I had to make my own living and my own opportunity. But I made it. Don’t sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them!

—Madame C. J. Walker, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and activist

My Story of Synchronicity and Faith

At the same time that I walked away from my ad agency years ago, I also chose to leave a difficult marriage. I was at a major crossroads. I was working toward launching my homeopathic practice. I had a whole new life ahead of me, a child to raise, and no money in the bank. Back then I was surrounded by people who believed my decisions and choices were all wrong, and they were vocal about it. They were unwilling to get behind me financially or emotionally. I was driving a green Ford Taurus at the time that cost me a whopping $3,000. Every day I dropped my daughter off at school something would fall off the car, such as the door handle or rearview mirror. My daughter would look at me as if to say, “Really mom, this is pathetic!” I was scared and my back was against the wall. I honestly had nowhere to go but up.

I remember one pivotal moment when I wanted to meet a friend for coffee, but didn’t have enough cash to pay for myself. I went through my closet and emptied out all of my purses. I managed to cobble together a few bucks and some change and join my friend at the coffee shop. When I went to the register to place my order, I blindly reached into my purse, gathered up the change, and placed the crumped bills and loose coins on the counter. I will never forget this because it was the exact cost of the coffee to the last penny.

This was my sign. I was at my lowest point, scraping and struggling to get by. But I realized that, if I followed my heart, all that I needed would appear. I had to stay determined and follow along my path, regardless of what others believed I should or should not do. Somehow I would be taken care of.

I haven’t looked back since then. Thirty years and nine businesses later, I am thriving. I am so glad I held firm and never caved in to my fear.

■ ■ ■

I chose “money and mindset” as the subject for this last chapter for one reason: Scaling a business is not for the faint of heart. It takes a willingness to experience extreme discomfort, bumpy roads, long periods of gasping financial uncertainty, and possibly creating discord with loved ones leading to the end of relationships. You might be thinking, why would anyone put herself through so much agony?

Never forget this: Living your truth and expressing what really matters to you in this world is an absolute blessing. You could play it safe, live a mediocre life, and never allow your dreams to play out. Or, you can realize you have one life – so why wouldn’t you want to live it to the fullest? To be able to have the freedom of choice to take an idea and turn it into a product or service that solves someone’s pain or longing requires deep dedication and sacrifice. Those who truly believe in you and understand the importance of going after your dreams will hang in there during those challenging growth times. The monetary pay off and sense of accomplishment that “you did it, despite all odds” will be worth every moment of uneasiness along the way. Your success relies on your ability to own your self-confidence, persistence, and resilience – no matter what is thrown at you on any given day.

In the beginning of our business relationship, some clients say to me: “I don’t need help with my mindset. My mindset is great and I don’t need to focus on that.”

Abundance is not something we acquire. It is something that we tune into.

—Wayne Dyer, bestselling author and motivational speaker

My response: “Well, you must be a billionaire!”

The fact is, every time you grow to the next level you are going to have to face a whole new round of challenges. Remember: In the immortal words of executive coach and bestselling author Marshall Goldsmith, “what got you here, won’t get you there.” As the saying goes, “new level, new devil.” It can get scarier as you scale because you have more to lose – and you need to have your mindset in check every step of the way. All of your deep-seated issues – Am I worthy?, Am I strong enough?, Am I smart enough?, and Am I up to the task? – will come up front and center. So will the irrational fears of things beyond your control going wrong: Will the economy collapse? Will our customers stop buying from me? Will our customers go out of business? Will my costs shoot through the roof? Will my competition eat my lunch?

It is only when your back is thrown up against the wall that your true colors appear. Do you have the mental toughness to take it? Can you roll up your sleeves and do whatever is necessary is stay the course?

Each time you overcome your inherent demons, your skin thickens. If you stick with your Big Picture Vision and keep moving forward instead of retreating in fear, you will become more resilient and bounce back faster with each setback.

No matter what state your business is in at the moment – surviving, growing, or scaling – you must be aware that setbacks and disasters are inevitable. They are going to happen. At any time.

In order to successfully grow and scale your business when these calamities occur, you need to look yourself straight in the mirror on these occasions and say the following: “I’m stronger than this. I’m going to do something about it. My dream is too important to give up!”

