Owners and Everyone Else
Owners are not like everyone else. Without people who think like owners, there would not be opportunities for everyone else. As Peter Drucker said, “Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.” There are great rewards in being an owner. The challenge is in the mindset.
Different Thinking
People with a low tolerance for risk, whose behavior is guided by fear, have a low propensity for success. – Keith Ferrazzi
This was a comment by Keith Ferrazzi in Never Eat Alone and it has been our observation through thousands of hours in business coaching. People do live either by fear or by belief. You can hear what guides a person’s decisions just by listening carefully to how they talk. If you hear a lot of excuses, justifications, or focus on the negatives, it is likely rooted in fear. However, we do not walk around telling people we are fearful. Life is not that candid.
There are many people who think they can start a business, but they lack the mindset to ever succeed. They have an employee mindset. They will never succeed unless they can grow. Typically, they:
Confuse Involvement with Commitment. Many people have had jobs. They perform for a corporation or an owner. They play with house money, not their own money. They make decisions and enjoy structures, resources and customers that are not their own. Martina Navratilova said it best, “The difference between involvement and commitment is like ham and eggs. The chicken is involved; the pig is committed.” If you have never been committed, then it is easier to stay an employee and just be involved.
Focus on Cost Not Investment. The person handles any discussion on spending as a cost rather than thinking in terms of return on investment. It is funny. We live in an ecosystem. People have an interdependence on each other’s goods and services. These people expect everyone to buy what they have because they see value and think it would be a good return to a person. The blind spot is that they do not assume the same behavior they expect of others when dealing with buying. They are thinking in scarcity rather than abundance. Do you invest in yourself? Or again, does it first have to be house money?
An Unforgiving Reality
"If money is your hope for independence, you will never have it. The only real security that a man can have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience and ability." — Henry Ford
Our economy is increasingly playing to the person with the owner mindset. While we all seek security, the question is whether a person seeks it in being an employee or an owner. To transition, you must be able to transition your security and belief system to an owner’s mindset; otherwise, it is better to be someone’s employee. Life is very short. You are who you have been becoming.
The 41st Hour
We are truly a free agent nation. Having a job in a large company who will take care of a pension is a thing of the past. How does one create security in a rapidly changing world? It requires a change in thinking.
Stats
- 99% of workers work for companies of 100 or less
- 84% of jobs in America are service-related
Definition of Security
In the new economy, the barriers to entry have been lowered drastically. Young people with talent have the tools and infrastructure to create value far faster than previous generations who learned to define security by having their employers take care of them. Henry Ford said the following:
"If money is your hope for independence, you will never have it. The only real security that a man can have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience and ability."
Knowledge can be gained. Experience is a choice. Ability is hard work. The question a person has to ask themselves in the end is, “Am I lazy?” Are you willing to work hard or just get by? If you have a clock-in, clock-out mentality, many people are getting ahead of you right now in the new economy based on their talent and hard work.
Free Agency
Is there anything you cannot learn? We have a wealth of information, unlike the old economy where information was scarce and kept close. Those who are willing to work will win. Advancement is not based on entitlement, but talent – a fair game. A new mindset has to be adopted; a mindset of free agency. Think about your dollarized value:
- What is the most important thing in your life? Perhaps your family?
- How much are they worth? Priceless is not the answer.
- Take your income from last year and divide it by 2000 (number of hours in a year).
- That is the value of your family on an hourly basis. You pay an opportunity cost by choosing to spend that hour away from them to make money. You trade time for money.
- Is your family truly worth more? What happens if you work 41 hours? Their value and yours goes down. At 60 hours, their value is diluted by 33%. Unless you …
- Think like a free agent. Invest your 41st hour and beyond back into yourself. What if you took 20 hours a week, 1,000 hours in a year, and grow your value? Can you turn 1,000 hours of time into money? If not, you should question your value. You are in a coma doing the insane. You freely give your time for less money and rob from your family and yourself.
How do you invest in the most important person in the world … yourself? Gain the knowledge, experience and ability to increase your dollarized value. If you do not have the know-how, seek the people that do. World-class athletes hire coaches for this very reason.
If this is new thinking, it will be a hard road. The reason is that you are not used to the thinking of a person who is tied into the new economy. You have learned to be an employee.
However, being an employee is a scary strategy today. The likelihood you will have the same job in the next five years is extremely slim. True security will lie in your ability to think and redistribute your most valuable asset - time. The very first step is to understand your strengths and how to capitalize on this. Click here to learn how to take the first step.