“Picture the typical entrepreneur and Herculean pictures come to mind: a man or woman standing alone, wind-blown against the elements, bravely defying insurmountable odds, climbing sheer faces of treacherous rock–all to realize the dream of creating a business of one’s own. The legend reeks of nobility, of lofty, extra-human efforts, of a prodigious commitment to larger-than-life ideals. Well, while there are such people, my experience tells me they are rare.” – Michael Gerber

I agree with Micheal Gerber that this image is absolutely absurd!

As long as you are a solopreneur, working on every facet of your business, you will be your business’ number one problem!!! As Gerber explains in his book, there are 2 kinds of businesses:

1) People-depedent businesses

2) Systems-dependent businesses

How do you know which one you are? Well, simply ask yourself this:

“If I (or anyone else in my company) were to leave my business for 6 months, would the business still exist when I came back?”

If you answer YES, then you have a systems-dependent business.

If NO, then you likely have a person-dependent business.

A System-Depentent Business

So what IS a systems-dependent business?

Consider this:

McDonald’s can deliver the exact same promise – the exact same food and customer experience – whether you are in Edmonton, Toronto, New York, or Kalamazoo. And it’s delivered by disinterested, teenage kids – some of the least qualified employees on the continent. And they do this BILLIONS of times every single year, at thousands and thousands of locations from sea-to-sea.

…and yet you can’t ever deliver that level of consistency to one set of customers of your one business, located in only one city or town. What’s the difference?

The difference is SYSTEMS. Your business depends on you (people-dependent) while McDonald’s depends on systems – the people can be swapped in and out.

On Your Own?

I will now ask you: why is it that you are taking care of making sales calls, balancing the books, dealing with inventory, answering calls, cooking, cleaning, and doing all of this ON YOUR OWN?

The true entrepreneur sets up a system, then delegates it.

Once that’s taken care of, then they create a system for another area of their business, and delegate that out. And they do this with every area of their business until they ARE able to walk away for 6 months or more.

Refocusing – The More Important Things

And the funny thing is that it is often the mundane, monotonous, pressing / urgent, and repetitive tasks that distract an aspiring entrepreneur from actually doing the “big-picture” items that will actually take their business to the next level.

Build a SYSTEM for these mundane, monotonous, and repetitive tasks, and DELEGATE. Then get re-focused on the MOST IMPORTANT things…

• building your business,
• learning new skills,
• ideas,
• and strategies,
• and maybe even spend more time with your
  • kids,
  • spouse,
  • family,
  • and friends.

And What if You Don’t Own a Business?

Well, in your family life you likely DO have many mundane, repetitive tasks that take time away from being with your family.

• Perhaps processing application forms for a charity you volunteer for.
• Perhaps calling all of your relatives for the forthcoming family reunion.
• Perhaps it’s really a pain for you to balance the family cheque book at the end of the month.
• Or maybe it’s a hassle to always be coordinating the parents for Johnny’s soccer team.

Any of these items could be systemized and delegated.

So Many Routine and Mundane Tasks…

1. WHAT IF you could get someone else to do any or all of this?
2. Would that make you extremely happy?
3. Would that give you more time to be with your family, kids, and friends?
4. Would your life experience be better if you just didn’t have to deal with any of that boring, productivity-killing, repetitive brain-freeze?

Well, having your own Virtual Assistant (VA) may or may not be a fit for you. To find out if and how a VA would help you in your specific circumstance, contact Tina at 1-877-977-4776, or Info@SaveTimeBoostProfits.com to get a FREE 30-minute consultation.

Fake Leads

•   A long time ago, I attended a business networking meeting where only one person from every industry is allowed, (big red flag) and everyone is under pressure to give our leads / referrals every week. They actually COUNT the leads, and nobody gets a commission! Anyway, I received a LOT of fake leads, because people were too gutless to admit they didn’t have any leads to give out, and they feared losing their place in this group of broke, desperate, self-employed salespeople.

No Intention of Ever Co-operating

•   I asked someone to send out an e-mail to their database to promote one of my events a few years back. I “salted” their database (entered it anonymously, using a fake name and e-mail address) and the e-mails were never sent out. They didn‘t want to tell me that they never intended sending it out.

People Who Can’t Say “No”

•   People promise to show up at places, do things, make calls, promote stuff, attend meetings – and they never do – they offer weak, transparent excuses, because they can’t say “No”.

