5 Steps for Discovering Your Plan for Success by Robert Kiyosaki 

Finding out what you want in life and how to achieve it

When I was a young man, I set a goal of being a millionaire by the time I was 30 years old—and I did. The problem was that I immediately lost all that money. I had flaws in my plan, flaws that taught me some valuable lessons.

The lessons I learned from my experiences, successes, and failures allowed me to adjust my plan so that I could become financially free again by the time I was 47 years old.

The point is that I never changed my plan. I simply adjusted the strategies I used to execute it. I improved on it more and more. Sticking to my plan helped me to achieve my goals.

Often in life, when our plan doesn’t turn out, we abandon it all together. That is the wrong approach. Rather, a failed plan first requires an assessment of what went wrong. More often than not, the plan needs some adjustments, not to be abandoned.

But before you can do any of this, you of course need to know your plan. So, how do you discover your own plan?

1. Take your time

Good plans rarely happen overnight. To find the right plan for you, you need to think long and hard about your life, what you want from it, and where you want to go. This can take days, weeks, and sometimes months. Take the time to discover and define what is really important for you in life.

During this time, don’t talk with others until you know what you want. All too often, people either innocently or intentionally impose their ideals on others instead of respecting what others want for themselves. This is your time to define what you want for you.

2. Find a coach

Once you know what you want in life, find a coach that you can trust. This should be someone who has successfully done what you want to achieve. Ask them to provide their qualifications and interview several people. It will be an eye-opening experience for you.

Your coach is there to guide you when you develop your plan and to ensure you stick to it. A coach isn’t there to coddle you; your coach is there to push you when you don’t want to be pushed and correct you when you need it.

3. Set realistic goals

Lots of people abandon a plan, not because the plan is bad, but because the goals were not realistic.

Identify goals in a way that reflects what you want in life. Lots of people say, “I want to be a millionaire!” Don’t do that. That’s a cold, stale and lofty goal and one that is easily dismissed, especially when you’re having a hard time making your first $10,000.

Set goals that are real to you: “I want to have enough passive income to cover my family’s expenses so I don’t have to worry about money and I can spend all my time with my children.” That’s better! Figure out how much passive income you need to achieve it and put a plan in place.

If you make your goals more personal, you’ll have a better chance of sticking to your plan to achieve your ultimate goal.

Don’t just sit on one goal and think that’s it. Start with small, realistic goals then improve or add to those goals as your financial education and experience increase. It’s best to learn how to walk before you run a marathon.

Don’t get discouraged if you make mistakes. Having realistic goals doesn’t mean you’ll win one hundred percent of the time. Mistakes are part of the process of learning from and achieving your goals.

4. Get a team

Business and investing are team sports. As your plan evolves, you will need team members who can assist you in achieving your dreams. Members of your team might include a banker, accountant, lawyer, broker, bookkeeper, insurance agent, and/or a successful mentor.

Each of these team members will need to be vetted by you. Don’t just take anyone onto your team; instead, find the right player for each position.

When you have assembled your team, meet with them often. I held meetings with my team over lunch for many years. I learned a lot about business, investing, and the process of making money through these meetings.

5. Mind your business

Whatever your plan, always remember the words of rich dad, “Regardless of whether you work for someone else or for yourself, if you want to be rich, you’ve got to mind your own business.”

Don’t be distracted by side projects. Yes, it may earn you an extra buck but it just ate up your time; time that could’ve gotten you closer to your goal. If it doesn’t move you in the right direction in relation to your plan, don’t do it.

In minding your own business, you will be more in tune with the market’s feedback and you’ll be able to adjust your plan accordingly. Be diligent and keep going one step at a time. Do that and you’ll have a great chance at getting everything you want in life.

Writing a book is like going on a long road trip.

