Lifeonaire: An Uncommon Approach to Wealth, Success, and Prosperity

By Steve Cook

Will becoming a Millionaire really set you free? How about the American Dream? If we, as a nation, declare freedom to be our number one priority, then why do so many of us, at a gut-level, feel less freedom than ever? Americans are working harder than ever to obtain financial success and material possessions based on the delusion that more will

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lifeonaire Promotions, LLC
• Release date: Oct 27, 2018
• ISBN: 9780986322884

Book preview

Lifeonaire: An Uncommon Approach to Wealth, Success and Prosperity

Copyright ©2018 by Steve Cook. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any way by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the author except as provided by USA copy right law.

Published by Lifeonaire Publishing, LLC

Lifeonaire Publishing, LLC

P.O. Box 471, Baraboo WI 53913

www.lifeonaire.com

Contents

What others are saying about the Lifeonaire book 

Acknowledgments 

A Note from Steve Cook 

Chapter 1 

Chapter 2 

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8 

Epilogue 

Final Thoughts from the Author 

How can you get started? 

Here’s what others are saying about Lifeonaire events… 

About the Author 

What others are saying about the Lifeonaire book

In a word: Awesome! This was the first book I’ve read straight through in years. This probably sounds a cliché, but the Lifeonaire book was the life changing wake-up call that I needed to put my business and life in perspective. Highly recommend!

—Daniel Somerville, Akron, OH - Entrepreneur

A profound-yet-simple parable, I can honestly say the principles & values reflected in this book have been nothing less than life-changing for me. After snoozing through most of my life in default mode, I finally woke up to the reality that without a crisp, clear vision for the life I really want, I’m just living everyone else’s vision for my life by default. Now I get to create & live MY life...based on core values and vision I crafted, rather than other’s expectations or the American Dream mentality. Highly recommended!

—JP Moses, Memphis, TN - President, Awesome REI, LLC

Life changing message! Read this book - it’ll change your life for good!

—Brian Sterling, Temple, NH

I can only give rave reviews on this book! The question would be Who cannot benefit from reading Lifeonaire? For anyone who has thought...There has to be more to life than the rat race everyone seems to be in - READ this book! I have been able to quickly and easily change the course of where my life could have ended up. Mine is the highlighted and dog eared book... my favorite!

—Ann Shanley, Cleveland Heights, OH -

CEO KV2 Property Investments LLC

It’s hard to say in a just few words what this book will do to your perspective of life, time, money, and what’s important. Shift is too small. Change is anorexic. Radically impact is probably the best I can come up with for now. You won’t be the same after reading this book. I know I wasn’t.

—Jason Wojciechowski, Durham, NC

The message in this book is what I was longing for. I wanted to have a business that was more than about making money and following the crowd that we see all around us. If you are in debt or want to get a different idea about what success really means, read this book!

—Scott Smith, Austin, TX – Managing Partner,

Real Time Investments, LLC

If you ever questioned, is there a better way to live life, then Lifeonaire is required reading! Are you doing what you really want and value with your life? Or just following the Jones’s? You owe yourself a fresh perspective.

—Tim Porterfield, Baltimore, MD – Owner,

Sundancer Properties, LLC

Lifeonaire has truly been life changing. I can say that we have grown in many ways especially in our ability to think big and realize that anything is possible.

—Mike Kennedy, Davison, MI – Owner, Kennedy Housing

It encouraged me to question that which I had taken for granted as the ‘way things are and always will be’

—O’Brien, Litchfield, OH - President, Open USA Doors, LLC

The message of Lifeonaire has helped unlock countless freedom(s) in my life. Instead of living someone else’s vision, we are living life on our terms. If you come home thinking about work, if your relationships at home are stagnant, if you’re playing by the rules of the game, but not winning...this book is for you. It is a boomerang book for me. I commit to reading it once a year.

—Michael Stansbury, Memphis, TN - Memfixerupper LLC

This book is changing the way my wife and I are looking at our life. Looking back, we realized that we are just running the rat race like everyone else. We want to start living life the way we want to – not the way the world wants us to. Thank you for writing the book. It’s changing our lives.

—Gary Tretter

This is a must read if you want to figure out how to live life better and more abundantly! I am still working these principles into my life, but already I feel more fulfilled. I can see so much light ahead as I apply these principles more completely into my life!

