Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life: How to Unlock Your Full Potential for Success and Achievement by Brian Tracy Page A
Authors: Brian Tracy
Ads: Link
repeating, “If it’s to be, it’s up to me!”
Fortunately, in America there are more opportunities for wealth creation and personal success than have ever existed previously in all of human history. The United States is the only country on earth that is commonly referred to overseas as “the land of dreams.” In 2003, it was rated as the most entrepreneurial country in the world.
This means that it is easier to start and build a successful business in the United States than it is anywhere else on earth.
As information and technology continue to expand and multiply times each other, and competition continues to intensify, more and more opportunities are opening up every day for the creative minority who are willing to take advantage of them. Your job is to find these opportunities, and if you don’t find them, create them for yourself.
■ THE COMMON DENOMINATOR
One of the discoveries in the research on self-made millionaires is the finding that most of them start off with little or no money. Most of them start off by saving their money carefully for a long time until they have enough to start a small enterprise or business. Some of the biggest companies in America were started on a kitchen table or in a garage, like the Hewlett-Packard Company or Apple Computer. Some of the newest millionaires in America come from the field of multilevel marketing. Working from home, they paid $50 for a sample kit and went out to work. They sold something, made a profit, reinvested their profits, grew larger, and eventually achieved financial independence.
In Dr. Thomas Stanley’s interviews with self-made millionaires, he discovered their common denominator of success. The most important quality that self-made millionaires used to explain their success was the habit of hard, hard work.
Self-made millionaires work much harder than the average person. They start earlier, work harder, and stay later. According to many studies and interviews, self-made millionaires work an average of 59 hours per week. Some work considerably more, especially at the beginning.
ccc_tracy_4_52-76.qxd 6/23/03 2:47 PM Page 62
62
➤
CHANGE YOUR THINKING, CHANGE YOUR LIFE
■ WASTING TIME AT WORK
The average employed person puts in about 40 hours per week on the job, but only about 32 hours of that is officially working time.
Fully 50 percent of time spent at work is wasted in idle socializing with co-workers, personal telephone calls, and personal business.
Average employees start a little later, take long coffee breaks and lunch hours, and leave a little earlier. Even managers privately report that they spend fully half of the time they are at work doing things that have absolutely nothing whatever to do with the job.
Only about 5 percent of people working today work full-time on their jobs from the time they begin each day until the time they finish. These people are the ones on the fast track in their careers. They are moving upward and onward, getting paid more and being promoted faster. They are the movers and shakers in every business, and everyone knows who they are.
■ LOW-VALUE ACTIVITIES
The saddest part of the research into employee work habits is not just that people waste a lot of time at work. It is that in the other 50 percent of the time, when people are actually working on company tasks and responsibilities, they tend to work on low-value, low-priority tasks. As a result, they contribute little of value to their companies. Low productivity leads to lower wages and fewer opportunities.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of people are laid off from large and small corporations, often from white-collar, midmanage-ment jobs. Why is this? The answer is simple. The companies have finally learned that they are paying high salaries to people who are producing very little of value. No company can survive very long under these conditions, and these companies are determined to survive. So the redundant staff has to go.
■ YOU CAN
Fortunately, in America there are more opportunities for wealth creation and personal success than have ever existed previously in all of human history. The United States is the only country on earth that is commonly referred to overseas as “the land of dreams.” In 2003, it was rated as the most entrepreneurial country in the world.
This means that it is easier to start and build a successful business in the United States than it is anywhere else on earth.
As information and technology continue to expand and multiply times each other, and competition continues to intensify, more and more opportunities are opening up every day for the creative minority who are willing to take advantage of them. Your job is to find these opportunities, and if you don’t find them, create them for yourself.
■ THE COMMON DENOMINATOR
One of the discoveries in the research on self-made millionaires is the finding that most of them start off with little or no money. Most of them start off by saving their money carefully for a long time until they have enough to start a small enterprise or business. Some of the biggest companies in America were started on a kitchen table or in a garage, like the Hewlett-Packard Company or Apple Computer. Some of the newest millionaires in America come from the field of multilevel marketing. Working from home, they paid $50 for a sample kit and went out to work. They sold something, made a profit, reinvested their profits, grew larger, and eventually achieved financial independence.
In Dr. Thomas Stanley’s interviews with self-made millionaires, he discovered their common denominator of success. The most important quality that self-made millionaires used to explain their success was the habit of hard, hard work.
Self-made millionaires work much harder than the average person. They start earlier, work harder, and stay later. According to many studies and interviews, self-made millionaires work an average of 59 hours per week. Some work considerably more, especially at the beginning.
ccc_tracy_4_52-76.qxd 6/23/03 2:47 PM Page 62
62
➤
CHANGE YOUR THINKING, CHANGE YOUR LIFE
■ WASTING TIME AT WORK
The average employed person puts in about 40 hours per week on the job, but only about 32 hours of that is officially working time.
Fully 50 percent of time spent at work is wasted in idle socializing with co-workers, personal telephone calls, and personal business.
Average employees start a little later, take long coffee breaks and lunch hours, and leave a little earlier. Even managers privately report that they spend fully half of the time they are at work doing things that have absolutely nothing whatever to do with the job.
Only about 5 percent of people working today work full-time on their jobs from the time they begin each day until the time they finish. These people are the ones on the fast track in their careers. They are moving upward and onward, getting paid more and being promoted faster. They are the movers and shakers in every business, and everyone knows who they are.
■ LOW-VALUE ACTIVITIES
The saddest part of the research into employee work habits is not just that people waste a lot of time at work. It is that in the other 50 percent of the time, when people are actually working on company tasks and responsibilities, they tend to work on low-value, low-priority tasks. As a result, they contribute little of value to their companies. Low productivity leads to lower wages and fewer opportunities.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of people are laid off from large and small corporations, often from white-collar, midmanage-ment jobs. Why is this? The answer is simple. The companies have finally learned that they are paying high salaries to people who are producing very little of value. No company can survive very long under these conditions, and these companies are determined to survive. So the redundant staff has to go.
■ YOU CAN
Similar Books
