The Very Best Investment

Welcome to the Effortless English Show with the world's number one English teacher, A.J. Hogue, where A.J. 's more than 40 million students worldwide finally learn English once and for all without the boring textbooks, classrooms, and grammar drills. Here's A.J.

with a quick piece to help you learn to speak fluent English effortlessly. I'm AJ Hogue, the author of Effortless English. Learn to speak English like a native.

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Join my VIP program today at EffortlessEnglishClub.com Join my VIP program today. Speak English powerfully. Join at EffortlessEnglishClub.com Long, long ago, long ago,

When I was in university, I went to college. British people say university. They'll say university, university. But most Americans just say college. So when I was in college, my first time in college, I got my first degree in journalism.

Because I liked writing. I liked writing. I used to write crazy stories, little crazy short stories. They were really strange and probably not that good, honestly, when I was younger, like in high school.

And then I continued doing a little bit of writing when I was in college. Now, when I was in college, honestly, I wasted a lot of time. I really didn't know what I was doing. I just went to college because my parents pushed me to go to college.

And so I studied lots of different things. I studied history. I studied language a little bit. I studied politics, international relations. I don't know, lots of things.

And finally I decided to get a degree in journalism. And basically, I just needed to graduate, so I had to choose something finally and finish. I was not super interested in journalism, but I enjoyed writing and seemed interesting, so I did it.

Now, I never really did much journalism. I worked for one newspaper while I was in school, and that's about it. But when I graduated, I was already disgusted by journalism. I already could see that journalism was an evil, horrible, bad profession full of lying scum.

So I graduated. I was like, I'm not doing this. This is terrible. I don't want to be a professional liar. That's not a good job. So I did a bunch of other stuff.

But mostly through my own hobbies and my own writing stories and things, I did learn, I did develop good, decently good writing skills. I'm certainly not Hemingway or anything like that, but I can write fairly well.

Now, after a few years of working bad jobs and being poor, I decided to become a social worker. I thought I went to help people, and I went back to school. I got a master's degree in social work. I studied psychology.

I studied counseling. I studied NLP, Neuro Linguistic Programming. I studied persuasion because that was part of helping people too. Persuade them to make better decisions.

Persuade them to try better strategies in life so they could be happier. So I learned more skills as a social worker, counselor, persuasion, psychology, things like that.

Now eventually I... got more and more English teaching jobs. I wanted to travel the world, and teaching English was the easiest and the best way to do that. I could get jobs in other countries, make money, save money while living abroad, and then travel after my job, too, because I could save money.

So I did more and more and more English teaching. About the same time, I realized that most charities and non-profits are also kind of a lie. There's a lot of bad stuff that happens when you donate money to some organization, like the Red Cross, for example.

Most of that money, they're just stealing it from you. Most of that money does not help anybody. It's a little bit like organized crime, honestly. And I saw this more and more and more.

And so my desire to be a social worker started to go down and down and down. And I was enjoying teaching English more and more. So then I foolishly went back to school again.

But more importantly, I studied and researched and experimented and learned how to be a good teacher. I learned a lot of great teaching methods and techniques. I also learned about classroom management, some leadership techniques that I needed to manage my big classes. I was teaching in different schools and universities.

That's important. That's an important part of the job. So I did that, I did that, I did that, and you know the story of effortless English. You know, eventually I got tired of doing that.

I got tired of using grammar books. I wanted to teach my own way with better methods. I was fighting against my bosses all the time. I didn't like grades.

I didn't like the whole system of schooling. And so I decided to start my own business, and I did. Of course, I started Effortless English. Now, when I started Effortless English, I had to learn even more skills.

I had to learn... How to write persuasively. So I had to use some of those earlier skills, right? I had to use my writing to create a website. Some of those writing skills that I'd learned long ago.

I had to use and learn more persuasion skills. I had to learn marketing and sales, right? And I succeeded. The business succeeded. Happily so. Now, I made money at each of those jobs, but I never saved much until, of course, until I got my own business.

So the money came and the money went up and down. Sometimes I had a little more money. Some jobs paid a little more. I could save some and then I would travel and spend it and some jobs and some years I was very, very poor.

So what's the point? When you think of that story and you imagine that story... You can imagine, I got paid at every job when I was working after college. I was a security guard.

I worked many, many, many low-pay, terrible jobs. But I got paid. I got a paycheck. But that money is long gone. I don't have any of that money now, right?

