To become a very high income earner, watch this video to learn what successful entrepreneurs do.
This might be a silly example, but I remember when I was a senior in high school, and I was trying to save a lot of money. I was mowing lawns back then, not the lawn care business I own now but, it was my first lawn care business. I remember I was subscribing to “Success” magazine, “Inc.” magazine, and “Entrepreneur” magazine, or something like that. Maybe I was subscribing to two, but I remember that I was going to get this third subscription to this magazine and I bet it cost $15, so I was trying to figure out which magazine I should cancel because I liked the two I was subscribing to.
It was so dumb in hindsight. I had a lot of money saved up at the time too, especially for a high school kid, but yet I wanted to conserve my money so I was willing to give up this $15 a year subscription and replace it with another one.
It’s a silly example, but I think it’s one that a lot of us do when it comes to education and knowledge. As I’ve become more successful, as I’ve been willing to spend more money to grow my ability and my education, I’ve observed that almost every single person I know that makes a lot of money and that owns a company that’s truly growing, they are almost all a part of a group of some kind, like a mastermind, a networking group, or some kind of a business group.
Now, I have some friends that are very successful that work for big companies like big multi-national companies that make tons of money that are an exception to this. But, I believe, they have been mentored up through their companies by internal people. Most of us entrepreneurs, businesspeople, we have nobody to talk to, nobody to go to, nobody understands what we’re going through.
I mean, there is nobody that will say to us, hey, here’s the next bottleneck that’s coming in your life. You better go figure this thing out now so that when that bottleneck appears, you can solve it. That’s why I think it’s incredible important to be part of these groups.
Where I’m going with this and why I gave the example of the magazine is, all the really good groups with the best people, the smartest people, and all the people you want to get to know, they’re all expensive. The free groups never last and they never work. The good ones are all expensive but I so believe in this. There’s no scenario where I would not be a part of a business group.
The challenge, it’s really difficult to figure out how you’re going to pay for it because what happens is you don’t get really successful and then join a business group. You can but, the reality is, you join some of these groups, you go to these conferences, and you buy the knowledge before you’re successful so that it will make you successful.
Let’s say you find something you could join for $400 a month and you’ll be surrounded by a lot of people that really could lift you up, motivate you, encourage you, and you’d learn a lot that you could take home and apply to your business. I want to share an idea of how to think about this because what happens is most individuals will get all excited, they’ll join something, they’ll get some success out of that thing, then they’ll get busy and then their excitement will fade.
Then they’ll say, wait, should I really be spending this money every month? Then one day, they’ll have this down day and they’ll say, you know what, I’m going to save some money. I’m going to exit that thing, and as a result, they miss out on all the future benefits of it.
Here’s how to mentally comfort yourself and pay for this thing so you don’t have to renegotiate with yourself every month if you should still continue doing it. Let’s say that this membership, this business group, this networking group you’re in costs $400 a month. My argument is, all that group has to do is help you sell an additional $1,000 a month in recurring work. That’s all it has to do.
Once it does that, it’s paid for forever and you never have to think about it again. The only reason you leave the group is if that group is no longer satisfying what you need and you move to another group. It’s a mistake, in my mind, to stop being part of a group altogether. Rather, I think you should, if you’re leaving one, you should go to the next one because it’s a common trait that I see with all very successful people.
The reason I say all you need to do is sell $1,000 worth of work is because if you think of how most jobs work, there’s 40% or less in labor costs, maybe 20% (this is a made-up number) variable costs such as fuel and some basic supplies and things like that, and then there’s about 40% that’s going to go into things like overhead and profit. Again, not perfect numbers, just an example.
I wouldn’t say to you that if it’s $400 a month, all you need to do is sell $400 in new work because that’s not true. You’ve got costs involved in performing that $400, in earning that $400. That’s why I say mentally if you can find $1,000 in recurring work that this thing you’re part of has helped you make, then mentally take it off the table. Quit renegotiating with yourself. Quit beating yourself up about the expense and realize that there are so many benefits to this thing and it’s paid for. The group helped you pay for it. It’s done. You don’t have to think about it anymore.
When you think about it that way, it’ll just simplify your thought process. It’ll be one less thing on your mental plate every month. It’s done, it’s taken care, and you’ll get all the benefit from now for years to come from being part of that thing. Again, all of the winners I know, all the people I know that make a lot of money, and to me $100,000 a year is not a lot of money, I’m talking a lot of money, they are all part of some type of a networking mastermind business type group.
