Martial Arts and Business are of the same mindset - Part I

As the face of Infiniti Point shifts I am constantly going back towards things that I've been taught in the past to help me get my bearings in regards to where to go next.

Three lessons that Adam Chan, someone that I am proud to call a teacher and a friend have shared with me that have changed his life are:

1) When is a chair not a chair?
2) Where is the mind?
3) Fight with equal parts fire and water.

An excerpt from his forum reads:

"when is a chair not a chair? "- this one haha cause me to relearn everything that i ever learn
" where's his mind " - this one I am still working with , sensing intent where his focus are and hit where he is not , this one change my closing and trapping approach forever
" balance combative arts with healing" - this one cause me to practice chi gung for 10 years

In regards to lesson #1 - When is a chair not a chair?

From the martial arts aspect, this lesson asks the student to reflect on that simple fact that one doesn't need 100 moves to be a master, but must truly understand the value of but a few movements to be effective. I used to believe that the more "moves" I knew, or the more "reactions" that I knew, the better off I was as I collected many different moves from many martial arts. However this was not the case as eventually too many moves clouded my mind while trying to remember the "proper" way to react to a specific attack. Studied properly, a single punch can be used in lieu of a block or a throw, defense or offense. Taken literally, the same chair that you're sitting on could be used as a weapon, a shield, or simply a ladder for screwing in a light bulb or painting that hard to reach spot on the ceiling.

From the business side, I look at different uses for the same technique, product offering, or strategy within a particular movement. Something where people see a tax benefit, you could also use to create capital which then flows into an investment where the capital grows in equity, but also pays out a dividend to enable cash flow.

Akin to making a punch do more than simply strike an opponent, moving your assets into a proper order also gives it's usefulness a magnification factor that supersedes more than the sum of the parts.

Alongside finding different uses for the same subject, movement, or opportunity - sometimes you have to take a look at the "chair" in question to realize it for what it truly is. Not to be course or rude, but to quote Adam:

Earl, the one thing if anything that you learn from me at the end of this lesson is to have a big, expensive bullshit detector for anything and everything out there that could either work, or not work.

So what I've done in my own field of business is started doing some deeper background checking, calling referrals and listening a LOT more intently so as to not make the same mistakes in the past again in the present. The only true path is listening to the arguments from both my heart, and my head instead of ignoring one or the other and making a proper decision after gathering the facts. With our new direction, I feel as though a weight has been lifted off my shoulders, but the next move must ring true with the purpose of iPoint.

To Educate
To Serve
To Profit Together

I really think that needs to find its way onto the new ipoint website once it's done...

Stay tuned for Part II - where I'll visit the lesson "Where is the mind?"

Book list update - My latest Amazon Order

Yay, my latest order from Amazon just got shipped. Of course I had ordered these in January, but better late than never. One of these days I've got to compile my actual reading list to see where I started and where I am heading. Plus it never hurts to re-read some of the classics. In any case, I've got my work cut out for me. I think I'll start with the Breakthrough Rapid Reading book to see if I can actually read any faster than I already do. Until then, I've still got Make your life a masterpiece by Peter Legge to complete. I even won some books at the Vancouver board of Trade event from yesterday, and purchased a few more for my library. Once I get home today, those should be up on the ol' book list as well.

Here's to learning the art of Finance and Business.

