The Ten-Year Career: The Fast Track Guide to Retiring Young, Wealthy, and Fulfilled

By D. M. Lukas

The United States and the world are experiencing extraordinary economic times. The word of the day seems to be crisis. But no matter what type of economic situation exists, there is always opportunity for those who are prepared, who have the skills to succeed, and who have the power to think outside the box. In The Ten-Year Career, author D.M. Lukas provides a set of concrete principles to help you seize those available opportunities, gain wealth, and reach your goals and dreams exponentially faster.
Filled with real-life examples and anecdotes, The Ten-Year Career presents a plan to help you achieve success built around a ten-year timetable. It helps you
Determine who you are and where you are headed
Harness the true power of your mind
Set and achieve your goals faster and easier
Create financial independence
Master your time and do more with less
Learn the secrets of sales and negotiations
Understand the qualities and traits of the most wealthy, successful,
and fulfilled and how to use them in your life
Learn the 10 critical concepts for success in any arena
Become a lifelong learner
How to take action to improve your success, wealth, and personal fulfillment
Through inspiration, information, and practical how-to tips, The Ten-Year Career provides the key to becoming smarter and more competent to facilitate your climb to the next level of success.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Apr 15, 2013
• ISBN: 9781475970111

D. M. Lukas

Whether it is traveling to remote corners of the world, being invited to work with world-renowned thought leaders and their organizations, speaking to Fortune 500 companies and Universities, developing his own companies, and investing in real estate and the stock market; there is little that Dave M. Lukas has not achieved. Dave spent years learning from top mentors, leaders, and successful entrepreneurs; and has packaged all of that wisdom into The Ten Year Career with a goal to help others find their path to success, wealth, and fulfillment.

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Copyright © 2013 D. M. Lukas

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ISBN: 978-1-4759-7012-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-7011-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013900452

iUniverse rev. date: 4/5/2013

CONTENTS

Foreword: Learning from Lukas

Why You Need This Book

Introduction

1.   Who Are You and Where Are You Headed?

2.   Harnessing the True Power of Your Mind

3.   Goals, the Key to Your Map

4.   Become Financially Smart

5.   Manage Your Time—Do Not Let It Manage You

6.   Learn to Sell and Negotiate

7.   The Qualities and Traits of the Most Wealthy, Successful, and Fulfilled

8.   Ten Critical Concepts You Must Master

9.   Become a Lifelong Learner

10.   Take Action!

11.   Your Final Duty

About the Author

Ten Year Career Bibliography

PRAISE FOR THE TEN YEAR CAREER

This is a super book, loaded with great ideas for success that everyone can learn and apply, in any business, at any age.

- Brian Tracy, Author, Maximum Achievement

Very few people live long enough to be themselves. Perhaps, they should pick up this great read and avoid that unfortunate sequence of events. After all, the only thing you can control is your attitude and whether or not you purchase this superb book.

- Daniel Moneypenny, World Famous Branding Expert and President & CCO of Emaginit

You may not get rich because you read this book. But, you will be smarter, more competent, and understand a lot of things that can make you more successful (and life more employable!) Finally, if you take Dave’s advice, I believe it will also lead to more happiness—and that alone is well worth the small investment! I wish I had a book like this when I was starting my career. It is easily worth as much as a college education in terms of career success.

- John L. Marriotti, Former President of Rubbermaid Office Products, Former President of Huffy Bicycles,

and Founder & CEO of The Enterprise Group

and Award Winning Author

Dave Lukas has delivered a brilliant and highly relevant, principled roadmap to achievement and success that few have achieved. His successful and energetic track record of entrepreneurial accomplishment elevates Dave to the top as a transformational, innovative and marketing leadership that many of us are seeking to accomplish. Fasten your seat belt, you’re in for an unforgettable journey in transformational thinking and results.

- Miguel A. de Jesus, Founder & CEO

of Purpose & Action, LLC

The Ten Year Career delivers everything someone needs to put them on the path to success…and keep them there. Dave gives an incredible amount of top-tier advice and a clear set of actions to get any reader to their next level all in an easy, concise way. The principles that Dave teaches are timeless and should be passed down from generation to generation!

- Doc Severson, Founder of Options MD

The Ten Year Career should be required reading for everyone at some point in their life!

