At some level we all desire to be financially successful. Financial success solves many of life’s problems. Being financially successful means you no longer have debt, you no longer worry about paying your monthly bills and you don’t need lenders to finance major purchases like cars, homes or college education for your kids. Financial success means you no longer have to “work” at a job you do not like or are not passionate about. At it’s core, financial success is all about freedom.
But financial freedom comes at a cost. For millions, that cost is a lottery ticket – the short-cut to financial success. But for self-made millionaires, there are no short-cuts. Creating financial success is a process and that process comes at a cost far more significant than a lottery ticket. That cost often involves giving up the good for the great.
Jim Koch, co-founder of Boston Beer Company, left his $250,000 a year consulting job in 1984 to pursue his passion – building a business around his family’s beer recipe. Everyone around him, including his father, advised him against it. Despite the many entreaties from his family and friends, Jim made a fateful decision to give up the good in pursuit of the great. Today, Jim is worth in excess of 1 billion dollars.
Over the past sixteen plus years I have devoted all of my available time to studying the differences between the rich and the poor. One thing I’ve noticed, one correlation, one common thread, is that at some point, the self-made millionaires in my study made a decision to give up the good to pursue the great. That almost always involved taking a risk by leaving their current job and going all in on something they were passionate about.
When we leave the good for the great, we invariably must step outside our comfort zone. That’s not an easy thing to do. And because it’s not an easy thing to do, very few do it. That’s why there are so few self-made millionaires. The average person is simply unwilling to give up what they have, the good, in order to pursue something great. Fear and limiting beliefs holds most back from pursuing the great. If you want to be financially successful, to be free from financial worries, you must give up the good for the great. Or, do what millions of unsuccessful people do – buy a lottery ticket.
About Thomas C. Corley
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