—Joshua Gierach, Madison, WI, Owner, jkROCK

We were very successful from a business perspective but less from a personal perspective. Lots of long hours building up a business to make more money. Lifeonaire changed our vision for what our life; more money was not the answer. We now fit business around our personal life instead of the other way around. Our life is much more fulfilling from a personal, family, spiritual AND business perspective than we ever thought possible. Thank you Lifeonaire!

—Keith Borg, Dallas, TX - Manager, Blackborg Group, LLC

Acknowledgments

Idecided to keep this short and sweet. It is God who gave me the word Lifeonaire and along with it the burden of taking the Lifeonaire message to the world. It is through Him that everything good in my life can be attributed to. While many people have contributed to Lifeonaire in several different ways, I trust that it is God who brought every one of those people into my path. I am thankful for the abundant life that I have found through Jesus Christ, and I am grateful for the opportunities that I have been given to share it with others. And to all of you who have contributed to Lifeonaire in some shape, way, or form, know that I am forever thankful for all of you. I hope that throughout my life, I can give back in some way all that I have received.

Blessings,

Steve Cook

A Note from Steve Cook

This book has taken far too long to get to you. I spent many years working on it. In fact, there were four previous versions of the Lifeonaire book before this one; however, I always felt that each of them just wasn’t a good-enough depiction of Lifeonaire for me to attach my name. I spent years trying to get it just right. The truth is, if it weren’t for the encouragement of my students, it may have never gotten to print. Thankfully, it was my students who reminded me that for every minute I waited to release the book, I was robbing the world of the impact that the Lifeonaire principles could generate. If it weren’t for them, I’d probably still be working on it right now.

Let me tell you how I finally came to the point of having a manuscript that I was willing to send to the publisher. Lifeonaire was already something that was changing lives everywhere, and I tried repeatedly to put it into words on a page. I struggled to get the message and content to flow from one idea to another. In everyday life, however, I could teach people the Lifeonaire concepts, and they got it very easily. It made complete sense to them. Putting it into writing was a lot more difficult. Then one day, Shaun McCloskey, a prior student of mine, suggested that I stop trying to write a nonfiction book and instead that I write a novel. He reminded me that the way Lifeonaire is best shared is through telling real-life stories. Everyone relates to the stories we tell and they hit close to home because they see reflections of their own life. So, while this is not a true story as depicted from one person’s experience, it is a compilation of very true and real-life stories from both our own lives and the lives of Lifeonaire students. So if you’re a student, don’t be surprised if you are reading this and you think that something sounds familiar, because it may have come out during one of our teachings with you.

As a teacher of Lifeonaire, I’m still growing. I learn new things every day, which means that this book is not the end; it is only the beginning. I may write other books on the topic, and I may update this one, but I’ll always be teaching, and what I teach will always be based on real-life experiences that I have had the privilege of sharing and learning with our students. Enjoy the read. It is my hope and my prayer that it makes a tremendous impact on your life and those you care about. And most importantly, one that helps you to experience the abundant life that you were intended to live.

God bless you,

Steve Cook

CHAPTER

1

Alex thought his head might explode. Here we go again, he thought, she just doesn’t get it.

I don’t understand why you can’t do something with your son once in a while! Kerry was visibly upset and quickly reaching her wit’s end. You spend every waking moment working. Justin hardly knows who you are anymore! Can’t you take one weekend out of the entire year to enjoy some quality time with him and maybe, just maybe, be a positive influence? Pretend that you care about him?

That’s not fair, Alex snapped back incredulously, now feeling offended as much as angry. "I work my guts out so that he—and you for that matter—can have the things you have! I put this roof over your head, I put food on the table, I pay for the ridiculously expensive toys that he has."

"Now that is not fair, Alex. You are the one who bought those toys and the guitars. Justin would have been happy with any regular old run-of-the-mill guitar, but no, you had to get him the most expensive thing in the store to feed your own ego. It’s always about you, even though you try to pretend it’s about us!"

This one was getting ugly fast, Alex thought. Why didn’t she understand? What was he supposed to do? Let everything go, perhaps file bankruptcy so he could go on some stupid camping trip?

