Lesson 1, it is your fault. The economy, my employees, my landlord and my banker are not at fault I am. No matter what is happening in your business life right now, there is a series of decisions you made some time ago to get you where you are now. What they are I can’t tell you, and if you look and think hard enough you’ll figure it out.
Lesson 2. Success and Wealth are two totally different things. We may make them related in our minds however they are not unless you make one a part of the other.
Personal success can bring happiness and inner peace. These are the “I did it moments” of our lives. Many times they don’t bring money. In second grade I beat Jeff Vasil in a 50 yard dash. I didn’t get any money and man was I a success that day. Success really is an internal event. If you don’t feel it, it isn’t success. We can look at someone and call him successful, but is he? How do we really know? It could all be a shell and the person is miserable and broke.
Think of five times in your life you were genuinely successful on a personal level. Did they lead to wealth directly or indirectly? Or were these events totally separated from wealth and money?
Wealth is the ability to control money and assets. Nothing more than that really. You can get rich or wealthy without ever being a success to yourself. For many people this is the precursor to the mid-life crisis. I used to sell cars and was very good. I made more money than I did in any other endeavor for the amount of time invested. I could still do OK at it even in this economy. I love cars, I just didn’t like selling them. I was getting wealthy for someone at that age, but I wasn’t successful in my mind. My peers on the other hand thought I was the star of the car lot.
When you are making money and not being successful it is a dangerous situation. This type of scenario can create stress, angst, frustration and fear. Not knowing how to channel these emotions leads people to do stupid things. Men are stereo typed in this situation as those who buy fast cars, chase younger women and drink too much.
Women many times have a whole different response which is equally desperate when they are making good money and don’t feel personal growth and success.
When you personally feel that you are a success, and are also gaining wealth, you are on a ride that can’t be matched. Your inner strengths and desires are fed by your ability to generate wealth and you have a positive growing spiral upward.
This also may explain why lottery winners are quick to lose their wealth. The feeling of success fades quickly with the frustrations of the new found wealth. Shortly after they win, the wealth is no longer important. A person who is successful in their own heart at what they do is the guy you see smiling on a jetski while the others are wishing they are him.
Getting to the point of success and wealth is difficult for all but a very few people. After winning 8 gold medals and responding to a question about his goggles filling up with water, Michael Phelps simply responded “look, I swim, that is what I do, things happen but I swim”. He was the perfect intersection of wealth and success with that statement. He was clearly demonstrating that he was disciplined in his training and had a laser like focus on the task at hand, namely to swim.
Whatever you do, can you spend just one hour a day with that level of discipline and focus? Can you put the focus in that Tiger Woods had when he won the 2008 Masters with a broken leg? Can you do that for just 90 days and see if you see a difference? If you are a salesman, for the one hour a day, stop smoking and joking with the guys at the cooler or where ever you hide out, and go sell. If you are a tech, focus for one hour on making your vehicle and paperwork better. If you are in the office, spend that hour making something in the office better. See what happens. At the end of 90 days, think about how you made a difference for yourself. Success can be addicting.
Get Focused And Let Life Be Great!
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Thank you for your insights.