Some of my biggest pet peeves are the headlines I see in emails or Facebook ads or websites that say things like “3 Steps to Make you Millions.”
I read them and all I see is “Get your whopper here with a side of fries.”
Because headlines like “3 Steps to…” promise the same things fast food does – quick, cheap, low effort, and a promise to satiate.
Except what we know about fast food is that it only lasts for the time it takes to down the burger and fries. It’s a convenient solution in the moment when we just want to eat something without the work of buying more groceries or prepping the food or preheating the oven, but a terrible solution for long-term health, energy, and actual satiation.
We know a fast food diet isn’t a sustainable plan for our bodies.
In the same manner, get-rich-quick schemes aren’t sustainable for our businesses.
Making the money we want to make and keeping the money we make is way more than just a few fast actions.
It’s creating sustainable methods of generating cash in our businesses so our businesses survive. AND it’s dealing with the emotional reactions we have to money so we stop preventing ourselves from getting it in the first place or throwing it away once we do.
As Mike Michalowicz, author of Profit First, says, “Wealth is a game of emotion.” When you play it right, you have money, you make an impact, and you leave behind a legacy.
Play it wrong or ignore it altogether and you create a cycle of feast and famine or flash-in-the-pan success.
Here’s the 3-2-1 on why it’s not as simple as 1-2-3.
3 TRUTHS
- When we make fast cash without changing the way we think about or emotionally react to money, it can actually cause more problems than it solves. According to the National Endowment for Financial Education, about 70 percent of people who win a lottery or receive a large windfall go bankrupt within a few years.
- It’s rarely as fast and easy as the “experts” tell you it is. These “make a million dollars in your sleep” offers are incredible at highlighting the possibilities while skimming over or completely ignoring the probabilities. They showcase a few outliers as if this is the norm. While you can make really good money as you grow your business, just remember that “all overnight success takes about 10 years” (Jeff Bezos).
- Money is like gasoline. It simply increases an already burning fire. So whoever you are now and whatever beliefs you hold now will only intensify as you increase cash. Your fear of losing money? It will get worse. That lack of trust in your relationships? It will amplify. The old beliefs that money is evil or money will abandon you? They will get louder. Until we examine and define who we are, how much money we make, or how fast we make it won’t matter. We must get solid in who we are then, no matter where we go in life, we’ll take that person with us, and make decisions (financial and otherwise) based on that person and the impact and legacy they want to leave behind.
2 ACTIONS
- Start talking to your money because this is the best way to begin developing a relationship with it that will last a lifetime (not just for the moment).
- Sign up for my challenge Chaos to Cash to learn more ways to get the results you want that aren’t based on quick and easy, but impactful and long-lasting.
1 QUESTION
- What has been my approach to money — life in the fast food lane or sustainable action?
Signing up for the Chaos to Cash Challenge is easy, free, and even if you can’t attend live, you’ll get access to the replays. This is a low-stress challenge guaranteed to get results. Join me.
To your impact and legacy,
