PILLAR 6

Avoiding Permanent Solutions for Temporary Situations

We’ve already talked about preparing, staying focused, and being productive. Now I want to turn your attention to a moment when preparation really matters: when you hear the word “no.” There are always going to be nos, but people who understand wealth and are prepared for everything know that they can’t make permanent decisions based on temporary situations. The best example of people who let a temporary state affect their permanent state are those who give up at the first sign of “no.” That “no” is a temporary situation, but giving up is a permanent solution. Coming back from quitting is infinitely more work than if you just keep going, work through the no, and come out on the other side. Don’t allow the temporary to rule your permanence.

You’re going to get nos and setbacks. That’s just a fact of life. I have gotten them. The highest-ranking members of my team have gotten them. Almost all of the most successful people I know have gotten them. But those successful people do not make permanent decisions based on negative emotions. Take me, for example. At 35, I was preparing businesses around the world. I was on almost every continent and in multiple countries establishing my brand. Then Greece’s economy tanked, which was a major, major blow to my business there. I was unhappy. I was disappointed. But I wasn’t devastated. I didn’t look at what was happening in Greece and decide to close up shop everywhere and go home. I was prepared for something like this. I knew that if one country gave me issues, I could find those lost numbers elsewhere. And I did. If I hadn’t been prepared, it would have been so easy to get upset, to give up, to be distracted from my larger goal. That’s no way to live.

I want you to create a foundation for preparation and put yourself in a place where you understand that the good, the bad, and the ugly are coming. You need to know that curve balls are coming. The most important thing, however, is not that the curve ball is on its way. It’s the fact that you are prepared to swing and hit when life throws the unpredictable.

I don’t want you to give up on your dreams at the first setback because you are not mentally prepared and because you don’t have an action plan in place for when it happens. The absolute most valuable asset of the millionaire mindset is that no one can take your mind unless you surrender it. Even if a setback or investment loss takes you back to zero, you will always have the power to get it back because your mindset is your greatest asset, not your bank account. Remember the millionaire mindset begins within, and as long as it’s greater within, you will always be able to regain and sustain generational wealth.

Sometimes those setbacks have nothing to do with you. Things can go wrong that are completely out of your power. And when you feel wronged or lied to by a company, it is so easy to cut ties and walk away. I’ve seen it happen many times. And I can understand why people do that. They took a risk, they made an effort, they made an investment, and in the end, they felt like they had nothing left. It’s so easy to take that feeling and literally run with it. But sometimes, seeing things through, giving them the room to right the wrong, can be worth the trouble.

I understand that human beings make mistakes. If I had given up on everyone who I felt made an error in judgment or tone, I would never be where I am today. Just recently, some of my partners and I were forced to choose between making a permanent decision for what we thought was going to be a temporary situation.

You never know when disaster will strike. Recently, a global pandemic derailed so many dreams. High school and college graduates who had jobs waiting for them no longer did. Small businesses closed all around us. Entire industries went under. It can be really hard to find a path forward when you see so many obstacles in your way. Helping yourself and saving yourself are more than just a mindset. They are about looking ahead and figuring out what you can do to protect yourself if the worst does happen.

In order to get ahead of a life-changing disaster, you can take the following precautions:

1.   Be prepared. Personal development is always better used as preparation than as a last-minute solution in times of panic. Prepare and make the solutions second nature before you need to use them. You can’t learn to swim while you are drowning. The same goes for personal development.

2.   Create strategic alliances with like-minded people. No one of us is as powerful as the many of us. This is the reason I have been asking you to take a picture of yourself holding this book after every action step and tag me. By posting this photo, you can connect with other readers who are working to adopt this same mindset. Together you can become global brothers and sisters who are on the path of mastering the art of the millionaire mindset.

