Want to be rich? Heres how to prepare for it at home

Whether you know it or not, everything you are wishing for will ultimately come to fruition if you just keep consistently working, practicing deliberately, and never giving up. Those are the things that everyone probably knows by now but the one thing a lot of people do not know is how to be ready for it.

Most people go into their success journey with the idea that they’ll jump in and see how it goes. They are hoping to be successful and they plan for success by responding to situations as they come. But I like the idea of approaching success with the “prepare to win at all times” approach. The major part of this is to be ready for all your success.

A lot of people do not realize that being successful is much, much more than just creating an amazing impact and reaping the fruits of your work. You not only have to prepare to win professionally, but you also have to prepare personally. As I have always said, my best piece of advice is to not be careful about what you wish for, but rather, be ready for what you wish for!

Many do not realize that professional success can take a real toll on your personal life. For one, you might be losing a lot of friends as you become more successful because it really is “lonely at the top.” Also, your family relations are starting to become strained especially if you’re the first millionaire in your family. This is starting to become a growing problem. Statistics from the US labor are showing that 1100 new, never before, millionaires are being made every day in the US. Your time at home is a lot different now because you are probably working longer hours and weekends.

While all the professional success in the world is great, it’s nothing if you are not taking care of yourself and your personal life at the same time.

1. Time

Time in the success world is not like time in the average world. You are free during times you used to not be and now working at times you used to be free like weekends. To the successful entrepreneur, time is a fluid concept. A day is just a day whether it’s a weekday or a weekend. You are only constrained by other people’s perception of time. Find ways to look at your new schedule and get the most out of it. This might be where a lot of successful people are struggling. Start engineering your schedule and time like you would your business. You were able to become successful in business so look at time as a new challenge to meet. The most successful people always make time for all the things in their life.     

2. Homelife

Your home life is going to be a lot different now as well. While you might be spending a lot less time at home, make the time you do spend at home incredibly magical. Your home is your castle. That sacred place where you find serenity and peace. I realize that with your success, you are probably now putting on a new addition or having the pool installed so things at the successful person’s home can be quite chaotic. But keep in mind that home is where you are the king and queen of your kingdom. Be very proud of the work you have done to own a piece of the American dream and live well. Savor these moments at home as your sense of achievement. Do not worry if you have to bring work home. Work is what made your home life so great. Treat working from home or catching up on work at home as a good friend in your home. You will find that work is the best friend you will ever have!      

3. Healthy eating

This is a big one for me! Success can really pack on the pounds if you are not watching it. Going out to eat at nice restaurants, buying lunches for new clients, drinking fine wines and spirits, and attending all the events of your successful life can really start to take a toll. I get it, you have the money now so why not enjoy the finer things? I bet I gained close to 20 pounds after making my first million. This is so easy to do. A few bottles of wine, Jonny Walker blue label scotch, and big stake dinners don’t affect the checkbook anymore. When my doctor said my blood pressure was getting high, he said my business is creating too much stress and I needed to take more time off. More time off is not a concept easily accepted by the successful person, I said I need to start eating better and exercising more. Really pay attention to this. It’s probably not the stress, you know you can handle the stress. It’s the lavish lifestyle that you need to watch. Take care of yourself fat cat!           

4. Marriage

Having a supportive spouse is like printing money! He or she is that one person willing to walk the tightrope with you and enjoy the breathtaking view is nothing short of magical. Especially if you have built your success together. Keep in mind that flying this close to the sun is not for everyone so if you have the partner that is willing to do it, take care of that relationship with your life. My wife and I spend the early mornings together having coffee. We never miss it. It’s that few hours before the kids get up we get to just talk and really enjoy each other’s company. We do not discuss business. We talk about our kids and our dreams for our future. When they ask me what my favorite time of day is, I will say, “Coffee with her in the morning”    

5. Your kids see you as a superhero

It may not seem like it now and they do not say much about it, but your kids see you as a hero. If you are successful and creating a great life for them, they see that you are doing what most people are only wishing they could do. While your kids hear other people complain about not being rich, you are the one that’s doing it! That’s pretty awesome and you can really take advantage of your awesome factor. Your kids also see you struggle and then get back up and win the battle. There is nothing you can say that will have the effect of an action like this. When your kids see you get kicked and then you get back up and kick some ass to rally a comeback, you might as well be Superman to them. Your kids will never do what you say, but they will do, what you do. Keep showing them how to be successful in this world with your actions rather than your words.  

6. Extended family

This one can be very hard especially if you are the first millionaire in your family. Your parents and in-laws are probably very proud of you but ultimately you have surpassed them in life achievements. This is okay and it’s what they wanted you to do but it does present a problem that you are likely not used to. Your extended family still wants to be relevant in your life but as a successful person, it’s very hard to take advice from people who have never done what you have done. Handle this with extreme care. Be considerate that your extended family still wants to give you advice because they care about you and don’t want you to struggle. They likely do not know that the concepts that made you successful professionally crossover into your personal life success as well. What made you successful at work also makes you successful at home. They generally do not understand your professional philosophies so using them at home is unfamiliar to them. Don’t patronize them by responding to them with your super success zeal. I get it! It’s hard to hear something that you are not already telling yourself 10x as strong. But be kind and accepting and let them be part of your life. Besides, they might be seeing something you are not so listen close and take it well.          

