong time. Luck starts with choosing to be at the right place, right time.

UNDERSTANDING | At the critical moment, when the ball is in front of the goal, you may find yourselves at the right place, right time, but you have no understanding of the reason you are there: to kick the ball. Many of us are still spectators, watching the game. By the time we notice the ball, it’s too late to kick. The players know the reason they are there is to kick the ball, so have already anticipated it, positioned themselves, and kicked it. Luck comes from playing the game, not watching it.

CONNECTIONS | Many of us have positioned ourselves in front of the goal, and understand we’re there to kick the ball. We’ve started our business, our investments, but there’s no ball coming. We wait, and wait, and the years tick by. Still, there’s no ball coming. If this happens to you, try looking around to see if there’s anyone else on the pitch. Many of us have not invested in our connections – the players who should be kicking us the ball. There’s no one on the pitch!
Great Wealth Creators have million dollar balls being kicked to them every day as a result of the connections they have built. Connections, by the way, are not the same as a network. Many of us have big networks, but networks are full of spectators, not players playing our game. So there are still no opportunities coming our way.

KNOWLEDGE | There’s no point having balls coming your way if you don’t know how to kick them. There’s no point having opportunities coming your way if you don’t know what to do with them. Knowing how to kick the ball comes with playing the game. The more you play, the more you know. Which is why, the sooner you choose your game, and play it, the sooner your luck begins to flow.

“To know and not to do is not yet to know.”
- Zen saying

You can build these four conditions not by investing your money, but by investing your time. Some of us have been too busy going to work each day to have invested any time in building our luck, and we are no luckier today than we were five years ago.

Ask yourself, how many of these conditions have you built, what would you need to do to build the rest?

Wealth isn’t about how much money you have. It’s what you have left when you lose all your money. When you’ve kicked the ball, the luck remains, and another ball will be along in a moment.

Keep making magic,
Roger James Hamilton

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Dear Valued Member,

JOIN ME FOR THE CAMP OF A LIFETIME!

Most of the messages I’ve sent you are related to Wealth Dynamics, XL Nation, and my belief that we have the power to create and contribute more wealth when we are in our flow.

This message is different. It is about how we can support the next generation to excel – right here, right now. I have brought together two of the world leaders in transformational education for children: The world-renowned Green School in Bali, and SuperCamp, the world leader in  enrichment camps.

From December 17th to 23rd, 2011, the first Senior Green SuperCamp will take place in the beautiful island of Bali, attended by children from around the world. My children will be attending, and I invite you to join us.

Do you have a young leader in your family (or community) who is between 14 and 17 years old – that age when you have the world at your feet?

If so, would you be ready to gift them the camp of a lifetime?

For seven fun, inspirational days, young leaders will learn the world’s best accelerated learning skills while building the values of a Global, Green Citizen. Green SuperCamp will help students increase grades while building their confidence, motivation and the drive to break through barriers that can hold them back in life.

SuperCamp’s Expert Facilitators will be flying in from the U.S. and around the world. Both Green School and SuperCamp have attracted the attention of the world’s press for their transformational work with students, and you will find articles and videos from ABC to BBC to CNN when you visit our site.

>> Click here to register for a place on Senior Green SuperCamp

>> Click here to volunteer and join us as a crew member

CLICK TO WATCH: Green SuperCamp Video

“Supercamp is a model learning environment.” – CNN

“A new breed of summer camp.” – WALL STREET JOURNAL

“An awakening for students to their academic and social potentials..” – BOSTON GLOBE

“An ecologically balanced seat of learning, where there are no walls and the only light is the natural kind. Nowadays there is such a place: Green School on the island of Bali.” – FINANCIAL TIMES

“These students are the ones who are going to make a difference in this world.” - CNBC

WHAT MAKE’S THIS SUCH A UNIQUE EXPERIENCE?

Green SuperCamp will be pioneering a camp that will integrate SuperCamp’s proven formula with the Green School’s unique environment and culture. The students will stay together on campus and there will be hands-on activities and adventures that bring out the best lessons in nature. From seasoned SuperCamp participants to first-time visitors, this will be a camp of a lifetime.

