Mark Zuckerberg Gets His Billions Today, Are Ready to Get Yours?

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I shouldn’t be shocked at the hype over the Facebook IPO today, but I am.  It’s on every channel.  I think that I even heard that Bert and Ernie were on Sesame Street discussing where they think the shares will open this morning.

It’s an amazing story…the American Dream.  Go to a great school, dream up a great idea, start a great company, take it public, make a billion.  I’m extremely happy for Mark and the countless other Facebook executives, employees and early investors that with become financially independent today.  They deserve it.  I’ve been able build my business and also meet and keep in touch with a number of very special people in my life because of Facebook, and for that I am grateful.

I think some of you that have been asking about how to buy shares in this company are missing the point.  Sure, shares in Facebook may turn out to be a good investment. I wish that I had a crystal ball and could reduce the uncertainty in that for you.  What I am certain about however, is that we are smack dab in the middle of a time period that provides you with an unprecedented opportunity to live the type of life that you want to live…by investing in yourself, and your ideas and your passion…rather than in the shares of someone else’s.

There is no reason that you cannot be the next Mark Zuckerberg.

Think of it this way:

Because of Google, information is largely free.  You can learn how to do almost anything online for free (ALMOST: I don’t think that I want to have surgery from an online educated physician).  In fact, you can take REAL courses from Harvard and MIT online for FREE (video: http://youtu.be/tKZ2SYjALts).  Remember that excuse about not being able to afford school, especially a good school…GONE.

If you want to be a star, and you’d like to be on TV.  You don’t have to wait for anyone to decide you are ready.  You can create your own channel on YouTube.  Remember that excuse that you’re waiting to be “discovered”…GONE…Just ask Justin Bieber (http://youtu.be/eQOFRZ1wNLw)

If you have a great idea and you want to start a business, yes, you need money to do that.  But you no longer have to have a rich uncle or the cell phone number of a wealth venture capitalist. You can put your idea out the the world, and they can decide if they like it.  If so, they’ll help you build it.  Just ask the guys that had a great idea for a smart watch that connects to your iPhone or Android phone and raised 10 MILLION DOLLARS to make their idea a reality. (http://bit.ly/LLtvNW)  Remember that excuse about not having the money to start your dream business…GONE

There are countless other examples but the point is this;

You have no more excuses for not reaching for the life that you deserve.

The internet is the most significant, game changing, playing field leveling invention perhaps in history.  You can do things, largely for free, that would have been unthinkable only a few short years ago.

So if you don’t pick up any Facebook shares today, don’t fret.  The opportunities are still there, waiting for you.

You have the ability and the tools at your fingertips to make your life’s profile page look exactly how you want it to look.

Now go and hit the “Like” button on that.

Enjoyed this article?  Let’s connect:

YOUTUBE: http://www.youtube.com/robwilsontv
FACEBOOK: http://on.fb.me/o0ZylH
TWITTER: http://www.twitter.com/robwilsontv

MoneyMonday: JP Morgan Chase Loses More Money Than Terrell Owens

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Lots of financial tomfoolery last week in money:

JP Morgan Chase makes a $2 Billion trading blunder

Mother of Terrell Owens’ child received $1 million in child support, still wants more money, appears on Dr. Phil show.

Yahoo CEO fired for lying on his resume.

What is the world is wrong with these people? Find out in this week’s Money Monday.

Let’s Connect!
FACEBOOK: http://on.fb.me/o0ZylH
TWITTER: http://www.twitter.com/robwilsontv

March Money Madness in the Pittsburgh Business Times!

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March Money Madness in the Pittsburgh Business Times!

Check out this great article from the PBT on how firms are putting March Madness to work for them.  They included a lot of info on my March Money Madness Bracket Challenge…and a great picture if I do say so myself!

Sign up for the Bracket Challenge TODAY!  The entry fee is only $5 and the winner will walk away with 50% of the total entry fees!

CLICK HERE to register!

From the article:

Companies are finalizing their March Madness lineups in preparation for college basketball’s NCAA Tournament tip off.

