Breaking free brian armstrong (ebook) by DDVskills

BREAKING FREE. Copyright ÂŠ 2007 by Brian Armstrong. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.

For

information, address Lulu Enterprises, Inc. 860 Aviation Parkway Suite 300 Morrisville, NC 27560. Printed in the United States of America.

This book is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information on the subject of starting a business. While all of the stories and anecdotes described in the book are based on true experiences, some of the names are pseudonyms, some stories are compilations, and some situations have been changed slightly for educational purposes and to protect each individualâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s privacy. It is sold with the understanding that neither the Author nor the Publisher is engaged in rendering legal, tax, accounting, or other professional services by publishing this book. As each individual situation is unique, questions relevant to starting a business and specific to the individual should be addressed to an appropriate professional to ensure that the situation has been evaluated carefully and appropriately. The Author and Publisher specifically disclaim any liability, loss, or risk that is incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, or the use and application of any of the contents of this work.

Visit our website at www.startbreakingfree.com ISBN 978-1-4303-0787-7 Cover Design by Angi Shearstone Illustrations by Seema Doshi

For my Parents, without whom I never would have had such a head start on life.

Contents 1

The First Step on the Journey

Is it Right for Me?

Building the Confidence to Take the Scary Step

Taking the Pay Cut

Finding Your Path and Purpose in Life

What Kind of Business Should I Start?

135

The Nuts and Bolts of Starting a Business

175

Develop a Plan for Action! â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Making it Stick

205

Afterword

224

Recommended Resources

229

Chapter 1 The First Step on the Journey “So many fail because they don't get started - they don't go. They don't overcome inertia. They don't begin.” - W. Clement Stone

A WAKE UP CALL was on my way to a party one Friday evening when I just happened to pass my old office building in downtown

Houston. The lights of the city were starting to come on to form the beautiful evening skyline, and a feeling of excitement hung in the air as people headed out on the town to release the stress of the long work week they had just finished. As I drove past that building, I happened to notice a huddled figure emerging from the revolving glass doors. The logo on his oversized laptop bag was unmistakable; he worked for my old employer. I’ll never forget the look on this man’s face as I drove by. This was the face of an exhausted, frustrated, downtrodden person who had just finished a long day of work. Not the kind of work he was excited and passionate about, but the kind he had to get done because he

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didn’t want to get fired. There was a hint of shame in his step. Shame that he was leaving the office at 9pm on a Friday. Shame that he was too weak to say no when his boss gave him extra work that he knew he wouldn’t have time to complete. Shame at the half hearted job he had done on it just to get out of the office before it was completely dark outside. Shame at the fact he would probably get home and crash on the couch, being completely exhausted and unable to go meet his friends who were already out having fun. Sweat glistened on his forehead and his face looked dark and unshaven. He had showered that morning, but that was a full twelve hours ago. His button down shirt had come untucked on one side and his tie hung loosely around his neck. He pulled the tie off the rest of the way and undid the top button of his shirt, finally releasing the choke hold of the work day. In this man’s face I instantly saw myself and suddenly realized how far I had come in the past year. It had been almost exactly one year since I’d quit the job that he was now going home from. I knew the exact emotions and feelings going through his head as he left those doors because I had been in his exact spot. In the years after college I tried a number of different jobs. Like many people, I was at a point in my life where I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. But I had a degree, and the “right” thing to do was to go find work. I had applied to a number of companies and, like many people, ultimately decided to work at the company that gave me the best offer! It’s almost funny to think about in retrospect, but this is truly how many people decide what they will spend one-third of their life doing. They essentially leave it up to chance and wait to see who gives them the best offer. After being hired, I reported to work and did what I was told. I was flooded with new information to learn, new people to meet, and

The First Step on the Journey

new processes to master. This was all interesting and exciting at first, but would eventually turn out to be a suffocating experience.

SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE... The fun soon started to end. After learning the new material, day to day work suddenly became mundane and repetitive (and often pointless from what I could tell, but the bureaucracy ordered it must be done, so it had to be done). Copy paste, copy paste, copy paste. Were these reports I was preparing meaningful? Important? Would they even be read? I didn’t fully understand what I was writing (pasting). What if I was wrong? That’s what they told me to do, I guess I should do it. Don’t think too much. But things got worse when the long hours started. I was told by the hiring manager that “Even though 40 hours per week is acceptable, 46 hours per week is really the minimum they expected of entry level employees”. Was that even legal1? I briefly indulged fantasies of tape recording the conversation and breaking the news to the authorities! But a moment later, my boss was calling on the phone and I was back to being a good worker bee. Some days I would just get fed up and leave the office after eight hours, feeling guilty since I had been the last to get in (on time) and was now the first to leave (on time). The job started to affect other areas of my life. When I was working those long hours, it meant I didn’t have time to do the other 1

In late 2004, a class action lawsuit was filed by the employees of Electronic Arts, the

world’s biggest third party publisher, for unpaid overtime. They claimed the company culture required them to work evenings and weekends, and refusing to do so could put their job in jeopardy.

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important things in my life. The first thing that started to change was my health. After working long hours, I was often too exhausted to make it to the gym. And simply being emotionally drained was causing me to use junk food as self medication. “I’ve had a hard day, I deserve it”, I would justify to myself. Even when it wasn’t junk food, it was nice restaurant meals paid for by the company and overindulgence. There were long breaks between meals with all the work to get done, so I was always either starving, or stuffed and drowsy. There was no in between. Then there was the issue of sleep. Each morning an epic battle of biblical proportions was waged in my mind between responsibility and apathy. I developed a love hate relationship with my snooze button. It was my only friend, and my worst enemy at the same time. Each morning would require several cups of coffee. It never seemed to actually wake me up, but would instead make me jittery enough not to fall asleep. After lunch, a siesta sounded absolutely divine, but the company didn’t share my same views on the value of power-napping. I was so tired, I actually fell asleep in the gym one day! I had just done a set of reps on the incline bench press. I put down the weights, and woke up a half hour later! That was a good day though, at least I made it to the gym. In speaking to my peers at the company I realized I wasn’t alone. Many of them had gained 2030 pounds in their first year at the company. The stress, combined with the lack of time to exercise and eat right, was a sure fire formula for weight gain. Then there were the relationship problems. Most of the people I worked with struggled to stay on good terms with friends, lovers, and spouses. Unless you wanted to date inside the company, having time for a real relationship was difficult at best. One woman I dated told me I was never around, and she was absolutely right. Moreover, I’m sure it wasn’t ideal for her to date someone who was constantly exhausted,

The First Step on the Journey

slowly gaining weight, and didn’t like his job! I had no time for hobbies, and no time to pursue the things I loved. I dropped out of touch with many friends from school as my life began to revolve more and more around work. Many of my co-workers, like myself, had ideas of working for themselves or starting a business some day. But when their “real job” required all their time and then some, spending even an hour or two extra per week on their own company was difficult. Mostly these were pipe dreams and water cooler gossip. When it came down to it, they were all talk. Society and conventional wisdom was telling us how lucky we were to have such a secure high paying job. After all, there were people out there who had to dig ditches for a living, right? “Nobody loves their job 100% of the time” or “I’ll just do this for a few years to get experience” would help us rationalize. But the fact was that we were paralyzed by fear in our current occupations. Stuck in a job we didn’t love was not a fun place to be, but it sure beat the unknown risks of a start-up business, right? I wasn’t the only one at the company who realized the situation we were in. In fact, entry level colleagues like myself would constantly complain about work. It was their favorite topic. To be fair, a small percentage of people there truly loved what they were doing. About five to ten percent of the employees appeared to be really passionate about their work. They were the type of person who was born to do the job, and woke up excited every Monday. I could tell they loved it because in their free time they would read up on the industry and ponder ways to improve the results for their clients. That minority group was greatly outweighed, however, by the people who viewed it simply as a job. To most of us, it was a way to earn money and make it through another day in life.

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Figure 1 – Making plenty of money at a job you don’t love.

When it came down to it, money really was the rationale behind spending one-third of my life doing something I didn’t truly love doing. That and the fact I was too scared to go out on my own to follow my dream of starting a business. My tanks were out of balance, and I began to search desperately for a better way of living. I started reading every book I could get my hands on and sought out advice from those whom I admired.

The next year would take me on a wild ride, and would

transform my life more than I could have possibly imagined. This wasn’t a change or improvement. It was a quantum leap in all around life fulfillment that would change me forever.

READY TO CHANGE Deep down, I knew that I needed to take the plunge and quit. I had known it for a long time, but had not really wanted to admit it to myself. Working for myself had been a dream since I was in high school, but I was still unsure of what to do. I decided to seek advice from others and the advice I got was sometimes conflicting. People would say “You

The First Step on the Journey

need to stay at a good firm like your current job to learn more about business before striking out on your own”. People would say “There is no security in being an entrepreneur" and "You don’t want to burn any bridges”. My parents and peers were not exactly supportive of quitting a perfectly good job after spending all that money on a degree! But at the same time, I had read a number of books on the subject and these experts had a much different message. They told me that true happiness comes only from following your path and purpose in life. They told me that the journey to accomplish this is difficult, but rewarding. They told me that doing the right thing for yourself may not always make other people happy, but that doesn’t matter. I looked at my role models. They weren’t cogs in a giant machine, working their way up the corporate ladder. My heroes were people who worked for themselves, who were doing new and innovative things. I didn’t want to be another person at the cocktail party who defined themselves with “I work in accounting”, “I work in sales”, or “I work in HR”. I didn’t want to see people’s eyes glaze over as their brain processed what I said into “I’m boring and settled for mediocrity in life”. I wanted to say “I invented [INSERT AMAZING PRODUCT EVERYONE USES AND LOVES]” and actually mean it. Or “I’m an astronaut, professional surfer, international spy, and amateur detective”. Whatever! As long as I felt like I was doing what I loved and my life had significance. At first I told myself I would wait until Thanksgiving to decide. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t making a rash decision on a whim. If I still felt the same way by Thanksgiving, then I’d pull the trigger. But soon it became apparent I wouldn’t make it that long. Every day I thought more and more about it. Finally I decided I would give my notice to quit in one week, but didn’t tell anyone. Part of me thought that I was completely crazy and that it was a stupid idea. Maybe it was

Breaking Free

just a phase I was going through, a tough period at work, or a mental breakdown. Maybe I’d wake up tomorrow and realize that I was just being silly. But, low and behold, a week had gone by and I felt more excited than ever about quitting. Projects seemed less and less important as they showed up in my inbox. Finally the day had arrived. I made it to work, completely exhausted as usual and started sipping on bad coffee. It didn’t really make me more awake, but the caffeine hit me hard with no food in my stomach (late for work, and no breakfast again). I drafted an email to the HR manager, letting him know I had decided to quit and work for myself. I remember sitting there with the completed email ready to send and looking at it. Was I really about to do this? Was I really about to give up all this money and a job some people would kill for?

Who was I kidding?

What made me think I could really be

successful on my own? What did I know? I didn’t have that much experience. Most new businesses fail don’t they? I think I read that somewhere. CLICK. Before the inner critic of self doubt could pester me any more I sent the email off and instantly felt like a great weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I was free....but what now?

A NEW LIFE Over the next few years, some truly extraordinary things occurred. It started with a few days of rest. I went to the exit interview (wearing shorts and sandals) and poured my heart out about how working at their company had left me feeling suffocated. I gave them a few suggestions for improvement, they wished me luck in my new adventure, and I headed for home. The first thing I did was sleep. A lot. I had some catching up to do! After a few days I was rested and I began to think about what the future had in store for me, and what my next step would be. My mind was racing with newfound ideas and freedom.

The First Step on the Journey

I’d wake up in the morning with great ideas. I’d get great ideas just before falling asleep at night. Sometimes even while showering I would have great ideas and try to remember them, but often by the time I finished showering my mind was on to other great things! I even tried writing notes in the fogged glass of the shower and contemplated getting one of those clip boards that scuba divers use to write underwater. That way I’d be sure to remember all my brilliant thoughts! I started reading again. All those books I had been meaning to read, but never had time for suddenly became one of my top priorities. I even took a speed reading course and was soon devouring a book a week. Not things I had to read; things I wanted to read. Educational things. I was acquiring new skills and ideas at a rapid pace. Before long I found myself getting an extraordinary amount of work done in an average day. Not only was I not working unpaid overtime, but I was working at home. I would go to “work” in my underwear or work by the apartment swimming pool with my laptop. Even when I was doing something boring, like taxes, it didn’t even really feel like work because I was working for myself! It was just something I had to get done for me, not something I had to get done because my boss told me. I didn’t have an hour round-trip commute through rush hour traffic, so right there I had an extra hour in every day! The benefits of this one item alone, not commuting, were (and continue to be) simply staggering. Having an extra hour every day means you gain eleven full days every year to do whatever you want. You could spend more time with friends and family, read something thought provoking or inspirational, or compose a masterpiece.

Looking back, it’s almost

ridiculous for me to imagine myself wasting an hour of every day going through traffic listening to Britney Spears and weight loss advertisements on the radio.

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One day I sat down with a piece of paper and a pen and asked myself a question. What have I wanted to accomplish in the past year that I just didn’t have time to do? The result of this simple question was astounding. Within six months of quitting my job I was taking salsa lessons, learning Brazilian jujitsu and Thai kickboxing, and had joined a public speaking club called Toastmasters. I was in the best shape of my life and had more energy than I knew what to do with. I worked on building a regular sleeping schedule and finally developed a good relationship with my alarm clock by not needing it. Eventually, even if I slept the same amount, I had more energy each day because I was excited about what I was doing. I was finally living life. If someone cut me off in traffic I didn’t get upset, things were going too well. I had time to do errands which before would get pushed back farther and farther. My apartment was actually clean for once and since I didn’t avoid (and actually enjoyed) going to the grocery store, my fridge was always stocked with great healthy food. I stopped using junk food as self medication and stopped spending as much money eating out. I even became a better cook. My dating life exploded as I had time to meet new people and build relationships with them. Perhaps most importantly, the women I was meeting were exponentially more attracted to a man who didn’t hate his job and life.

My happiness and my newfound freedom were

contagious. People couldn’t help but want to be around me. I had a sense of empowerment that I really was in control of life. Instead of reacting to external events, I was now generating my own events and direction. Of course some of you may be wondering about the tiny little problem of money! “Of course you were having all kinds of fun, you weren’t working!” But in reality I was. I was just working smarter. To be fair, I had taken a big pay cut and while my happiness tank was full,

The First Step on the Journey

my money tank was not quite so full. Fortunately, I had taken a few key steps before quitting to ease the transition into working for myself. I had started a business that was ready to go from the day I quit. It didn't equal my old salary right off the bat, but it soon grew to cover my expenses. (How to make this transition smoothly will be a major topic of the book in Chapter 4.)

Figure 2 –Doing what you love but unable to pay the bills!

The overall message and topic of this book can be summed up in a simple phrase: get both of your tanks full! I will lay out for you, as clearly as I know how, the exact steps that anyone can take to accomplish this. It won’t necessarily be easy. Those things worth getting rarely are. But it’s certainly possible for anyone who is committed and willing to learn. For some people (and I suspect you may be one of them, since you picked up this book), the best way to get both tanks full is to do what they’ve known deep down they always wanted for themselves. They need to quit their job and go to work for themselves! This is the best way I know to be happy for those who have always dreamed big and desired more freedom. The most wonderful thing about loving your job

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is that the money will come naturally. Start a business in an area you are passionate about, and you’re well on your way to having both tanks full.

CONGRATULATIONS I’d like to stop for a moment here and congratulate you. By the very fact you have read this far, you have done an amazing thing that the vast majority of people don't have the courage to do. You took time to invest in yourself and your future! Almost everyone has had the feeling at some point that they didn’t like their job or they wanted financial freedom working for themselves. But very few have ever actually done anything about it. They settled for mediocrity and the safe way out. Even out of all those who did do something about it and purchased this book, studies show that a fraction of them will actually open it and read it! You are at this very moment in an elite group of people who have gotten this far. I have the confidence in you that you’ll take the points from this book that make sense to you, discard the ones that don’t, and take the final most important steps at the end of this book to start making changes in your life.

WHY THIS BOOK NEEDED WRITING! The specific company I worked at is not important. In fact, of the half dozen companies where I worked before working for myself, all of them were basically similar to the one I described above. I think many people resonate with that particular situation I described above because it is the current life they are living right now! What drives me absolutely nuts, and ultimately was the impetus for this book, was the fact that so many people are never able to leave that situation. Despite a deep yearning in the bottom of their heart to do

The First Step on the Journey

something great, pursue their ideas, have the freedom to choose their work, or add meaning to their lives by contributing greatly to the world, they are never able to do it. And let me tell you, in a way I don’t blame them. It is downright scary to quit your job. When you actually do it, its somewhere between the feeling you get asking your high school crush to the dance and speaking in front of a million people! What makes it worse is that instead of having someone there to hold your hand and reassure you, most people are telling you that you’re crazy and trying to talk you out of it. Let me be that helping hand to walk you through it. Will it be scary? Yes! Will it be hard work? Yes! But the rewards are so amazing that it’s worth it and when you become financially free by working for yourself, you will wonder why you didn’t do it sooner. Besides, I’ve come up with a bunch of ways to make the scary part less scary, and did some of the hard work for you. I’m firmly convinced that the world would be full of so many new inventions, better music, innovative software, cooler trends, less violence, and happier people, if only people became free from their next paycheck.

If they could only take that difficult step into

entrepreneurship and working for themselves, then their lives and the lives of everyone around them would benefit. Unfortunately, when you don’t love your job, you’ll just do the minimum to not get fired. By doing this you are selling yourself short. You aren’t using your full potential, and you aren’t giving your greatest gifts to the world. Everyone deserves a chance to reach a life of fulfillment and use their greatest gifts to contribute to the world. As Lao Tzu, the Taoist philosopher said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. So let’s get started, and take the first step together!

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CHAPTER 1 SUMMARY Brian’s Note Yes, at the end of each chapter, there will be a little summary. In my experience, the best presentations/books where I learned the most followed the philosophy of “tell em what you’re gonna tell em, tell em, then tell em what you told em”. At least, it always helped me to hear it a few times. There will also be exercises at the end of most chapters (although not this one). I encourage you to keep a pen or pencil handy with this book, so you can jot down some notes on the actual exercise pages. The exercises are the most important part of the book, even if they seem a little hokey at first. They make the material personal to you, and there is something magical about the physical action of writing that sets you well on the way to accomplishing your goal.

•

Most of us sacrifice too much for a day job that we don’t truly love. o

We let “who offered the most money” determine what we do with one-third of our lives.

We put in long hours.

Our health suffers.

Our relationships suffer.

Our money tank is more full while our happiness tank is less full.

o •

We work because someone tells us we have to.

For many the answer is working for yourself.

The First Step on the Journey

Instead of feeling like you are reacting to external events, you can control your own life.

You can choose to work on what you love.

You can choose to make time for health and relationships.

New possibilities open up as you have time to explore and learn.

You suddenly find time to do all the things you never had time for.

You get more done in each day because you are excited about what you are working on.

â&#x20AC;˘

Congratulations o

I give you so much credit for doing what so many others were afraid to do: taking the first step in a journey towards quitting your job and working for yourself.

This book needed to be written because so many people have this desire buried deep inside them, but for some reason never let it flourish. I hope this book will help you start on the path and give you the confidence to reach your full potential!

Chapter 2 Is it Right for Me? "Whether You Think You Can or Can't, You're Right" - Henry Ford

EXCUSE OR LEGITIMATE REASON? ’ll be the first to admit that not everyone should quit their job and go to work for themselves. There are a number of

legitimate reasons why this might not be a good idea for you which we’ll discuss in this chapter.

With that being said, however, the primary

problem is not the people who shouldn’t quit their job. It’s the people who are coming up with excuses not to quit that are totally based on fear. The wonderful grey matter resting between our ears is good for many things. Unfortunately, it is also very good at creating excuses not to act when we have an incredible opportunity in front of us. The majority of people are using excuses, not legitimate reasons, to justify why they haven’t taken the first step. To the untrained eye, reasons like “I need to get more experience”, “I haven’t been able to raise the money”, and “I don’t know

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how to do [fill in the blank, accounting, sales, some technology, etc]” seem very good. Unfortunately they are not. Part of the problem stems from something I call hero worship. We see examples all the time of successful business people like Donald Trump, Richard Branson (the CEO of Virgin Group who runs about 200 companies), Sergey Brin and Larry Page (who started Google), or even someone closer to home like a successful relative or neighbor. When we hear about how much these people have accomplished and what they have done, we immediately think to ourselves: “They are brilliant!”, “They are incredible!”, and “I could never do that!” Oh, what a horrible mistake. The people we admire are human beings just like you and I, and I guarantee that there was a point in their lives when they were not so confident or sure of themselves or successful! In fact, they probably started off reading a book like this one, finding a mentor, or just being so stubborn and determined that they wouldn’t give up after failing over and over and over again. People love to look at celebrities, CEO’s, and politicians and think about how lucky they are. The truth of the matter is that nearly all of them are where they are because of lots of hard work. In effect, they went out and made their own luck. The first thing I want you to do is quit the hero worship. Everyone you see with success is just like you and they are no more or less deserving of success than you are. You can learn from them and model them, but never see them as something magical that is unattainable or placed upon a pedestal. You really have to give yourself permission, to believe and know that you too can be successful and that you deserve it. This step alone will put you on the path to determining if the reasons you are coming up with are excuses (your pesky inner critic,

Is it Right for Me?

which we’ll discuss later), or if they are legitimate reasons. The next time you hear yourself say “I don’t have enough experience”, you’ll remind yourself that you are going to learn as you go and that’s the best way to get the experience! The next time you say “I haven’t been able to raise the money” you’ll know that many successful people heard no 100 times before they heard one yes, and that you probably need far less money than you think (Chapter 7). And the next time you think to yourself “I don’t know how to manage the finances, find any customers, or make the website!” you’ll know that you can either learn it, outsource it, or get by without it. The vast majority of the excuses we give ourselves are just that: excuses. Our greatest limitations are the ones we create in our own mind. With that being said, let’s examine a few of the actual legitimate reasons why quitting your job might not be the right thing.

LEGITIMATE REASONS NOT TO QUIT YOUR JOB You are Struggling to Support a Family If you are in a position right now that makes you the primary breadwinner and money is tight, it may be prudent not to quit your job. In this case you will be making a sacrifice so that your kids, spouse, sibling, or parents can eat, get through school, and do whatever else it is that they depend on you for. By doing this you are putting other’s needs ahead of your own. Your job may not be spectacular, and you may never reach your full potential or happiness at work, but if your life at home is more important, then so be it. This is what you might call the “I’ll run my happiness tank low so the people I love can have a full tank” strategy.

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It’s not as good as everyone having a full tank, but may be a necessary sacrifice in the short term. Keep in mind, this doesn’t mean you are doomed forever to be in this position! After the kids are through school, or if the situation improves in other ways, you may still be able to pursue the journey through this book. A friend of mine had her father support her through school for four years of college in a line of work he wasn’t passionate about, just to pay her tuition. But once she had graduated, her father promptly quit and went back to medical school to become a doctor at the young age of 59! I should also point out that just because you are supporting a family doesn’t mean this is your “legitimate reason”. For this to be a legitimate reason you must be supporting a family and have money be tight. In other words, failure for you to bring home a paycheck would have immediate consequences not just for yourself but for others around you. There are plenty of people supporting families who quit their jobs to work for themselves. The difference is that they aren’t living paycheck to paycheck. Does it mean it will be easy for them not to have a steady paycheck? No. Does it mean they are looking forward to it? No. Does it mean what they won’t have any sacrifices? No. What it means is that they will find a way to live with it for a chance at something much greater. Chapter 4 will deal in depth with this topic of how to take a pay cut smoothly. Finally, “My husband/wife/significant other thinks I’m crazy for wanting to quit” doesn’t count. Make your own decision and stick to your guns.

Is it Right for Me?

You Are a Current Student If you are a current student then your “job” is being a student. I wouldn’t recommend actually dropping out of school, even if you hate it. I know, I know, we’ve all heard of people like Bill Gates who dropped out of college and went on to become one of the richest people in the world. But even Bill Gates himself has publicly stated that this was a really bad idea and he wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. They don’t hire college drop outs at Microsoft. The reason I wouldn’t recommend dropping out of school to work for yourself is that college is a time to explore new ideas and try lots of different things. Many people, myself included, went through college with some new idea or hobby they wanted to try every week! What seemed like the best idea of all time was completely forgotten six months later. This is the perfect thing to do in college, as you find your identity and interests. Change majors, go to ten different club meetings, and see how many beers you can drink. Even if it turns out to be a bad idea or that you were wrong, there aren’t any significant consequences! You learn your lesson and no harm done. But unfortunately, if you drop out of school to start a business and it doesn't turn out as planned, there can be some pretty huge consequences. It is probably harder than you think to get yourself to go back, not to mention lost time and reapplication process.

In fact,

statistically speaking, it’s highly unlikely you will ever go back. Does that mean you are one of the statistics? Of course not. But it should indicate to you that others have found it very hard, and there is probably a good reason for this. Besides, there are much better options, such as starting the business while still in college (this is what I did), and simply putting up with school long enough to get a degree and get out. Take a lighter class load so you have time to work on other projects. Or take a class

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that will help you on your way, such as entrepreneurship, accounting, or finance.

Dropping out of school is not the right choice when the

consequences are dire and so many other good options are available. Pain then gain! Stay in school long enough to finish with your degree, and you will be glad you did. When you reach the job world, the consequences of quitting are fairly minimal. You can always find another job if you really had to. In fact, people do this all the time. Quitting school and having to find another one is much harder than quitting a job and having to find another one. You Have no Idea What Type of Business You’d Like to Start Just because you dislike your job and have started reading this book doesn’t mean you should be rash and quit tomorrow. You should only quit your job once you have a plan in place. Quitting your job to work for yourself should be thought of as an ongoing process, instead of one solitary action.

The process involves many things such as

discovering what type of business you’d like to start, preparing financially, and building your business on nights and weekends. You will be on schedule and have known for months in advance before the actual day comes that you walk in and say goodbye! If you have not put in this time and effort, then quitting your job isn’t a heroic step toward your personal freedom, it’s a careless act. Put in the time, and approach this journey one step at a time. You Truly Love Your Job Only you can answer this question for yourself, but as hard as it is for me to believe, some people truly do love their job working for someone else! As a purely unscientific study based on my personal

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experience interacting with hundreds of people at dozens of companies, I would estimate that about five to ten percent of people at any given company truly love their job. Keep in mind, most people will never admit to you (or even themselves) that they aren’t passionate about their work. They could be in denial about it, be completely unaware that something better exists, or have convinced themselves that where they are is perfect because admitting otherwise would mean they’d have to change! Get to know someone well enough and this embarrassing truth very often will come out. Also keep in mind that I didn’t say ninety percent of people hate their job. I did say that ninety percent (or more) of people aren’t passionate about their job. We’ll discuss more of what that means in a second. You can test this theory for yourself next time you are at any type of social event. As you are standing there meeting new people and desperately trying to make small talk, two inevitable questions will come up: Where are you from? And what do you do? Whenever I find myself in this situation, the second question in particular always intrigues me, and I tend to look closely at how someone answers it. As with all communication, the non verbal (voice tone, pitch, variety, speed, and most importantly body language) says so much more than the actual words coming out of their mouth. Some people can’t wait to bubble away about their exciting projects and are truly inspiring in their commitment and passion. But the majority of people, when asked this question, have their eyes dart to the ground for just an instant. They recite the line they have used so many times before with just a hint of shame, “I do sales at a large medical distribution company”. As you listen (wondering to yourself, what the heck do I know about medical sales and what the heck will my next small talk question be), they watch your face to see what your reaction will be. Will you be impressed?

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After all, they did say “large” distribution company. Or will you see through their social mask and discount them as another boring person you met at the party. Ask them how they like it and you may hear some words like “It’s not too bad”, “It’d be better if...”, “But it has great benefits”, and “Next year I might...”. If you ask enough people this question, you will start to be able to spot them from across the room. Without even asking, I can usually spot the people in the room who love their work. They are having the most fun. You may already know that you don’t like your job. But what if you are on the fence? I mean, some parts of it you love, but some days it really gets to you. What are some good indicators that you love your job? Here are a few.

SIGNS YOU LOVE YOUR JOB When you have free time (meaning, no one made you do it) do you find yourself reading up on the industry and brainstorming ideas on how to improve your company’s product, service, or customer experience? When you wake up Monday morning, you are excited to start your day and can’t wait to see what new things you can get done this week. When your spouse or friends ask you about your day at work, you eagerly recount tales of challenges overcome and fun experiences instead of all the things that really bothered you. If you are still on the fence, this is actually a good clue as to what your ideal job might be. You obviously like some parts of it. Maybe all you need is a similar job. Try brainstorming about variations on your job (such as working in the same industry but for yourself) that would reduce or eliminate the parts you don’t like.

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WHO SHOULD QUIT THEIR JOB? Now that we’ve looked at some legitimate reasons not to quit your job, let’s take a closer look at some good indicators you should. These are some common emotions and feelings that people with the entrepreneurial spirit experience at some point in their lives. Those With a Desire for Control! A common theme I hear among those with the entrepreneurial spirit (and even those who don’t yet know they have it!) is a desire for more control. Every time their boss gives them something pointless to do, every time there is an inordinate amount of red tape around a seemingly simple task, every time they find themselves saying “If I was in charge I wouldn’t do it that way”, they are expressing a desire for more control in their lives. Years ago I first heard of the concept of an internal vs. external locus of control (locus just means place or position, and isn't too important here). The first time I heard it, I didn’t give it much thought, but then I started to hear other authors talk about the same concept in different terms. Before long, I had heard it so many times it started to sink in and I realized how important it was in my own life. So let me pass it on to you, or merely present the message another time if you’ve already heard it. There are two types of people in this world. Those with an internal locus of control, and those with an external locus of control. The majority of people have an external locus of control, and they spend their lives reacting to external events that happen to them. They get a parking ticket, work shows up on their desk and inbox, their girlfriend/boyfriend breaks up with them, etc. And every time they say

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“How could this happen to me?” You see, the universe did this to them. It was out of their control. They are a victim, leaves blowing in the wind, without any control of what events take place in their lives. As you can imagine, this is a cause of great distress in their life because bad things keep happening to them. The world must hate them. And even when good things happen, they think “Wow, what luck!” They can’t take credit for good things, because the world gave it to them. It was just their lucky day. Such is the fate of those people with an external locus of control. On the other hand, people with an internal locus of control are the people that don’t believe in luck. They make their own luck. Instead of reacting to external events, they are creating their own events. They have an ultimate goal in mind and they are constantly making small steps toward it because that’s what they are focused on. When work shows up on their desk, they don’t react to it. They evaluate it. Does it help them accomplish their goal? If it does then it gets high priority and they want to do it because it helps them reach their goal. If it’s unimportant then they delegate it or don’t even do it!

They are too focused on

accomplishing their goal to deal with unimportant things. If they get a parking ticket, no one did it to them. They take responsibility, learn their lesson, and move on without getting upset. After all, how silly would that be to let a stupid parking ticket control you?

