So one of our clients had noticed that we talk a lot about gambling addiction at mrlifeadvise at the moment.
So we will explain here why we currently are pushing this topic on our site.
More people than ever are today 2020 addicted to different things than ever before in our history.
Also we have never ever seen so many gambling addicts around the world as we do today 2020.
And it is increasing in the same amounts as the opioid crisis is.
For us this is an emergency that needs to be taken seriously.
The deregulation of the gambling markets are destroying people and families like nerver before in human history.
Also the big danger with gambling is that a person that gets addicted, if it is the wife who gambles on the slot machines or the husband or sports-betting or poker or black jack.
Regardless of what people are betting on , it is absolutely crazy right now around the world.
The children’s college funds can be gambled away in a few months time or in a year.
And those kinds of things can tare a family apart completely.
And also gambling affects your work in so many different ways on the negative side.
If you lost a big bet on NFL Sunday games, you will be in a shitty mood come Monday.
And that will affect your work preformance a cross the board.
Wayne Rooney, the very famous soccer/fotboll player lost huge amounts of money when he was younger, and he said that his performance on the pitch absolutely was affected by this gambling.
There are smart managers in many different companies around the world that are starting to study what the employees do on their free time.
Because a gambler in debt or short on cash, is actually a danger to the business even as an employee.
There are a lot of CFOs from smaller and medium sized companies who have lost their job because they have borrowed money from the tilt so to speak to try and gamble back their losses, which of course never work out well!.
So we see more and more when mrlifeadvise in called in to advise on different situations in smaller and medium sized companies that gambling is a huge problem for many in the management team, but also with the floor workers.
Addiction does not discriminate, and gambling addiction is one of these things that if you lose half you salary every month to gambling it does not matter if you make 2.000 or 20.000 dollars a month.
It will affect you equally, it is just the sums of money that are different.
So do yourself a favor if you have started to gamble use NEGA our program to quit gambling , and if you have never gambled in your life, never ever start.
You can never become a winning player.
We dare the people who say that they can live on gambling, as their main source of income to proof that over a longer period of time!.
These people are very few and very far apart, that we can guarantee you.
There are of course always exceptions.
But in general 99.90% of the people who gamble are losing gamblers, and the 0.1 that are winners they would make much more money holding down a regular mid level job!.
So dont fool yourself, you are not gonna win.
And most of all you will never ever catch up with your losses.
So stop chasing you losses, the money is gone and stop flushing down more money down the toilet!.
So we have some really exciting news to share with you our clients and customers.
After doing a lot of writing about gambling hell/addiction for a lot of our clients that we have treated over the years, we have been able to secure the rights globally from Richard (the Swede) who developed NEGA for treatment of gambling addiction more than 15 years ago!.
We have used NEGA on our clients with a license from Richard for more than 10 years time!.
And now we have been able to acquire the global right for it to mrlifeadvise.
So we will offer it to you who wants to stop gambling or who has a relative who wants to stop gambling for ever.
Nega stands for never ever gamble again!
We will offer it to you, for the very fair price of 29.90 dollars for the program.
This program is the first of its kind, because it involves your family and friends , which quite frankly is the only way you will get truly clean and stay on the wagon in the future.
It is also a long term program 3-7 years, depending on the person getting the treatment.
But it is truly a blessing that we have been able to secure these global right to this program NEGA and that we can share it with you our clients and customers.
So be on the look for a downloadable pdf-file within the next 10-12 days on this site.
So as formers business owners to many different types of business globally, we can once for all debunk the so called franchise ownership/system.
This opinion is strictly our own,and we are very much a where that there are a number of very successful franchisees out there.
But our blog and our advises are meant for mainly smaller business owners who lack big amounts of working capital.
So a lot of people come to us and ask about different franchises, and if they should buy in to one.
Often they will have to borrow that money from family and the bank.
Our general answer is always a big NO!.
So what is a franchise?, so very easily put you buy the right to open a business that already exists.
What it is means in layman terms is that somebody has started a business somewhere and they are selling you their business model for a cost, so you can run a smilar business in your area/town/city.
So usually there is a upfront cost to acquire the rights to a franchise.
This can be anywhere from 5.000-1000.0000, so from 5000 dollars up to a million dollars.
And the average cost is around 150.000-250.000 dollars.
Then there is usually a license cost also involved in the this deal.
And this can be either a percentage of your turnover or your profits or even sometimes a flat fee every month!.
So as you see here, the initial start up costs are very big, on top of that you have to continue to pay monthly fees to the franchise owner.
So in general you will be paying true your nose as a franchisee!.
There are some studies that show that almost 40% of franchise owners makes less than 50.000 dollars a year.
And then you should really take into consideration that many of them work 14-16 hour days.
So if you would find a job that will pay you 50.000 dollars a year for 8 hours then you are much better off based on the statistics.
There are also other studies that show that 15% of franchise owners makes more than 200.000 dollars a year.
What you need to know about these people making 200.000 dollars a year is that they usually have a lot of capital behind them and they run a big food franchise or another large franchise.
So they are not a corner store so to speak!.
Sometimes when clients come to us, we see jaw-dropping agreements from franchise owners to franchises, that we would never see in agreement around the world for normal buying and selling of services and goods.
So we can become very sad, when we see how a franchise has been taken to the cleaners by the franchise owner.
We would never recommend anybody buying into a fitness or a gym franchise under any circumstances.
Because this is not a hard thing to run on your own with one or two very experienced gym rats by your side.
To open up a gym/fitness center you first just need to know what customers you are targeting with your business.
Is it normal gym training with some spinning classes and some group classes that you want to cater to.
