What "making money" really means, Part I
Everybody wants to win, yet very few people are willing to PREPARE to win.
Why? Probably because during the preparation period, you don't get paid any money and don't get any recognition. So why bother?
Yet we see plenty of examples of people who set a goal and work tirelessly toward achieving that goal (even when family and friends often are not as supportive as expected).
Athletes practicing for years just to be able to compete in the Olympics, for example. Or artists who struggle for years without knowing for sure if they'll ever be able to realize their dreams.
Different people have different tricks that work for them, and induce in them the motivation to practice and perform.
In my case, my little trick is to create a situation where I'm "forced" to perform a little every day. For example, by writing several blogs (including this one) where people (many of whom I've never met) can actually subscribe to, I'm forced to write at least 3-5 times a week.
Why does having subscribers motivate me? Because I simply don't want to disappoint anyone. Like most people, I hate rejection, and I sure don't want any of my subscribers to cancel their subscription!
(By the way, I mentioned a while ago a secret little book that teaches how to profit from the information age. Here it is: The Intelligence Edge, by George Friedman. If you don't have time to read it, I'll post a summary of the book shortly. But if you do have time, I highly recommend reading it from cover to cover. It has truly opened by eyes about how to profitably manage information.)
Sure, blogging is not where I make a lot of money, but at the same time, it's not difficult for me to see that with a ghost writer, I could end up publishing a book that contains ALL the entries here, and sell it to people worldwide for a few dollars.
I believe so because I recently had an insight: "making money" is actually a two-step process:
Why? Probably because during the preparation period, you don't get paid any money and don't get any recognition. So why bother?
Yet we see plenty of examples of people who set a goal and work tirelessly toward achieving that goal (even when family and friends often are not as supportive as expected).
Athletes practicing for years just to be able to compete in the Olympics, for example. Or artists who struggle for years without knowing for sure if they'll ever be able to realize their dreams.
Different people have different tricks that work for them, and induce in them the motivation to practice and perform.
In my case, my little trick is to create a situation where I'm "forced" to perform a little every day. For example, by writing several blogs (including this one) where people (many of whom I've never met) can actually subscribe to, I'm forced to write at least 3-5 times a week.
Why does having subscribers motivate me? Because I simply don't want to disappoint anyone. Like most people, I hate rejection, and I sure don't want any of my subscribers to cancel their subscription!
(By the way, I mentioned a while ago a secret little book that teaches how to profit from the information age. Here it is: The Intelligence Edge, by George Friedman. If you don't have time to read it, I'll post a summary of the book shortly. But if you do have time, I highly recommend reading it from cover to cover. It has truly opened by eyes about how to profitably manage information.)
Sure, blogging is not where I make a lot of money, but at the same time, it's not difficult for me to see that with a ghost writer, I could end up publishing a book that contains ALL the entries here, and sell it to people worldwide for a few dollars.
I believe so because I recently had an insight: "making money" is actually a two-step process:
- First, you "earn" the money (that is, you work hard to create something that other people value enough to pay you for it)
- Second, you distribute your value to the world
This is why the expression "I want to make a lot of money!" doesn't make sense. It would be more accurate -- and instructional -- to say "I want to create a lot of value", followed by "I want to let the maximum number of people know about that value and receive it so it can improve their lives."
That was actually the first lesson that billionaire Donald Trump taught his apprentices in the first episode of the show The Apprentice: he gave the 16 participants $200 and told them to buy cups, lemons, etc. and start selling lemonade on the streets of New York!
posted by Super Peter at 10:08 PM
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