Sounds familiar, does it?

In our gutless, politically correct world of passive aggressive, anal-retentive, wanna-be entrepreneurs, it’s hard to find people who don’t fear “rejection” by simply saying, “NO.”

(It’s even harder to find people who actually do what they say before their laziness and stupidity overcomes them, but I digress).

So What’s the One Fear?

The one fear that will sabotage your business life more than most others is the fear of saying, “NO.”

You don’t have to explain and say, “NO – I don’t want to deal with you. BECAUSE

• I don’t like you”
• I don’t trust you”
• Your offer is ludicrous and one-sided”
• You’re an idiot”
• You’re cheap”
• You dress like a second-hand car salesman cum trailer park manager”
• You stink of tobacco…”

Just say, “No, thanks, this is not for me – I don’t see a fit.”

Instead of wasting your time trying to make losers happy and justifying things, instead of trying to be popular with wankers.

Just, say, “NO.” You don’t have to explain.

The Frog Prince Analogy

You have to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince. You can’t marry every frog because you’re afraid of “rejection”.

The more selective you are, the more distinct your criteria for accepting business offers is, the more sophisticated your approach, and the more successful you are, and the better known you are, the more offers you will have to reject, so get used to it.

So far, we have rejected 24 applications to our $20,000 DollarMakers Certified Business Mentor Training program, which meant we turned down and rejected $480,000 in sales. We are very proud of that. Few people would do that. But we see the big picture.

If the fit isn’t right, we say, “NO.” And everybody wins, because we’re honest.

Tell the Truth

Think of it this way:

“I am not in business to make other people happy, to build their egos, to be accepted and feel important, or to become popular. I am not here to please other people. I am in business to make the maximum amount of net profit with the least cost, risk, time, and effort, and I only work with people whom I like, trust, and respect. I don’t have to do anything, and I will tell the truth.”

Fearlessly, audaciously, courageously, tell the truth.

Your self-respect will increase as you discipline yourself to be honest, and, as a result, you will make more money, because we earn money in direct proportion to our self-esteem.

How can you even look at yourself in the mirror when you’re controlled by the whims and opinions of others, keeping up with the Joneses, and trying to impress losers?

Realize this: NOBODY CARES. Get real and get honest; say “NO.”

Consider What is Important

Here’s the good news:
It’s more important to be respected than to be liked.

People know that I don’t give a damn whether they like me or not, and I refuse to conform to this climate of slimy, politically correct, dishonest, back-stabbing hypocrisy.

I don’t care if the truth offends people or if they’re uncomfortable. And people know that they can trust me because of my approach.

The more selective and direct I become, the more money I make. It works. Try it. Thicken your skin.

Instead of “Got Milk?” how about, “Got GUTS?”

“In folk economics, we have an intuitive notion that excessive wealth is wrong. Economic systems must be designed from the top down. We misunderstand and mistrust ‘the invisible hand” of the market place (note: Charles Darwin also read the work of Adam Smith). The reason why folk science so often gets it wrong is that we evolved in an environment radically different from the one in which we live. We still have a sweet tooth and biological inclination to eat fat, because food was always scarce. That’s why we have an obesity epidemic right now. Our senses are geared for perceiving objects of middling size, between say ants and mountains.”

“Not bacteria, molecules and atoms on one side of the scale and stars and galaxies on the other end. We live to short to witness evolution, continental drift or long-term environmental changes. That’s why we still have an inclination to want products now, versus products later at a considerable discount. It is human nature.”

Working On Our Perceptions, Beliefs, and Limitations

Whether the cause of our small, limited, scarcity, fear-based thinking is the result of our socialization, education, and the people we mix with, or indeed, as Mr. Shermer suggests, far deeper, those who wish to make it big in the world of business need to work on our perceptions, beliefs, and expectations.

The good news is that we can change and break free of our limited thinking, and that very few people will take the time to analyze and acknowledge their limitations, let alone take steps to correct them.

That means that we have very little competition, and that the world is, indeed, our oyster.

Add a working knowledge of Joint Ventures, and you’re ready for great accomplishments!

After we left the army at the end of our conscription, he didn’t know what to do with himself, so he became a psychiatric nurse. I remembered it well – we use to have drunken parties at his apartment on the very grounds of the mental institution, and anyone who observed our intoxicated, wild antics have assumed we were patients.

Then he married a female nurse who turned out to be gay. Then he became a medical sales representative and did very well.

