Creating Wealth is it really a secret?

Why do so many people believe the road to wealth is only availed to those having the secret? What if there were no secret but instead a recipe for success that would work if you worked it? These are a few of the observations that come to mind when this questioned is posed. While I don’t disagree that it takes a focus effort, a plan and true motivation to gain wealth I don’t believe it is exclusive to any particular group or set of abilities. However, there are basis principles that have worked and continue to work if consistently applied and maintained for a calculated amount of time. What does that mean? It implies there are so many people on the verge of a significant breakthrough and unfortunately just before it happens for them they decide give up or switch gears. As an example we think of children having a short attention span. However, there are a number of our adults that fall into that same category and are constantly jumping from one lily pad to the next looking for the get rich quick approach to gaining wealth. It is not easy to avoid all the hype of business opportunity after business opportunity making claims that in a few shorts months you can fire your boss and be on the road to financial security. In this troubled economic times who can say they are feeling comfortable about their long term security? The magic however as I have said before is while there millions of business opportunities out there finding the one that truly fits you is the first step. It doesn’t matter if you have the best product or service if you don’t believe in it. There are so many people who are working hard to generate income from business opportunities that don’t fit their skill set, don’t align with their short term income needs, they don’t find enjoyable or they don’t have realistic goals that are supportable by the venture. It all leads to another business failure before it even gets off the ground. What are the key attributes required to generate wealth?

One of the first things is having something you truly believe in, the knowledge to execute and the willingness to take calculated risks to achieve. The ability to take risk is essential because in any business venture you have to be willing to invest either time, money upfront with a belief the future will net a profitable return? Once you have latched onto an business opportunity that you believe is a good fit for your belief system, ability and knowledge you need a plan of action backed by resources of time and most cases money. Managing the resources you have of both time and money are essential to success. It is about putting enough capital and energy in the earlier stages of your business development to confirm you are on the right track. Most of us need positive feedback and encouragement to continue working a plan that could result in wealth. This is not something you decide to do after you have accumulated wealth this is something you do from start to finish. The unfortunate truth is a poor bad money manager with wealth just becomes a bad money manager with wealth. It is like working hard to loss 20 pounds and then putting it back on in half the time it took you to loss it. However, just having a recipe to create something doesn’t by any means assure you of success it is the execution of that recipe that makes all the difference. It takes me back to the first time I attempted to make my grandmother melt in your mouth homemade biscuits. I mean she would get in the morning and start making breakfast and many a day all I cared about was the smell of the biscuits and the knowledge that soon those coupled with canned preserves would make my morning. I was taught my mom at an early age learn to cook the things you love so you don’t have to depend on anyone else to cook them for you. So one morning I asked my grandmother for the recipe of her homemade biscuit and she smiled and without hesitation gave me all the ingredients and explained to me the process of making what I believed could have been an award winning delight. Well with recipe in hand and the process clearly explained I set out to reproduce something I truly loved and being a bit of a cook it was pure pleasure in making the attempt. I stress the word attempt because after about three attempts I gave up because my resulting tray of biscuits didn’t even come close to the lightness, texture and taste of my grandmother’s even on her worst day. My point being to really achieve success in any area it takes more than having the recipe you must also have the drive, dedication and truly desire to succeed. Why didn’t my biscuits come out like my grandmothers because the kneading of the dough was almost an art learned after years of experience and I’m sure at some point along the way trial and error. So while these are some of the critical elements of gaining wealth they by no means are all inclusive. The last element I will mention in this segment is the need to plan and the critical importance of setting realistic and measurable goals to track your performance and hold yourself accountable to achieving wealth as you have defined it. Yes what is wealth to you makes a difference in the planning, tracking and execution. Dare to dream is key because if it is not a challenge to achieve you probably didn’t make it big enough. May the winds of success blow your way and create in you the motivation to keep moving forward in your endeavors. What is the opportunity that will be the right fit for you to branch out in a new exciting direction and built wealth as you invest in yourself and the future for the ones you love?

This blog post is a reflection of the attributes that truly result in you being able to say I love my job. While it has been a difficult year it has also been one to gain a new perspective on applying old skills to new endeavors. I had an opportunity to interview for a position as a Program manager for a banking institute after not interviewing for a job since 2005 when I decided to open a discount store. I wanted to make a break from corporate America and start up my own business. My wife and I chose something we both had enjoyed once, because most people say if you have to work for a living find something you enjoy. Unfortunately enjoying doing something doesn’t mean you are going to be successful at doing it or making enough money to pay your bills. That proved itself out over the next four years as we struggled to make ends meet in running of what expanded to two stores and about 14 different employees during that period. I once heard the most difficult thing about a business start up is finding good people, and that turned out not to be an exception in our case. I can actually say we did enjoy the stores, meeting people, finding deals, developing advertising strategies and organizing the store to attract and keep customers coming back. We were pretty successful at most of these things but when you are in a down economy without enough reserves to weather the storm things have a way falling apart pretty quickly. It has been said many times that it is only a mistake if you don’t learn from it and one thing for sure there was a lot of learning along the way. But back to the most recent job interview for the Program Manager position that happen to a position I enjoyed the most during my career working for  three major companies, Digital Equipment Corporation, Dell Computer and a division of General Electric. Each of those program management position required a different set of skills as it applied to the fundamental requirements of the organization. The position for Digital resided in a high volume manufacturing operation where new mid-range systems were being developed simultaneously in the US and Ayr Scotland operations requiring Program Manager to align the development between the two engineering organization to assure consistent test and development processes were being developed and implemented. The Dell position on the other hand required engineering coordination of destructive device testing for supplier selection. The GE position was development of a Program Management office in an environment that was functioning as a functional structure in bringing New Products to the market. Each of the position while holding the same title of Program Manager required a different level of skill and attributes to be successful in the position. The bottom-line being just because a position has the same title doesn’t mean you will find the same level of job satisfaction in doing it. So when you say I love my job of be a car salesman that may not translate to a sales job for car parts or something totally unrelated to cars. Love my Job has a lot to do with the function of the job but also the environment, the people, the practices and the structure of the organization. Why am I saying all this because when I interviewed for the Program Manager position for the banking institution my joy of the position came out as I reflected on my position with Dell Computer more so than the other two companies. So as you search and land that job you once enjoyed completely and find something is meeting think about what, why and where you loved that job and hope for similarity in your new position.  

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