SuperCamp’s facilitators go through over 300 hours of extensive training in Quantum Learning methodologies and the 290 specialized learning techniques that lead to the outstanding results we get for your child.

With a 1:4 staff to student ratio and every minute of every day carefully orchestrated, all students get a full 63 hours of engaging academic and life skills training over the week.

HOW WILL STUDENTS BENEFIT?

"I just wanted to let you know how big of an impact SuperCamp has had on me. I am getting A's and B's in all of my classes. I am really enjoying school. I hope that I get a chance to come back next year." - David, SuperCamp Grad

PROVEN RESULTS

84% of participants increase their self-esteem, and 73% raise their grades after the camp. How? Because after 30 years of development, SuperCamp’s state-of-the-art Quantum Learning System delivers the very best in Life and Learning Skills.

"My daughter went to SuperCamp last summer. We enrolled her almost immediately for this summer's SuperCamp. She probably had the best time of her life. She learned so much, it was unbelievable."- Rory, SuperCamp Grad Parent

LIFE SKILLS @ GREEN SUPERCAMP

LEARNING SKILLS @ GREEN SUPERCAMP

YOUR NEXT STEP

Thank you for taking the time to read this email and we hope you are as excited about the Green SuperCamp as I am.

This is my opportunity to make a difference for my children and their fellow future leaders by bringing together the very best transformational leaders in the world. Any profits from the camp will go towards the Green School’s scholarship fund, supporting local Balinese to attend the school and receive a world-class education.

Please join me and make an impact on a child’s life this December. We are looking to make it as easy as possible for you to impact the lives of the young leaders around you. We have packages for parents to visit Bali while their children are on the camp, and for schools to bring groups from their school.

Click on one of the links below for your next step:

>> Click here to register for a place on Senior Green SuperCamp

>> Click here to volunteer as a crew member

>> Click here if you’re interested and would like to speak to us for more information

Happy to be Green,
Roger James Hamilton

Connect with me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rogerhamilton
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LIFE IN THE FAST LANE

Dear Valued Member,

With the turmoil in world markets, should you be focused at action or attraction? Will your success be based on what you chase, or what chases you? This month’s newsletter is all about how your action and attraction is related, and the key that connects them.

“Even if you’re on the right track,
you will get run over if you just sit there.”
- Will Rogers

Have a look at a five lane expressway. The flow of traffic is all in the same direction, yet it’s obvious the cars zipping along on the outside lane are moving faster. If you’re parked on the hard shoulder, and you aspire to be in the outside lane, there is a process to get you there. You don’t start in the outside lane, you start in the inside lane. You don’t start in fifth gear, you start in first gear.

The key to this process is traction. On our path to wealth, we begin with action and we end with attraction. Traction links the two together – and not just literally:

ACTION

TR-ACTION

AT-TR-ACTION

If the wheels and gears of your car lost traction, you would lose grip and lose momentum (or crash).

If you do not apply what you’ve learnt, if you do not measure your momentum, and do not sense when you are over-revving your engine or when you are about to stall – that’s living without traction. As a result, you’ll often find themselves in the wrong gear, or in neutral...

When you are living with traction, you become aware of your momentum and the flow of traffic around you. You can feel when it’s time to change gears, and when it’s time to change lanes. You gain the ability to move into your flow one step at a time.

Now – more than ever – you need to know when it’s time for action and when it’s time for attraction. Traction let’s you know the difference.

How do you turn traction on? You turn it on by deciding to increase the value of time. The more you value your time, the greater your traction becomes. You spend less time saying “I’ll think about it” and less time in ‘neutral’. Successful Wealth Creators have a grip on reality where they are quick-to-learn and quick-to-apply. They live in the present, applying themselves fully to playing the game. They don’t miss critical moments, and they recognize luck when it happens. Successful Wealth Creators don’t waste their time, and they won’t waste other people’s time either.

As IKEA founder and billionaire, Ingvar Kamprad said, “You can do so much in ten minutes’ time. Ten minutes, once gone, are gone for good. Divide your life into ten minute units and sacrifice as few of them as possible.”