Getting Rich is Akin to Getting Physically Fit

While Kobus was a sales rep, he started a plastics company in his garage, making desktop penholders to sell to the doctors along with the drugs, then he manufactures basins and bathtubs, and then bought a women’s clothing store, and so on. We remained good friends and played squash and sailed together, and here we were reminiscing.

I asked him, “Koebs, when did you become a millionaire? It must have been a very exciting day for you!”

And here was his answer: “Rob, I didn’t even realize it when I became a millionaire – it sort of creeps up on you – money starts flowing naturally when you’re in the right head space.”

I later experienced the same thing, but the way he described the process of getting rich is akin to getting physically fit. Like the day when you suddenly realize you have just pedaled three kilometers without even realizing it, because you were so busy thinking about other things.

In the beginning, every turn of the pedal is a concerted effort, tiring, and even exhausting. But if you persevere, one day you realize that you’re finally fit.

Are You A Quitter?

Ninety-seven percent of people quit so easily that it would be laughable if it wasn’t so sad. There is such a dearth of self-respect, self-discipline, and self-esteem out there that it is frightening.

People seem to have got to a point where they have even less shame than manners. I would be mortified if I had to cancel a meeting at the last minute or show up late for an appointment, but most people hardly blink.

Winners are tough on themselves, and they will endure pain, blisters, rejection, and difficulty without complaining or making excuses, UNTIL they succeed.

Not As Scary as it Seems

One night, Kobus and I were camping in the bush after leaving the army. I had my dad’s .38 special snub-nosed revolver, and he was armed with a hunting knife. In the middle of the night, we heard someone approaching our tent.

I cocked the revolver, Kobus unsheathed his knife, and we sprang out of the tent to confront our attacker, who turned out to be a large frog that was hopping around and bumping our cooking utensils.

Often, the threats we perceive in business are not close to as scary and dangerous as we think they might be. There are scarier things out there.

The Measure of A Great Man

Kobus died a few years back, but I have wonderful memories of him as a man of character and substance – a real man, whether we were fighting for our lives in Angola in the army, doing business, or having fun. He was a man of his word who had my back, and men like him are few and far between.

Strategizing the Target

Shane heard about an entrepreneur who could help him move a large amount of products. This entrepreneur (I’ll call him Dennis) was busy, successful, in demand, and very selective. Many people continually vied for Dennis’s attention, and salespeople spent a lot of time trying to sell him stuff. Shane took a month to do some serious due diligence and information gathering on Dennis –

• his family,
• business,
• employees,
• goals,
• background,
• philosophy,
• hobbies,
• you name it.

Then he paid a detective to gather even more information. When he was properly prepared, he spent a thousand dollars buying and using Dennis’s products and services.

Now Dennis knew who Shane was – a respectful client.

Setting the Bait

Shane knew that Dennis’s family was very important to him, so he paid a photographer to do a professional photo shoot of Dennis’s family. Then he invited Dennis to go deep sea fishing with him and a few carefully chosen friends.

He spent another month working on his relationship with Dennis until Dennis regarded Shane as a friend. This included buying Dennis a new guitar. Up to this point, Shane didn’t try to sell Dennis anything.

Catching the Fish

Three months to the day after Shane targeted Dennis, he closed the deal. Shane’s total investment, he told me, was five thousand dollars, which was tax-deductible. The deal made him forty-thousand dollars NET profit after deducting the five thousand. And Dennis made twenty thousand.

What Shane did was to strategically get the maximum amount of credibility and leverage before introducing his deal.

He told me that, at any time during this three-month process, if he felt the deal wasn’t going to work, he would have cut bait and walked away.

A General, Not a Soldier

That was ten years ago, and Shane and Dennis are still doing business. (I called Shane to make sure.) How different from the desperate posers who push their scruffy little business cards at you without even knowing you. Shane makes a lot of money, because he is a general, not a soldier. He is:

• rational,
• professional,
• unattached,
• reliable,
• respectful,
• and skillful.

He values relationships, and he takes nothing for granted. You would never see him in a “Business Networking Group” or a Chamber of Commerce meeting.

Many Ways to Achieve the Same Results

Of course, it doesn’t always take five thousand dollars to position yourself for a successful deal / Joint Venture. There are many ways to accomplish the same results for pennies on the dollar, and even for nothing but time and effort, but I like this illustration. As Ayn Rand said,

“Wealth is the product of man’s capacity to think.”