When you elevate who you are and you see that you are bigger than the obstacle, worry, or stress you are facing, you don’t allow it to take over your mindset. When you are feeling strong and confident, you don’t allow any of those things to shake you. You separate the challenges from who you are, so you don’t take them personally and can deal with them head-on.

If you hit a rough period in your company, first, don’t freak out. Give yourself the frame of mind to brainstorm what solutions might exist. Then consult with other people. Come up with a plan. Come up with a back-up plan. Then come up with a backup to the backup plan. Ask yourself: How can I reposition and tap into what already has momentum? How can I leverage?

—Excerpt from my interview with Roland Frasier, principal, digital marketer, attorney, and serial entrepreneur. For the full interview, go to: www.ScaleorFail.com/bonus.

Never Cash Out Early Due to Fear

When the stock market spirals downward, it’s known as a crash.When people react to market shifts by rushing to sell off their stocks, it’s known as panic selling. Crash and panic selling are not positive terms! The folks who unload their stock in a panic are reacting emotionally and ignoring all investing fundamentals. They often lose a ton of money in opportunity cost. Fear is the worst way to manage your stock portfolio because it will never grow. You are bailing out before allowing anything positive to happen. You have to take some risks and ride things out in order to meet with success.

It’s no different at the poker table. Is a nervous poker player going to win the pot? Never. Every time a fearful player has a bad hand or is bluffing, he’ll break out in a sweat, bite his nails, rub his chin, or show some other involuntary sign. He’ll lose every single time. Meanwhile, the calm, cool cucumber wearing shades stays the course and cleans up the table.

Since we are already on the subject of gambling, here’s one more analogy: Think about the slot machines. You’ve put quarters in the same machine all day. You’ve blown $100 and are ready to throw in the towel. As soon as you leave, a 90-year-old lady with a cigarette dangling from her lips and a cup of quarters plunks herself down on your chair while it’s still warm. She puts a coin in, pulls the lever, and guess what – JACKPOT!

I’m sure that your company has a far better business model than playing the slot machines. And hopefully it’s not quite as volatile as the stock market. In any case, do not let fear – or any emotion, for that matter – dictate what you do with your business. Your mindset needs to be free, clear, and focused at all times to make the right business decisions, especially when bad things happen.

The Money Mindset: It’s Just Business

We’ve established that you need to separate your emotions from your business thinking. Let’s take that a step further. You have to see your business as a separate entity from yourself as an investment. Your business has the capability of providing for your family, employing a team of people, paving the way for your eventual retirement, supporting generations to come, and making a long term impact on business and society. If you view your company as a personal asset rather than as a separate investment entity, you are putting all of those things at risk because you have the wrong money mindset. Consider the following scenarios:

• Hiring your son-in-law for a key executive position even though everyone thinks he is clueless.
• Passing on buying out a major competitor because your child is going to an expensive college the following year.
• Leaving key positions unfilled because you hear an economic downturn might be looming.
• Not hiring that business coach because you are remodeling your house.
• Cutting the marketing budget before the plan is launched because revenue is below expectations for the month.
• Selling your business for much less than it would be worth if you took the time to put the right systems and team in place.

Variations of the above situations occur all too frequently in private businesses. Admit it: You are guilty at one time or another of at least one of these cardinal mindset sins. Have you hired a family member for an ill-suited position because the personal decision outweighed the business decision?

A Mindset of Abundance

Money is a tangible thing, but it can also be regarded as a state of mind. When you learn to visualize wealth and a life of abundance, you can channel that as energy and tap into it as needed. A positive mindset will super charge you into action that will lead to achieving your desired results. On the flip side, a negative mindset is the easiest way to wreck your financial health.

Consider this:

Thoughts = your feelings = your actions = results

If your thoughts are “What if I lose my money?,” you will become anxious about money. If you are anxious about money, your actions are going to be cautious. The result of being cautious is that you won’t see any financial growth.

However, if your thoughts are “There’s abundance everywhere!,” your feelings will be happy and your actions will be bold in creating new revenue streams. The result of this is that your business will flourish.

My husband and I have a saying when we are writing a big check: “There’s more where that came from!” It’s a cliché, but an important one in our mindsets. Instead of feeling as if spending is a burden and high risk, we celebrate it. We are paying attention to every penny that comes in and goes out and believe that, when money goes elsewhere, the business will expand.