7. Friends

This one can be a biggie! As you have become more successful, you notice you are starting to lose some friends. They complain you never hang out anymore and you get hit with the whole, “You’ve changed” bit. But here’s the hard truth they don’t understand, you know you haven’t changed, people never really change. You just changed your view of life and how you are going to experience it. That vision of your new life sometimes does not include all of your friends. Sorry, that’s just how success is! You need to get very comfortable with the fact that your friends don’t share in your vision and especially do not share in your excitement of your new good fortune. Friends tend to be the sacrificial lamb of success. The Gods of success make you pay this price and give you the choice. No one ever said this was always going to be fun and nice but don’t worry, you’ll make new friends. Likely you will find that friendship drift into more of an acquaintance. Maybe you don’t need friends, maybe your spouse and kids are enough for you and the people you know are just that- people you know. Keep in mind, people who don’t go after thier own dreams rarely understand those who do.        

   

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About a year ago I saw a post that asked many successful people what the one piece of advice they would give to Pre-entrepreneur that were thinking about getting started in a new venture would be. Of course, there was everything from the generic, “Don’t give up” to a complex business dissertation on market trends and finance. I thought about what kind of advice I would give to a new startup entrepreneur but the advice I wanted to give them seem to me, to be a little offensive in nature. I got some advice on how to be a successful businessman from someone that was never successful once and when the numbers shook out, it was far from successful but to the person giving the advice, it looked like a fortune! My advice was going to be, “don’t listen to people who have never been successful” but that kind of advice contradicts what my dad once told me about business and your employees. He said, “Always listen to your man behind the shovel Dan, he generally has the best ideas”, meaning the person working the hardest is always looking for a way to do his job easier.

I also came up with some advice about one of the things that had allowed me to be super competitive, – “Never fall behind on technology.” This is one of the principles I write about in my book, The Unfair Advantage. Committing myself to continued learning and keeping up with new technology has made it possible to work and run my business in the modern world. I work with vendors that can’t even attach a PDF to an email and it makes the business relationship more difficult. But technology is something that can be learned by those who are willing to do it and is becoming a static issue.

I thought hard again about the advice I wanted to give and looked at some of the problems I have in running a successful business and what I would say to myself. “Never give up, don’t be afraid of failure, don’t be afraid of success (yes, success is actually an issue for some people), be careful what you wish for, etc. Then it hit me! “Be careful what you wish for” is exactly what I have had a bit of a problem with! Being careful for what you are wishing for is something that has had a huge effect on my business and my life. I wanted to be one of the most successful businessmen in the area and I wanted to acquire lots of assets and value and wanting that, and working hard every day and thinking about it constantly eventually materialized everything I wanted and more at this stage in my business! I stand back and look at what I have created in just four short years and I sometimes can’t believe it’s actually happening. But here’s where the advice of being careful what you wish for comes in. I haven’t always been ready for this much success!

I have found that wanting and desiring to be successful is much easier than having the ablility to handle it all. Hitting the point of success and fortune is relatively easy. You just do what it takes to get there and out work everyone else and, boom! You’re successful! Success is all about logistics and strategy. Create the plan, strategize and thicken your hide to failures and nothing will stop you. A self-made millionaire is really nothing more than a person with a really good idea that can handle failure… that’s it! I think virtually anyone can do that, but the problem is, are you ready to be a millionaire? This is where the rubber meets the road in the success game. I have been so overwhelmed by the amount of business that has freely and effortlessly came to me that I wasn’t able to handle and control it all. I wasn’t ready for what I was wishing for at the time.

I took down all my advertising and was hoping my phone wouldn’t ring with more business coming in. I couldn’t take on anymore and maintain the kind of quality we were striving for. I know, this sounds like a champagne problem and most people would love to have a problem like that but believe me, most people could have a problem like that!

I then realized what my ultimate business advice was going to be. “Be ready for what you wish for!” What I’m saying in this little piece of business advice is this: don’t worry about whether you’ll get there or not. You will achieve the greatness you are striving for because you have a white-hot burning desire to be super successful. Your brain has an incredible mechanism that takes affect once activated to make you work like a machine and be innovative and creative that almost has an autopilot capability. It becomes second nature to learn and absorb information, shut out the fear, and the thought of failure is nothing more than a mild irritation. It’s going to happen to you just the same way it happened to me but… you have to be ready for it. My advice to you, the future successful, – be ready for all the success that is coming to you! You have to be prepared to handle everything you are wishing for. Just ask anyone that made a large fortune and lost it all. That kind of story is too voluminous to tell. So many professional athletes and superstars have gone dead broke after making colossal millions because they were not ready for what they wished for!

~Daniel J Bockman

New Money Magazine Founder, CEO and Chief Editor