The Good Life & How To Get It: How To Stack Paper The Legal Way

By Kendall Fontenot

Since birth Kendall V. Fontenot was never the type to limit himself nor his potential to the stereotyped views of others. Fontenot was clearly an independent, out-of-the-box thinker, from the time he was a little tot. 

 

Fontenot was only seven years old when he first stumbled across the laws of supply, demand and profit.&n

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ultimate Autoplex
• Release date: Mar 15, 2018
• ISBN: 9780692092552

Book preview

An Introduction: The Book of Your Dreams

entrepreneur

(noun)  a person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so.

TO BE FRANK WITH YOU, this is quite the lackluster definition of entrepreneur. It is rather flat and uninspiring. It’s a tinge intimidating. And if I were to be irreverently colloquial, I might even say––it kind of sucks. Had I personally read this description of entrepreneur before I set out upon the grand journey, perhaps I never would have set out at all!

Entrepreneur: A person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risksin order to do so. Doesn’t that definition sound a bit scary? Correction; doesn’t it sound a lot scary? It seems to imply you may need a red cape and blue tights to carry it out, while shouldering a superhuman burden of risk to do so. Plain and simply, I do not subscribe to that view at all.

Let me be honest with you. While I do have a very healthy view of myself and my success, I do not consider myself anyone’s superman. I consider myself the everyday man with an extraordinary commitment to personal success. That was all that I needed. And that is all that you need to take this journey.

Success is attainable for the everyday man. Financial freedom is available to the everyday woman. It is not a superhuman feat. I am a very normal human being with an abnormal sense of my own freedom––a freedom that I indulge daily. By the end of this book I hope that my story will have also inspired you to capitalize on the un-utilized freedoms collecting dust in your life. I aim to show you that entrepreneurship (commandeered successfully) and freedom itself… are literally flip sides of the same coin.

If your personal dictionary doesn’t tell you the definition of entrepreneurship that I am about to relate to you, rip out the page, ball it up, stand on it, then throw it away. Never look at it again. You are about to learn all that you need to know. Furthermore, you are about to learn it from someone who has been there, done that (and is currently doing that now) for years on end. I am not a fan of grandstanding on theories. I speak from the experience of practical application.

If you want to make money at something you absolutely love to do, stay tuned. If you want to make money by seizing a glaring opportunity you just cannot seem to shake from your mind, stay tuned. I am about to become your very best friend. You are literally about to fall in love with me––and rightly so.

I’ve been making money and turning profits since the second grade of grammar school. Yes, you read that correctly. That was no typo. I’ve been creating profit margins for myself since a little tyke. I did so and do so without the cape and without the tights. I did so and do so with common sense principles and common sense applications––principles and applications that are not commonly employed. If you have arrived at a place in life where you are tired of doing what you do and want to acquire the resources you need to live in a different, more exhilarating way, you have your nose in the right book. If you have a grand idea, but have not yet found the courage to launch it, you will find that courage here. But most importantly, you will find a sensible, tangible, real roadmap to execute that courage.

Though I’ve been very adept at selling things since the tender age of eight, I am not here to sell you on anything. I am only here to sell you on you, your life, your future, and the life you deserve. If you really (and I do mean really) want to make money for yourself, your family and your family’s generations yet to come, settle in and get ready for the ride. Success is a shorter journey than you think when you take the right road in the right mind.

WHAT YOUR AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP IS ABOUT

Forget everything you ever learned in your high-school civics classes. I am going to re-litigate that course for you right here and now. Core and essential to America itself, is the American Dream. Core and essential to being an American is having a dream. The art and act of dreaming is the very fabric of what it means to be an American. If you do not have a clear DREAM, GOAL or VISION to advance yourself, are you really an American? If you are not striving, climbing, struggling or aiming for a higher plateau in life, are you really being an American? Arguably, not. In fact let’s just be straight and plain about it. You are not.

Listen to me when I say this. This is the ‘land of opportunity.’ That means if you are taking up residence here and are not seeking or seizing an opportunity to advance yourself or advance your capital, you should turn in your citizenship. This may sound a bit tongue-in-cheek, and this may sound a bit tough to others, but think about it. It’s really no joking matter. This is a democratic capitalist country. And to me this translates: You have the freedom to make money and make lots of it. You have the freedom to advance yourself from one station in life to a higher station in life, period. What else are you going to do? Hang out?

The obvious question is: If this country and its citizenship is about personal advancement, then why do so many people not take it upon themselves to do so? Why do they not take it upon themselves to creatively make money or significantly advance their personal stature in this country? I think it is for ONE solid reason. They have utterly and completely forgotten what this country is and what its fundamentally about. Deeper still, perhaps they were never even taught it––to now forget it.

As a society we have been lulled into a calamitous belief that life owes us something––or that life is magically obligated to give us something. Now I have a question for you. How’s that belief working out for you? Karl Marx may be a brilliant writer, philosopher and pontificator, but if he were living in America right now, I’d recommend he read my book and read it ASAP. Even brilliant nineteenth-century philosophers need to eat. And in America, sitting around waiting on someone to give you something will keep you skinny and starving, forever waiting on something that is never coming. This book is not about starving. This book is about eating and eating well. This book is about causing your future. It is not about waiting for one to be given to you. It’s The Good Life & How To Get It by Kendall Fontenot.SIT DOWN & WAIT FOR SOMEBODY TO GIVE IT TO YOU, my publisher tells me, just didn’t have the same ring to it.

