Don't think like an employee

When I first began my quest for financial independence, many of the books I read or the speakers I listened to(I read a LOT of books, bought a lot of tapes, and attended a LOT of seminars) all talked about the "psychological aspect" of success. This was frustrating to me because I wanted to learn of a vehicle to take me to financial success. I did not want to hear the psychological mumbo jumbo.

However, once I DID find a vehicle and began to prosper financially, I discovered how important the mind really is to be at your best-both physically and emotionally, as well as financially.To ignore this, you will find yourself far less successful than you could be.

This fact was brought home to me recently when one of my clients was getting discouraged. Her home business was not growing as fast as she wanted it to. In fact, she had been in business for over a month-and still had not made any money! How dreadful! She was discouraged and seemed ready to give up.

I had to remind her, in addition to being patient, she also had to change her mindset. She had a full time job where she was an employee, and had an employee mindset. working 40 hours or so per week and getting a paycheck every week. You work for someone else, you get paid. Employee mindset.

However, in a business, you must have an entrepreneur mindset. Many entrepreneurs work 60, 70, even 80 hours a week, especially in the beginning of their enterprise. And, many times, the payoff is not immediate. However, as you GROW your business, you will find the payoff can be GREAT. Personal satisfaction as well as the potential to earn far MORE money than you could ever make working for somebody else. But you must change your mindset.

There is an irrefutable law of life, it's even mentioned in the Bible. It is that you reap what you sow. Put another way, what goes around comes around. Even though many people think this is commone sense and needs no explanation, for those that have never heard of this concept, I will explain. Quite simply and literally, if you plant an apple seed in good soil, you will grow an apple tree. Plant an orange seed, you will grow an orange tree.

Figuratively speaking, if you go around showing love and concern for others, others will also show love and concern for you. Conversly, if you sow hatred and bitterness toward others, you will find that others show hatred and bitterness toward you. You do reap what you sow.

So what does this have to do with business? Everything!

First of all, when you are an employee, you need to find out all about your employer, what is required of your job, what you are expected to do, and what you need to do to get raises, more benefits, etc. If you do these things, that is planting a seed(sowing) and, if you do the things you are supposed to, you most likely will get raises and extra benefits(reaping.)

In the same way, when you start a business, you need a different mindset than you have as an employee. You are not working by the clock(not paid by the hour) but you are working by the job, what can you get done. If you are selling somethiing in your business, it may take you 10 hours to make a $200 profit. That of course comes to $20/hour. But again, we are not to think that way-that is how employess think. It may take 100 hours to make the $200 profit-that comes to only $2/hr. Nobody would work for that! But, with an entrepreneur mindset, you realize you are building your business. Eventually, all the time you put in your business will pay off-if you do NOT uproot the seed(quit!)

Somehow, we have heard stories of a few individuals that have literally made millions of dollars in their new internet business almost overnight. I liken that to the Charles Atlas stories I used to read on the backs of comic books when I was a kid.

Charles Atlas claimed that in just a few weeks, he could turn a skinny kid into a hunk of muscle that could fight off any bully. I often run into people in the gym that are afraid they are gonna get too muscular. All I can say is-don't worry, it is not gonna happen!

Anybody that has not been blessed with a geneticaly perfect body knows that to lose (or gain) weight in the right places is not all that easy. It takes hard work and discipline and eventually changes are made. Exercise, rest and eating right will make a difference. There are the exceptions that can eat anything and never gain a pound, or the bodybuilders that can just work out occasionally and not eat right and still look great. But these are the exceptions-not the rule.

It is the same way in business. Occasionally, someone will have a new idea, concept or way of doing something and they quickly make a fortune-almost overnight. But these are exceptions-not the rule. And most of the time, we find these "overnight successes" usually stuggled for years before their "overnight" success. Bill Gates is the obvious first example that comes to mind. He was an entrepreneur for years before he "suddenly" became the richest men in America!

The whole point of this article is, there are really very few overnight successes. There are shortcuts you can take in your quest for success(such as getting a mentor, reading books, going to seminars) but to succeed in your business, you must continue to plant seeds to reap a harvest. You may find yourself working for $2/hr or less in your business, but that is ok. If you do NOT quit, you will find yourself making $200, or even $2000/hr or MORE.

Find a business you love, do what you have to do, keep working it, learn all you can about it, keep your full time job at the start(if you can) give great customer service and you will find, eventually, you will gain personal as well as financially freedom in your own business. You will also become a more well rounded individual that enjoys life much more as well!