I was barely surviving, in fact. So... All the money I made, I had to spend on food and rent and everything else. So the money came, but the money is gone, gone, gone.

Long gone. Almost immediately it was gone. As a social worker, I made a little more money. So I lived a little bit nicer. I was able to travel a little bit sometimes.

I was able to save small amounts of money and use that money for vacations and a little bit of travel. But once again, that money is long, long gone. It's gone. It was gone a long time ago.

And that money, also, it came and then it left. It came and then it was used and disappeared again quite quickly. Quite quickly. And the teaching jobs I had, teaching in different countries, including the United States.

Again, I lived very simply, and I saved, saved, saved my money. And then I would go travel for a few months and I would spend all the money. So again, the money came. I saved it for a little bit, a little short time.

But then I spent it and it was gone, gone, gone. All that money's gone. I don't have any of that money now. It was all gone quite quickly. It's interesting, huh?

The money came, the money left. The money came, the money left. And of course now, that money is gone. Gone, gone. Every dollar I earned from all of those jobs, all of those years, that's over 20 years of working.

And it's all gone. And it was all gone very quickly. But when you think, think about it. I did gain something from those jobs. I gained something from those years.

Something that has not disappeared. Things that I still have. What is it? What do I still have from all of those experiences? I think you can see that it's the knowledge.

The knowledge and the skills. What I learned. What I learned did not disappear. This is an important lesson in life. Very powerful lesson to think about.

If I go back, I think of the experiences I had writing, and then I worked with that newspaper, and then I wrote short stories. The money's all gone, but the skill, the writing skill, the experience of writing and learning how to write, I still have that skill today.

30 years later, the writing skill, the knowledge, the experience, the skill, I still have it and I still use it. And it helped me, for example, when I started Effortless English. It helped me in many different jobs and

areas of my life, even my personal life. I have used writing very positively and effectively. It's helped my life. Even just the ability to write a good letter to a friend or someone I love.

So the skill, the knowledge, the experience, I still have it. In fact, it has grown and I've gotten many, many, many, many benefits in life and I still do.

Many, many years later and it's still with me It's the same with those years as a social worker. Well, the social work money is gone. I don't work as a social worker anymore.

But the knowledge, the skills, the experience, I still have. I still have all that experience and knowledge of persuasion, of psychology... Even the experience of dealing with crazy people, drug addicts, homeless people, non-profits, lots of people who aren't so great, honestly. But that's great because now I understand how those people think.

I understand how they behave much better. And the skills of persuasion and psychology I use all the time still today. They're still useful skills. They still benefit me.

That skill of persuasion and psychology... has helped me in so many areas of life, helped me again with my business, helped me to succeed with my business, helped me to learn and become good at marketing and sales.

I still have it all, all the knowledge and the experience I still have. The money's gone. The contacts, in fact, are gone. I don't really talk to anybody from those jobs anymore.

But the knowledge and experience are with me still. And then, of course, all those years teaching English in schools and trying different teaching methods and learning to teach classes and learning how to help students learn English.

Obviously, I still have that knowledge. I still have that experience. And that, again, helped with my business. That helps me. I use that knowledge all the time.

And so it goes on and on and on. What's the point? The point is the best investment in life, the best investment in life is knowledge. Knowledge, skills, knowledge.

Experience. Maybe that's the best word to use. Experience. Experience. Real life experience. That is the best investment. Learning. And I mean real life learning, not book learning.

See, all these things I just mentioned, all these skills I use every day... I learned none of them, none of them from school. I did not learn to be a good writer in school. I learned by doing it myself and by writing for a newspaper a little bit and other things.

School didn't teach me how to be a good writer. I did not learn psychology or persuasion from school. Again, I had to learn that for myself. I did not learn to be a good teacher from school.

I had to figure that out and learn myself through experience. I did not learn business. I did not learn marketing. I did not learn sales from school. All of these things I learned from experience myself.

And I still have all of that knowledge. Even something I learned 30 years ago, I still have it. It's still helping me today. It's still useful and beneficial today.

You see how what a great investment that is. That when you gain useful knowledge and experience in life, you benefit for your whole life. Your whole life, you will benefit for that. It will help you for your entire life.

Money comes and goes, right? The money I made from my jobs 30 years ago is gone, gone, gone. I have no benefit from that money now. Paychecks come and go very quickly.

