A new world financially since 2008

Posted by John Reed on Sep 01, 2015

World changed since the last edition in 2008

Also, the previous second edition of Succeeding was written in 2008. As you know, the financial world turned upside down that year and has not gotten much better since. Consequently, I had to almost totally rewrite the chapters on:

Investment
Wealth
Savings
Risk
Die Broke

Rejecting "Little old me-ism"

Don't be a "weed"
A landscaping analogy for your career path

All Youtube videos of John T. Reed

Reviewed every word of prior edition

When the second edition of Succeeding sold out in September 2011, I reread every word of the book and changed and improved it wherever needed.

More bold-type rules to follow

The old second edition frequently restated principles previously discussed in a bold-type call out, but not always. In the new, third edition, I tried to put every such principle in the book into a call-out, bold-type restatement. Giving readers such succinct, emphasized rules greatly increases they chances they will remember and follow the principle in question.

Far more competitive world

But the more important reason why Succeeding is needed is that the world is far more competitive than it was eight years ago. Globalization, astonishing leaps in communications, the Internet, and technology, unemployment, foreclosures, emerging countries, are changing all the rules.

Bureaucracy did not become any more fun in the last eight years. And corporations did not become any more loyal to their employees. More than ever before in modern times, you are on your own. Your children and grandchildren are going to be on their own. More than at any time in recent memory, we need the best possible advice on how to make the most of our strengths in order to prosper.

Don’t forget to spend your wealth

With regard to wealth accumulation, I have noticed that most people tend to forget the purpose of wealth. It’s to spend it! They accumulate, then accumulate more and more, then they die. The third edition says to make sure you remember the purpose of money is to spend it. Your goals schedule of accumulating it should also include a schedule for liquidating and spending it.

Succeeding today requires more precise matching

The main message of my book Succeeding is that you need to get a very accurate and complete handle on who you are, then match who you are with a career opportunity. The better you do that, the more successful you will be and the happier you will be with that success.

In today’s world, this is more important than ever before. A hundred years ago, the keys to success were believed to be working in your father’s business or the family farm, getting a “good” union job in a factory, or going to college. But in today’s world, where you must compete with others world wide, you’d better find the career that matches you better than any other so you have your best chance to compete.

Marriage is key to career and vice versa

Similarly, your marriage is key to your success. Your spouse must share your dreams and be able to tolerate the difficulties of your career. For example, if the best career match for you is a career with risks, and your spouse freaks out because of the risks, you have the wrong spouse.

It is also true that the quality and character of your spouse or lack thereof can doom you to misery even if he or she has no issues with things like your career choice or the difficulties of that career. You must match up well with your spouse in terms of consumption of alcohol and drugs, child-raising decisions, adultery, and so forth. Divorce rates are as high as they have ever been. Today, many children are being raised by their grandparents or a single parent. This is a very, very bad situation that can happen to anyone and you need to take more pains than previously to do better than that with your spouse choice.

The 3rd edition of Succeeding’s second longest chapter is the “Spouse choice” chapter. (The “Career choice” chapter is a little longer.) Most success books say little or nothing about spouse choice. They figure it just happens by chance as you go about your life. That is a formula for disaster.