Achievement is what America is constructed for. It is for this purpose that people hike, swim, fly, and boat here against the odds or with them. America is all about personal achievement. It is in our very marrow. It is the fundamental measuring stick for how we judge ourselves. The royalty in England may be made up of Queens, Kings, Princes and Princesses who inherit position and influence from right of birth, however, our aristocracies in America are the achievers––the achievers of entertainment, business, politics, sports and great social works. We honor people who achieve against the odds. THESE are our royalty––the people who got up, did it and got it. Think about it. Think of how this country was founded. America itself is the achieved dream of castigated British subjects and African slaves who refused to give up hope and die.

In my estimate, if you have not a dream that you are driven by and driven to, you are forfeiting the very reason for your being an American. You are here to pursue. Pursue what? Pursue expanded life, expanded liberty and expansion of your happiness with the freedom you’ve been given to do so. I don’t care what socio-economic strata you were born into, you will find histories of men and women who fought their way from those trenches to the top. So, what is my point here? My point is simply––DO NOT forget what your very American citizenship is about. It is about achievement and the pursuit thereof. You are not American by birthright––you are American by the right of self-advancement. So, let’s go!

FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE & ENTREPRENEURSHIP

In the case you cannot tell, or simply have the pulse of a rock, it should be pretty obvious that I am here to encourage you to get up and pursue your passion––pursue your dream. That’s apparent. So let’s be clear. For most in this country, their central dream is to be financially wealthy or at the very least financially independent. Now let’s be even clearer. In America, being an entrepreneur is the steadiest way to achieving that dream. That’s why this modest book is a little powwow about entrepreneurship. It’s a little seminar on how I made it, how I’m making it and how you can too. No cape needed and please, no tights.

We shall begin the conversation by revealing what entrepreneurship is and discerning what entrepreneurship is not. We will dispel the myths, the mysteries, the mistakes, plus the common misnomers around entrepreneurship. And there are plenty.

I’ve already told you my opinion of the above definition for entrepreneurship. It occurs as negative, discouraging and grossly limiting of what an entrepreneur actually is and gets to do. It is unfortunate to find that description as the formal definition because the foremost mistake people make is to think that entrepreneurship is something other than what it actually is. This confusion is the prime reason most people never embark upon the journey.

Perhaps the definition of entrepreneurship is kept so convoluted and intimidating for another prime reason––to keep you out of it! Why would anyone want to keep you out of the game of entrepreneurship? The answer is simple. The nature of an entrepreneur is to not want any extra competition––if they can help it. Why would they? Would it not be to their personal fiscal advantage to keep the fine art of entrepreneurship mysterious and seemingly menacing to you? You are in better service to the titans of the marketplace as a customer, not a competitor. Well, leave it to me to be a rebel. Today we are abolishing the mystery around the whole notion of this thing. In fact, I don’t believe there really is a mystery. I never fell for the fairytale. You don’t need to either. I prefer plain and straight language. And that is what I am going to give to you from here on out.

Listen closely. I don’t care if you are Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, John Doe or Jane Doe. I don’t care how many prestigious business degrees you have or don’t. I don’t care if you own Exxon Mobile Corporation, Walmart Corporation, Apple Computers Inc., or just a corner lemonade stand. Entrepreneurship is about ONE thing and one thing only. It is simply the activity of buying and selling. Buy low, sell high. There is no need to complicate or convolute the matter. Most of you have bought something. A lot of you have sold something. And quite a number of you have been entrepreneurs without knowing it. If you are buying, obtaining, acquiring or making something for the purpose of selling it for a profit, that is entrepreneurship. If you are selling something at a higher valuation than what it cost you to acquire it, you produced a profit––that is entrepreneurship. It is simple. Don’t confuse yourself. Stop the convolution. Stop the genius bar appointment. Not needed. I do hope you kept the receipt for your MBA.

COMMON SENSE BUSINESS

What I just told you was common sense. Right? Well why do people commonly confuse, convolute and complicate the matter? They need to. Think about it. Even your MBA business school is a business. You paid thousands of dollars for what you fundamentally already knew. It cost them nothing to tell you. But it cost you a lot to be reminded. When I was in the second grade, they would not admit me into Harvard Business School. Perhaps, it was a height issue. So, I was left with no choice. I had to figure out the fundamentals of business on my own. And, I did. Here is what Harvard and others are attempting to say in all of their fanciest Ivy League articulation. If I buy a pair of socks from you, then sell it to your brother for a nickel more than the price I bought it for, that is entrepreneurship. I think you’re getting the point. Now, you can send that expensive Harvard tuition to me, payable to Kendall Fontenot.

Like I’ve said, if I thought that entrepreneurship was anything other than what I just described, I might not have ever tried it. Maybe that is why many of you have not tried it. Maybe all of the smoke and mirrors around it have kept you out of the game––the game of your life. Every man or woman is born with