Or are you looking at cross-fit type of customers and maybe even half a gym and half martial arts gym, MMA and similar stuff!.
Once you know what customer group you are targeting then you need to do a very proper due diligence to make sure that the area you are looking to open up in, does not have to much competition and that there is enough of a customer base for you to open up a training facility of some sort.
Then try to find a location with enough parking spots, and where the rent is not gonna be true the roof.
Because your fixed costs will be the one major player in your business and it will determine if you make a profit or not.
There is a huge difference in paying 4000 dollars and 8000 dollars a month for a similar space.
Sometimes the 8000 dollars is justified based on the location but you have to really do your due diligence before starting up any kind of business.
So it was quite fun to see the last episode of undercover boss in January when one gym franchise chain sent out a women who basically new very little about training and running a business.
There is always that problem when you enter into a franchise that is owned by a large company who has a lot of employees and many of them are sitting in there ivory towers and they have no experience from running their own business of any kind!.
So when they make cooperate decisions that will affect you as the franchise, they do not really understand how bad those decisions can affect you and your business.
What was also jaw dropping with this particulate gym chain was that they even admitted not having any contact with the owner of one gym for over a year.
As every good franchise owner knows, the communication with head office is always a major key, so you know what is going on and what is coming in the pipeline the upcoming year/years so you can plan for your business.
The cost to buy a franchise is often way to high, and it is usually much better to spend that money of your own equipment for the gym for instance, than to pay somebody-else.
There are also some issues when you want to get out of a franchise agreement, because it is not always that clear cut that you can sell your business to anybody upright.
Usually you need approval from the licensee to do this!.
And not every buyer of your business will qualify to become the new franchisee , with the head office.
So then if we speak about food franchises of course many of them are well branded, but that does not mean that you will as the owner make a lot of money on a smaller store, once you have paid all the monthly cost that comes with being an franchisee.
In general you also need to be careful with franchise opportunities that require a lot of money upfront.
Because a lot of the bad franchise option will take most of there money upfront from you.
And very often leave you high and dry after that.
One other very important thing you need to know is that for a franchise to success you need to be working for the first 5 years yourself in the business to make sure that everything runs smoothly and cost effective.
So if you come to us as a client and ask us about if you should open up a franchise, we would almost always tell you not to do it!.
And for you out there saying we dont know what we are talking about.
We have created over 10.000 lasting jobs around all continents, over the past 50 years time.
And these jobs are stil there, in Sweden in Germany in America, in France, in Taiwan, in England and many other places.
So we have started with nothing and built and lost companies over the years, so we are in a very good situation giving business advise to smaller and medium sized companies, because we have been there, done that!.
So if you are looking at entering into a franchise , you really need to have your eyes wide open, and understand what you are entering into!.
One final note on franchises is this!.
Just because a franchise works well in California does not mean that it will work well in Iowa or Texas for say!.
So that is why it becomes so difficult to look at the success stories that the franchise owner is trying to pitch to you as the possible franchisee.
This is gonna be a very important post and it is meant for you single parents out there without a family to lean on, and no way of giving guardianship of your kid/kids to your family if you pass away while your child/children are underage!.
So mrlifeadvise has come up with a solution for single parents can try to avoid their children ending up in the system as we all know is horribly broken by to much demand.
SO FIRST OF ALL, ALL SINGLE PARENTS SHOULD HAVE A LIFE INSURANCE POLICY OF AT LEAST 500.000 DOLLARS.
THIS WILL COST YOU FROM 25 UP TO 60 DOLLARS A MONTH AND YOU NEED TO COME UP WITH THIS MONEY NO MATTER WHAT!.
So usually if you dont smoke, you can get a 500.000 dollars life insurance policy for under 40 dollars a month.
If you are more of a risk it might double, but you still need to have that.
Leaving a life insurance policy to your kids is a huge advantage for them in their future life if you have an untimely passing.
So this is the ground rule that you have the life insurance policy in place.
And everybody can afford the policy it is just about cutting out alcohol,tobacco and fast food, and the amounts will start to add up in saving for you, regardless if you have a normal salary or if you are working for minimum wage.
So about single parents teaming up to help each other, but to also play the roll of guardians in case something god forbid happens to you, so your kid/kids gets left behind without any parents or relatives what so ever!.
So today with social media and facebook you should start in your area a closed group of single parents lacking family in the area or family ties what so ever.
Usually the right play here is to keep the group to between 10-15 single parents .
If you widen the group to much it does not get as personal as this stuff needs to get, to make it work.
In smaller areas 5-8 parents in a group is okay also.
The thing you need to understand here is that this group is not for dating , this group is for trying to help each other out on a weekly basis, with the so called parenthood!.
So a few ground rules for a parent group like this is as follows:
Nr1: It does not matter if you are a republican or a democrat or an independent, this has no baring what so ever in this group.
Nr2: Religion and race is more sensitive, because you need to at least have the same core values, so here every group has to set its own terms.
Nr3: This is not a group that you should look up or look down on people, based on salary or job title.
You should also generally in your life judge people based on how they treat you and others around them rather than how much they earn or what they do for a living.
Nr4: Try and have one meet up every week, and we recommend from mrlifeadvise that you schedule it for SUNDAY!.
Here you can have a weekly meet up in the park for instance.
Try to make it from like 12.00 a clock to 17.00 a clock so you get a full 5 h in, with each other, on a weekly basis.
It is important for the parents to meet up , but also for the children to get to know each other.
Because the plan here is to have close nit group within a years time.
Nr5: Within this single parents group everybody needs to really tone down their own personally, and make friends with all other members of the group.
Remember one of these parents is suppose to be a possible guardian for your child/children in case something happens to you, while they are under aged.