-Earl

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Qty      Item                           Price      Shipped  Subtotal
---------------------------------------------------------------------
   1     Taxman Is Watching             CDN$  14.56      1  CDN$  14.56
   1     The Paradox of Choice: Why Mo  CDN$  13.83      1  CDN$  13.83
   1     Breakthrough Rapid Reading     CDN$  34.13      1  CDN$  34.13
   1     All the Money in the World: H  CDN$  22.02      1  CDN$  22.02
   1     Doing What Matters: How to Ge  CDN$  22.05      1  CDN$  22.05
   1     The Memory Book: The Classic   CDN$  13.10      1  CDN$  13.10
   1     Smart Couples Finish Rich: 9   CDN$  16.02      1  CDN$  16.02
   1     The Automatic Millionaire: Ca  CDN$  14.56      1  CDN$  14.56
   1     Start Late, Finish Rich: Cana  CDN$  20.76      1  CDN$  20.76
   1     The Automatic Millionaire Hom  CDN$  20.76      1  CDN$  20.76
   1     Rich Dad's Advisors Own Your   CDN$  16.98      1  CDN$  16.98
   1     Rich Dad's Advisors How to Bu  CDN$  15.72      1  CDN$  15.72
   1     Rich Dad's Advisors OPM Other  CDN$  16.98      1  CDN$  16.98
   1     Rich Dad's Advisors The ABC's  CDN$  16.75      1  CDN$  16.75
   1     Napoleon Hills Keys To Succes  CDN$  13.51      1  CDN$  13.51
   1     Hedge Funds For Dummies        CDN$  17.99      1  CDN$  17.99
   1     Investing for Canadians for D  CDN$  17.99      1  CDN$  17.99
   1     Personal Finance For Canadian  CDN$  17.99      1  CDN$  17.99
   1     97 Tips for Canadian Real Est  CDN$  16.19      1  CDN$  16.19
   1     Stock Investing For Canadians  CDN$  17.99      1  CDN$  17.99
   1     The Fundamentals of Hedge Fun  CDN$  68.39      1  CDN$  68.39
   1     What the CEO Wants You to Kno  CDN$  17.61      1  CDN$  17.61
   1     Linus and Lucy: Level 5 - Int  CDN$  3.98      1  CDN$  3.98
   1     Trading For Dummies            CDN$  17.99      1  CDN$  17.99
   1     Reading Financial Reports For  CDN$  16.79      1  CDN$  16.79
   1     Stock Investing For Dummies    CDN$  15.59      1  CDN$  15.59
   1     Investing For Dummies          CDN$  15.59      1  CDN$  15.59
   1     Profitable Growth Is Everyone  CDN$  20.79      1  CDN$  20.79
   1     Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas  CDN$  18.90      1  CDN$  18.90
   1     What Got You Here Won't Get Y  CDN$  18.87      1  CDN$  18.87
   1     Small Giants                   CDN$  13.51      1  CDN$  13.51
   1     The Richest Man in Babylon: N  CDN$  14.65      1  CDN$  14.65

Initiative - Make your life a masterpiece

I'm currently reading the book: Make your life a masterpiece by Peter Legge
And something that stood out in the first few pages of the book is a quote by Andrew Carnegie

Andrew Carnegie once said:

"The world needs more men that have the courage to act on their own initiative. Moreover, men of this type write their own price tag and the world willingly pays it. The world willingly rewards men of initiative."

I think I've been able to harness the ability of initiative, but what I am missing is a proper system with which to exercise the skillsets and knowledge that my mentors have imparted to me. With the fall of my last product vendor, I've been on the lookout for something new to work with where it's possible to continue my goal of helping people reach financial freedom, alongside building a business that helps my community.

It's a little harder to run the initiatives with the once bitten twice shy mentality of a person burnt from our last project, but I'm going to roll the initiative die with another go in Public Company arena. Should that fail - I'll continue with the initiative in real estate to see where that takes me. We'll see how the road opens up. I'll keep things posted up here to track my own progress, but the readings do help keep my chin up.

Inspiration comes from many different places.

There's an article that describes how a mugger's life was changed via kindness that I found on a forum the other day.

It's interesting and inspirational to see that people trying to help others are still rewarded for their troubles and work.

A Victim Treats His Mugger Right
Julio Diaz has a daily routine. Every night, the 31-year-old social worker ends his hour-long subway commute to the Bronx one stop early, just so he can eat at his favorite diner.

But one night last month, as Diaz stepped off the No. 6 train and onto a nearly empty platform, his evening took an unexpected turn.

He was walking toward the stairs when a teenage boy approached and pulled out a knife.

"He wants my money, so I just gave him my wallet and told him, 'Here you go,'" Diaz says.

As the teen began to walk away, Diaz told him, "Hey, wait a minute. You forgot something. If you're going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm."

The would-be robber looked at his would-be victim, "like what's going on here?" Diaz says. "He asked me, 'Why are you doing this?'"

Diaz replied: "If you're willing to risk your freedom for a few dollars, then I guess you must really need the money. I mean, all I wanted to do was get dinner and if you really want to join me ... hey, you're more than welcome.