Writing a book is like going on a long road trip.
You can’t get to the end of your journey until you’ve
traveled each and every mile of the road ahead.
While there are always many routes to get to your
destination, The Write Practice’s Book Writing Roadmap
is designed to guide you on your journey with more fun
and less frustration.
You can write a book! Just follow the map to get there.
introduction
THE MAP
ONE: Write a one to three sentence premise
TWO: Picture your ideal reader
THREE: Write a one-page outline
FOUR: Write one chapter at a time until your first draft
is finished
FIVE: Read through your book without editing
SIX: Rewrite until finished with your second draft
SEVEN: Get beta readers/a critique group/a content
editor
EIGHT: Rewrite until you finish your third draft
NINE: Get beta readers/a critique group/a copy editor
TEN: Publish
For more visit thewritepractice.com/writeabook
table of contents
ONE: WRITE A ONE TO THREE
SENTENCE PREMISE
Whether you’re writing a book or a blog post, it’s
tempting to just dive into your writing project. However,
you will save yourself time and create a better end
product if you settle on a solid premise before you start
writing.
If you’re writing fiction, your premise needs to contain
four things compacted into just one sentence:
1. the protagonist
2. the setting
3. the problem the protagonist faces
4. the protagonist’s goal
In nonfiction, the premise explains the main argument of
the book, explains the problem the book is trying to
solve, and then describes the method for solving that
problem. In nonfiction, your premise should be two to
three sentences.
one
TWO: PICTURE YOUR IDEAL
READER
The definition of a story, according to dictionary.com, is:
A narrative, either true or fictitious, in prose or verse,
designed to interest, amuse, or instruct the hearer or
reader.
Note the key words: interest, amuse, or instruct.
When people write solely for themselves, they tend to
write stories that aren’t very good, selfish stories, stories
that don’t instruct, amuse, or even hold a reader's
interest.
When people write for others, especially if they write for
one specific other—their child, their lover, their best
friend—they tend to write stories that are exciting, full of
life, real.
The best stories are not about how the author feels. The
best stories are about how the reader feels.
two
For example, when J.R.R. Tolkien wrote The Hobbit, he
never thought anyone would be interested in it. Tolkien
wrote the novel as a bedtime story for his four children,
in other words, as a way to connect more deeply with his
family. One of the best selling books of all time was
written by a man who didn’t even intend to publish it. He
only wrote the book to entertain himself and his kids.
Before you write your first line, decide whom you’re
writing for. Tape their picture next to your writing desk or
to your computer screen. Each time you write, think,
“What would they like to read?” It will make for a better
book, but it will also make for a much more fun writing
process.
two
THREE: WRITE A ONE-PAGE
OUTLINE
Plans are worthless, but planning is essential.
Before you begin writing, plan out your book in a onepage
outline. Don’t take the outline itself too seriously, as
everything can and likely will change. Use it, instead, as a
chance to think through your story from beginning to
end. You will likely come back to this outline again and
again throughout the writing process.
For your plan, use this century-old writing advice as your
guide:
In the first act get your principal character up a tree; in
the second act, throw stones at him; in the third, get him
down gracefully.
three
Use this very simple five-part model as a loose guide (it
works for fiction and nonfiction):
ACT I
1. SETUP: Why should we care? about this character?
about this idea? about this problem?
2. THE PROBLEM: You/your character wants
something… but there’s a problem. What do you/
your character want? What is the problem? And
why does it have to be solved now?
ACT II
3. MAKE THE PROBLEM PERSONAL: Why is this
problem so hard to solve?
4. SOLUTION: Solve the problem.
ACT III
5. RESOLUTION: Why does it matter that this problem
is solved? (Or for tragedies, what does the world
look like now that it hasn’t been solved?)
For maximum drama, I like what Randy Ingermanson
says: “All but the last paragraph should end in a disaster.”
three
