You will see that money is everywhere if you have the right
'money mindset, which I cover in my book, Yes,
Money Can Buy You Happiness. There are trillions of Dollars in circulation
right now. This does not include the hundreds of billions in pension funds,
venture capital and hedge all looking for places to invest.
Examples of people who had a different money mindset are two
former members of the Beatles pop group, the late John Lennon and George
Harrison.
John Lennon wife once asked him for a swimming pool and he
said, okay I’ll write you one!
When the ISKCON Hari Krishna movement approached George
Harrison, for help to fund a new centre in the UK in the early 1970’s, he
donated money for a property and wrote the album All Things Must Pass to help
raise the money for the movement. One of the massive hits from that triple
album was My Sweet Lord, which featured the chant Hari Krishna and went on to
sell 7 million copies, outstripping sales by his former Beatle colleagues after
the band split. The property Bhaktiavedanta Manor in Hertfordshire is still
there today. I have visited the manor many times and walked in the
commemorative garden opened by his widow Olivia.
You might be thinking, "ok, that's alright if you're a
songwriter, but what about me? Fine, you may not be a writer or an artist, but
you have talent, knowledge and experience in some other area.
In another example, a Guru in India, who needed millions of
dollars to fund a new temple and centre., was asked, where is the money going
to come from? He replied, “from where ever it is now “.
People with this level of mindset realise that when you have
a project or a goal money is no object. The money is out there and you just
have to find it, attracted, manifest it, ask for it or whatever you want to
call it. Lionel Richie said songs and ideas are "in the air".
Billionaires are multimillionaires truly believe that if
they lost everything today they would soon be rich again. Don’t forget, only a
few years ago Donald Trump’s business empire was in Chapter 11 bankruptcy and
people were saying he was finished.
If Richard Branson lost it all today, how long do you think
it would be before he would be a billionaire again? Much of his fortune has
been made using other people’s money, ideas and work. All they needed was the
virgin name.
Develop an abundance mindset by remembering that there is
more money in the world chasing good ventures and ideas than there are ventures
available.
The
4 D formula for getting more things done and feeling good whatever the outcome!
This
simple, 4 step process will help you stay on top of things and feel better
about yourself whatever the outcome.
Do
you find yourself feeling overwhelmed by endless to do lists and a tray full of
things to sort out? If the answer to this question is, yes, join the club! Most
of us have been there!
I
want to give you a quick 4-step process to help you get more organised and,
more importantly, feel better about yourself whatever the outcome.
The
process has evolved from the combination of things I’ve learned over the years
and the many books. For instance, Life Leverage by Rob Moore and Getting Things
Done by renowned expert and bestselling author David Allen.
David
Allen’s book is great, well I say great, but I haven’t actually read it! I’ve
read bits and pieces and I think it will be a dipper rather than a page turner.
It will, however, look great on my bookshelf and people will think that I must
be super organised!
My
advice to David is, if you write in the book aimed at people who are
overwhelmed and can’t get things done, there is no point in writing a 300-page,
small print book, with no photos because no one will ever finish let alone
someone who is disorganised! How will they ever get around to it? Your book
will end up in that pile of unread books and things to do and cause them more
stress!
Before
I start, over the years I have observed hundreds of people, many of whom I have
employed in my businesses, and I have come to the conclusion that there are two
types:
Organised
tidy desk person (OTDP)
Disorganised
messy desk person (DMDP)
Sorry
to disappoint you, but that’s the way it is.
Incidentally,
I have a messy desk. I really do envy those OTDPs who can breeze into work on
time and looking fresh and just eat admin, get everything done and then leave
the office with a completely tidy desk, other than a photo of their loved one
and their favourite personally washed clean mug! Bang on leaving time, they
smile and wave goodbye to everyone, pick up their gym bag and walk out of the
office knowing they have finished the jobs they set out to finish and some
more.
Invariably,
I have found that if you want to employ someone in an admin or an office based
role you better make sure they are an OTDP.
When
it comes to getting things done, how do you feel about things matters more than
you imagine.
If
you are already stressed about a task or hate doing that task, the chances of
you getting on with it are slim. Invariably, you will leave until the eleventh
hour and do it badly or miss the deadline altogether.
