What’s up ? This is THE stephane ANDRE !

Today, in my workout program (tracked with JeFit ), I did shoulders, traps, calves and forearms. My muscles gains in forearms are slow but it’s cool, it’s the process. I didn’t use weight to train my flexors and extensors of my forearms so it take time. I started it since for 1 month. I hurt my right knee during a box sparring 1 month ago and now I can lift heavyweight on my left. Yeah back to do squat, leg press with one leg and deadlift. I’m happy.

Cryptocrurrency

Since 4 months, I think to buy cryptocurrency, espacially Ethereum . I’m more interested by Ethereum than Bitcoin, because with Ethereum you can make smart contract. By example, you and your friend make a bet on a match (basket, soccer, box, whatever). You don’t want to make a bet with a bookmaker because the charge are too high. With the smart I’ve seen, you can program something like this : « If Team A wins, the loser’s money is automatically transferred to the winner’s Ethereum account at the end of the match ». All without charge. In the smart contract that I saw, the 2 people had an Ethereum account.

The principle of cryptocurrency is to transfer money or buy something without a third part (bank or financial service) because charges increase year after year. In few months, I will buy a Ledger Nano S (usb wallet for cryptocurrency)

Digital Bank

Because of cryptocurrency, I thought : « Is it possible to have a bank account and transfer money without a third part ? ». I have a Paypal account but I mean a real bank account with a debit card, you dig ? After watched an Oliver Roland’s video , I discovered 2 bank online with debit card or precisely pre-paid debit card. It’s Transferwise and Revolut .

I read articles about the difference on the 2 and Revolut is excellent for people who travel a lot to avoid high currency exchange fees (even cash machine) when abroad and Transferwise is excellent for international money transfer with the lowest charge. Transferwise and Revolut have app on GooglePlay/AppStore and a deal with MasterCard for the pre-paid debit card.

2 days ago, I opened a Transferwise’s account (multi-currency) without meet somebody, I did everything online. I create an account like the majority of web services with a form and I gave them a scan of my ID and a scan of a bank statement to confirm my address. I received a confirmation by email less than 5 work day week. I’ll put money on this account in few days and I will ask to have a pre-paid debit card.

By looking a little more on Transferwise (because this company created in 2011), I understood that it could be beneficial for people who use Western Union or Ria to send money to parents living in the native country. My parents did it. You see, if you’re an immigrant or an expat it could be more avantageous about international money transfer fees. A story about the co-founder Kristo Käärmann (from Estonia) is he was working in the UK and was losing a lot of money transferring cash back home to pay for a mortgage. It can be also interesting in this case.

In January 2018, Transferwise launched the Mastercard pre-paid debit card, I really curious to use it to see how it work. As I told you, it’s been 2 days that I have my Transferwise’s account, that’s why this article is Part 1. I’ll give my point of view on Transferwise soon. And I think to open a Revolut’s account in few months.

Share this article if you think it can help someone you know. Thank you.

-Steph

I watched an Olivier Roland’s video and I learned good stuff.

Everyone wants to work more efficiently to save time and make more money. There are 2 books to learn how to do this and I’m going to do a synthesis of 2. Maybe you already know theses 2 books, it’s « 4 Hours Workweek » by Tim Ferriss and « The One Minute Millionaire » by Mark Victor and Robert Allen.

Before you start, it’s important that you know that there is a special relationship between time and money. The idea is to better manage your time in your day to make your money work for you and make more money. There are several actions to put in place to do this and these actions based on 3 laws :

Leverage – Leverage gives you the speed to reach your goals faster. With a lever, you can control several elements. There are 5 types of leverage in 5 forms. We’ll see this in detail.
Pareto’s law.
Parkinson’s law

Lever

Let’s start with the leverage and its different points of support. There is a very interesting quote from Archimedes :

« Give me a place to stand, and a lever long enough and I will move the world »

Leverage allows you to reach your financial goals more easily and quickly. The higher the fulcrum is, the higher you can go up and far.

5 points of support

Money from others

Very useful in the real estate because the money of the banks and the tenant can allow you to have an additional income and a heritage. This heritage is largely financed by the money of others.

Skills of others

By meeting professionals who have more experience than you and mentors on your professional field, you can follow their examples. This allow you to access years of knowledge in a very short time, and avoid making mistakes that can cost you a lot of money and waste a lot of time.

Ideas of others

Find a partner who is willing to share ideas. For example to create your business instead of reinventing the wheel, you can join a franchise network to use and implement a business model that has been proven.