FOUR: WRITE ONE CHAPTER AT
A TIME UNTIL YOUR FIRST
DRAFT IS FINISHED
Write each unit of your book in one sitting.
It’s good to have a daily word count requirement, e.g.
1,000 words per day. But the best strategy is to write
each unit of your book, whether that’s a story/scene/
chapter/section, in one sitting.
The human brain is made for story. We have been telling
stories since we were cavemen around campfires. Take
advantage of that built-in need to finish telling a story by
writing it all down in one sitting. It’s much harder to tell
(or write) a story when you’re interrupted halfway
through.
Note: there is no getting around the fact that writing a
book is hard. It is here where most people quit. This is
where you most need to picture your ideal reader (see
step 2) and get an accountability group, usually made up
of other writers, who can keep you focused on your goal.
four
FIVE: READ THROUGH YOUR
BOOK WITHOUT EDITING
After you finish your first draft, read your manuscript
through by yourself without editing.
After writing, you are too close to have any objectivity
about your book. Don’t waste your time editing your
book line-by-line when you’ll likely have to rewrite, or
even discard, major sections of it.
Instead, get a fresh perspective and see what holes need
filling, what chapters need to be rewritten, and what
sections need to be thrown out completely, by reading
your book from start to finish.
While you shouldn’t edit as you read, you are
encouraged to take notes or jot down any ideas you
have for the next step.
five
SIX: REWRITE UNTIL YOU
FINISH YOUR SECOND DRAFT
Your second draft is meant for major structural fixes.
If you found any major holes in the reading stage, your
second draft is the time to write or rewrite chapters and
scenes.
After the discoveries you made reading your book in
step five, you may even decide to rewrite the whole
book.
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SEVEN: BETA READERS/
CRITIQUE GROUP/CONTENT
EDITOR
Send your manuscript to a group of up to thirty friends
and fellow writers for feedback. Through these beta
readers you will finally be able to get a sense of what
your book really is, not what you think it is. Beta readers
bring fresh eyes, and by listening to them as they talk
about your book, you'll be able to see what's ready for
publication and what isn’t.
It’s better to get as many people from as varied
backgrounds as possible rather than just asking a few
people you think you can trust. You will have a better
sense of what is working and isn’t working in your book—
and feel less personally stung if one person doesn’t like
part of your book—from a wider survey than a narrower
one.
If you can afford it, hire an editor to critique your book
after your second draft, giving a high-level overview of
your books major problems.
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EIGHT: REWRITE UNTIL YOU
FINISH THE THIRD DRAFT
Now that the major structural changes have been made
in your second draft, it’s the time to polish your prose.
Your final, detailed line edits don't come until your third
draft. First drafts are for digging the book's foundation,
second drafts for framing the house, and third drafts for
finish work.
Get polishing.
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NINE: BETA READERS/
CRITIQUE GROUP/COPY
EDITOR/PROOFREADER(S)
Another round of beta reading. If you’re part of a critique
group, this is a great time to begin sharing your writing
with them.
If you’re thinking about self-publishing, it’s essential that
you hire a line editor or copy editor to go through your
prose with a fine-tooth comb. Not only will you have a
better book because of it, good editing is the best way
to learn the writing craft.
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TEN: PUBLISH
Celebrate! You finished your book! Regardless of
whether you publish it or not, you’ve done something
most people only dream about.
Publishing is the most exciting and stressful part of the
book writing process, but it’s much too big a subject to
go through here. Here is a brief preview of our
publishing roadmap to get an overall sense of what
publishing involves.
1. Platform
2. Agents/Publishers vs. Self-Publishing
3. Pre-launch
4. Publish
5. Promote
Congratulations! You’ve accomplished something
amazing. Now, get to work on your next book!
For more visit thewritepractice.com/writeabook
ten