"You know, I just felt maybe he really needs help," Diaz says.

Diaz says he and the teen went into the diner and sat in a booth.

"The manager comes by, the dishwashers come by, the waiters come by to say hi," Diaz says. "The kid was like, 'You know everybody here. Do you own this place?'"

"No, I just eat here a lot," Diaz says he told the teen. "He says, 'But you're even nice to the dishwasher.'"

Diaz replied, "Well, haven't you been taught you should be nice to everybody?"

"Yea, but I didn't think people actually behaved that way," the teen said.

Diaz asked him what he wanted out of life. "He just had almost a sad face," Diaz says.

The teen couldn't answer Diaz — or he didn't want to.

When the bill arrived, Diaz told the teen, "Look, I guess you're going to have to pay for this bill 'cause you have my money and I can't pay for this. So if you give me my wallet back, I'll gladly treat you."

The teen "didn't even think about it" and returned the wallet, Diaz says. "I gave him $20 ... I figure maybe it'll help him. I don't know."

Diaz says he asked for something in return — the teen's knife — "and he gave it to me."

Afterward, when Diaz told his mother what happened, she said, "You're the type of kid that if someone asked you for the time, you gave them your watch."

"I figure, you know, if you treat people right, you can only hope that they treat you right. It's as simple as it gets in this complicated world."

In the martial arts, my teacher has taught me that there are many levels of awareness that people possess in which to practice their art, alongside many levels of skill that are attainable with the proper training and dedication to practice.

• Level 0 - Bad guy throws punch, you don't even notice, you get hit
• Level 1 - Bad guy throws punch, you notice, you get hit
• Level 2 - Bad guy throws punch, you notice, you duck, but get clipped
• Level 3 - Bad guy throws punch, you notice and get out of the way
• Level 4 - Bad guy throws punch, you notice, get out of the way, and have time to hit back
• Level 5 - Bad guy throws punch, you notice, get out of the way, block and counter
• Level 6 - Bad guy throws punch, you notice, time slows down, you have More time to block and counter.
• Level 7 - Bad guy throws punch, you notice, time slows down, and you have time to intercept with a direct attack
• Level 8 - Bad guy is about to throw punch, you notice, hit him first.
• Level 9 - Bad guy is thinking about throwing punch, you stop him with words but back up your words with proper body structure so that you have TIME to intercept the intent should he continue.
• Level 10 - Your awareness is strong enough that the bad guy never tries to attack you in the first place.
• Level 11+ - You're awareness and skillset is strong enough that you convert the would be enemy into a friend and ally. The conflict is over before it starts, and it's as if it never existed.

Some day I'd like to reach the skillset and awareness levels that would allow me to stop fights before they're even thought of. I do still honestly want a method of business that is truly a win-win with mitigated risk for the clients, and a strong upside for everyone. So I'm still in training to find the answers to the financial side of the picture, the martial artist side, and the ability to truly help others in my lifetime.

The problem is that the only way to truly experience a deeper sense of peace, you must understand the exact opposite to find the real meaning. Something else is that any self-made truly successful trader must lose a few accounts to learn the life lessons that allow them to become successful. I believe that failure is an ingredient in the learning process to reach enlightenment. That being said, both failures and successfulness are only temporary, and only the test of time in the end is a fair measure of one's worth. It's not the disasters and successes measured against one another to dictate the value of your persona, but how you handle both sides of winning and losing, and to what degree you're willing to stand up for yourself and others.

Reaching the Infiniti Point is not just a monetary goal, but a life worth goal as well. Something worth striving for. Perfection itself is just an illusion, eternally traded upwards and reinventing itself as time goes on. Therefore in the end, the journey doesn't stop.

Is there anything actually GOOD out there?

I have to admit I'm a little disheartened. Every "investment opportunity" I've come across in the general public that didn't come from a bank, or proper financial institution has failed dismally, ended up as a scam or a fraud, and has hurt me, and people I've referred to these things to help me do due diligence have also been taken.

Hell one of the things I've been involved in even has a DOCUMENTARY being done on it.