They are in control of

themselves and reaching their goals, and something like a little parking ticket sure isn’t going to matter in the big scheme of things. The best way to sum up this idea is to realize there will always be things you can blame failure on. Unsuccessful people talk about how the economy is just not strong enough, taxes are too high, the wrong person is in office, their family is holding them back, etc, etc, etc. But then they change their locus of control, build success habits, and change their lives

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slowly. Five years later they wake up and they are extremely successful. But guess what? The economy is about the same, taxes are about the same, the person in office is about the same, and their family is about the same. Everything is about the same except for one very important thing: them! They made a decision to take control of their lives and not allow external events to control them, and that made all the difference. Remember the internal locus of control and try to make it an integral part of your life. Most people with this character trait have a strong desire to control the destiny of their own life.

They can’t

accomplish this by working for someone else, so they start their own business. Those with a Tolerance for Risk Unfortunately, as an entrepreneur, you will need to have some tolerance for risk. You will be making well thought out choices, or at least educated guesses, so when we say risk here, we aren’t talking about the lottery. But at the end of the day, there will be a number of points in your life as an entrepreneur where the final decision is up to you, whether to invest 50% of your net worth in an idea or not. And you may not know if that was the right decision for a year or more while you wait for things to pan out! Waiting for a year, not knowing if your “bet” will pay off can be a cause of anxiety. Your heart rate will quicken as adrenaline courses through your veins. Your palms might get clammy and you will feel a whole family of butterflies flying around your stomach. For some, this feeling is unbearable, and is equivalent to pain which they will avoid at all costs. But for entrepreneurs this feeling is equivalent to excitement. It lets them know they are alive!

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So what, on the other hand, are the symptoms of being excited? Well, your heart rate quickens and you get some adrenaline running through your veins. You may sweat a bit and get clammy hands. You may even get some butterflies going around in your stomach. Wow, being excited feels a lot like the feelings of anxiety! As an entrepreneur, you don’t have to like those feelings, but many of us do because they can be just like excitement. The day before launching a new product you may not sleep a wink, as giddy as a kid on Christmas eve. It lets you know that you are doing something significant and important that will have real significance in the world. It lets you know that you are alive and having memorable experiences in life! Do you have to love the feeling? No. But you do have to at least be able to tolerate it, and you may even grow to like it. Those who Dream Big! Have you had a sneaking suspicion throughout your life that you were destined to achieve something great? Something that would change the lives of many people for the better and build you great wealth in the process? Have you ever had a day dream about being recognized on the street and the center of attention at cocktail parties with people stopping to say “Hey you’re that guy/gal who made [INSERT COOL PRODUCT/SERVICE], right? I love it!” Have you always been a little bit disappointed that you hadn’t accomplished this thing yet? That you weren’t getting any closer to this ultimate vision you have of yourself? If so, you sound like a big dreamer to me. If you are someone who has always had big goals and aspirations to help others, change the world, leave your mark, the chances of you accomplishing this while working for someone else are fairly small. You could do this as part of a

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small company, or in a top position in a big company, but in my experience it’s much easier to accomplish this by working for yourself. According to Brian Tracy1, fully 74% of people in the US who are millionaires are self-made. This means, they didn’t inherit wealth, they weren’t born rich, and they didn’t get rich working for someone else! They were the big dreamers out there who never gave up on their ideas. Many people state that they want to feel like their work is important. They hate the idea that they are just another cog in the machine of a huge corporation where the left hand doesn’t know what the right is doing. While many feel this way, few do anything about it. If you are a big dreamer, you won’t truly be happy in life until you are on the path to achieving part of that dream. Congratulations, you are a perfect candidate to quit your job and work for yourself. Those Who are Lacking Excitement in Their Day When you wake up Monday morning are you excited to go to work? I wasn’t at any of my old jobs, but now I look forward to the tasks I’m doing each morning in my own business. It’s exciting. If you aren’t excited to go to work most mornings, this is a big red flag waving right in your face. It seems so obvious in retrospect, but I didn’t notice it for years. 1

Brian Tracy is one of the top success coaches in the US. We’ll hear more about him

later.

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THE MOST COMMON EXCUSES IN THE BOOK! We’ve gone over some good reasons to quit your job and work for yourself, and we’ve gone over some good reasons not to quit your job. But there is one more category that isn’t any type of reason at all: the excuse. These are the most insidious type, because our magnificent brains seem to come up with them so easily when we are about to do something scary. Luckily, we’re going to lay out some of the most common ones here to help separate them from legitimate reasons. I’m too old or too young There really is no time like now. I mentioned earlier in this book a friend of mine who went back to medical school at the age of 59. There are also many successful businesses started every year by people in high school and college. The type of thinking that tells you “It’s too late to get started” or “I’ll do it in a year after I have more experience” is just flat wrong. You have to realize that your brain will never stop bringing things like this up. It’s hard wired into your brain to tell you this and cause some self doubt at times. It’s a survival mechanism that is occasionally very outdated in our modern world. That’s why it’s your job to ignore your brain when it says things like this! T. Harv Eker2 taught me a wonderful thing to say when your brain brings up these excuses. All you have to say is “Thank you for sharing”. If you think you are too old now, think about how late it will be if you wait another five years! One of the secrets to success is that when you’ve made up your mind to do something, you should take decisive

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action right then to get started. Don’t wait until tomorrow; do it today. Right now if possible. And just keep doing a little bit every day (make it a habit, which we’ll talk more about). Pretty soon, you’ll look back and a month will have gone by and so much has been accomplished you will hardly believe it. You can eat an entire elephant, if you only have to take one bite a day. Don’t focus on how much you have ahead; just focus on the single next step right in front of you, and do it. If you think you are too young (with the exception of being a student, which I described above), telling yourself you will get started later is the same as saying you will never do it. Take massive action the moment you decide. I don’t have any good ideas I fell for this excuse for many years, so don’t feel bad. It took me a while to realize that conventional wisdom – successful businesses are formed with a brilliant original idea – was flat wrong. Only a small percentage of businesses have ever been created in this way, and it’s far from the truth. Let’s look at a few reasons why you don’t need to be full of incredible inventions and ideas to start a successful company. First, very few businesses are started on some brand new idea. In fact, historically speaking, often times the person with the brilliant idea dies penniless and broke while others capitalize on it. Nikola Tesla, the inventor of AC electricity and the radio, Charles Goodyear, who made the first rubber that could be used year round, and Johannes Gutenberg, who created the printing press, all died without a cent to their name. Instead, most successful businesses take an existing idea and find some way to improve on it. They sell at a lower price, higher quality, in a 2

Harv Eker is an author and teaches people financial freedom

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better location, by combining with another product, or with a new twist, but they rarely start something from scratch. Just to give you an example, even if you have absolutely no original ideas whatsoever in your entire life (which I find highly unlikely), there are still a ton of businesses you can start. There are many good franchises (at the time of this writing Subway and Quiznos are two of the highest ranked) where they literally give you the entire business plan from A to Z in a book. They provide you with every single step you can follow to own your own business and be successful. You can also invest in commercial real estate, you can teach others what you know as a tutor or consultant, you can buy an existing business, and the list goes on and on. Just because you think you don’t have any good ideas doesn’t mean you won’t, and moreover, you don’t need them in the first place! Take a page from Thomas Edison who said “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration”. I should also mention that when I first started out, I didn’t have any ideas that I thought were good. But what I did do was talk to lots of people. I listened to their ideas and some of them were good! Those people became my new business partners as we started companies together. I also learned and read day and night to get new ideas (there are many ideas for free out there for the taking). I also learned how to come up with good ideas. Study effective brainstorming techniques; you’ll be amazed what you come up with. The bottom line is that plenty of good ideas exist out there in the world. What we truly have is a shortage of committed entrepreneurs with the audacity to make them happen.

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I’m not wealthy, well educated, from a good family, etc. I have a great deal of sympathy and respect for people who don’t come from a privileged background, because nothing has been given to them. If you fall into this boat, then I have news for you: This is actually your greatest strength, because it gives you the toughness to keep going no matter what. The harsh reality is that you may be using your past as an excuse, and it’s holding you back. This can be a bitter pill to swallow, if you have been carrying around this chip on their shoulder your whole life.

You may get

defensive to this idea, and say “He doesn’t understand” or “Of course he would say that”.

But stop for a moment to reflect on your strong

emotions. If you aren’t careful, these feelings can come to define your life. It could be your story that you tell. You could become attached to it because it has secondary pay offs (sympathy from others, friendship from people in a similar condition, an explanation for when things go wrong, etc). Ultimately this thinking is destructive and is holding you back. Life is absolutely full of stories of people who have overcome incredible odds. Brian Tracy was a high school drop out who held some of the worst jobs imaginable before becoming a self made millionaire later in life. Sylvester Stallone was so poor at one time he sold his dog (his best friend in the world) for $25 to avoid starvation. He cried himself to sleep for weeks before finally selling the script for Rocky. A personal friend of mine who was abandoned as a child, grew up on the streets in gangs, and stole food to survive, is now an HR manager at a top firm with a beautiful home and family. I’ve heard stories of sexual abuse, drug addiction, discrimination (and the list goes on) where people overcame incredible odds to become extremely successful happy people.

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At the same time, I’ve also known people who were born with everything they could need (Ivy League education, loving parents, trust fund) who ended up spending their life in and out of rehab, suicidal, or on anti-depressants. The point I’m trying to make here is simple: your past does not equal your future. External situations simply don’t matter in the long run. The only thing that matters is what is on the inside. You can make a decision right now to stop using the excuse of your current situation.

To take

responsibility for your own progress and improve your life no matter what. If this is an excuse you’ve been using, my only goal is to make you aware of it. That is the first step to cutting it out of your life and moving on to success. It sounds like a lot of work Well, yes it is. I have only a few things to say on this subject. First, it’s not as much as you think. In chapter six I outline all the steps to starting a business and it’s really not as tough as people imagine. Second, and perhaps more importantly, saying it sounds like a lot of work is indicative of a larger problem. The thing is, there are going to be lots of things in life that require long term goals and lots of work, and you will have to do them. So this is more an issue of having the right mindset. If you decide you want to do something, and think about it everyday, you will usually find a way no matter how hard it seems. Find something you are passionate about and enjoy doing (Chapter 5), and it won’t seem like work anymore.

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I DON’T KNOW HOW TO DO [BLANK] Fill in the blank: raise the money, do the accounting, hire good people, do the “technical” part, create the marketing, find customers, etc. This is perhaps the biggest excuse we all use in one form or another. I will let you in on a little secret: most successful entrepreneurs knew as much or less than you know right now when they started their companies. I know you don’t believe me, but it’s true. The difference is that they told themselves “It might be difficult, but somehow I’ll find a way to get it done”. This is a very powerful mentality. To realize that you don’t know something, but it will be okay. Maybe you don’t even know what you don’t know! For example, let’s say you wanted to produce a better mousetrap. Your thought process might go something like this: “I know basically how a common mousetrap works, but what other types exist? I know nothing about physics or mechanical engineering, or how much force is required to kill a giant rat. How big do rats get anyway? Maybe I’ll have to talk to some biologists. China is a big market, should I sell there? How big do rats get in China?

What if I want to kill the rat

humanely? Maybe there are some poisons; I know nothing about chemistry or poisons. How can you tell if the rat felt any pain when it died? Do you have to be regulated by the government to sell a product with poisons in it?”

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Clearly, there are a lot of unanswered questions, and this is just a simple example! But I’m here to tell you, nothing is impossible. If you really wanted to build a better mousetrap, I bet you could still do it. If you sat down and brainstormed for ten minutes on ways to “find out what government regulations exist for companies that sell poisonous products”, I bet you’d come up with lots. Whenever you encounter a situation where you say “I don’t know how to do [BLANK]”, you have two basic options: learn it, or pay someone to do it. Neither one is as hard as you might think. With the internet today, you can find out almost anything you could ever want. And when I say “pay someone to do it” I’m not talking about spending lots of money hiring someone or taking on a business partner.

You can

outsource all types of things now for next to nothing (see below). So here are some of my favorite ways to get around these problems. Learn it yourself •

Google The first step is to type whatever you are wondering about in Google and start reading. This is most likely the single greatest resource ever created. Every successful person I know uses it dozens of times per day.

•

Wikipedia Visit en.wikipedia.org. It’s the largest encyclopedia in the world (far bigger than Britannica) and is written in many different languages. You will almost surely find a detailed article on it with links to the best sites.

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•

Forums Find a discussion board on the internet related to your topic. Join it, search it, and post to it. Every single industry and profession (and often times even individual products) will have a huge discussion board dedicated to it. Even if you search the board and it doesn’t have what you want, post your question! I joined a board like this when researching a mechanical engineering issue for a product I was designing. I posted a highly technical question (at least it was to me, to these old timers it was second nature) and within a day I had a dozen responses from people with 10, 15, even 20 years experience in the industry. They were eager to help and share their knowledge, and it was entirely free! As a side note, for almost any topic, there will be several discussion boards, but one of them usually accounts for probably 80% of all the content. The more participants the forum has, the higher the value. You don’t need to find all of them, just find the one best one.

•

eHow Go to www.ehow.com and you will likely find an article on how to do exactly what you are pondering.

You can get step-by-step

instructions on everything from designing an effective business card to selling a business. This website is amazing. •

Speed Read Books Whenever I am trying to learn a new skill (how to market a product, how to cook, how to compose a song, etc) one of the most valuable things I do is get the top one or two books on a subject and read them. Just this one act alone will give you more knowledge than 99% of other people out there. If you need an in depth knowledge of a subject, read the top five or ten books on a subject to get

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different perspectives and approaches. You can literally learn any subject in this manner. Does this take awhile? Of course. But successful people are simply those who are willing to never stop learning. Often times, authors will dedicate a significant portion of their lives to learning about a particular topic. They will read hundreds of articles, talk to all the top people in a field, synthesize complex ideas from all over the world into easy principles, and summarize all the conflicting view points. Ten years later a book is finally produced and little old you can come along to purchase the entire body of knowledge for twenty bucks. For a few dollars and a few hours you can insert all that knowledge into your brain like inserting a CD into a computer! It really is astounding if you stop to think about it. This is a unique ability human beings have that isn’t taken advantage of enough. You really owe it to yourself to learn how to speed read. Yes, speed reading and speed comprehension are real. Make an investment in this skill and it will continue to reward you for the rest of your life. •

Networking Learn how to network! They say that you are only five or six degrees away from anyone on this planet, and I really believe it’s true. Its not who you know, it’s who the people you know, know! For example, let’s say I had a complex and tough question about how bio-diesel fuel affects the metal parts in an engine compared to regular gasoline. I happen to know very little about bio-diesel, but I

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did hear about a lecture a year ago on alternative fuels that was given by one of the world’s leading experts. My acquaintance John hosted that event and could put me in touch with the speaker. I also know that my former roommate’s father works for Shell Oil, and even if he can’t answer my question, I’m sure he would be able to put me in touch with half a dozen people who research the topic for the living. If you have a question, reach out to your network! Even if they are acquaintances or you haven’t seen them in a while, most people are more than willing to help. •

Take a Class Most community colleges offer very inexpensive classes (could be as low as $15) on a whole range of topics such as business accounting, website design, and marketing.

On any given day, hundreds of

seminars are probably being given in your city on various topics. Also check your local city’s small business association to see what classes they offer. Pay someone else to do it. If you’ve decided the topic is just too confusing or a high degree of skill is required that would take you years to master, it’s time to call in an expert. There are still plenty of budget conscious ways to get some help. Here are a few ideas: •

Outsourcing One of the best ways to hire an expert is outsourcing. Hiring an actual employee can be a long, expensive, difficult process (taxes, benefits, salary, interviews, etc), so outsourcing makes great sense for small businesses. Two of the best websites I’ve found to outsource work are www.guru.com and www.elance.com

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The way these sites work is that you post a project on the website, and experts from around the world come to bid on it. It’s great because you don’t have to go out and find people or negotiate prices. The professionals are already there, bidding the lowest price to get your business! Because these people are bidding from all over the world, it’s often amazing how inexpensively you can get quality work done. You can look at prior work and feedback from past clients (they have a feedback system just like eBay so you know if they are legitimate) and make an educated decision on whom to select for the job. Guru.com, for example, has over half a million registered professionals at the time of this writing. I once posted a project that required a professional with a rare combination of skills (mechanical engineering, proficiency in a particular piece of software, artistic ability, and a background in the aesthetics of product design). I eventually received over a dozen bids for this project and selected an excellent professional who was able to do the work 1000 miles away for a fraction of the price. •

Answers Websites Go to answers.google.com or answers.yahoo.com and type in your question. For a very reasonable fee, you can have experts all over the world help answer your question and do the research for you.

•

Partner Take on a partner. If you don’t have cash to hire someone full time, you may have to pay them with equity in the company. If you are going to need an expert in a particular subject on a regular basis at

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the company, and outsourcing would become a day to day activity, you may want to find a partner. Approach them and ask them about starting the business together. Be very clear on what skills you are each bringing to the table to form a great partnership. •

Trade You can pay others in trade. If you can’t pay in cash, you still have your knowledge in other areas to sell. For example, if you are a good programmer, but you need some graphic design work done for your logo and brochures, you may be able to get your graphic design buddy to do the work for free if you help him out with a programming project he is stuck on. Cultivate these relationships (remember networking?) and don’t hesitate to do someone a favor if they ask you. You might need to cash in the return favor when you least expect it! I truly hope you never have another reason to seriously think “I

can’t do [blank]”. It’s easy to fall into that trap, so the next time it happens, catch yourself and go back to review this list.

MAKE THE DECISION As an exercise, try thinking about a long term goal you have had that you haven’t yet accomplished. Maybe it has to do with money, your relationships, your health (like losing weight or quitting smoking). Take a moment right now, stop reading, and come up with one that is important to you. Really, stop right now and don’t continue reading till you think of one!

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Now imagine your perfect ideal self as you would be in the future if you had fully accomplished this goal. Imagine yourself five years from now with all your dreams fulfilled. Take a moment and actually visualize yourself, imagine how it would feel, how others would perceive you, and how you would feel about yourself. Compare it to how you are now. Take a moment and try it. Go ahead! I bet that goal seems a long way off, doesn’t it? Comparing your ideal self with how you are today is going to be a pretty large difference. If you are like most people, this can be down right depressing to think about. The goal seems almost impossible. You have tried and worked hard for all this time and it still seems so far away! Now, think back to five years ago, or to a time when you first started thinking about a goal. Think about how you acted then, how little you knew, what you were like, and how people perceived you as it relates to this particular goal. Now compare this to where you are today. Again, the difference should be surprising! Notice how you really have changed so much in that short period of time. You hadn’t noticed it because it was so gradual, but thinking back to that time, you were almost an entirely different person! The point of this exercise is to see how depressing it can be to think about how far we have to go, and at the same time so inspiring to see how far we have come. The problem is that most people don’t usually get to experience the second one, because they spend all their time thinking about how far away it is, and never make the very first step.

Is it Right for Me?

That is so key; successful people don’t dwell on how far away it is, they just ask themselves “What is the next step?” Then they finish that little part today. Clearly you have to do long term planning sometimes, and make sure you are on track, but as a day to day activity it’s much more effective to stick your head in the sand and look at the one small task that needs to be completed for the day. If you can just do one thing every day, to get one step closer toward your goal, then you will wake up a year later and be utterly astounded at how far you have come. The biggest mistake you can make is to say “A year? Ten years? What is the point? That is so far away”. Well guess what? It’s going to be even farther away if you wait another year to get started. A friend of mine finished his thesis for his graduate degree by making a rule for himself: every day no matter what, he would write one sentence. Of course, after writing one sentence, it was often easy to write a few more sentences or even a few pages, but this was a great way to trick his brain into getting started. “Oh yeah, I have to write my one sentence for the day, this will just take a second”. Without fail, every day he wrote at least one sentence and he finished long before his classmates who stayed up all night at the end of the semester. As stated before, one of my favorite sayings starts with a question: “How do you eat an elephant?” The answer: “One bite at a time.” Now that we’ve discussed in depth the good reasons, bad reasons, and excuses (that aren’t reasons at all) to quit your job, lets try to personalize it for your own life. We are going to do this with some simple exercises on the next few pages where you can write in the book.

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WARNING: The next few pages of this book are going to contain some written exercises that will take a few minutes. If you are anything like me, you might be tempted at this point to skip over the exercises and start reading the next chapter, especially if you are in a hurry. For your own sake, please don’t! I will tell you why. When I first started learning about this topic, I was too quick to hear an idea, agree with it, and move on to the next. I never stopped to actually experience it for myself. I think that on some level I thought I was smart enough to understand it without writing anything down. But it wasn’t until years later that I started actually doing the exercises myself, and that is when my success went up drastically.

I can’t fully explain it, except to say that there is

something magical about the act of physically writing something down on paper. Even if you have a thought in your head that you think is crystal clear, try writing it down and you will discover new aspects you hadn’t even considered. Perhaps, like me, you have discovered the power of writing things down while sending a letter or email to a friend to ask for advice. You are writing away, trying to explain the problem clearly so your friend will understand the exact situation you’re in, when suddenly you arrive at the solution yourself! The very act of putting your thoughts into words clarified the problem to the point where you now knew the next step. Typically, I still send the letter or email anyway, and thank the person for being such a good listener!

Is it Right for Me?

At the beginning of this book, I congratulated you on taking the step that so many others didn't, by picking up this book and investing in yourself. Unfortunately, of the small percentage who make it as far as you did, an even smaller percentage take action and actually do the exercises to get the full benefit. Please don't make the same mistake I did for so many years by assuming you can get everything just by reading, not doing. Write directly in the book, and get your thoughts on paper! If you are worried about someone coming along and reading your most personal thoughts, or if you may want to share this book with someone else later, then feel free to write on a separate sheet. But please write. When you are finished with the book, you will have in your hands a whole collection of clues into your own life. The book will cease to become abstract thoughts that could apply to anyone; it will be a book about your life, where you are going, and what you will do.

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CHAPTER 2 EXERCISES What do you like about your current job (assuming you work for someone else)? Please list at least five benefits or positive aspects that you enjoy. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. What do you dislike about your job? Please list at least five negative aspects of your job. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. How do you feel when you wake up Monday morning to go to work? What do you do in your free time, when there is nothing you have to do? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. What would be some advantages to quitting your job? Please list five. 1.

Is it Right for Me?

2. 3. 4. 5. What would be some disadvantages to quitting your job? Please list five. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Think back to conversations you have had with others (family, friends, significant other, etc). What reasons come up in conversation about why you shouldn’t quit your job? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Using the chapter as a reference if necessary, please decide whether each of the last 10 disadvantages you wrote down is an excuse or legitimate reason not to actually quit. Mark each one with an “E” or an “LR”. Be honest!

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CHAPTER 2 SUMMARY •

It’s often hard to tell whether the reasons we use are excuses or legitimate reasons.

•

Many people’s excuses are nothing more than limiting beliefs.

•

Who shouldn’t quit their job?

•

Those struggling to support a family.

Current students.

People with no idea what business to start.

Those who truly love their job.

Who should quit their job? o

Those with a desire for control of their life. 

Strive to become a person with an internal locus of control, avoid people with an external locus of control.

Risk lovers.

Big dreamers.

People who are bored with their life.

Those who don’t spend time on what they are passionate about.

•

Common excuses. o

I’m too old/young.

I don’t have any good ideas.

I’m not wealthy/well educated/from a good family.

It sounds like a lot of work.

I don’t know how to do [blank]. o

Learn how to do it yourself. 

Google

Is it Right for Me?



Wikipedia



Forums



eHow



Speed read books



Networking



Take a class

Pay someone else to do it. 

Outsourcing



Answers Websites



Partnerships



Trade

Chapter 3 Building the Confidence to Take the Scary Step "Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly." -Robert Francis Kennedy

et me state one more time, that if you skipped the exercises at the end of chapter two, you are really selling

yourself short. I don’t completely understand why, but often it seems as human beings we resist the things that would help us the most. I know because I did it in my own life, and I still catch myself doing it Do yourself a favor and jot down a few notes on the previous pages! Stop reading! Ok, now that we’re all back together, let me make something very clear before continuing: quitting your job is going to be scary! I’m not going to lie to you and tell you that it will be easy, because it won’t be. There is no magic secret that will make it pain free. You are going to feel anxiety, you are going to have self doubt, and your brain is going to come up with all kinds of negative thoughts. You will find yourself wondering if maybe you have everyone fooled. You read

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the book, you did the exercises, but who are you kidding? Those other people who did it are so much smarter than you, they aren’t in your situation, they have all those advantages, and that’s why it won’t work for you. Does this sound at all like the little voice in your head? I will tell you one secret: Everyone, from the most successful CEOs to the highest paid actors and musicians to the president of the United States, at one time were very unsure of themselves and had the same thoughts going around their head.

Actually, more than that, they still have those

thoughts go around their head once in a while. In fact you can never get rid of them 100%. The only difference between those that are successful and those that aren’t is that successful people don’t listen to those negative thoughts. This is such an important point, we are going to explore it in depth in this chapter. When it comes down to it, it’s fear, not actual knowledge, that trips people up on the path to becoming a successful entrepreneur. Like many things in life, being self-employed is a mental game. Those who are mentally tough are the ones who succeed. We must admit and embrace the fact that life is filled with scary experiences. They are all around us. Can you think of a time when you saw a good looking “hunk” or “babe” sitting across from you at restaurant or coffee shop? I bet you were nervous and trying not to look silly in front of them, and maybe you even thought about going over to say “Hi”. But your brain made a whole slew of excuses: “They look busy",

shouldn’t

bother

them”,

“I

bet

he/she

has

girlfriend/boyfriend”, “I look like a mess just running out of the house like this”, “I would go say ‘Hi’ if I was dressed better”, and “What if they aren’t interested and everyone sees me get rejected?”

Building the Confidence to Take the Scary Step

Business is really no different. Sometimes opportunities crop up that are risky but could be highly rewarding. Just like a potential mate sitting across from you at the coffee shop, we might see an attractive investment deal sitting across from us at the conference table. Do we sign or not? There the brain goes again: “I’m busy with so many other things right now, do I even have time for this?”

“There’s another

investor already working on a similar project, he might beat me to it.” “I’m relatively new to this whole field; are these people secretly laughing behind my back?” “What if I lose my shirt on this deal and everyone thinks I’m a failure?” Brian’s Note I am actually in a coffee shop right now writing this, and as I was writing that last paragraph a cute girl walked by that I wanted to meet. Just as I suspected, my brain instantly came up with an excuse! “I’ve got to get some work done on the book, and I don’t have time to take a break”. But then I thought, “Brian, how hypocritical would that be to be writing a book about this very topic when you can’t do it yourself!” Anyway, I had some anxiety but finally went and did it. Maybe I should send her a copy of the book since she is now in it. I tell you this to illustrate an important point. Recognizing these excuses we create is only the first step. You can understand it and believe it intellectually, but it doesn’t change the fact that your brain will do it! It is a constant battle we wage with ourselves to remove our limitations and ignore the inner critic. So I hope that we are in agreement on the fact that quitting your job will be scary. Despite being scary however, it will be a positive step

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that you will be so glad you took, so let’s look at some of the things that might hold you back.

WHY MOST PEOPLE FAIL A Desire for Certainty One of the fundamental needs of human beings that has been written about in psychology for decades is the need for certainty1. In fact, many people consider this the most fundamental human need of all. If we jump out of a plane, can’t trust the wobbly bridge, the car spins out of control, or the air is suddenly sucked out of the room, then nothing else matters. During an event like this, the desire for certainly is more powerful than the need for food, water, happiness, procreation, and love. Unfortunately, this basic human need doesn’t always go very well with another human need, which is the desire for purpose, growth, and contribution. This is why we seek to build companies that can bring us wealth, help other people by providing value to their lives, and give our lives significance and importance.

In the moment, our desire for

certainty often wins out because it is necessary in the short term. Our brains are designed to work in a world that existed one hundred thousand years ago, where a tiger or neighboring tribe might jump out at any moment to kill us! To survive in that world, our brains evolved to prioritize certainty above all else. It was a necessary survival trait then, but doesn’t always serve us well in the modern day. Purpose, growth, and contribution are more long term goals and if we aren’t careful our 1

For example, Abraham Maslow’s famous hierarchy of needs. This is also discussed by

many contemporary people such as Tony Robbins.

Building the Confidence to Take the Scary Step

overwhelming desire for certainty can totally prevent us from achieving them. A Lack of Self Confidence Although it’s tough to admit, we are often the greatest obstacles to our own success. Everyone suffers from a lack of self confidence at various points in their life. In fact, if you can’t admit to yourself that you sometimes suffer from a lack of confidence, this might be the first indication of it! Luckily there are ways to build self confidence. The primary way is to go right through it by starting small. Each and every time you feel nervous about something, and still go through with it, you will build confidence.

For example, let’s say you lack

confidence in starting a company. Maybe first you could read a book about it and write out some exercises. Once you discovered how easy it was and actually did the exercises, then you would automatically feel more confident. Then you could invest in a small business, like putting up a simple website or writing an e-Book. Once this worked you’d get even more confident. Finally maybe you’d start a larger business. You’d be nervous about interviewing people, but after you hired the first one it would get easier.

After you wrote a successful advertisement, you

wouldn’t feel nervous about that. Finally, after you closed a big contract with your first client you would know you were going to make it! Slowly but surely, the number of things you were unsure of would get smaller and smaller. Simultaneously, your confidence would increase. A simple

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way to remember this is action eliminates fear2. Be like a Nike ad and just do it. In fact, after a while you can actually train yourself to respond positively to a nervous unconfident feeling. Feeling nervous will turn into an automatic response where your brain says “Hey, I’m feeling nervous, that means its time to just do it!” Actually, sometimes when I start to feel nervous about a particular event, I stop and tell myself “This is great! It means I’m about to learn something”.

Feeling nervous or

unconfident about something means you are about to have an incredibly valuable experience. What a great opportunity! The second thing to realize about confidence is that it really isn’t that important to have. You can get by without it. What you need instead is to build competence3. Imagine for a moment that you are riding a motorcycle. Would you rather be confident or competent? A confident person who lacks competence might take the bike right into a very dangerous situation and not be able to get out! On the other hand, a competent motorcycle driver who lacks confidence will still be alive to slowly build the confidence over time. So don’t worry about getting confidence. Just learn the basics to become competent. Then take immediate action! The confidence will come as a byproduct over time. An External Locus of Control We discussed this concept in the previous chapter, but if you still feel your life is controlled by the external events in life that are happening all around you, then you will always be doomed to failure. Don’t ever 2

I didn’t create this phrase. I first heard it from a man named Don Akers, who is a

business coach and former Golden Gloves Boxing champion. 3

This concept is attributed to a man named Erik Von Markovik.

Building the Confidence to Take the Scary Step

make excuses that something “happened” to you or someone “did” something to you.

No one owes you anything.