Nr6: Within this parents group the idea is also to be able to help each other out with simpler chores to save money.
I scratch your back and you scratch my back, this is the idea also.
So every parent can do something and every parent is good at something.
So help each other out, as much as you can.
The golden rule here is that this is a thin line that you are balancing on, so dont use anybody, if you ask for a favor, do one in return A.S.A.P.
Nr7: Try and make this group work, so if there becomes issues, which it almost always does within the group, have one person who is voted by the members as the mediator, somebody with some authority and some experience is problem solving from the military or the business world.
Somebody who is used to lead soldiers or team members.
A few final thoughts on a group like this, based on our experience within the few groups that we have put together over the years, the golden rule is that this group is a support group and it is intended for your own peace of mind to know that if something happens to you god forbid, while your kid/kids are under aged, that somebody will be there for them so they dont end up in the broken system that the foster care and group homes are these days.
Dont get us wrong, there are fantastic people running foster care and group homes, but they are 1/10.
And in 6/10 they dont care, they just do it for the money, and in 3/10 they are just horrible places for children to be at, with unstable foster parents, or borderline unsafe and unhealthy group homes.!.
Also you need to understand that ones your kids turn 18 ,they age out from the system, and basically they will be on the street the same day.
All alone without family and nobody to call or go home to, and this is a horrible situation.
Then there are a few other things that you can do as a single parent in your neighborhood, and that is to befriend lonely elderly people who have nothing but time on their hands.
And a lot of them have raised children themselves and the have a lot to learn to a child, and a lot of them would jump at the opportunity to have more meaningful days.
Being a lonely elderly person with limited social security checks is not such an eventfull life to live.
So dont be afraid to befriend people in your neighborhood,and as every single parent has to use your gut when in comes to people.
It is quite easy to befriend elderly people , ask them if they want to come over for a cup of coffee for instance to begin with and then take it from there.
So here you single parents have a great idea to secure the future for your kids , if the worst case scenario happens.
But these groups are also a great support system for helping each other out with something that is very difficult like parenthood is, and particularly single parenting.
So what are the top 5 reasons new businesses fail inside a 2 year period.
Reason number 1: This is a very common mistake new business owners do and that is that you underestimate the cost of running the business on a day to day basis.
What this actually means is that you dont count in all the costs that you should, when you start your business in the first place.
This can mean all the utilities and storefront costs or warehouse costs.
Usually you count in the the rent but there is so much more like insurance,theft,vandalism and similar types of costs, that comes with every psychical business.
But there is also other hidden costs like opening up phone-lines or staples and, usually there is a few invoices every month that you did not plan for in your business plan budget.
Let say that if you want to be on the safe side when it comes to making sure that you can cover your unexpected costs, you should count your budget up by 50% each month.
So if your business plan says that you should be able to get away with spending 5000 dollars a month all and all.
This actually mans that you should calculate for 7500 dollars instead.
This way you are covered.
Reason number 2: This is also very common and an easy mistake to do as a new business owner.
It is overspending on marketing and similar material for your business.
You been saving and waiting to start your business and you got a loan to top it all off, and now you want to really get going.
But hang on a minute, this is where new companies get into trouble.
You want everybody to know about your store front or company and you market hard and you market everywhere and very quickly you have spent a 5 figure amount in your first year on marketing.
Normally you should try and grow your business the first 1-2 years as organic as possible and really save on the marketing dollars.
And when you do marketing you should target just the people that you think could become a future customer to your business.
So here we would recommend to spend a little bit on google ad words and a little bit on Facebook ads and then look at Instagram influensers in your area with a following of 500-2000 people.
And maybe even taking out a small weekly ad in the local paper or free paper if you are also targeting older customers from 60+ years and upwards with your storefront, or your business.
We know a lot of people say that you have to be on the first page in the google search to be relevant, but you also need to find out how much that will cost you.
Because more often than not you will pay true your nose to reach the first page on google, and for most smaller business this is not an absolute must.
There are ways true back-links and other SEO options to land pretty high on search engines without paying true your nose.
Reason number 3: This is also a very common mistake that new business owners do and that is that you hire staff in your first year of business.
When you take on staff you have to understand that it is much more than maybe the 15-25 dollars and hour that you will have to pay.
And those things are payroll taxes and other social costs so usually count 1.5x on the salary when you hire somebody.
Second thing that you need to keep in mind when you hire a person and usually your first employee, is that you figure out if this is a short term or long-term person for your business.
We will give you an example here if we look at your first employee that you could see saying on for a longer period of time.
If you feel that this person is a long-term option for your business then try and teach that person to do many different job, within your company.
This way you have some multitasking going on.
And you can here pay a little bit more than you should if the person is a temporary solution for your business.
Then the second option is that you need a person for store gig and it is not a big job, then you can a little bit less for that person.
And take it for what it is.
Here we want o also be very clear that the better you treat your employees the better job they will do, and simple small stuff like free coffee of high quality in your store/company made in house with a quality coffee maker(costs under 100 dollars to buy) will make all the difference in how they look at you as their boss and employer.
It is the small stuff that keeps workers loyal to their employee for years to come.
Simple stuff like giving them time off in the middle of the day to bring their pet to the vet or to go to a dentist appointment.
Good workers will respond well to this kind of treatment and will give their all back to your business.
Reason number 4: This one is tied to your companies finances and that is to keep a rolling stock going .
What we mean by that is that you need to avoid having a stock of goods that cost you a lot, but that does not move around fast enough, this is what we mean by a rolling stock.
A rolling stock is a stock of merchandise that moves with in a maximum time frame of 60 days.
This way you dont tie up much needed cash flow for your newly started business.