Time of others

Use the skills of someone who has more experience than you, by this way you can save. Delegate tasks.

Work of others

Support a team that is capable to manage things for you without you need to give last minutes instructions. Create a team with a list of instructions so that they are as autonomous as possible.

5 forms of support points

Mentors

Mentors are an incredible source of information. Select the people who inspire you from the people who have succeeded in the field you want to master.

Team

It’s known to many we can accomplish more than alone. A team makes it possible to work in synergy and to find solutions more quickly. Find people who have the same values as you and who have complementary skills.

One of the best example of a successful team is the team Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs who together created Apple. Steve Wozniak is a computer genius, he created the first Apple computer, the Apple 1 and he largely created the Apple 2 that made the success of Apple. Steve Wozniak is a very nice person but at the time, he didn’t have the skills to sell these computers. Steve Jobs was a sales genius but he didn’t have the skills to create these computers.

Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs separately have never been able to create something as impressive as Apple, the association of these 2 people who shared the same values and the desire to offer people computers easier to use have marked the history of computer with Apple.

Networks

The more professional relationships you have, the greater the leverage will be. Grow your network in the areas where you want to share and work.

Skills and tools

Having essential tools to reach the goal and mastering the operation of theses tools increase success. Skills to master are the power of persuasion, rhetoric and humor.

Systems

Using a good system increases the chances of success. To make money, there are millions of systems (there are so many on internet). The perfect system has 5 characteristics :

No need to liquidity
No risk or little
Require no time
Require no management
Require little effort

The truth is that is very, very, very difficult to find an investment system that has these 5 characteristics, but you have to try to get as close as possible to work less and earn more money.

Pareto’s law

Parkinson’s law or the 20/80’s law discovered by the economist and sociologist Vilfredo Pareto. This principle explains that 20% of the countries of the world share 80% of the wealth and that within these countries 20% of the people share 80% of the wealth. Here is the basis of this principle : « 80% of effects come from 20% of the causes », which means that a minimum of causes create a maximum of effects. Always try to identify in your actions or in your company, the 20% of actions which bring 80% of results.

Parkinson’s law

Parkinson’s law discovered by historian and essayist Cyril Northcote Parkinson. This principle explain that the work extends so as to occupy the time available for the completion of a task. For example, if you put 2 hours to do a task that can be done in 1 hour, you still go for 2 hours. To have more time, we must force ourselves to have less. The basis of this principle is to do a task at 50% or 75% of the recommended time to do it.

In this section, we saw leverage, Pareto’s law and Parkinson’s law. In the 2^nd part, we’ll see the 5 actions to be effective and the 4 actions to make more money.

Share this article if you think it can help someone you know. Thank you.

-Steph

I watched an Olivier Roland’s video and I learned good stuff.

This trick is one of the fundamental principles for success. If you want an exceptional result, you need to have an exceptional behavior.

Having an exceptional behavior means have a different behavior from the majority of people. Think about it, if you do the same thing as the others, you will have the same results as the others, it’s simple and logical.

Look at this example. Imagine that you’re doing karate and you want to become world champion :

Here are 2 choices :

You’re looking for a teacher who has already been world champion and you use a technique that is different from others.
You learn karate with people doing karate for fun. These people don’t have the ambition to become world champion.

Another example. Imagine that you want to have financial independence and that in your environment, there is no one who has financial independence.

Here are 2 choices :

You’re looking for a person (on internet) who is financially independent and you use a technique different from the others.
You listen to advice of people around you who don’t have financial independence.

We agree. In both cases, you’re more likely to succeed by looking for people who have already accomplished your goal. It’s interesting to see that the majority of people (my parents, for example) criticize people who are successful, but that shouldn’t stop you from listening to and using the techniques of people who are successful.

My opinion on

I think you noticed but everyone has an opinion on everything. Even a person who doesn’t know anything about a subject, likes to give his/her opinion. Is it in human nature ? I don’t know but to be successful, you need to learn how to sort out the good advice that will help you to reach your goal and the bad advice that will slow you down or block you.

I’m not going to lie to you, when you start, it’s really hard to sort out the good and bad advice. To get the best of luck from the start, I advise you to listen to people who have already accomplished your goal and not others.

Skepticism

There is a method that is cool, it’s good skepticism. You’ll see, it’s easier to understand the difference between good and bad skepticism than a good and bad hunter.

Bad skepticism

Bad skepticism is when you see something that is too good to be true and you say : « Pfff, it’ a scam » or « No, it’s not for me » and you’re not going to do anything.

