Screw the 9 to 5 grind...
The wise businessman gave the young man a very sage piece of advice. “It has never been, and never will it be, my intention to make money,” he told him. “My intention has always been to make a better product.”
When we shift the focus from how we can “get” to how we can “give”, success becomes inevitable.
You Get What You Give
Making Money and Creating Wealth are Really 2 Different Things
Think about the fact that every year the world economy grows by about one and a half trillion dollars ($1,500,000,000,000). That’s one and a half thousand billion. That’s a lot of zero’s. But every year we devastate the planet to the tune of four and half trillion ($4,500,000,000,000) – which is about 3 times the wealth that is created by the world economy.
The point here is that if you make more withdrawals than the amount you have in your bank account, at some time you’re going to bounce a check. This could have devastating effects for us in the example of what we are doing to the planet.
In 2007 successful online entrepreneur Jay Kubassek shifted his focus from making money to helping other people build profitable internet businesses. In this way, he indirectly increased his own income as a result of helping others to increase theirs.
As an entrepreneur, you have a relationship with your customers. At some moment in time, there is a tipping point. This is where equal value is given and equal value is shared.
So, for example, you have a person who is charging $100 for a bagel. Well, he may get away with charging that amount for a bagel if there are no other bagel shops and there is a tremendous demand for bagels.
But at some point, somebody is going to figure out an alternative or open another bagel shop. A fair market price will then determine the price of the bagel.
You can get away with charging $100 for a bagel for a certain amount of time but is it sustainable. And that really is the big question.
But unfortunately, it’s not something that most opportunity seekers want to talk about. On the other hand, it’s something that every true entrepreneur loves to talk about.
The difference between a ‘biz opp seeker and entrepreneur is this: An entrepreneur has a commitment to creating and delivering something of value – a product, service, or solution to solve somebody else’s problem. They’re committed to doing it in a way that costs far less monetarily than the actual value received by the customer.
Create a Long-Term Sustainable Business
Back to the example of the bagel: If a bagel is sold for a dollar and you’re starving, absolutely famished. Is the dollar you paid for the bagel money well spent (especially if it comes presented just the way you like – toasted and with your favorite filling).
Think about the value in that little bagel. In the right place, at the right time, and sold to the right person that bagel may even be worth $100.
But in order for the bagel industry to be sustainable, it has to be at a price where 100% of the time people are getting more value from the bagel than that dollar is worth to them. And that’s how most industries work.
One other quick example: Let’s say that car tires cost $1000 apiece (instead of $100 – $500). And there was some conglomerate company that has the market locked up (maybe they had tires patented).
There is a point at which people just will not be able to afford tires – it’s called price gauging. Entrepreneurs will inevitably come in and find some way to solve this problem and maybe they’ll come up with an alternative to tires.
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It does not matter what industry or business you are in and it does not even matter what state the economy is in – you have to make sure your business is sustainable and self-sustainable. If you are taking out more than you are giving, there comes a day when the checks start to bounce.
How does this matter to you as a business owner, entrepreneur, or business opportunity seeker? Well, opportunity seekers are like traders in the stock market.
Did you know that 50% – 60% of trade in the stock market are hyper-trades that are carried out by supercomputers in nanoseconds. Massive supercomputers are connected to Wall Street by high-speed internet connections and there are millions of trades a day that is made by computers.
All they are doing is manipulating the market by using mathematical algorithms. But what value is being contributed to society by this industry?
We saw the banking collapse in 2008. There are close to 16 million people who lost their jobs as a result and those jobs will never come back.
Yet we have the same industry, the same economists, the same regulations, the same everything. I’m not making a judgment on it, just pointing out some simple facts.
There’s a Very Harsh Correction Coming
But there is another industry that’s also due to a very harsh correction. And that’s the whole ‘make money industry’ – the biz pop industry.
It’s not sustainable to have an industry that has 10,000’s of people or even millions of people all trying to do the same thing – ‘get money’. What are they actually contributing and what value are they giving to society to get that money?
There is where it gets scary. A fellow entrepreneur pointed this out a couple of years ago in Austin, Texas. A group of internet marketers was discussing this very problem.
Even though there are a great many people in the industry with good intentions, the problem created by the majority trying to ‘get money’ without giving value to society in return has become epidemic.
As a result, we have a situation where the industry is not sustainable. This may sound a little frightening and scary for those of us who make our living in this industry.
But it’s because there are those of us who love the biz pop industry and the internet marketing world to the point where we are not afraid to speak out and tell it like it is. It becomes sickening to see the few people who know how to sell a ‘get money’ dream that is actually a hollow promise.
You see the difference between ‘earning money’ and ‘getting money’ goes back to the oldest rule in the book: You get what you give.
The Wisdom of a Professional Entrepreneur
Here’s an example where a young entrepreneur talks to a seasoned professional:
The young entrepreneur says, “I’ve been struggling, I’ve been trying and I’ve been racking my brains to increase my profits for years but I just can’t seem to get more money”.