However with all of the obstacles and problems in the way of reaching my goals of financial freedom, I still believe that there must be something out there - an opportunity that beats the odds and creates a place where ordinary people can create a vehicle for financial freedom in this world.

Something that I would like to do is to create a coalition of the willing. A group of individuals who will put their skills to the test to assist in creating a system to help find and vet investment opportunities for ourselves to better our own financial IQ, knowledge base and in turn produce a group of savvy and successful investors.

Having said that, I am changing the face of Infiniti Point Strategies for those of you who have tried to check on the website as of late - you've found an "under construction" page for the last little while. We're getting closer to creating the new system - but this time we're focusing even DEEPER on the educational aspects, bringing in successful guest speakers, finding the courses and knowledge to better improve your financial IQ, and perhaps finding joint venture partners along the way to make the world a better place for everyone. My dream still exists to catch that Infiniti Point - and with perseverance, focus, and a little luck - we'll create the stars from which we wish upon.

Infiniti Point Strategies: Closing Doors sometimes leads to more opportunities

I just read an interesting article on how removing options actually makes life a whole lot simpler. Closing Doors

Decisions Decisions... from a leadership perspective, you're better off making a decision and sticking to it to show that you actually have an opinion, and that you're actually choosing a direction rather than wandering around aimlessly. Irregardless of the rationale that went behind the decision itself, people would more likely follow someone who believed they were sure - rather than someone trying to hold open ALL of the doors.

From a personal networking side, it's not a question of whether or not you are allowing a door to close or not. You just have to keep all of the doors slightly ajar, and failing that, you just have to remember where the doors are, and which door does what. For in this arena, a door is never closed unless you've completely burned the bridge.

Lastly from a marketing perspective, you will ALWAYS make more sales with more than a single choice, as now your clients see some sort of selection, but there is a barrier that once you cross over into TOO MANY choices, people will simply stop purchasing things because they now need time to think about it more, and with too many decisions and distractions in life already - if it slips their mind, you've lost the opportunity.

I think I'm working way too much these days...

Infiniti Point Book Review: The Lazy Investor by Derek Foster

I'm taking a step back and beginning to read a lot about the new sector that I want to investigate - which is the stock market. Even with the hiccups along the road and the roadblocks that slow us down from reaching our financial goals, I still believe that there is a way for people to escape the rat race and reach financial independence on their own terms without working until you're 60+. You learn to ride a bicycle by falling and getting back on again.

I was just recently invited to a seminar at the Vancouver Convention Centre, and although it was full of people, the presentations themselves were uninteresting to me. The business itself looks like it adds up, but I think I need some further investigation to decide whether or not it works from the numbers side of things. Luckily enough there just happened to be a Financial Forum just down the hall which caught my attention.



A book that stood out from the rest at the Coles bookstand titled: "The Lazy Investor" looked interesting, and the tagline start with $50 and no Investment Knowledge looked appealing. From the title - it sounded like it fit in with my mission to help others and myself along the way to the Infiniti Point.

In short - this book taught me about DRIP programs - or Dividend Reinvestment Plans. It's a method where you purchase stocks that pay dividends and then reinvest the dividends to buy more shares of the same stocks, which in turn pay more dividends and increase the amount of cashflow. With the dividend payouts and the equity gains in the stocks being purchased, the gains are slow and steady but also give you a near "recession-proof" system as long as the companies that you purchase the stock in don't go under.

In my own opinion - the pros and cons of this are straightforward.


The structure of the program is sound - however it sounds more of like a "PLAN B" structure to the real estate, investment banking and other systems I'm learning - but hey, everyone needs some sort of backup plan to make things work out. In comparison to the other options of subscribing to a commission based, trailer dependent financial planning company or bank rife with fees (no offense to those in the industry, but I just like doing my own homework) I believe that this would be an excellent passive route for spare investment funds.

Once I open up my first few DRIP accounts - I'll blog their results as part of my online portfolio.

Thanks for reading and Happy Investing!
Earl Flormata

Infiniti Point - Stopping the Madness

Digging around on the internet, I got a link showing that apparently Vancouver is a place where people can hide out and work on things that are not so much on the lighter side of the fence. My intent on creating Infiniti Point was to get a group of like minded individuals together to work as a team on learning how investments work, and working together to build our financial houses together.