The time to take

responsibility for your progress is now. You are the only one responsible for your own happiness. Parents & Loved Ones' Expectations Unfortunately, many people let the expectations of others control their life. Quitting your job is scary enough on its own without a group of people around trying to discourage you! Imagine your desire to start a business is like a seed you planted in the ground. It’s going to take lots of water, sunlight, and nourishment to grow one day into a strong tree. What do you think is going to happen if every few days, just as the first tender green leaves are emerging from the soil, someone walks by accidentally stepping on them and loudly declares “where is that tree you keep talking about? I told you it wouldn’t work!” "Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great." - Mark Twain When you are in the transition phase of starting your own company, it’s important to eliminate negative influences like this from your life. If these people are friends or acquaintances of yours, simply cut off all communication with them. They are holding you back (more on this later). What if those people are your family, spouse, or closest friends? The best policy in this case is to avoid discussing it with them as much as you can. Better yet, just don’t even tell them what you are

Breaking Free

doing! Some people will probably write me angry letters for saying this, but it must be said. Wait at least until your little tree has become a sapling, strong enough to survive on its own, to tell those people who might not understand what you are doing. At the same time, actively seek out and surround yourself with people who do understand what you’re trying to do. Other entrepreneurs, for example will help keep you in the right mindset. What’s important to keep in mind here is that your discouraging family and friends don’t mean to sabotage you. They actually care for you deeply. But your parent’s or spouse’s goals for your life are not always in harmony with your goals for yourself.

Often, from their

viewpoint it would be great (at least they think it would be great) if you took the “safe” route of getting a good job from a large company with decent benefits. Then they can sleep at night with plenty of certainty. This might make you safe, but it will almost certainly guarantee a life of mediocrity.

Remember, that only those who dare to fail greatly ever

achieve greatly. If you are doing what everyone else is doing, there is probably something wrong.

After all, whose reality do you live in?

Theirs or your own? It’s time to stop caring what other people think. You’ve only got one shot on this planet and my advice is to spend it doing what you want, not what others expect of you. Even if they don’t understand at first, they will eventually come to love you more for being your true self and reaching your full potential. A Negative Peer Group Most people vastly underestimate the influence that their peer group has on them. The old phrase “You are who you spend time with” is true. Every good mother knows to encourage her child to play with the good kids. If her child ever falls into the wrong group of friends, the

Building the Confidence to Take the Scary Step

damage can be swift and drastic! As grown ups, we really aren’t very different. If you’ve ever played a sport, you’ve probably experienced this first hand.

Did you ever notice that when you played a team or

opponent that was far better than you, you played up to their level? Even if you lost, you may have played the best game of your life. Likewise, when you played a team or opponent with inferior skills, you played sloppily and without focus. Even if you won, you knew it wasn’t your best. In The Psychology of Achievement, Brian Tracy talks about a study done at Harvard where they tested just how powerful the peer group actually is. What they found was astounding: one single factor, a negative peer group, was enough to ensure a person would be unsuccessful no matter what. Being around unsuccessful people virtually guaranteed you would be like them! Your goal should be to surround yourself with the people who are closest to your ideal self. If you do this long enough with enough people, you will automatically become more like them. It isn’t even a conscious process most of the time, and even if you tried to fight it, it would still happen. Let’s try an experiment for a moment. Think of your five closest friends and take the average of their incomes (guess if needed). I can guarantee you that the number you came up with is remarkably close to your own actual income! Financially unsuccessful people look at this and say “I’d have wealthier friends if I could only earn more money!” Financially successful people look at this and say “I’d earn more money if I could only find some wealthier friends!” Aside from finding successful people, you’ll also have to worry about the unsuccessful ones holding you back. When you make the

Breaking Free

decision to quit your job and work for yourself, some people are going to think you are crazy. Be prepared for it and expect it. This can have a big effect on you, because they aren't going to be random people off the street; it may be people someone who you love and respect. Your own parents, significant other, or children may tell you that you are crazy! The reasons behind this are many. Very few people take this path, it isn’t the “safe” route, and we all fear change. Subconsciously, people who are not living to their full potential may want you to fail in this endeavor. If you become wildly successful, what are the implications from their point of view? You would probably stop being friends with them, they would look lazy or ineffective by comparison, and their model of the world, which is filled with excuses as to why they can’t succeed will be broken. Ultimately however, the reasons why aren’t important. What’s most important is to realize that what other people think doesn’t matter. It’s up to you to decide who to listen to and who to ignore. It’s your responsibility to decide for yourself. In my own personal experience, I chose to listen to people who were successful and had the life I wanted. They all told me to follow my path in life and achieve my true purpose. I also got plenty of advice from other people who didn’t have the life I wanted. Many of them told me the opposite. In the end I chose to listen to those people who I most wanted to be like, and quit my job to work for myself.

GETTING STARTED Now that we’ve listed the reasons most people fail, let’s focus on a more positive aspect: how to get started. Taking this scary step in your life isn’t going to happen all at once. It’s not like jumping off a diving board where you can build up the courage and just do it once. You are

Building the Confidence to Take the Scary Step

going to be tested over and over again, and you will need to build up a positive mindset that will stay with you day after day. Believe me, I wish I could write some magic sentence on this page that would instantly change your beliefs and mindset! But people don’t operate like that. We are creatures of habit. Beliefs are built up over time.

Imagine a small stream that

bubbles up one day and forms a small trickle down a hillside. It wanders downhill in no particular direction hitting rocks and trees, going around them effortlessly. After a while, it starts to form a pattern and become more consistent in what direction it takes. It starts to carve a little path in the hillside, about an inch deep until almost 100% of the water is flowing together.

Overtime it builds up, getting water from other

sources such as nearby streams or seasonal rain. The path continues to carve deeper and deeper into the mountain side. Years go by and it’s a raging river. Finally one day we come upon it and it has carved a deep canyon. Even the Grand Canyon was formed this way over millions of years. How is someone going to come along one day and change the river flowing at the bottom of the Grand Canyon? They can’t, because it has been so deeply ingrained over time. If they had caught it when it was just a little trickle, barely an inch wide, one person could have easily changed its course, but now it’s not so easy. The same is true of human belief. If we have been thinking a particular way for some time, we can’t change everything in one day. However, we can still change the path of the river, little by little. What if we came by each day and dumped a bucket of concrete near the edge? At first it would have no effect whatsoever. But eventually it would start to affect the river. A few years later we’d wake up and the river would be flowing in a totally new direction.

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This is the solution! This is the way to change human beliefs. Especially your beliefs about your own ability to work for yourself and be successful. Three words that I would like you to remember are: constant positive reinforcement.

CONSTANT POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT Each word is important. Constant, because it needs to happen every day.

Positive, because each time it needs to go in the right

direction. Reinforcement, because it slowly gets stronger and stronger building on top of itself. This is the way mountains are moved, and this is the way you can create an unstoppable mindset toward achieving your goals. What I’m telling you is that this book you are reading right now isn’t enough. I would love to have people tell me that this book changed their life, but what’s more likely is that this book will be a starting point where people find out what they need to do each day to change their life. Or it will be one more constant positive reinforcement in a long list that a successful person is already using. Imagine you read a book that gave you a new idea or way of thinking. Maybe you enjoyed the book, agreed with the premise, and even became excited and ready to take action! Then the next day you would go to work, think about how much you don’t like your job, and come home exhausted. Something would come up, new clients, a family problem, financial issues, and you would delay your action, promising yourself you would do it later. Each day you would continue to go to work and be distracted by things that just don’t matter. Finally, a month later, the “high” of the book would have worn off. It would still be in the back of your mind, but something more important would always

Building the Confidence to Take the Scary Step

seem to come up.

Two months later, parts of the book would be

forgotten and you’d wonder if it really made sense, or if it was just some fad you went through. Six months later, you would stop one day, realize that nothing has changed, and accept the fact it just wasn’t for you. Remember, we are creatures of habit. Just one exciting book can’t possibly wage war against the tide of negative messages that are telling you something different. You will have to transform yourself into a permanent student for the duration of your life, constantly feeding your brain with positive, educational, and inspirational messages. Every single person that I know, who I consider to be successful, follows this philosophy. Become a permanent student throughout your life and never stop learning. If you already read voraciously or discuss entrepreneurship on a regular basis, then you are far ahead of most people. But if you are like most of us, getting educational work done is something we often don’t have time for. It gets left on the back burner. So I’m going to share with you three of the best ways I know of to get more constant positive reinforcement built into your life. •

Take a Speed Reading Course Speed reading and speed comprehension are real. Most people who take a speed reading course double or even triple their reading rate. For a more inexpensive option, you can buy a speed reading book. This takes discipline to actually do the exercises, but it can still work. I did a half hour of speed reading exercises every day for a month, and doubled my reading rate. This is an essential investment in yourself that every person should make.

•

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Create Your Positive Peer Group Just being around the right people will serve as a great education and inspire you to follow your dreams. Immediately stop spending time with the people in your life now who aren’t helping you grow. Then find new friends and mentors who are the right type of person. Go to networking events and seminars, and pay for coaching. If you meet someone who you think you could learn from, don’t be shy about getting their card and following up with them. Buy them lunch, pick their brain, and ask for their advice. You’ll be amazed at who you will find to help you if you only ask.

•

Start Listening to Audio Programs in Your Car If I could pick one thing for you to start doing immediately this would be it. Remember how I said we are creatures of habit? The beauty of listening to audio programs in your car is that you always have to drive. (Or if you live in a city with a subway, then you always have time to listen there with an MP3 player.) If you get busy, or forget, it’s easy to not be able to read as much as you’d like. But if every time you start your engine, you have an audio program going, then it’s impossible to forget. It’s automatically built into your daily routine. According to Brian Tracy, most people spend 500 to 1000 hours in their car every year. This is equivalent to one or two semesters at a university. Most people are sitting there listening to advertisements on the radio or Britney Spears, wasting minutes and hours of their life. I can’t emphasize this point enough. If you aren’t listening to audio programs in your car, you quite simply aren’t serious about being successful in life.

Building the Confidence to Take the Scary Step

One important point to make here deals with what you are actually going to listen to. Some people who Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve given this advice to have readily agreed and even started using it. But then I find they are listening to fiction books or that they have stopped listening to music and started listening to news or talk shows. This is a slight improvement, but not nearly as effective as what they could be doing. Unless you are studying to be a fiction writer or a news anchor, there are more effective ways you could be using your time. You need to be learning material in specific fields that will help you accomplish your goals quickly.

If you are reading this book, I

assume one of your goals is starting your own business. There are many fine programs on this subject, which are listed through the book and in the resource index at the end. Often, the more you learn, the more you realize you need to learn. There are a wide variety of audio programs available on marketing, relationships, psychology, writing, rocket science, finance, and almost any other topic you can think of.

NO MATTER WHAT This particular phrase is especially important.

Something

magical happens when you make a decision to do something no matter what. It no longer is something you should do, or want to do, it is something you know you will do, period. It may sound subtle, but the effect of this is actually quite profound. You are making a declaration to your subconscious that this is your new path, and your subconscious listens. Suddenly you will start to notice things around you that that you never saw before. Events will come up that you can change and take advantage of. You will wake up in the morning with random ideas to help you on your path that you had

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never even considered before (your subconscious was working while you slept). As an example, lets say you decide you are going to quit your job and start your own business no matter what. (Note: I’m not asking you to actually commit right here, it’s merely an example.) If you made this decision and were firmly committed, your subconscious would go to work right away. Maybe you’d be on your way to work one day, going through your usual routine, and happen to notice a sign posted for a business plan writing seminar. It had been there for months, and you’d never noticed. At lunch you might overhear some people discussing a business idea, join the conversation, and make a new friend with similar interests. You may even depart with their business card and an invitation to join them at a speaking event the next week. On the way home you could pass the local bookstore and notice a book in the window written by the same author you’ve been listening to in your car. All these things were happening around you already, but you never noticed them.

How could this be?

Well, you weren’t fully

committed and focused on starting a business yet. The universe has a strange way of bringing the very things we think about the most into our life. If you think every day about being a successful business owner, then eventually it will just happen as more and more opportunities come into your life. The critical first step is making that firm commitment to do it no matter what. Tony Robbins, a speaker and author, describes this as the difference between a should and a must. If you tell yourself constantly that you should go exercise, then you probably won’t do it regularly. It is optional. The very word itself, should, implies a chance it won’t even happen! On the other hand, if you tell yourself you must make it to the

Building the Confidence to Take the Scary Step

gym no matter what, then it ceases to become optional. As you tell yourself this over and over, it becomes ingrained as a priority in your life. You start to view yourself as a person who always exercises regularly. Not to do so would break your identity and sense of who you are as a person! Similarly, avoid words like trying. “I’m trying to quit smoking.” “I’m trying to exercise more.” “I’m trying to start a business.” How weak does that sound! If you just try, then by definition there’s a chance you will fail. If you do it no matter what, then failure isn’t an option. You will keep on persisting until you accomplish your goal. You aren’t trying, you are doing it no matter what. Remember the character Yoda from the Star Wars movies? He said,, "Do or do not, there is no try”. This subtle shift in thinking and how you talk to yourself4 may sound silly if you’ve never heard of it before.

That is fine.

You don’t have to

understand it or even fully believe in it right now, but I know that it worked for me and countless others, so you may want to try it as well. Some people will tell you that playing it safe and having a backup plan is just good planning.

But sometimes this can actually be self

destructive. Let’s say you decided you wanted to quit your job and work for yourself, but you weren’t entirely sure it would work out.

You

decided to play it safe by holding on to your old job just in case. We call this “hedging your bets”. In other words, you didn’t fully commit to one outcome. How well would it work? Well, while starting this business, you’d be forced to make some sacrifices. Your time would be severely limited. In fact, the only time you would have to work on your new business would be when you come home exhausted from your primary 4

See Chad Helmstetter’s famous book “What to say when you talk to yourself”

Breaking Free

job. When you do get work done, you wouldn’t be at your peak and it would take time away from your family. Most likely, you would just be too tired in the evening and end up watching TV instead of working. During the day, you wouldn’t be able to discuss your new business at work with anyone, just in case word got back to the boss. The entire business would just be a distant second to your regular life.

What

percent of your day do think you would truthfully spend thinking about being self employed?

There would simply be too many other

responsibilities to be able to commit fully. In a situation like this, playing it safe and hedging your bets may very well cost you your primary goal. If you want to have a backup plan, then have a backup plan for how you will still accomplish your primary goal: being self employed. In other words, if you want to hedge your bets, have multiple products, numerous sales channels to market your product, cash reserves, and another entire business idea in your back pocket in case things don’t work out. Don’t have a backup plan in case you never accomplish your primary goal at all! This is a surefire way to sabotage everything you are working toward.

ONE STEP AT A TIME Sure, quitting your job will be a big undertaking that will be scary at times. You’ll have self doubt running all over you! But if you can take one thing away from this chapter it is this: just start taking small steps in the right direction, and worry about the rest later. Sure, you’ll one day have to take the big step of actually quitting, but you can build up to it with plenty of smaller steps before taking the plunge. Most people do the opposite of this and fall into one of two categories. The first category are those people who assume they have it all figured out and jump in right away with both feet! They overestimate

Building the Confidence to Take the Scary Step

their ability and quickly sink to the bottom. The second category of people are so risk averse they never act at all! This is probably a much bigger category, and for these people their fear is paralyzing. They have the best of intentions but never change anything. The secret is to fall somewhere in between these two groups by taking small steps. By taking small steps you are minimizing risk and learning as you go, while still making progress. Eventually, you’ll have more confidence, you’ll have learned more than you can possibly imagine, and you will have changed your entire mindset. You will be focused, determined, resilient, and have all the tools at your disposal. The day you finally quit your job and strike out on your own, a sense of calm will come over you as you walk out the door because you will know you made the right decision. A year later, you will look back and see how far you’ve come. You’ll hardly even recognize yourself! It really is ironic, but as with many things in life, quitting your job to work for yourself is a mental game. The logistics and physical steps are not difficult. Anyone can do it. But very few ever do because the greatest obstacles are the ones we create in our own mind. I have confidence in you that you will overcome all obstacles in your path to accomplish this goal, if you decide it’s what you really want. As always, please take the time to jot down in a few notes in the exercises on the next page. This is an essential step of reading this book. Please don’t skip it!

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CHAPTER 3 EXERCISES List five people in your life right now who may be a negative influence or donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t share your vision of quitting your job and being self employed? (Note: if you fear them finding this, you can use code words or nick names, or write it on a separate sheet.) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. You may want to cut these people out of your life, severely limit your time with them, or simply not tell them about your dreams if you have to be near them! Who do you admire and respect? Who would you like to be more like if you could have any life? Who do you think you could learn from? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. You may want to make an effort to spend more time with these people. Always be on the lookout for opportunities to meet with them or find more people like them.

Building the Confidence to Take the Scary Step

What are five ways you could bring constant positive reinforcement to your life?

How could you hear a message daily that would inspire,

education, and motivate you toward your goal of working for yourself? 1. I’m going to fill this one in for you.

Go right now to

www.amazon.com (or your favorite book store) and purchase an audio program called The Psychology of Achievement by Brian Tracy. I make no money from this, and it is merely one of many good audio programs, but the single greatest gift you can give yourself in this area is to get started listening to audio programs in your car as you commute and go about driving every day. If you are going to do one thing on this list, make it this one! 2. 3. 4. 5. How are you “hedging your bets” and playing it safe when it comes to quitting your job and working for yourself? committed? Please list a few ways. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Are you only partially

Breaking Free

CHAPTER 3 SUMMARY •

Quitting your job will be scary.

•

There will be anxiety (a.k.a. excitement).

•

Become comfortable with anxiety, it means you are about to learn something.

•

Your brain will invent excuses constantly.

Say “Thank you for

sharing” and continue. •

Why most people fail. o

Addicted to comfort and routine.

Lack of self confidence. 

Action eliminates fear, start small.



Be competent, not confident.

An external locus of control.

Parents & loved one’s expectations.

A negative peer group.

•

We are creatures of habit.

•

Beliefs are built up over time like a stream carving the Grand Canyon.

•

We can’t change it instantly; it must be done slowly over time.

•

Use Constant Positive Reinforcement. o

Speed reading

Positive peer group

Audio programs in your car

•

Deciding to do it no matter what, don’t hedge your bets.

•

Take small steps in the right direction.

Chapter 4 Taking the Pay Cut “All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind” -Aristotle

t’s time to talk about how you are going to handle your finances during the process of quitting your job. This is an

important topic because it is the lingering excuse many people use to explain why they can’t quit their job and get their business going! The unfortunate reality is that most people go through life without knowing the first thing about how to manage their finances. This is a subject that I truly believe should be taught in school, but so far it hasn’t happened. Poor people don’t know how to manage money, so they pass on what hasn’t worked for them to their children who grow up poor. Rich people teach their children how to be rich, so their children grow up rich. This isn’t a book on money management, but I’m going to address it here because it is a major factor in how hard it will be to get your business going.

At the beginning, your business finances and

personal finances will be one and the same. Later you will separate them

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(Chapter 7), but the principles will remain much the same. The main problem is that most people spend what money they earn. This sounds innocent enough, but in reality, this is a major reason for why people never become wealthy. When poor people get a raise, they celebrate by instantly going out and getting a nicer car. They take on debt to finance their house, cars, vacations, credit card expenses, etc. Ultimately they end up in a rat race where they can never get ahead and they are forced to keep working their same job because they have so many bills to pay to just to survive! Rich people, on the other hand, save at least 15% of their income and never touch it. This money is then reinvested into income generating assets (real estate, mutual funds, businesses, etc) until one day they have enough income coming in that they can stop working, and still have an income. Because they have assets, they can afford to start a business. They aren’t living paycheck to paycheck like the majority of people! Poor people work for money. Rich people have money work for them. Poor people believe what they earn is there to spend. Rich people believe what they earn is there to invest. For more information on this topic, some excellent books to read are Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley and William Danko, Harv Eker’s programs on building wealth, and The Richest Man in Babylon by George Clason. Better yet, get them as audio programs and listen to them when you are done with Brian Tracy’s The Psychology of Achievement. If you haven’t been building wealth for the long term, don’t worry. Most people who start their own business don’t have much excess cash lying around. The word entrepreneur, almost by definition, means you are getting things going any way you can! Beg, borrow, and

Taking the Pay Cut

steal just to get the first product out. Many famous stories exist of big name entrepreneurs who started with almost nothing and pulled themselves up by the bootstraps. So don’t worry, my intent here is to provide you with practical advice that will help you right now to get things started. At the same time you can change your personal finance habits and start making big changes for your future. When you quit your job to start your own business, you will most likely be taking a pay cut in the short term to earn more down the road. There are a lucky few who quit and earn more in their first year working for themselves than they did at their old job. This is great when it happens, but we shouldn’t assume it will. Don’t be rash and quit without a plan in mind. That would be foolish and you could quickly find yourself in a difficult situation. Luckily, there are a number of ways to make this transition fairly easy, and I’m going to tell you the three best ones right now. The basic strategies involved in smoothly taking a pay cut are (1) don’t quit your job yet, (2) get a different job with more flexible hours, and (3) save up enough to survive for six months with no income while at the same time spending less. One or a combination of these can be used and we will cover each one in detail.

THREE WAYS TO MAKE AN EASY TRANSITION 1. Keep your current job a little bit longer It’s never a good idea to be rash, so don’t quit your job quite yet! One of the best ways to get things going is to start your business up in your free time by operating on nights and weekends. This will allow you to make the initial steps and get your confidence going.

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In fact, in an ideal world, you will be generating enough money in your new business on the side that your current job’s income becomes small by comparison. Wouldn’t that make it easy to quit! I know people that have actually had that work for them. They have slowly built their business in their free time, gotten potential customers lined up and ready to go, then at the last minute made a beautiful transition by quitting their job and closing their first sale in the same day! A note of caution: be very careful about taking either customers or employees away from your current employer when you leave to work on your business. Many companies today have you sign a non-compete agreement which could land you in big trouble. Start your new business ethically, or you might get a chance to see how you look in stripes! If working till the day you have money coming in sounds good to you then by all means go for it! Even if it doesn’t work, you will at least have made huge progress before actually quitting. Often, the time it takes between first starting a business and making profit can be quite substantial. So the goal is to get as close to actually earning profit as you can. If you use this strategy, at a certain point you may find yourself becoming frustrated by your lack of progress on your new business. I know that when I was starting my company, it was often difficult. I would come home from a long day of work at the office and be absolutely exhausted. I would get some work done occasionally, but it wasn’t my best work since I was already tired. The weekends were better, affording a few hours here and there. In fact, I was able to make serious progress over time using this method (and made it through a large number of steps discussed in Chapter 7). But for me it was very

Taking the Pay Cut

frustrating to make such slow progress. During the week all I thought about was the time I could be spending on my new company! Eventually I had to quit my job to be able to work full time, and never looked back. Use this method to get as far as you can down the road to starting your business.

2. Get a different job If your current job has you working overtime or involves extensive traveling, you may want to get another one. This solution offers the best of both worlds because you will still have a steady income, but you will have more time to work on your business! This is especially true for people whose jobs currently have them working long hours. It will be tough to start your business on nights and weekends if your boss already has you coming in on nights and weekends! I’ve listed some alternative jobs below that could help bring you income while you start your business. Keep in mind that it may be worthwhile to briefly take on a position that is “beneath you” to get ahead in the long run. Even if the job pays you less hourly, or isn’t respected as much as your current job, it may be just what you need: part time work that gives you time to accomplish your primary objective. •

Tutor Most people have some sort of skill that would allow them to work part time as a tutor. If you did well in any particular subject in school, your job required special knowledge, or if you speak a foreign language, then you could tutor others.

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Tutoring is one of the best part time jobs because your hours are flexible and you can charge very substantial rates. Every city in the world is full of students who need help in algebra, chemistry, physics, writing, grammar, spelling, general study skills, organization, speaking English, learning a foreign language, preparing for the SAT, economics, psychology, accounting, statistics, and more. Many parents are willing to pay excellent hourly rates to ensure their childâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s success (rates from $45/hour and up are not uncommon). How does one begin working as a tutor? Post flyers at local high schools, put an advertisement in a PTA newsletter, or send an email to all your friends asking them to forward it to anyone they know with children. But probably the single most effective way you could find work as a tutor is to make a simple one page website, with your credentials, experience, photo, hours, rates, busy schedule, and an easy way to get in touch with you. Then start getting potential customers

your

site

advertising

with

Google

(adwords.google.com). In less than a month and for less than $100 you will have clients and a side income. â&#x20AC;˘

Bartender If you like to stay up late, this is a good alternative job because it has odd hours. You will still be able to work a full 40 hour week on your new business and bring in some extra money in the evenings and weekends.

Taking the Pay Cut

Bartenders earn $100-$300 per night, or about $1 per drink, and many bartenders don’t report their cash earnings to the IRS (in essence, receiving tax free income). To find work as a bartender, you may want to seek out a bartender training school in your area. They will bring you up to speed and provide you with job leads once you’ve graduated the course (usually two weekends or one week). You may also need to get certified by the state. •

Help Desk Providing technical support or answering phones is a great alternative job to have. It’s great because you are often left with nothing to do for long periods of time (and often have access to a computer). Don’t apply to a job that will keep you busy all day long. Then it will just be tedious! Try to get a feel for how busy you might be by visiting the facility at different times or discreetly asking others who work there. Any job such as this can provide you with a lot of time to study and plan your business while still getting paid. College campuses are full of jobs like this and many IT help desk positions carry these same advantages.

•

Work Part Time Another great option is to stay at your current company, but work part time. Don’t assume your boss will say yes or no until you’ve asked them. You never know. You don’t have to tell them “I’d like to work less so I can spend more time on my own business”. This might not help your relationships at the office. Instead, just tell them

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it is for personal reasons. You are under no obligation to give a full explanation.

Save up enough money to live for six months before quitting If you already have sufficient savings, then you are one of the lucky few! Quit your job and live off your savings while you get started. But if you are like most people who start companies, money is tight! Living for six months without any income would spell eviction. If you fall in to this category, don’t despair. By following the strategy below you can build enough income to survive for six months or more. The key to saving income is to take a percentage out before you ever have a chance to spend it.

Don’t make the mistake of telling

yourself you’ll save whatever is left at the end of the month. There will never be anything left! Instead, take 10% out of every paycheck that you receive and put it into a special separate account specifically designated for when you will quit your job. Most people can survive on 90% of their income, but if money is really tight, then just start with taking out 1%. The most important part is to build the habit (remember what type of creatures we are?). Everyone can save 1% no matter what state you are in financially. Eventually, bump it up to 2%, then 3% and you will soon get to 10%. Chances are, you probably won’t even notice that 10% missing! When it’s in your bank account it’s easy to spend. It won’t be there at the end of the month, and you won’t be sure where it went. At the same time, taking it out before you have a chance to spend it will ensure it is safely tucked away, and you won’t even miss it.

Taking the Pay Cut

After you’ve reached the point of saving 10% of your income, bump it up to 15% and higher as your income increases. Many self-made millionaires save 50% or more of their income each year! This is how they continue to build wealth. Where should you put the money? I recommend putting it into a high yield savings account.

Personally, I use ING Direct

www.ingdirect.com which currently has a 4.5% interest rate. This is far above the national average, and remember, it’s a savings account so you can move money in and out of it any time you’d like. In fact, many CD’s that require a one year commitment can’t match 4.5% right now! ING Direct is able to pay this rate because they are an online bank without any branches. You still know your money is safe, however, because they are FDIC insured. That means the U.S. federal government is guaranteeing your money. Using a high yield savings account will continue to earn your interest, rewarding you for being smart enough to save. Once you have more money to invest you can look into stocks, mutual funds, and real estate. One important point to remember is that saving money brings you compounding interest. Some people find it discouraging to think about saving $100 per month, only to be left with $1200 at the end of the year. “What good is $1200?” they ask. “How will that help me live for six months?”

They are forgetting the power of compounding interest,

which allows $100 per month to turn into far more than the sum of its parts. What if I told you that every day for a month I’d give you some pennies. The first day I’d give you one penny, the second day two, the third day four, and it would continue to double each day for a month. “So what?” you might say. “How much could you possibly be giving me?” A few dollars? Ten? A couple hundred?

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It turns out that that by the end of the month I would have paid you more than $10 million in total! How can this be? After the first week you would have only received a dollar and some change, but by then end of the month it turned into $10 million? Behold the power of compounding interest. Even Albert Einstein once said that “The most powerful force in the universe is compound interest”. Of course your money won’t be doubling every day like our example above, but you should at least be able to earn a 10% return on your investment1! Start saving today, and do so for the rest of your life. Reinvest what you earn. This is the secret of wealth that the rich have known for centuries, and it will give you the cash reserves to start any business you’d like. Of course, one crucial question we must answer is: How much should I save? We will now answer that question.

HOW MUCH MONEY DO I REALLY NEED? There is no need to make a guess here and estimate how much money you will need. It is actually quite simple to determine. Please go through the following exercise to find out how much money you really need to live off. Take a moment to list your monthly expense for each of the following:

Housing 1

ING Direct will pay you 4.5% for now risk free, but by investing in index funds and real

estate, you should be able to earn at least 10% over the long run. If you don’t feel comfortable investing, speak with a financial planner you trust.

Taking the Pay Cut

Rent/Mortgage

$ _____________

Home Insurance/Property Tax

$ _____________

Home Ownerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Association Dues

$ _____________

Electricity/Gas

$ _____________

Water

$ _____________

Telephone

$ _____________

Internet

$ _____________

Cable TV

$ _____________

Cleaning/Gardening/Pool/Security/Garbag e Removal Other Housing Costs

$ _____________ $ _____________

Transportation Car Payments

$ _____________

Gas

$ _____________

Parking

$ _____________

Car Insurance

$ _____________

Car Maintenance

$ _____________

Subway or Train

$ _____________

Other Transportation

$ _____________

Living Groceries

$ _____________

Clothing

$ _____________

Cell Phone

$ _____________

Laundry/Dry Cleaning

$ _____________

Hair Care/Hygiene

$ _____________

Child Care/Support

$ _____________

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Pet Care

$ _____________

Health Health/Life Insurance

$ _____________

Doctor/Dentist Visits

$ _____________

Prescriptions

$ _____________

Gym Membership/Exercise Classes/Sports

$ _____________

Entertainment Restaurants

$ _____________

Bars & Nightclubs

$ _____________

Smoking

$ _____________

Movies

$ _____________

Gambling

$ _____________

Music (concerts, CD’s, mp3’s)

$ _____________

Shows

$ _____________

Video Games

$ _____________

Magazines

$ _____________

Vacations Plane Flights

$ _____________

Hotels

$ _____________

Taxi

$ _____________

Meals

$ _____________

Debt/Investments Credit Card Debt

$ _____________

Student Loans

$ _____________

Taking the Pay Cut

Automatic Savings

$ _____________

Taxes (annual divided by 12) Federal

$ _____________

State

$ _____________

Education (yourself or children) Books

$ _____________

Tuition

$ _____________

Classes and Seminars

$ _____________

Giving Donations to Charity/Church

$ _____________

Gifts

$ _____________

Monthly Total

$ _____________

Six Month Savings Goal

$ _____________

Figure 3 – Discover your monthly expenses.