The emphasis is on THINK – something most so-called entrepreneurs avoid in favor of desperate sales pitches and their blind fumbling for a quick buck.

Which do YOU want to be?

Soldiers will grab a gun and rush out shooting. Generals plan before executing. They use:

• military intelligence,
• spies,
• reconnaissance,
• and input from other people.

They coordinate the activities of others.

Which do YOU want to be? Soldier or general?

To learn more about the Joint Venture Broker approach to wealth, which Shane understood so well, visit www.jvwisdom.com.

Too many times, we assume that we’re free of negative, limiting conditioning. Watch this video to see how your values determine why one gets rich or not.

Our beliefs about money and value and our self-esteem regulate and control our choices and the results we get. When our philosophy, values, beliefs, and priorities are properly aligned to wealth and success, everything changes.

If we:

• Love what we do,
• Believe in what we do,
• When we are grateful for what we do and have,

we remove limitations from our lives.

Take Inventory

Guilt, resentment, and fear will hobble even the most intelligent, hard-working people. Take inventory. Reassess what you value. Look at your real priorities.

• What do you spend your time and energy on?

Examine what you believe, and you will find out why you’re not getting rich. We always have the energy and time for things that are highest on our values. Money flows to your values.

• Where are you most disciplined, organized, and focused?
• What do you think about and read about most?
• What do you secretly wish for? Why? Why is it a secret?
• What is your internal dialogue?
• Where do you spend your time?
• What do you talk about?
• What do you emotionally react to?
• Those are your highest values – that’s what you are dedicated to. Is it making you rich?

We’ve all been conditioned and continue to be conditioned by the people in our lives and the information we’re exposed to. We all have values hierarchies or priorities, and the good news is that these can be adjusted, reinterpreted, and reprioritized. It’s all about interpretation and perception.

• How do you define “wealth”?
• What do think “rich” means?

Living a Life Congruent with Money

For example, if your highest priority is your kids, you might presently prioritize spending time with your children over working on your business, so you neglect your business or apply less passion to it, than, for example, building kits with your kids.

By understanding that your business can provide you with the passive income, money, and time for a better quality of life for your children, plus their education, security, and peace of mind, you can increase the priority of your business and see more “purpose” in it.

The meaning that we apply to our different options determines how we value them. By linking your priorities to the right activities and discipline, you can effect the changes you want.

Your Feelings About Money

1. How do you actually feel about money?
2. Do you secretly believe that rich people are dishonest, that money is the root of evil, or that money is a “necessary evil”?
3. Do you feel guilty about having money?
4. Do you resent others who have more than you do?
5. Do you feel bad when you have money while others don’t?
6. Does that cause you to subconsciously sabotage your own success?
7. Is your philosophy one of collectivism, or mysticism and superstition, as opposed to capitalism?
8. Do you feel you don’t deserve to be rich because of your past “sins” or bad choices?
9. Do you feel responsible for the choices that others make? Do you have low self-esteem?

Getting in touch with what you really want and believe is sometimes daunting and threatening, however confronting our true values is essential if we want to change our circumstances.

Empowering Your Beliefs

Removing the source or root of bad beliefs, replacing disempowering beliefs with good ones, and taking the time to think through this stuff, is easiest when you surround yourself with the right people and expose your mind to the right information.

In order to break free of these limiting beliefs and arrange a mindset that makes it possible to reinterpret your values priorities, I suggest you read Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged”, which I guarantee will change you life if you are serious about financial freedom.

1.  Outdated Advice:

“Look at me,” purrs the seminar leader, “I’m rich because I invested in real estate in Florida. Do what I did, and you’ll get the same results.” Fine, except that the real estate market, the money situation, laws, mortgages, and a host of other things have changed dramatically in the past eight years since the guru made some money. And did he make his money in real estate, or in the seminars he’s been running to teach others how to do it? The same goes for Internet Marketing, foreign exchange scams, investments, and on and on.

2.  Motive:

What does the presenter of the advice have to gain or lose when you accept his advice? What is his vested interest and agenda?

3.  Authentic Knowledge:

How do you know this person advising you actually has the authority and insight to offer you good advice? At the end of many of the talks and seminars I present, I have people slithering up to ask me if they can give me some “Constructive Criticism.” I ask them how long they have been presenting seminars, how many people they have spoken top in the past 23 years, and how much money they have made, before they advise me on my presentation. Most of them are passive aggressive losers who wish to castigate me for calling people “fat” or using the word “loser”. Go figure. Someone once said, “Never take advice from someone who doesn’t already have what you want”. I would add, “And make sure they earned it themselves, under the same circumstances you currently face.”

