Book Summary: Cash in a Flash – Fast Money in Slow Times – By Mark Victor Hansen and Robert Allen
This book is a New York Times Best Seller and I can see why. If you’re not familiar with the authors, they’re hitters. Mark Victor Hansen is co-author of Chicken Soup for the Soul with Jack Canfield. This book and series have sold more than 65 million copies. That’s really amazing. I read one of Robert Allen’s books in the late 90’s called Multiple Streams of Income. This was and is a great book and is more relevant today than ever before. Think about it. Years ago, one person could work and support the family and then both spouses needed to work to support the family. At times like this, two people working is not enough due to the employment situation and price pressures on living expenses. Multiple Streams of Income shows you the power of making your money work harder than you do in multiple areas. I’ll profile that book in a future roundup.
Why is this important to me?
By asking you to spend your time reading two books in one, it has to be worth it. This book is worth your time because it talks about the importance of recurring income streams. Setting up systems that pay you every month is the master key to wealth. This concept eludes most people and that is why this book and the other books by these authors are worth reading.
Incentives drive behavior. This is one of the most powerful concepts of the human condition. Think about it. Have you ever tried to lose weight and failed? What was your compelling “why” for doing it? If it was because you want your pants to be one size smaller then that’s not a great reason, but if your energy was drained and you weren’t happy then you MUST change and that’s a compelling incentive. Compelling incentives drive behavior so that when there is enough pain, change will occur.
This book is for both the left and right brain. They are two books in one. There’s a fictional story of a mastermind group and there’s a nonfiction book on facts, figures, and “how to” actions. In this summary, we will talk about 3 fundamental things:
1. Wow Now – Have you ever been wowed by something? Can you remember it vividly? Wow Now, in a nutshell, it has to do with you not just envisioning your future but virtualizing it. This means that you need to imagine it with your whole mind and body. Remember that thoughts are things. The IPOD was born in the mind of someone at Apple. Wow Now is designed so that you surprise yourself by virtualizing your future with the 5 senses. Another critical component of this is silencing your inner whiner. Blair Singer’s book, Little Voice, talks about this concept in great detail.
Your Little Voice, if you don’t control it, ends up being your inner critic. This is a big problem because it is the number one cause of inaction and a mediocre lifestyle. This is the voice that says: “I’m not good enough”, “I can’t do that”, “and Cash in a flash is a joke and it’s not possible”. All these excuses come from the primitive brain designed to protect you. It’s fight or flight. If you see a bear in the forest, you don’t think what to do. The adrenaline rises and you react. The Negative Inner Critic doesn’t want you to fail and is very risk averse. This is why 82% of Americans say they want to write a book and only 5% do.
Your dreams must be bigger than your fears!
2. The Inner Winner – The Inner Winner is your inner voice that comes from your heart. This is where the true passion for life lives. The Inner Critic comes from your head. In profiling various books, one clear point stands out. Highly successful people in ALL books love what they do for a living. None of them would call it work. Warren Buffett, the world’s largest investor, loves to accumulate money and watch it grow. He doesn’t want to earn a few extra bucks, HE LOVES TO ACCUMULATE MONEY. If you really listen to those words, you will see the difference.
3. Dream Team: In Napoleon Hill’s book, Laws of Success, he talks about the power of the Mastermind group. This concept is really simple. Two heads are better than one. Of all the learning techniques, mentoring and partnership are by far the best. Mastermind allows you to emulate the best of the best. If you want to run companies like Steve Jobs, study him. Find out what makes you tick. If you want to grow your company from X to 10X, look for a team that has already done it. This will save you years of heartache. Take it from me; I wasted a lot of time trying to figure it out myself. This turned out to be a huge waste of time. Things that took years to “learn” by trial and error could have been completed in months through the use of master minds and mentors.
Cash in a Flash is an excellent resource from two highly successful authors. They both bring their uniqueness to the table and the principles they share are strong.
Once you get past the mental limitations of your inner whiner, the “how” is easy. Building Cash Flows Strong income streams using real estate, licenses, and information are very sound concepts that require little cash investment. It requires study and time.
I hope you found this short summary useful. The key to any new idea is to work it into your daily routine until it becomes a habit. Habits are formed in as little as 21 days. One thing you can take away from this book is the power of Mastermind. When you have a problem you want to solve, he talks to someone who has already solved it, which is the essence of mastermind. Do this every day and good things will happen. With the power of the Internet, anything is possible and almost all the answers are at your fingertips. Get into this idea every day and your whole world will change.