But the knowledge is with me as long as I'm alive, as long as I'm living the knowledge, the experience, and hopefully, eventually, the wisdom, the deep, deep understanding from life experience. That is with you your whole life. That's why people say, and that's why I say, that let's call it wisdom. Wisdom, learning from life experience.

Wisdom is the best investment of all. something else about this wisdom it cannot you can't lose it it can't be taken away from you if you invest and you make a thousand dollars well you can lose that thousand dollars that thousand dollars can be taken from you it can be stolen you can spend it foolishly and it's gone

You can even spend it in a smart way. You can buy something with it. But in one way or another, that $1,000 can disappear very quickly in many different ways. And then it's gone forever.

But if instead, let's say that $1,000, you have the $1,000, if you spend it to... to gain life experience, to gain knowledge, to gain understanding, well then the knowledge, the skill, the experience will be with you forever. You'll never, ever, ever lose it. It's with you always.

And this is why I always tell people... And young people, old people, it doesn't matter. That's why I say, get out there and try things. Just experience life. Take some risks.

Do things so that you learn. Because the learning is the most important thing. Even if you fail, it's better. It's better than being safe. That's why it's better to go travel...

instead of just staying in school staying in a college and learning from books because when you go let's say you travel the world for one year all those experiences all that knowledge especially the experience of learning from different people and overcoming problems and challenges all that experience will be with you forever you'll never lose it it will help you in many unexpected ways in your life

It's the same if you try to start a business. So many people are afraid of failing. Why? Yeah, you're right. You might fail. The business might fail. You might lose money.

Well, money is easy to lose. But you will gain a lot of experience just by trying to start a business. You will learn so much. You will learn new skills.

You'll learn about marketing, you'll learn about sales, you'll learn about money, you'll learn about so many things by trying. Even, especially, especially if the business fails.

So the business might fail, the money might be gone, but the experience you get will be with you for your whole life. It will benefit you the next time you try something.

It will benefit you in your jobs in the future. If you go back to working jobs, you will still benefit because you tried to start a business because of what you learned.

If you try to start a different business, well, now you have more experience, you'll still benefit that knowledge, that experience, the wisdom. is the best investment.

It's the number one investment in life. Because it pays back. It benefits you for years and years and years and years and years and years and years. And you can never lose it.

When you invest money, you can lose. If you invest in a stock, you have $1,000 and you buy stock, you might lose money. You might go backwards. Instead of $1,000, maybe it drops and now you only have $500.

You can lose with money investments. That's just part of business. That's part of investing. But with experience, with knowledge, with skills, you don't lose.

You only gain. You only gain. You start now with no skills. Let's say marketing. You decide to learn marketing and try marketing. Right now you have zero marketing skills and then you learn and you try to start a business and you do everything possible to learn marketing and try it.

Well then next year, after one year, you now have... a year of marketing experience a year of marketing skills and knowledge you have gained it doesn't matter maybe you had a lot of failures and you had some successes it doesn't matter you are better than when you started you can only gain and after you gain it can never disappear as long as you're alive you will have that experience you will have that knowledge it is with you now for life

Knowledge is the best investment. But not just book knowledge. Life knowledge. And that's why it's always better to just get out there and try. Get out there and learn.

Get out there. Take a risk. Get more experience. This will benefit you so much and you can never imagine completely what will happen. How you will benefit in the future.

For example, when I was in college, practicing writing, trying to become a better writer, at that time, 30 years ago, I never imagined the writing skill would help me start a business, an internet business, that would make me successful and give me financial freedom and allow me to travel the world...

When I was doing that, there was no internet. I could not even imagine the benefit of it. I did it. It seemed interesting. I liked it. And so I gained that knowledge and experience.

But it was impossible for me at that time to look far, far forward and really understand the full benefit. You never really know. You can never fully predict all of the great benefits. Steve Jobs gave a great speech about this.

He talked about this. He talked about different things he learned in his life before Apple became big. He talked about calligraphy, for example. I remember that's a...

One of the famous examples from his speech where he talked about learning calligraphy. He took a class in calligraphy and how to draw letters, how to write letters so they look beautiful.

At the time, he was just interested in the topic. He just thought it was an interesting topic. So he learned that. He got that knowledge. He got that experience.