Become a writer in 10 steps

Become a writer in 10 steps
So you want to be a writer.
When I was a senior in high school,
my parents and I travelled around to
different colleges, researching the best
ones for my chosen major, Creative
Writing.
Even though this was many years
ago, I remember walking down a flight
of stairs at a university in San
Francisco. We had just left the creative
writing department and I was feeling
both ambitious and intimidated at the
same time. My father, a man who I
had watched spend years writing
novels, plays, and song lyrics, asked
me why I wanted to be a writer.
“You know how hard it is to make
money as a writer?” he said. It felt like
a betrayal.
“I don’ t care about making
money,” I told him. “I just want to
write great books.”
Despite my show of idealism, I
secretly thought this was a silly
conversation. As soon as I wrote my
first book, I knew I would be an instant
success.
Of course, that’s not exactly how it
happened.
Since then I’ve written four books,
hundreds of articles, several short
stories, and a handful of poems.
But I’m still not an instant success.
They haven’t named a literary prize
after me (yet). And I haven’t seen my
name next to George R.R. Martin and
Stephen King on the bestseller’s list.
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And ye t , I’ve accompl ished
something much more important.
I’ve become a writer.
Every day I get to sit down in front
of a keyboard and think up words,
words that reach thousands of people
in a dozen different countries. Every
day I get to create stories out of thin
air and put together sentences that
change the way people see the world.
Every day I get to write meaning into
people’s lives.
No one is born a writer. You must
become a writer. In fact, you never
cease to become, because you never
stop learning how to write. Even now,
I am becoming a writer. And so are you.
In this short book, I’d like to give
you the ten best pieces of wisdom I’ve
learned as a writer. I hope they will
inspire you to begin your journey
toward becoming a writer (or continue
it with renewed focus!).
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Afterward, I’ll share a program that
will help you step into your new
identity as a writer.
Let’s begin, shall we?
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I.
Publish
Really? Tip number one is to
publish?
It’s strange to begin a list of
writing tips with a tip to publish. In
fact, as I read books and articles about
how to become a writer, most of them
don’t even mention it. They usually
say, “Just Write!”
However, writers write things
other people read, and so the act of
publishing is essential to being a
writer.
What is stopping you from
publishing something today?
Seriously. What is stopping you?
Like most people, you probably
think of publishing as the process of
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getting an agent who will attract
Harper Collins or some other New
York publisher to pay you a small
advance and a portion of the royalties
so they can print and sell your book.
However, publishing can also
look like posting your articles on a
blog or emailing your short stories to a
f r iend. I t doesn’t have to be
groundbreaking, and it doesn’t have to
be perfect.
If you want to become a writer,
you need to get used to writing for
others. You need to practice taking
feedback and dealing with rejection.
You also need to start earning some
fans.
You do this by publishing,
publishing small and regularly.
What is stopping you from printing
out one of your writing pieces and
giving it to a friend? Or publishing it
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online as a blog post or even a
Facebook note?
Do you have one friend who
would be interested in reading your
writing today? I’m betting you do. Why
not send them one of your writing
pieces now? (Yes, now.)
Think of it as practice for when
you publish with that big New York
publisher. (It could be a while, so you
may have a lot of time to practice.)
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II. Set deadlines, or
better, get someone
else to set them for you
(and then keep them)
“I love deadlines,” said author
Douglas Adams. “I love the whooshing
noise they make as they go by.”
Deadlines are meant to induce
stress. I know none of us really wants
more stress in our lives (do you?), but
most writers I know struggle with two
things: discipline and focus. A good
deadline helps with both.
A little bit of stress focuses you.
A good deadline can keep your butt in
the chair and your fingers on the keys
much better than “inspiration,” that
fickle muse, ever could.
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How, then, do you set good
deadlines so they don’t whoosh by as
they did for Mr. Adams?
The best deadlines are set by
others, by editors or freelance writing
clients or even your fans.
The most effective deadline I
ever set was to write one article on my
blog every day. I did this while
maintaining a full-time job. What
made this deadline especially effective
w a s t h e p e o p l e h o l d i n g me
accountable were my readers, a small
group at the beginning but eventually
a large, clamoring audience.
When you know people are
waiting for your writing, you become a
much more disciplined writer.
HINT: People are waiting for
your writing. When are you going to
give it to them?
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III. Learn how to tell a
great story.
No matter what kind of writing
you do, you will always tell stories.
If you want to write novels or
