Below is a message from a video by James Pelton, CEO and founder of Mobile Text Alerts – content has been edited
You may be familiar with Warren Buffett. At his business Berkshire Hathaway, you are required to have a “why” statement – why you work there. If you can’t come up with one, you get fired.
If Buffet thinks it’s important, we should think it’s important.
So what is your “why”? Why do you want to grow and improve in your business?
Wanting to increase income is not really a “why” – It’s just a means to an end.
If you doubled your income, and then just kept the money in the bank, it wouldn’t really affect you at all. More money, by itself, is not your goal.
What life changes are you looking to accomplish with this extra income? You need to know your outcome.
So let’s think about this.
Here are 5 common “why’s.”
1) Providing for Your Family
This is the most basic.
Your family has needs; you love them, and you want to provide for them/ You want to pay the bills.
That’s a huge motivator!
That’s why single moms can work 12 hours per day. They have that “why” – “I am providing for my family” – That energizes them and keeps them going.
2) Financial Freedom
Notice this is a progression.
When you are first starting out, and you’re making less than we’ll say $60k/year – that number is probably different depending on how many kids you have or what part of the country you live in – at some point there may be a shift in your “why.”
You aren’t just looking to make ends meet anymore, you’ve got that covered. But now you are looking to more than just “get by”, you are looking to be FREE financially.
You are looking to be able to buy the things that you want to buy.
You’re looking to be able to say “I want to take my family on a vacation.”
You’re looking to be in control of your income.
That’s a motivator to get out of a normal 8-5 job and starting your own business.
You want to control how much you make instead of just hoping that your company gives you a raise.
3) Decision Freedom (Work from Home/Be Your Own Boss)
A lot of people also want decision freedom.
Meaning they want to be able to work from home, not have to drive through traffic.
And they don’t want to work for someone else, they want to be their own boss.
I call that Decision freedom – You are your own boss.
4) Time Freedom
After you’ve started making a decent amount of money – this is usually in the 6-figure range – you may start to care less about money, and care more about time freedom.
You start to realize that you can always make more money, but you can never get more time.
This is where retirement comes in. That’s the “why” for a lot of people – I want to work hard, work hard until I get to a place where I can not work anymore and I have 100% of my time to myself.
Maybe Time Freedom is your “why” – why you started your business. You have other things you want to do, and you wanted to free up your time
5) Impact
Once you have more money than you need, and you start getting bored with your extra time, most people switch to “impact” as their “why.”
And that’s where most of the rich people in the world are at – the Warren Buffets.
You see something in the world that you want to change, or that is really important to you.
My wife and I have a heart for kids, so we’ve always wanted to adopt a child from Haiti.
Well, as we were going through the process, we found out that it costs about $45,000 to adopt from Haiti.
That’s a really good “why” – it’s a good motivator.
If you want to help kids in Haiti, then you are going to need your business to be successful.
You’re going to need to grow Mobile Text Alerts so that you can afford $45,000 to adopt. And we may want to help OTHER families adopt, so we need to make a lot more than $45,000 – So that is motivation that helps through the hard times to grow the business.
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Which of these resonates the most with you?
You can have more than one. But it is probably best to have ONE of these that you keep on the forefront of your mind.
And there is no right or wrong answer.
Some people lie to themselves and say, “Impact is my goal,” because they think that is more “noble” than just wanting money.
There is NOTHING wrong with wanting Financial Freedom for your family – that is not a “lesser goal.” (I would say it is the most common.)
Decide which of these resonates emotionally with you. Then commit to make this happen in your life
If you have a strong “why” that you really care about, then committing to it is easy.
If you start to get unclear on your why, then you will give up at the first sign of trouble.
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