Ever since I was 12 I have been earning my own money. I started by doing odd jobs for my parents. Then I decided I needed to make more money so I got my first regular paying job: washing-up in a restaurant!
I quickly realized that the waiters and waitresses were making much more than me, not only in salary, but also in tips. So as quickly as I could, I got a promotion to waiter! What I noticed was that no matter how hard everyone work, no-one was getting wealthy except the owner. He had a string of restaurants, drove a Rolls Royce, wore expensive clothes and was always going off on exotic holidays. This was my first real lesson in wealth creation, and I never forgot it –
You’ll never get rich working for someone else and just swapping your time for their money!
During my last school summer holiday my dad got me a job working as a labourer in the chemical works where he was in senior management. On my first day I was told to dig a trench but when the foreman came back at lunchtime he was furious with me. I was terrified that I had dug it in the wrong place – I hadn’t! What I had done was to do nearly a whole week’s work in a morning, which would show everyone else up. My next lesson had been learned:
Employees generally do the least they can get away with and working hard won’t necessarily earn you more or get you positive recognition!
After I left university and started working in the city as a futures and options broker I was not only paid a basic salary, but also earned a commission and entitlement to a discretionary bonus. I liked this a lot. I started to make really decent money although there were some drawbacks: I was working long hours always under pressure to perform; I was travelling to work on the tube – crowded, stuffy and unreliable. Although I had started enthusiastically enough, I soon realized I hated what I did for a living but because I had geared my life up to my earning level I couldn’t just drop it and walk away. The final straw was when my ‘discretionary bonus’ ended up in the directors’ pockets, not mine, even though I had had a good year for the company. Over the time I was at my first company – four years – I made a reasonable amount of money but saw the directors make millions.
I had also started singing in a band part-time, as I had always had an interest in and love for music. It was a hobby, but I also knew that the royalties from one successful song could make the writer millions – so I worked on my songwriting too.
Then at my next company, something shocking happened. I was fired. I was told that it wasn’t because I was performing badly; in fact my performance was above average, it was just that they were amalgamating two teams and some people had to go. I felt utterly worthless and didn’t know what to do although I soon got another job. However, it taught me another lesson:
If you work for someone else, they are in control of your destiny, not you!
A short while later, a couple of colleagues and I decided to set up our own financial services company. This was a company in the traditional mould. We leased premises, had lots of phone lines installed, got some company cars, pooled our capital and started hiring staff. Unfortunately, I forgot my previous experiences as an employee and chose to think the staff would all be as enthusiastic as we were. Was I in for a surprise! Everyone was paid before us no matter how little work they did. In addition to this, I was having sleepless nights worrying about how we were going to pay the bills and salaries at the end of the month in that economic climate (soon after the crash of 1987). It turned into a disaster; we kept throwing money at it but eventually I went into work one day, chucked my car keys on the table and said ‘I quit”. I had lost everything. More lessons learnt:
Traditional businesses are expensive to get off the ground; the employee/employer relationship is a tough one; and the industry you choose to get involved in should have long-term growth potential. Finally; you never run a business, the business runs you.
I was devastated at losing everything and for a few months I became a self-employed odd job man and decorator just to make ends meet. When I had work it was fine, but as soon as the work dried up, so did my income. Another lesson:
Being self-employed doesn’t make you a business owner.
In fact most self-employed people simply swap their time for money, just like an employee.
Then a friend invited me to go to a meeting to see this new and different way of doing business. I was sceptical, but as soon as I saw how the business model worked I was hooked. The ability to earn a royalty income – like being a songwriter or musician – paid on the performance of the team you build; success only coming from helping the people in your team to also be successful; being able to leverage time without employing anyone; no red tape; no overheads; no stock holding; no fear of redundancy; being able to work from home; a ‘pension’ built by investing time rather than money; a willable income; travel and Profit Share!
20 years into my Forever career I have a life that most people can only dream about. I earn a six-figure royalty income that is paid to me from many different countries. I take two to three months holiday every year. I have been able to privately-educate my three children, Ella, George and Alice, but above all, I have that elusive thing that many desire but few achieve…
F R E E D O M !
