You’re such a Winner

Son, 

When your sister Chloe was 10 years old, I was talking with her about business and my life sitting in our van outside a McDonalds in Sydney.  She summarized me perfectly : “Dad, you are such a winner, and such a loser!”  I thought at the time “Yep, you know me”. 

Now, 25 years later, with some wins and some losses under my belt, when someone wants to be in business and is seeking some advice, I propose to them these questions : 

“Are you prepared to pay the price to win?”  and   “Are you prepared to lose money?”

This second question may sound negative, however, it is the most realistic question to ‘set’ someone’s mind for business.  Not everything goes as planned in business and when it doesn’t, ‘THE BUCK STOPS AT THE BOSS’.  Whether it is warranty replacement, product recall, paying out a damages claim, or replacing tools like engines that blow up  - there is always ‘losing money’ going on in business. 

When newbies think about ‘being their own boss’ they see the top line revenue, but rarely do they see all the expenses clearly, and especially, they never imagine the ‘unexpected costs’ that can steal the business’s cash.  Understanding that ‘upset’ is caused by ‘thwarted intentions’ and ‘unfulfilled expectations’, suffering a big loss that you were not prepared for will cause a BIG UPSET for you, and it can possibly ripple effect into your home relationship as well.  You must EXPECT to lose money, and to fail, from time to time.

Now that you know you are going to LOSE, is your ‘fear of failure’ going to force you into the ‘TAKE NO RISK’ lane of life - to walk the path of mediocrity, where your determined attempts to limit loss and failure truncate your ability to PROFIT from taking risk ?  This is highly natural for people.  To survive and thrive, you need a high self esteem and a confident persona - you need to know that you will win more often than you lose - as long as you take the risk to lose in order to win.  Your  greatest security is your ability to handle your insecurity! (Tom Hopkins) 

When you are comfortable with this reality, you can start to look at business opportunities with a realistic Ying Yang thinking - firstly, 

“WHAT CAN GO WRONG and CAN I AFFORD IT?” and secondly, “IF NOTHING GOES WRONG, IS MY REWARD WORTHWHILE?”  

The reality of your business experience will be somewhere between these two markers. 

The difference between WINNERS and LOSERS … is that winners are not afraid to lose. 

The WINS in life that will make you proud of yourself are not the easy ones, but rather the tough ones  - the ones that were an ‘uneven road’ that you navigated and endured.  These are the roads on which 95% of people quit and when you do not, you will pay the price to win, and win, you shall.   Dig deep, and determine to succeed. 

Dad.