The only way to truly succeed over time is to use your head, think out long-term trends, figure out where productivity exists (and therefore wealth is being created) in the economy, and invest your mind or your money alongside it.

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Nobody held a gun to your head and said you MUST use Google or else.

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Use an idea in a book to temporarily replace the idea in your head.

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Lift your head from your laptop and use your senses to fill your mind to overflowing just as voraciously as you possibly can.

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The time between acceptance and start is a gift you can use to rest and relax or to get a head start on your new role.

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Pick a business or pricing model, think of a few existing businesses that use it, and spend 5 minutes reading about them to get your head into that space.

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You can use these same home tours to get a head start on selecting your listing agent by asking the agents you interview to give you a preview of what they would recommend in the way of preparing your home, timing your listing and marketing your house to achieve the objectives you set in Step 1.

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If you are buying two tickets, for example, you can use your points to buy one ticket and use your Citicard for the other ticket, while earning additional points, says Ralph Andretta, head of co-brands and loyalty at CitiCards, which allows consumers to apply even a small number of points to their ticket purchases.

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