Counting Your Blessings?

Feeling a bit down and depressed? I have a few solutions: I can watch my Talladega Nights DVD – shake ‘n bake! Or I can get real busy. Or I can spend some time in a beautiful forest – I live in Vancouver, so we have lots of them around us. But what works best for me is to simply count my blessings.

We spend a lot of time focused on what we don’t have, what we don’t want, and what we don’t like. That’s a surefire route to visit the kennel of the Black Dog of depression, the slough of despond, or the local gun shop. Instead, we should focus on what’s great about our lives (have you noticed you’re not blind?), what we have to be grateful for, and all the things that worked out right for us. Consider all the great people in your life that put up with your misery and whining, the fact that you have a full stomach (OK - in some cases, too full, fatty!), and that you’re reading a Blog article instead of laboring in some salt mine, even though you may well deserve the latter...

Seriously, it’s just a case of switching from half empty to half-full, from the black cloud to the silver lining, and from the “I’m getting so old” to “Today is the youngest I’ll ever be in my life again!” Instead of the pathetic response to “How ya doin’?” of “NOT TOO BAD”, how about “I’m happy, healthy and successful”? Instead of watching Wolf Blitzer, why not watch Dave Chappelle? Not too hard. I’d rather be watching Talladega Nights than CNN any day of the week. I seldom get a chuckle out of watching the stooges of Collectivism. Unless it’s Glenn Beck, of course – at least he has brains and guts. But I digress. Choose what you feed your brain.

My biggest blessing is the wonderful people in my life. One can’t be depressed when spending time with my amazing family, or the incredibly positive DollarMakers Team. When I stagger out of a Starbucks on a high after meeting with one of my JV partners, it’s not the caffeine. SO: get out a piece of paper, make a list of twenty things, circumstances, and people that you’re grateful for, and feel good.

“When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.”
~ Johnson Oatman Jnr.

Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com

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Quality versus Quantity in Joint Ventures

He arrives at a business networking meeting with a huge stack of business cards, which he aggressively thrusts into everyone’s hands. He leaves his glossy flyers on every table. He talks at you, but doesn’t listen to you. His eyes are constantly flitting about, searching for his next victim. He puts you on hold during phone conversations to see if he can find a more lucrative caller. He spams innocent people with his advertising e-mails and irritates all and sundry with his fax broadcasts. He is the typical, self-employed salesman who believes in quantity instead of quality. And he seldom makes money or maintains long-term business relationships.

Would you rather spend $100 marketing to each of ten highly qualified prospects, or $1 on each of 1000 unqualified, random suspects? Would you like to make much more money in considerably less time, and enjoy working with good people? Would you like to build long-term business relationships with high quality people, or constantly be frustrated with losers and posers who have neither brains nor money? It’s better to drive for two hours to meet with one winner than to spend five minutes on the phone with a loser. By being very selective and carefully qualifying prospective Joint Venture Partners, you will be a happier, more successful broker. The only “cold calling” you should ever be involved with is when make a phone call while standing outside in midwinter.

The very best Joint Venture Partners I have found are high quality people whom I met on my $500 per Delegate JV Broker Bootcamps or who were introduced to me by other winners. I no longer answer my telephone unless my Caller ID shows me that a winner is calling. I very seldom attend face-to-face meetings and I do not do business with people who are not Members of the DollarMakers Joint Venture Forum. And the more selective I get, the more money I make and the more time I have. I have learnt to say “No” a lot more. I seek to leverage my time at every opportunity. I do not enter JV’s that have less than $1,000 per month income potential, and I insist on reviewing my prospective partner’s track records before even considering doing business with them. I won’t speak to groups of less than 40 people, and even then, I need to know who is in the room. Finally, always be prepared to terminate a JV at any point, should you feel uncomfortable with the JV partner. Cut bait as soon as you see those red flags waving at you.

By respecting and valuing your time and qualifying your prospects, you will attract better people. For example, how much is an hour of your time worth? Attending a one-on-one meeting can take up three hours, including travel. Can you justify that time without serious evaluation? Could you use the phone and e-mail instead? People appreciate and respect scarcity. Would you find it easy to get an appointment with a very successful person? No. And would you take a call on your cell phone or play with your little Blackberry while in a meeting with a celebrity? I think not. Would you put the President on hold? Try putting me on hold and see if you can get me on the phone again. Show up late for an appointment with me and see what happens. The most successful people I know treat everyone with respect and deference. And they demand to be treated in the same way.

They say, "You have to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince." Why not do a few "Frog Tests"" before the smooching starts? And remember that princes will not introduce you to paupers.

Less is more. We can’t afford to waste our most precious resource, which is our time. We can’t afford to do minimum wage jobs like cleaning, ironing, and washing cars. We don’t need the aggravation of working with rabble. Set the bar high. Demand excellence. Expect results. Evaluate your return on investment. Refuse to be politically correct. Cut to the chase. Be kind to people, but don’t compromise. Be ruthlessly self-disciplined. And always remember that for successful people, the 80/20 Pareto principle doesn’t apply – for us, it’s 95/5: at best, five percent of the people are worth the consideration of your attention.

Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com