What is often said from experts are that it is better not have a special item in stock when you are a new business even if you lose that particular sale, rather than having a lot of these items in stock and they move very slow or once every other year.
So during the first 2 years time try and avoid to get sucked in to a larger stock of merchandise unless you have unlimited funds to do so.
Reason number 5: This once is something that we seldom hear advisers talk about.
But it is such an important aspect of how your business will be a success going forward.
And that is you as the owner/leader/worker.
What is it? NUTRITION that is what it is!.
So often a new business owner has to work 16+ hour day and that also means that you will spike your stress hormone cortisol to a max level.
And the more high quality high octane fuel you put into your body the better off you are, when trying to succeed with your business.
So if you can eat as much plant based nutrition/food as possible, look at Lewis Hamilton and Rafael Nadal as an example of how well they preform on plant based nutrition.
If this is to difficult for you, try and use Casein protein in combination with Oat meal and chicken and potatoes and also add veggies and fruit into your daily nutrition intake.
So the nutrition intake is so important when you work a lot and when you work under very stressful circumstances.
So these are a few pointers that all new business owners should take to heart to really succeed with their new business venture.
So okay the worst thing that can happen , happens and you lose your small or medium sized business, what happens next?!.
So you have lost your business and regardless if you did something wrong or the market crashes or the lenders called in the notes, or what ever the reason was that forced the business to close, it does not matter right now!.
What matter right now is that you keep on going and moving your life forward.
You should know that there is a ton of successful people that failed at one point in their life and lost there business also so you are not the first person this happens to and you will for sure not be the last person.
And then some people rebuilt at some point and opened up a new business.
And some did not do so!.
There is also some bigger angel investors in silicon valley who do not invest a dime in a company if the owner has never had a failure/bankruptcy closing what ever you want to call it.
And the reason for this is that you learn a lot from going out of business , things that you can bring with you into your next project or your new job.
So we will list the to do list here for you and the things you should not do to survive and move forward in your life.
No1: The first thing you do is that you go out and look for a good paying job in the business you just came from.
And more often than not you will find this job with one of your former competitors.
So now people say , how can you go and work for a former competitors.
This is actually very simple, you swallow your pride and you contact the owner/ceo of one or several of your competitors and you say to them like something like this.
You know that i went out of business, but this was the reason and then you tell them the reason.
I am now looking for a long-term job, and i can bring all my skills and contacts into your business if you hire me!.
And if they are smart they will hire you, because it will increase the value of their business.
No2: You will have to make some tough choices if you can keep your house or not, if you still have it,and how much do you owe on the first and second mortgage, and do you stay or do you leave your house.
Here you have to be careful so you dont make a mistake for emotional attachment reasons towards your property/house.
No3: Try and tell your family that life will become better in the future, and that you will be an employee for a few years at least, 3-5 years is the minimum suggested time, unless you are sitting on real capital and you can open up a new business quickly again!.
The reason for the suggested 3 to 5 years is that , this is usually the time frame for a person that has lost his or her business to get back on their feet again, both financially and emotionally.
If your significant other wants a divorce which is very common when a company goes out of business, we believe that it is a 70% chance that a divorce will occur within 2 years from the time a family business goes under, to when the divorce happens.
The best advise we can give is to accept the divorce and move forward with your life.
Because your partner has given up on you and does not believe in you anymore, and most likely will never ever believe in you again!.
No4: Zero out your brain as a business owner, and become an employee in your own head.
There are benefits in not running your own business and not everybody is suited for doing that.
So having a boss that gives you orders, lets you relax your brain and you can shut out some noise for a few years that you could never do as a small or medium sized business owner.
Because everything was always riding on you.
No5: After 3-5 years you can think it true very carefully if you should start up something again or if you should stay a salary-man or salary-woman.
Think things true very carefully on what went wrong the last time and try and not to make the same mistakes twice, if you decide to give it another go as a business owner.
A good thing could be to start on the side on evenings and weekends for the first 1-2 years, so you have enough customers so if you quit your job, so you can draw a paycheck the first month of leaving your job.
No6: Look for investors if you are in a cash intensive business.
Because now you have lost so many years, that to catch up you need real capital to get going again.
There are a few things that you should not do, when trying to get back on your feet again.
No7: Do not feel sorry for yourself in any way shape or form.
Shit happens and life goes on.
So by dwelling on sad things like going out of business is not gonna get you moving forward.
No8: The second thing is that dont start abusing anything like alcohol or drugs, let the pain be raw and real.
You will heal much faster and get back on your feet again, by not starting with any kind of self medication.
I know these pointers no7 and no8 are difficult not to start with in some way shape or form.
But take it from people who have lost companies with over 800 employees and gone back to being an employee again, you have to stay the course to be able to ride out the storm you are in!.
Yes it stings having to take orders and having to jump true hops as an employee, but what is the other options that you have.
Sitting at home drinking and watching tv for a year or two, will just set you back with your career.
And going back to work after losing your business will also keep your mind busy.
So here are a few pointers on what to do when you lose your company and go out of business.
Hi everybody my name is Mark and i live in Las Vegas and i have resided here since 1995 i am from Dallas originally.
I follow mrlifeadvise since a Japanese supplier of mine recommended it as a good read for smaller and medium sized business owners.
I know the site is less than a year old, and i was impressed once i saw the references of the people running this site.
Really impressive that business people with a global presence takes the time to write some blog posts and also offer a very low cost business consulting service.
So it is so refreshing to see these kind of articles on a very important topic like gambling addiction suffering small and medium sized business owners.
My own story is that i started to going to Las Vegas in my early 20s with my 10 year older brother.
And i started to gamble more and more for each year that went by.
