There's an exercise for you; imagine that it's
possible for you to earn ten times your current annual wage. If you're
earning $25,000, imagine for a moment that it's possible for you to earn
$250,000, a 1000% increase.
Don't
Sell Yourself Short
The first reaction of most people to that
exercise is to smile briefly and then to begin thinking about why it isn't
possible. One man said to me, "If you knew how many years it's taken for me
to get to what I'm earning today you wouldn't be suggesting that I could
earn ten times as much."
Be Different and Make a Difference!
Never A
Good Excuse
Mark Twain once wrote that there are a thousand
excuses for every
failure but never a good reason. The tragedy of the
average American is that whereas his or her main preoccupation seems to be
money, or the lack thereof, the average person has the inherent potential to
earn far more than he or she is doing currently.
Is the manager earning $250,000 per year ten
times as smart as the manager earning $25,000? 10 times as experienced? Does
he or she work 10 times harder? Of course not. None of these are physically
or mentally possible, but there are people in every business earning many
times more than others with the same average age, experience and
intelligence.
The Results Are In
In fact, a few years ago in New York, a
thousand men and women were selected at random and tested for I.Q. Between
the one having the highest I.Q. in this sample and the one with the lowest,
there was a difference of only 2 1/2 times. But between the person earning
the most, who by the way, was not the one with the highest I.Q. and the one
earning the least, who was not the one with the lowest I.Q., there was a
difference of 100× in income.
Yin and Yang of Entrepreneurial Creativity