Once he had the knowledge, it never disappeared as long as he was alive. And then he talked about how he then used that knowledge with Apple. How he used this knowledge to make the Apple letters, right? In the Apple computers, the letters, the writing, make them look nicer, easier to read because he understood calligraphy better.

It's interesting. at the time at the time he was learning it he had no idea he had no idea he would use this knowledge eventually with to create this huge super successful um computer company apple noisy noisy street

But he did, right? So you never know with knowledge as you learn things. You never ever know really what the effect is. This is the great thing about investing in knowledge and experience because it just adds.

It's only adding, right? You're never losing anything. You're always gaining, gaining, gaining. And you never know in the future. Something you learn now, it seems small, seems not important.

Five years from now could be huge, could... become super important could give you a huge benefit in your life. It's the same when I was learning psychology and persuasion when I was a social worker.

I was doing this mostly for my job as a social worker and because I just found it interesting. I thought it was interesting to Again, I had no idea someday I would use it to create Effortless English. I had no idea about Effortless English at that time.

But here I am. When you think about this, when you're thinking about, you know, what should I do with my life? What should I do now? What decisions should I make?

Just keep learning is one of the best things you can do. If you're not sure, okay, that's fine. I'm not sure always. Nobody's sure always. But the good thing is, as long as you continue to get experience, to keep learning, learning, learning,

You can trust, trust that someday that knowledge, that experience will benefit you. It's always a good investment. Knowledge, experience, wisdom. These are the best investments.

Now, for an investment with money, right, and a money investment, you have to put something in, right? You have to risk money, and then you possibly get a reward. That's money investing.

For knowledge investing, it's the same. You have to also put something in, right? To gain wisdom, you have to risk something. What is it? It's your time.

It's the risk of failing. It's the risk of facing fear, of not knowing what will happen. That's what you invest. That's what you have to put in. And then what do you get back?

You get back knowledge. You get back skill. You get back experience. You get back wisdom. Right? Right? in The Alchemist one of the key phrases in the beginning part of The Alchemist is, everything has a price.

Everything has a price. Well, this is what he's talking about, Coelho is talking about, is that to gain something in life, you have to put something in. You get from life what you put into it.

If you never risk, if you never try, if you're afraid of experience, if you're afraid of doing something difficult, well then, you will not get back. You will not get knowledge. You will not get experience.

You will not get wisdom. You know, when we were reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad, we got a lot of great ideas about wealth and assets, right? Buying assets to make money to become financially free. But the number one asset is your brain.

Robert Kiyosaki said this. the number one most important, most powerful asset is always your mind. It's your knowledge. That's why he wrote the book. That's what he says in the book, that it's your knowledge.

In his case, he's talking about financial knowledge, but I think even more generally, life knowledge, life experience, wisdom is always your best asset.

Stocks can go up and down. Real estate can go up and down. Gold and silver can go up and down. Money comes and money goes. Businesses grow and businesses go down.

But wisdom, wisdom only gets better and better as you learn more and more and more. That's why that red pill path is so important. The path towards truth.

The path towards wisdom. It can be difficult. It's never sure. But overall, each time you gain some truth, you don't lose it again. Each time you gain experience and skill...

It adds to you and to your life. This is the best, best, best investment in life. So I encourage you, don't be afraid. Okay? Instead of focusing on the short-term result, the short-term result is you succeed or you fail.

You have a goal. You want to do something. You will achieve the goal or you will not. That's short-term. And of course, everybody wants to succeed and nobody wants to fail.

But that's short-term thinking. Long-term thinking, you only succeed. Long-term thinking, you only succeed because you gain experience. You gain wisdom.

So in the short term, you succeed. Well, you learn something. By succeeding, you gain knowledge. You gain skill. You gain experience. But also in the short term, if you fail in the short term, if you fail, you still learn something.

You still gain knowledge. You still gain experience. You still improve your skill. So in the long term, you also succeed. See, if you measure success with knowledge, if you measure success with experience and wisdom, it will change how you see risk.

Again, let's use the example of starting a business. It's a good, simple example we can understand. It's very clear. That's why I like money examples, just because they're very clear and practical.