But because i never wanted to place illegal bets, i was able to control this until i made the decision to move to Las Vegas in 1995.
I come from money, and that has helped me not to be forced to commit crimes to support my addiction.
But i have lost 2 companies over the past 20 years time due to my gambling addiction.
I work as a general contractor and i also sell air cooling systems for offices and private homes.
I lost two business for going in to so much debt, that i had to sell them both to get debt free and start over again.
Probably i would have had a 20+ million dollar company by now if i could have kept i first business going.
Instead i do only close to a million dollars in turnover these days.
I spend a lot of my time at the sports-book at the casinos and i play so much that i eat for free every day, everywhere.
If i could go back 30 years in time, i would never ever have started to gamble.
And as a business owner this has been the biggest poison in my life, and it has affected me i every possible way negatively speaking.
I am 52 years old and after living in Las Vegas for 25 years time i am now moving back to my home town Dallas and i am starting over.
I never created a family or got married, because i have been working and gambling full time for over 25 years time!.
I still have time, but this is it for me i am trowing in the towel so to speak after 30+ years of hardcore gambling.
I have lost 8-10 million dollars over this period of 25 years time.
And on top of that two companies.
I wish that somebody would have come for me 20 years ago and dragged me to rehab and back to Texas.
I am 100% responsible for my own actions, but it is also a sickness/illness an addiction that i dont have any control over.
And i have meet so many sad people during my 25 years here in Las Vegas.
And i am seriously worried when i see the young people that are starting out now gambling and all the online gambling plattforms that are widely available for people to play at from the comforts of their own homes!.
I have seen people lose it all here in Las Vegas and i know of more than 100 people who have committed suicide because they have lost it all, and they can see no way forward.
As a gambler you really dont have friends you have regulars that you know at the different gambling spots and you can do and eat together and then you go back to the casino or the sports-book.
So i have had always two rescue cats at once, that has been my family here in Vegas because a family would have taken up to much time from my gambling.
I have had winning months but never winning years.
If you win 200.000 dollars as a gambler on the sports-book then you raise the stakes and you just need 5-6 bad bets in a row and the money you won is gone!.
And then the cycle starts over again!.
I can honestly say that i am one of the truly lucky ones that have a family with some means.
This means that i can go back to Texas and still live a good life,thanks to my family.
I have donated to animal shelters over the past 25 years time, and the one thing i am proud of in all this is that, every morning before work, if i had a winning day i went and donated money to different privately run animal shelters in the Vegas region.
And i stuck to always donating at least 20% of my winnings after taxes.
So i have donated quite a bit of money over the past 25 years.
So this is the only good thing i take away with me from Vegas after 25 years time together with my rescue cats back to Texas.
So let my story be a warning that please you young people and young business owners out there, never start to gamble period!.
It it does not matter if you play poker, it is still gambling and i can not tell you how many poker players i have meet in my life that has won a lot of money and then ended up broke and alone after a few years.
And you will never be able to beat the sport-book they will have the lines in the right place enough times to make there vig and also make money on you.
And the casinos and slot machines are just a dream that you can win big over time!.
One of the more sad things that i have seen here in Vegas over the past 25 years time , is how much the crimes have gone up and committed by gambling addicts, i could tell you horror stories here, but i wont.
I will spare you these stories, but i have seen such good hearth ed people turn ice cold because of there addiction to gambling , that it is just sad and demoralizing the whole ting.
So from the bottom of my hearth i wish that you young folks never have to experience what it is like being a gambling addict.
The cortisol levels are always true the roof in your body and you only crash after work and after a long evening at the casinos.
I have been fortunate enough that i have been able to hold down a job/ my own companies and be able to work 8 hours a day and then sleep 8 hours and then gamble pretty much the rest of my time.
I dont want this anymore and i already knew 15 years ago that i am not gonna be able to win back my losses, but still i kept trying and dag myself even deeper into debt and destruction.
Do yourself a favor if you have started to gamble, quit immediately and let the money you lost me a lesson and please understand that less than 0.1% will win their money back over time, and you are not one of those 1 in a 1000 that will win your losses back.
So even if my guest blog post here only saves one young business owner to walk down my path i am more that pleased to write my story here.
A big thank you to mrlifeadvise that allowed me to share my story and my deep knowledge of the gambling issue here.
So let us talk about Patrik and his story and the shit that went down in his life due to a serious gambling addiction on ONLINE Slot machines.
Patrik was a 42 years old male who was a business owner in the construction sector of building allergy free homes and offices.
He focused his business model on building high quality allergy free homes and offices and he employed over 100 people all and all.
He started at the age of 23 his own company.
Patrik had a wife who was 10 years younger than him she was a mom and a wife who worked from home in the food catering business.
And they together have two daughters who where 5 and 7 years old when Patrik decided to take his own life due to the compulsive gambling addiction that he had developed over a 5 year period.
So Patrik operated and owned his own construction company and Mrlifeadvise came into contact with Patrik when we needed a smaller allergy free office space for personal with allergy issues.
This was 3 years prior to him taking his own life.
Looking back the signs of a gambling addict was there, if you where looking for it, which we where not at the time!.
Patrik did a great job for us and he came true on every aspect that we needed to cover by law, as a an employer.
So how did this hole thing unravel from being a 37 years old self made successful businessman and a company owner, to a person losing everything and not seeing any other way out than taking his own life to save his families future!.
So this is a very long story short, but the short version goes like this.
Patrik had to be in his office most of the time all days to cater to his foreman and other management personal that had different construction project going on around the clock.
But he also had a lot of down time, but he could not leave the office to go and do something outside the office.
And sitting in the office all days , with very little to do, since they had all the business they could handle became very boring and boring very fast.