Financial adviser Rob Wilson, for example, is set to unveil an online competition, March Money Madness, on March 12.

“It works just like filling out a bracket for the NCAA tournament, only instead of using 64 college basketball teams, I use 64 stocks,” said Wilson, vice president at South Side-based Blazer Capital Management. He didn’t increase the field to 68 as the NCAA did this year because of “technology limitations.”

Participants, who register on the website, www.marchmoneymadness.net, can compete with everyone who signs…
Read more: March Madness: Firms put tournament fever to work | Pittsburgh Business Times

Men of Excellence

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 Pittsburgh Courier 50 Men of Excellence Award

This year, I was fortunate enough to be honored by the Pittsburgh Courier as one of its 2010 50 Men of Excellence!  It was a pretty awesome event, held at the Omni William Penn hotel downtown, and I was great to be recognized with all of the other talented individuals!

I was also recognized as the Entrepreneur of the Year by the Pittsburgh chapter of the National Black MBA Association!  There I had an opportunity to meet at chat with CNN Education contributor Dr. Steve Perry.  Listening to him for a few minutes will make you want to immediately run out and start your own school!

 

 

The Cake Boss meets…the cake boss?

I was also lucky enough to meet famous entrepreneur and star of the hit reality show Cake Boss, Buddy Valastro when he stopped by KDKA to promote his new book, Cake Boss: Stories and Recipes from Mia Famiglia.

Both of these guys are great examples of what’s possible when you are really passionate about something and you pursue it with everything you’ve got….now go get to work!

  

  

 

Billionaire Book Club

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There are times when you should just get off the blogs, log off of Facebook and pick up a REAL book.  If you want to live like successful people do, you should probably start reading what they read. 

Here’s a list of books that you should find some time to read this fall.  Believe me, your wallet with thank you!

The Advisor and the Champ

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I stopped by Pittsburgh Today Live and brought along my good friend, former classmate and new Super Bowl Champion Darnell Dinkins from the New Orleans Saints with me to talk about we can all learn about our money from the world of sports.

The Blueprint ’10

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JENESIS Magazine (Its not a movement, its evolution defined)

Learn from the last decade, make money in the next.

The champagne has been popped, the ball has dropped and now it’s time to get down to business in a new decade.  It seems like just yesterday that I was sitting next to my generator with a can of pork-and-beans and a flashlight because the world as we knew it was supposed to come to a halt when all the computers crashed during Y2K.  It turns out that Microsoft and Home Depot just decided to play a big joke on us…but what a great way to sell new laptops and plywood!

 Though that joke wasn’t very funny, I think that we can learn a lot from Y2K and many of the events of the past decade.  Here’s your blueprint for getting your paper right in the ‘10s.

 What Goes Up, Must Come Down (then goes back up)

The 2000s were full of ups and downs.  We entered the decade riding a wave on which we thought sites like Pets.com would become the next Wal-Mart and any jackass could put “e” in front of anything and raise $100 million in an IPO (why oh why didn’t I start eSocks when I had the chance!).  Well, that wave turned into weak ripples when we realized how much it cost to ship pet food (besides, can you really afford to wait for kitty litter to arrive in the mail?) and stocks like eToys.com went from a price of $84 per share down to 9 cents! Lots of people lost their shirts when they didn’t sell as soon as it became clear that those high stock prices didn’t make any sense.

Ahh, but we love a good comeback story, and the market came back with a vengeance.  This time instead of the e-geeks, it was the house flippers that led the market to new highs.  Inexplicably, banks started loaning homeless bums $200,000 to buy abandoned townhouses and to go on a Home Depot shopping spree in hopes of selling it to the next idiot for $500,000 in six weeks.  It worked…until it didn’t, and HGTV almost helped usher in the new Great Depression.

But just before the soup kitchens opened back up, the market decided to rebound…again, by going up over 50% from March ’09 until the end of the year.  Way to end on a high note!

The point is, yes, investing can be scary at times, but the market has taken a licking and kept on ticking.  You need to be in the game; just don’t run your portfolio like the Detroit Lions.

[Read more...]