The grip you need at 120kph flow is quite different from the grip you need at 10kph. That’s fine, as you will learn to pick up traction as you increase your flow. The more you play the game, the sharper your clarity, the stronger your connections, and the faster you can access the resources around you as opportunities arise.

This applies whether you’re running a company, trading the markets or scoring a try in the Rugby World Cup. Once you choose to live in traction and wasting time is no longer an option, every action leads to attraction.

Ask yourself today “Am I moving too fast, or too slow? Should I change down a gear or up a gear? Is the flow in my market at a different level or in a different lane?”

Then make the shift and follow the flow. The magic of the highway is that when you follow the flow, the flow follows you.

Keep making magic,
Roger James Hamilton

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Dear Valued Member

Are you about to lose your fortune? With the major volatility in world markets, America's downgrade, London's riots, gold's record prices - and then Venezuela's nationalization of all gold, there is more of a question now than ever about where fortune really lies - and how easy it is to lose. So what about yours?

WHERE IS YOUR FORTUNE?

In June 2006, newswires around the world carried the headlines “Warren Buffett to give his fortune to Gates Foundation”. Bill Gates, the wealthiest man in the world, decided to give his fortune away some time ago, setting up the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with his wife and father. With the June press announcement, Buffett, the second wealthiest man in the world was now giving away his fortune as well.

What is this fortune? Do you have a fortune? Is it yours to give away?

In today’s money-driven economy, it is easy to relate ‘fortune’ to ‘money’ and leave it at that. Yet within history’s deeper meaning of the concept of ‘fortune’, we find a link between the temporary nature of our life, the permanent nature of our legacy, and the strange phenomenon of ‘luck’. This historic understanding gives a deeper insight into how your flow leads to your fortune. Fortune has evolved over the centuries into a word with four separate, yet related meanings:

for·tune (fôr’chən) n.
1. Luck: The chance happening of events (fortuitous, fortunate)
2. Success: Especially when at least partially resulting from luck
3. Fate: A foretelling of one’s destiny (fortune-telling)
4. Wealth: A large sum of money or possessions

According to the Chinese, your fortune is your luck. The symbol for good fortune, ‘fu’, is also the symbol for good luck. The word fortune in English, originated from the Latin ‘Fortuna’, the Roman Goddess of Luck. Throughout history, our ancestors saw fortune and luck as one and the same thing. If you had good fortune you attracted your luck, and if you had good luck you attracted your fortune. From this definition, fortune evolved to mean the result of luck as well as the cause of it. Coming across ‘fortuitous’ events would make you more ‘fortunate’. Your ‘fortune’ then evolved further to mean more than your chance. From fortune-telling, fortune became your destiny.

Bill Gates has a fortune. Warren Buffett has a fortune. But their fortune is more than the dollars they give. It is their luck, and it is their legacy. Do these fortunate fellows see themselves as lucky? Actually, they see themselves as super-lucky. As Gates said at the press conference announcing Buffett’s $31 billion philanthropic gift, “I think the key thing is to get more people who are super-lucky to think about giving back.”

“Only learn to seize good fortune,
for good fortune is always here.”
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Your fortune already exists, and it is simply waiting for you to follow your flow. Living in your flow is living a life of good fortune. Exactly where it exists though, is an entirely different story – and a story worth telling.

When we foretell - we are telling ahead of time; when we are foreseeing - we are seeing ahead of time. Fortune is to tune in ahead of time - to the path that that resonates with us. When you are on your path, you tune in the world to you. This is the magic of synchronicity, and luck is the sign that you're on the right track.

In a way, turbulent times are our greatest test. If you're still lucky in stormy seas, then share your fortune with those around you. If not, then reset your sails.

Keep making magic,
Roger James Hamilton

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Dear Valued Member,

This July, will you be procrastinating, or taking action? Top tip for the new millennium – Don’t wait for the lights and camera.

Remember the old phrase ‘Lights, Camera, Action?’ - When we waited for the stage to be set before the show began? Today it’s the reverse. It’s the show that creates the stage and, as you would have noticed, the show keeps moving!