Patrik had seen for years these adds that says deposit 200 dollars and get 200 dollars free as a casino bonus on online slot machines.
So since he had access to time and his laptop he decided to give it a go , this was 2012, so 5 years prior to everything unraveling in his and his families life.
So in the beginning he played some and won some and lost some and it was fun to play different video slot machines.
He played around 2-3 hours a day at the office and that was that.
The first year he lost around 15.000 dollars and that did not affect him what so ever.
During the second year he played a bit more and lost around 60.000 dollars.
Now these are still amounts that he can easily manage to lose.
But now he was down 75.000 dollars and as person who did not like to lose, here he makes the gamblers worst and most common mistake, he starts to chase his losses.
The reason why you should never chase your losses in gambling or on the stock market is that 99% of the times you will just end up losing much more than you had lost in the first place due to this chase.
And it is always better to walk away from a loss, than to double down and lose another large amount, and then you are even deeper in the hole than you where before you started to chase that loss.
So year 3 of online slot machine gambling is where all hell breaks lose and Patrik ends up losing 400.000 dollars more.
And still he can manage this amount, he has a good business and a paid for house and a cabin both in really desirable neighborhoods.
But his gambling becomes compulsive and he realizes that he needs to quit.
So he writes to the operators of these sites that he wants to self exclude from ever gambling there again.
Some close his accounts and never open them again even when he asks them to.
Some close the accounts but open them up again time and time again when he ask them to do so, which is both very unethical and highly illegal and the game providers/casinos licensees should have been revoked years ago.
But the regulators seldom care about these breaches, like in so many other professions, money talks and bullshit walks!.
Now Patrik starts to play at home even when the family goes to bed at 10.00 a clock pm , he starts to gamble online at the casinos sometimes the whole night and sometimes until 04.00 a clock AM.
To his wife he says i need to work on new projects during the night to get them finished.
Everybody around Patrik starts to see a real change during the third year of online gambling, he does not care much about his company, and lets things slip, and lets people who should not take the decisions take them in the business due to him not having any time to look at business related things more than to just sign his name on the bottom line.
He gambles now 14h a day.
At this point he has over 30 active casino accounts online and he plays with bets around 20-40 dollars per spin.
And if you dont know this , these are really high bets on online casino games, where most normal people bet maybe around 1 dollar per spin or even less.
He has now days where he ends up losing over 50.000 dollars a day.
Some days he wins, but normally he ends up losing it all back pretty quick to the casinos.
Patrik is no longer chasing his losses anymore, he is now gambling for the sake of gambling, and he is now a full blown compulsive gambler at this time.
During year 4 he loses 1.2 million dollars.
And now it starts to affect his own economy, he has blown true all of the families savings and this is the beginning of the end his life as he knows it.
During year 4 his business takes a big hit with an office space they have built for a company that goes under, prior to the building being ready for occupancy.
His company ends losing over 5.4 million dollars on this project and the company is in real jeopardy.
Patriks starts to increase his bet size to 100 dollars a spin to try and win big, to also help his company out.
But there is no way he can save his company, so a larger construction company offers to take his company over, and to save the 100+ workers he has on his payroll and keep those families hole, he basically walks away from his company with a small sum of money.
Year 5, Patrik is just sitting at home gambling all days.
And now he is in the final stages of losing it all, he takes out a mortgage of 900.000 dollars on his home and his cabin , that he was owned for over 10 years with out any mortgages.
He ends up losing this money in around 5 months time, and now it is time for his final step, which is to cash in his 401K.
He gets after penalties for taking out the money early around 800.000 dollars and he ends up losing that money inside a two month period.
Now he has no money left , he has no company, no income, and is under water with his mortgages at 900.000 dollars.
During the last 24 months time, Patrik has tried to quit gambling on his own , he has gone to Gamblers anonymous a few times, but allure of being able to play online casinos at home, just controls his brain as the disease it actually is.
So you see here that during the first 2 years he had the chance to corrects his behavior, but by year 3 he was so addicted that it was no longer possible for him to do on his own.
In a situation like this, the hope would have been that the relatives and friends, co-workers could have made an intervention and got him into a treatment facility for a longer period of time, and then handled his fiances for many years to come.
So this is how it usually looks like when business owners gets addicted and they end up losing their company and their assets.
The problem is that as a business owner you need to have access to cash to run your business and if you are a full blown addict you will listen to your addict brain first and foremost.
So as an addict someone else should have the power of attorney of your decision making when you your brain chemistry has been altered to the point that you can no longer fend for yourself or your company.
So gambling addicts have the highest rate of suicide compared to any other addiction out there.
And after the opioid addiction it is considered the worst one out there.
Please think about that when a casino wants to open in your area or if you get an offer to gamble online that this will happen to 10% of all gamblers, they become compulsive gamblers.
So what really happen to Patrik and his family.
So Patrik had one of these new age life insurance polices that will pay out even at suicide if you have held the policy for over 10 years time and you had a clean bill of health when you took the policy.
Patrik had held the policy for over 15 years time, and he was worth 1.5 million dollars to his family dead!.
But in his mind, he was never gonna be able to stop gambling he felt worn out beaten down and finished in every way in his own mind.
He had made the decision ruffly one month prior to him taking his own life, and like with so many others who had taken that fatal decision before him, he got a big boost of energy making up his mind on this matter.
So during his final month on earth Patrik went around saying goodbye to all of his family and friends.
And everybody blames themselves for not understanding or seeing the signs but the reality is that gambling addicts cover their tracks very well since they often dont have as many symptoms showing on the outside like a normal addicted person to pills or alcohol has.