Please total your monthly expenses. Multiplying this number by six will give you your savings goal. If it seems a bit large, don’t worry we will discuss cutting expenses later on. If the business you want to start requires some initial investment, you will add it to this number. Startup costs will be discussed in chapter 6 (starting a business probably costs much less than you expect). You will now need to create a separate bank account to keep your savings. Don’t mix it in with your usual checking account because it will be more difficult to keep track of and you might be tempted to spend it! Many bank accounts today allow you to name the account or

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label it somehow in online banking. This is a great idea. Name it something like “Entrepreneurship Fund” and put the actual amount that you are going to save. So if my monthly expenses totaled $1000, I would name my account “Entrepreneurship Fund - $6000”. Then each month I would take 10% of my paycheck and deposit it into this account before I ever had a chance to spend it. Studies have shown over and over again that if your goal is measurable and written down then you are far more likely to achieve it. So please take advantage of this by naming the actual account with your goal. You can write it down right on the bank statement if the bank won’t let you label the account.

Just write it each month on the

statement – “Entrepreneurship Fund - $6000” – and file it away. Meanwhile, your compounding interest will be working while you sleep to bring you closer and closer to your goal. Remember, you will need to take the 10% out (or whatever you are starting with) before you have a chance to spend it. If you deposit your paychecks or cash at the bank, then make sure each time to calculate 10% of your total deposit and write the check right then to transfer the funds into your Entrepreneurship Fund. Or if you use online banking, you can setup the funds transfer right from your home computer. If your current employer automatically deposits your money right into your bank account, then call your bank to set up an automatic funds transfer. This will make the transfer happen automatically without any action on your part. The key is to reinforce the habit so that 10% comes out before you have a chance to spend it. Whether you do it manually by transferring the funds yourself every two weeks, or set up an automatic funds transfer with your bank, is entirely up to you. If you would like to get your financial life organized in general, one program I will recommend is T. Harv Eker’s Millionaire Mind

Taking the Pay Cut

program. You can get it as an audio program to listen to in your car, and it will change your entire relationship with money. You will no longer be a spender or penny pincher (both are equally bad). Most importantly, instead of working for money, you will start to have your money work for you. If you are a spender (buying things on a whim even when you can’t afford it) then you can listen to programs such as the one I just mentioned to get that part of your life handled. If you are a saver (cheap, and feeling guilty whenever you spend money) this can also be a destructive habit and deserves attention.

Likewise, if you have any

negative beliefs about money (such as “Money is the root of all evil”) or deep down feel as if you don’t deserve money, you should also address this with programs like the Millionaire Mind. Again, many people find that their own inner beliefs are what is limiting them the most.

A NOTE ON HOW TO LIVE FRUGALLY Finally, we must address the topic of how you can cut your expenses. Especially if the number you came up with in the monthly expense calculator was a little scary! When I first started learning about this topic, I resisted it. “I shouldn’t have to give anything up to get ahead, I’m already poor!” So if you’re in the same boat, you aren’t alone. You don’t have to give up anything; the decision is yours of course. But it may help you out quite a bit. We always hate to give up what we’re used to, but if we’ve never experienced it, then we don’t miss it. Some fine books exist on the topic of spending money wisely, and one I recommend you read is The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley and William Danko.

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The book eloquently makes the point that millionaires are not the people you think. They are not the people driving around in flashy new cars or visibly displaying their wealth. Instead, most millionaires buy used cars and live modestly. Many children of millionaires aren’t even aware they are wealthy until it comes time to inherit. I was spending some time in Dallas, TX when I first became aware of the term “thirty-thousand dollar millionaire”. Being an image conscious city, this was the term coined for those people who earned a modest living and were trying to live above their means. While they sped around the city in their new Range Rover with spinning rims, they were slowly being buried alive in debt. Most people live a form of this lifestyle, even if it isn’t quite as extreme. When they get a raise at work, they immediately go out and buy a nicer car. They are always living right on the edge of what they earn, leaving nothing to save or invest. One of the worst decisions you can make financially is to purchase a new car. It loses about 25% of its value the minute you drive it off the lot. Instead, purchase a used car with low miles, and don’t get stuck making car payments if you can help it. Get a car that you can actually afford by paying cash for it up front. Don’t take on any new debt! If you can’t afford to pay cash for it, you should probably purchase a cheaper car. Remember, financially unsuccessful people aren’t able to plan for the future because they spend what money they make. Entrepreneurs are able to plan for the future by saving what they earn instead of spending it. This may seem unrelated to starting a new business, but it actually isn’t. Can you imagine how much more difficult it would be to quit your job when you are living one paycheck away from bankrupcy?

Taking the Pay Cut

The car payments and rent are taking up such a large percentage of your income each month that you really can’t afford to make less money. In essence, you become a slave to your job, unable to leave. You can’t afford to miss this month’s car payments, credit card payments, and rent, so you can’t afford to quit your job. You are stuck. If you’ve made some financial mistakes in the past, don’t dwell on it or get discouraged. Nobody gets it perfect, and you can be sure to make plenty more mistakes along this journey. What is important is that you now know the way out and have started building a new habit. Live below your means and save as much as you can! If you think its too late to start saving now, just think what you’ll feel like in five years knowing you could have started today, but didn’t! As a final note about reducing your expenses, it is very possible to take it too far in the opposite direction. Becoming a fanatical saver will simply make you feel guilty every time you spend money. You can’t enjoy life that way! If you don’t reward yourself for every small success along the way, you can eventually become discouraged and disillusioned with the whole process. The secret to minimizing risk when starting a business is financial responsibility. Try staying at your old job while you start your company to keep money coming in, or get a job with more flexible hours, and start spending less than you earn today.

Set up an

“Entrepreneurship Fund” account with six months of cash reserves, and promise to quit when it’s full. This will allow you to invest for your future by saving up enough money to quit your job and work for yourself.

Breaking Free

CHAPTER 4 EXERCISES Try to list five specific times during the week you could set aside to work on starting your company, even if you were still at your current job. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. If your current job involves many long hours, try to write five alternative jobs you could take on that would give you more time. If you get stuck, list jobs that sound interesting and fun compared to your current job. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. List five expenses or liabilities you could reduce or eliminate from your life that would allow you to save more money in your Entrepreneurship fund, and achieve your six month savings goal. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Taking the Pay Cut

CHAPTER 4 SUMMARY •

Don’t let the problem of taking a temporary pay cut be your excuse!

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Rich people save at least 15% of their income before they ever have a chance to spend it. o

Poor people work for money, and rich people have money work for them.

Poor people think what they earn is what they have to spend. Rich people think what they earn is what they have to invest.

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There are three strategies to use when quitting your job. o

Stay at your current job as long as you can, getting work on your business done during nights, weekends, or any free moment.

Get a different job that requires fewer hours each week. 

Tutor/Consultant

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Bartender

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Help Desk

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Part Time at your Current Job

Save up enough money to live for six months without income. 

Start saving 10% of your income into a separate high yield savings account, your Entrepreneurship Fund.

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By using the provided form, you can calculate how much money you actually need each month to live on.

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Strive to spend less money and don’t get caught in the “rate race” by incurring debt.

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Remember The Millionaire Next Door and “The $30,000 Millionaire”. o

They both drive the same car, but one bought it used and paid in full while the other bought it new and is up to his ears in debt.

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When you get a raise, don’t spend more, save and invest more.

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Use different bank accounts to allocate your income on luxuries, education, travel, necessities, and saving for the future. This takes the guess work out and removes guilt for spending.

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Spending less than you earn is the secret to having enough money to start your own business and become wealthy.

Chapter 5 Finding Your Path and Purpose in Life “A man must be prepared to give 100% to his purpose...He must be capable of not knowing what to do with his life, entering a period of unknowingness and waiting for a vision or a new form of purpose to emerge. These cycles of strong specific action followed by periods of not knowing what the hell is going on are natural for a man who is shedding layers of karma on his relaxation into truth.” -David Deida, The Way of the Superior Man

o you’ve learned how to start saving and make the transition, but what type of business should you start?

The next step in the process is one of the most difficult, because there is not a clear ending where you can say “I’ve got it!” Instead, it will be a journey to follow over time, full of twists and turns.

You will be

continually getting closer, but there won’t be a specific moment when you have can say “I made it, game over”. To clarify, when we discuss “your path in life” in this chapter, we are trying to discover some important things. We are trying to find

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what your highest values are, what makes you happiest, what you are well suited for, and what you have the potential to be the best in the world at! All of these will help you determine what type of business you should start, or what type of work is right for you. These might sound like some rather tough questions to answer, but believe me it’s worth it. The alternative is to be like everyone else, making their way through life one day at a time without a clear goal or purpose in mind. We must break the habit of purely reacting to external events all the time (an external locus of control), instead choosing to create our own reality. Make no mistake about it; this chapter is designed to do nothing less than help you find the purpose of your life. Why is it so important to find the purpose of your life or “be on the path” as I like to say? Well there are a number of reasons, but they can all be summarized with the following statement: if you aren’t on your path in life, you can never be completely happy. Let’s take a closer look at four reasons to give your purpose some serious thought: fulfillment, relationships, excitement, and significance.

FULFILLMENT Fulfillment is one of those words with a rather murky definition. It’s a feeling that can’t really be quantified. Imagine yourself at your current job now. Are you fulfilled? Instinctively you can probably say “no” or “not all the time”, but why do you feel this way? The answer lies in whether you feel like you are contributing, whether you are growing as a person, whether you are using your best skills, and whether the work is easy or hard.

Finding Your Path and Purpose in Life

Low Skill

High Skill

Low Difficulty

Unimportant

Boring

High Difficulty

Frustrating

Fulfillment

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Figure 4 – The balance of skill and difficulty.

Stephen Covey spoke of this work classification in his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. If you look at the diagram above you will see four categories of work you could be doing. On the top is listed your skill level, or how proficient you are in the skills needed for the job. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses, but here low or high skill refers to one particular skill needed for the task at hand, not your overall ability. On the side is listed the difficulty of the problem, whether it is hard to do or not. If you aren’t very skilled in a particular area and the problem is easy, you will most likely still be able to make your way through it. You will finish the work, but you won’t be fulfilled. Imagine you are a world class chef hired to cater a party, but when you got there the host had already ordered out and asked you just to help valet the cars. The task isn’t very difficult, and you would be able to complete it, but you sure wouldn’t feel very important. You have high skills in other areas that you aren’t even getting a chance to use! You have so much you could contribute, if only someone would give you a chance. If you are in this category, you will most likely begin to experience a feeling of unimportance or insignificance. Your time and energy is being wasted on menial tasks. You’re really only average at what they’ve asked you to do, so the fact you’ve been asked to do it means the results aren’t very important.

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If you still aren’t very skilled and someone comes along to give you a difficult problem, things don’t get much better.

Your feeling of

unimportance goes away because you are dealing with more meaningful work, but you will quickly become frustrated. “Why do they keep giving me this when they know it’s not my area of expertise?”, you might say. What if our absent minded host from above had asked you to perform a magic show for the guests instead of preparing your exquisite cuisine? Magic isn’t your area of expertise either, but it’s a more difficult task than parking cars. Your magic show would probably be mediocre at best compared to the exceptional meal you had planned and trained for. This would leave you feeling guilty for your poor work and frustrated at how difficult it was to complete. If you are finally given work that you are very skilled at, but it isn’t very difficult, you will quickly become bored. This would be like the host hiring you, the world class chef, and only asking you to make microwave popcorn! Cooking is certainly your area of expertise, but your skills won’t be utilized and you won’t feel challenged. This type of work can quickly lead to boredom. These above examples are a bit contrived to make a point, but they take place everyday in offices around the world.

Workers are

frequently matched with tasks they don’t care do be doing, aren’t qualified to be doing, and are wasting their time by doing. Fortunately, there is an ideal to strive for here: challenging work that is well matched to your skill level. This is the area of fulfillment! Here you will be in the perfect balance where you are challenged, but still able to produce excellent results.

Your skills are being utilized on important tasks and your

contribution is truly valuable.

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FINDING LOVE I bet you didn’t expect to see this in a book about quitting your job, did you! The truth of the matter is that a person on their path in life is infinitely more attractive to the opposite sex than someone who isn’t. Enthusiasm is contagious, and if you can hear the passion in someone’s voice about what they are working on, you can’t help but get excited about it too. I’ve had friends that were involved in hobbies I found downright boring, like painting and board games. But listening to them talk about it, and after seeing how excited it made them, I couldn’t help but feel a little bit of the same. The reality is that anything can be fun if you’re in the right atmosphere. If you aren’t convinced yet, simply consider the alternative. How attractive is it to be around a person who constantly complains about their work, their terrible boss, and the next task they are absolutely dreading? What a depressing life! “If you hate it so much, why don’t you quit!” you might say. But of course they never will, because they are addicted to their struggle. That is “their story” and the excuse they have been using for why they haven’t achieved more. If they were to give up that excuse, then they might have to actually take a risk and try succeeding! In fact, I’m convinced today that one reason for the high divorce rate we’ve seen in this country is that people’s mates aren’t “on their path” in life. It’s impossible to stay attracted to someone who is living a mediocre life and is afraid to change it. Please don’t be that person!

EXCITEMENT Another reason it’s so important to find your purpose in life is that it is just downright exciting!

So many people who have gone

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through this exercise end up telling me things like “This is going to sound strange, but I just feel happy all the time”. They will end up working the entire weekend, not because they have to, but because it was just so exciting they couldn’t put it down. For someone who has worked their whole life for someone else at a job they don't love, this can actually be quite difficult to grasp or believe. The idea that work can be really fun doesn’t compute inside their head. “Work” and “fun” just haven’t been together in the same sentence before. It’s like telling a fish how fun it will be to walk on land; they’ve never even been outside the fish bowl, so imagining walking on land is outside their model of the world. Find a job doing what you love, and you’ll never “work” another day of your life.

SIGNIFICANCE If you aren’t on your path in life, constantly striving to find out what your purpose is, then there will probably be a shadow hanging over your life. This shadow will be the unconscious feeling that your life is simply unimportant. What a sad thought, that if you were to disappear tomorrow, maybe no one would really notice or care. No great project would come to a halt, no one would wonder who they would turn to now that you are gone, and in time you would be forgotten.

If your life truly is

unimportant, and you aren’t contributing to the world in some way, this shadow will follow you around until it consumes you on the day you die. It’s time to break free! The solution is simple: bring significance to your life by finding what you were born to do. The minute you decide to work toward a greater purpose than yourself is the minute you decide to start down the path toward happiness. The truth is that many people, once they find their purpose,

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discover it mostly involves helping others. This is one of those clichés that is true. You may find that your purpose in life is to heal others, to teach others, to help them achieve financial independence, to help them get in better shape, to help them find love, to help them overcome the pain of their childhood, or to help them become better parents. A friend of mine had been through an amazing life at the age of 45 by anyone’s standards. He had done seven years in the FBI, traveled the world, been a diplomat on several continents, and earned a small fortune in the banking industry. Every Sunday when he woke up in some developing foreign country, he would miss his family back home. One day he decided to cook a huge breakfast and take it to the orphaned homeless children who lived at the dump outside of town. They lived there because that was the only way they could find food, foraging through the trash, day in and day out. Every Sunday he would bring them breakfast until one day he realized it had become the most exciting day of his week.

He was working all week with important men in

expensive business suits, but his most exciting time was spent with homeless orphaned children. One day he realized that his path in life at that time, the place he could be the most significant, was not in the banking industry. In his words, all he was doing was “making a rich man richer”. Instead, his purpose was to help these children, and he poured all his energy into it. Within a year, my friend had quit his job, and developed a product that would help improve illiteracy, health, and a number of other issues in the developing world. It was solar powered light that could be charged during the day and used at night. It provided free light to towns across the developing world that had no electricity. Instead of burning expensive kerosene or dangerous brush fires for light at night, people were now able to have electricity. Soon, there were thousands of these

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lights around the globe. Children were able to do their homework at night, security was improved in refugee camps, and entire families pulled themselves out of poverty, no longer dependent on kerosene lanterns. My friend had found his purpose, and you should have seen him, excited as a little kid in a candy store. He had never been happier. There are numerous stories like this that I have heard as part of studying this subject, but they all have something in common. The person has achieved some level of success in their current work, but feels that something is missing. That something is a feeling of importance or significance in their life because they don’t feel as though they are contributing to the world. Then one day, they have an epiphany and make a drastic change in their life. The good news is that it’s not too late. Wherever you are in your life right now, you can start down the path to living a life of purpose. Whenever a topic such as this is discussed, an inevitable concern comes up for some people. I know I had this concern as well. My inner voice would say “That’s all well and good to live a life of charity, but what if you need to make money to survive! I can’t just quit and become a monk if I want to eat.”

As you're about to see, this concern is

reasonable, but totally unnecessary. You see, being on your path in life doesn’t necessarily mean you should devote your life to charity. It simply means you should do what you do best, to contribute to the world. If you are passionate about making surfboards and happen to be extremely good at it, then you can help people by making the best surfboards in the world. It’s that simple, and doesn’t have to involve charity. The other very counterintuitive thing to realize is that even though people on their path don’t spend their time thinking about making lots of money, they usually do!

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Instead of focusing on making money, they spend their time thinking about how they can create value. After all, that is how you help others, by creating value in their lives. If you can make anything that saves people time, money, brings them enjoyment, or is just more convenient, you have contributed value to their lives. And one of the great things about value is that by definition, people are willing to pay money for it. The companies in the world that ask “How can we improve our bottom line?” may achieve temporary success, but they won’t be nearly as successful in the long term as those who ask “How can we give more value to our customers?”

THREE QUALITIES Jim Collins, in his book From Good to Great, came up with three qualities that every great business should have. At the intersection of these three qualities lies the company’s singular purpose.

Some

companies have one or two of those qualities, but rarely does a company truly find its direction by having all three.

He had some excellent

thoughts on how exactly you should come up with that purpose, and although he was speaking about business, I actually found it helpful in discovering my life’s purpose. Everyone has things they are good at and things they are bad at. They also have things they love doing and things they hate doing. Finally, there are some activities where it is possible to make money and there are some activities where it is very difficult to make money. Your purpose lies at the intersection of all three positive characteristics: finding something you are good at, love doing, and that you can earn money from. Each word is chosen very carefully here and deserves a bit more attention.

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Something You Are Good At You must find something you are good at, because this is the only way you will be successful (remember the fulfillment chart above?). Jim actually takes it a step further, and says it must be something that you have the potential to be the best in the world at. Even though you probably aren’t the best in the world at it right now, you still must feel you have the potential to be at the top of your field someday with hard work.

Even if you love doing something and it’s possible to make

money at it, you shouldn’t pursue it unless you can be one of the best in the world. For example, if you truly love playing football, and you know that it’s possible to earn a living as a professional football player, you have two out of three. But if you don’t feel you have the potential to be one of the best football players in the world, then this should not be your life’s purpose. Something You Love Doing What do you spend your time doing when you find a free moment? What magazines do your subscribe to and read for fun? Think back on some times during the past year when you were really happy and in a great mood.

These can all provide clues as to what you are

passionate about. But I bet if you look at the job you have right now, it is in no way related to your passions. This is a huge problem. Think for a moment about two people who each start a web design company. Person A got into the business because he was good at it and heard there was money to be made. He loved it when he first started, but he isn’t really excited about working in web design any more. If truth be told, his clients actually annoy him at times. Meanwhile, person B truly is passionate about the business. He

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thinks about web design in his free time and can’t wait to jump out of bed each morning to make progress. Person A and person B might start out with equal revenue and client lists, but this wouldn’t last for long. Let’s say its time for the annual Webmaster World conference, a huge industry event and great opportunity to learn and network. Person A, being burned out with all his clients, wouldn’t want to also spend his weekend doing web design, and would justify skipping the conference by saying he needed to spend more time with his family.

Meanwhile, person B would have been

planning the trip for months and would bring his whole family with him. While there he would discover new technologies to give him a competitive advantage and would network to establish a partnership with another firm to add value to his customers. In the evenings, person A would watch TV and try to relax after a hard day, but Person B would read web design magazines just because he liked the subject. This would give him new ideas on how to generate business. Before long, Person B would have eclipsed Person A’s web design company in every area. You see, no matter how hard Person A worked, or how much he forced himself to keep up, he still wouldn’t have a chance. To him, it would all be work, while to Person B it would all be fun. This is the key difference: if you hate doing something and someone else loves it, the person who loves it will always be more successful. It doesn’t matter if you are great at it and it makes you tons of money. If you don’t love it, you have not found your path in life. Something You Can Earn Money Doing Again, the wording here is very deliberate.

It doesn’t say

“something you will earn money doing”. It says “something you can earn

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money doing”.

In other words, as long as it’s possible to earn

something, even if it isn’t much, that is enough. You see, if you have the potential to be the best in the world at it, and you are passionate about it, that in itself is enough to make you extremely successful financially in any industry. It doesn’t matter if the industry is in a recession, if the Wall Street Journal says it has no growth prospects, or if your friends say it’s a bad idea. If you love it, you’re great at it, and it’s at least possible to earn money doing it, end of story. Don’t worry about what others say. Now it still has to be possible to earn money at it. If you are passionate about (and really good at) lying on the beach in the sun, this in itself is not a path in life. However, you might be able to find something related to it. Don’t be too quick to discount your passions as unsuitable to make money. One woman who went through this exercise was very frustrated to discover she was most passionate about watching TV and following the love lives of celebrities. This was frustrating to her because she immediately assumed there was no way to earn money with these passions. She turned out to be wrong. Within six months she had a job booking celebrities for charity events. Her job was literally to watch TV, find which celebrities were popular or making appearances for charity, and then to contact them and book them for events. She assumed no one would pay her for her passions, but ended up landing her dream job! Take a moment now and let’s work through an exercise to see how you can apply this principle to your own life. Note: Yes, please get a pen or pencil and actually write these in the book! Reading the book and not doing the exercises will have very little value. You can also write them on a separate sheet if you don’t want anyone to find your notes, but please do it!

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List 10 things you happen to be really good at, whether you like doing them or not. These could be skills that came naturally or skills you trained for years to master. It doesn’t matter whether you use them now. They can be from any time in your life. 1.

10.

Now list 10 things that you really enjoy doing. When you have free time and there is nothing you have to do, you probably end up doing these things for fun.

You probably talk about them

constantly (ask your friends what you mostly talk about). When have you been happiest in the past year? 1.

10.

Finally, randomly pick combinations of the above two lists, and see what ways you could put them together to earn money.

example would be if you are really good at painting, and you feel happiest when helping children, you could write “paint + help kids = art teacher” here. Try to force yourself to write 10, even if they seem silly. 1. 2.

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3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Don’t be discouraged if something doesn’t jump right out at you. As I said in the beginning of the chapter, discovering your purpose in life is a journey and a process to go through and enjoy. It’s not a quick fix, with a simple answer. The idea is just to get your brain thinking in a new way, so you can be constantly getting closer. This chapter is going to be a series of exercises that can hopefully help you get closer to discovering your path in life. Spend some time thinking about each one. Don’t look ahead and try to see what it all means. Just do each one, one at a time and put some thought into it. Grab a glass of wine, put on some comfortable clothes, and wrap yourself if a big blanket if it will help you get the emotions flowing! Take a break, and do this chapter over several days if necessary. There is no need to rush because there is no right or wrong answer. The more time you put in, the more value you will get from these exercises. For an interesting twist, come back in six months and try it again, to see how much things have changed. You might be surprised! Finally, forget what your kindergarten teacher told you, and please write in this book!

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EXERCISES Imagine for a moment that you just won the lottery and $6 million has been deposited into your bank account. All taxes and fees have been paid; it is your money free and clear. What would you do right now? What would you do tomorrow and in a month from now? What would you do over the next year? Even if you say â&#x20AC;&#x153;I would quit and go to Tahitiâ&#x20AC;?, what would you do after that? You would have a lot of time on your hands and would need to fill it with something, so what would you do? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

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As you may have guessed, what you wrote down in the previous section is a good indication of what you are passionate about. The activities you would do with all the money in the world should be the same activities you do for your regular job (or at least as close as you can get it)! Bill Gates is a billionaire, yet he still goes to work every day. He doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to; he does it because he likes it. In fact, I suggest the reason he became a billionaire is that he is doing what he loves. Even when he did need the money, he still enjoyed it, and that gave him the edge to become very successful. Now imagine for a moment that your doctor has given you some bad news. In exactly 30 days, you will be dead! Until that time, you will live in perfect health, and there wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be any pain, but you have exactly 30 days to live. How are you going to spend your time? In addition, close your eyes for a moment and imagine the eulogy at your funeral. What do you want people to say? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

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Things that you would do in the next 30 days before your certain death are things that you should really be doing now, because they are what you value most. Why have you been putting them off? They probably sound scary, or require you to put yourself in a vulnerable position.

Subconsciously, we will find ways to avoid them and it

sometimes takes a new force (a coach, saying â&#x20AC;&#x153;no matter whatâ&#x20AC;?, reading this book, etc) for us to finally take action. How ironic, that the things we value most are often the things we avoid the most. Right now, before you go on to the next exercise, take one item from your list and schedule a time in the next week that you will do it (or at least take the first step toward it).

No excuses, schedule a time right now and make a

commitment that you will do it no matter what on that day. What do you find yourself doing naturally, when there is nothing you have to do? When you are procrastinating, what do you end up filling time with? What are the hobbies that you enjoy most? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

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Richard Branson, the entrepreneur extraordinaire behind the Virgin brand (Virgin Airways, Virgin Mobile, Virgin Records, etc) once said, “Since 80 percent of your life is spent working, you should start your business around something that is a passion of yours”. What you find yourself doing naturally, without even thinking, can provide a valuable insight into what is your greatest passion. You may have to look one level deeper than the mere activity you end up doing. For example, you find yourself naturally filling your time playing Minesweeper (a small computer game that comes on Windows PC’s where you methodically hunt for mines). This doesn’t mean it should be taken literally to mean “My passion in life is to play minesweeper”. You will need to look one level deeper. Perhaps what you really enjoy is to hunt down problems that can harm people. This could lead to any number of careers, such as a tax accountant, auditor, or police detective. Then again, sometimes it is quite straightforward.

If you spend all your free time reading car

magazines and waste time at work surfing car websites and forums, it’s a safe bet you are pretty passionate about cars. Try to narrow it down. •

What do you get in trouble for now, and what did you get in trouble for as a child?

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

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This is an interesting question because it’s quite counterintuitive. Is it possible that what people have been telling us not to do is actually our greatest gift? If you always got in trouble as a child for being a class clown, maybe you should look into comedy or a career making people laugh1. If you get in trouble for giving your opinion even when it isn’t asked for, maybe you have a future as a consultant. If you get in trouble for skipping work to get to the gym, maybe you have a future as a fitness coach or personal trainer. List five people that you really admire, and a few qualities you really like about them. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

1 Reportedly, when Jay Leno was a little boy in grade school, his parents once received an angry note from his teacher stating “Jay needs to stop goofing off in class and take his grades more seriously!”

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What do all these people have in common? Jot down a few more notes if necessary, and try to group together similar traits, values, or results they each have. It’s quite likely that the qualities you most admire in them are actually your greatest gifts that you aren’t giving yourself credit for! Any time you develop respect for someone with a particular quality, it should be a clear indication to yourself that you have underdeveloped potential in that area. Do a quick survey right now by asking (or sending email) to five of your closest friends or family. Ask them a few questions: (1) What do I spend most of my time talking about? (2) What do you feel are my greatest strengths? and (3) Off the top of your head, what do you think my dream job would be? If you want to give them some background, just simply say “I’m reading a book about different paths in life, and I wanted to get your opinion”. Write their results here (come back later if necessary). 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

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If they are honest, they may tell you something you never realized about yourself. They may tell you that you are constantly talking about your pet dog, when you were under the impression everyone talked that much about their pets! Suddenly, something you never would have considered, that you are passionate about pets, will become clear. Sometimes our best friends know us better than we know ourselves! Think back to when you were a small child. If possible, look at some baby photos of yourself right now (this will help immensely). Look into your own infant eyes and try to remember what you were thinking about? What are you doing or holding in your photos? What was most important in your life at that time? What did you dream about being when you grew up? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

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Most people have a theme that runs throughout their life, based on their core value. It started from a very young age . They may change professions, friends, clothes, and hair styles, but there is still a theme. For example, a friend of mine was a doctor, writer, and activist all at different stages of his life. What theme could possibly run throughout these? Well, for him it was helping children, his core value. He was able to bring children into the world as a doctor, educate them with his childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s books, and protect them by becoming an activist for issues that affected children. You too have a core value and a theme that is running throughout your life. What do you value most? More likely than not, you still have the same goals and desires in some form today. What have all the different careers and projects in your life had in common? Take a moment and put your wildest dreams down on paper. What have you always wanted to do but didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t? Have you ever wanted to drive a Formula 1 race car? Star in a Hollywood film? Throw a Super Bowl winning touch down? Visit all seven wonders of the world? Have a torrid romance in Paris? Walk on the moon? Have dinner with the president? Put down five things that are outrageous, seem impossible, and would be awfully exciting. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

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All of us dream big, but putting those plans into action is a bit harder. The way to get the most out of life is to actually do some of these things! At the very least, start making steps toward them. Most people have a list buried away in there head of tasks like this, but they always view them as out of reach. Maybe on some level, they don’t feel they deserve to have such “peak experiences” in life. “That always sounded exciting, but it’s just not me,” they might say. Bullshit! If it would be exciting, then why can’t you do it? If you sit and think about it there really isn’t any excuse (although I’m sure your brain will try to come up with some). Don’t make the mistake of actually finding your passion, and not going down the path because of fear. As the final exercise, you are going to draw a picture of yourself. Yes, even if it feels a bit silly....close your eyes for a moment and visualize your ideal self in your head. How are you standing? What are you wearing? What are the people around you doing and how are they relating to your? How would you walk? What kind of tone and gestures would you make when you talk? Don’t think about it too much...just start drawings what comes into your head!

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Self Portrait:

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THERE IS NO MAGIC ANSWER, IT IS A JOURNEY TO ENJOY Sometimes, people reach the end of these exercises and don’t have a magical answer sitting in front of them about what they should do with the rest of their life. Don’t worry, that’s exactly where you should be! Not everyone is going to have an epiphany moment where their entire life suddenly comes into focus. And even if it does, those grand ideas will probably change as you go farther down the path. In short, try to start thinking about the process of finding your passion or purpose in life as a journey. It is an exciting journey that has ups and downs. There will be high points and low points that will be tough to get through. But overall the trend will be upward and you will continually be getting closer to your core value and a life of purpose. This will very likely involve quitting your job and starting a business or two (or ten). When is the journey over? The day that you die. You see, those who are looking for the journey to end are missing the point. One of the ironies of success is that many people experience a let down or feeling of depression after finally reaching their goal. How can this be? The answer lies in the fact that it is the journey, not the end result, which brings us the most joy out of life. Just focus on the next step in front of you. When something sounds interesting or exciting, take note of it! If you hear some friends discussing an event they are going to, a trip they are taking, or a new book they just read, and you find yourself becoming strangely interested, do something about it.