Good skepticism

Good skepticism is as astonished as the bad skeptic, but he/she wonders : « Is it going to work with me ? ». Good skeptic thinks like that because he/she knows that the only way to know if it’s true is to test it yourself. He/She tests it by doing a simple experiment to see if it’s true or if it’s a scam.

I know we can’t absolutely test everything because sometimes we don’t have the time or the material but, it’s this concept that I share with you. When you have a project that you like, see if you can test different techniques or methods. Test different techniques or methods that have the potential to give you a lot of result with simple experiences.

With this article I want to motivate you to connect with people who already accomplished your goal. With theses people, you can advance your project faster by avoiding making fatal mistakes. It’s true that it’s easier to connect with people around you but you may stagnate. Be persistent and patient to connect with people who have already reached your goal and who are still progressing.

It’s extremely motivating to be surrounded by people who are always progressing.

Share this article if you think it can help someone you know. Thank you.

-Steph

I watched an Olivier Roland’s video and I learned good stuff.

Here are the most important things to delegate in your company

Accountability

I often meet entrepreneurs who do their own accounting and they say it’s a nightmare. Here are the 2 reasons why I advise them to stop :

Accounting requires a lot of time.
It’s extremely easy to make a mistake. Even certified public accountants make mistakes. The problem when there is an error in your accounting is that all the numbers are wrong. And when all the numbers are wrong, you tax return is false and when your tax return is false, you are in a long-term nightmare.

It’s possible to find a good accountant for around $1 200 a year when you start a company. It’s always better to pay that than to be in a financial nightmare for 5 years because of a mistake in your tax return.

Technique

What’s cool is that with WordPress and its free plugins and themes, it’s easy to install and manage a blog / website. There are also other platforms that allow you to do the same thing.

On the other hand, when there is a major problem that exceeds your skills, it can be negative for your company. For example,your blog / website no longer responds. If you don’t know how to do, you can spend 2-3 days trying to understand the problem and it’s been 2-3 days since your audience no longer has access to your blog / website.

At that moment, you need an IT provider. This is not a person you will hire as an employee but it’s a person to whom you can entrust all the technical tasks that you don’t knew how to do.

Yes, it will cost money but ask yourself this question : « Is it better to spend 2-3 says repairing your blog / website is down or pay a IT provider who repairs it in 1 hour ? ».

I advise you to find a IT provider quickly when you start making money with your company before having a major problem. Maybe someone around you knows a good IT provider or maybe you need to find one on Upwork. Test this IT provider with a small task to find out if her is competent or not.

Customer support

It’s something to delegate but not as fast as the technique. At the beginning, it’s important to do customer support yourself to be in direct contact with the audience to see the problems in services or products, etc. But that doesn’t mean that customer support is the best added value task that the company’s founder can do.

With customer support, you will quickly see that there are often the same questions that are asked. To eliminate much of the customer support is to make a FAQ. A FAQ is the list of questions most frequently asked with a reply.

For other questions that are a little more complex that are are common, you can do a procedure to explain to the people who take care of your customer service how to solve the problem. And you can ask them to inform you when a question is frequently asked to have a permanent feedback. This allow you to stay in touch with reality.

Maybe someone around you knows a good customer support provider or maybe you need to find one on Upwork. Test this customer service provider with a small task to find out if her is competent or not.

Social media

Since you have a blog or a website, you have an audience. This audience sends you messages when you create content. This is the same principle as for customer support, it’s important at the beginning that you answer the messages yourself to discover your audience. You will know the fears and the hopes of your audience. It’s important that you learn how to communicate with your audience.

To find out what things to delegate, you need to be aware of seeing where you bring the most added value to your company as a founder, it’s about innovation, strategy and setting up processes. This allows you to work on your company and not work in your company.

It’s important to know the difference between working on your company and working in your company (being a slave to your company).

Solution

I told you there was a way to find IT provider, customer service provider and social media provider on internet. The best known platform for finding freelancers or outsourcing is Upwork . You will find providers from several different countries. Always test a provider with a small task that doesn’t have a huge impact on your company to make the selection.

Share this article if you think it can help someone you know. Thank you.

-Steph

I read a Nerd Fitness article and there is good stuff.

Doing things we know we need to do may sometimes seem impossible. We know we can have a better lifestyle to « stay motivated » and « get focused ». And yet when we work on a long-term project, we have the impression of always starting from scratch.

We doubt : « What’s happening ? Why I can’t do it anymore ? »

I know I need to eat better

But after cook healthy meals for one week, I don’t have the time to cook and I buy pre-prepared meals.
I know I need to train more often

But after train for one week, I’m less motivated, I see no result and I’m demoralised.
I still have a good physique

But I try to have an athletic body like the pros but it’s always frustrating.