With the whole mess of HFX going on - I'm going to focus back on the basics again and head back into a stronger training phase for myself and the agents around me that still wish to follow. Having said that - we're going to look at 3 major markets - Real Estate, Foreign Exchange (again), and the Stock Market.

I'm going to continue attending the real estate courses that I've already started into, alongside starting to take courses on the stock market in the few upcoming months. In the meantime, I've set aside all outside forex trading opportunities and will go back to my roots of reviewing the basics and working with my original forex teachers from the Philippines. You'll note on the ipoint investment club blog a new post with forex trading signals. These come straight from my original forex teacher: Jomer Abelarde, who I will continue to work with to rebuild the forex side of ipoint.

There's still some great opportunities out there but in the meantime, it's back to school for me as I rebuild the group up. If any of the iPoint clients are interested in where the next sets of training will be held, just keep an eye on this blog alongside the forum. There will be an excellent communications course that I'm going to help administer for Dr. Blair Dunkley in February - so if you're interested - drop me a line and I'll keep you posted. I've already started on the HFX victims fund as well, and I execute my first few trades next week. Wish me luck as I start the journey again, but with more experience under my belt.

Happy Investing,
Earl Flormata

Fall from Grace.

So let's all trade "my worst day ever" stories shall we?



In one simple email, from a person that I thought I could trust to get things done properly - laid the very worst case scenario position I could ever hear about. Horizon FX Investments was linked to Razor FX Investments in a Fraudulent Ponzi scheme that would wipe out at least 26M of investor money from our side of the fence. Talk about a hard pill to swallow...



At this point in time, I was sitting in a meeting learning more about purchasing Real Estate, and I had already marked myself down for 3 properties - none of which I'd have the money for at the drop of a hat. As I read the email, I felt sick to my stomach, and simultaneously thanked the stars that there was a cease trade order on Horizon to prevent even more of my friends, family, loved ones and acquaintances from further harm. The thought of hurling myself off of the penthouse balcony shortly after the presentation also sounded quite inviting at the time as well, but if it hadn't been for my wife, and baby on the way the lure of the pavement below might have enticed me to try and fly.



With the thought of suicide passing through my mind - the very next thought I had was to immediately find Gem to ensure that he didn't jump himself. First of all was that he was a friend from my previous life at Business Objects - second was a selfish thought that he was my only connection to the supposed "traders" that had run off with our money! Needless to say, the last pieces of the presentation were a blur, but I'll get back to that LAND opportunity later. I'm starting to seriously think that real estate might be a really damn good option to pursue at this point in time seeing as I can touch the ground, the bricks, swing the door and ride up and down the elevator to convince myself that it is, in fact: REAL.



Needless to say there was a bit of a panic among my 1000+ customer base (how much of it is still around I have yet to find out) who trusted my initial due diligence on the historical reports that HFX provided. For those of you that know me - I am a novice forex trader, but knew enough back then how to back test the data - and it all came back just fine. However the problem was that I had stopped testing the new data, and chalked it up to a typo when my Chief Trader overseas told me that the reports were off a few times in the last few weeks. Lesson learned - never stop testing. Next time, that'll have to be part of the situation - among many other safety methods for the collective investment group.



I've had some time to cool off and think things through a bit. Hindsight being 20/20 - here's a summary of the lessons learned so that nobody repeats the same mistake:



1) I don't care how long you've known the person running the company - get background checks on the traders and the principles of the company and all that are involved. PERIOD. Never trust anyone to get it done for you - no matter what. Make friends with the police and get a regular account going with them. Hell, make friends with the gangsters so they can run background checks from their end. Do what it takes to make sure that the investment is running clean.



2) Apart from due diligence, the next step in the phase is vigilance. Check, doublecheck, triplecheck, and keep checking as a religious ritualistic procedure to ensure that you don't get caught blindsided by evidence that would point to your investment not being as "sound" as the owner says it is.



3) Learn the industry. You don't have to become a master at it, but learn enough to network your way to the people who are strong enough to help maintain the vigilance at a level higher than your own. Then strive to increase the thoroughness of the testing. You can never be too sure. Taking a calculated risk is required - but keep your hands on the calculator.



