Recently I have been devouring self-help books, psychology texts and biographies of people I admire. I am on a bit of a self development kick and am loving the revelations that are coming from trying to better myself. One of the books I am reading is an old copy (1980) of Tom Hopkins How To Master The Art Of Selling. Here are a couple of quotes:
“People always choose the economic level they’ll accept – it’s never thrust on them.”
This got me thinking. When I was going through college I remember thinking that if I could get a job making $100,000 a year then my life would be amazing. I would be living in a land of milk and honey and money would be so plentiful life would be blissful. My first ‘real’ job was working for Washington Mutual as a loan consultant (I don’t count owning a little restaurant before that as a real job, nor the dozens of part time jobs either). The day that I got hired was the same day as an awards ceremony for the previous year. I was invited to the party and my wife and I sat there as the annual production awards were handed out. The top achiever for the year, and the man assigned to be my mentor for the next 6 months, had funded close to $200,000,000 in home loans resulting in a annual pay of over $1,000,000! All of a sudden $100,000 seemed paltry. I watched the attitudes and the resulting production of the different loan consultants that I worked with for the next couple of years and noticed that each of their production was limited to what they felt they could attain. The built their own glass ceilings. This leads to the next quote:
“You’re choosing a level of life that’s poor compared to what you could have with the extra exertion you are capable of.
It’s all on your shoulders, and there’s no way you can shift a bit of the responsibility to anyone else.”
I believe that I have limited my level of life in recent years and that my goals and attitudes need to reflect a higher focus. This leads me to a challenge and a question that I hope to get some feedback on:
Challenge: Raise the bar as to what you thought was possible in your work, relationships and personal achievements. Believe that you can attain greater job titles, production numbers, income; believe that you can have more meaningful relationships; believe that you can achieve great things. Then start out today to do so.
Question: Has there ever been a time in your life when you have had a similar paradigm shift? A time when you went from thinking that one level of life was acceptable to aspiring for something greater? If so, how did you make the change?
I leave you with an example of a different paradigm. I recently purchased a copy of Robb Report and read about a cell phone that cost $6,000, private jets, a yacht that costs $250,000,000, and cars that made my mouth water. An old friend of mine blogged about a family he is working with on a project to develop the private island they bought into fractional ownership luxury properties. That family obviously doesn’t accept the 9-5, 3% annual raise, get your pension paradigm.
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