"Burned Out" Lawyer Trades Three-Piece Suit For PJ's
Hello, my name is David Ward. I don't know how you found this page but I know you'll be glad you did.
I'm posting this at 2 o'clock on a Tuesday afternoon. I started at 8:30 this morning but I was interrupted when my wife Kathy asked me to join her for a walk around the lake near our home in southern California. I said, "let's go," and in a few minutes, we were admiring the ducks and geese on the water and the mountains in the distance and on the way home, we stopped for breakfast at a café near the lake.
Remember, this is Tuesday. If you're like most people, you don't get to do this.
I don't mean walk around a lake. I mean you don't get to leave work whenever you want to, to do something really important, like spending time with your family. Up until a few years ago, I wasn't able to take off whenever I felt like it either, because I worked long hours in my law practice. For over twenty years I was always at the office or in court or stuck in traffic. My career kept me busy and my other needs had to wait and if you have a corporate career or a business or a job or you're a professional, you understand there's a trade off. The question is, is the trade off really worth it?
No, it's not worth it.
Making a lot of money means nothing unless you have time to enjoy it. What good is a big house if you're never home? Do you miss your kids? They miss you more.
Unfortunately, there's a premise in our society that says you can't be successful and have time to enjoy your family, your friends, your hobbies and the pursuit of happiness. I say this is an obsolete premise.
See, most of us were never taught the mechanics for creating wealth. We were taught to get a good education and work hard, but. . .
WORKING HARD IS NOT THE ANSWER!
Most people work hard all their lives and have very little to show for it.
I know. I followed all the rules. I got an education and opened my own law practice and worked hard for a very long time. But even though I brought in a lot of income, by the time I paid overhead, taxes, and living expenses, even after thirty years, I still wasn't able to retire. In fact, I didn't know if I'd ever be able to.
How about you? Will you ever be able to retire?
I want to tell you something. Listen closely. This is important: Whether you're self-employed or you have a job, the reason you don't have financial freedom and time freedom is because. . .
YOU EXCHANGE YOUR TIME FOR DOLLARS
And no matter how hard you work, there are only so many hours in a day.
I finally realized that no matter how much someone earns, I would never have financial freedom and time freedom unless I had. . .
LEVERAGE.
What is leverage? How do you get it? I'll show you. First, I want to tell you what I was looking for when I started looking for a "Plan B".
I came up with a "wish list". Some of the things I wanted were
- Low start-up costs
- Low overhead
- No inventory or quotas
- No employees
- Part time, flexible hours
- Work from home (something I always wanted to do)
- Products or services with real value
- A large market with little or no competition
- Unlimited income potential
- Leverage; I didn't want the business to depend solely on my efforts
- Residual income (so I could retire one day)
And, I wanted to feel good about what I was doing, to know I was making a difference in the world.
I liked the idea of a franchise because you get a "turn-key" package, but they're expensive and require too much time (something I did not have). And again, I didn't want to hire and supervise employees or take on more overhead. I wanted to simplify my life, not make it more complicated.
Over the next year, I looked at many different ideas. I'd set my standards pretty high and had a hard time finding anything that made sense. I was getting discouraged but I kept looking because I knew there were people who had financial freedom and time freedom and I knew that if they could do it, anyone could do it.
One day. . .
I found it.
It started when another attorney emailed me and asked for my opinion about an article in a legal publication. The article was about the growth of Pre-Paid Legal plans in north America and said that in western Europe, legal insurance is as common as health and auto insurance. Over eighty percent of the population has a legal plan.
Wow.
The author predicated that one day, legal plans would be as common in the US as they are in Europe. That makes sense–we have more laws, more lawyers, and more lawsuits in the US than anywhere in the world.
I did some research and learned that the leading company in the US and Canada is Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. The company did close to half-a-billion dollars in sales last year and Forbes Magazine featured them as one of the Top 200 Best Small Companies in America. DeMarche Associates, a leading investment advisory firm, added Pre-Paid Legal to their list of the top 100 companies in the United States, alongside companies like Coca-Cola, Wal-Mart, Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft.
Pre-Paid Legal's success is not suprising. People need legal help but attorneys are expensive. Pre-Paid Legal gives them access to top quality attorneys for around a dollar a day.
Americans will always have legal issues and that's why Pre-Paid Legal will always be successful.
When I saw what their legal plans covered, I remember thinking, "everybody needs this." The American Bar Association agrees. They said, "Americans have come to view legal assistance as a necessity. The best way for the majority of Americans to access that assistance when they need it is through a Pre-Paid Legal plan."
Pre-Paid Legal has more than 1.5 million members. That's a big number, but their market is estimated to be. . .
100 million.
There is a huge market for what they offer and it means a huge financial opportunity for you. The question is how do you leverage this to achieve wealth and time freedom?
HOW DO YOU GET PAID?
That's simple.
You talk to people about the business and about the services. If you're shy or you don't have time to do that, you use marketing tools like web sites, voice mail presentations, live conference calls, and DVDs. You get people to access these tools, and somebody else does the talking for you.
When someone signs up for one of our services, you get paid. And when someone gets started in the business and they sign somebody up, you get paid on that, too. You get paid not just on your efforts but on the efforts of other people and as more and more people get started, you get the power of numbers working for you–that's leverage and it creates tremendous wealth.
Last year, every seven days, Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. recognized a new hundred-thousand dollar income earner, and every 26 days, they recognized a new millionaire club member.
