Thomas' Tip of the Day: July 10, 2006

WHEN THE SUN IS SHINING PREPARE FOR THE RAIN

I know it sounds a little depressing but it's true. People definitely do not do this enough.

When faced with adversity, we dig in deep, kick ass, take names and prevail. Once we are in the winners circle we forget the things that got us there. We forget the dedication, the focus, the struggle. We get complacent and end up in the same situation we've just fought our way out of. When you are just winning the first battle of the war you must continue to fight just as hard until the battle is over.

Let’s look at two real life examples:

EXAMPLE ONE: PERSONAL LIFE
You get one credit card paid off and you’re feeling good- fist pumpin' all over town (Thanks SS). You find yourself at Border's bookstore buying a book, or magazine (a budgeted expense) and you see a night light for sale. You think to yourself, “It's only $16.99”.

ARE YOU NUTZ!

You shouldn’t even be considering that. Are all of your credit cards paid off? You have gone 20 something years without this dumb-ass night light, but yet all of a sudden you need it. STOP FOOLING YOURSELF. This is the trap that got you in debt to begin with. Get back on the grind. Remember every penny counts.

Once you have refrained from spending, go harder. Take another look at your budget, and your savings, and turn it up a notch or two. You knew nothing about your finances when you first established your budget, now you are an expert. Take another look with your experienced eyes and tweak another $10 per week out.



EXAMPLE TWO: BUSINESS
Your business is finally doing well. You feel like you can take $500 bucks and go buy some company T-shirts.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!

You should take any extra money and prepare for repairs, maintenance, better equipment, or pay down overhead. You owe it to your business and your employees to do everything in your power to establish a solid foundation. Once that is completed, you then work on making sure your top performers are happy. Then and only then can you worry about T-shirts.

Then...you guessed it....GO HARDER!
While things are going well for your business take this opportunity to step up your game. Get better at what you do. Now that you are not worrying about profits, over achieve to over satisfy your customer base. Use that extra energy to think of ways to improve quality and cut costs. Do product research, implement processes and procedures that will insure the continuance of quality work. Stay hungry.


Keep this tip in mind. When you treat the good times not so good, then the bad times won’t really be that bad. Rich people have Great times and not so great times. There are no bad times. (Health issues excluded).

So when the rain comes you are prepared to weather the storm. Why shouldn't you be, you knew it was coming.


-MJL