There
must be a better way of going through life than being stressed all the time -
becasue there will ALWAYS be things to do, problems, grass growing under your
feet and so on.
Have
you read the book, 1000 places to see before you die? How on earth can you say
1000 places all over the world? It might well be called 1000 places you
probably won’t see before you die, so get over it! I started reading that book
a few years ago and at first it was great. There I was, highlighting the places
I had already seen and would be visiting in the near future. But then it started
to become a little overwhelming. How was I going to get to all of these
countries in the time I had available? Even if 5 years off and went backpacking
around the world I never get to all the places. Most people only have one or
two main holidays a year where they travel abroad, so that's about 80 places
you might get to in a forty-year working life!
Back
to getting things done and feeling good regardless. Here are my 4 Ds:
Do it
Delegate
it
Defer
it
Ditch
it
1.
Do it
Sometimes
you’ve just got to knuckle down, lock yourself away, turn off the TV and get it
done! Sorry, but nothing moves without action, so you may need discipline or a
kick up the arse from someone or yourself.
Things
stop us getting things done are fear and not knowing how to do them.
Fear
is easy to overcome - just get started.
Not
knowing how it's done is easy to overcome. There is a very simple way to learn
how to do almost anything nowadays - Google it. You can now google almost any
task on earth and quickly find out how to perform even the most technical
things in minutes. When a friend of mine was locked out of her Porsche Boxster
because the battery had gone flat. We got the door open and then realised that
the boot lever was electronic and needed battery power! The battery was in the
boot and the boot lever needed a full battery.
After
searching the manual in vain, I googled it and within minutes I was watching a
video of how to get the boot open with a flat battery. It worked!
If
you really can’t get things done you might need some help or you might need to
go to step two
2.
Delegate it
Delegation
sounds obvious, but so many people fail to master it or think they are the only
ones who can do the job right.
You
have to learn to let go, recognise your strengths and weaknesses and delegate
tasks you don't like doing or don't do very well.
I
don’t like admin and things like tax returns and forms. This is why I delegate
it to a PA, accountant or bookkeeper.
I
also get no fun out of cleaning and mowing the lawn, so I hire people at £10 an
hour so I can either do things I enjoy doing or tasks that will earn me more
than £10 per hour.
You
can also delegate thousands of tasks using the millions of freelancers listed
sites such as Upwork.
If
it’s a job you cannot delegate you may need to go to step three.
3.
Defer it
Deferring
something will not cause the stress by not doing it and worrying about why you
have not done it.
In
other words, you’re making a deal with yourself to say, I can’t do this right
now, but I will do it at a future date. Pop it in your calendar. Stress over.
It’s
ok to have a “someday Isle” list of things you may or may not do.
If
you can’t do it, delegate it or defer it you know what comes next.
4.
Ditch it!
This
can be the most liberating step at all, but I would suggest you go through the
first three steps before you start throwing everything away!
Ditching
it can mean that you just tell yourself that you’re not going to do a certain
task and you’re not bothered about it. You could still go back to in the
future, but in the meantime, it’s not
weighing on your mind.
At
the end of the day you can lower the high standards of efficiency you mentally
set for yourself in many areas of your life. It's fine to have a messy
garage or unpacked boxes from the last move. Don’t worry about it.
When
I ran a business, I would have a good clear out of old papers every once in a
while. It was amazing to find that many of the things that hadn't been done or
responded to months back had not made any difference to my life. So many
seemingly important things to do, which I thought were problems and caused me
stress and worry at the time over time actually 'went away' by themselves. I
could have ditched those things at the time and never had to
worry about them.
I'm
not suggesting that you ignore problems, but do apply the 4 D process to them.
On
the other hand, as Mark Twain once said, I’ve had many problems in my life, but
most of them never happened.
You
may have read recently that Jamie Oliver’s restaurant empire has gone into
administration. The talented TV chef had rapidly built up a chain of around 50
restaurants over the last few years. Like his new restaurant branches, Jamie
seemed to be popping up everywhere on television, in the newspapers and on the
Sunday Times Rich list.
Like his new restaurant branches, Jamie
seemed to be popping up everywhere on television, in the newspapers and on the
Sunday Times Rich list.