The seasoned business veteran looks at him and shakes his head and says, “Your mistake is that you are focusing on the wrong thing. A true entrepreneur, a true business person, a true brand, a real company, never focuses on profits first”.
The professional entrepreneur continued, “Always focus on creating a better product. Because when you have a product that out-performs and delivers more value than the competition is when you have an advantage. That is how you build a sustainable business and a sustainable industry”.
Unfortunately, the vast majority in the online world are looking to ‘get money’. They are being fed this fallacy that you come become independently wealthy without actually creating value.
It’s not possible. It’s not sustainable and it will implode. Any business that’s been based on those principles has imploded.
Think of the banking industry where a number of really prominent Hedge Fund owners were revealed to be operating Ponzi Schemes. From Bernie Mahdoff to Allen Standford in Texas.
It amazes me that people think that they can get away with making a promise and taking people's hard-earned money in return for selling them a feeling or a hope. But what happens after that feeling of hope or inspiration wears off.
This is where people realize that they are just part of a money game and they are not really contributing anything of real value to society. Not really learning anything.
They’ve done nothing to earn the money that they are making. They are just manipulating other people's emotions.
There are government and consumer agencies in place to prevent this from happening. But at the end of the day when you make the commitment in your heart as an entrepreneur to stop settling for the easy money and go for the true wealth.
When you do this there will be a level of satisfaction and fulfillment. That’s a level of fulfillment and satisfaction that can only come from earning your way.
So where does this leave those who are ‘biz pop seekers’ with a biz pop addiction (the biz pop or make money ‘rush’). I remember looking online for a way to make money to replace my job.
Initially, I thought that there was some magic bullet solution and I thought I was missing it. Maybe it would change if I created a better marketing and a better sales funnel or a different widget, etc.
I researched different internet marketing programs and there were people who promised me the world but after a month or two disenchantment would set in. I would then ask myself the question, “Do I continue with this? Am I on the right track or on the wrong path? I kept checking with my internal compass and it would say to me, “You’re on the wrong path”.
This does not mean that if a good opportunity comes along to make a few bucks you should not take it. But a true entrepreneur is never going to lose sight of the big picture.
A true entrepreneur knows that he gets what he gives. A true entrepreneur gives more in every sense of the word and makes this his primary focus every day.
Take a look at your business activities. What is it that you’ve done? What are the actions? What are the actual things that you’ve done?
Say you’ve worked 100 hours in your business in the last 2 months. What did you do in that 100 hours? What value did your actions contribute to your customers or potential customers?
Monetize the value you give
The second question is, were you able to monetize the value that you delivered. Because you can deliver all the value in the world but if you don’t monetize it then you will not make money.
An example would be someone who is building a list using proper internet marketing skills and tactics. What does building a list mean?
It means building a list of subscribers and followers. You make special offers using (lead magnets) to get people to opt in to a website and go into a sales funnel.
You then build a relationship with that list by sending them content. You give them things that are free and are useful to them.
What you are doing is putting value back out there. Your subscribers have given you their email address, name, or telephone number and their investment is minimal – maybe 5 minutes of their time.
But in return what you do is give them some life-changing, transformational information. You share with them some links to great content and your thought, opinions, and predictions.
Over time you build a relationship and rapport and give value to your list. If you do this properly when you do make an offer to your list you are going to have some buyers. And that’s when the payoff for giving value happens.
But the ‘biz pop seeker’ wants to see that happen on day 1. They want to put the seed into the soil and they want the harvest the same day.
That’s the ‘get money’ mentality. But in reality, it does not work that way. To earn money you have to understand the full process front to back.
It’s also important to understand that there is no better place, there is no better time, there is no better industry and no better way to earn a ‘walk-away income’ and create a ‘Digital Lifestyle’ than internet marketing – if you do it properly.
Many people have committed themselves to become professionals, to evolve, and transition themselves from ‘biz pop seekers’ to true professional entrepreneurs and digital experts.
People on this path are actually acquiring real skills and creating products of value. They are giving more than they are taking in the form of value and as a result, they are changing their lives.
They are not doing it overnight and they are not even doing it in a week or a month. Probably not even in a year. But what does it matter?
The next 3 years are going to come and go anyway, whether you start to make the transition to a professional entrepreneur or whether you stay in ‘biz opp’ or ‘opportunity seeker’ mode.
The truth is, a few years from now you’ll either have a sustainable income that you won’t have to worry about drying up, going away because the company got shut down, ran out of steam, or became saturated.
Do it right and you’ll end up with real-life skills to write your own paycheck from anywhere in the world. You will have a ‘Digital Life’ because you’ve given value to society and you’ve earned it.
If you are serious about making the transition from the old traditional economy and want to know how to THRIVE & PROFIT in the new Digital Economy… Click Here!
Merv Stevens is an experienced Online Creator and a member of the Digital Marketing Education platform Launch You.
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