Robin J. Elliott: Joint Ventures with the Prophet of Profit, Training, Strategic Alliances

Last night I surprised my lovely wife when I dramatically changed my strongly held opinion on a certain business opportunity.
 
We’re all faced with choices, opportunities, and options on a regular basis. We approach it all with a healthy dose of skepticism, as well we should, and we find it important not to rush blindly into new ventures or take up certain options. We’ve been around long enough not to get swept up into every scheme and scam around, and that protects us from the con artists and from losing our proverbial shirts. All good. Except when we throw healthy babies out with the bathwater, miss the train, and overlook the diamonds in the mud, that is.

We’re masters of self-deception, and we diligently seek evidence to support our dominant beliefs and justify our choices – it’s only human. We hate to be proven wrong or admit that we missed a lucrative  opportunity, and we trot out endless streams of “reasons” why we were right. It takes courage and humility to change one’s opinion, even reverse it completely. It’s hard to say, “I was wrong, I missed it, and it cost me money.” You can be “right” or you can be rich. Business is not about feeling important, infallible, and ingenious – it’s about making money. The most successful entrepreneurs I know fail on a regular basis. Babe Ruth struck out more than anyone in baseball history, I’m told.

The scary thing is that we lose a lot of money with wrong decisions, and usually it’s our fear, ego, conditioning, bias, and pig-headedness that makes the decision instead of a calm, objective, rational business brain. That’s why it’s important to put the old ego on hold when evaluating one’s options. Looking back, I have lost a lot of money by missing opportunities. And I know a lot of others who have lost a lot, and even some right now that are going to miss huge opportunities that they are being exposed to through DollarMakers. I could name names, but I won’t – they skepticism is going to rob them blind, and they don’t know it yet.

I attended a meeting this week where I met a character that had been a Member of the DollarMakers Club when it first started, but he lapsed his Membertship and never got really involved. He’s a typical. lazy, west coast specimen who has no idea how much money he could have made through DollarMakers had he stayed with us. I know of at least a dozen specific, lucrative opportunities that would have funnelled thousands into his bank account, had he simply showed up at our events and stayed active. But I guess pot, beer, and ice hockey got in the way. The same applies to people offering website services, computer services, financial services, and real estate who were involved with us, but their desperation for a quick fix and easy money had them scampering off to greener grass, only to find it growing over a cesspit. By the time they limp back to us with their tails between their legs and a big bag of excuses, their spot has been taken by a smarter person; we don’t want them back. (”Where were you when we needed you?”)

Decisions cost money or make money, and because nothing stays the same, we need to have the courage to revisit past decisions, if it’s not too late for tears, which it often is. Better still to make the right decision at the outset by aligning yourself with real entrepreneurs who think rationally, and not relying on advice from your loser relative or an unemployed has-been or jumped-up kid that calls himself a “Business Coach”.

Last night I was more interested in making a lot of honest money than feeling embarrassed by telling Rika, “I was wrong, the situation has changed, and I have changed my mind.” Think of it this way: to go faster in your car, you need to change gears. Change is good, and we should embrace it like a warm puppy.

Robin J. “I’m Never Wrong – yeah, right!”  Elliott www.DollarMakers.com

How many seminars and events have you attended, how many books have you read, how many retreats and Bootcamps and talks have you been exposed to? How many of them changed your life? Why didn’t your life change? You spent so much time and money, and every time you thought, “THIS might be the one that does it for me…” but it didn’t, did it? WHY? I believe there are only two basic reasons why none of these training sessions or books worked for you so far.

The first reason is that you’ve become such a “course junkie” that there is no urgency, and you really think you’ve heard it all before, so there is no more real excitement, and in the back of your mind, you know there will be another seminar next week, anyway. No rush. And you justify the time and money you spend and the lack of success in your life by reasoning, “I need more information – I am still learning – one more seminar” – like the eternal student, the gray-haired loser that never leaves university, and never applies what he learns.  Hooked on learning and the little high he gets at each event, the course junkie never intends applying the information. He has been playing the Cash Flow Game for years, but he still works for a boss, and he always will. He likes the idea of being an entrepreneur and getting rich, but he’ll never do it. Perhaps he’s waiting for an inheritance or she’s waiting to marry someone rich… Attending seminars is her HOBBY. Nothing wrong with that – you’re welcome to have a nice hobby. Enjoy it!

The second reason is PAIN or the lack of it. We will only make a dramatic change in our lives when the pain of staying where we are exceeds the pain of change. Until we reach that pain threshold, there will be no change. It is said, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear”. “READY” means “Enough Pain”. Realistically, any one of the seminars you attended or books you read could have been the catalyst to launch you into a brand new life of success, but you were too comfortable, so you didn’t bother to apply the information, or you did so half-heartedly to justify the time and money spent. When there is enough pain in your present circumstances, you will do whatever it takes to get out and make the changes required. At that point, the seminar or book will become your way out.