- M. Erik Mueller, Founder and CEO of Grasp Technologies and Creative Computer Resources

To my wife for her never-ending support. None of this could be accomplished without you. And to my mom and dad, thank you for your support and for teaching me to always push farther.

FOREWORD:

LEARNING FROM LUKAS

I want to start by introducing you to Dave Lukas. He is an exceptional young man who has earned multiple successes through his initiative and hard work. He has also done it at a much earlier age than most people. Part of that is because of his active and inquisitive mind; a larger part of it is because of this proactive, determined and optimistic (can do) perspective. There, that’s a thumbnail. I’ll close with more about Dave, but first I want to tell you why this book is so valuable.

Through most of my lengthy career, I have always believed that it was best to learn from someone who has been there, done that. As I got older, and more experienced, I also discovered that the best learning comes from listening to someone who has not only been there and done that but has done so fairly recently, and is intimately familiar with the current reality and today’s challenges.

That’s why I was delighted to see that Dave Lukas organized his learning and is sharing it with thousands of others who will benefit from it. At first glance, you might mistakenly think that this is a book for young folks, just getting started. That is true; but it is not just for young folks.

This book is a treasure for anyone who needs to get started regardless of their age. Millions of Americans are currently unemployed or underemployed and need to get a new start. This book is every bit as valuable for them to do that as it is for younger folks, just starting out for the first time. But that’s not all. Dave also imparts some wisdom that belies his youth when he writes down to earth advice about getting financially smart, and about managing your time, or becoming a lifelong learner.

Bottom line is that at a very early age, Dave learned by doing, by observing, by studying, by reading, and then applying that with an aggressive and intuitive attitude that led to success. And we all know nothing succeeds like success. In his relatively brief career to date, he has worked with big companies and small ones, with well-known experts and business neophytes. Who better to provide ideas on how to build a plan for starting a career and a life than someone who has been doing it—and living it.

Thus I encourage you to read Dave’s book and share its messages with your family, friends and loved ones. Everyone will be smarter, better prepared to face life’s challenges, and most of all, to find success built around a sensible ten year plan.

Now, to go back to Dave personally: I’ve known him and worked with him for several years, including working as co-authors of a book—my tenth and Dave’s second. It’s probably a bit unusual for co-authors of a complete book to have forty years difference in their ages, who share such similar viewpoints.

In my business, consulting and executive career of almost 48 years, I’ve had to evaluate a lot of people. After a while, you develop a sixth sense about young people who are what we used to call go-getters. You want to be around them; and you want to have them on your team. That’s how I see Dave.

He is well known to many of my colleagues and their reactions to him are largely the same as mine. This book is full of solid advice from a young, but surprisingly experienced man, who has discovered what works (and what doesn’t) and chosen to share it with others.

Don’t hesitate! Read this book. Don’t stop part way through it. Read a chapter every week, and discuss it with those close to you: what have you learned, and most important, how can you improve your life and your fortunes. Mark up your copy of the book; make notes about what you plan to do. Then set out to do it.

You may not get rich because you read this book. But, you will be smarter, more competent, and understand a lot of things that can make you more successful (and life more employable!) Finally, if you take Dave’s advice, I believe it will also lead to more happiness—and that alone is well worth the small investment. Good luck on your Ten Year Career.

John L. Mariotti

Former President of Rubbermaid Office Products, Former President of Huffy Bicycles, and Founder & CEO of The Enterprise Group and Award Winning Author

WHY YOU NEED THIS BOOK

This book is a culmination of over five years of hard work and study (and, as a result of that study, hundreds of years of ideas and information from the greatest thinkers in history). It took over five years because I had to find, learn, perfect, and execute flawlessly all of the principles I am going to teach you.

We live in exciting times!

As I write this book, the United States and the world are going through extraordinary economic times. Most people of the Gen X and Gen Y generations (of which I am part) have never seen or gone through a time when there wasn’t economic growth. The word of the day seems to be crisis.

So, why do I say exciting?

Because no matter what type of economic situation exists, there is always opportunity. Even during the Great Depression, people became very wealthy. Now, I won’t say that people have not fallen on hard times—because they have. And even if you are wealthy and successful, in today’s world, one wrong move can really change that!