4) Diversify, not diworseify. From now on in, I'm going to fix the spread on my investments across multiple markets, and adjust more often. Currencies, Stock, Real Estate, Commodities.



================



To all of the investors that have believed in me on this one - I apologize. I truly didn't see it coming. I think my immediate and extended family lost just over 2M on this. Hence lesson #4 - I'll keep in mind not to overextend again - ever. I had personally tested EACH and EVERY line of the historical reports and they fit to the graphs that I have purchased. These guys were professionals in this arena - so let's all be better prepared for next time.



What are the next steps to take?



1) Seek legal counsel.

2) Join others that are looking to either a civil suit or class action suit

3) Collect all email or written documentation with HFX.

4) Save all your weekly reports

5) Ask your bank for all documentation that supports deposits or withdrawals

6) Talk to your accountant about possible write-offs from this investment loss.

7) Contact the BC securities commission to see what they are doing about this.

8) Keep your head up. This sucks for everyone but the only way you are a victim is if you let this defeat you.

9) Call the US DOJ and get a claim number if you can.

10) Find the case number and post on this site so we can all keep updated.

11) Contact any other investors that you know and alert them about this site so that we can work together as a team rather than lost individuals.

12) Contact the BC or Canada DOJ to see what kind of help they can provide us all.BC - http://www.gov.bc.ca/ag/ CAN - http://www.justice.gc.ca/en/index.html



================


On a personal note - although I too was burned by this, I'm creating a fund from my other investments to work on helping those that overextended to the breaking point financially. It's not that you shouldn't be more careful and expect someone to come bailing you out in a riskier endeavor - however if you came in under my wing, or the Infiniti Point flag - know that I will not rest until I have protected each and every last one of you, at least to an extent. We're currently looking over our legal options, alongside other avenues to recoup what we can from the lost money. The iPoint HFX victim's fund will be started immediately to help those in need. I'll also be contacting accountants to give us options on mitigating the loss in its current form to our utmost advantage (tax write offs - hopefully something other than capital loss/gains).


With a heavy heart - it's hard to start the year out with a large loss, but it's only through a fire that a phoenix is re-born. I still believe this is a year for opportunity. It can't get much worse than this now can it? Join the group currently at the hfxscam wiki to find out more information as things progress. Check out Karl's blog for more too.

Although the sound of a "normal" job sounds really enticing to even me right about now, I still do believe that there are opportunities out there for someone in the middle class to attain a higher standard of living without the need to sacrifice time that could be spent with family and more pleasurable and humanitarian pursuits. So keep your head up, don't let this loss drag you down, and keep striving to reach the Infiniti Point. I dreamt that I touched it once - and I still believe that it is within our reach to find a true and real opportunity out there. I've been demoted from a humble student to a now shamed and humble student. All the more reason to work harder at working smarter.

Infiniti Point: Ritz, more than just a cracker.

Downtown Vancouver pricing on real estate seems to have no true upper limit as of yet. The Ritz Carlton (not to be confused with the other "Ritz" )has just broken the $20 million price barrier and is now the most expensive condo penthouse in BC.

Now with that type of price tag - it's no wonder that people think Vancouver is expensive to live in. Even though it's still considered as one of the top ten places in the world to live. Having said that I'm about to embark on a journey towards learning more and more about real estate.

It's about time I suppose that I move into that territory as it complements the stock market training I'm undergoing as well. With the support from my income in the Forex sector - it's a definitely worth a deeper look. I'll be attending the course run by Albert Lowry on Friday through to Sunday.

However before then, I'll be taking 2 days off my normal "working" time - (if you can call what I do "work") because it's my wife's birthday on the 10th - and our dating anniversary on the 9th. (Damn you Karl for prodding me to ask her out the day before her bday. If only we had that discussion a week earlier, or later...) Now see, I had asked her out without thinking of the financial ramifications of having Christmas, New Years, Our Dating Anniversary (which sounds funny, but is almost more meaningful to us than our wedding anniversary), Her Birthday, and Valentine's Day within the same 2 month timespan. But that was then, and now I'm doing a little better than before with my $5/hour martial arts teaching job, and paper route back in the day. Never forget to balance the whole work/family ratio in life. We have to stop and smell the flowers once in awhile eh?