Make a

commitment to explore it further. The first time I heard that my friend Dan was taking Brazilian Jujitsu classes, I was immediately interested. Taking some martial arts classes had been in the back of my mind for the

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past year, but I’d never found time to research which style or philosophy to learn. Dan talked about it with such passion, that I joined him at his next class, and I am still going today. When another of my friends, Sheena, mentioned she had written a book and that it had led to many other opportunities, my ears again perked up. Suddenly I realized how much I would enjoy the process of writing a book and sharing my ideas. Later that very day I decided on what I wanted to write about and started an outline! If you are stuck in a job, and your identity is wrapped around it, then you will probably never even take these exciting ideas that are dropped in your lap and explore them. When people talk about their job they like to say “I am an accountant” or “I am a counselor”. But your job is not who you are. Your job is simply something you do. Develop a mindset that you can do anything, you is a flexible concept, and you can try any new thing that catches your fancy. Not every single thing you try will end up being a good fit, but you will certainly be getting closer to your path and purpose each time. Furthermore, each time you actually do explore one of those opportunities that sounds exciting (and a bit scary), you will be expanding your identity and concept of yourself. Do you think Donald Trump was born with the identity of business mogul, signing huge contracts, jetting across the country, and dating super models? No way! He approached it slowly over time, by trying smaller things that weren’t quite as scary or as far outside his reality. He had to sign a lot of little contracts, to build the confidence to sign the big ones.

Whether you secretly admire the

Donald or despise him, you must also take small steps toward your path in life. You will wake up one day five years later and be a completely different person: the person you dreamt of becoming!

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LOOKING TO GOD FOR ANSWERS One of the most famous books on this subject of finding your path or purpose is called The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. In the first chapter, he talks about how you cannot choose your own purpose and path in life, because it has already been chosen by God. Your only goal should be to surrender to this ultimate purpose. This is a terrible idea. No one has chosen your path for you. It is up to you, and no one else, to make your path in life. You can do whatever you want. If your purpose doesn’t exist yet, then you can literally create it from nothing. Saying that your purpose in life is already decided by someone else is a cop out, and a dangerous trap. It allows you to place blame, accept second best, and ultimately give up responsibility for your own success. It may be easier to stomach the idea that your purpose in life is out of your control. I admit that this is a very appealing notion because it takes the weight off your shoulders. If it doesn’t work out, or an opportunity doesn’t present itself, then “It was God’s will”. Not so fast! It was your own self doubt and lack of drive. Taking responsibility for finding your own purpose in life can be downright scary.

But that

doesn’t mean you should avoid it. Instead, embrace the challenge and enjoy the process each day. There is nothing wrong with praying for guidance, or believing in God, or following the wisdom of scripture.

These can all have

positive benefits in your life. But don’t hand off responsibility for your success. No one is going to do it for you. Most likely, no one is even going to care if you are wildly successful. They may give you token

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congratulations, or secretly envy you, but ultimately they won’t care. It is up to you, and you alone, to create what you desire.

A FEELING, NOT A DECISION When going through the process of discovering what you are passionate about, it’s important to focus on your feelings instead of making logical decisions. Some people are very left brained and have trouble thinking in this way. Their decisions in life are based on cold hard facts, and empirical evidence. I know, because I’m one of these people! But using strictly this approach to discovering a great path in life is a mistake. At the end of the day, the only thing that will matter is how you feel. Let’s say you logically made the right decision about which business to start. It fit all the criteria we discussed and made perfect sense on paper, but for some reason you just aren’t excited about it. Well, then you haven’t accomplished your goal! Don’t sit here reading this book, racking your brain, trying to logic your way into an ideal project to pursue. Instead, focus on how you feel. Recall a time when you were very excited and actually feel that same excitement now as you relive it. Picture yourself in your head as your ideal self and feel the warmth of others around you.

Imagine

yourself at your own funeral with your friends speaking, and feel the sadness in the air2. When you suddenly are in a good mood, stop and think about why. What put you in that great mood? Then its time to construct a life that automatically puts you in that great mood every day! Discovering what is truly important to you will be a process of feeling, not logical decisions. No matter how much your parents tried to 2

This exercise is attributed to Stephen Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

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logically convince you to go after a certain profession, if it didn’t feel right, then it wasn’t for you. Similarly, when you tried to convince yourself logically that your current job wasn’t so bad (“But the money is really good!”), part of you didn’t buy it because it still didn’t feel right. Listen to your heart, and more genuine happiness will follow.

A FINAL METHOD TO TRY If you are still stuck, and would like some more insight, I have a final exercise for you. In fact, this is a good exercise to perform on a regular basis in your life. Set aside one hour of your day, and find a place that is as close to being completely silent as you can find. Lock yourself in an unused room, go to an empty park, or find a tiny corner of the library. Place in front of you a blank sheet of paper and a pen. Then sit, for one hour, in complete silence, and see what happens. Don’t make an effort to think of anything in particular, don’t have an agenda, and resist the urge to look at your watch or doodle. The first fifteen minutes or so might be quite excruciating as your mind searches for something to focus on. Very few of us have ever sat for one hour in complete silence and your brain won’t be quite sure how to respond! Eventually, thoughts will start to flow out of your mind. Jot down words or pictures on the paper as they come to you. Don’t evaluate them or cross anything out, just keep writing without thinking too much about it. The purpose of this exercise is to clear your conscious mind and quiet the little voice in your head that is constantly evaluating. When you clear your conscious mind, the subconscious starts to release thoughts up into the conscious mind where you can analyze them. These thoughts normally stay somewhat hidden as we keep our conscious mind

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occupied, and manifest themselves indirectly. But with this exercise they are right there for the taking. After doing this for one hour, you may have some interesting things you didn’t know about yourself on paper, or you may feel like you have accomplished nothing. But don’t despair. You are beginning the process of learning about yourself; your highest values, and your deepest concerns. In short, what is driving your life! You may have to do this many times, or every day for a month! But if you continue to do it, I guarantee you will be getting closer and closer to discovering the path or purpose in life that will bring you the most happiness and success. You will very likely come up with some exciting business ideas to pursue as well. Two variations on this approach are as follows: Variation one involves going for a long walk through the wilderness or a park. Don’t bring headphones or anyone else to distract you. Try to go somewhere isolated where very few other people are hiking. Use this time just like you would sitting in silence, except you won’t be able to write. Don’t have a specific agenda, just let your thoughts flow and talk to yourself. Variation two I learned from a coach named Linda Starr. Get a bunch of magazines (such as National Geographic) that have plenty of interesting photos. Cut out any that catch your eye and paste them to a sheet of 8 ½ x 11 paper. Once you have a collage of images, write on the back any words that come to mind by looking at the pictures. The pictures will act as triggers to bring up memories or emotions so you can get them down on paper. Both of these variations accomplish the same goal of bring up unconscious thoughts into your conscious mind. They are a great way to learn about you.

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PASSION IS IMPORTANT Let’s bring this chapter back into focus. We’ve covered a wide range of exercises and techniques, all of which will help you discover your passion or purpose in life. But why is this important? In many ways, this is the most important part of the book. Yes, it is a book about quitting your job to work for yourself. But the way to be successful in this process is to find your purpose; once you have found it (or at least the next step toward it) you will be excited, motivated, and happier. You see, I could give you all the business advice in the world (and I will), but if you are passionate about the project you’re about to undertake, then that will be more valuable than any advice I can give you. Once you are on your path, your entire life changes. Work is no longer work. Learning is no longer a chore. Waking up Monday morning is no longer something to be dreaded. Your life will suddenly have clarity, meaning, and significance. Spend some time going through this chapter’s exercises in depth if you haven’t already. If you have, you may want to try them again a bit later. Keep at it, and eventually one day an idea will strike you! You may be talking to a friend when he or she mentions something that gives you an idea. Or you may be running through the park when you have a great thought. Or it may come just as you are about to drift off to sleep one night. But when it hits you, a feeling of excitement will come over you and you will have trouble thinking about anything else. You’ll be like a kernel of corn in the microwave slowly getting warmer and warmer as you do these exercises. At times it may appear you are getting nowhere and that nothing has changed, but if you keep at it your kernel will eventually pop! This is the sweet spot that you will be aiming for, and it will just be the first idea of many. As you get closer to your path in life,

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new ideas and opportunities will show up to give you that feeling over and over again.

Pretty soon, you will have so many exciting

opportunities appearing around you that youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll have to eliminate all but your top few as a matter of time management! These are the projects that will bring you success. These are the projects that will bring you incredible wealth. These are the projects that will fulfill your deepest values. And these are the projects that will bring passion into your life.

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CHAPTER 5 EXERCISES The exercises for this chapter are found throughout the chapter, instead of at the end.

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CHAPTER 5 SUMMARY •

Finding your purpose in life is essential. o

Fulfillment 

Finding Love 

Work becomes fun

Significance 

•

Being on your path is attractive

Excitement 

High/low skill, High/low difficulty

Your work becomes important, helps others

Don’t focus on money, focus on finding your passion and money will follow.

•

Three qualities, find something you... o

Are good at

Love doing

Can earn money doing

Exercises o

What would you do if you won $6 million?

What would you do if you were going to die in 30 days?

What do you find yourself doing naturally?

What do you get in trouble for?

Who do you admire most?

What do you spend your time talking about?

What did you want when you were a child?

What would you do in your wildest dreams?

Draw yourself!

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•

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Finding your purpose is a journey to enjoy, and there isn’t one magic answer.

•

Take guidance from religion, but don’t depend on God to hand you your purpose.

Take responsibility to discover and create it for

yourself. •

Listen to your feelings, not your logical mind.

•

Sit for an hour in total silence with a blank sheet of paper to access your subconscious. o

Try a long isolated walk through nature.

Use images to trigger thoughts and write them down as a stream of consciousness.

•

Passion is essential!

Chapter 6 What Kind of Business Should I Start? “Since 80 percent of your life is spent working, you should start your business around something that is a passion of yours” - Richard Branson, owner of Virgin Group

RETHINKING THE CONCEPT OF YOUR OWN BUSINESS

hat pops into your head when you imagine owning your own business? If you’re like most people, you

might think of people you know who are self-employed. A neighbor with a family owned restaurant, or a relative with a small retail store. While there is nothing inherently wrong with these businesses, they are a terrible first business for you to start. These are what I call old fashioned ideas of how to become a business owner, and they are very difficult. Luckily, many opportunities exist today to work for yourself with a fraction of the expense and risk.

A whole other world of business

opportunities exist that you may have never considered! It is my goal in

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this chapter to completely restructure your idea of what owning a business is all about. What is so wrong with the “old fashioned” way of starting a business? Well let’s take the most common example of opening up a restaurant, corner bakery, or sandwich shop. The primary problem is that it is risky and takes plenty of hard work. Just think about all the costs you will have to incur before you can ever make a dime. You’ll have to buy or rent another property for the business, preferably in a good location (you do want customers don’t you?). On that property you’ll have to pay utilities, repairs, insurance, etc, just like owning another home. You'll have to furnish it purchase equipment to operate your business. Then come the employees – oh the dreaded employees. You’ll have to interview them, but for minimum wage it’s tough to find good help. Turnover will be high, some of them may steal from you, some of them won’t care, and some of them may even sue you. Your most frequent annoyance may be when one of them quits unexpectedly or just doesn’t show up. It’s up to you to fill in at the last minute; you are always on call.

Then there is the inventory.

You’ll have to buy

ingredients for whatever you want to sell. You’ll have to spend money on décor and interior design. The list goes on and on, and this is all before you have earned a single dollar! Once you are finally open for business, a new set of problems arise.

You’ll have to focus on

advertising if you want your restaurant to actually be profitable, and you’ll quickly find yourself spending twelve hour days just to keep an eye on everything. Even though you were originally passionate about the food, you are now spending all your time on managing employees, dealing with health inspectors, and worrying about how to get new business. Is it any wonder the vast majority of new restaurants don’t make it past two years?

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Sure, owning your own business might give you a sense of pride. But your situation hasn’t improved much. Now, instead of spending eight hours a day as a worker bee for someone else, you are a slave to your own business working twelve hour days! Moreover, it could be years before you recover your initial investment in the business (if you recover it at all). The other typical example of starting a business than many people think of today involves a high tech startup. The typical business plan goes something like this: First, we’ll take a hot new technology that has been getting lots of buzz. Then we’ll secure $20 million in venture capital funding. Finally, we’ll build a team of twenty top engineers from the best universities, put them in a swanky Silicon Valley office building, give them stock options, and become millionaires!

Unfortunately it

rarely works out and this is once again a poor strategy to build your first company. You are taking on huge amounts of debt and betting the farm on an unproven strategy. Even if you aren’t betting your money, and have secured financing, giving up control of your company is not a pleasant experience. If this is the average person’s idea of owning a business, it’s no wonder most people choose the security of their worker bee jobs, even if they hate it. Luckily, starting a business today is much easier than the painful stories depicted above. The first business you start should be more like a project. For example, putting together a photo album of your family, writing a journal, or planning a road trip with friends is a project. Think about your first business as something on this scale. It’s merely something interesting you are going to try, and the small amount of money invested won’t be important if you make a mistake (otherwise known as learning). You may be pursuing several projects at once, trying new things that catch your fancy. You don’t need a large investment or

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venture capital, you don’t need a large team of people, and you certainly don’t need a swanky office building or retail store.

ELIMINATING COSTS One of the biggest mistakes inexperienced entrepreneurs make is that they are far too good at spending money! I have some helpful advice for you regarding expenses in starting a new company: 1. Thou shalt not rent an office. 2. Thou shalt not hire fancy lawyers to draft contracts. 3. Thou shalt not hire assistants and employees. 4. Thou shalt not travel to meetings. 5. Thou shalt not purchase unnecessary electronic equipment (computers, printers, faxes, etc). 6. Thou shalt not spend a single cent that isn’t absolutely required until there is profit coming in the door! Anytime, I hear a new business owner going on about how much “progress” they have made getting the office put together, great people on their team, and excellent meetings they attended in other cities, I have to ask them what their net income looks like. If they tell me “The product is still under development” or “We’re going to start third quarter this year” I can only shake my head. Don’t ever spend money you don’t have to in the early stages because you never know what might happen. “But Brian”, I hear you saying, “surely you’ll have to spend something to get a new business off the ground!” True, but it is probably nowhere near as much as you might think. You don’t need an office because you can work at home or in a garage. You don’t need business cards and fancy letterhead because you don’t have a product finished yet.

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You don’t need lawyers to charge exorbitant fees to write contracts. Instead, find templates on the internet (or make friends with lawyers who will email them to you) and copy/paste them together on your own. I’m sure what you come up with will be 90% as good as what the $500 per hour lawyers will come up with1. Once you have some profit coming in the door, then you can worry about covering all your bases with high priced lawyers. You don’t need to hire assistants or employees because you don’t have any customers yet (more on this below).

And you

certainly don’t need to travel to other cities for meetings and stay in nice hotels when a telephone is right there on the desk. In fact, you shouldn’t even be using a telephone for expensive long distance calls! Use your cell phone with a national plan or a Skype headset2. You don’t need to purchase a new computer, printer, and fax machine because you are working at home.

Use the hardware you already have!

As an

entrepreneur your credo should be to beg, borrow, and steal any item you possibly can before spending money! (Ok, don’t actually steal it, but you get the idea.)

WORK AT HOME As I stated above, you should work out of your home by creating a “home office”. There are many reasons to create a home office, but here are a few of them:

Incidentally, the $500 per hour lawyer isn’t writing the contract himself. He has an

intern do exactly what you were doing, copying and pasting templates, which he then gives a quick once over. 2

www.skype.com is a voice over IP service that is excellent and inexpensive for national

and international calls

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1. You’ll never sit in rush hour traffic. 2. Your commute time is zero (get an extra hour in every day). 3. You save money on gas. 4. You save money on food (since you are eating groceries instead of food from restaurants). 5. You eat healthier food. 6. You save money on office equipment by using your home computer, printer, and fax. 7. You save money on office rent. 8. You save money on office energy costs and other utilities. Many small businesses who rent an office don’t ever have clients show up. It is a waste of money each month that is slowly but surely destroying their cash reserves. It’s very reasonable for a new company to get started at a home office, or through collaboration over the internet. You can use excellent free call and video conferencing applications such as Skype to collaborate with other people anywhere in the world. You can keep your projects organized with tools like Basecamp3. You can write documents and spreadsheets with others through Google Documents and Spreadsheets. If you need to have a meeting with clients or potential clients to “make a good impression”, meet with them at their office, a restaurant, or a coffee shop. Even big companies with the most expensive office buildings often prefer to meet at restaurants. A nice meal or cup of coffee here and there will be far cheaper than rent. Some people are concerned that they won’t be able to work in isolation at home. Others are concerned they won’t be able to work with the lack of isolation at home. 3

www.basecamphq.com

Still others fear they might go crazy

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spending all their time in the house! The solution to all of these is to get out of the house once in a while. When you work at home, it’s advisable to take your work to a coffee shop or bookstore at least a couple times per week. Bring a laptop if you have one and look for locations with free wireless internet access. They provide perfect working environments. I have met several other successful entrepreneurs in these locations that I am still friends with today. You should also join local clubs related to your business and hobbies to stay in touch with knowledgeable people and keep learning. With a few small changes like this, working at home becomes one of the best decisions you’ll ever make.

NO EMPLOYEES As a general rule, the more employees involved in the business, the more problems you will have. The more time you will spend on the phone dealing with little problems and the more time will be taken away from your most important tasks, like building and selling a great product. Some people have a negative reaction to this statement, and indignantly reply that “Employees are the most valuable resource a business can have!” Well, this is true, sometimes. I agree that small teams can have incredible synergy to become far more than the sum of their parts. I agree that you aren’t superman or superwoman and you can’t do everything yourself.

But this doesn’t mean you should

automatically move to hiring people as a way to solve problems. What’s far more likely to happen is that you’ll create new problems! Several studies on collaboration have shown the ideal team size to be about three, yet few companies actually practice this.

Their

employees instead spend a large percentage of their time on bureaucracy. Attending meetings, returning voicemails, and filling out the proverbial

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“TPS Reports”4 takes up all their time which should be spent on developing a great product and marketing it. If you are going to work with others, then the smaller the team the better. Of course, working by yourself in a team of one is arguably the best team you can have. When you encounter a problem that you don’t have the experience to solve (graphic design, accounting, or programming a website for example) it’s far more efficient either to quickly learn it (especially if it doesn’t need to be perfect) or to outsource it to a contractor for one job.

Hiring

someone full time would be a mistake in this case. Here is a partial list of problems than can come about from hiring employees: 1. You have to pay them, of course. Sounds simple right? Wrong. Now you need a payroll department (more employees), a way to track hours and bonuses, and you’ll need to print checks and deliver them or setup direct deposit. Some checks will bounce, be lost, or will be incorrect, leading to more phone calls. 2. If they are actual employees, you have to worry about paying benefits. (You could hire independent contractors instead, but you have to make sure you are doing so legally.) 3. You will need to develop a recruiting process. 4. You will need to develop a hiring/interview process. 5. If you make a mistake at some point and hire the wrong person, this can be the most damaging of all. Morale can be destroyed and your good employees will have to work extra hard to fix the mistakes made by the bad one. 4

This term was made popular by the film Office Space , and has come to mean “mindless

paperwork”

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6. You will have to fire people, and learn how to do so in way that avoids lawsuits. 7. You may be sued by past employees. 8. You may have employees quit and become your competitors. 9. You may have employees steal from you. The list goes on, but perhaps one of the biggest oversights entrepreneurs make when it comes to hiring is that they don’t look at the cost benefit analysis. They simply look at the benefit saying “If we hire someone to do all of the customer support we’ll have lots more time to do sales”. Yes, that may be true, but what is the cost and is it worth it? Let’s say you need to pay this customer support employee $30,000 a year. Is the benefit of no longer having to answer phone calls from customers worth $30,000 per year?

In other words, will at least an additional

$30,000 in profit (not revenue) come into the business as a result of my additional time spent on sales5? Moreover, what additional time and money would need to be spent on finding a good candidate for the job, setting up payroll, and putting some checks in place to make sure they are supervised and doing a good job? Would a training program be necessary for this employee and if so at what cost?

Would overall

customer support quality go up or down as a result of this decision? Are there perhaps other benefits to doing the customer support yourself that you haven’t considered, such as getting timely feedback on how your product is performing and your customer’s problems with it? Suddenly, 5

It should be noted that even if an additional $30,000 in profit did come in, you would

only break even in this example. There would be no disadvantage, but you wouldn’t earn anything either.

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“We wouldn’t have to spend time answering phone calls from customers” doesn’t seem quite so simple. For this reason, I’m going to make a recommendation: For at least the first few businesses you start, choose a business that doesn’t require a single employee other than you! Once you are an experienced entrepreneur, it may make sense to undertake larger projects that require levels of management. But then again, it probably won’t. Several very wealthy people I’ve spoken to used to be in charge of huge teams at big companies where they attended endless meetings and multiple layers of management approval were required for any small change. They now earn more than they did at their big company, but instead they work for themselves and have zero employees (or perhaps one assistant). They also get far more work done and have less stress. There are two exceptions to this rule: partners and an assistant. If you feel absolutely confident you need to work with someone else, then you could take on a partner instead of hiring an employee. This has several benefits because payroll is simplified (you just decide when to pay yourselves by writing a check), people with ownership are less likely to steal and more likely to care, and the interview/hiring process is a one time thing. Then again, taking on partners doesn’t come without risk. As a general rule, if you ever become business partners with a friend or family member, you can be sure to have disagreements and tension (and in a fairly high percent of cases, complete destruction of the relationship) no matter how close you are right now.

I don't

recommend becoming business partners with someone you live with. Working all day together and spending all evening together is a sure fire way to be at each other’s throats in no time. Furthermore, having a partner will hinder your productivity because every decision has to go

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through two (or more) people instead of just one. This means a flurry of emails and phone calls will be constantly going between the group, and if there is ever a disagreement, it could last indefinitely (there is no boss with the final say). In my experience, partnerships are rarely formed as a necessary and sound business decision. They are formed because the parties aren’t confident or experienced enough to go at it on their own. I have to admit, this was the reason the first two businesses I started were partnerships; I didn’t have the confidence or belief in myself that I could do it on my own. Ultimately they were great learning experiences, and gave me the confidence to start a business on my own which was far more successful. If you need to follow the same path, so be it, but just be aware of the risks of partnerships. Secondly, a personal assistant may be appropriate as your one employee. Referring back to the previous section on cutting expenses, this doesn’t mean you should go out and hire one right away and waste money. Don’t ever hire a personal assistant until you are making enough profit to easily hire one, you are so busy you can't handle your workload, you have a clearly defined list of tasks that sum up to a full time job (the last thing you want is an expensive envelope licker). Don’t ever hire a personal assistant to do a job that can be done better or cheaper by some piece of technology (it will be menial work and they will come to resent the job). As a general rule, I wouldn’t consider hiring a personal assistant until you have a net worth in excess of $1 million. Finally, don’t hire a personal assistant who shares your same skills.

Hire someone who

complements you and is skilled in the areas that you are weak. In summary, hiring employees is a common mistake and often carries far more costs in time and money than entrepreneurs realize. With each additional person added to a team, the amount of time spent communicating goes up exponentially and the amount of time spent

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working goes down exponentially.

Make at least your first few

businesses, if not all of them, a one employee company: yourself. Remember that any time you come across a task you wish to delegate or don’t know how to do, it is far better to outsource it or quickly learn to do it well enough yourself, than it is to hire an employee.

READY, FIRE, AIM. Many successful entrepreneurs have stated that the secret to their success was that they acted and went for it even though they didn’t feel 100% prepared. Once you have an idea, take the first step toward completing it now, and figure out the details later. Those who have to wait until all their ducks are in a row will be stuck waiting forever. I will tell you a secret: the ducks will never all be in a row! The minute you get that last one in line, another one will pop out. It’s imperative you go ahead and do your best with what you have now. At some point you will have to exit the learning stage and enter the doing stage. Don’t get caught in the “analysis paralysis” of continuing to learn more and more. At some point you’ll have to just pull the trigger, whether you have every possible contingency covered or not. After pulling the trigger is when the real learning will start, because then you can see where your shot actually went.

It is no longer theory or

discussion, it is actually happening. Only then, after actually taking the first shot, can you begin to correct your aim. When starting my first business, I was full of uncertainty and doubt. What did I know? I was barely an adult. I had read a little bit about incorporating, but I couldn’t afford any actual legal advice. I didn’t know how to pay business taxes. I didn’t know if anyone would buy my product. I didn’t know how to find customers. But after reading a little bit, I just decided to go for it, ready or not. The effect was dramatic.

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Experience is the best teacher. Sure, I made a few mistakes, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t recover from. It’s time to realize and accept the fact that you will not be entirely prepared when you start your first business. So what? Do it anyway. No one is entirely prepared the first time. But they have the courage to act in spite of their fear, which is why they are successful today.

ECONOMIES OF SCALE This is just a fancy economics term that describes how your business can grow. If you have good economies of scale, then growing your business will lead to growing profits.

But if you have poor

economies of scale, then there is an upper limit on how much your business can grow. Imagine for a moment that you decide to start a shoe company. It is your first business and you’ve decided to make the shoes from your home and sew them by hand. You have all the materials at home and can start right away. Each shoe takes you one hour to make, and you will earn $10 of profit when you sell it. Now imagine a second business you might start which is selling an e-Book on the internet. Each e-Book you sell earns you the same $10 profit, but it doesn’t take you any time to sell or make each individual one. In fact, the entire selling process is automated so that people can order it and download it without you having to do a single thing. However, to get the book written and the automated process setup takes you 100 hours of time up front and $100.

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Shoe’s R Us

eBook.com

Profit per sale

$10

Fixed Cost (time)

0 hours

100 hours

Fixed Cost ($)

$100

Unit Cost (time)

1 hour

0 hours

Figure 5 – Economies of scale example

What is the difference between these two businesses and which has better economies of scale? At first glance the Shoe company appears to be a lot cheaper to run, but does this tell the whole story? To answer this question, let’s imagine how each one will grow. The shoe company doesn’t require any work up front. You have your first shoe done in one hour and have started earning money right away. Your business grows, and more orders come in. Soon you are making and selling eight shoes per day, for a nice $80 profit. However, your time becomes scarce making shoes eight hours per day since they take an hour each, and as more orders come in you have to start making a wait list. Your business is not scaling well. To grow this business you will have to start taking on employees or outsourcing large parts of your work. Meanwhile, your e-Book requires much more up front work. After finally writing the darn thing and getting an automated order system put together you haven’t earned a cent (you actually had to pay someone $100 to setup the website)! But eventually a few orders start to roll in. A month later, with some marketing efforts, you finally break even and recover your initial cost. From now on you could simply leave it and earn the pure profit off each additional sale. Since each sale

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doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t require any effort on your part, you are spending your time on your next business idea and picking up a check each month. It makes money for you while you sleep. A few more months go by and your eBook gets a favorable write-up in a magazine, followed by some word of mouth marketing.

Suddenly your sales go through the roof.

Your

website is processing dozens of orders per day. Your business continues to expand and grow with no upper limit since each sale is automated. The only time you may spend on the business could be additional marketing, creating new versions of the product, or dealing with the occasional technical problem. Overall, this business scales well and has a lot of upside potential. The businesses that scale well are those with low per unit costs of time. This example should not be taken to mean shoe companies are bad and e-Bookâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s are great. It is merely the concept of scaling that I wish to convey here. To further explain, fixed costs are anything that you pay regardless of how much you sell. For example, you would still have to buy a sewing machine to make your shoes, regardless of how many shoes you sold. That is a fixed cost. Per unit costs (or variable costs) are those costs that vary with how many items you sell. The cost can be in terms of time or money. For example, for each additional shoe you sell, you have to buy the raw materials for it. That is a unit cost. You also need to spend one additional hour to make it, which is a unit cost of time. This is why I say that businesses with low unit costs of time have good economies of scale.

For each additional item you sell, very little

additional time is required on your part.

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Figure 6 – Economies of scale comparison

The Shoe business is more profitable at first. But after you have sold eighteen e-Book’s and beyond, the economies of scale will win for eBook.com. What would the graph look like after one year of sales? Ten years? Play to win in the long run!

WHAT IF YOU SUCCEED? Before you jump head first into a new business, take a moment to consider what life would be like if you actually succeeded. What is the full potential of the business? What is it that you are actually working toward? One night about a year ago, I met a nice young man at a speaking event. He found out that I was an entrepreneur and told me all about his great business idea that he had started working on. He wanted to create custom children’s books, where the parents could upload photos to his website, and a few weeks later an illustrated children’s book (with their actual child in it) would arrive. His idea sounded unique and

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intriguing so I started to ask him some questions. How much do you think you’ll be able to sell each of these books for? How much will the printing cost be? How much time will it take you to modify the photos from the customer and create the book? After a few minutes my initial excitement wore off and I started to realize that his great idea might not be so great after all. About an hour of work would need to go into each book. Retailing for $25 or $30 made it a relatively expensive children’s book, but still viable. Unfortunately, after the printing cost he was left with about $10 in profit to pay himself (or whomever was going to make them) and cover all expenses. I didn’t want to discourage him since he had such enthusiasm, which I admired. But at the same time I had to let him know that he would essentially be working for $10 per hour. Not a bad wage, but it’s also about what you can earn working at Starbucks. He certainly wasn’t going to get rich off his idea. Now, if he was exceptionally passionate about making children’s books, then fine. Making an average salary to do what you love is fine. It could have been a great starting off point for him to get something out there and meet others in the industry. However, for him, making the books wasn’t a passion. He liked the idea of the business and was an entrepreneur who wanted to be out selling, not stuck behind a computer doing the repetitive graphic design for eight hours a day. When he finally took a moment to look at his best case scenario (all the books being ordered that he could handle), it didn’t look quite as bright. I advised him to look into the idea of automating the book creation in some way, either through technology or outsourcing it. You too should take a moment to analyze the best case scenario of what will happen if your business succeeds. What type of work will take up most of your day? In the best case, how many items could you

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realistically produce and ship every day, week, or year? If you actually shipped this many, would you be happy with the income you were generating? As the old saying goes, be careful what you wish for, you might just get it! Wishing for a successful business means much more than wishing for lots of sales. If you get all those sales, will you still be happy?

SEVEN BUSINESSES YOU CAN START FOR $100 OR LESS Hopefully I have given you a fresh perspective on what it means to own your own business. To summarize, I would generally define “owning your own business” as any project that allows you to pay yourself. Your name (or your company’s name) is on the checks. That’s it. All types of activities fall into this category (besides owning the illfated restaurant or shoe company described earlier). Many people will tell you that this definition of being an entrepreneur is wrong. They will tell you that your company isn’t real because it doesn’t have a high rise office with lots of workers, it doesn’t have a 401k plan, and it didn’t require your entire life savings invested just to get started. These old fashioned ideas of business ownership are on their way out. It’s no longer difficult or risky to get started, and anyone who tells you different is holding on to the past. Once you get a business or two off the ground (and in my experience it will take a business or two that don’t get off the ground just to get to that point), then you can start thinking about bigger projects that are riskier or require bigger investments. You’ll be ready for bigger projects at that point because you’ll have more confidence. You’ll have past experiences (success in your previous businesses) to draw your confidence from.

