Thinking like a millionaire

Attitude is Everything
The most important attitude for financial success
is long-term thinking. Successful people think a
long way into the future and they adjust their daily
behaviors to assure they achieve their long-term
goals. In a longitudinal study done at Harvard
University in the 50s and 60s, they studied the
reasons for upward socio-economic mobility. They
were looking for factors that would predict whether
or not an individual or family was going to move
upward and be wealthier in the future than in the
present.

They studied factors like education, intelligence,
being born into the right family, or having the right
connections. In every case, they found individuals
who had been born with every blessing in life who
did poorly. They also found individuals who had been
born or come to this country with no advantages at
all who had been extremely successful. What was
the distinguishing factor?

They finally determined that there was only one
key attitude that mattered. They called it "Time
Perspective. " Time perspective refers to the
amount of time that you take into consideration
when planning your day to day activities and
when making important decisions in your life.

Time Perspective

People with long-time perspective invariably move
up economically in the course of their lifetimes.
When you spend weeks, months and years
developing your skills and ability and expanding
your experience in order to be successful, you
have long-time perspective. The average
professional person has a time perspective of 10,
15 and 20 years.

Begin to see that everything that you are doing
today is part of a long-time continuum, at the end
of which you are going to be financially independent
or financially unfortunate. People with short-time
perspective think only about fun and pleasure in
the short term. They have what economists call
"The inability to delay gratification. " They have
an irresistible tendency to spend every single
penny they earn and everything that they can
borrow.

When you develop long-time perspective, you
develop the discipline to delay gratification and
to save your money rather than spending it. The
combination of long-time perspective and delayed
gratification puts you onto the high road to financial
independence.

Action Exercises
Now, here are two things you can do to develop the
attitudes of financially successful people:

First, think long-term about your financial life. Decide
exactly how much you want to be worth five years,
ten years and twenty years from today. Write it down.
Make a plan. Take action on your plan every single day.

Second, develop the ability to delay gratification.
Instead of buying something on impulse, put off
buying decisions for a day, a week or even a month.
Decide in advance to "think it over" before you buy
anything. This can change the way you spend money
almost immediately.

Everyone is important
Everyone has critical skills and knowledge that are
important to many other people in the company.

Use Better Titles for Each Person
Some years ago, when I started in business, the job of
the receptionist was to answer the telephone and direct
the callers to the appropriate people. Today, however,
her job is far more complicated and, therefore, more
important. Since she is the first contact that most
customers have with our business, her personality
and temperament are extremely important.

Think About Your Customers
The prospective client who telephones begins forming
an impression of us the instant that the telephone is
answered. Then, because our companies are doing so
many things, she must tactfully ascertain exactly how
the caller may be best served and who is the best
person in the company to direct the telephone call to.

One Person Can Make the Difference
In many cases, there are requests for further information,
and follow-up telephone calls go through our front-office
manager. Her ability to handle these calls effectively, to
direct calls to the right people, to take accurate messages,
and to act as the core person in a network of
communications makes her job so important that it is
essential that she sit in on all staff meetings and be
aware of everything that is going on.

Keep Yourself Informed
Your job in your company also requires that you know a
lot about what is going on everywhere else, as well as
being thoroughly conversant with what you do. And the
fastest and most accurate way of keeping current with
what is going on is to develop and maintain a network of
contacts, an informal team of people within your workplace
who keep you informed and who you keep informed in turn.

Encourage Participation and Involvement
The old methods of command and control now exist only at
the old-line companies, many of which are fighting for their
very survival. Today, men and women want a high degree
of participation and involvement in their work. They want
an opportunity to discuss and thoroughly understand what
they are doing and why they are doing it. People are no
longer satisfied to be cogs in a big machine. They want to
have an integral role in achieving goals that they participated
in setting in the first place.

Build a Top Team
Being a team player is no longer something that is optional.
Today, it is mandatory. If you want to achieve anything of
consequence, you will need the help and cooperation of lots of
people. Your main objective is to structure everything you do
in such a way that, because you are constantly cooperating
and working well with others, they are continually open to
helping you achieve your goals.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put
these ideas into action.

First, recognize that every person in the company is
essential to the smooth functioning of the organization.
Take time regularly to discuss their jobs with them
and understand what they do.

Second, identify the things that you do that can really
affect the work of others. Then, look for ways to do your
job so that you help others in every way possible.

Quote of the post
"The big shots are only the little shots that keep
shooting." - Christopher Morley"