memoir or short stories, this is
obvious.
What if you're writing self-help
or reference? You still need to learn to
tell a good story. When firefighters
hear stories about the close calls of
their friends, it activates the same part
of the brain as if they were going
through that experience themselves.
Then, when they experience a similar
situation, they’re better prepared
because of the stories they’ve heard.
Stories are the best teachers.
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What if you’re writing marketing
or sales copy? What is marketing but
telling a story of how a consumer’s life
could be different if they bought your
product?
All writers tell stories. Great
writers tell great stories. Learn to tell
great stories.
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IV.
Read things that make
you feel like someone
finally understands.
Read things that you
don’t fully understand.
I wanted to become a writer
because I read a few books that made
me f e e l l ike someone f inally
understood me.
I became a better writer because
I read books that I didn’t fully
understand and kept reading them
until I did (some I’m still reading).
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V.
Learn everything (but
become an expert on
nothing)
Writers are learners.
When I’m writing an article or a
chapter in a book, I often have ten or
twelve tabs pulled up on my browser
as well as a few books open in front of
me, all of them research and resources
to make my writing better, more
detailed, more lifelike.
Writers bring information to
people who have never heard it. We
can turn a few words on a page into a
whole universe inside our reader’s
imaginations. We can look into the
souls of our characters and share their
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story in a way that our readers fully
understand them.
SECTION 2
We do all of this through
learning, learning about politics and
current events, craftsmanship and
s c ience , about emotions and
spirituality.
Writers should never become
experts. Once you become an expert,
you can no longer learn anything new,
and if you don’t learn anything new
you will become stale and uninspired.
Be a novice in everything and you will
never run out of things to write about.
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VI.
Steal
“Good artists copy, great artists
steal,” Steve Jobs liked to say.
He was “quoting” Picasso, but
this quote has also been attributed to
James Joyce and William Faulkner and
Stravinsky among others.
But the quote actually originated
with T.S. Eliot, the great modernist
poet, who wrote, “Immature poets
imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets
deface what they take, and good poets
make it into something better, or at
least something different.”
1
When Ernest Hemingway was
first beginning as a writer, he would
1 See the Quote Investigator for more details.
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type out whole sections of books by
writers he admired just to get a sense
of the flow and rhythm of their
writing.
When I was working my first job
as a freelance writer for a local
newspaper, I printed out ten of the
best articles I could find from the New
York Times and the Los Angeles Times,
and then carefully read through each
one, taking notes and asking, “Why
did the writer say this here? What is
the purpose of this sentence? How
does this word move the story
forward?”
Whenever I begin a new writing
project, I read something that I admire
to inspire and motivate me.
Cormac McCarthy, author of The
Road and All the Pretty Horses, once
said, “The ugly fact is books are made
out of books.”
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There is nothing new under the
sun. The question, then, is which
books are you going to make yours out
of? And how are you going to turn
them into something better (or at least
something different)?
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VII.
When you see pain/
poverty/evil/injustice/
death, don’t look away
I once read a short story about a
boy who wanted to become a writer
that stuck with me (although, I’m
forgetting the title, so if you know it,
email me!).
The story begins with the news
that a man in their small ranching
community had been killed. To help
with the body, the boy and his father
and uncle leave late at night and walk
through the wilderness.
It would be the boy’s first time
seeing death, and when they came
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upon the body, he was terrified and
looked away.
“You want to be a writer?” his
uncle asked.
The boy nodded.
“Then don’t you look away.
Don’t you ever look away.”
I’ve seen things I have wanted to
look away from. I’ve seen legless boys
pull themselves around on a cart to
beg for coins from passing cars. I’ve
seen hillsides covered with slums,
people living amidst trash and human
waste with just cardboard and tin for
shelter. I’ve seen death.
If you want to be a writer, you
must know death and pain and evil
and injustice, know it as intimately as
you know your soul. A writer’s job is to
bring the bad to life just as well as the
good.
Don’t look away.
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VIII.
Become acquainted
with boredom,
comfortable with
writing-induced misery.
Every writing project I’ve ever
worked on has come with weeping and
gnashing of teeth.
When you begin writing, you are
awash with excitement. You have a
vision and you’re confident you can
bring it to life.
It’s the middle that’s always the
hardest. Author Donald Miller said