Well - back to the real estate, I just purchased a house for $540k on the market - and after the renovations, I'm hoping to pull out the equity growth to invest for cashflow and not have to worry so much about the mortgage payments. (not that I worry a whole lot now, but meh, less worrying is even better) Time to see if I can't buy the next house on the block and make it cashflow as well... only time will tell, but I'll keep you all posted on what happens next. Gotta love that Smith Manoeuvre ... oh that and spellcheck. God Bless spellcheck. M-A-N-O-E-U-V-R-E... I'll get it right one of these days.

Just because I'm the CEO of Infiniti Point doesn't mean I stop researching... why you ask? One - because it's no fun being alone on the beach without my friends, and Two? Well - I can't afford a penthouse at the Ritz quite yet. Almost, but still a little journey away. Until then, have a good one, and I'll just keep reading and researching away.

Infiniti Point: Really Good Returns?

What are "really good returns" to you? To me, it used to be 8-10% or higher when I was just a regular sheep following the herd into RRSP land. Then it changed to 30% or higher, now with the investment banking training, forex trading training, and real estate training between my ears, it'd better be 200-400% or higher. What is risk but a calculated variable? If you can mitigate risk with control - then is it truly still called gambling? Counting the cards is frowned upon, but a necessary skill when attempting to take on Vegas is it not? A 1% average win ratio above and beyond the house is still an asset. What then is the difference being armed with the power that is knowledge when entering the financial realm? I know it's an over-used term, but crossing the street is still considered taking a risk is it not? However crossing without looking or running across a highway isn't the brightest thing to do either. Besides, knowing more than the average investor gives me a little more than that card counting 1% bonus.

The best investment by far is the asset that lies between your ears. This doesn't mean that I'm about to go informercial on your ass and try to sell you some lame "how to win at everything" e-book duct taped to DVD's and a chaser seminar to upsell you even more crap that you don't need. In the future, iPoint will go even deeper into the educational portion with proper lessons, but it'll just cover the essentials before someone can get their feet wet with their new found opportunities.

iPoint is a company that researches investments and shares it with their clients. We all take part in helping to decide whether or not an investment is a good idea or a bad idea, and help everyone by providing a proper opinion from a non-biased standpoint. I'm usually the first guinea pig to test something out with my own personal funds, but I let people know where and when I'm playing so you can help give your own opinion, or tag along for the ride. I'm not a licensed financial planner, nor will I ever want to become one because it limits what I'm allowed to say to people, as the place where my license would be hung would dictate what to sell, and what to say. Besides, I'm not selling - but rather educating people on their options in what's truly available out there. Although I'm somewhat successful, I don't consider myself to be a genius, a guru, or an expert of any sort in the financial realm. I am but a student - willing to share what I know in exchange for a chance to learn more because for me - it's no longer a necessity, but a game and a labour of love. In the end, my loyalty lies with the bottom line, and my people.

Infiniti Point: New Year - New Opportunity

So, it's the year 2008 - what I believe will be a definitive year for Infiniti Point Strategies. With the 8 in the year representing our "Infinity" vision it's time to make things happen.

My own personal and business resolutions:

- Read at LEAST one inspirational business book a month and post and share the wisdom online
- To continue to read and learn and SHARE information on my blog posts 2x week
- Help those closer to me attain at least 500k/annum in passive income by 2010
- "Earn my leather jacket" - I'll post what this means to me in a future article.
- Balance my life using the techniques learned from Timothy Ferris and his 4 hour work week
- Create automation and tighter community in the iPoint world so more can be done in less time

With each passing day it seems that my eyes open wider and wider to allow me to see even more opportunity than ever before. It's a shame that so many others out there waste time with excuses, "reasons" and rationalizations to prove why they can't be successful when even someone with such a simple mind can figure out ways to win in this world. 6 3-point shots in a row isn't a fluke. Reaching my old yearly income in a month isn't a fluke anymore either. Now to set the bar even higher, and let's see how long it takes to reach 1M/month. Apparently there's something beyond infinity after all... Now... bring me that horizon. and touch the Infiniti Point