Hello, everyone! I know it has been a while since I have posted and I would apologize for my absence ... but I am not really sorry because I have been very busy in the pursuit of a major goal.
Shortly after my last post, I started a telecommunications business with ACN and I have been working hard this past month and a half introducing the business and the services we offer to everybody I know. It is an amazing opportunity and I am having a blast as I change people's lives and create a bright future for me and my family.
About a week after I started my business, I went to a conference in Idaho where I heard an amazing truth that has really stuck with me and I have been dying to share with all of you.
Marlene Brehm was the guest speaker from California and shared a lot of awesome information on the importance of having a proper mindset, the power of belief and a lot of other topics to help us succeed in this business. She shared one story of when she introduced the business to a well-to-do gentleman that she had become acquainted with. The gentleman saw the potential of the business and asked how much it would cost him to get involved.
"499," Marlene replied.
To Marlene's surprise the gentleman hesitated and was thoughtful for a few moments after which he replied, "Well, it will probably take me a few months to get that kind of money together. Check back with me here in a couple of months and I think I will have it all by then and we can get going."
Marlene was completely confused. This man was very well off and yet he was saying that it would take a couple of months to get $499 together. Then it dawned on her. He thought she meant $499,000! And in spite of that misconception, he was still committed to joining the business!
The point that I want to make with this story is how much more committed do you think that gentleman was to succeeding in ACN when he was ready to sign up with a $499,000 investment than someone who is only investing $499? Even those of us who are living paycheck to paycheck can stand to lose $499. But what if it was, $4,990? Or $49,900? Or finally the $499,000? At what point would the pain of loss become great enough to raise your determination to succeed to the "Do or Die!" level?
This is true of any goal or resolution we set. People who set the goal of losing weight and treat it as being only 20 pounds fail. It is those who realize it is 20 more years of their life that they will have due to healthy eating habits and regular exercise that win. People who set the goal of getting out of debt and treat the $50 that they could add to their monthly payment as insignificant stay in debt much longer or get deeper in debt. Those who think of that $50 as the key to getting out of debt months earlier and saving them thousands of dollars in interest (which it does) succeed and are out of debt sooner.
You have to accept the fact that quitting on your goals has a much higher cost than you think. It is the Opportunity Cost! Everyone who has ever taken an economics course will recognize this term as the cost of an alternative that must be foregone in order to pursue a certain action. When you quit on your goals and dreams (you can never fail - you either succeed or you quit), you automatically incur the cost of whatever benefits you would have realized if you had stuck with it until you succeed.
My initial cost when I started a business with ACN was only $499, but it is not a $499 business to me. I could quit a $499 business and not feel too bad about it. It is a $499,000,000 business to me because that is the amount of money that I leave on the table over my lifetime if I quit. And that is only a fraction of the value of the time and the adventures that I will have with my wife and my kids, the value of the friends that I will make as I work with others, and the value of the joy that I will receive watching other people's lives change for the better because I had the courage and the tenacity to keep going on my goals and to never quit!
Many of us are beginning to consider what resolutions we are going to set for the coming year. If you are not a resolution maker, I hope you have some goals that you are working on that will change your life and the lives of others for the better. As you set your goals and your resolutions, write down the Opportunity Cost of everything you give up if you quit. Keep that and your "Why" in the forefront of your mind whenever the going gets tough to remind yourself that you cannot afford to quit!
If the cost isn't great enough to keep you from quitting, you either aren't thinking hard enough or perhaps you have set some goals that really don't mean that much to you at all. If it is the latter, it may be time to set more worthwhile goals.
So go for your goals and be determined to never incur the cost that comes with quitting. Because if you keep going long enough and are willing to overcome any obstacle that gets in your way, you will succeed!
~ Napoleon Hill