Here’s three steps I’ve found works again, and again, to stop procrastination or interruptions and get to the really important actions in your life:

1. Know the power of your environment: The stage you set will determine your actions. When you walk in a library, you talk quietly. When you go to a club, you dance. Try reading a book on the dance floor or dancing in the library. It doesn’t work so well. Many of us are making calls, planning days, doing our accounts in the wrong environment - which is why it’s so tough to get things done. We are not creatures of habit. We are creatures of environment.

2. Create five stages: Use the Five Wealth Dynamics Frequencies to plan your environments – have a different stage for each activity:

a. Your water/spirit stage:  Near running water, peaceful, no phones! Your space to check in on the ‘Why’, reflect on the day and tap into your centre, where the universe revolves around you.

b. Your wood/spring stage:  Full of imagery, your creative, brainstorming ‘What’ space. Let’s you think expansively without interruption, with plenty of visual stimulus.

c. Your fire/summer stage:  Busy, bright, where you have meetings and make calls. Maybe you’re walking about, maybe it’s at a café. It’s your ‘who’ space and scheduled calls lead to random ones.

d. Your earth/autumn stage: Green, grounded, where you settle things down, take care, manage the team and customer issues. It’s the ‘when’ space where you have the time and space to slow down.

e. Your metal/winter stage:  Quiet, organised, no disturbances, this is your ‘how’ space. This is where you analyse your metrics, review your finances, on your own or with a team focused at clear measures.

3. Make each day a masterpiece: Plan your week and each day based on where you are physically going to be, to match the energy of what you need to do. I have a day for each stage, so Thursday is my ‘fire’ day for all my calls, and Friday is now my ‘earth’ day for all my team meetings, with Monday my ‘wood’ day for uninterrupted creativity. When you physically move yourself into the space designed for that energy, it’s amazing what you can achieve. The worst possible thing is a home office where you’re trying to do everything from the same desk.

Every day, I also have time set for different energies, beginning with my water space at 6am every morning, to centre myself with a daily ritual of gratitude and possibility. The power of setting a canvas and separating the colours on your palette, is that it allows you to paint the most amazing masterpiece every day with natural grace.

“In nature, nothing is rushed yet all is accomplished.”
– Lao Tzu

In a world full of interruptions and distractions, make sure you have set your own stages to let your actions flow. So get on with the show, until the fat lady sings.

Keep making magic,
Roger James Hamilton

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Dear Valued Member,

America’s Got Talent. Britain’s Got Talent. Australia’s Got Talent. China’s Got Talent. Actually, the ‘Got Talent’ TV franchise is now in 40 countries! Where did all this talent suddenly come from? Here’s a question for you – If you HAD to step into the spotlight for five minutes to display your talent on a Got Talent Show, what would you show case? What’s YOUR talent?

I ask you, because your talent is the key to unlocking your success and destiny in life.

From ‘Got Talent’ we think that ‘talent’ is something freakishly unattainable, from a 10 year old singing an opera to a troop of moon-walking tap dancers. It’s too easy to think ‘Well, I don’t have that kind of talent so I’ll just settle for doing what I do…”

What if talent was never really about the ‘Got-Talent’-type-of-talent? What if you do have talent, and that in the past it was actually considered a sin not to use it? Talent is not just about what you do well, it’s what you love doing well. That’s why so many of us aren’t even aware how valuable it is, because it is what we do that is fun, that is fulfilling and that we do with ease. For many it is a key that glitters but that is rarely used for what it was made for – to unlock the door.

Fascinating fact alert!…. ‘Talent’ originates from ‘Talenta’ which was a measure of gold in Ancient Greece. It became a metaphor for the gold in each of us in the ‘Parable of the Talents’ which made it into ancient Greek texts and eventually the Bible. The parable goes like this:

The Parable of the Talents

A master had a property worth 8 talents. He split the talents between his three servants to hold onto. After coming back from his trip, he finds two of them have invested their talents, and have doubled their value, so they are rewarded. The third buried his talent for safe-keeping, fearful of losing it, and was punished for being lazy.