That is why you need this book. Since 1971, the dollar has lost over 90 percent of its value. The United States’ current unemployment rate is hovering around 8 percent, our national debt stands at over $16 trillion, and in just a short time, our government has promised, guaranteed, and voted to print billions more! Just to put that in perspective, the entire US output—that is, what we make and produce as a country—is about $15 trillion per year. The interest to pay this new debt alone is almost $1 trillion per year going forward.¹

All of this makes a few things likely to happen. First, world markets and economies are going to continue to go through wild fluctuations. Second, some industries (automakers, for example) are going to go through radical changes and may never be the same. Third, in order to pay for our new debt, taxes will likely continue to have to go up in future years. Lastly, with so much new money being printed and financed primarily with debt, we are headed for a time of inflation (as can already be seen by food prices reaching twenty-year highs around the world in 2011)²

The good news is that those who are prepared, who have the skills to succeed and the wherewithal to stay logical, and who learn to harness the power of their minds to think outside the proverbial box have an incredible chance to seize opportunities, gain wealth, and reach their goals and dreams.

The Ten-Year Career and its accompanying website, www.TheTenYearCareer.com, were written and developed to give you everything you need to get on the path to wealth, success, and ultimately personal fulfillment. Success is a process, and the following pages offer you a concrete process for obtaining the success you desire.

D. M. Lukas

INTRODUCTION

It is so easy to get rich in America—because almost nobody is trying!

I know, I know, the first time I heard this statement, from an incredibly wealthy mentor, I thought, What are you talking about? At first it made me angry, but then, after some thought and about five years spent in the real world, I realized that it is absolutely true.

Most people get up, aimlessly go to work, come home, watch some TV, go to bed, and then get up the next day and repeat the process all over again. They go to work dreading it, just wanting to get it over with—and rightfully so, because for many, there is no incentive to work harder, to go above and beyond, or to strive for the next level. The reason lies in the way that many people are paid.

Results versus Time

Most people are paid for their time, meaning they go to work, make sure they get eight hours on their time card, get the hourly wage for those hours, and go home. For many, the incentive to do much more is just not there.

Let’s take a look at the average situation.

You have Jim and Barry. They both work for the same company, doing exactly the same job, and sit in cubicles right next to each other. Jim works extremely hard, takes short lunches and no breaks, and does twice the daily work of Barry for the department. Barry, on the other hand, comes to work, walks around and talks with everybody for the first hour of the day, does a little bit of work, goes to lunch, comes back, and takes a couple of breaks in the break room before calling it a day and going home.

This cycle of Jim and Barry goes on every day until the end of the year comes and it’s time for the annual review. Since Jim and Barry work in the same department, the company looks at how the department does as a whole as part of the evaluation. In this case, the department has done very well (no doubt thanks to Jim’s extra efforts!). But the company looks at them and the rest of the department, says good job, and gives everyone a 3 percent raise (barely beating inflation).

Jim cannot believe it—all of his hard work for what? The same measly 3 percent that Barry got? Jim goes back to his desk and vows never to have this happen to him again.

So what does he do? He works just enough to get his basic work done and takes breaks as much as possible, maybe a little longer lunch, just like Barry.

Sadly, this happens all of the time in today’s world. People do just enough to not get fired. It happens frequently with people being paid for their time, because there is no incentive to do more than the bare minimum. Even worse, many times it is the Barrys of the world who get the promotion.

So, how do you prevent this from happening to you? It is simple. Be paid for your results. This does not mean that you do not have an hourly wage or salary, but it does mean that you need to have some aspect of your pay or income come from your hard work and your ability to be more productive than your peers.

If your work in some way has impact on the company’s bottom line, you are not as expendable and you will be paid more. Similarly, if you own your own business and are not spending every moment on results-based activities to help your bottom line, you are losing.

The previous few statements are fundamental principles in this book. Our competitive human nature pushes us to further ourselves and gain better results for ourselves. It is this competitive edge that drives us to excel, attain more, grow more, take on new challenges, and keep life and work interesting.

Ask yourself, Do I want to spend forty years working without a chance to truly grow myself and have a realistic chance to reach my goals and be fulfilled?

You should probably ask yourself another question: Why does it have to be forty years?

That is the standard we all hear about, right? Work forty years and save, save, save for retirement, and you just might be able to live comfortably in retirement, barring no major economic crashes like the one we have experienced recently.

But, comfortable? Do you want to be just comfortable?

Not me!

I want to be wealthy,