Cracking the Secret Code of Entrepreneurs
I bet you’ve never heard of the secret code that every entrepreneur must crack before working for themselves doing what they love. But in the Manual for Entrepreneurs, you will find this clause:
”I do solemnly swear that it’s not about the money. In the event that my client fails to pay, please consider the previous statement invalid as it will immediately become about the money.”
Ok – I admit there is no manual for entrepreneurs, but if a universal guidebook existed you would find that clause right around page 13. And honestly, it always starts off this way. A person with a natural gift is underemployed and feels the need to express themselves because one of their natural talents is being used. A friend or colleague asks them to work on a project for them and asks, how much do you charge. Because the gifted person has a burning desire to exercise their unused gift, they agree to charge little or nothing before they ever stop to count the costs. To top it off, they justify their statement by saying, “its not about the money…” Of course it’s not about the money…right now.
For everyone who knows what I’m talking about, have you noticed a pattern that happens to cause you to fill in the rest of your statement “it’s not about the money…” with “…unless you don’t pay me.” I guarantee you a process took place in those types of situations, right before you begin to regret that you ever agreed to donate your time, money and energy. Let’s walk thru a typical situation.
- You’re at your full time job hating every minute of it, feeling like the host of a big hairy corporate parasite.
- Someone asks you to work on a project that magically happens to fall in the scope of your natural abilities.
- You agree and when they ask you how much you charge you spit out the first number that comes to your head, usually nothing – $0.
- You start working, doing what you love to do without ever thinking about the money. You’re even happy to spend money on the project without thinking of reimbursement.
- And then the bomb drops. You have to spend your time tracking the person down. Or they want you to make changes to your masterpiece. Or you may find that a part of the project required you to do something you didn’t originally agree to.
By now, you’re at your wits end. You’ve put in more time and energy than you planned and feel like you got the short end of the stick. Then you either feel like sticking a price tag on your work or regret doing it altogether. Or even better, you try to convince yourself that it’s not about the money while feeling like you’re not being totally honest with yourself (it’s called a personal lie). The truth is when you first started, it wasn’t about the money. But unbeknownst to you, your outlook slowly changed. So let’s take a second to place money back into its proper perspective.
Money is paper that throws up a red flag to put us on notice that some type of value has just been exchanged. That’s it. When most people branch out to work for themselves or start a part-time business, value comes in the form of fulfillment. They are perfectly fine working for little or nothing as long as they feel special and their hidden talents are utilized. But the moment they begin to feel like their new activity has become work, the money becomes important. Suddenly, personal fulfillment is no longer an even exchange in value.
In the midst of all the economic turmoil going on around you, I still say that it’s not about the money. I am not saying to do everything for free; I’m just submitting to you that you put money in its place. Put it into proper perspective. Money is simply a placeholder for value. And that’s what doing business is all about – delivering and exchanging value.
Editor’s Note: If the events discussed in this article sound a little too much like your life, check out Michael Gerber’s E-Myth.
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