Pre-Paid Legal is attracting the best and the brightest from all walks of life–corporate executives,medical doctors, financial planners, professional athletes, college professors, business owners and attorneys. I no longer practice law because Pre-Paid Legal has the greatest business opportunity I've ever seen and I'm not going to miss it and neither should you.
You don't have to quit your job or current occupation to do this. You can start part time–a few hours a week-and you can do this from the comfort of your home. There's no limit to the amount you can earn or how quickly you can earn it.
I started my Pre-Paid Legal business part time–just a few hours a week. Because of the system in place, in a few months, I was earning thousands of dollars per month in extra income. In a few years. . .
I had replaced my six-figure income with a
six-figure passive income.
Passive income means the money comes in month after month, year after year, whether I'm working or on vacation or doing nothing at all. It means I have "real freedom"–money and the time to enjoy it.
Life is good.
Sometimes, when I'm talking to someone who earns a lot of money I ask them how much they would earn if they stopped working. That helps them to see the value of passive income.
Ironically, now that I can retire, I don't want to. I'm having too much fun! I get to work from home–no more stress, no more traffic jams, no more employees or overhead. I work two or three hours a day, and I love what I do. Every day I get to help people improve their lives, either with our legal plans and identity theft plans, or by helping them earn more income or find financial freedom through our business.
I'm proud of what I've accomplished in Pre-Paid Legal. I've built a team of thousands of Associates, in all fifty states and in Canada, and have reached the highest levels of our company. I've been recognized on stage at conventions many times, including being one of the top recruiters in the company my first year in the business.
By the way, I think it's important to note that a lot of attorneys are becoming marketing Associates. I've signed up over 150 myself. Attorneys are starting to realize that this is the wave of the future for the legal profession and they want to be a part of it. Many attorneys have given up their law practice to do Pre-Paid Legal full time.
The above photo was taken at a convention in Las Vegas a few years ago, in front of 13,000 Pre-Paid Legal Associates. There are seven attorneys on the panel (that's me on the left), all marketing Associates, sharing our views on Pre-Paid Legal and how it is changing our profession.
Of course you don't need to be an attorney to get started in Pre-Paid Legal. Tens of thousands of people from all walks of life earn a part-time or full-time income with this company. But the fact that so many attorneys see the value of this opportunity is significant.
One thing I'm passionate about is helping others succeed in this business. I've coached hundreds of Associates, showing them how to use our marketing systems to succeed in Pre-Paid Legal. Here's a training I did in Texas, followed by some authentic Texas BBQ with some of the team.
Our organization is one of the fastest growing in the entire company. I'm privileged to work with a group of very talented individuals who believe that training is one of the keys to success. On our team, we work closely with our business partners to help them get started. Our goal is to help them get paid as soon as possible, ideally, their first day. We coach and mentor them and conduct twice-weekly training calls, online training and live training events. We never stop training because there are always new people joining the team and there are always new ways to grow your business.
I work with people from many different backgrounds. Some have advanced degrees and some didn't finish high school. Some have owned businesses before, some have never had a job. Once thing I like about this business is that someone's background isn't important. Attitude is the key. If someone has the desire to succeed and they are coachable and willing to put in some time and effort, I can show them everything they need to know. And it feels great to know you have been a part of their success.
Because of my background, I work with a lot of professionals. Many are "stuck" in their careers, like I was, looking for a 'Plan B'. When they look at the alternatives available, like I did, they see there's really nothing that compares with Pre-Paid Legal. It's perfect for professionals; they can work the business part time and, if they want to, transition out of their careers.
Here are some of the team at our awards banquet. The couple in the middle, Matt and Lydia Smith, just earned their six-figure ring. Not bad for working the business part time while holding down full time executive jobs with Fortune 500 companies (and raising two boys)!
Pre-Paid Legal plans are available throughout the US and Canada. I've used my Membership many times. My wife and I have had our wills prepared and updated, we sleep better at night knowing we are protected against identity theft, and our Membership has saved us thousands of dollars on various legal matters over the years.
You can learn more about the different legal plans, the Identity Theft plans, and the business opportunity here and here. We also have plans for small businesses, so if you already own a business, take a look at our business plans.
Pre-Paid Legal plans are one of the fastest growing employee benefits. We work with a lot of insurance and sales professionals, so if that is your background, or you're interested in working with businesses, let me know if this area interests you and I'll send you more information.
Whether you want to create passive income and time freedom, start your own home based business, or just make some extra money to pay your bills, I encourage you to take a serious look at Pre-Paid Legal. It has completely changed my life and the lives of so many others.
To learn about the services we offer and how we earn money in the business, start with this online presentation or this one.
For additional information, here is my Pre-Paid Legal website.
If you're ready to get started as a marketing Associate, click here. To sign up for the Legal Plan and Identity Theft Shield click here.
If you have questions, you can reach me at (949) 888-2800 or via email.
I look forward to speaking with you and helping you get real freedom in Pre-Paid Legal.
David Ward
P.S. Hey, we also have fun in this business. Here are a few photos. The first picture is from a team event in Palm Springs. See me smiling? I never did that as an attorney!
Here we are on a recent trip to Cancun, all expenses paid by Pre-Paid Legal. That's my wife Kathy (in front). The resort had 12 gourmet restaurants and no prices on the menus. We had room service every morning. I could get used to this!
I didn't make this trip to the Turks and Caicos, but I like this picture. These are some of my friends in Pre-Paid Legal, showing everyone how great it is to have passive income.