I already tought about it and I think you too. Change this situation can be useless if we aren’t well prepared. It’s like a video game when you will fight a Boss with 50 % of your life without potions.

Boost your inventary

It’s real, I advise to everybody to prepare their meal of the day in advance (like my Instagram’s video) to have health meals. And I advise you to eat 1-3 time per week in a restaurant (see tips for eating at restaurant and staying healthy).

There is the perfect plan and the realistic plan. We like prepared perfect plans to reach our goals but in reality, it’s harder. An imperfect plan executed is better than a perfect plan poorly executed.

Potion

You can go in a restaurant to eat a big plate of rice, protein and vegetables. It’s quickly prepared, it’s not expensive and you have healthy foods in your body.
Improve weapons

Find a blender with a good motor to do fruits/vegetables shakes. It’s perfect for a snack at 16h (4pm).
Improve your armor

Buy a rice cooker to save your time in evening.

These elements help you to reach more easily your daily calories goal. I have never plan my meals for all the year, I plan what I will eat each week (when I go to the supermarket) and each day, I do my best to eat as healthily as possible despite the unexpected. It’s this imperfect plan that I use and I see results ! If I had continued to follow my perfect plan, I think I would have given up because of my environment.

Now, when I see old friends they’re surprised to see how my physique changed better and there are some who jealous me (but there is less brawl than before, it’s cool).

In a video game, when you will fight against a new Boss, you will have the maximum of potions to have the maximum chance of winning. When you attack a new problem in your life, adjust your priorities to build a new habit or miss your attempt to be healthy.

Mercenary and strategy guide

In a video game, you can have mercenaries to help you to fight the Boss and you can unlocked strategies can help you have the advantage.

You used strategy guides or tutarial video to help you to beat a difficult Boss. Some people say it’s « cheat » but it’s up to you to follow instructions and execute them properly for it to work.

In life, you can also have mercernaries and strategy guides. You can find tutorials like « How to do squat properly » or « How to create your workout plan » but often it’s our lack of knowledge or lack of confidence that keeps us from succeeding.

Have a great mercenary (personal trainer) to reach your goal who all times yelling, prodding, educating and helping you to have results. Just have somebody to help you for one session or for one week can do the difference between long term success and long term frustration.

That means you need to have a mercenary (personal trainer) forever ? No, but it’s good to have the opportunity for several months to learn from a great mercenary (personal trainer) to follow the patterns set out in a strategy guide to have confidence to attack the Boss without being assisted.

A victory is a victory

When you try to fight the Boss, all that matter is that you have 1 % of life when the Boss has 0 %. This can be an ungly fight and even you used 10 potions, this victory is important to continue. It’s for this reason you buy potions and upgrade your armor. This is what make the difference between victory and throw your controller against the wall.

The life is the same and it’s important to organize priorities to have success :

Discuss with your family about the financial investment to have a better health (gym, mercenary)
Save money to by health product and have tools necessary to avoid to eat at restaurants everydays.

Organize your priorities to reach your fitness goals and others aspects of your life, right now. There are Bosses that you fight with 50 % of your life ?

Hard to meditate everydays ?

Use calm.com and follow the 2 minutes of meditation guide (strategy guide).
Hard to start yoga ?

Subscibe to a yoga class for a month to learn movements. By this way, you will have more confident to do yoga at home (mercenary).
Hard to eat better ?

Seek in Craiglist or another website that do the same thing and find a Chef to prepare meals for you at a reasonable price for a month (improve inventory)
Hard to walk more ?

Buy a Fitbit and train you body to walk 10 000 step each day until you can do it without technological assistance (improve armor).

Hard to do squat and deadlift properly ?

Hire a personal trainer to learn properly to do squat and deadlift. Contact this personal trainer one month later to check your technique (mercenary).
Hard to learn a new language ?

Use iTalki.com and speak with a native speaker and in exchange you learn to him/her your native language. (improve your group).

Yes, it’s possible. You will try several times and you will do several mistakes to improve yourself and it will be difficult. The most important is to know why you do all these things and not the others. It’s to improve your lifestyle and you’re the only person to do it.

What is the Boss you’re fighting and what mercenary, armor, potion, you use to build this new habit to beat it ?

-Steph

P.S. Do you want a free program training ? Click here

Smartphone apps:

To track my training program, I use Jefit

To track my calories, I use MyFitnessPal