4.  Consider the Source.

Consider the source of the advice.  A bank manager or a teacher can’t tell you how to get rich – they aren’t making money themselves! Never take advice from people who even are more screwed up than you are. And let me assure you, truly wealthy people will NEVER tell you how much money they have, and they seldom flaunt it. Read “The Millionaire Next Door”. Anyone can put doctored income statements and fake checks on the internet as “proof” of how much money they made. The Internet is a dangerous place; it’s where the worst people hide. You can be anything you like on the Internet.

5.  Consider the Setting.

Are you being offered incentives, meals, drinks, and holidays in order to get you to hand over money? Are you getting whipped up into an emotional frenzy and told that if you don’t invest quickly, you will lose? Is there pressure to buy NOW? Are you being wined and dined, patted on the back, and manipulated? Is religion being used? Wake up and smell the coffee.

6.  Beware of Statistics.

Be very aware and careful of the use of statistics. Have you heard the one about the river-crossing statistician who drowns after determining that the water is, on average, only three feet deep? This, says author Sam L. Savage, is just one example of the “Flaw of Averages.”

7.  Manipulation Tactics.

Be careful of social manipulation, “Group Think”, peer pressure, greed, the use of sex, and quick, but short-term financial relief.

Personally, I have seen enough conmen and scammers to last me a lifetime, and the worst of them appear on seminar stages, behind pulpits, and at Franchise Shows. They come in all guises, always smiling and hugging.

Remove Risk

I hate risk, so I use Joint Ventures to create wealth. I do business with little time, no risk, no cost, no overhead, no marketing or sales budget, no selling, no employees, no inventory, and no sleepless nights. I create multiple streams of residual income so that I don’t have all my eggs in one basket, nobody can control of manipulate me, and everything I earn is 100% pure profit. If that appeals to you, check this link.

Never Compromise

I fired a client who was paying me $5,000 per month. He was arrogant and dishonest, and I don’t work with people I don’t like and respect. He said to me, “You’re new in Canada. Here, $5,000 per month is a lot of money to turn down.” I told him that it might be true for him, but that I wasn’t subject to his mental limitations. Today, I can buy and sell him.

We have many options, and we never have to compromise our values for money; prostitutes do that.

• The best way to predict the future is to create it.
• You don’t have to succumb to the limitations of others along the way.
• You don’t have to drop your standards or lower your expectations – that’s for weak people who don’t believe in themselves; they’re always looking for ran excuse to quit.

Can’t Afford a Ten-Dollar Shovel?

Someone asks you how he can get rich. You tell him he is standing on gold valued at millions of dollars, but to get to the gold, he needs to do some digging, and you have a shovel available for $20. He immediately responds, “But I can’t afford the shovel.” There can be a few reasons for this:

1. He’s stupid.
2. He’s lazy.
3. He doesn’t believe you.
4. He doesn’t believe in himself.
5. He’s a socialist and he expects you to give him the shovel, to do all the digging, and then give him all the gold.

It’s never a question of whether or not he can afford the shovel.

You Can “Find” the Money

When I have people showing up at our seminars and then telling me they can’t afford $497 to attend a Bootcamp that will teach them how to retire in a year with more residual income per month than they need to live on, I don’t even answer them. I don’t allow them to insult my intelligence.

If the toilet in their house broke down and they needed $497 to fix it, they would find the money. I focus on intelligent people who are prepared to pay and work. That’s less than 3% of the population.

Invest in Yourself

Would you spend $5,000 once (the shovel) to earn $5,000 every month for the rest if your life (the gold)? People who refuse to invest in themselves have no problem paying for hockey tickets, cigarettes, beer, and parties.

The average person would rather work for a salary with no chance of ever getting rich, than to take responsibility and spend half the time to get wealthy. That’s OK – I’m not looking for average people.

• I’m not looking for spoiled brats, socialists, arrogant children who think they’re entitled to everything,
• or cynical old men who think they know everything;

I’m looking for dishwashers who insist on owning restaurants, and people who are prepared to do whatever it takes to get rich, without compromising their values. We’re called DollarMakers for a reason.