03.27.08
Are You Busy or Productive?
I watched a movie the other night in which the two characters are more interested in drinking and carousing than working, so one, who’s wife is supporting him financially, takes a sheaf of resumes with him every morning and gets his friends to call his house and leave messages asking him to attend employment interviews. That keeps his wife / mother happy until she discovers the lies. Many men are like little boys, supported by their hard working and long-suffering wives, who actually believe their useless, weak husbands are businessmen. They’re not even real men; a real man supports his family.
Many entrepreneurs drag the old employee mentality with them into the world of business. They feel they have to prove to everyone that they’re busy, as though that equates with “productive”. “Busy” or “Working” does not mean productive at all. We feel we have to justify our time, and so you see people attending meetings for the sake of attending meetings. They create ridiculous business plans that only fool bank managers (say no more) and will fly across the country at the drop of a hat so that they can tell their wives, who pay for the flights and the hookers on the other end, that they had a business appointment. If you’re not making money, you’re wasting time. Might as well watch a movie.
This morning I had a spot of breakfast, returned e mail for 30 minutes and then went skiing on Mystery Peak for few hours. It was wonderful, powder snow, flying down a mountain in a snowstorm, then driving down into the sunshine afterwards to stop for a hot cup of coffee. At home I lazed in the Jacuzzi for a while, watching a few snowflakes fall on the spring cherry blossoms outside (only in Vancouver) before eating the delicious lunch Rika had prepared for me. Then I spent two hours working, and that’s it for today. Two and a half hours of effective, focused work that will make good money and keep my Joint Ventures on track. Much better than attending unproductive meetings with other broke people where we all convince each other how well we’re doing, so that we can continue the illusion that we actually have businesses. I’m writing this on the patio, sipping a cup of Tetleys and enjoying my life.
I once called one of my salesmen after a meeting, and his mother/wife reported that he was having a bath. When he called me back, he apologized profusely for lying in the bath instead of making sales calls. I replied, “Hey, Jonathan, I don’t care if you lie in the bath all day, as long as you make sales. You don’t work for me - you work for yourself! Anyway, you’re on commission, so if you’re not producing, you’re not earning, and you know that if your sales drop too low you’ll get fired. I’m not your mother.” I’m not interested in your stories, excuses, what you do with your time, or how long you work - I’m interested in results. Business is about results, not lies and smokescreens - that’s for employees.
Joint Venture Brokers can spend all day skiing or kayaking or hiking or reading a book, make one or two phone calls and a few e mails, and get rich. We choose whom we work with, when we work, what we do, and when we do it. My personal schedule comes first and business comes second. I call the shots. Most entrepreneurs work too hard for too little. They spend a lot of time wearing the mask of success and going through the motions, when they should be relaxing by the pool with their loved ones. They’re almost worse than employees. Shed that employee mentality and focus on net, after tax profit. Concentrate on results, and be very selective. Joint Ventures provide that exciting and lucrative opportunity. DollarMakers is about making dollars, not excuses. Do what you love with people you respect, and you’ll be good at it and make money.
Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com