The master then said (quote) “Take away therefore the talent from him, and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will be given, and he will have abundance, but from him who doesn't have, even that which he has will be taken away. Throw out the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Before the weeping and gnashing of teeth gets to you, uncover your talent, polish it up, put it front and centre, and use it as your key. Share it freely to unlock doors for others and it will always be returned with interest. Maybe you have a talent for ideas, for connecting people you know, for balancing a budget, or creating a system. Use your talent every day to open every door. It’s the one thing you have that costs you nothing, and the more you use it the shinier it gets and the more doors it opens.

“Hide not your talents.
They for use were made.
What's a sundial in the shade?”
- Benjamin Franklin

This is the fundamental truth behind Wealth Dynamics, and the fast growing sister system for corporations, Talent Dynamics. Join us in the month of June as we launch the new tools and programmes for both, and follow your flow.

Keep making magic,
Roger James Hamilton

Connect with me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rogerhamilton
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Dear Valued Member,

What if we all learned to be entrepreneurs at school? What if all the best entrepreneurs DO learn their skills at school – it’s just that most of us were too busy attending class to join them?

As you go about your business today, what are the chances you could still be focusing too much at showing up for the lesson while the competition is out in the playground getting deals done?

Here’s five signs you’re still living your habits from school:

1. You’re sitting at a desk.
2. Your work feels like work.
3. You’re waiting for the bell.
4. There’s a bully in the hall.
5. You think there’s more to life than this.

This month Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert Cartoon, came up with a great article called “How to Get a Real Education”, which got published in the Wall Street Journal (http://on.wsj.com/ScottAdams).

Here’s an excerpt:

“There was a small business on our campus called The Coffee House. One day the managers of The Coffee House had a meeting to discuss two topics. First, our Minister of Employment was recommending that we fire a bartender, who happened to be one of my best friends. Second, we needed to choose a leader for our group. On the first question, there was a general consensus that my friend lacked both the will and the potential to master the bartending arts. I reluctantly voted with the majority to fire him.”

“But when it came to discussing who should be our new leader, I pointed out that my friend—the soon-to-be-fired bartender—was tall, good-looking and so gifted at b.s. that he'd be the perfect leader. By the end of the meeting I had persuaded the group to fire the worst bartender that any of us had ever seen…and ask him if he would consider being our leader. My friend nailed the interview and became our Commissioner. He went on to do a terrific job. That was the year I learned everything I know about management.”

Scott goes on to give the seven lessons he would put in an entrepreneurial education – the same lessons I share in Your Life, Your Legacy, including failing forward and attracting luck.

Most importantly, as he says, “To succeed, first you must do something. And if that doesn't work, which can be 90% of the time, do something else. Luck finds the doers.”

Keep making magic,
Roger James Hamilton

Connect with me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rogerhamilton
Connect with me on Facebook: http://on.fb.me/FBRoger

Dear Valued Member,

We have started 2011 with many different crises in the news. Do you know what the one of the greatest urban crises was in the last 150 years?

Yesterday at our Brisbane Fast Forward event I shared the great crisis of 1894, which was created by the immense social and technological progress taking place at the time. There is plenty we can learn from it for our lives today, so I recount it to you below…

In 1894 London (as in all other major cities at the time) all transport was horse-powered. London had 11,000 cabs, and several thousand buses, each drawn by 12 horses – a total of more than 50,000 horses at the time. The problem of all this progress was the horse dung. New York had 100,000 horses producing 2.5 million pounds of manure every day.

This was called the Great Horse-Manure Crisis of 1894. The Times of London wrote at the time that if progress continued unchecked, every street would be under nine feet of manure within 50 years. The city was in despair.

The entire crisis, which was obviously extremely serious at the time, suddenly disappeared with the invention of the automobile (along with many of the horses). There lies a lesson of trying to solve a collective problem at a different level than at the level at which it was created. There also lies my question to you… what technology or shift in thinking could solve the problems currently created in your business and industry?

