Do You Want To Earn More Money? - ABAC Chartered Accountants

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America has been promoting a “Think and Grow Rich” approach for a number of years. Over ... focus on a shared theme that it is possible to “think” yourself rich.
22 03 12

Do You Want To Earn More Money? By Julian McKeown If you are reading this then: (1) your answer is probably yes, and (2) my blatant attempt to grab your attention worked. Now I have your attention, I want you to consider the new trend of mind programming which is appearing more and more in our press. America has been promoting a “Think and Grow Rich” approach for a number of years. Over Christmas, BBC2 ran a series of money Programmes, one of which examined courses advocating “You too can be a Millionaire”. Paul McKenna states “I can make you rich”, and there are numerous books like “Money and the Law of Attraction” (before you ask, this has nothing to do with people being attracted to those who make money although that could be an interesting study). All of these focus on a shared theme that it is possible to “think” yourself rich. Let’s compare them in relation to individuals I have dealt with who are highly successful. There is no doubt there are essential common aspects, as successful people focus on what they want to achieve and these programmes help change dreams into goals. E.g. ‘I want to make more money’ is changed to ‘I want to earn £x more by this time next year and will do this by carrying out this activity’. Furthermore, they certainly help as motivational tools; by telling yourself everyday what you want to achieve and believing it is coming to you, you visualise yourself already having this and feel good about the fact that it is all going to happen. This concept is not new as it links to prayer, meditation, visualisation, self hypnosis, positive mental attitude and the power of positive thinking. I am a firm believer that we need dreams, plans and a positive attitude to achieve and most people starting a business think likewise so why do some fail while others excel? I believe the difference lies in three key additional aspects not always highlighted in these programmes: (1) Successful people work hard; they do all they can do every day to achieve their goals. Olympic medallists certainly visualise but I have yet to hear of anyone who was able to “think” their way to Gold without lots of training; even the naturally gifted focus their entire efforts on their goals and it has been shown that exceptionally talented people like Rory McElroy normally spend 10,000 hours of purposeful practice in order to be top of their game. Another great golfer once stated “the more I practice the luckier I get”. Likewise I have yet to meet a successful business which did not put in the hours, and consistently so, for a number of years. (2) Successful people constantly check if their activities are helping them towards their targets. Just as an athlete monitors their time on runs, a business will use its accounts and/or business plan to monitor its progress. (3) If everything is going to plan they keep going; if not, they do not see failure, they change their plan and try again. This is evident in the current recession where even the greatest business people failed due to circumstances beyond their control; you will see them change and start building new business all over again. By the time this goes to press the Budget will have been announced and there is no doubt this will affect us all, especially in the short term. We will publish details of the Budget here next week, but for now, if you want to earn more money you need to have a plan, carry out that plan, check if it’s working and do something different if it isn’t. For a free one page Planning Model, email [email protected]