How can you induce that level of pain and change? How can you get leverage on yourself to actually change your life, to become a student who will follow the instructions of a master with absolute commitment, trust, obedience and faith? How can you heighten your receptivity and motivation to a point where you apply the instructions meticulously to your life, do whatever it takes, and subjugate your arrogance and slothfulness to an awareness and drive that propels to you heights of success you never dreamed possible?

Stand back and look at your life. Focus on the pain. We will do more to remove pain that to gain pleasure, so use pain. Ask yourself what your life will look like in three years if you DON’T make the requisite changes. Weigh the two: What you have, and what you COULD have. If this doesn’t float your boat, ring your bell, and get you leaping out of bed, you’re simply not ready – YET.

And that’s the scary part. “A hard rain’s gonna fall…” Usually, it takes a dramatic, disastrous episode in one’s life – a divorce, a bankruptcy, a death, the unexpected  loss of your job – before you wake up, smell the coffee, and make the changes. Your ego needs to be gobsmacked so hard that that you find out who you really are and where you’re really at. The only problem with that is that sometimes, it’s simply too late. The Chinese say, “Dig the well BEFORE you thirst.” So by all means, play the “What IF?” game, and see if that heightens your awareness sufficiently to finally make the changes and apply what you learn. Think about it. But then, you spend a lot of time thinking, don’t you? Perhaps ACTION is the key?

Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com

Entrepreneurs often spend too much time worrying. Statistically, 85% of the things we worry about will never happen. Those things include worries over our past that can never be changed, worries over which we have no control, irrational concerns or fears, and worries about the future. Worrying about something never solved the problem or affects the final outcome in any way.

Excessive worries cause negative emotions that release chemicals into our bodies which wreak physical havoc – high blood pressure, headaches, heart conditions, and more. I loved Dale Carnegie’s book, “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living”. Worry can ruin relationships, make your face drawn and ugly, and affect every aspect of your life negatively. Leo Buscaglia said, “Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy.”  The more attention you pay to worries, like plants, they grow bigger and stronger, until they control you. Someone once said, “People gather bundles of sticks to build bridge they will never cross.”

How do we deal effectively with worry? Action. Pat Schroeder said, “You can’t wring your hands and roll up your sleeves at the same time.” Face you fears. Shine the light of intelligent, rational, and balanced evaluation on them, and the shadows of fear and emotionalism will retreat. Here’s my personal recipe for handling worry. I have a very vivid imagination, so you should know that I have to carefully manage my tendency to make mountains out of molehills and elaborate expansively on the smallest concerns.

I was walking from a business meeting to my car in a parking lot when I realized that I was in a constant state of worry. I knew I had to take control of things right away, so I took advantage of the fact that there were no people anywhere close and I could have a good, long talk with myself. I have found this to be very therapeutic, talking out loud to myself. I would literally ask myself, “OK, Robin, what is your biggest worry?” I would answer myself. Then I would ask, “Why do you worry about that? What’s the worst that can happen? What if it does happen? What would you, or could you do? What do you fear losing?” and answer all these questions. I would then mentally put each of these worries in a tin can on a big shelf. I would name my five biggest worries (or more, if necessary), put them all in cans on the shelf, then one by one, in my mind, as I walked around that parking lot, I would take the can off the shelf, open it up, examine it in detail, and create an action plan.

For example, if I needed to write a letter, make a call, set up a meeting, or whatever action was necessary, I would resolve to do that, put it on a mental “Action List”, and take the can of the shelf. If there was absolutely nothing I could do to alleviate that worry, remove it, or prevent that which I feared, I would realize that there was nothing I could do, and I would take it off the shelf, too. I waddle around that parking lot for about an hour, until I had mentally and emotionally dealt with all my worries in this way. I talked myself through everything. I had an action plan, I was relieved, I had perspective, I was calm, and I was ready to attack again. I thanked myself, got in my car, drove home, and diligently went to work on my Action Plan. When you confront yur fears and take action to diminish your worries, remove them, or set up contingency plans, you take control of your mind, and therefore your emotions and your life.

Nelson DeMille said, “Somehow our devils are never quite what we expect when we meet them face to face.” You are bigger than your worries. You have a lot more strength that you think you have. You can choose how to deal with your worries – fight, or flight. You can let your worries dominate you, or you can decide to b the boss. Change your self talk, change your attitude, take action, and win.

Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com

“No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.” ~ Edmund Burke (1729 – 1797)

One thing that stops most people from achieving their goals is the fear of failure, embarrassment, loss, or anything that they currently have and don’t want to lose. This fear will prevent them from moving forward – the perceived threat and pain – until the pain of their present condition or their approaching condition exceeds the potential danger that they fear.

By examining the things you fear, you might get perspective and change your mind about whether or not that fear has the power you currently bestow upon it. What do you fear? How can you diminish that fear? For example, if you fear failure, think about this: If there was nobody else in the world but you, no other people – would you fear failure? No, you wouldn’t. Because you don’t fear failure per se – you fear the opinions and ridicule of other people. And anybody who likes you and cares about you would not ridicule you if you failed – they would help an support you, so why worry about the opinions of people who don’t like you or care about you?

If you fear loss, what do you have to lose? What is the risk factor? Specifically, what would happen if you incurred that loss? Could you cope with that loss? Is the reward of facing your fear worth the risk? Think objectively, not emotionally. Write down the pros and cons. Be rational. How can you reduce or prevent the risk? How can you change the situation, protect your assets, or shift the risk? Fear is usually illogical and based on our conditioning and self-esteem, instead of hard facts. We assume a whole lot of things that are generally not true.

Imagine an engineer, and architect, or a scientist evaluating a risk. Would they cry, wring their hands, get angry, shout, hide, or rant? Probably not – they would get out their calculators and have meetings with other analytical people, draw diagrams, make plans, discuss the situation, and find a solution. The architect doesn’t start whining, “But what if the bridge falls down? What if the floor collapses? I’ll be so embarrassed!” Analyze your fear, get the input of experts, talk with people who have been that route before and succeeded, and then make a logical, adult decision.

Play the “What if?” game. It works well if you write things down. “What if that person dies? What if this project fails? Exactly what would I do? What steps would I take? What would happen? Whose advice I need? What would I do? What could I do? Why would I make that choice? What would my alternatives be? Exactly what would this cost? How do I arrive at that number?”

When you view life like a monopoly game or a chess game, you can override your conditioning, bias, self-talk, beliefs, and fears. When you align yourself with successful, mature people who have experience in the field, it gets even better, hence the Mastermind effect of the DollarMakers Joint Venture Club and the DollarMakers Women’s Club – create a support system that will help you avoid the pitfalls of emotionalism, mysticism, and negative conditioning. Together, we can do amazing things.

The things you fear are not always all they’re cracked up to be. Several recent studies indicate that over 85% of all that we worry about never happens. Our minds tend to make mountains out of molehills. Fear is not bad – it’s a warning light that we should consider, and when the warning light goes on in your car you don’t start crying, get paralyzed with fear, or sell your car; you take it to the shop and get an expert mechanic to check it out, or you take the time to read the manual. Sometimes,  an inexpensive item or a small adjustment is all that i required. Sometimes, it’s more expensive, but less expensive than a seized engine. Consider the situation calmly and you will find that all you have to fear, as a smart man once said, is fear itself.

Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com

 Bill Gates of Microsoft said the hardest thing to find is good people, and that if he lost his best people, he would lose Microsoft. I agree. If you think you need to wave that silly little resume around to get hired, think again. If you think people are impressed with your words, reconsider. We’ve met all the has-beens and parrots with the resumes. So your daddy sent you to university, so what? And we’ve heard all the words; talk is cheap, and North America is the Capital of the BS Specialists. We’re all looking for good people with the following seven qualities. Everything else can be learned, borrowed, or Joint Ventured. Nothing else matters.

1. Absolute integrity and honesty.
2. The ability and readiness to work hard, for as long as it takes, to deliver what you promise, on time, with no excuses or lies.
3. A positive, upbeat, optimistic, confident, humble, and teachable attitude.
4. A burning desire to achieve that will not be denied.
5. Courage, persistence, and determination in the face of hardship, obstacles, and failure.
6. Creativity, innovation, and the ability to think.
7. A professional, well groomed, well dressed, appearance – someone who can walk into any meeting and look good.

See how easy it is to win and make a lot of money? There are very few people with the above attributes,and they are all by CHOICE. They don’t cost money. Anyone can CHOOSE to be like this. Your age, education, background, and circumstances do not matter. This mean that there i no excuse not to do exceptionally well. The skills you need can be learned. You can even learn point number seven. When I got my first job out of hotel school managing a successful restaurant, the owner taught me how to shave properly. When I managed my first hotel, the owner taught me how to tie a Windsor knot in my tie. I modelled successful, wealthy people to learn how to dress and groom myself correctly. Attitude is all you need.

Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com