ROUND 3! MONEY DOESN’T GROW ON TREES?

This is so true! Yet, I find in my daily adventures so many people think life and things will be handed to them on a silver platter. I also find that people who are in bad, rough or even dire situations seem to not give much thought to how they are going to escape their plight. Today we are going to help you see the truth about moving forward.

Money definitely doesn’t grow on trees, right? It can seem unfortunate at times that our society and our culture has wrapped itself so tightly around money that people will kill, destroy their own lives, or hurt others to get it. We have built a society that truly revolves around it. For many people it can be really tough to navigate when they haven’t been taught how money works and people will make all kinds of awful decisions to try and achieve any kind of financial status, even the bare minimum lifestyle.

Here is the kicker, money really isn’t everything. A lot of people seek it like it is some kind of Holy Grail to happiness when it really isn’t. I have known a vast amount of people who have gobs of money and are miserable, I don’t think it’s a rule of course. But money is no guarantee of happiness. I have also met people who live check to check, have kids and not much in the way of things that are completely happy. I often envy those people.

Money and getting it can make life complicated. The more you want, the more you have to be devoted to it meaning you are not available. This is how a lot of people tend to kind of “sell their soul” so to speak. So, let’s say you are married and have kids but you want your family to have that big house on the hill and all the cool cars and swimming pool so they can be thankful you are the man of the house. Well, guess what, you won’t be around to enjoy it let alone watch them enjoy it. Then there can be huge amounts of resentment because you are never around making for an unstable or unhappy household which thereby defeats the purpose of what you set out to do in the first place.

And to the single people who think that if they just had a million dollars, they could party til the sun comes up every day well, you are in the worst boat because what you don’t understand about a million dollars is that it doesn’t go very far when you only care about the party life. It costs money to party, a LOT! These are the people who pretty much always lose everything in the end and end up worse than when they started.

This might seem like a negative viewpoint, but I definitely do not have enough fingers and toes to count how many times I have seen the scenario play out. In order to gain money, even just enough to get by, you’re going to have to work. Work isn’t all bad. Most people who hate to work are usually lazy or have a warped view of what work really is. If you’re lazy, you’re going to have to change. Period. For those of you with that warped view of work, sit down, I have some great news for you.

First, we look at work, or a job, wrong, almost all of the time. I have met many people who look at their job as merely a steppingstone to get somewhere else in life and that is OK but many of these people that I have come across end up in the same place 5 years later. Why is that? I’ll tell you why, because they don’t know what they are doing. They are chasing a completely unrealistic dream.

We are told, especially today, to follow your dreams! Follow your heart! YOU are a winner! YOU are great! Parents 60 and 80 years ago were more like: “GET TO WORK”! And you did! A happy medium needs to be found as in today’s average life, our parents, our government have more of an attitude of YOU shouldn’t have to suffer at your job! YOU shouldn’t have to work that hard! YOU need a mental health day! Don’t take any crap from your boss! YOU are the most important!

This is all wrong! It only feeds our egos and when “the world” doesn’t play nice guess what, our feelings get hurt, we are offended and often we either retaliate in negative ways or become subdued only exposing our egos as delusional. I would ask, what do YOU dream about? What do YOU have in YOUR heart? What is YOUR idea of being a winner? I would bet that for most people these results would be completely unrealistic for the skill level and mental or emotional integrity that they possess.

Are your feelings hurt yet? Sweet! Let’s talk about how to fix it! Are you stuck in that burdensome job that will never take you anywhere? Great! Let’s MAKE IT take you somewhere! Let’s say you work at McDonald’s. You work at the register. You’ve been working at the register and cleaning the lobby and bathrooms for a year, you make $15/hr. because your government insisted that it was a great living wage. Here is the problem with that, it’s aiming low, very low, for what you desire is much higher than you are reaching.

Since you have been stuck in limbo for a year, start showing interest in other things. Ask if you can be on the cooking line, ask if you can be involved in other aspects of the job, whatever you don’t do that see others doing. When I say others I mean anyone who works in that store, including the managers! Yes, that’s right, WANT THEIR JOBS!! This doesn’t mean you have to get them fired, quite the opposite. It means, that you get to lift them up and help them move on to their next position. Once you take their jobs, you will need to teach the people below you to take your job.

As ridiculous as it may sound, this is how it all works. What are you doing for others? If it is only your heart and dreams to be a servant to yourself, then if you are broke and stuck you are exactly where you deserve to be. Life isn’t about YOU, it is about everyone. As I am sure everyone has heard, “You reap what you Sow”, sowing means to plant seeds, reaping means to collect the harvest. If you are only planting seeds into your greedy self-centered dreams then the problem is obvious, it’s YOU! You don’t care about anyone but yourself. Name one person who is successful that did by themselves. You can’t, it’s impossible.

As an owner of three companies, I can honestly say that I could never have gone this far without other people, from the lowest in my life to the highest. I NEEDED them. Develop relationships with people that are above you. Admit that they are above you so that you can serve them well so that you may then be served. We all have to pay our dues. So, moving along, let’s say you work your way up to Shift Manager. Congrats! You’re making another couple dollars an hour, doesn’t exactly buy you a house right? Sure it does, it will just take more time and work. Now that you are outperforming your peers and have worked your way up to Shift Manager, the Assistant Store Manager position suddenly becomes available. Make no mistake about it, you will at least be considered for that position that will make you another $5/per hour. Then, at what point do you end up with an opportunity to be the Store Manager? Now you can make another $5-10/hr. more.

Here is where you compound your efforts, you start out at this register job and within a few years can be running the whole store. Do you have any idea how much experience you just gained? And you didn’t even need to get $100,000 in debt for a college degree. You actually got paid to learn! Now, let’s say you spend 5 or ten years in the McDonald’s Corp. You could seek opportunities to be a regional manager or even move into another job market with your management experience that could make you even more money!  

Now let’s shift a little focus to the nay sayers, the people who always have an excuse like that the bosses don’t like them or have attitude problems. GET OVER IT! If you really want to make it in life you need to stop whining and understand that you will have to suffer sometimes. I certainly don’t condone managers treating their crew members badly, but it is just going to happen. Instead of fighting it, try to be on their side, try to figure out how you can make their day easier. This is what it is all about.

INVEST into your job with your time, your attitude, your care and you will find that it WILL come back to you. Do this and your “job” will become something you never expected a career! Get into work today and change your mindset to, “I am going to make this company some money today”! Start saying that everyday and you will see yourself start to change. Your alternative is to quit and move on to the next crappy job. After 10 years and you are still broke, you won’t need to ask why, just remember, “You will never get anywhere if you keep starting over”.