3.   Always live below your means. Multiplying your financial success is never the reason to multiply your lifestyle. If you have to use a credit card as your only means to make a purchase of something you want, not need, you are living outside your means. If you don’t have the money to back up that purchase, don’t make the purchase. If it’s unnecessary to purchase, then it’s necessary that you walk away. There are many millionaires who lost everything during a pandemic or an economic downturn or a stock market crash because they thought only about summer during the summer. Mastering the art of becoming a first-generation millionaire is only evident when the generation that comes after you starts where you left off.

When you live within your means, you will be able to lessen the blow if things do happen out of your control. By doing this, you are thinking ahead and saving yourself from the unknown. By taking these extra steps, you are doing what the others around you are not. You are making sure that you will be able to get back up faster than anyone else.

And when disaster hits, not if, be sure to access your prepared stored assets, use your alliances for positive and strategic mental fortitude, and exercise your ability to thrive because you prepared. If you do these things, you won’t be forced to liquidate to get back on track. If you prepare properly, you can hit the ground running as soon as possible.

For me, 2017 was my most character-building year as an entrepreneur—not because of what I made, but because of what I lost. I found myself in a situation where I was losing millions of dollars in revenue on a monthly basis for something that wasn’t my fault. Every bit of it was traced back to a bad decision made by the company with which I’d partnered, and it had an incredible ripple effect on my revenue stream.

I had helped the company expand globally to the sum of well over $1 billion in revenue, a move that was pivotal to its success. I had brought in thousands of partners who now counted on this company for their own revenue streams. Even though I’d brought them success, this company made this failing financial decision without me—a decision that affected me and thousands of families around the globe. I was pissed off. I was hurt. I was betrayed. I also felt like I had to protect the many business partners and their families. I couldn’t have the knee-jerk reaction that I wanted to because I knew my decision would affect more than just me. I had no idea what to do, but I did know this: I had nothing to lose by waiting and letting time pass, and I had everything to lose by making a hasty decision and walking away.

I gathered my executive team for this company and talked to them about what had happened. I gave it to them straight, but I did not withhold my feelings on the matter. That was a mistake. While I was honest, I was volunteering too much information as a leader. My panic, anger, and frustration caused some of my leaders to make a move without me. We were all equally upset at the same company, equally upset at the same circumstances, and we were equally owed money—some of us had been waiting more than a year for promised commissions that had multiplied into the millions. But they decided to take that anger and those feelings of betrayal and react permanently. They walked away.

I decided to wait it out. Virtually every leader who left early on regrets it to this day. They may have been right to walk away from such an underhanded company in that moment, but it was still not the right business move. Sometimes being right is not more important than what it could cost you. 72The ultimate payday was reserved for those who stayed with me, and I fought for what they were owed as much as I could. I eventually did make a move, when it was obvious there was no other option.

The art of mastering the millionaire mindset that will lead to many first-generation millionaires is to always remember that we are playing chess, not checkers. I want you to make moves with the end result in mind, and those moves will always require strategic preparation, strategic like-minded alliances that challenge you, and a strategy more for the future than for the present.

This is where faith in yourself, your team, your ideas, and your business come into play. It is easy to walk away from something if you don’t have absolute faith in it. You can’t have faith just when it’s easy. You have to keep the faith when things get hard. Focus on exercising your faith muscle so it will be strong enough to withstand the times when you need it the most.

ACTION STEP

This chapter is about maintaining the heart and mind of a winner. I want you to be ready for that setback, no matter how big or surprising it is when it hits. I want you to work on building yourself up from the inside out. In order to do so, I want you to write about a moment in your life when you gave up, when you threw in the towel, when you just up and quit. Write it as if you are talking to yourself. Relive that moment, no matter how raw it makes you feel.

After you’ve poured your heart out, tell yourself what you could have done differently. What could you have done in the middle of that hell to turn that situation around? Looking back now, how would you have turned those bitter lemons into lemonade? Be honest with yourself.

Ultimately, I want you to be able to get out of a setback while staying on the path toward your goal in real time. I want you to prepare for the worst so that it doesn’t floor you or completely derail you if it does happen. You don’t want to find yourself improvising when disaster hits. Instead, have a plan in place, and be ready for the worst.

PILLAR 6