So the last 72 hours of Patriks life, he spent with his family and the families German shepherd named Rex and cat name Blue that he really loved both so much.
They spent a great weekend out in the cabin and he told his daughters and wife how much he loved them from the bottom of his hearth.
On Sunday evening when the family had arrived back home and everybody had gone to bed, even the pets, he made a round in the house and kissed everybody goodbye on their forehead while they where all sleeping.
And he gave Rex and Blue each a treat and told them to look after the kids and his wife.
On Friday prior to this last Sunday, he had mailed over 40 suicide letters to family and friends explaining why he was gonna take his own life.
AND THEN HE HAD WRITTEN A 20 PAGE LETTER TO HIS FAMILY(WIFE AND KIDS).
These all arrived the following week!.
So at around 02.00 a clock he took his gun a bottle of Whiskey and a chair with him and he left his wedding ring on the kitchen table.
But he had his wallet with him, so the police could id him on sight.
This was in late November and his life insurance policy that was always paid in full for a whole year, during the first week of January, was about to expire in less than 7 weeks time
He walked 20 minutes up to a hill that looks out on top of the city, he drank half a bottle of liquid courage and then he pulled the trigger and that was all she wrote!.
So he left his family whole financially, but completely broken emotionally.
I meet his wife at the store last week and i asked if we could use her story to warn others not to embark on this dark and lonely road of hell on earth that gambling is!.
I asked her on how she and the kids are doing today, and she said that the first year was ruff, due to the kids being so small and not really fully understanding why daddy is no longer coming home to them ever again!.
She also said that having Rex and Blue ,(dog and the cat) gives the kids and her strength to move forward since animals(pets) are usually really good with kids and adults that are suffering in one form or another.
Since the daughter share a bed room she told me that Rex sleeps in the bed with one daughter and Blue sleeps in the bed with the other daughter.
And the mother told me that this started 2 days after Patrik was gone, and ever since then the dog and the cat almost protects the kids during the night time!.
She did not believe her eyes at first in the beginning, but now she is so used to this behavior.
I asked how she was doing herself as a widower and a single mother, and she told me that she runs a 10 person catering company these days.
But she had not started dating anybody yet, she told me that after 10 years of marriage, she is still not used to being single yet.
She still loves Patrik and hates him at the same time for putting her and her kids in this situation.
But she also understood that she was on of the lucky ones that financially they survived, due to the unusual life insurance policy that her husband had, NORMALLY SUICIDE IS NOT COVERED IN ANY LIFE INSURANCE POLICY.
And she had made peace with him being sick/addicted and not himself when making this decision to end his own life this way.
Which in her mind was to protect the family from his addiction and mistakes.
But she also told me that she would have moved into a 2 bed room in a not such a nice area 100% of the times if that would have meant that PATRIK WOULD HAVE STAYED ON EARTH!.
So the life lesson to take way from this very sad story is that, when you start gambling you dont expect to get addicted, and you dont know for sure if you are one of these 10% that actually gets addicted, and end up derailing your life and your families life in the process.
SO NEWER EVER START TO GAMBLE, AND NEVER EVER START TO GAMBLE ONLINE!
ONLINE GAMBLING IS MUCH WORSE SINCE YOU CAN DO THAT IN YOUR OFFICE OR IN YOUR BEDROOM!.
You dont even have to psychically visit the casino these days in some parts of the world.
And this is super dangerous.
So as a business consulting firm that Mrlifeadvise is, we recommend that you never even try and gamble, and if you have tried it and like it, stop.
And if you are gambling more and more each year, then think of this story of Patrik and do not go down the same road that he took.
The only winners in this story are the cold heartened online casinos that do not care if you are a problem gambler, they do not care about you and your family, like the cold blooded snakes they are, they just care about the money.
So do not feed this beast with one single dollar ever again!.
For Patrik it was a few millions that broke the camels back, for some business owners and people it can be as low as 20.000 dollars that destroys your life and your business.
So the amounts are different for everybody, but the end result is the same, pain agony and destruction.
So we are now done with how we will offer our business consulting services online.
And it will be true a monthly subscription plan.
We are gonna start with a 299 USD dollar plan per month, which will allow one email per week from a business owner, with different questions, we will try and limit that to maximum one A4 page with questions.
Our expertise is from the production industry globally, this means that we have produced many different items globally, in many companies from scratch.
We have hired people from the first employee, we have built the business from scratch and we understand all the different dilemmas that all business owners comes across.
So we have created around 10000+ jobs globally that are still there, and for every business owner that will opt for our consulting subscription, you will get a full refund if you dont like our references on what we have done and created over the past 55 years time globally.
In most cities and towns in the world we can say to you, get in your car, and drive around and we will tell you where you can find a product that we have developed and is accessible in your town or city.
So we can help you as a business owner to grow where ever you are sitting in the world, with good advise on what to look for when you want to grow your business and hopefully help you avoid some of the mistakes that we did in the past.
That can save you a lot of hearth ache and pain!.
So we have also a global network if you are a producer and you produce something.
So the reason why we are a bit cryptic with our references is that we want to keep this between you as the client and us a service provider.
ALSO IMPORTANT TO KNOW!.
We will never sell your email adress or contact info, and all information that you provide us is only between us, unless you as the client specify it otherwise to us!.
So look for our subscription package to come up very soon!.
The major benefit for you as a business owner is that, where can you get low cost business advise on a monthly basis, from people who have been in your shoes.
We have built companies , large ones, we have lost companies large ones, we have built new ones, and so on.
And this is why we are in a great place to help you and your company out on a monthly basis with business advise.
Later on we will also offer a management subscription that is intended for people in a management position at a smaller or medium sized company.
Here we will offer a daily email, possibility.