Fears, for the most part, are memories from past experiences, things you saw on TV, something your parents, friends, or teachers said, or you read in books. They are in your memory bank as an emotion that can bring up a potential negative consequence. It is the potential consequence that is bringing up the emotion. You are projecting into the future and feeling it in the present moment. You can release these fears and other emotions through raising your level of awareness knowledge and skill instead of being a victim of fear.

—Excerpt from my interview with John Assaraf, CEO and founder of NeuroGym. For the full interview, go to: www.ScaleorFail.com/bonus.

What to Do with All That Money?

It may be hard to believe, but lottery winners are three to five times more likely to go bankrupt than the average American. How is that even possible?

Most lottery winners are completely unprepared for their sudden wealth. Many of them ignore advice from financial experts. They take all of the money as a lump sum, quit their jobs, buy a house, purchase a sports car, travel the globe, and recklessly spend, spend, spend. Oh yes, and sometimes fail to pay taxes. All of a sudden, three years go by and all of the money is gone; they’ve burned right through it.

If someone handed you $10 million, could you safely say you would be smarter than all of those people and have the right money mindset? Don’t be so cocky: most of us aren’t.

This also becomes a major problem when the business scales and money come rolling in. What do we do with all of that money?

Some business owners do everything right: They scale and win. In fact, they win big. The company grows to epic proportions. Wowee! Now it’s time to buy that $100 million office building and $50 million warehouse they’ve been dreaming about. While we’re at it, how about a few sports cars, a summer home, and an island in the Pacific?

I believe that we create our own limited world, therefore we have the ability to create an infinite reality. All we desire is possible.

—Allison Maslan

Don’t get me wrong. It’s fine to enjoy the fruits of your labor. You deserve every penny you’ve earned. Buy a new home if you’ve outgrown the old one. We bought our dream home last year. I love it even more because we earned every last brick and blade of grass.

So get a fancy new car, if you can afford it. Take a well-deserved vacation. At the same time, though, you need to be sure that your cash flow is strong, your Big Picture Vision remains front and center, and you have looked toward the horizon at what’s coming next.

This is when a business coach – and perhaps a trusted financial planner as well – can be especially important to help guide you on the next phase of your life. Where should you invest your excess cash while leaving some reserves safeguarded? Should you sell the business? Or should you buy another one? Start building toward your succession plan?

There is also an opposite circumstance that can occur when a business owner starts to meet with some scaling success: being stagnant. These folks clutch onto their money tight and stay right where they are. They don’t reinvest in the business or share any of the rewards with their team, their family, or their community. When this happens, life can be miserable for everyone involved. They might do so because they are afraid of losing it, are distrustful of others, don’t feel they deserve the wealth or, well, are just plain greedy about hoarding what they’ve earned. Whatever the case may be, it’s not healthy or productive for anyone.

Every time you suppress some part of yourself or allow others to play you small, you are in essence ignoring the owner’s manual your creator gave you and destroying your design.

—Oprah Winfrey , icon, media mogul, billionaire, and TV talk show host

A friend of mine, marketing expert Alex Mandossian, has coined the term cost of inaction, or COI. This concept can be likened to opportunity cost. When you are stagnant on autopilot and refuse to take those bold leaps, you could be losing an absolute fortune. You will always say, “would have, could have, should have” when it comes to COI, but never when you have received the right coaching and taken calculated risks to grow your business.

Developing the right money mindset in anticipation of any situation that might arise is critical to your long-term scaling efforts, growth, and happiness. Whether you are a spender, a conservative hoarder, or somewhere in the middle, start shaping your mindset now.

For every success you will experience on the trapeze, for every beautiful trick that will gracefully catapult you through the air into the catcher’s arms, there will also be numerous misses, overturns, overrotates, and painful plummets into the net. Each time, you will have the mindset that enables you to keep climbing back up that ladder, making that courageous leap, and flying through the air. Once you’ve achieved this, you will strive to do it better with even more grace. Then you will seek to fly higher.

You have the confidence, persistence, and stamina to scale your company and sustain it. Your determined mindset will enable your business to reach unbelievable heights, and you will create happiness throughout your journey in the air. It’s time for you to fly.