We
don’t know exactly why his restaurant business went wrong. Some say that his
prices were a little too high for basic Italian food, but I think it also has a
lot to do with the expensive city centre locations and over expansion.
Jamie
apparently put in £30 million of his own money when the company was on the
rocks over a year ago. Evidently, he could not let it go and tried to rescue a
sinking ship.
What
this proves is that it is far easier to make money, or start a successful
business venture, than it is to keep it.
When
you’re on a roll like Jamie was you have a tendency to want to jump into the
next venture and the one after that.
It’s
easy to believe your own publicity and think you’re invincible. Instead of
concentrating on what you have and consolidating your business, you want to
conquer the world.
Would
all like to emulate Richard Branson, the serial entrepreneur who has made
billions from several different businesses, but we forget that he spent years
building his virgin Empire before branching out into other ventures. In fact,
he didn’t start the virgin airline business until after he had sold the virgin
record business to EMI for several hundred million pounds.
Branson
also works with partners and people who have expertise. He doesn’t bear all of
the risk or trying to do all of the work himself.
Just
because you’re a good chef, it doesn’t mean you can become a good
restauranteur, as other celebrity and many lesser known but talented chefs have
found to their cost.
Restaurants,
like most physical businesses, are enormously expensive to set up and the
difference between success and failure can be subtle and fickle.
A
good friend of mine had a successful Turkish restaurant in a nearby town. Due
to his first venture going so well, he decided that he would start up another
restaurant in the same area. This one was to be a little bit more “classy”.
He
spent over £200,000 converting the building into his fancy new, restaurant. It
was really plush inside; the food was great and it was his pride and joy.
Unfortunately, the paying public for some reason did not agree and the
restaurant failed.
New
owners took over and remodelled the restaurant based on their proven formula.
The Turkish food was almost exactly the same, but they opened out the layout
and put long tables in instead of smaller tables with white tablecloths. The
new restaurant immediately took off and to this date is still nearly always
full.
I
have since seen a number of restaurants come and go in the same High Street. I
know that each time a restaurant or shop closes down it has cost the owners
hundreds of thousands of pounds, which is all gone down the drain.
My
tip to anyone starting a new business from scratch is not to start a physical
business or open up a shop. From day one you would’ve spent tens of thousands
of pounds and have to make thousands of pounds every week just to cover your
rent, rates, taxes and staff.
In
my book, Yes, Money Can Buy You Happiness,
there is a section on the celebrities who lost it all. There are countless
stories of sports and media celebrities with quickly made and lost fortunes
through mismanagement of their money and for advice. I’ve personally assisted
form of popstars, I used to see performing on Top of the Pops, who could not
obtain a mortgage due to a poor credit history and being behind with their
current mortgage. Sam had lost their marriages and families. It was sad to meet
once wealthy and famous people end up broke.
Then
they were the megastars like Michael Jackson who had sold 700 million records
and had repeatedly signed $1 billion contract yet was in debt when he died.
Stars like Marvin Gaye, rapper 50 Cent, Toni Braxton, MC Hammer have all been
declared bankrupt despite earning millions in their careers. MC Hammer received
$33 million from one album alone, but blew the lot spending lavishly on cars
and a $12 million home.
There
are others in my book, some of whom will surprise you, like the fact that even
Presidents of the United States have either been bankrupt or had money
problems.
I
also cover the common themes running through the lives of those who have made
and lost millions. These include:
Poor
investments
Bad
management
Overspending
Not
taking care of the taxes
Another
theme is that most of them came from poor backgrounds and perhaps could not cope
with large amounts of money or had a low money consciousness.
This
is the type of money consciousness which I cover it in the book is about how
you feel about money and how comfortable you are around money. If you think
that all rich people are evil and bad this will have a negative effect on you
when you obtain a lot of money.
I’ve
seen this over and over again when people have money but seem to want to push
it away and go back to being broke when they feel more comfortable. Take a look
at some of the lottery winners who have spent their way through tens of
millions of pounds on houses, cars boats, lavish holidays and investing in any
stupid venture that then asked to sink their cash into.
I go
through my advice on watching your back and protecting your assets in the book.
I also talk about the difference between the way rich people and poor people
manage their money.
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