So you have a dream. You want to start a business. you're like oh but you're worried of course right what if i fail okay i'm gonna invest money i'll invest time i'll start a business and in the short term you're worried you have a goal for the short term uh let's say oh and in the next year or the next two years i want to be profitable i want to make money i want to be financially free i want to quit my job and

I want the business to make enough money so I can live without working a job. These are all your short-term goals. As you imagine, as you plan... doing this starting your business and you then you have these all these emotions and feelings and desires about the result the short-term result oh will i succeed right will i succeed will the business succeed will it make money oh that's your big dream and then of course you have fears what if i fail what if the business loses money what if i'm not financially free from this business what if the business fails and

Then you have fears and you think you'll feel really terrible. And if the business fails, you think then that you fail. But you're wrong. You don't fail.

The business might fail. That's true. The goal might fail. That's true. But you as a person will not fail. You as a person cannot fail. Right? Because in both situations, you learn and grow wiser and more experienced.

Do you see? When you think long term, do you see? When you look at it, when you measure it with knowledge and understanding, you can't lose. If the business succeeds and makes money, yay!

You celebrate in the short term. And of course, for the business to succeed, you must improve your business skills. You must learn business skills. You will get so much experience building that successful business.

You have gained knowledge and skill and experience. But if the business fails, two years later the business is losing money and you close the business...

You didn't really fail because you still have gained a huge amount of experience. You've learned a lot about marketing and sales. You've learned about many of the problems in business.

Maybe you've learned some of your own weaknesses and you realize you need to make even more improvements. The point is, though, after those two years, you are stronger, you are smarter.

You have more skill You still succeeded. You still succeeded. Here's the other thing about that, with skills and knowledge. You can always go back. This is why the risk is so low.

You can always go back. Because you don't lose it, you can always use it again. Let's look at my own experience. I could go back. I could be a writer.

I could get a job at a newspaper today if I wanted to. I don't want to, but I could because I still have the knowledge. I still have the skill. I still have the ability.

I haven't lost it. If I wanted to, if I really needed to for some reason, I could still go back and do that as a job. I never lost it. Same as a social worker.

If I wanted to, I could still... get a job as a social worker. I could still do that job. I don't want to, but I could do it. I haven't lost it. Nothing has been lost.

And it's the same with teaching English in a class. I could very easily... Get a job at a university, a college or something, teaching English somewhere. Very, very easy to do that.

Again, I don't want to, but I could. So I never lost that. I've only gained. I've gained more options. I've gained more choices. I've gained more opportunities because of all of that skill and experience.

And I still have it. So if you think about starting your own business, realize you can always go back also. If you try the business and you fail, you can always go back to your old job, your old career. You don't lose your experience that you had from your old jobs.

You don't lose the skills you had from your old jobs. You can always go back. So it's safe. It's really low risk. I'll give you an example of this. My friend Joe, my good friend Joe...

before he was a computer engineer software engineer doing computer programming that was his career he did it he did it did it had all that skill then for a while he and i and kristin we did learn real english you vip members you know joe

And we still have that business. We still do those lessons. But he decided after, I think, five years, something like that. He quit his job. He only did English teaching.

But after five years, he decided that he missed it. He liked doing computer programming. And he missed working in the office with all the people. He's very social, very extroverted.

He didn't like working at home all the time. He wanted to go where he could be like in a big office and meet people and talk. And he liked that environment more. And so after five years, he went back and now he's working again a job and he's doing computer programming again.

See, it was no risk. He left that, but he never lost the skills. He still had the experience, so he could easily go back and do it again. And he did. So you should think of this also when you're thinking about doing something.

Too many people, they don't think clearly about this. For example, young people, they think, I want to travel. I don't want to go to college right now.

and they and sometimes their parents too they they they're scared they think it's a big risk it's no risk at all it's it's very low risk you can still go back to college you know you can travel one year and then go to college you can travel five years then go to college you can travel or work or whatever for 10 years and then go to college you never lose that choice

This is the beauty of focusing on learning. This is the beauty of understanding that knowledge and experience are the best investments always. They are the lowest risk investment and they will give you the biggest benefits. So, to finish today's show, I want to encourage you in your own life.

to invest in knowledge, to invest in experience, new experiences, new challenges, new skills. These are always the best investments. All right. As always, join my VIP program.

That's an investment in knowledge. Every improvement you make with your English speaking, you will not lose it. You will gain it forever. So join my VIP program.

Speak English powerfully. Think in English. Speak fluently. Join my VIP program today. Go to EffortlessEnglishClub.com Join today at EffortlessEnglishClub.com

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