You also will have learned so much from your

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previous businesses that the “crisis” situations you experienced then will be a breeze the second time around (but don’t worry, new “crisis” situations will come up for you to learn from). So without further ado, here are seven businesses that you can start for $100 or less. They can be profitable quickly, can be started on nights and weekends while still at your current job, and follow all the guidelines discussed at the beginning of the chapter. •

Consultant Whatever job you currently have (or have had) has given you a skill set that is valuable to others. Regardless of what industry you are in, there are others interested in what’s sitting between your ears. You have the ability now to train people coming into the industry, to be hired by companies for short term projects, and to be hired as an expert speaker or trainer. If you decide to go this route, start making a list of possible customers. The key here is to become an expert networker. Start going to industry trade shows and events. Read Thomas Stanely’s book Networking with Millionaires. The secret to getting more through networking is giving more. Most consultants who are just getting into the business price themselves far too low. Often, your price is your perceived value to your customers. If you aren’t charging very much, you must not be very good. Work with the first few clients for free to get your foot in the door, and deliver far more than they expect. Collect their endorsements, and then set your price in the top third for the industry. Save all your documents and record your speeches.

These materials can be sold as

information products at a later time, which is where the real economies of scale come into play. When your services come into demand, there will again only be a limited number of hours you can

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work each week, but your information products can be sold over and over again with no additional work on your part. Pros: Truly helps people by teaching, puts you in touch with many great contacts. Cons: Takes time to build client list and information products. Key to Success: Be confident enough in the value of your advice to charge a premium.

•

Buyers Guide Website A buyers guide website provides recommendations and reviews of products to help consumers decide what to buy (think Consumer Reports), and more and more people today are turning to the internet for this information. Think about the last time you purchased an expensive item like a computer, television, or car. I bet you went to the internet to do some research. However, you most likely ran into some poorly designed websites, plenty of advertisements, and some websites that only address your topic indirectly. What if you created a buyers guide for your favorite product or one that you know a lot about? Allow user generated content so that visitors to your website can leave their own reviews and rank various products in different categories. Allowing this user generated content will have multiple benefits. First, you won’t have to create as much of it yourself. Secondly, a product with an average ranking of 9.1 out of 10 based on a hundred reviews is far more convincing than seeing that Bob from Bob’s Great Website rated it a 10. No matter how much Bob claims to be an expert on the subject, the power of creating a community of like minded people is far better. Focus on one niche.

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Instead of doing computers, do light-weight notebooks. Instead of doing sports, do badminton.

Pick whatever topic you love and

create a website to help people buy the right product.

In the

beginning, don’t worry about earning money. Just get the site built (or pay someone to make it) and focus on making some great content to drive traffic. Once you have an active community, create some advertisements or earn money through affiliate commissions (more on this below).

Don’t compromise the integrity of your

reviews for advertising sake, and your community will stay loyal. The ads must have useful content as well. Pros: Users generate most of the content for you. Cons: Takes time to build traffic. Keys to success: Getting a critical mass of users and establishing credibility. •

Real Estate Investor Did you know that majority of millionaires invest actively in real estate? The real estate market as a whole in the United States has never had a down year, ever. No one is making any more of it, so as long as the population of earth continues to grow, so will real estate prices. Make no mistake about it, you are an entrepreneur if you start a real estate investment business. You also don’t need to be rich to invest in real estate. You can usually buy your first home with 100% financing. You can also buy an investment property with 100% financing if you choose to live there for the first six months or so. Commercial property (any property with more than 4 units) can be financed regardless of your credit or personal finances because the bank looks at the property, not you. Of course, this doesn’t

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mean you should rush into debt if you can’t cover the payments. This isn’t a book on real estate investing, so it would be valuable to learn much more before getting involved. Read at least three books on the subject and start attending local real estate investor meetings in your area. Find someone who is a successful real estate investor or real estate agent and buy them lunch (in general, buy successful people lunch as often as you can, it’s one of the best ways to learn). While at lunch, ask them questions about their life and how they got started.

Most people will be flattered and enjoy teaching you.

Follow up with them as you make progress and soon you will have a mentor. This is by far the best way I’ve found to learn about real estate (and many other subjects): surround yourself with experts. Pros: Real estate earns passive income. You earn money while you sleep. Cons: Can be risky, watch out for scam artists and expensive workshops on real estate that offer questionable advice. Keys to Success: Educate yourself and build a network of people to help you. •

Writer Everyone has at least one good book inside them, and today it is easier than ever to become a published author. But writing doesn’t have to just be about books. You can start a blog, write articles for publication, or create sales copy for other businesses. Don’t be too quick to discount writing if you, like many, were never a good writer in school. The type of writing we are forced to do in school often isn't a good fit for the student, who then goes on to incorrectly assume they are not a good writer! Just because you hated writing a

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ten page essay on a Shakespearean character doesn’t mean you will hate writing about what you love. In my own life, I was always a mediocre writer by academic standards. I didn’t particularly care about the required subject matter, so the writing was forced and laborious. But once I graduated and had the opportunity to write about what I knew and loved, the words just came naturally. The secret to great (non-fiction) writing is just to tell a true story from your life.

Stories are the most basic building blocks of

communication that the human mind has evolved to understand. Tell a story, and people will listen. There are a few common misconceptions about writing that shouldn’t deter you. The first is that you don’t have anything original to say. All writers reference other sources, and no one else has read the same books you have.

Don’t be afraid to include

references to other's work; it will still be valuable to the reader who hasn’t had the time to read all the books that you have. Secondly, don’t worry about finding an agent or getting a publisher. Just start writing.

Great self-publishing resources exist today, such as

www.lulu.com, which can help any aspiring writer become selfpublished for $100 or less. Read Dan Poynter’s book, The SelfPublishing Manual: How to write, print, and sell your own book, for inspiration and guidance. If you wish, start smaller with articles or by making a blog at www.blogger.com. It is extremely easy and you can have your first article published within an hour. Don’t write with the purpose in mind to make money. It will never come to fruition. Instead, write about a topic you love just because you love writing and thinking about it. Over time you will accumulate readers on your website and will begin to develop an audience. Money, in the form of advertisements on your site (can be set up with a few

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clicks on www.blogger.com), paid articles, or affiliate commissions will come over time as a result of not focusing on money. They will be a byproduct of loving what you are writing about, whether you get paid or not. Pros: Earns passive income. Can lead to other sources of income such as speaking engagements. Cons: Many great books sell very few copies. Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll have to become a master of doing your own marketing. Keys to success: Write non-fiction about what you know and love. Tell a story. â&#x20AC;˘

Reseller or Affiliate If you have an interest in marketing, but not in making an actual product right now, then you should consider reselling goods as an affiliate.

The business idea is simple, successful, and has been

around for years since Amazon.com started doing it back in 1996. How does this work? Companies have products available for sale online, and will pay you to let potential customers know about it. When someone you refer ends up buying the product, you get a commission. Thousands of companies on the internet offer all types of affiliate programs to help bring them business. You are a creative person and can most likely find a way to match people with potential products they want to buy. The buyers guide website mentioned earlier is one idea (careful not to let affiliate commissions bias your reviews, web savvy readers will be able to tell if you are getting paid for the referral). You can also make affiliate commissions off a blog, mailing list, advertisements you create, and many other ways. If you think you can design better advertisements than an existing company

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with a great product, you don’t need to be an employee at the company to convince them they’re doing it wrong. Sign up as an affiliate and start making their ads for them! When the sales start coming in, the numbers will be tough to argue with. The beauty of this business idea is that it can be started on a miniscule budget, and you take zero risk. You don’t need to keep an inventory of products, fulfill orders, deal with charge backs and returns, or even ever speak to a customer. Once the customer buys, you pick up a check and the job is done. Pros: You carry no inventory and don’t deal directly with customers. Cons: Highly competitive and you must love marketing/sales. Keys to Success: Study marketing and have a genuine interest in helping customers find what they want. •

Seminar or Information Product This is an exciting business idea that has made some people very rich. Take your area of expertise (or develop one) on a subject you love, and create a seminar to teach people about it. If you don’t have all the answers, invite guest speakers to bring additional value to the program. Offer each speaker the option of being paid for their time or a chance to mention their website at the end of the program (most will take the chance to mention their site). Rent a hotel conference room, set a date, and seek attendees via local newspaper ads, relevant mailing lists (which may be your own website), and word of mouth. Making a profit from attendance is nice, but not entirely necessary. In fact, some seminar organizers seek to only break even at the actual seminar. Instead, they hire a small camera crew to record the entire event. From this they create a DVD or audio information product,

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which will bring them passive income for years to come (meaning each additional unit sold takes none of their time, it has good economies of scale). Information products and seminars can command a very high price and a profit margin that would be considered absurd in any other business. Four thousand dollars for a weekend seminar and $500 for a DVD recording of the event is not unheard of. Information, especially information that can earn you money or improve your life in some way, is one of the most valuable products you can sell. For example, think about how much importance some people would put on getting out of debt, making it through a divorce, becoming financially independent, or finding love. If that is the primary problem in their life at the moment, then they would be willing to give almost anything for your help. If you can’t imagine yourself leading a seminar, and the idea of speaking in public brings on panic attacks, you aren’t alone. Keep in mind that every single successful speaker you see today was once exactly like you. In fact, every top speaker I’ve ever met has told me they still get nervous before a talk. It never goes away completely, and they have simply learned to become comfortable with being uncomfortable.

improve your public speaking skills (and other areas of your life) I highly recommend Toastmasters (www.toastmasters.org).

They

have clubs in every major city in the world and for a small fee (about $50-$100 per year) you will learn an invaluable skill. Pros: Highly lucrative. Cons: Must become comfortable with public speaking and asking people for their money. Keys to Success: Provide real value, don’t do it to make a quick

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buck. Develop a series of products. A low priced entry product should draw people in and win their loyalty. Then they will buy the next and the next. •

Make a Better Piece of Software Most software that exists today is downright horrible. It has a steep learning curve, throws esoteric error messages to baffled users, and routinely crashes, destroying customer’s hard work. Most people hate computers, and it’s not hard to see why. You don’t need to be a computer scientist to design good software. In fact, it will most likely be to your advantage not to have a computer science degree because you are unbiased and you think like an actual user of the product would (instead of like an engineer). The most important part of designing good software is not all the technical stuff of how it works underneath. It is the user interface, or how the user interacts with the program (and this is the part most major software companies today can’t get right). If you can draw and describe in detail how you want every screen of an application to look, you can outsource the development of it for very little money (although I must admit it could run over $100 for anything more than a small application). Most consumer software that is marketed to millions of home PC users is bad enough, but business software that is used internally in many companies is even worse. If you go into any industry (real estate, insurance, car dealerships) and look at the software they are using, you will most likely see many opportunities for improvement. Sit down with the people who have to use the software and watch them work. You don’t need to add new features, just make the ones people use the most better. Most likely users will be spending 80% of the time using 20% of the features of the

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program. Concentrate on those 20% and make them exceptional. Get rid of the clutter and remove most of the features that are rarely used.

Less is more in this case.

To get an education in good

software, read The Inmates are Running the Asylum by Alan Cooper and Getting Real by 37Signals6.

These are written for non-technical

people. Look at companies such as Google, Apple, and 37Signals, who are among the few companies today creating software that people actually want to use.

Draw on paper (or in a graphics

program) each screen of your application, and describe in detail how you want it to work. Post the project on Guru.com or eLance.com and programmers from around the world will bid on how much they will charge to make it a reality. Consider making the application entirely web based and possibly open source. This is the future of software. Pros: Once the software is made, each additional sale (or subscriber) takes very little of your time. Good economies of scale. Cons: You must become a student of good user interface design. Keys to Success: Make your application so easy to use that customers fall in love with it and tell all their friends. Make the transition to using your software seamless.

STARTING SMALL WILL LEAD TO BIG SUCCESS This is by no means an exhaustive list, and there are plenty of good business ideas all around you. Hopefully you now have a better idea now of the type and characteristics of a good first business to start: 6

gettingreal.37signals.com

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low expenses, no employees, good economies of scale, and minimal up front investment. Once you have started a successful business your confidence will skyrocket. You won’t be afraid to take on riskier and more challenging businesses. It also may take you a couple tries to get your first successful business. Don’t let this discourage you! In the world of entrepreneurs, a failed startup is not a mark against you; it’s a badge of honor to be proudly displayed. With every business you start that doesn’t work out, the lessons learned will be far more valuable than any monetary loss. They will be lessons you couldn’t have learned in any classroom or from any guru. They will be personal and unforgettable because you actually experienced it. With every failure, you will be one giant step closer to success. A reporter once asked Thomas J. Watson, former President of IBM, how other companies could match the success of IBM. Watson responded “double your rate of failure”. I think what he meant is this: failure is the best way to learn so start doing it quickly and inexpensively. It’s important to remember that failure and setbacks are not only likely, they are necessary to your progress. You should actually look forward to failures and setbacks because they represent an invaluable learning opportunity that very few people will ever get. Looking back on every “failure” or setback I ever had, the loss I experienced at the time (money, time, etc) was always less important than the lesson learned. Relish every opportunity to learn that you have. When you take on this attitude, you’ll see that there really is no such thing as failure. In fact, the only true failure is one you refuse to learn from. Your success in a small business like those listed above will be invaluable, and will guide you toward bigger and better projects!

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BUT I DON’T KNOW HOW TO DO [BLANK] I want to leave you with a quick reminder before finishing up the chapter. If you found yourself saying “yes, but” or “that’d be great if only” while reading the above business examples, then this reminder is for you: are you coming up with excuses or legitimate reasons? Look back to chapter two if necessary. It’s very easy to come up with excuses, and most people’s brains have become very adept in this area as a defense mechanism. I know because I did it, and still do! “If I don’t come up with an excuse quick then I might have to actually try this!” Remember, winners are those who say “I don’t have it all figured out yet, but I know I can do it”. Losers are those who say “Yes, but” and “It wouldn’t work for me”. Make a shift in your thinking to look for solutions instead of reasons not to. It doesn’t mean you have to love the examples above or that they will be easy. Some of them may be right for you and some may not. Each one has pre-requisites, but the idea is just to get you thinking in the right direction. If you find yourself resisting these ideas or getting angry and defensive, this is good to notice. The fact that you are getting upset and defensive is typically an indication that you know it has some truth deep down. What if someone came up to you on the street and tried to convince you the sky was green instead of blue.

You’d laugh and

probably think they were a bit strange, but you certainly wouldn’t get upset. You are so sure that the sky is blue, the very notion that it is something else is just a bit ridiculous and silly. Getting into an emotional argument with the person would be pointless because you know you’re

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right. As human beings, we only get defensive when the person we’re arguing with might actually be right! Take comfort in the fact that even if you don’t have a complete game plan for your first business now, you will be able to figure it out. Any time you find yourself saying “I don’t know how to [blank]”, remind yourself that you can learn anything or pay someone else to do it.

INTEGRITY – THE MOST IMPORTANT BUSINESS VALUE This is one of the most important parts of the book, which many people will overlook.

I want to make you familiar with two

different terms. The first is “don’t be evil”, an idea coined by Google, and the second is “contributing value”. One of the biggest mistakes we can make as business owners is to go ahead with an idea that doesn’t treat our customers with respect. You may be thinking “I’d never do that!”, but it can sneak up on you in unsuspecting ways. Maybe your profit margin is a little low so you decide to put an extra fee in the “handling” charge during shipment that wasn’t exactly clear up front. You’ll rationalize it to yourself that no one will notice or that everyone else is doing it. Maybe you have some left over inventory that you suspect is broken and decide to sell it “as is” anyway with a no refund policy. Maybe you have some customers who are delinquent on their payments, and you hand over their accounts to a collection agency with a bad reputation for harassment. Maybe your product is only useful to a certain group of people, but when someone else unknowingly buys it, you happily sell it to them thinking “Their mistake, more money for me!” Is it your right to do these things? Yes. Will they often be profitable in the short run? Yes. Should you do them? No.

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There is a simple litmus test you can do any time you come across a decision such as this. Simply stop and ask yourself, “Am I contributing value to the world?” and “If I were a customer of this business, would I want it?” If you aren’t contributing value to the world and your customer probably wouldn’t want it (whether they would know or not), then don’t do it. This is not only an ethical issue.

This is sound long term

business strategy. This is not something that is optional and would be nice to do. It is absolutely essential to be successful in business in the long term. Treat your customers with respect. The Google motto to “don’t be evil” roughly translates to “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you”. If you think about the best business ideas in the world, they were so successful and earned their creators millions of dollars because they contributed value to the world.

They weren’t

products that people regretted buying later. They were products that people couldn’t live without, that dramatically changed their lives for the better. These products were so successful because the early customers went out and told fifty people how great the product was.

These

products were designed with the customer’s needs in mind, not the businesses. Would you be a customer for your company? If the answer is no, then there is a problem. Address it before going ahead. I’ll give you an example. You may be familiar with a company called Netflix, who started up by asking a simple question: How can we contribute more value to movie renters? The answer turned out to be that movie renters hated late fees and wanted to keep the movies as long as they wanted. With that simple idea, a new company was born that quickly gained momentum.

One of their major competitors,

Blockbuster, saw this as a threat and decided to compete by offering “no late fees”.

A national ad campaign swept the country to promote

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Blockbuster’s new offering. Unfortunately for Blockbuster, it turned out that their “no late fees” came along with some fine print, and wasn’t entirely true. Once word got out, customers felt like they had been misled, and there was even a class action lawsuit. Blockbuster suffered as a result of this mismanaged idea. Were they contributing value to the world? Not nearly as much as they claimed. Were they being entirely honest and up front with their customers? No, the bond of trust was broken. I’m sure the “no late fees” campaign was designed by some very intelligent MBAs who evaluated the idea from Blockbuster’s perspective. But they forgot to ask themselves the all important question: “Would we want to use our own product?” A second example can be found in the online credit-card processing industry. To even order the product from most companies today is extremely confusing. The industry standard is to have about ten different types of fees.

There are Application Fees, Annual Fees,

Address Verification (AVS) Fees, Leasing Fees, Termination Penalties, Batch Header Fees, the VISA/MasterCard Qualified Discount Rate, per Transaction Fees, Monthly Service Fee (including Monthly Statement Fee), and Monthly Processing Minimum. Do you think the average customer even knows what most of those are? To make it worse, most companies hide the actual price several layers deep into the website, or make you call to get it. It is impossible to compare prices between competing companies because they all have hidden fees! In fact, it isn’t uncommon at all for people to sign up for a service having no idea what their monthly cost will be. People would just give up trying to figure it out, because that was their only option. When Google released Google Checkout, they said “How can we contribute value here?” They started with the fact that no one knew what the heck all those terms were, and they stated their price on the first page of their website: “2% per

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transaction plus $0.20”. There were those two fees, instead of ten. Is it any wonder Google has such great brand loyalty? People love Google because they are up front and honest. They treat their customers like they want to be treated themselves. Remember, integrity is not optional when it comes to business, and it isn’t something you do to stay out of jail. It is something you do to make tons of money in the long term because it is sound business strategy. The old adage that says “find a need and fill it” is absolutely true. Contribute value to the world, and the world will contribute greatly back to you. Probably more than 90% of all business people today don’t fully understand this concept.

Your startup will have an incredible

advantage over them by using this philosophy.

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CHAPTER 6 EXERCISES Before reading this chapter, what came to mind when you thought about starting a business?

What types of businesses did you

imagine? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Now that you have read the chapter, what comes to mind when thinking about starting a new business? What types of businesses do you imagine creating? In what areas? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. What (if any) new business expenses did you realize you could do without? What (if any) employees did you realize you could do without? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

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What projects or areas of your life have you been procrastinating on? Do you really need to wait to start? Where can you utilize the philosophy of “ready, fire, arm”? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. What is the best case scenario of your business idea (if you have one)?

What will your income and daily work be like if your

company is a big success? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. What business ideas (if any) sound appealing or like something you’d like to explore further? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. What ways can you (or your businesses) contribute to the world? In what ways were you putting your business’s needs ahead of your

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customer’s? Where can you gain a competitive advantage by using the philosophy of “don’t be evil”. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

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CHAPTER 6 SUMMARY •

This is a totally different way to think about starting a business.

•

You don’t need to take on big investment and risk.

•

Being self employed simply means you pay yourself.

•

Eliminate costs and expenses you don’t absolutely need.

•

Start a business with zero employees.

•

Don’t wait to get started. Just start with what you have now so you can begin to get feedback.

•

Use the philosophy of “ready, fire, aim”.

•

Seek businesses with good economies of scale. o

Higher fixed costs, and lower (or zero) variable/unit costs will win over time.

o •

Your time is valuable and limited.

What if you succeed? o

Look at the best case scenario for your business, and make sure you like it. You might get what you wish for.

•

You can start a business for less than $100. o

Become a consultant.

Create a buyers guide website.

Become a real estate investor.

Become a writer.

Resell other people’s products for commissions (affiliate).

Create a seminar or information product.

Make a better piece of software.

Start small and build your confidence for bigger projects. o

Don’t be afraid to fail, it’s a great learning experience and necessary to have success.

Carry your failures as a badge of honor.

What Kind of Business Should I Start?

•

Leave excuses at the door and avoid “yes, but”. o

You can overcome any challenge by learning a skill or paying someone else to do it.

•

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Always operate your business with integrity. o

Don’t be evil.

Be up front and honest with your customers.

Treat them as you would like to be treated.

Would you be a customer of your own business?

Are you contributing value to the world, or taking it?

Chapter 7 The Nuts and Bolts of Starting a Business “How dare you waste your life in exchange for a paycheck.” - Seth Godin, bestselling author and entrepreneur

o far we have discussed the idea of starting a company theoretically. Now it’s time to get down to the actual steps

you will need to take. Some of you are saying “finally!” If you’re the type of person who wants to focus on the practical steps (or the type of person who skipped to this chapter first!) that is fine, but I do have a word of caution. After starting a number of businesses and helping a number of others start businesses, I’ve come to the conclusion that the actual steps only account for about 20% of the success formula. When it comes down to it, knowing the difference between an LLC and an S-corp could be important, but won’t make or break your success. What’s far more important, and what accounts for the other 80% of the success formula, is what I’d call the “inner game” of starting a business. It’s the material covered in the rest of this book, about your confidence, self

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doubt, peer group, learning habits, and motivation. After all, a motivated person could easily find out the difference between an LLC and an Scorp if they really needed to. If you’ve been reading this book frustrated by the lack of details on the actual steps, then this chapter is for you. Just keep in mind that to the person who ponders “When will we get to the real meat of it?”, I reply “The mental game of starting a business is the real meat of it”. The steps here will help you on your way, but without the right “inner game” they aren’t of much use. This chapter assumes you have an idea for a business and are ready to get started. It is also written from the perspective of starting a business in the United States.

Starting a business is really not very

expensive and is easier than you might think. However, it can be a little tricky the first time, so I’ve tried to lay it out here as simply as possible. This is by no means meant to be a comprehensive explanation. People will write me letters explaining how something in this chapter is not entirely accurate in certain cases. That is fine! The number of special cases the IRS has created could fill hundreds of books, but when starting a business, they simply aren’t important. All you need to know are the basics, which I will teach you here; the rest can be figured out later. Get the business started quickly and easily; you can always come back later once you have revenue. Getting too caught up with the legal and tax details early on just costs you more money and distracts you from your main goal. You could talk with some lawyers for months about some of these topics and they will gladly tell you all the complex details and charge you handsomely for their time (and you should probably do this once you have money coming in the door). But if you just follow what’s in this chapter to get started, you will be 99% of the way there and will have more time and money to spend on making your company

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successful.

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This chapter is more like a crash course than a

comprehensive guide, so treat it accordingly. Disclaimer: Speaking of lawyers, I should mention that none of this chapter should be taken as legal, accounting, or tax advice. Hopefully you find this chapter full of simple useful advice that is free from unintelligible legal jargon. If you see a word you don’t understand, please write me and tell me about it. I’m not quite sure why, but for some reason lawyers and the IRS can’t write in a way that regular people can understand. I’ll do my best to fix that but you are responsible for how you use the information in this chapter

WHY GO THROUGH THIS PROCESS? The definition of “starting a business” is rather unclear. For our purposes it will mean incorporating, separating the business financially from your personal assets, and becoming legally recognized as a business. The alternative is to not incorporate, in which case the business is simply you. When you and the business are one and the same, you aren’t in a very good position. If the business fails, your personal assets could be taken and you won’t be able to deduct business expenses easily. This is why we separate the business into its own entity by incorporating. Incorporating your business has two important benefits: it minimizes risk (liability) and offers tax advantages. Incorporating minimizes risk because the business is treated like a separate person. Think of it like another human being. If something goes wrong, the company will get sued, not you. This is ideal because as you experiment with starting companies, it’s possible for something drastically bad to happen. If your business is incorporated then even if your company suffers major losses, nobody can take your personal home

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away or drain your personal bank account. You can always just file bankruptcy with the company and start over with a “clean” slate. It’s a badge of honor, not a mark against you. Note: There are some special cases where incorporating doesn’t protect you from liability which we will discuss below. Secondly, incorporating offers you great tax advantages that have helped keep rich people rich for many years. When you own a business, you can pay for business expenses with pre-tax dollars. This means that your business related lunches and dinners can be expensed (or at least a portion of them), along with part of your living costs (if you have a home office) and your business travel costs. It’s not uncommon for business owners to take 100% expensed business trips that seem a lot more like vacations. For example, their flight, hotel, and nice meals are all paid for by the company even though it is debatable what percentage of their time was actually spent working. This gets into an ethical and legal issue, and companies are occasionally audited in this area. Keep good records by putting business expenses on a company credit card. This will keep a perfect record automatically for tax time and is far easier than trying to remember to keep written records yourself. It’s a judgment call what you will expense and what you won’t. That being said, most entrepreneurs I know wouldn’t hesitate to expense a dinner with a colleague where business was mentioned, but the topics ranged from sports to how their kids were doing. If you are wondering what it means to “expense” something or use pre-tax dollars, here is an example. Let’s say your business earned $1000 profit this year and your tax rate is 33%.

Through various

activities during the year, you spent $500 out of your own pocket on business related expenses (the gas in your car driving to meetings, meetings with clients, rent for your home/office, etc).

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If you had not incorporated then you pay the full tax, 33% of $1000, which is $333. You are left with $667 dollars of after tax profit, and after deducting your expenses you are left with $167 of profit. However, if you did incorporate, then you are paying your expenses with pre-tax dollars. You deduct the expenses before paying tax, so $1000 minus $500 in expenses is $500 of profit. This times your tax rate of 33% is only $165 in taxes that you owe. $500 in profit minus your $165 in owed taxes leaves you with $335 of profit at the end of year, more than double the profit of your unincorporated counterpart.

Unincorporated

Incorporated

Gross Profit

1,000.00

$1,000.00

Expenses

500.00

$ 500.00

Tax Rate

33%

Taxable Profit

1,000.00

$ 500.00

Taxes Owed

333.33

$ 166.67

Net Profit

166.67

$ 333.33

Figure 7 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Tax Advantages of Incorporating

In essence you are getting a discount every time you spend money for the business because you are paying with pre-tax dollars. You will always be working as you go through your normal life, and you deserve to not pay taxes on business expenses. Make the effort to keep track of them all, and the advantage is substantial.

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With the tax advantages, and necessity of limiting your risk, incorporating and legally becoming a business is a no-brainer. We will cover how to incorporate shortly.

DECIDE ON A NAME Once you have an idea for a business, you’ll need to decide on a name. By far the best method I’ve found to do this is a brainstorming session. Get a blank piece of paper and a pen and start jotting words down that come to mind about your business. Write words that have to do with your product, how it is different from your competition, and the values of the company. Just start letting the words flow onto the paper as seeing one makes you think of the next. For example, let’s say I was starting a business that offered consulting and information products in the area of eliminating debt.

Further, let’s say I differentiated my

business by offering personalized advice, and my strongest company value was empowering minorities. Then I might start writing down words as follows: debt

money

“free and clear” “cycle of poverty” wealth

smart

help

interest

education

payments

minorities

children

literacy

credit cards

bad

empower

underprivileged finances savings

You get the idea. Don’t worry about them making sense; just lets the words flow as they come to mind. Now start combining random words together and see what you come up with. Don’t be afraid to add in new words you haven’t written down previously. Most importantly, try not to judge anything you write down as being good or bad. We will do that later. Force yourself to keep writing until you have at least

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twenty business names, and don’t stop even if you see one that looks perfect. Empowered Savings Smart Savings

Debt Education

Minorities Free and Clear

Credit Card School Debt Busters

Financial Interests Notice how other words came to mind like “School” and “Busters” that weren’t in my original list. That is perfectly fine. See if you can use repetition of initial letters, such as “Smart Savings”, for a catchier title, or a double entendre like “Financial Interests” (the word interests here has double meaning). If you are starting a website business, your next step will be to run all your options through a domain name checker like Go Daddy1 to see which ones are available for use. It would also be a good idea to check the U.S. Patents and Trademark Office to see if your name is already being used by someone else2. If someone already has your name, but your business is completely different from theirs, you may still be able to use it. Finally, you’ll want to check with your local County Clerk’s Office to see if anyone else is doing business under that name in your county.

If so, they will have filed a DBA form (stands for “doing

business as”) with the county. You’ll most likely have to do this in person. Just tell them you’d like to check your business name with the DBA office, and they should know what you are talking about. Narrow your list down to names that are both available and desirable. If necessary, sleep on it, do an informal survey with your 1

www.godaddy.com

www.uspto.gov/main/trademarks.htm

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friends, do more brainstorming (include more people for better results), and make a final decision!

EMPLOYER IDENTIFICATION NUMBER Your next step to starting a business is to get an employer identification number (EIN) from the IRS. It’s free and easy and you can do it right now by calling 800-829-4933. You can also apply online by going to www.irs.gov and clicking “Business”, then “Employer ID Numbers”. They will create a provisional number for you right there and mail you the paperwork later. Under entity type select “other” and enter “disregarded entity” if you are incorporating by yourself. If you are incorporating with partners you can select “partnership”.

You’ll be

incorporating as an LLC (not a partnership) at the state level, but the IRS doesn’t have a classification for LLC (more on this later). If you have an idea for your business already, don’t wait, just do it right now!

Figure 8 – Temporary EIN Assigned via IRS Website Application

An employer identification number is like a social security number for your business (remember, think about your corporation like

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it’s another person). The federal government will use this number to track all correspondence and taxes with your business. You will need this number for the applications later in this chapter.

Figure 9 – The official EIN paperwork arrives a week later.

INCORPORATE AS AN LLC There are several different types of companies that you can incorporate as. Let’s take a brief look at each one: •

Sole Proprietorship – you by yourself, no liability protection

•

Partnership – you with some other people, no liability protection

•

Corporation – plenty of liability protection, plenty of paperwork (think big companies, like IBM and Exxon Mobil)

•

Limited Liability Company – you by yourself or lots of people (doesn’t matter), plenty of liability protection, easy paperwork Entire books have been written on that subject, and that was all

you needed to know.

