HOW IS YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH MONEY?

Money is one of the most emotional subjects on the planet. In fact, many people feel comfortable sharing intimate details about their sex lives than sharing details about their finances. Some people find it easy to make money, while others struggle. It’s  not because they are more intelligent, necessarily work harder nor have better luck, it’s simply because they think and act differently they have a better relationship with money. Trying to live a rich life, when you have a poor relationship with money is like trying to drive a car with one foot for the clutch, brakes and accelerator. No matter how hard you try, you never seem to get anywhere. Let me take you back in history. A thousand years ago, shells were used in exchange for food or labor but as trade became more complex, shells were replaced with precious metals. Then IOU’s-coins and pieces of paper.

Governments printed these monies and places valued on them. From an inherent standpoint, compared to precious metal or even agricultural produce, money is not valuable. What is valuable is the value we place on money. At birth, our mind is a clean slate, programmed genetically to do certain things. This includes the basics of movement and communication. A young child does not know enough to rely on his sense of reasoning. His critical faculties just cannot take him there. He does not possess the ability to question, judge, analyze, criticize and more importantly compare. That is why it’s so convenient for him to believe in Santa Claus or Father Christmas, Barney and Superman, until he grows up and fully takes control of his mind.

Until we take control of our minds, our beliefs about ourselves and the world come from the continued messages we hear in the first years of our lives. What we are told again and again particularly at times of emotional intensity has the most powerful effect. This is where many people get wrong notions about money.

‘Money corrupts’, ‘Money is evil’, There is not enough money to go around’, ‘You must always work hard before you can make money’ – are just a few of these misguided notions. If you believe you always have to work hard before you can make money. Then you will look only for jobs that require a lot of effort. If you are always paranoid and believe people will always rip you off, you will miss good money opportunities and in the end someone actually will rip you off I mean. If you believe you deserve to make money, you will indeed end up making money. However, first, you need to overhaul your money mind set. Many of us have inherited a mixed bag of positive and negative beliefs about money, one of which is resenting people who earned their wealth. People who did not have to sacrifice their family time, health or morally deficient things to make money at all costs. For what use will all the money be if you had no time to spend it. If you don’t have health, you don’t have anything. If you give up your family for wealth, you are the poorest person on the face of the earth.

But there are people who attained a wealthy status not falling prey to all these things. You need to give up your resentment towards these people who have more money than you. Find out how they did it.

1. Lose that ‘the-rich-only-get-richer-and-if-i-must-win-others-must-lose’ nonsense. The simple fact is if you dislike those who have a legal claim to their wealth; it will be difficult being one of them.
2. Money is not a measure of personal value. Wealthy people make themselves and all those around them better with money. Catering for your loved ones, parents, siblings whenever they have a financial need is nothing special. Do not beat your chest that you have ‘arrived’ in that regard. You are simply fulfilling your family responsibilities. Provide for those who are not part of your family tree. Give to those you do not expect a return. That my dear friend is WEALTH.
3. Avoid committing yourself to a future lifestyle based on your current income. Avoid debt. If you want to avoid the debt trap, keep your fixed expenses as low as possible. Do not make financial commitments to income you have not earned yet. Many people want to get out of debt. Once they save money by not spending, they go out to reward themselves by what…you guessed it shopping or buying ‘an-in-between present’ they don’t need – putting themselves right back where they started. If you must get out of debt, you must realize getting out of debt and not spending is the wrong goal. Same thing as wanting to lose weight and not eating at all. What you should do in both cases is reduce just how much you eat and spend and be disciplined about it.

7 FORMULAS FOR BUSINESS SUCCESS

Number one, set a specific goal and visualize it as a reality. Play the picture of your goal as already realized on the screen of your mind over and over again. Number two, look for a problem you can solve with a product or service that is high quality and good value.

All successful businesses are based on products or services that are high quality and good value. Number three, start small and learn your business thoroughly. Be patient. Invest time rather than a lot of money.

