Poverty Beckons the Distracted

Imagine a sculptor who is working on a piece of marble. If he keeps changing his mind, he’ll end up with a tiny piece of misshapen, worthless marble. In our world of instant gratification and high tech narcissism, with a lot of dishonest snake oil salespeople promising overnight success, it’s easy to be distracted and hard to stay the course. There is a way to fast track your success, however.

Over twenty years in business, we have seen many entrepreneurs come and go. They usually quit just before they succeed. The main reasons for their failure are the following:
1. Unrealistic Expectations. They expect to get rich quick with little time and work invested. This is simply a lack of business experience – you have to put in hard work until you have momentum.
2. Lack of Commitment. They will promise you the world when they start, but they turn tail and run at the first sign of trouble, hardship, or challenge. They leave the back door open and secretly doubt they will succeed. They look for reasons why they won’t make it, based on their own poor self-esteem.
3. Lack of Work. If they had a job, they would work at least 10 hours a day. On their own, they work very little, and if they do, they spend all their time on the easy things. They don’t understand that you have to work on the 20% that gets the 80%. Do the right thing, the hard thing, the uncomfortable thing, and you’re probably on the right track.
4. Lack of Focus. They try to be all things to all men and have scattered attention, blurred vision and no definite goals, plan of action or strategy.

Poverty stands on the sideline, beckoning them with false promises of greener grass (over the cesspit), easier money, and bizarre deals. Like the pedophile, Poverty looks for the weak, the vulnerable, the distracted, and the disloyal. She targets those who have secretly never really committed and who doubt themselves.

Here’s how you can insure your success:

1. Burn your boats and bridges. Brick the back door up. Cut off your own retreat. Lock yourself in to win, without even considering the possibility of defeat.
2. Spend every waking hour on your clearly defined objective, passionately and energetically working with a commitment to do whatever it takes UNTIL (not IF) you acquire crucial mass and the necessary momentum.
3. Cut out any distraction, ignore the offers of greener grass, and remember, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Strong people get even more determined in the face of difficulties. Detours strengthen them. They learn from their mistakes. They do only those things, which get the highest return on investment.
4. Build for the long term, with people who have already demonstrated their ability to succeed against all odds. Hitch your wagon to a star. Keep your eye on the goal, the big picture, and the ultimate objective.
Poverty does not beckon winners. She is invisible to them, so she doesn’t even try. Winners start with the end in mind and end with the satisfaction of knowing that they saw the David in the marble when it was still just a large, ugly rock. They stand back and look at their accomplishments with well-deserved contentment, while the losers rush to the next Get Rich Quick seminar to get further into debt. Winners are focus, committed and absolutely convinced of their own success.

Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com