If you can make it to Sydney or Perth in the coming days, I look forward to sharing the ten top trends that will shape a very fast-changin (and exciting) future…

Keep making magic,
Roger James Hamilton

Connect with me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rogerhamilton
Connect with me on Facebook: http://on.fb.me/FBRoger

Join us on the Fast Forward tour

You can find out more details of details of the tour here: http://bit.ly/FFyBFB

You can also subscribe directly to the Fast Forward Daily news with the latest breaking news around the world on the trends shaping our future: http://bit.ly/FastForwardDaily

Dear Valued Member,

Happy Chinese New Year, and everyone in the Wealth Dynamics team wishes you a lucky, bouncy, year of the Rabbit. I hope you’ll find some very valuable links in this update to support you in your journey.

Over the last month we’ve all watched the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt. They are very visible examples of the big waves taking place in our global neighbours. There are equally large disruptions taking place much closer to home – in our economies and technology. These waves are in the process of totally transform the world we are used to.

In the coming years, your customers will buy differently, pay differently, be served differently and have entirely different expectations on what they want and how they want it. Your competitors will build their teams and harness resources differently, promote and partner differently and transform the way they make money. New billion dollar markets will appear, and many existing markets will disappear.

How will the future transform your business? A better question: How could your business transform the future? I’ve included below a number of links to prepare for the wild ride. Enjoy them, and have a magical month.

Keep making magic,
Roger James Hamilton

Connect with me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rogerhamilton
Connect with me on Facebook: http://on.fb.me/FBRoger

TOP LINKS

Dear Valued Member,

Happy New Year! We are entering the wild teen years of the Millennium, so I've included a number of links on the future that I think you'll find eye-opening. I believe we will be seeing some spectacular changes to our economic landscape this year, as some countries reach their breaking point, and technology continues to disrupt industries in ways that catch us off guard - delighting with the new and destroying the old in equal measure.

As with any turbulent sea, there's no reason to be lost if you know where you are and you know where you're going. This month we launch the Wealth Spectrum. While the Wealth Profile is all about who you are, the Wealth Spectrum is all about where you are. I will be sending you a separate invitation to a special launch offer, and I'd love your feedback should you choose to take the test!

Knowing where you are still leaves the question of where you're going. I have just finished a simple exercise I'd recommend you try - Take six sheets of paper, date the first as 31st Dec 2011, and begin by writing "I am so grateful for this year, because this is the year that I...". Continue writing in glorious, passionate, high definition, 3D clarity each thing in your life you've achieved, created or contributed in 2011, and how you did it. Basic process? Yes. Brilliant results? Every time.

Enjoy the process, enjoy the links, enjoy the Wealth Spectrum, enjoy 2011.

Keep making magic,
Roger James Hamilton

Connect with me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rogerhamilton
Connect with me on Facebook: http://on.fb.me/FBRoger

TOP LINKS

Dear Valued Member,

In this last month the US treasury announced it would print another $600 billion, the Australian Dollar reached parity with the US dollar, and the Singapore stock exchange announced it's bid to buy the Australian stock exchange...

What does all this mean for you? What's the best way to navigate with certainty through uncertain times? This is the first in a series of emails I'm writing that I hope you will find helpful in building your wealth. You're receiving this because you have supported myself or Roy McDonald in the past through our work with Wealth Dynamics and OneLife.

The two of us merged our companies earlier this year, with the mission of serving investors and entrepreneurs in purpose and profit (See here for the news). We've been busy building the OneLife Lighthouse, with the very best we can offer to direct and support you on your journey.

This coming month is a very special month, as we are launching the Wealth Spectrum test online. The Wealth Spectrum is the simplest way to get direction on your next steps in your enterprise or investments based on where you are, to tap into the shifts in global flow we are witnessing. When we launch, we'll have some special announcements for OneLife Clients, Wealth Dynamics clients, and XL Members.

It's not quite ready yet, so in the meantime, I've included in this email a number of links that I think you will find useful. Enjoy the links, and visit us at one of our OneLife Centres to take part in the magic.

Keep making magic,
Roger James Hamilton