It was true. Alex worked a lot. A lot. But it wasn’t about him, at least not in his mind. He honestly wanted the best for his family, and that’s what he worked for. His heart’s greatest desire was to provide a great life for his family. He was doing it all for them, and that meant long hours at work most of the time. It wasn’t supposed to be this way, not that it had started off any smoother. When he started his own construction company years earlier, Kerry hadn’t been very happy about it. She’d wanted him to take a safer and more secure route in his career choice. Starting your own business is a little risky isn’t it? she’d asked him. It had been more statement than question, even then.

His response had been that working for himself would mean more freedom to do what they wanted, when they wanted. Being the boss was always better than being the employee, right? She had given in, of course. Looking back, he realized that it was more that she’d reluctantly agreed. She’d loved him and believed in him, and at that time, they were still young and fresh, with their whole lives ahead of them—just a few years out of college and still wet behind the ears. He had promised her that this would be the key to their future. They would live full and abundant lives. Owning his own business had seemed like the icing on the cake of the American Dream.

Now, of course, it seemed less like a dream and more like a nightmare.

Between the long hours, meeting payroll for his crew, the hassles of permits, and the never-ending paperwork, he felt like he would never get caught up with work, let alone get ahead enough for a weekend of camping with his son. Every time he thought things would get better, a new slew of issues arose for him to deal with. He was only 39 years old, but he felt and looked closer to 50. Now he was starting to question how long it had been this way.

Kerry’s complaints were coming at a time when he’d already started to doubt the direction his life was headed. He wasn’t sure whether his doubts made her comments better or worse, but they definitely made him feel defensive. And angry.

You know, if you didn’t run straight to the mall every time you got upset about something, maybe I wouldn’t have to put so many hours in, he snapped. This was below the belt, and he knew it the second it left his mouth. The expensive toys out in the workshop and his man cave of all man caves, which he just had to have five years back but hardly ever used, flashed through his mind a split second before the response flew back from Kerry.

"Are you kidding me?! Her eyes were now burning through him. You’re going to compare a purse or pair of shoes here and there to the stinking snowmobiles and four-wheelers that just sit out there? It’s one thing to blow the money on them to start with, but you don’t even use them! At least I get use out of the things I buy. Besides, I put my time in too, and you know perfectly well that I’m not happy about having to work a full-time job. Maybe if you had a job that provided insurance, I wouldn’t have to send Heather off to strangers every day just so I could spend all week trying to cover the extra expenses that you cause! The daycare knows more about our daughter than you do!"

By this time, she’d picked up and was holding and trying to console the child in question. Heather, their three-year-old, had been crying on the living room floor for some time—since Alex walked in the door late again and this blowout started. She didn’t seem very happy in Kerry’s arms either, and the sobbing continued, making the already thick and combustible atmosphere even worse. Alex was quickly coming to the conclusion that the air around him would be sparked into an explosion if things didn’t calm down soon. It didn’t look like that was going happen, though, because Kerry wasn’t finished.

"Have you seen the kids Justin has started hanging around lately? Of course you haven’t, that would mean you’d have to be around him once in a while. Your real family is your crew and clients. You care more about them than you do us. I guarantee that you know more about them than you know about your own kids! Since you haven’t been paying attention, I’ll tell you. Justin is not hanging out with a good crowd. Half of those kids are going to wind up in prison by the time they’re eighteen, and they might take our son with them! Are you willing to let that happen to your son just so you can make a few more bucks at work? Well, I’ll tell you right now that I’m not!"

Alex started to feel sick to his stomach at that point, and it got worse as Kerry bombarded him with accusation after accusation, blame after blame, as if the sum total of all their problems was his fault alone. This was a bad one, he thought—not the typical argument that peppered their weeks with tension and discontent, but the kind that ended with them not speaking to each other for days on end.

I never thought I would say this, Kerry pressed on, her anger swelling in her like a tsunami ready to engulf a small island, "but I’m not sure if I can do this anymore. I made a commitment to you when we got married, and I have stuck by it and stuck by you. But everyone has a breaking point. I’m just not sure that this is the best thing for me anymore. And it’s not just me. I’m more worried about the kids. It’s already like they don’t have a father…"

The tsunami crested, and Alex couldn’t decide whether it would be better to hide from it or try to fight against it.

"Do you even want to be part of this family anymore, Alex? I honestly don’t know anymore. Do you want me to take the kids and go so you can get on with your business without us?"

