A lot of people ask me: “Jim, what are some of the simple things that are most important to you when it comes to wealth building?”
I love that question, because I think more and more about it each time, and while my answers may be slightly different as my journey moves forward, I always come back to one quote by Napoleon Hill:
“Some people foolishly believe that only money can make money. This is not true! Desire, transmuted into its monetary equivalent is the agency through which money is ‘made.’ Money, of itself, is nothing but inert matter. It cannot move, think, or talk, but it can ‘hear’ when one who desires it calls it to come!”
That quote motivates me every time I read it, but what does that quote mean for you—someone in the beginning of their wealth building journey?
I’ll unveil that AND how to make money come running to YOU when you call…
I’m going to start with a basic question:
How is wealth created?
It’s generally created with ideas.
Ideas for businesses, products, brands, art, you name it!
I’m sure you’ve had plenty of ideas that had potential to build your wealth…
But the problem with ideas, is most of the time they’re not given the time to breathe!
Just look at any of the successful businessmen of this century and you’ll see a pattern.
Here are the methods those successful businessmen are using to let their ideas grow:
#1 Clear your head
The next time you have a business idea, don’t let it rot and deteriorate before it has a chance to evolve into something worth executing. Write it down on paper.
A lot of the time it’s human instinct for us to find the negatives in an idea and shut it down before we get a chance to really look at it.
Ray Kroc took an idea that the McDonald’s brothers were sitting on and turned it into a multi-billion-dollar franchise.
The McDonald’s brothers were lucky that Kroc came along with his fresh approach and made them richer than they ever thought possible.
You’ll find that the best business ideas don’t come in one single train of thought. They’re evolved over time and sometimes between multiple people.
Write your idea down, then forget about it for a little bit until you’re ready to add to it. If you come up with another idea in the meantime, write that down too.
You’ll come back to these pieces of paper days, weeks, or months later and find that you have a clearer view of what you’re looking at.
You’ll be in a different mindset from when you first came up with the idea, so you’ll be in a better position to determine whether it’s worth acting on.
You must clear your head in order to allow these million-dollar ideas to settle.
#2 Accentuate the positive
Figure out what it is you like about the idea. Think about all the positives and try to get an understanding of how the idea can grow from them.
Isolate the positives and write these down also. Come back to them when you feel that you’ve cleared your mind.
The positives that Kroc saw in McDonald’s had nothing to do with the food it was serving. He credits the success of McDonald’s to his keen sense of real estate. He found the most popular corners on the most popular streets and planted his seed.
Think about how often you see the big red sign with the golden “m” on your drive home from work. Chances are there’s at least two or three of them.
Build on the positives. View these as little ideas on their own that you must nurture individually. Once the positives of the idea reach their potential, reunite them with each other.
Your business plan will be stronger than ever, and you’ll be able to see the profit in no time.
#3 Eliminate the negative
Interrogate your idea once you have left it alone for a little bit. You don’t have to go as far as good cop bad cop, but you do want to shake out all the negative aspects of the idea.
Just as you did with the positives, isolate these negatives. Erase them completely from your idea and don’t let them back in when they come knocking.
Kroc found negatives in food menus that were too complex. He shook out all of those negatives and retained the idea of simplicity: a burger with fries and a drink.
Write the negatives down on paper and flush them or burn them so you will never think of them again. If you would prefer to just throw them in the trash, invest in a paper shredder, because they will haunt you if left intact.
#4 Determination
Believe in your idea. This is the keystone to any profitable business venture. Without determination your idea is a big fat waste of time, and nobody will witness it in all its glory.
Every morning and every night tell yourself about this fantastic business idea. This idea that has had all the fat trimmed off and all its muscle built up.
Convince yourself that your idea will soon explode into a tangible income and the rest will soon follow.
Ray Kroc’s determination speaks for itself. Next time you’re eating a Big Mac take a second to stop and think about how much determination was injected into that one burger.
That burger was born from a successful real estate scheme. It was born from determination. It was born from the fact that Kroc knew he would succeed, and nothing would dare stand in his way.
Only the determined succeed.
Using these exact same traits of the last century’s most successful businessmen, you’ll find that whenever you call, money comes running!
