Investing That Anyone Can Do

Investing is an interesting concept. Put a little in and get a lot out. The problem with investing is it’s complicated and it seems like you need a lot of money to make anything real happen.

Contrary to that belief, what I have discovered is that absolutely everyone can invest regardless of their job, age or economic situation. There are 2 specific areas that if invested in properly, can yield incredibly huge gains.

There are 2 definitions I want to be clear on before we move forward. The first is “invest.” Check out Google’s definition:

So, using money to achieve a profit is the classic definition but I want to shift our thinking slightly for the sake of this post. For us, investing isn’t going to be pigeonholed into money for gain, but rather 2 forms of different capital for gain.

So then our next definition is capital. Check out Google’s definition of capital:

So, looking at #2 on Google’s list I want to talk about 2 forms of capital that absolutely everyone has, but many are either not using or under-utilizing These 2 forms of capital fall into the “other assets” part of Googles definition. They are:

1: Relational Capital

Relationships, or the lack thereof, are one of the biggest predictors of success. Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Bono — none of these guys built their empires alone. They may be the faces you know, but they all had people around them who helped prop them up, connect them with others, and cover their blind spots.

Since launching my business a year ago, every single one of my clients have come through referrals. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. Now, I understand that cold calling, marketing, social media branding, etc. are huge ways to grow a business and are all avenues that I am avidly pursing. The problem is, these will never replace the word-of-mouth referrals that come from those you have built relationship with. I have been able to keep my business not only afloat, but succeeding, by riding the coattails of relationships I worked hard to build and maintain.

It’s all about who you know. The only reason I got my first 3 jobs as a teenager was because of who my dad knew. But here’s the kicker: it wasn’t only that. Instead of letting myself fall into the “awkward teenager who refuses to interact with adults like a human being” stereotype, I forced myself to interact and build relationship. So then when I was pursuing a job, they weren’t just doing my parents a favor, they knew me for me.

Relational Capital is, in my opinion, the single strongest asset every person has to create success and growth for themselves. The power lies in the fact that it is accessible regardless of your current job, age or education. You have the access to it, using it or not is up to you.

2: Dead Time Capital

Everyone has dead time. That time when you really have nothing “official” to do. We all make a choice every day to either play League of Legends or Candy Crush or do something that will stimulate growth: read a helpful article, listen to a podcast, connect with influencers on social.

I used to play a game called World of Warcraft. WoW is one of the most immersive games I have ever experienced. Before you know it you’ll have been playing for 6 hours straight without so much as a bathroom break. One day I checked my total in-game time played. It was over 100 days. Meaning I had literally sat in front of my computer playing a game for over 2,400 hours. I was on pace to spend half a year in front of my computer playing a game that was gaining me absolutely nothing in the real world. When I realized this I logged off, uninstalled the game and never played again.

At that moment something clicked for me. I realized that I had an incredibly valuable resource at my disposal: time. I had a limited amount of it, and could invest it in any way I chose and I had been choosing wrong.

Now I approach my dead time differently. When I’m riding passenger in the car, instead of playing Angry birds, I try to read an article on Medium. When I could listen to music, I may make the choice to listen to a podcast or audiobook instead. Don’t get me wrong — I believe wholeheartedly in completely relaxation and mental recovery. The difference is that now when I’m going to play a game or watch tv, I am consciously making the decision to invest my dead time that way. It’s like spending money on something just for fun. We know we could do better things with it, but the satisfaction it brings is worth it. The problem only arises when we don’t budget wisely, and spend all our money on toys.

So, my plea to you is that you would consciously invest the incredibly large amount of relational and dead time capital you have at your fingertips. Your success really does lie in your hands.

Grayson is a founder and CEO of zLIFEsolutions.

Find him here:

https://www.facebook.com/grayson.houston