The wave crashed down, crushing Alex and sweeping him out to sea in its wake. He loved his family dearly, but it was becoming increasingly obvious that they didn’t realize it. Everything he did was for them— for their futures—but instead of seeing that and believing in it, they could see only that he was never around, more committed to his work than his family.

At least that’s how Kerry obviously saw it—no telling what the kids actually felt.

Before he could say any of that, though, the defensive fight-or-flight anger that had always led him to the wrong place at the wrong time surged, eclipsing any feelings of remorse or fear of losing his family.

"That’s enough! he almost screamed, the last bit of control he had over his emotions slipping. He could hear himself, and he knew that he was on the brink of sounding like a madman. He also knew that he wasn’t going to be able to stop himself. His control wasn’t strong enough. I’m not going to just sit here and listen to you put me down and threaten me like this! You do what you need to do, just figure it out before I get back!" He spun around and grabbed his coat, yanking it off the coat rack and knocking it over without stopping to notice, let alone pick it up.

Behind him, he could hear Kerry yelling, Where do you think you’re going? Don’t you walk out of here like that! Alex! But it was in the background, drowned out by the pounding in his head: the soundtrack of his own personal horror movie. He stormed out of the house, climbed into his big dually truck, and pulled out of the driveway, nearly taking out the mailbox as he slid into the road and threw the truck into drive.

He didn’t know where he was going, but he knew he needed to drive. His brain was swimming with thoughts, emotions, and memories that swirled together in an unfocused pattern in his head. Whenever he tried to focus on a thought, three more forced their way through and wrestled for his attention, resulting in a tangled mess of thought and emotion. He had to calm down, he realized. He probably shouldn’t be driving at all in this state. Out of the corner of his eye, though, he noticed the sign for the highway loop that circled around the city and as he headed toward it, he nearly ran the light that was already red and probably had been for some time. As he braked sharply, his brain ran even more rampant, thinking of all the sacrifices he’d made – all of which he did for his family, and yet somehow no one really appreciated everything he’d worked so hard to create. How could she sit here and accuse me of not doing enough? Everything I do, I do for them! All I want is for my family to be happy. All I want is for us to have a good life together. What does she think I’m trying to do? And yet, no matter what I do, it’s just never enough. Is it, Kerry?

Alex could feel the back of his neck getting hotter as the seeds of anger sprouted into full bloom in his head. And what is this, the longest stoplight in the history of the world? There’s not even a single car around, why is this light even red right now? Alex thought in frustration as he sat impatiently, fidgeting around, waiting for a flash of green that would seemingly never come. Fed up, Alex slammed his right foot to the floor and the tires let out a squeal as the truck shot into the deserted intersection. It was as if in this moment, nothing mattered. Why do I even try? Why do I keep playing this game if I can never win? Not even the fear of the criminal justice system mattered during this moment, as Alex’s truck fishtailed through the intersection without waiting for the permission of a green light.

He veered on, picking up speed as he pulled onto the almost empty four-lane stretch of highway and settled into the second lane. Then he stared straight ahead, into the darkness of the night, and drove into the emptiness. In the back of his mind, he wondered if that was true of his life as well. It sure felt like he was driving into emptiness.

After ten or fifteen minutes Alex had calmed down enough to begin using his brain again, and the thoughts began to flow a little more clearly. He turned off the radio, which had been blaring since he pulled out of the driveway, and let the silence and the sound of the wheels on the road sink in. He’d always done his best thinking on the road and hoped that he could do the same tonight.

I don’t understand. The thought ran suddenly through his mind, bringing with it the first hint of clarity of the night. He didn’t understand, but at least he knew he didn’t understand. It was a start. The next step was to start understanding. Had Kerry said that she was leaving him? That she’d already made the decision? No, he decided, that wasn’t what she’d said. She had asked if he wanted her to leave. How could she think such a thing? You would think I’d been unfaithful, the way she was acting. He shook his head, wondering if that was what she thought. Did she think he was seeing someone else? Or did she just feel like he was cheating on the family with his work? There was something wrong, that was for sure. He needed to figure out what it was, and fast. On one hand, without Kerry nagging, he’d be able to get more done, and probably more quickly, but that wasn’t what he wanted. The reality was that he loved her and the kids dearly. The last thing he wanted