Don't kid yourself. The name of the business game isn't Monopoly. It isn't jobs or new products or vacations or the size of your office. The name of the business game is Money. And aren't you glad. Without this medium of exchange we'd still be swapping cows for horses, for example. Instead we can exchange values of every conceivable kind for pieces of green paper, or some numbers on a bank statement.

Unless you are independently wealthy, your personal success is judged primarily by your financial success. Why? Because with financial success you can command so many other kinds of success. When you become financially successful, you open the door to all kinds of other successes, such as to use some symbolic examples, quality cars, yachts, spacious homes, good schools for your kids, diamonds for your wife or husband. It doesn't matter what kind of success prizes you covet. The first step is financial success. Money provides so many other forms of success.

So. What should you do? Take a socially splendid job as a teacher? You won't make much money. And you'll get lip service thanks and honor from the community. But face it; teachers don't command much respect because they don't have much financial success. The good news is that financial success isn't really that difficult to achieve. As evidence, look at some of the most financially successful people in your industry. Chances are that fewer than half of them are brainy.

The first and most important step is to set sound financial success goals. A surprising thing will happen. You'll find all kinds of opportunities flashing across your idea screen. With your goal you can reach out and grab them.

You'll be amazed what a challenging goal can accomplish when you seek financial success first.

Richard Conarroe

Richard (Riley) Conarroe learned some of the success lessons in this book from his own trial and error successes and failures. He learned others from the many highly successful men and women with whom he was fortunate enough to be associated during his varied working career. After years of apprenticeship as a business journalist he launched his own Madison Avenue public relations consulting firm. Over 20 years the firm gained national recognition for its successes with client companies of all sized and types. Having achieved financial success he sold his business to devote himself to global peace programs: first Letters for Peace during the U.S.-U.S.S.R. nuclear arms race, and now Students' Art for Peace which provides a means for children in different countries of the world to communicate with each other through their imaginative artwork. Says Riley,, "Although my book has a business orientation, it is really a book of guides on successful living."