The LLC seems like an easy choice, right?

Granted, this is a bit of an oversimplification, but to be honest with you

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the details are really unimportant. For example, there is a specific type of corporation called a Subchapter S Corporation, which is fairly similar to an LLC. One may be slightly better than the other in certain cases, but like I said before, who cares? The difference is minor and saving a few percent on your taxes when you have zero profit is still zero savings. Just focus on getting the business started quickly by using an LLC and keep your mind on what matters. You can have a high priced lawyer look at your company once you have money coming in the door (and any choices you've made can always be changed later).

The LLC was

specifically designed to help small business owners like yourself get started, so that is what we will use. So how do you actually incorporate? First, you will need to pick a state. You can incorporate in any state, but Delaware is the best choice. Why Delaware? Delaware is considered a business haven because their court system is favorable to business owners and their state tax laws are great for business owners. You pay zero state sales tax and you pay zero business income tax to the state if your company resides outside Delaware! For this reason, 58% of fortune 500 companies, and 50% of all businesses in the U.S. are incorporated in Delaware. Don’t have an office in Delaware? That’s fine. Many (if not most) of the businesses incorporated there don’t have offices in Delaware. They have what is called a “registered agent”. Basically this is someone who maintains a P.O. box for you and forwards any mail to you. In general, you don’t get much mail there because for all intents and purposes your “real” business is established and running somewhere entirely different. The entire process is totally transparent from your perspective. You never have to go to Delaware, or even know what that address is.

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Incorporating in Delaware can be done for a couple hundred bucks.

The company you pay to incorporate will also assign you a

registered agent for about $50 to $100.

It is remarkably easy and

inexpensive. You can pay a lawyer to help you incorporate, but they will most likely charge you a couple thousand dollars. Instead, I’d recommend going with a company online that will get you incorporated for a couple hundred dollars. You can search www.google.com for “Delaware llc” and get more hits than you could possibly want to see.

I haven’t

researched all of them, but if you need one choice that has worked for me, try www.delawareinc.com. You will have to fill out some simple paperwork with your name, business name, and employer identification number that you obtained from the IRS (it’s a one page form). The first document is called your Articles of Incorporation, or as it is better known in Delaware, your Certificate of Formation.

It can be

confusing, but these two names really mean the same thing for a Delaware corporation.

Figure 10 – Certificate of Formation for a Delaware LLC

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The second document you should draft is called your Operating Agreement which you will keep on file at your company office. This is a formality which outlines the structure of the company and its partners. You don’t need to submit it to anyone, but you should keep it on file to show you went through the correct procedure to establish your LLC. You can search www.google.com for “operating agreement llc” to get some operating agreement templates, and then modify them to your needs.3

Figure 11 – Sample Operating Agreement

Try www.formation-llc.com/operatingagreement.htm and

www.medlawplus.comforminfo/llc.htm

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Finally, as an optional step, you should obtain a DBA (doing business as) certificate for each county4 where you will be doing business. I say optional because if you are doing business under the same name you incorporated under, then this isn’t necessary.

But if you

incorporated under the name “Inter-Galactic Shoe Manufacturing Company LLC” and you decide to make your website something completely different, like “Brian’s Shoes”, then it would be a good idea to obtain a DBA.

Figure 12 – Example DBA form

Fill out the Articles of Incorporation to send to Delaware, the Operating Agreement to keep for your own records, and (optional) the DBA form for your local country clerk’s office, and you will be officially incorporated! 4

Note that DBA's are based on the county, not the country.

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MAKING SURE YOUR ASSETS ARE SAFE Getting your LLC set up is great first step. You can now take advantage of the tax breaks and rest easy knowing you have personal liability protection with regards to your business. But there are a few more steps you should take to cover all your bases. Unfortunately, just because you have an LLC doesn’t mean you are home free to do whatever you’d like. A few special cases exist where small business owners will not be shielded from personal liability, and as a budding entrepreneur it would be wise to know of them. Unfortunately, some people have tried to take advantage of the LLC’s limited liability status in the past, so the law has evolved to be more strict. A court can actually rule that your LLC no longer has liability protection if you aren’t careful. At that point the company will be regarded by the court as being the same as you (a sole proprietorship), instead of a separate entity. In legal jargon this is referred to as “piercing the corporate veil”. Your business is no longer separate, and your limited liability is gone! The following are a few reasons you could lose your status as an LLC. •

Your business engaged in fraud or some other criminal act.

•

You misrepresented corporate officers or members.

•

You failed to observe corporate formalities and keep records of important

documents

(operating

agreement,

incorporation, DBA, and financial records). •

Your business and personal assets were mixed together.

•

You treated business assets as if they were your own.

articles

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As you can see, if you plan on doing anything illegal, the LLC status will not protect you. What courts are most wary of are people who create the company as a façade to conceal some shady dealings. In these cases, you will not be protected. Therefore, to keep your status as an LLC you must follow all the rules, even if you aren’t doing anything illegal. This mean filing all the appropriate paperwork discussed above, and keeping all your finances separate (more detail on this below).

GETTING A BUSINESS BANK ACCOUNT AND CHARGE CARD Congratulations!

You now know the exact steps to get

incorporated and are well on your way. With each step, you will build more confidence and get closer to your goal! The next thing you should do is get a business bank account set up. There are a number of reasons for this: 1. To maintain your corporate status (and your liability protection), you need to keep your personal finances separate from your business finances. 2. Keeping them separate will make things much more clear when tax time comes. 3. It will help you keep track of your revenue, expenses, and profit throughout the year. Next you’ll need to select a bank.

Many banks today have

started offering free checking for personal accounts, and the same is starting to become true of business bank accounts. One that does (that I have been very happy with) is Washington Mutual. You can use them or if they aren’t available in your area, shop around and find a bank with

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free business checking and no annual fees. If you can’t find one, use an online bank. You don’t need a branch, especially if you are comfortable with deposit by mail5 and will primarily be doing electronic transactions (such as billing people’s credit cards on a website). See if the bank can give you a credit card (or even better, debit card, don’t let yourself be tempted to borrow money) for your business bank account. If the bank won’t give you one, get a business credit card from another bank.

This will be important for making purchases,

because when your use your business credit card it will automatically create a record of your business expenses. Avoid at all costs making purchases for your business on your personal credit card and then transferring the money over later.

You won’t remember, it looks

unprofessional, and it may get you in trouble legally. Get some free checks with your business name on it, open the account with an initial deposit from your personal account, and you are ready to go. You can record your initial deposit as your investment in the company on your operating agreement. You should also record this initial investment in a spreadsheet. This will help you build the habit of recording every single time money moves between your business account and your personal account. Remember, it is important to keep the two separate! Don’t just decide one day that your personal account is low on cash and it’s time to move some from the business account (or vice versus).

That is called a

paycheck, and is a business expense, and it is important to record it. I guarantee you that at the end of the year (tax time) you’ll be staring at your bank records wondering where that money went when it left your 5

This service is offered by all major banks today, and it just means you can send checks

to be deposited through the mail instead of walking into a branch.

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account. If you don’t know what it is, then you’ll have trouble classifying it as a business expense, and you might end up having to pay taxes on it. That would be money wasted for nothing! Remember, the best way to think about your business, is to imagine it is another person. It’s not “your money” in the business account to be freely taken out whenever you want; it’s the business’s money. You just decided to invest in the business. Taking it out without recording it would be like stealing from this “person”. In fact, they have a word for taking money out of a business without recording it. It’s called embezzlement, and it’s just as illegal as stealing. This point can be a bit confusing to first time business owners, which is why I stress it here. Always think of your business as a separate “person” because if you and that “person” become one and the same, then you are liable when someone sues the business. You want to keep them separate so if your business goes bankrupt or gets sued, the business absorbs the loss instead of you. Record all transactions by using a business credit/debit card for expenses and a spreadsheet for checks. When you are at business lunch, it’s easy to put it on the company card. You just got a free discount on lunch because you paid with pre-tax dollars and can expense 50% of the lunch.

Never assume you will

remember some detail of a transaction, no matter how small. When money is moving between your business and personal account, take special care to record it. These are your paychecks and expenses and should not be done on a whim. If you have partners, discuss it with them before ever transferring money. Set a salary for yourself (even if it’s very small at first) and pay yourself first. Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of saying “I’ll take whatever is left over at the end of the month”. This is a bad idea because it shows irregular transfers of money as compensation, and more

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importantly, there will often be nothing left for you at the end of the month!

By paying yourself on a regular basis and keeping careful

records, you are establishing good business practices from day one.

CREATE A WEBSITE Your business will most likely need a website presence. This will allow your customers to find you from all over the world and will give you a business email address (or many) for more professional communication. It is inexpensive to have a website these days, and will cost you about $5-$10 per month. Always pay an outside company to host your website for you, and don’t try to host it on your own computer or server. Register your website with a reputable hosting company (you can check BuyersVote.com for reviews) and you’ll be up and running in no time. To get the content of your business website created, you have a few options. If you fancy yourself a webmaster, then by all means go right ahead. With some fairly basic HTML skills you can actually create a decent website by looking at other web pages and finding things you like to copy (don’t copy it directly, but the look of it). For the rest of us who are less technical or don’t have the time to put together a great website, there are some other options.

The first option is to use a website

template from a site like www.templatemonster.com and then modify it. The second option is to outsource the creation of the website to someone

else

through

www.guru.com

and

www.elance.com.

Programmers from all over the world will help you create your site for a very small fee. Once you have your website created, here are some tools to help you optimize it and get some more traffic.

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•

193

Google Adwords This will instantly get traffic to your site by buying inexpensive text advertisements.

•

Google Analytics This will help you view your website traffic to see how people are finding your site, how many hits you are getting, and which pages are causing people to leave. It works with Google Adwords to show you measurable return on your advertising dollars.

•

Google Website Optimizer You can use this tool to optimize the layout of your pages and test different layouts; your sales conversions will go up dramatically.

PAYMENT SOLUTIONS Next, your customers will need a way to pay you. For most businesses today, and all those mentioned above, this means credit cards. Today it is easier to get a credit card payment solution set up than ever before. Think back to the “old fashioned” business model I discussed in Chapter 6. If you have a restaurant you need to accept cash, checks, and credit cards. Employees need to be trusted with cash registers (which are expensive) and a system needs to be put in place to catch employees that steal. Checks can bounce and never be paid. Accepting physical credit cards requires a terminal which you need to rent from the provider and you’ll have to buy rolls of thermal paper for it. All this means you are in for quite a hassle with the “old fashioned” model! Luckily, you are starting a business the smart way, which means most likely the only thing you’ll need is the ability to accept credit cards on the internet.

For this service you will pay about 2% of each

transaction plus $0.20 to the credit card processing companies. This is the fee for offering your customers convenient payment options. This

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money also covers the credit card processing companies’ risk. Credit card fraud in its various forms (identity theft, chargeback’s, etc) make it an expensive business. It is worth the 2% and really you have no other choice. When getting credit card processing set up, there are a couple options which range from basic and inexpensive to professional and more expensive. Google Checkout6 is the best basic option in my opinion. You may also want to check out Paypal7, which at the time of this writing offers a few more features, but their customer service and user interface aren’t as good. Either will allow you to create “buy it now” buttons that customers can click to buy an item on your website and it will also integrate with more complex shopping carts8. It is “basic” however because it always requires the customer to leave your website to actually pay (the address bar in the browser will show they have left your website). Once they are done the customer is returned to your website. This is usually an indication to your customers that you are a small company who hasn’t set up a more professional solution. Does it really matter? It’s is tough to say, but usually not. Some entrepreneurs try to hide the fact they are a small company because they think customer’s won’t trust them or be impressed. I believe this is a mistake. For one thing, most customers are intelligent and will figure it out anyway. But you should also be proud of being a small company, and use it to your 6

checkout.google.com

www.paypal.com

A “shopping cart” on a website is analogous to a shopping cart at the grocery store. As

you find items you want to buy, you place them in the virtual “cart” and go to checkout when you’re done. It’s simply a container to hold everything you want to buy.

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advantage by highlighting the benefits to the customer (lower overhead means lower price, personalized support, etc). The true benefit to using a “basic” payment solution such as this is that all the hard work is done for you. There is little or no programming involved, and all the technical stuff is done for you. It will cost 2% of each transaction plus $0.20, but there is no monthly fee. The more professional solution is to use a company such as Authorize.net9 with a custom shopping cart on your website. You’ll have to hire a website designer to put this together for you. There will be monthly fees of about $30 in addition to the 2% plus $0.20, but now you will have the customer stay on your website the entire time, and a cleaner look is possible. Beware that to program a system such as this yourself requires some serious technical background. It’s better to hire an outside firm (see www.guru.com and www.elance.com) if you have any doubts. Even if you are a programmer, it might not be the best use of your time to spend the next month fixing problems in your shopping cart unless you are on a shoe string budget. Something that is important to remember when designing your shopping cart is the user interface (technical term for how the customer interacts with it). A large percent of customers on the internet are ready and willing to buy a product but simply give up because the checkout process is confusing or annoying. If at all possible, don’t force your customers to create an account, choose a password, or enter any information that isn’t absolutely necessary. Use Google Analytics to track the pages of the shopping cart and see where people are abandoning the checkout process. 9

www.authorize.net

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EMPLOYEES VS. INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS You aren’t supposed to be hiring employees! At least I hope you aren’t. But I know some people will ignore my advice or get themselves into a situation where they need other people. If that ends up being the case, it’s important to know the difference between employees and independent contractors. Employees work for you full time and come with all sorts of headaches like deducting taxes from their paychecks, offering benefits, and calculating vacation days. Independent contractors are people that work for you on a specific job, part time. They don’t require you to offer any benefits, take taxes out of their paycheck, or worry about salaries and vacation days. If you can, hire independent contractors instead of employees whenever possible. It is far less of a headache. Legally, you will have to take certain steps to make sure you don’t cross the line into employees, or the courts may argue your independent contractors were actually employed! Make sure none of your company literature uses the term “employee”, that your independent contractors are told they are independent contractors, and that they sign documents accordingly. Also, independent contractors are given a larger degree of control over the work they do compared to their employee counterparts. Keep them separate, and avoid hiring employees.

TAXES As I stated earlier, the IRS has an incredible ability to write documents that make no sense. Don’t feel bad if it’s confusing. I know people who have a degree in accounting (CPAs) and even they still get

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confused. That being said, taxes should not be feared, and you’ll be able to do them yourself (at least in the initial stages of your company, later you can outsource it). Your best friend will be Turbo Tax Business from Intuit10. This piece of software will help you walk through the steps and hold your hand through the tricky parts. You’ll also be entering all your data on a computer instead of writing by hand, which will save you plenty of time. Keep accurate records throughout the year and back them up regularly. When it comes to tax time, just buckle down and do it in a weekend. Remember to deduct as many of your business expenses as you can (it will be easy since you’ve been tracking them on your business credit/debit card). Tax accountants would kill me for saying this, but if you aren’t sure what something is, just skip it and keep going. It most likely doesn’t apply to you. Despite what they say, the goal of taxes is to get “close enough”. It is more of an art than a science. Sometimes magazines will review tax preparation companies by sending them each identical financial statements from a fictitious company. It’s rare for any two tax returns to come back the same. If that’s how the big guys operate, then you can afford to get “close enough”. Just don’t get greedy and try to cheat. Only about 0.5% of new businesses get audited, but even with those odds it’s not worth risking jail time and fines.

WRAPPING IT UP You now have all the technical knowledge at your fingertips to get a business off the ground. Even if something isn’t 100% clear, just go ahead. You can figure it out as you go, and action is the best teacher. 10

turbotax.intuit.com - to be clear, I don’t think this software is particularly good, but it’s

the best I’ve found so far, and is certainly better than doing it on your own

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Remember to â&#x20AC;&#x153;ready, fire, armâ&#x20AC;?. You can also get questions answered by other

readers

the

discussion

forum

our

website

www.startbreakingfree.com. Take a moment to look back at the chapter. Was starting a business anywhere near as expensive as you thought? A few hundred for the LLC setup was the main expense. Website hosting at $5-$10 per month, a DBA for maybe $10 (if you even need it), basic credit card processing with zero up front costs, and a free business checking account are all very easy on the wallet. Do one per day for a week and you will have your own business! My hope is that by putting this process in plain English, more people will take the first step toward working for themselves.

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CHAPTER 7 EXERCISES This section will be a mini quiz instead of the usual exercises. Answers are on the next page, when you’re done. 1. What are the two main reasons/advantages of incorporating? 2. Does incorporating protect you from 100% of liability? 3. What is the best way to decide on a company name? 4. How should you check to see if your company name is available? 5. A “social security number” for your business is called a [blank]? 6. Why should you incorporate as an LLC as opposed to any other type of business (sole proprietor ship, partnership, or corporation)? 7. What state should you incorporate in and why? 8. Why should you get a separate business bank account for your business? 9. Is the money in your business bank account yours? 10. What is the best way to keep track of business expenses? 11. How much will it cost to get basic credit card processing set up on your company website? 12. What is the difference between an employee and an independent contractor? Please turn to the next page when you are done to check your answers.

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CHAPTER 7 EXERCISE ANSWERS •

Your liability is limited (they can’t go after your personal assets) and there are tax advantages.

•

No. You can still be personally liable if you do something illegal or fail to follow proper procedure when establishing your LLC. This is why you should maintain separate financial records and go through formalities such as creating your Operating Agreement.

•

Brainstorming

•

See if the domain name is available at www.godaddy.com, see if the trademark is available at the U.S. Patents and Trademark Office website, and check with your local County Clerk’s Office to see if someone else is already “doing business as” (DBA) your desired name.

•

Employer Identification Number

•

LLC’s are designed for small business owners like you. They offer the limited liability protection not found in sole proprietorships and partnerships without the increased paperwork of a full corporation.

•

Delaware. Zero business sales and income tax. Fifty percent of all U.S. companies are incorporated there.

Their court system is

favorable to business owners should you ever need to go to court. You don’t need an office there; you will have a registered agent as

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your proxy. •

This will help keep your financial records separate (which is necessary to keep your LLC status) and it will be immensely helpful keeping everything straight at tax time.

•

No. It is the business’s money. Remember to think about your business like it is another person. Money should not be transferred back and forth with the business as if it’s another of your personal accounts. Instead you should pay yourself a regular salary and record all such transactions in a spreadsheet.

•

A business credit card or debit card.

Record all other business

expenses not on the card in a spreadsheet. •

About 2% of each transaction plus $0.20 for a basic setup.

•

Employees require more work on your part because there are more laws to deal with (taking out taxes, benefits, sick days, etc). Independent contractors are a much simpler (and therefore cheaper) way to involve others in your business if you must.

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CHAPTER 7 SUMMARY •

The actual steps to starting a business is only about 20% of the success equation.

•

80% of your success comes from the “inner game” discussed in other chapters.

•

Overcoming self doubt

Confidence

Peer group

Habits of learning

Motivation

You should incorporate because. o

It shields you from liability. 

Your personal assets are safe.



To maintain this status you must follow all corporate formalities and keep business finances separate from your own.

It offers tax advantages. 

•

You pay for company expenses with pre-tax dollars.

Select a company name by brainstorming. o

List words using free association.

Combine words into potential names. 

Don’t evaluate any and don’t stop till you have at least twenty written.

Check the name’s availability (domain, trademark, and DBA).

•

Get an Employer Identification Number from the Internal Revenue Service.

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The IRS will use this number to track the taxes of your business, like a social security number for an individual.

•

Incorporate as an LLC. o

It offers the best combination of easy paperwork, and limited liability.

Incorporate in Delaware. 

No business sales or income tax.



Favorable courts for businesses.

Use an incorporation service online to get setup quickly and inexpensively. 

•

Use a registered agent in Delaware.

Get a business bank account with free checking. o

This will help establish your LLC and improve record keeping for taxes.

Use a business credit or debit card to keep track of business expenses.

•

Pay someone to host your website, and possibly to design it if you don’t have the time or technical skills.

•

Choose a payment solution, basic or professional, depending on your budget and needs.

•

If you must hire others, make them independent contractors when possible, instead of employees. Try not to hire anyone at all (see Chapter Six).

•

Use TurboTax to do your own taxes. Keep track of expenses.

Chapter 8 Develop a Plan for Action! – Making it Stick "If you talk about it, it's a dream. If you envision it, it's possible. But if you schedule it, it's real." - Anthony Robbins

ave you ever heard the term “conference high”? Many people experience it after attending a conference,

reading a book, or having a powerful learning experience. They get excited about the ideas they’ve just heard or read, they talk to other like minded people who fuel their enthusiasm, and they leave on a great “high” feeling as though they can conquer the world! But the feeling is only temporary for them. They’ve had a long day, so they get home to think it over and get to bed early for work the next day. Their head is filled with great plans as they drift off to sleep, and the next day it’s off to work for a full Monday morning. Problems pile up and need to be solved at work, and soon they are immersed in their daily routine. By the time they get home, they are exhausted and decide to put off their great plan for tomorrow when they have more energy. The next day it’s their

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kid’s soccer game and they can’t miss that. The day after they take a break to watch their favorite TV show because “they’ve earned it”. Pretty soon a week has gone by and their great plans aren’t quite as exciting. “I’ll still do it when I have more time” they tell themselves, but they never get started.

After a month they will think back on the

conference or book in passing and recall how excited they were, but they won’t be able to quite remember why. The moment has passed, the “high” has ended, and they eventually move back to their old life with absolutely nothing changing.. What a sad story, yet it happens all the time. I’ve done it. You probably have at some point. The purpose of this chapter will be to make sure it doesn’t happen again. I’m going to share with you several ways to stay on track and make sure your dreams become reality. We’ll cover some specific ways to implement constant positive reinforcement into your life, some productivity and time management techniques, and we’ll finish with a written plan for the future. By the time you finish with this chapter, you will have a written step-by-step plan for quitting your job and starting your own business.

CONSTANT POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT As creatures of habit, we are stuck in our ways.

Shad

Helmstetter had a great analogy in his book, What to Say When You Talk to Yourself, which helps illustrate this idea. He told a story comparing all the old beliefs and limiting ideas in your head to a house filled with dusty old furniture. Let’s say you decided to clean out the house, and put some new beliefs into your head. I could come in to help you clean out the house and we would spend all day moving tired old couches, creaky

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chairs, and dim lights into the garage. At the end of the day, you’d be sweaty and tired, but happy to see a beautifully cleaned out house. It would look so neat and tidy with all the junk gone and you’d feel a great sense of freedom! But as the evening came, you’d need a chair to sit on and would retrieve one from the garage. You’d be hungry after a long day’s work and would eventually have to bring the table in for one last meal. After your meal you’d be awfully sleepy and might retrieve a mattress to sleep the night. Slowly but surely the house would fill back up with your old furniture, because I didn’t give you anything new to replace the old. You see, we can spend all day eliminating your old ideas, but if we don’t replace them with new ones, the old ones will eventually return! Constant positive reinforcement is not just nice to have, it is required. I’m going to show you some ways to bring this reinforcement into your daily routine that will give you incredible strength (and a new set of furniture) over time. If we don’t continually feed great ideas into our head, the old habits will come back, and our “conference high” will fade. Here are some great ways to keep learning after you have finished reading this book. •

Subscribe to Business 2.0 This is the best business magazine available today and many top entrepreneurs I know read it religiously. Every time I read it I get inspired and filled with new ideas.

•

Surround Yourself with Like-Minded People As I mentioned earlier, you are who you hang out with, period. Your mother was right all this time. Make a commitment to find at least three people who are either successful entrepreneurs or want to

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become one. The people who constantly complain about how much they hate their jobs don’t count. Find someone who has already started a business and has demonstrated their commitment with action. You will find these people by going to entrepreneurship related events and locations (small business association classes, Toastmasters meetings, coffee shops near business schools, etc). Build your network, and they will build you. •

Start Listening to Audio Books in Your Car Today As I stated earlier, this is one of the most effective ways to build constant positive reinforcement into your life. You have to drive, so you might as well make it productive. I can’t tell you how many times I have been sitting in rush hour traffic with angry frustrated people honking and cursing all around me while I sit there thinking how great it is to get some more of my book finished! As Brian Tracy says, if you aren’t listening to books on tape in your car, you quite simply aren’t serious about becoming successful.

•

Spend a Moment to Focus on Your Goals Each Day We become what we spend most of our time thinking about. If you spend most of your time thinking about how you are too dumb, poor, or busy to work for yourself, then that will become your reality.

If you spend most of your time thinking about how

successful you will be working for yourself, then it will become reality. It sounds simplistic, but the truth often is. Personally, I like to use the time I spend brushing my teeth and showering each morning to review my goals. I repeat my goals over and over to myself in my head, visualizing the outcome I want to achieve and reviewing a list of things that I’m thankful for. A typical session

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might sound something like (in my head, or out loud): “Wow, it’s so great I didn’t have to go to work today, I’m certainly thankful for that, I got to sleep in an extra hour because I work from home and don’t commute through rush hour traffic, haha!

I’m

thankful that the project milestone got finished this week and my marketing campaign worked out so well. I also have been getting in great shape. Now that I think about it, I’m pretty amazing! I’m so thankful that I’m in this unique position and have so much potential. Let’s see, what do I want to do today....well, I’m going to finish that proposal first because it’s the most important to achieving my income goal this year. I’ll make time to go to the gym. And I’m going to read that report I’ve been meaning to get to. I’ve achieved so much, I feel great!” Does that sound pretty silly? Try it for six months and tell me if you still think so! You can be your own best motivator and coach every single morning.

For more information read Shad Helmstetter’s,

What to Say When You Talk to Yourself.

THE EMERGENCY MOTIVATOR This page is like the fire alarm! In case of emergencies, break glass, open up the book to this page, and read it for a quick boost. I’d suggest book marking it now by folding the corner of the page. Are you experiencing some self doubt? As entrepreneurs we all do, and we can’t let it stop us. Usually the moment you are about ready to quit is just before success comes! Believe me, I have been there myself. I was so close to quitting at times, I’d have my exit strategy

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totally planned. I knew how much I could liquidate all the business assets for and had pondered what paperwork would need to be filed to officially close shop. Then I’d wake up the next morning and slap myself in the face and renew my determination! You will need someone there to coach you through the tough times of self doubt, whether it is yourself, an audio program, a book, this page, your peer group, or an actual coach. "Most people give up just when they're about to achieve success. They quit on the one yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game, one foot from a winning touchdown." - H. Ross Perot Moreover, you must realize that failure is a good thing. Failure is a good thing because it is the most valuable learning experience you could possibly have. The lesson you get from most “failures” is worth far more than the time or money lost in the actual “failure”. Does this mean you should try to fail? No. But it does mean if you give up and quit then you’ll miss out on the most valuable lessons of your life! Each failure brings you closer and closer to success. Seasoned entrepreneurs don’t fear failure. They know setbacks will come up in every project they undertake. It is as sure as death and taxes. So instead they chose to look forward to setbacks. They are the most wonderful opportunities to learn. “Success is the ability to move from one failure to the next with enthusiasm.” - Winston Churchill

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"Success is measured by how far you bounce back after hitting bottom" - General George S. Patton Think about your self doubt as if it’s a little creature sitting on your shoulder. Picture it in your mind and give it a name. He speaks with the little voice in your head that says things like “This will never work”, “What a waste of your time”, “Who are you kidding”, and “Everyone will laugh when this doesn’t work”. Every time he speaks up, imagine him there on your shoulder. Acknowledge what he says, and tell him “Thank you for sharing”. Then punch him right in the face, send him flying off your shoulder, and get back to work!

Figure 13 – The Self Doubt Creature

People who fail focus on the worst possible outcome, listening to their self doubt creature. They stay in the “safety” of their jobs out of fear and a lack of confidence. Winners acknowledge the self doubt creature, and thank him for sharing, then ignore his advice and send him flying!

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BE PERSISTENT, NOT STUBBORN While keeping the mentality of never giving up, keep in mind that this does not mean to be stubborn. What is the difference? A person who is persistent has a goal in mind and will do anything to achieve it. If they try one way and it doesn’t work, they try another and another until it finally works.

A stubborn person will

arrogantly think they have the perfect solution the first time. With blind faith, they will continue to try the same method over and over even when it isn’t working. The definition of insanity is repeating the same action over and over while expecting a different result. Smart people especially tend to have a problem with this because they have been right their entire lives. Things have come easily to them, and they’ve developed the hubris of being very confident in their ideas. When it comes to business (or any area they aren’t as familiar with) they will use the same approach of assuming they know better than everyone else. It has worked for them their entire life, so why not now? Even when the results are poor, they will convince others they were right. They will even convince themselves that they were right. A stubborn leader can drive the company into the ground if left unchecked. Instead, take a flexible approach to reaching your goals. Be firmly committed to achieve your desired result no matter what. But be flexible to try different approaches until you find one that works. When you quit your job and start to work for yourself, you’ll have to become your own boss. Many people find this to be a tough transition because they no longer have to do anything. They may start sleeping in late, wasting time, or spend all day “working” on tasks that have little value.

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There are many fine books written on this subject and I suggest you read (or listen to) as many as you can get your hands on. Three in particular that I enjoyed are Getting Things Done by David Allen, No BS Time Management For Entrepreneurs by Dan Kennedy, Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy, and The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. I will give you a head start however with a crash course in time management right here. 1. All successful people think on paper.

The very act of writing

something drastically increases the chances it will get done. 2. When you remember something you need to do, it must be written right away. Don’t assume you’ll remember it later. Many people prefer to keep an “inbox” of tasks to be done that they prioritize later. 3. Work each day from a written to-do list. Write it the night before by brainstorming everything you’d like to get done the next day. Circle the top three most important things you’d like to get done that would make it a productive day. Then mark the most important one with a star.

While you sleep your subconscious mind will be

pondering your most important task for the next day. 4. When you get up, go straight to work on your most important task. Do this before you do anything else, like checking your email, voicemail, or casual reading. Often your most important task will also be the most difficult. Getting it done first, while your mind is freshest, will give you an unstoppable feeling of confidence throughout the rest of the day. 5. Never do a quick and easy task “just to get it out of the way” while there are more important items on your to-do list. Our brain loves

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to creatively avoid hard work. Force yourself to complete your top three items before finishing anything else on your to-do list. 6. Just as you write a to-do list before the end of each day, take a moment at the beginning of each week, month, and year to write a to-do list. Simply ask yourself the question, “What would I have to get done this week/month/year for me to be happy?” Put the lists on your wall or somewhere you will see them often. As you are writing your to-do lists for the next day, glance at your “bigger picture” lists to see if your day to day work is moving you toward your bigger goals. 7. Have you ever spent the whole day working only to reach the end wondering, what did I get done? Each day we are bombarded with tasks that fall into one of four categories. Not

Urgent Not Urgent

Important

Figure 14 - Urgency and Importance Matrix. Where do you spend your time?