Bootstrap Your Way To Success

One of the best ways to build a business is to start off on a bootstrap. This means that you start off with very little money and you grow your business with the money that you earn in the business, rather than outside financing, borrowing, loans from friends and so on.

Test, Test, Test

Number four, test every major move before you invest in it. Test, test, test. Don't plunge into a business. Move ahead carefully, one step at a time.

Number five, expand on the basis of your successes, out of your profits, as you move along. In other words, only expand your business on money that you've earned in the business, not on borrowed capital.

Pick Your People Carefully

Number six, carefully select the people to help you expand and grow. The biggest mistakes you'll ever make will be in picking the wrong people to work with, so be very, very careful in picking the people you're going to work with in your business.

Use Financial Leverage

And number seven, use financial leverage. Financial leverage is business borrowing, lines of credit from the bank, which are based on the cash flow from your successful business.

The whole aim of starting a business is to develop a consistent, predictable source of cash flow in excess of cost and expenses and then to hold to the money. Banks will lend you all the money that you can service as debt with your cash flow.

Start Off Part Time

One final thing that you can do, and I've recommended that many people do this over the years, is if you're starting off with no money, go to work part-time for a business in a field that interests you. It's a great form of on-the-job training. Work evenings or work weekends. Or work on your holidays if you like.

Sometimes a business that looks big from the outside will look terrible once you start working for it. But sometimes when you start working for a business, you start to get a great understanding of how it works and you get insights on how you can improve it.

Learn What You Need To Learn

Remember this, though, most businesses fail because of managerial incompetence. So take the time to learn what you need to know to succeed. Be patient. The time you invest before you start will pay off over and over again in the months and years ahead.

Action Exercises

Here are two things you can do immediately to implement these formulas for business success:

First, be prepared. The number one reason that people succeed in starting their own businesses is that they have the knowledge and experience, in advance that they need to succeed. Do your homework.

Second, start small. Some people think that they can be successful faster by putting all their money up front at the very beginning. The opposite is true. Start small and grow out of your cash flow from successful operations.

A GREAT BOSS: HARD TO FIND, DIFFICULT TO LEAVE AND IMPOSSIBLE TO FORGET

I lost one of my managers a couple of years ago and I can’t seem to forget him or the legacy he left behind. He was one of my earliest examples of true leadership. I often refer to him as "The Memorable Leader."
I had a family emergency and before I could finish explaining to him the situation. He said, "And you are still standing here talking to me? Why aren't you out the door yet? I'll cover for you." I smiled then went to my desk, took my belongings and left. Thereafter, he had my full commitment.

Here are five qualities of memorable leaders:

1. Integrity & Authenticity go hand in hand. He was honest with employees even though this trait was sometimes unpopular with top management. He often took the slack for his team. If leadership is not authentic, then what is it?
2. Humility. True leaders always aim to serve rather than be served. Being humble makes you more approachable to your followers and allows you to create an environment of open communication and more effective feedback.
3. Empathy plays a critical role in one’s ability to be a successful leader. It sharpens your "people acumen" and allows leaders to develop and maintain relationships with those they lead. Leaders that possess this trait always make time for people. They possess high emotional intelligence (EI).
4. Communication Skills - Great leaders are able to communicate their vision in such a way that motivates their team. They are great communicators; quick to listen and slow to speak. We never heard of upcoming changes via the grapevine. He always kept us in the loop.
5. Inspirational- That manager didn't need a title to get us to complete tasks. He had our full support. Words such as "Good work team," "You are the best”, “I trust your judgement” were at the top of his dictionary. Team spirit was high during his reign.

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." - John Quincy Adams

Managers are forgotten but true leaders live on in the hearts and minds of followers. Sometimes I can still picture him walking through the office, greeting staff on mornings, and might even give me a little nod or pat on the back. Those were the special moments I still hold dear. It doesn’t take much to create those special moments with your team.
Good bosses are few and far in between, but if and when you get one, really appreciate them.