Welcome as a client to mrlifeadvise business consulting.
So this is for you out there who are non criminals and who are not used to the so called (system).
And this is also for you parents out there who have young adults who are over the age of 18.
So here comes a really good advise from a former prosecutor about what to do and what not to do, when being questioned by the police or detectives.
Please understand that you have the right to have a lawyer present for all questing and you should without a doubt take them up on that.
I know that many law enforcement operators will say to a suspect (if you have nothing to hide) talk to us and we will help you out!.
This is total BS , the detectives and the police are allowed to lie to you , and they are not there to help you in any way shape or form.
The only thing you should utter to the police or the detectives if you are being detained should be ,I WANT MY LAWYER PRESENT DURING THE QUESTIONING.
And if you can not afford a lawyer , a court appointed lawyer will be issued to you.
I usually recommend that you try and get a criminal defense lawyers card and contact information and always carry that information on you, no matter where you are.
So if something happens you can ask for your lawyer to be contacted.
If your lawyer can not be reached at that time you can go with the public defender until you can get a hold of your own lawyer.
You dont need to opt for a 500 dollar an hour lawyer, a 100 dollar an hour criminal defense lawyer will be fine.
Even at this price range you will find very sharp criminal defense lawyers out there.
Also a bit older lawyers is good to use, since they have pretty much seen it all before.
There are great younger lawyers out there also, but the older once have more experience.
But please make sure that they are a criminal defense lawyer, since the law is very different between corporate, criminal defense and divorce for say.
The problem is that if you talk to a the cops and you are guilty they will get you on that, and also if you are not a harden criminal you know you did something bad and you would like to get that of your chest like so many good people would.
Here is the problem with that, you can be guilty of a crime, but there can be a hundred different reasons why you committed that crime.
And you could have been provoked or it was and accident, but it is still considered a crime.
And always take the time to consult you lawyer before answering any questions from the police.
And the only questions you should answer the police without a lawyer present is your name and social security number.
You should not be rude or scream or behave badly towards the arresting officers or the detectives, just say these words, i want my lawyer presents before i answer any questions for you.
So for you parents out there who have young adults who have turned 18, make sure you get them a criminal defense lawyers card and contact info and even maybe put a 500 dollar retainer down with the lawyer.
When i worked as a prosecutor for over 30 years time, I SAW so many people get jammed up , because they wanted to do the right thing , but they had no lawyer present for the questioning and in ended up badly for a lot of them, just due to this one fact.
The difference in what kind of (deal) or sentencing you can get, can wary from probation up to 5 -10 years in prison for the same crime.
So it is that big of a difference if you have a good criminal defense lawyer or not present during questioning.
This is not a blog post on hating or disliking the police, but they are not your friend when you have been arrested they are your enemy there and then, dont you never forget that!.
It can be as simple as you step into a car that has drugs or guns in it, without you knowing anything about that, and when the police makes a traffic stop, the two other people in the car says they the drugs and the guns belongs to you.
So now you are 18-19 years of age and risking 5-10 years of hard time, do not talk to the police on your own without a lawyer present during the questioning.
Any time you get taken down to the station it is a very serious thing, and no joke, your future is on the line, and the cops will do what ever it takes to get you to give up as much information as possible that they can use later against you i a court of law.
And they then hand it over to the prosecutor, and 98% of all cases in the US , is being pleaded out, otherwise the court system would come to a very quick halt!.
But if you are innocent you should not take a plea deal, if it is prison time on the table.
But let your lawyer advise you on what to do, based on how the evidence looks against you.
This is if you are innocent.
But if you are guilty to let us say you threw a punch outside of a bar fight protecting your girlfriend who was being harassed, depending on the injuries to the (victim) this could either be self defense or in worst case manslaughter if the person you hit, hits his head on the pavement and dies.
And it can be battery if he ends up in the hospital.
So there are so many scenarios out there that can happen, and most of them happens on Friday or Saturday night, and there is usually also alcohol involved.
So always teach your kids from a very young age, that never confess to a crime without a lawyer present.
I understand that it will feel odd, when you are asking for a lawyer, and you have to wait in jail, until the lawyers arrives.
But do not for a second doubt that this is the right thing to do, when you are starring down the barrel of a gun, that a lengthy prison sentence is.
Please also understand that the police /cops are experts in getting people to confess, there is the well known method of a good cop , bad cop , but there are an additional 10 very advanced techniques that they can use to get you to confess.
Remember they are the law, and they do this every single day.
And they will not hesitate to trip you up, and close the case.
Really good detectives will read you as a person and then decide what technique to use on you.
They will size you up inside 10 min of talking to you.
This is why you don talk to the police more than just say, i want my lawyer and here is my social security number, and i will not answer any more questions without my lawyer present in the room, respectfully.
Never ever rat on your friends even if the police offers you to walk if you do that, you will lose all credibility for life within your community if you do that!.
I mean if they are your real friends BFF, .
SO WHAT YOU SHOULD AS A READER AND A PARENT TAKE AWAY FROM THIS ARTICLE FROM A FORMER PROSECUTOR, IS THAT NEVER EVER LET YOUR YOUNG ADULTS LEAVE FOR A NIGHT ON THE TOWN WITHOUT THE CONTACT INFORMATION TO A CRIMINAL DEFENSE LAWYER.,it might end up saving their lives.
Thank you for Reading.
Mrlifeadvise.
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mrlifeadvise is a business consulting company specializing in smaller and medium sized companies.
We have 60+ years of experience from building companies, and we have created over 10000+ lasting jobs during that time frame.
We will help your business with good advise, regardless of what business branch you belong to and regardless of what part of the world you are active in.
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