Whether you are productive or not depends on where you spend your time. Successful people spend most of their time in quadrants 1 and 3, while unsuccessful people spend their time in quadrant’s 2 and 4. Answering telephone calls (2), browsing emails (2), and surfing the internet (4) are not important but take up most of our day. When something important becomes very urgent, we will finish it at the last minute (1), but successful people on the other hand spend

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more time than anyone else in quadrant 3. They work on important tasks with long term benefits such as building client lists, reading in their industry, and building new products. They do it first thing in the morning before any other tasks can come along to distract them. 8. Close your door, turn off instant messaging programs, unhook your phone, and close your email program during scheduled long periods of uninterrupted work each day. Every time our thought process is interrupted by a well meaning coworker asking if we have a minute or we pick up a ringing phone, it will take several minutes to get back into what we were working on. Each time, these few minutes to get “into” and “out of” the zone add up over the day to hours of lost work. Technologies like instant messaging, email, and cell phones have done wonders to improve business communications, but these great tools can destroy your productivity if you let them. Set aside part of every day to do uninterrupted work with your phone, email, and instant messenger turned off. 9. Any items left on your to-do list at the end of the day can be moved to the next day. Any item you move more than three times should be either removed entirely or delegated. It wasn’t that important in the first place. You can implement the above to-do list and inbox in any method you prefer. The technology geeks out there (like myself) may be tempted to use a handheld computer, spreadsheet, website, or some other high tech solution.

However, after trying various high tech

solutions, I have to say that old fashioned paper and pen has been the best solution for me. I just use yellow legal pads and two pens with different colored ink. There is something about the very act of writing it and putting a big line through it that gives a satisfying sense of

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completion. Brainstorming and writing goals on paper has been shown to be more effective on paper. The reasons behind it are not entirely clear. The main technology that I do use is a calendar system (Google Calendar1) which complements the paper to-do list. In this case I think technology wins out because I can schedule recurring appointments in one action, drag and drop to reschedule, and get text message meeting reminders sent to my cell phone whether I’m near my desk or not. In the end, use whatever is easiest for you and helps you get more things done!

HOW TO WRITE GOALS When setting your goals for the week, month, or year, it’s worthwhile to follow a particular format that many great minds have written about over the years. First of all, your goals must be written down. A goal that is in your head is nothing more than an idea. Writing it will crystallize the goal and make you far more likely to accomplish it. All written goals should be in the present tense, positive, and personal. As you write them and repeat them to yourself, your subconscious mind will begin to believe it, and they will become true. •

Present The subconscious mind can only understand the present moment in time. So instead of saying “I’m going to start a business” or “I will start a business” say “I am starting a business”.

•

Positive You should always reaffirm positive beliefs about yourself. Instead

calendar.google.com

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of saying “I don’t make bad investments” write “I make good investments with a high rate of return”. •

Personal You can’t change others, but you can change yourself. Instead of writing “My boss will transform into a nicer person” try “I will perform better at work and get along with my boss”. Each time you write your goals, take a minute to evaluate them.

Was that a positive belief about myself that I just wrote? Am I trying to change something outside my control or am I focusing on myself? Am I talking about the future here or did I phrase it in the present tense? A goal that starts off as “I will try to....” is doomed from the start. In fact, I cringe every time I hear someone say “I should really get to the gym more often” or “I’m trying to start a company right now”. The very act of writing “try” or “should” indicates a lack of commitment and a high probability of failure. Either you are starting a company right now, or you probably never will. A good goal has two other properties; it is measurable and has a deadline. This is where many people drop the ball, even big time company CEO’s! Writing a goal that isn’t measurable has one major problem: you can’t tell whether you’ve reached it or not. Finally, you must have a deadline to create a sense of urgency. Without a deadline you may complete your goal, but it won’t be nearly as soon as you’d like. •

Measurable Instead of writing “This year I earn more money” try “This year I earn $100,000”. If your goal isn’t measurable then you won’t be able to determine if you achieved it or how close you are.

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Deadline Instead of “I sell 1000 widgets” try “I sell 1000 widgets by June 1st this year”. This provides a sense of urgency and a timeline to follow. One final tip about goal setting has had a profound effect on my

life2. How often have you been working toward a goal, had moderate success, and quit part way through the process? It happens to all of us at some point. It’s fun to make progress and improve every day. We get excited and a sense of accomplishment! But when we are about 75% of the way toward completing the goal, the end is in sight. We’ve gotten this far, and we know we’re going to make it. Suddenly it’s not so fun anymore. The challenge is gone and we know there isn’t much more left to do. We’ve been having fun making all this progress, and we know it’s about to end.

This is the point when we subconsciously sabotage

ourselves so that we can keep having fun. We are no longer motivated and we slip back down the slope of progress only to experience the fun of going up again! (The brain sure works in funny ways, doesn’t it!) 2

I first learned of this from a success coach named Linda Starr.

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100% (boredom, unmotivated, sad)

Progress

75%

(excited, motivated, inspired!)

Time Figure 15 When you reach 75% of your goal, double it! Avoid the danger area of boredom, low motivation, and self sabotage.

The irony of setting goals is that you should never actually reach them! Instead, when you reach 75% of your goal, set a new target even higher. A good new goal to set is double what you were aiming for. The paradox of success is that many people who reach their goal feel depressed or sad. The fun part of success is the ride up, not actually reaching the top. Therefore, instead of actually reaching your goal (or what is more likely, getting close only to experience a lack of motivation or self sabotage) set a new goal when you are 75% of the way there. In this way, you will continue to grow without ever actually reaching one of your goals.

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SET A SCHEDULE Congratulations for getting this far! You’ve done what other people were unwilling to do. You recognized that you wanted to make a change, picked up a book for more information, and went through it. You now know more than 95% of people about how to start a business. You also know the biggest secret of all: it can be done with less money and risk than most people realize. Are you ready to take the next step? Only you can make the decision. If you are still unsure you may want to go back and re-read Chapter 2. Becoming self employed isn’t for everyone and isn’t without risk, but for those who commit to it and find passion in working for themselves, it can be one of the best decisions of their life. You could read this entire book, do the exercises, and learn lots, but if you don’t take action it was merely entertainment. The time to act is now. If you are ready to proceed down this path, it’s time to commit by scheduling the next steps. As Anthony Robbins says: “If you talk about it, it's a dream. If you envision it, it's possible. But if you schedule it, it's real.” As the final exercises in this book, go with me through the following pages to set a date next to each action you’ll need to take. At the end you will sign your name to show your commitment, so think carefully about your answers.

If this seems silly, please still try it.

Remember, I thought it was silly too, but when I started writing my goals, they started getting done. I can’t explain why it works, but I know it has worked for myself and many others. What do you have to lose?

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BREAKING FREE PROMISE I will make three friends who are supportive and interested in starting a business by ___________________. I will get three audio programs or books to start my life of ongoing learning by ___________________. I will select one other idea for constant positive reinforcement from this book and implement it by ___________________. I commit to starting the transition into quitting my job now. I will (1) work nights and weekends on my new business, (2) get a different job with more flexible hours, or (3) save enough money to live for six months without income (circle one) by _____________. I commit to deciding on my first business to start by ___________________.

It will have low up front investment,

require zero employees, have good economies of scale, contribute to the world, and fit into my life’s purpose. I will have an Employer Identification Number, business bank account, and be incorporated as an LLC by ___________________. I will quit the job that requires me to spend one third of my life doing something I don’t love by ___________________! I commit to not letting excuses in my mind turn into legitimate reasons. I commit to telling my self doubt creature “thank you for sharing”, and then continuing my work. I commit to focusing on what I want each day, not the things I don’t want. Signed: ______________________________ Date: ________________

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Congratulations!

Napoleon Hill once wrote that “What the

mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve." You’ve just taken a major step toward achieving. The very act of writing what you want puts you in the top 1% of all adults in the United States. Please take a moment to cut The Breaking Free Promise out of the book (or print it if you have an electronic copy). Put it on the wall in your (home) office, or next to the bathroom mirror where you will see it every day. You’ve created a roadmap for your own success and you will be getting closer and closer every day. As creatures of habit it is so easy to fall back into our old ways, after the “conference high” has faded.

Seeing your written

commitment each day will help turn the tides in your favor, as your old habits slowly fade and are replaced by new ones. As we reach the end of this book, I’d like to leave you with a final thought. Hardly a week goes by that I don’t run into an old friend who I haven’t seen in a while. Inevitably the topic of work comes up as we catch up on lost time together. I am always amazed by the number of people who tell me how unsatisfied they are with their current job. It seems almost everyone these days is casually in the market looking for a new job, deciding between offers based on who pays more, considering going back to school, or vying for another position in the same company. Most people don’t hate their jobs, but they certainly do not love their jobs. After all, how many people do you know who look forward to Monday mornings? Yet, they have grown to accept it. Somehow, the idea that work shouldn’t be fun has spread throughout our society like a terrible virus. People assume the eight hours a day you spend working is a required hardship for a normal life. We hear remarks all the time about how “My job isn’t so bad”, “At least it has good benefits”, and “Nobody likes their job all the time”. People compare themselves to others with even worse jobs to make themselves feel superior.

Develop a Plan for Action! – Making it Stick

223

Why do we accept such levels of mediocrity for ourselves? The answer is fear. When it comes time to decide between a steady paycheck and betting the farm on yourself, most people take the “safe” route. I did. I took the steady paycheck (for a period of time) because I was afraid. I was afraid that if I failed in my own business, people would think I was a fool. I was afraid because I thought maybe I didn’t know enough. I was afraid because I didn’t want to temporarily take a pay cut and give up my standard of living in the short term. I was afraid that my friends (and the opposite sex) might think I was unemployed and a loser. I was afraid of what my parents would think. But one thing scared me more than anything else: waking up in 20 years to discover I hadn’t lived the life I wanted. What would it feel like to know that you never did what you wanted because you were scared? That was the scariest thing of all. Of all the things I wanted, working for myself was the way to get there. I wanted to achieve financial success most people only dream of, to change the world for the better and leave my mark, to wake up every day excited about my work, and most of all I wanted complete freedom in my life. I finally decided it would be better to do my best and fail than to never know. So I took the plunge. There were ups and downs but it turned out to be the best decision of my life to date, and I almost didn’t make it. Nothing I did was special or unique. Anyone can do it. It is my sincere hope that you are one of the people who doesn’t play it safe, who follows their path to self-employment, and reaps the rewards through an incredible life. Get started today! Go out now and do the first item on your schedule. I wish you all the best!

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Breaking Free

CHAPTER 8 SUMMARY •

A “conference high” follows a powerful learning experience, but quickly fades.

•

Constant positive reinforcement is the best way to make sure that what you’ve learned stays with you. o

We can clear out the furniture of your mind, but if we don’t replace it with new furniture, the old will return.

We are creatures of habit.

Subscribe to Business 2.0.

Surround yourself with positive people and build a peer group.

Listen to audio books in your car.

Spend a moment to focus on your goals each day. Build it into your daily routine such as when you are showering or brushing your teeth.

•

Use the emergency motivator when self doubt is becoming too strong.

•

When the self doubt creature rears it’d ugly head, thank it for sharing and punch it off your shoulder.

•

Be persistent yet flexible by trying many approaches, not stubborn.

•

Study time management to be more productive.

•

Work from written to-do lists.

Spend more time on tasks that are important and not urgent.

Write goals that are in the present, positive, and personal. Make them measurable and give them a deadline.

•

When you’ve reached 75% of your goal, double it. We tend to selfsabotage when the end is in sight.

Develop a Plan for Action! – Making it Stick

•

225

Follow the Breaking Free promise by putting it on your wall where you will see it every day.

•

Don’t let fear prevent you from living the life you’ve always dreamed of!

Afterword

Now that you’ve read the book. Here are a few ideas to help keep you going! •

Join us on the web at www.startbreakingfree.com Here you can get your questions answered, discuss with other readers of Breaking Free, and find additional resources. Would you like to meet other budding entrepreneurs as part of your constant positive reinforcement? On our website you can link up with other reader. Just meeting a few people and staying in touch can do wonders to help keep you on track. You should also sign up for the RSS or email newsletter on our website. Once or twice a week we make posts there to keep the “conference high” going.

They could be reminders of material

covered in this book, inspiring success stories, or new ideas that weren’t available at the time the book was published. What better way to build constant positive reinforcement into your life? •

Teach this to someone else Some time in the next week, take something interesting you learned from this book and teach it to someone else! Numerous studies have shown that teaching a subject is the best way to learn it and

228

Breaking Free

internalize it. Moreover, tell someone else about this book if it has inspired you. Have them sign up for the free newsletter on our website to get them started, give them your copy to read, or send them their own. The more friends you have with the right mindset, the better shape you will be in. If you give someone a gift that changes their life for the better, they will be eternally grateful, and youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll help yourself in the process. â&#x20AC;˘

Please Send us your feedback All comments, questions, and media inquiries can be sent to: feedback@startbreakingfree.com Finally, if this book helped you out in anyway, please let me know! It made the book worth writing every time I hear from someone whose life it has changed. I look forward to hearing from you too, and I wish you all the best!

Sincerely,

Brian Armstrong brian@startbreakingfree.com

Recommended Resources •

1and1.com An excellent place to host your business website.

•

Amazon.com An easy place to purchase books. Each time you see a book you’d like to read, add it to your cart. Wait until you have at least $25 worth before purchasing and you’ll never pay for shipping.

•

Authorize.net A good service to accept credit cards on your business website.

•

Basecamphq.com An excellent product by 37Signals. Use it to collaborate with others, and learn from it as a great business model.

•

Blogger.com Get started as a writer in just a few minutes by creating a blog. Drop dead simple to use.

•

Breakthrough Rapid Reading - Peter Kump Do the half hour exercises in this book every day for a month, and you can double your reading (and comprehension) rate.

•

Business 2.0 The best business and entrepreneurship magazine available today.

•

Delawareinc.com Quickly incorporate your business in Delaware and get setup with a registered agent.

•

Eker, T. Harv Read or listen to his programs such as the Millionaire Mind. Highly recommended.

230

•

Breaking Free

eHow.com An excellent resource of “how to” articles on all topics.

•

eLance.com Use this website to outsource work, instead of hiring employees.

•

Getting Real An excellent book by the people at 37Signals on how to start a business (and how to design great software).

•

Getting Things Done - David Allen A good read to improve your productivity in your home office.

•

Good to Great - Jim Collins One of the best business books of all time.

•

Google Search, Adwords, Website Optimizer, Analytics, and Checkout You should be using Google as a resource every day. The tools they provide are second to none for your business websites.

•

Guru.com Another excellent website to outsource work.

•

ING Direct They offer one of the highest yielding savings accounts today. Start saving for your entrepreneurship fund here.

•

Logoyes.com Quickly and easily design a logo for your business.

•

Lulu.com Excellent resource to self-publish information products at a low price.

•

Millionaire Next Door, The - Thomas Stanley and William Danko This book will change the way you think about success and money. Excellent read.

Recommended Resources

•

231

Networking With Millionaires - Thomas Stanley Networking and word of mouth marketing are among the best ways to grow your business. A great read on the subject.

•

No BS Time Management For Entrepreneurs - Dan Kennedy Read this and you will get more done in every day as your own boss.

•

Paypal.com A good alternative to Google Checkout.

•

Rich Dad Poor Dad and Cash Flow Quadrant - Robert Kiyosaki Robert Kiyosaki’s books are inspiring and are a great addition to your constant positive reinforcement reading.

•

Robbins, Tony Tony is the ultimate success coach. Read and listen to his books as soon as you can.

•

Self-Publishing Manual, The - Dan Poynter A great resource for writers and information product creators.

•

Skype.com A great tool for operating your business with low expenses. Very inexpensive international calls, video conferencing, etc.

•

Starr, Linda An exceptional coach based in Houston, TX who taught me the “75% rule” (see Starr, Linda in index).

•

TemplateMonster.com An inexpensive way to get a professional business website put together quickly.

•

The Inmates Are Running the Asylum - Alan Cooper A great read about how poorly software is designed, and how you can make it better in your own business.

232

•

Breaking Free

The Secret An inspiring video to help you stay positive and bring what you want into your life. It can be viewed at www.thesecret.tv.

•

Toastmasters.org An outstanding organization to help improve your public speaking, confidence, and management skills.

Also a great networking

opportunity. Highly recommended to improve your abilities as an entrepreneur. •

Tracy, Brian One of my favorite success authors. His The Psychology of Achievement is a must read (or buy as an audio program). His other programs on time management are also exceptional.

•

TurboTax Generally, I don’t like this product, but I recommend it because it’s the best thing I’ve found so far for doing your business taxes.

•

Washington Mutual A good place to get your business bank account set up with free business checking.

•

Way of the Superior Man, The - David Deida An excellent book about purpose and following your path in life to achieve greatness. Can be read by both sexes.

•

What to Say When You Talk To Yourself - Shad Helmstetter A classic book on how negative we are when talking to ourselves, and how changing this will lead to great success in life.

•

Wikipedia The best and most thorough encyclopedia every created. indispensable resource.

Index 37Signals, 164

bartending, 84

accountants, 200

Basecamp, 142

action, 9, 18, 28, 36, 37, 62, 68,

beliefs, 67, 93, 208

93, 101, 118, 124, 207, 210, 218, 222

negative, 93 benefits, 144, 199

admiration, 121

Blockbuster, 168

affiliates, 157, 160

blogs, 158, 159

alarm clock, 16

books on tape, 70, 210

Allen, David, 215

boredom, 104

Amazon.com, 43, 77

brainstorming, 30, 38, 41, 131,

analysis paralysis, 148

182, 184, 215

anxiety, 33, 34, 57

brand loyalty, 170

Apple, 164

Branson, Richard, 24, 119, 137

Aristotle, 79

Brian Tracy, 35

articles of incorporation, 187,

Brin, Sergey, 24

190, 191 assets, 80, 190, 191

bureaucracy, 9, 143 business

assistants, 140, 141

expenses, 180, 200

attraction, 105

name, 182

audio books, 70, 210

old fashioned ideas, 137, 138,

auditors, 180

154, 196

Authorize.net, 198

starting a, 177

badge of honor, 165, 180

typical, 137

bank account, business, 191

what type to start, 28, 137

bankruptcy, 180

Business 2.0, 209

234

Breaking Free

business cards, 140 businesses

confidence, 18, 57, 61, 75, 81, 127, 147, 154, 165, 177, 191,

examples, 155

213, 214, 215

pricing, 155

compared to competence, 62

strategy, 168

constant positive reinforcement,

buyers guide, 160

68, 69, 77, 208, 227

buyers guides, 156

consulting, 38, 120, 155

categories of work, 103

contracts, 127, 140

celebrities, 24, 112

contributing value, 106, 108,

certainty, 60, 64 certificate of formation, 187, 188

109, 167, 168, 169, 170 control, 16, 31, 32, 33, 63, 128, 219

charge card, 191

Cooper, Alan, 164

charity, 108

corporation, 35, 185, 187

childhood, 122, 123

as another person, 185

Churchill, Winston, 212

county clerk's office, 183

class action lawsuit, 169

Covey, Stephen, 103, 215

classes, 45

creating events, 32

Collins, Jim, 109

creative avoidance, 118

commitment, 222

credit card payment solutions,

commuting, 15 competence compared to competence, 62 compounding interest, 87, 88, 92 conference high, 207, 209, 224, 227

196 credit card, business, 180, 192 credit-card processing industry, 169 Danko, William, 94 DBA, 183, 189, 190, 191, 201 debit card, business, 192 debt, 80, 94, 95, 139, 158, 162 decisions, 13, 23

Index

235

deductions, 181, 200

cost benefit analysis, 145

defensive, 166

firing, 145

Deida, David, 101

hiring, 144

Delaware, 186, 187, 188, 190

hiring wrong person, 144

deposit by mail, 192

lawsuits, 145

depression, 126

quitting, 145

diet, 10, 16

stealing, 145, 146

different job, 81, 83

vs. independent contractors,

disregarded entity, 184 doing business as, 183, 189 donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be evil, 167, 168

198 employer identification number, 184, 185, 187

dreaming big, 34, 124

energy, 16

Eat That Frog, 215

entrepreneur

eating an elephant, 36, 49

defined, 141, 154

e-Books, 61, 149

struggling financially, 80

economies of scale, 149, 151, 155, 162, 164

entrepreneurship fund, 92, 96 entry product, 162

Edison, Thomas, 38

ethics, 168, 180

eHow, 43

excitement, 7, 33, 34, 35, 106,

Einstein, Albert, 88 Eker, T. Harv, 36, 80, 93

129, 132 excuses, 23, 24, 25, 35, 36, 49,

eLance.com, 45, 164, 195, 198

58, 63, 66, 118, 166

Electronic Arts, 9

age, 36

embezzlement, 193

don't know how, 24, 25, 40,

employees, 9, 11, 45, 82, 138,

42, 166, 167

140, 141, 143, 144, 145, 146,

education, 38

147, 148, 160, 164, 196, 198,

family, 38

199

money, 38

benefits, 144

236

Breaking Free

no good ideas, 11, 15, 19, 27,

Ford, Henry, 23

30, 37, 38, 71, 127, 131,

formalities, 191

133, 227

forums, 42, 201, 227

exercise, 10

franchises, 38

expenses, 89, 137, 164, 180

fraud, 191, 196

calculator, 94 reducing, 94, 140 experience, 23, 25, 36, 146, 149, 154

free time, 11, 30, 81, 82, 110, 111, 113, 119 friends, 15, 63, 64, 65, 66, 70, 121, 143, 209, 228

expertise, 104

From Good to Great, 109

faรงade, 191

frustration, 104

failure, 14, 49, 57, 64, 66, 73,

fulfillment, 12, 19, 102, 103,

165, 212, 213 learning, 165, 212 family, 15, 26, 32, 33, 63, 64, 68, 74, 107, 121, 146 fear, 11, 12, 57, 58, 66, 118, 124, 212, 213, 225 feeling, 18, 129

104, 110 funeral, 129 Gates, Bill, 27, 117 Getting Real, 164 Getting Things Done, 215 Go Daddy, 183 goals, 32, 47, 48, 68, 71, 126,

feelings, 129

210, 211, 218, 219, 220, 221,

finances, 25, 79, 81, 157, 191,

222

192

deadlines, 219

financial independence, 162

measurable, 219

firing employees, 145

measurable and written, 92

first step, 7

saving, 91

fixed costs, 150, 151

writing, 218

flexibility, 214 flexible hours, 81, 84, 96 food, 142

God, 128

Index

Google, 24, 42, 84, 142, 164,

incorporating, 149, 179, 180,

167, 168, 169, 195, 196, 197,

182, 184, 187

198, 218

state, 186

Grand Canyon, 67 guilt, 9, 93, 95, 104

237

independent contractors, 144, 198, 199

Guru.com, 45, 164, 195, 198

information products, 155, 161

habits, 32, 36, 67, 69, 70, 81, 86,

ING Direct, 87

93, 95, 102, 178, 193, 208, 209, 224 happiness, 13, 17, 35, 102, 106, 110, 129, 216 health, 10, 142

Inmates are Running the Asylum, The, 164 inner game, 177, 178 inner voice, 14, 36, 58, 108, 130, 213

Helmstetter, Shad, 208

insignificance, 103

help desk, 85

integrity, 167, 170

helping others, 107

interviewing, 144

Henry Ford, 177

investment, 44, 59, 69, 88, 92,

hero worship, 24

139, 157, 164, 193

heroes, 120

IRS, 178, 179, 184, 187, 199

hiring, 144

isolation, 142

cost benefit analysis, 145

job

wrong person, 144

different, 81, 83

home office, 141, 180

loving it, 28, 30

hours, work, 9

not who you are, 127

IBM, 165, 185

journey, 20, 101, 114, 126

ideal self, 47, 48, 65, 124, 129

Kennedy, Dan, 215

ideas, 14, 131, 133

Kennedy, Robert Francis, 57

identity, 27, 73, 127

lawsuits, 194

importance, 103, 106

lawyers, 140, 178, 179 learn new skills, 25, 42, 144, 227

238

Breaking Free

learning new skills, 139, 148

possible to earn, 112

Leno, Jay, 120

temptation of, 8

liability, 179, 180, 185, 190, 192

monthly expenses, 89, 91, 92

limited liability, 190

mood, 129

limited liability company, 185

motivation, 211

Lindahl, Sheena, 127

mutual funds, 80, 87

living frugally, 94

Napoleon Hill, 224

LLC, 177, 178, 184, 185, 186,

natural tendency, 119

188, 190, 191, 201 locus of control, 31, 32, 33, 62, 102

negative people, 63 negative thoughts, 57, 58 nervousness, 58, 61, 62, 162

logic, 129

net profit, 181

long distance phone calls, 141

Netflix, 168

love, 105

networking, 44, 155, 158

loving your work, 117

Networking with Millionaires, 155

mediocrity, 13, 18, 64, 225

new cars, 95

meetings, 140, 141, 142

niche markets, 156

mental game, 178

nights and weekends, 28, 81, 83,

mentors, 70 Millionaire Mind, 93 Millionaire Next Door, The, 80, 94 millionaires, 35, 39, 87, 94, 139, 157

155 No BS Time Management For Entrepreneurs, 215 no matter what, 71, 72, 73, 118 non-compete agreement, 82

mindset, 41, 214

office buildings, 7, 139, 140, 142

Minesweeper, 119

office equipment, 142

Mondays, 11, 30, 35, 132, 207,

open source software, 164

224 money, 16 how much is needed, 88

operating agreement, 188, 189, 190, 191 outsourcing, 25, 42, 45, 195

Index

overtime, 9, 15, 83

perceived value, 155

Page, Larry, 24

persistence, 214

parents, 13, 25, 39, 63, 66, 84,

personal assets, 179, 191

120, 123, 129, 225

239

personal assistants, 147

part time work, 83, 85

phone calls, 141, 143

partnerships, 42, 46, 146, 184,

picturing yourself, 124

185

piercing the corporate veil, 191

with friends and family, 146

planning, 28, 207

passion, 11, 29, 105, 117, 132

poor people, 79, 80

getting in trouble, 119

potential, 121

natural tendencies, 119

Poynter, Dan, 159

what you talk about, 121

preparation, 149

passions, 112

pre-tax dollars, 180, 181, 194

passive income, 158, 160, 162

procrastination, 118

past, 7, 8, 16, 39, 95, 145, 154

productivity, 15

patents, 183

promise, the Breaking Free, 224

path in life, 66, 101, 102, 105,

Psychology of Achievement, The, 65,

106, 107, 108, 112, 114, 128, 129, 133

77, 80 public speaking, 162

Patton, General George S., 213

purpose, 13, 101, 102, 106

pay cuts, 17, 26, 81, 83, 96, 225

Purpose Driven Life, The, 128

paychecks, 19, 26, 80, 86, 92, 95,

quitting, 28

144, 193, 199, 225

quitting your job, 19, 25, 28, 31,

paying yourself first, 86, 92

35, 49, 66, 72, 73, 75, 81, 95,

payment solutions, 196

96, 214

Paypal, 197

Quiznos, 38

payroll, 144, 145, 146

reacting to external events, 16,

peer group, 63, 64, 65, 70, 178, 209, 212

31, 32, 102 ready, fire, aim, 148

240

Breaking Free

real estate, 38, 80, 87, 157, 158

separate entity, 179

reasons, legitimate, 23, 25, 26,

separating

31, 36, 166 records, 194 recruiting, 144 registered agent, 186

business

and

personal finances, 179, 192, 193 Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, The, 103, 215

relationships, 10, 16, 47, 71, 86

shame, 8

responsibility, 32, 40, 63, 66, 96,

significance, 13, 34, 106, 107,

128

108, 132

Rich Dad Poor Dad, 80

silence, 130

rich people, 79, 80

skill level, 103, 110

Richest Man in Babylon, The, 80

Skype, 141, 142

risk, 33, 137, 138, 165, 179, 222

slave, 95, 139

Robbins, Anthony, 207, 222

sleep, 10, 14, 15, 16, 71

role models, 120, 121

small steps, 32, 48, 74, 81

rush hour, 15, 141, 210, 211

social security number, 185

safe route, 64, 66, 213, 225

software, 163

salary, 194

sole proprietorship, 185, 191

saving, 80, 81, 86

speaking in public, 162

10% of your income, 86

speed reading, 15, 43, 44, 69

savings accounts, 87

spouses, 25, 63

scheduling, 222

Stallone, Sylvester, 39

S-corp, 177, 178

Stanley, Thomas, 94, 155

self doubt, 14, 36, 57, 74, 128,

Starr, Linda, 131

148, 178, 211, 212, 213 self talk, 208 self-employed defined, 154 Self-Publishing Manual, The, 159

starting a business defined, 179 starting out small, 164 startup, high tech, 139 Stephen Covey, 130

Index

stock options, 139

transition, smooth, 17, 81

Stone, W. Clement, 7

get a different job, 83

story, as an excuse, 105

keep current job, 81

stubborness, 214

travel, 140, 141, 180

students, 27, 91

trouble, getting in, 119

dropping out, 27

Trump, Donald, 24, 127

subconscious, 71, 72, 130, 131, 215, 218

Turbo Tax Business, 199 tutoring, 38, 83, 84

Subway, 38

Twain, Mark, 63

success, 152, 153

unconfident, feeling, 62

success formula, 177

unincorporated, 181

successful people, 25, 43, 48, 58,

unit costs, 150, 151

65, 215, 217

used cars, 94, 95

tanks, money and happiness, 12, 17, 18

user generated content, 156 user interface design, 163, 198

tax advantages, 179, 180, 181, 182

value,

contributing.

values, 10, 102, 109, 123, 126,

teams, 143, 144, 146

133, 215

technology, 217

variable costs, 151 dollar

millionaire, 94

venture capital, 139 victim mentality, 32, 105

time management, 11, 83, 214

video conferencing, 142

Toastmasters, 16, 162, 210

Virgin Group, 24, 119, 137

TPS reports, 144

Warren, Rick, 128

Tracy, Brian, 35, 39, 65, 70, 77,

Washington Mutual, 192

80, 210, 215 trademarks, 183 traffic, 16

See

contributing value

taxes, 180, 185, 199

thirty-thousand

241

Watson, Thomas J., 165 Way of the Superior Man, The, 101

242

Breaking Free

wealth, 34, 35, 60, 65, 80, 87, 88, 94, 133

work, hard, 40 worker bee, 9, 139

website templates, 195

working at home, 141, 142

websites, creating, 84, 157, 194

Worrall, Dan, 126

What to Say When you Talk to

writing, 158, 215

Yourself, 211 Wikipedia, 42 work vs. fun, 106, 111

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Brian Armstrong had always dreamed of being his own boss, but couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t bring himself to walk away from a steady paycheck. After going through the process he writes about in this book, he finally quit his job, started his own business, and achieved financial freedom working for himself! He has never looked back, and today seeks to help others do the same as a writer, speaker, and consultant. Prior to becoming self employed, Brianâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work experience ranged from fortune 500 companies, to several small startups with less than 15 employees. In 2001, he ventured out on his own with his first company and was instantly hooked, starting two more in the next five years. Brian currently resides in Houston, TX leading authority on how to quit your job to work for yourself.

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