8 OBVIOUS YET IGNORED WAYS YOU ARE SABOTAGING YOUR CAREER

You may be surprised at how often people sabotage their career paths without realizing it. Even if you think you have a good job and are able to cope with it easily, there might be some mistakes we usually ignore, which are actually highly important. If you want to be better at work and get a promotion, take a look at the mistakes that prevent us from having a successful career to make sure you don`t make them yourself…

1. Too much help

You can`t be the best out of the staff if you always put your own tasks aside to help your colleagues. You`re neither their personal teacher nor a baby sitter. Then why do you have to do someone`s job? Not only do you accomplish those tasks for free, it affects your own success as well.
You don’t want to waste your valuable time and effort to make someone’s life easier. Your boss will most likely promote those who give better results but not the ones who are kind by nature. Sometimes being a bit selfish is useful.

2. Too much routine

Getting stuck in a rut is one of the ways you may be sabotaging your career. Your routine showers you with lots of boring everyday responsibilities and that take a huge part of your energy. It makes you forget about any growth and the only thing you can think about is the end of your work day. Don’t be afraid to get more interesting projects and try to develop yourself all the time. Look for the ways to master some new skills and broaden your knowledge.

3. Setting wrong goals

Do you want to get a promotion? When do you hope to get it? If your answer is “yes I do want but don`t know when,” then you set wrong goals. Aim to reach the greatest success at work you can imagine. I`m serious, there’s nothing impossible that we can’t reach, except eternity, of course. If you want to become a manager or you want to start your own business, what are you waiting for? Set accurate goals and do your best to reach them.

4. Perfectionism

Being a perfectionist is bad for your career as well. Even though you`re working hard to do everything perfectly, too much attention to the details can also bring you troubles. You`ll not get a promotion if you try to idealize each and every task you have. While your colleagues take more difficult tasks, you still do the same work because you can`t leave it until everything is as perfect as you want.

5. Lots of stress

You get stressed at work from time to time as we all do when everything goes wrong but actually it`s not a serious problem. Ignoring those stress signs and pretending that you`re fine when it`s not so indeed can ruin your career, not to mention that it can also damage your health. Learn to keep your stress level at bay and control your emotions. If you notice that it’s harder for you to concentrate on your tasks, irritability becomes an ordinary thing and you frequently forget new information, it’s a sure sign to take a break.

6. Choosing a wrong career path

One of the most common mistakes lots of people commit in their lives is choose a wrong career path. If you`re not really interested in your work and you don`t think about a promotion, you`ll never be successful. When you think about money only, it means you don’t like what you do and you believe promotion is all about money, nothing else. Although making more money is essential, you can’t be happy when you hate your job.

7. Overworking

There’s a big difference between working hard and working too much. Many successful people work 2 hours a day and manage to accomplish their tasks on time. Overworking can lead to both physical and emotional health problems and what`s more is that your results become worse when there`s no time to refresh your mind and get enough sleep.

8. Being weak

No offence, but I don’t respect people who give up without trying to improve a situation. Oh, please, don’t think that I’m a super strong man – I had a habit of giving up too soon and I didn’t respect myself for it therefore spent a lot of time and effort to ditch this habit. That was ten years ago when I didn’t know that I could be strong. I was not  taught to be and giving up wasn’t a big deal for me. I don’t blame my parents, though. They did their best to raise me and I’m grateful to them for everything they taught me.
I do want to be successful at work, which is why I never give up when I face difficulties. If you have to accomplish the project you have no idea how to do, let your boss know about it. Hopefully, they will help you. If not, it’s okay to tell the truth instead of looking for excuses.
We often subconsciously sabotage our careers. You think you love your job but then see that time flies and you have the same responsibilities, the same paycheck and the same hope to get a promotion in future. But now I hope you’ve realized what prevents you from being successful at work. Are you subconsciously sabotaging your own success?