Last night at dinner, as my kids were saying "I want this" and "I want that," I said something that you should never tell your kids.
What did I say?
I said, "you know, money doesn't grow on trees."
Why is this so bad?
Well the goal of my saying this was to try to show them the value of money. And that we have to work to make money to spend on the things we want.
The bad part of this saying is that it paints the wrong picture. It paints the picture that we can't always get what we want. Which is the polar opposite of the attitude I want my kids, and all of the entrepreneurs reading this today, to adapt.
What entrepreneurs MUST be thinking is YES, I CAN get whatever I want. Yes, it won't just come to me, but with hard work and ingenuity, I can and I will get what I want.
Fortunately, right after I said that to my kids, I caught myself.
This was partly due to the interview I recently conducted with Ken Lodi about The Bamboo Principle.
Here's the link to that interview in case you missed it the other day:
http://www.growthinkuniversity.com/members/419.cfm [1]
In the interview, Ken explained that timber bamboo shoots grow very little for four years while their extensive root system is growing and taking hold. But once the roots are firmly in place, the bamboo can grow a shocking 80 feet in just six weeks.
So, I immediately realized that money does in fact grow on trees. The key is to work on the tree's roots. To build such a strong foundation that generating money becomes easy.
Every great company has a strong foundation. They create a brand name, sales systems, delivery systems, etc. And then, they can generate cash and profits each and every day.
So, focus on building an extremely strong foundation. Think through your business model. Learn the best practices for each of the key business disciplines - marketing, HR, finance, sales, etc.
And never let anyone tell you that "money doesn't grow on trees" or that you can't have everything you want. Because money does grow on firmly-rooted trees and you CAN achieve and get everything you want out of life if you resolve to do so.
As you might expect, explaining to my kids (ages 9 and 7) that money can in fact grow on trees wasn't so easy.
Maybe I should have just had them listen to The Bamboo Principle interview [1].