Small Business Coaching
You may be familiar with my story of how I grew up out in the country and at age five decided the answer to life – and financial struggle – was to become a millionaire. At five I went through an amazing shift when one day I visualized becoming a millionaire so strongly, that for me it was already done.
I ran into the house and looked up at my parents. Then in that little boy voice screamed out “when I grow up, I’m going to be a millionaire!”
Self Made Millionaire
By 25 I had a home on the water, a Mercedes in the garage, and in my 20’s realized my dream of becoming a self-made millionaire. I had statement about money – there are two types of money, mine and everyone else’s. And, my goal was to get more of the pile I called mine.
Personal Confession
When I watched the movie “Wall Street” again this past weekend, I thought about how I had done my own smaller version of the character Gordon Gekko. His only concern was to make money. And, while I didn’t go as far as Gekko in that I wasn’t dishonest in how I did business, I was just totally self motivated to the exclusion of caring about others also getting ahead with me.
Greed is Good
Watching the movie “Wall Street” again last weekend and hearing Gordon Gekko’s famous speech “Greed is Good” reminded me of how out of whack I had been when I first started out in business in my 20’s. However, now that I’ve become a small business coach, I’ve noticed that what I went through is a stage that many people go through initially. It is the total obsession with finally having money -and wanting more of it and all that it can buy.
That happened in my life. It happens in a lot of people’s lives. The problem for Gordon Gekko is he never evolved beyond it to a more conscious way of seeing life and business….
Conscious Choice
Well, a few months after I bought the home, I had another major epiphany. I realized that when I created my goal of becoming a self made millionaire, I hadn’t considered what was really necessary to have a truly wealthy and fulfilling life. I had only created a goal of having a million dollars.
My problem, you see, wasn’t a lack of money, but a lack of meaning, fulfillment, and true happiness in my life. Yeah, I know – I forgot to make that part of my goal (which is one of the reasons I am so passionate about telling people to get the money AND the meaning, not just one or the other. Having money without meaning, isn’t fulfilling. But then having a meaningful life but NO money isn’t much fun either.
I had a feeling that I was out of sync, that something was awry. I realized that I had accomplished my goal but that my goal only included what money could buy and not a life that gave me meaning.
I created a new saying: a good bottle of wine is better than a bad one, but if money is all you have, you’re not living fully.
Small Business Coaching
And, then I chose “LIVE FULLY” as my personal motto.
I made a conscious choice that being a self made millionaire had to include more than money. That was a major turning point for me. It was the day that I began saying Goodbye Gordon Gekko – that is, the Gekko that was inside of me.
Small Business Coach
And, I went out in search of finding a more fulfilling life. And, in the process, I began to approach money and business success differently. I started to include others and the world around me as being more important. Ultimately I came to a new place, and a new saying: let’s all win together.
That was a turning point. I stated to become conscious of what mattered most in life – and also what mattered in terms of building a robust business. It turned out that I, like Gordon Gekko, had it all wrong. Money – whether millions or billions – isn’t the correct focus. I don’t mean ignore the bottom line. Anyone who knows me realizes that I am bottom line focused in business.
Millionaire Mentor
But what it does mean is to shift from an obsession with what is in it for me and how to I get a bigger pile of money to a new view of business success that I call the win-win-win perspective.
When you are concerned about you, others, and the world around you ALL winning, not only do you have a more enjoyable ride, you can also achieve higher profits. Why? Everyone is on board with a common goal – everyone winning.
Small Business Coach: Just ask yourself. Whose team would you as an employee want to be on – the one with the leader who only cared about him or herself, or the team with the leader who also wanted you, the clients, the community in which you live – to win?
Goodby Gordon Gekko – it’s time to move on.
The Conscious Millionaire Business model is about everyone winning.
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Your Small Business Coach,
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J V Crum, III, M.B.A., J.D., M.S. Psy
Author, “Conscious Millionaire: The Formula for Creating Wealth”
Keynote Speaker, Event Presenter, Radio and TV Guest Personality
NLP Coaching, Master Certified NLP Coaching, Entrepreneurship Training
Founder, Conscious Millionaire Institute, LLC / Conscious World Foundation, Inc.
www.ConsciousMillionaire.com/blog
www.ConsciousMillionaire.com/contact
Keywords: small business coaching, small business coach, j v crum, conscious millionaire