every story is like paddling a row boat
to an island2. When you first start, the
2 From A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.
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shore recedes quickly and the island
feels so close you could touch it.
But once you get out into open
water, it’s easy to think you’re not
even moving. The shore you just left
seems far away and the island you’re
rowing toward isn’t getting any closer.
You’re not making any progress, and
you start to wonder if you should just
give up.
Most people quit here. No one
has problems starting stories. They
don’t even have a hard time finishing
them. But the middle is a story
graveyard, littered with corpses of
books, blog posts, and articles.
When I was finishing my first
book, I became so frustrated and
hopeless with my writing that I knelt
on the floor, put my face in my hands,
and cried (a very macho, manly cry, of
course). I thought, “I don’t want to do
this anymore. I don’t want to write
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this book. I don’t want to be a writer at
all anymore. I never want to feel this
stupid again.”
But after a little while, I got up,
and I wrote a few more words. The
next day, I wrote a few more. A month
later, the book was finished and sent
off to the editor.
That moment on the floor was
the turning point, the beginning of the
end of writing my first book, and now I
remember that moment every time
writing is at its most frustrating and
hopeless, and I know I’m nearly
finished.
Write through the mess. Write
through poor grammar and awkward
tense changes and switches in point of
view. Keep writing even when you
know as you’ve known nothing else
before that what you’re writing is
worthless. When you’re in the middle,
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good and bad are meaningless. Just
keep writing.
And when you can see the shore,
when you realize, at last, that you’re
nearing the end of the writing process,
remember the feeling. You’ll need that
memory for the next time you find
yourself in the middle.
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IX.
Surround yourself with
people who inspire you
(some of them may be
writers)
We think of great writers as
silent, brooding geniuses, but the
truth is no one becomes a writer on
their own. I t takes a team, a
community, to sustain the passion,
creativity, and sheer willpower to
become a writer.
The truth is, the best writers
have always had a community. Ernest
Hemingway had F. Scott Fitzgerald,
Gertrude Stein, and the expats in
Paris. Jack Kerouac had William
Burroughs and the Beats. J.R.R.
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Tolkien had C.S. Lewis and the
Inklings. Virginia Woolf had Leonard
Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group.
“You are the average of the five
people you spend the most time with,”
said Jim Rohn.
If you aren’t spending time with
creative people who inspire you and
challenge you to do your best writing,
perhaps you need to make a few new
friends.
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X.
Oh, and don’t forget to
write…
Let me close with one last story.
A few years ago, I did something
that changed my life. I started writing.
In fact, I finished one writing piece
every day.
I had, of course, written before. I
had even started a few novels (that
were soon abandoned). I had written
essays for school and a few bad poems
for fun.
However, when I started
finishing one writing piece per day,
something happened to me. I started
to think of myself as a writer.
A real writer.
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This led to getting small jobs as
a writer, freelancing for a local paper,
editing books for friends. It took a
while (and a lot of practice), but
eventually, I was able to quit my job
and support myself and my family
full-time through my writing.
It all started by finishing ONE
writing piece regularly. That small
habit changed my life.
I’m passionate about helping
other writers go from being aspiring
writers to becoming daily writers.
That’s why I want to invite you to a
program that could change yours.
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This is the Becoming
Writer Challenge
What if you could step into your
identity as a writer today?
I want to challenge you to stop
dreaming, stop aspiring, and start
developing the habits that will turn
you into a writer. It’s called the
Becoming Writer Challenge.
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Here’s how it works:
You write ONE, WEEKLY Writing
Piece. It can be anything from a short
story to a blog post to a poem to the
chapter in a book.
You share it with our community
of encouraging and committed fellow
writers to get feedback. You also give
feedback in return, helping you
develop your own eye as a writer and
editor.
You join a writing community that
can turn your passion into a writing
lifestyle. This community will become
what the Inklings were for J.R.R.
Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, what the
expats in Paris were for Hemingway,
what the Bloomsbury group was for
Woolf.

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Colleges and Universities in 2020

Colleges and Universities in 2020

Talent, discovered in kindergarten and developed in the school years bears fruit in universities in 2020. Universities gives a lot more practical education, internships to students than just theory. During their studies, students get help and start their own business.

Consultation on IVAcademy.ru | Colleges and Universities in 2020