Bad Money
May 6th, 2015 // 11:33 am @ Scott Manning
To pick up on our conversation last week, I want to clarify something… so, there is actually no “bad money”, but there are bad, destructive, detrimental ways to make money and certainly people to make, take, share it with.
Today I’d like to talk with you about something critically important to your long term success and more importantly, your sanity and lifestyle. Although by the clinical definition of insanity/sanity, I’m sure it exists, but I don’t believe you could classify any of our minds or lives or practices or businesses as being sane, at least not all of the time.
Anyhow, back on point – you must always be monitoring and assessing not just the money you make, but how you make the money – what are you doing, being, giving up, obligating yourself to in order to exchange your “resources” (meaning life, time, energy, people, money, brainpower, etc) in order to receive money.
Of course there are those societal judgments put on how people make money through illegal measures and immoral ventures, but there are also criticism for money made from the internet, paid to professional athletes, selling of certain products, and on and on.
The power of all of this is you get to choose what, how, who, when, why you make money.
The message today is not about those 5 things, rather the consequences of your choice. And I use the word consequence intentionally, but, you could say result, outcome, responsibility or other words.
Many weeks I talk to you about your principle based business and life decision making process, about setting priorities, about goals, ambitions, and the “reasons” and purpose why you are doing what you are doing.
But, do you often look at the flip side of things, which is what I’m discussing here.
If you feel stuck, uneasy, uncertain, or anything other than confidently focused and deliberately driven in a direction for your business and life it is because you are ignoring some “consequence” of a decision you’ve made that is standing in your way of further, faster, more fruitful progress.
As example, I often say not all clients, patients, or customers are created equal, not all means of making money are created equal because the same amount of money is not the measuring stick it is what you had to do to get the amounts.
Last year I made a decision to eliminate certain income streams that were not congruent with our future vision, that were holding us back taking time and energy away from the direction we really wanted to go. Keeping that money was short term gratification not long term ambition focused and principled by how, why, when, where, what we wanted to be doing.
We gave up this money, substantial at the time, because it’s what had to be done in order to free up “space” in all senses of the word to allow for “better” ways to make the money.
You see, money, just like relationships comes with obligation and responsibility, in another word, value. And just like two people like different clothes, food, tv shows, just like couples expect and respect things differently between each other, people view and value money differently.
If you are not acutely aware of this for each aspect of your business, you are not clearly understanding of what obligations and responsibilities you are indebted to your customers and clients. I’ve learned this the hard way many times over.
It is a rather complicated concept but more damaging is holding you back and boxing you a trap that business owners and entrepreneurs put themselves in – not realizing that a dollar is not a dollar, that present bank dollars are not future bank dollars, and what goes into creating, earning, making each and every dollar must be considered.
So, how do you figure this out and take everything into consideration to remove obstacles and avoid problems in the future.
You must have some “rules” that you live by that you make decisions by and you must continually give yourself and your business a check-up to honestly assess this.
Here are some things to think about:
1. Is there anything or anyone keeping you awake at night that you feel negatively about or are worried about some “future” problems – don’t delay another day, deal with it head on, fire them, make amends with them, do something to diffuse the situation for your own benefit.
2. For each major aspect of your business, each income stream, ask yourself what am I not doing because I am doing this…then determine and make sure that “this” is of higher value for you based on your goals and objectives – if not, adjust, replace, eliminate, change.
3. Manage, manage, manage and control, control, control clients, patients, customers and employees and everyone else in your life’s expectations. Do not leave things unsaid or unclear, paint the picture of what will happen now, next, and later and legitimately under promise and over deliver. Make sure you are exceeding expectations. That will happen directly and only because you managed and controlled them in the first place.
4. Make sure you are working towards a bigger vision, objective, goal in your business and life, whether that’s specifically for your future or your wealth or all of the above, you must have something to base your opportunity assessment and decisions on – and then check that every dollar is working towards that, not taking away from that.
5. Be willing and ready and accepting of sacrifice a dollar today for ten dollars tomorrow. Income chasers are poor, stressed, short sighted, and “employed” in a vicious cycle of pretending it will change. Business builders who follow mine and others principles and systems for creating sustainable income, leverage success, and something bigger than themselves will find the lifestyle and rewards worth the discipline to become and live like a true entrepreneur.
Look the moral of the story today as it is most weeks is don’t settle, don’t put up with bullshit customers who’s money is poison to your goals and expectations unreasonable and detrimental to your ability to do everything else you want to do. And don’t be full of shit yourself by looking at this inaccurately or ignoring the realities of HOW, WHEN, WHY, WHERE and WHAT you are doing to make the money.
There is no bad money, but there certainly are bad ways of making money that will sabotage your success and will either paralyze you from achieving your goals or be like a cancer that will kill you before you and your future ever meet.
Remember, your choices are what bring you consequences.
The good news though, you get to decide.
Category : Blog
