May 2011 – Rich Money Habits

I’ve never really undestood what the saying “Time is Gold” really meant until I learned a little more about the world of money. Time is an abstract concept that doesn’t really exist, just like money. But the sheer mention of the word ignites a lot of emotions from different people. Those without it, are stressed out. Those with a lot of time on their hands are either bored or dreaming.

While pondering this old saying, I realized there are actually 5 things that explain why time can be considered Gold.

1. You can never get it back

The only thing in this world that you cannot get back (aside from life itself) is time. When you’ve spent 30 minutes of your time, you can not get it back, however you desperately want it. You can invent the greatest time machine all you want, but at this point in human evolution, there’s just no way of turning back time. That’s why the emotion of “regret” is very powerful. If only you could turn back time somehow, you would give everything just to have it.

The ironic thing is, all the material things we trade our time for can be taken back. I know of someone who lost her home to foreclosure, but managed to get it back years after because of her determination. Donald Trump, the billionaire real-estate magnate lost a lot of money, but managed to get it all back and more. Unlike material things, once time passes you by, you can never bring it back.

2. You only have 24 hours in a day

This is really an amazing equalizer. Everyone gets the same chance at life. We all have 24 hours in a day. Even the richest people on earth only have 24 hours in a day. The poorest of the poor also have 24 hours in a day. The only difference — they use their 24 hours very differently.

If you don’t like what your life is right now, there’s only one thing you need to do — change the way you spend your time. You don’t need to place your hope in winning the lottery, or deceiving other people for your own financial gain. You can get rich with integrity by learning to value your own time, and valuing other people’s time as well.

3. You can trade time for money

You can trade your time for money. How? Simply get a job and watch the next 40 years of your life traded for a monthly salary? How much is your time worth? Are you earning enough? Is your time worth that much?

It doesn’t matter whether you are CEO or an entry-level employee, you still trade your time for money. When you don’t go to work, you stop earning. Unless of course, you are investing that time to build your own business, or investing your earnings on income-producing assets, that, hopefully someday allow you to hire other people to do the work for you and you can then spend your time playing with your kids, doing the things you love to do.

4. You can leverage your time

Why is it that even though everyone only has 24 hours in a day, some people can get a lot more done than others? Reason? Leverage. Henry Sy employs thousands of people to run his business empire. By so doing, he multiplies his time by thousands. With that thousands of hours, millions is earned by his businesses each single day.

Compared that into a one-man show employee. His single-handed efforts, without any form of leverage, can only get to 24 hours, no matter how strong or skilled he may be.

5. You can make the most of what you have

The hard truth is that your time is limited. You never know when your time will end. But one thing is for sure, you can make the most of the time that you have.

Spend your “golden” time with your loved ones. Take care of them. Enjoy what life has to offer. Remember that we are just passers by in this world we call life. When you live your life by the moment, you leave a long-lasting impression into the lives of other people…and your life’s meaning would be fulfilled.

P.S. If you are searching for ways to earn passive/residual income so you can enjoy more time with your family, CLICK HERE to email me.

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Ask any of your friends if they want to start their own business someday and a lot would say yes. There’s a certain enigma to starting a business that a lot of people associate it to risk-taking and entrepreneurial individuals who overcame huge obstacles in their journey from rags to riches. While this may be true for some, starting a business is not always as rosy as it sounds.

If you are one of those few lucky souls who want to start your own business someday, you’re up against all odds.

They say 9 out of 10 businesses fail in their first 5 years. And out of those left standing, 9 out of 10 would have failed after 10 years. That’s the reality you have to overcome if you want to see your own business see the light of day.

Have you ever felt that your dream of owning your business is already over even before you get started? That’s what I felt when I heard the sobering statistics.

But why really do most people haven’t started their own businesses yet? Their most common excuse? Not enough capital.

The interesting is…not only is this a myth, it is a blatant lie. It may be by far, the biggest obstacle you have to overcome if you ever want to start your own business one day.

For one, if you need a lot of money to get started, then no one would have been able to grow their business from rags to riches. Jollibee didn’t start out in day one as 100 stores! Not even Henry Sy is good enough to have an SM Megamall when he started. How did they start? They started small. Jollibee started as a small ice cream parlor. SM was small shoe store.

Most people who make the excuse of not having capital to start their own business is making a disservice to themselves. It’s plain old excuse. It’s as if it’s the only thing they need to actually succeed in business. It could be the farthest thing from the truth. If you want to succeed, having a lot of money may even be detrimental to your business’ growth.

A lot of starting a business is solving problems. If you have a lot of money, you have to go against the temptation of throwing money at your problem. Without money you are forced to be creative in solving that problem. Your creative juices is nurtured like a muscle going for an exercise. The more you exercise, the more you become good at it. The more you become good at it, the more your business will grow.

One rags to riches story I remember from the Truly Rich Entrepreneur’s Workshop I attended last month was about a young guy who started with PhP 100, fought against all odds and became a Multi-millionaire. He didn’t have a lot of things, but one thing he had was his passion for cars.

One day, after having little success at school, his parents gave him PhP 100 as his last allowance. With his back against the wall, he thought about how to start a business using only that PhP 100. Because he was passionate about cars, he thought of opening a business around fixing cars. The only problem, he didn’t know how to fix cars.

How did he solve this problem? Simple. He asked his friend who knew how to fix cars become his business partner.

With a new business partnership formed, the next problem he had to solve was to look for clients. To solve this, he went out to the parking lot of a mall, looked for high-end cars which needed fixing. He used a portion of his PhP 100 to come up with a flyer and slipped them into the car’s windshield. Out of those flyers, 5 people called him up and he was able to close a deal with 2 of them. He and his friend used the remaining money from the PhP 100 to go to their client on board a taxi.

Left without any money, they had another problem — they didn’t have the necessary tools to fix the car. Solution? They asked for a down payment from the client and used that to buy the tools. And the rest as they say is history. He was able to franchise the car fixing business system and now earns PhP2 Million peso from that business alone.

You see, it takes a lot more than just capital to start your own business. You need passion. You need specific skills most especially sales and marketing. You need a brilliant team around you to help you achieve your business goals.

I am not saying having money is NOT good. What I am saying is that you need to stop making excuses and start doing what needs to be done if you are really serious about starting your own business.

Stop reading. Go do something. Starting your own business cannot be learned from reading books alone. Like riding a bike, you can never learn it watching by the sidelines. You have to actually ride on your bike, fall a lot of times, and get back up to try again..and again. And once you learn and able to balance yourself, it will be the greatest feeling you’ve ever felt in your life.

P.S. If you are searching for a home-based business you can start part-time with minimal risk, CLICK HERE to email me.