Are you ready for your “courageous decision”?

Episode #936 October 13, 2023

Peter F. Drucker once said: “Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.” In our recent listener survey, hundreds of you described how you wanted to have your own business.

Today I’m going to grab some of your questions and we’ll look at ways to move through the tough parts of doing something on your own. We’re going to look at a growing phenomenon called “full-time children” where kids have given up getting a job and are just staying home.

Remember the movie with Matthew McConaughey – Failure to Launch

Tripp, a 35-year-old professional layabout, is happy to stay at home where he’s waited on hand and foot by his mum Sue. However, she and her husband Al have had enough and decide that to get him to leave, they have to use subtle methods. So, they hire Paula who will use her feminine wiles to lever him out of the family home.

What do you think next year’s high school seniors should be doing right now to prepare for the next three years? Send your answers into me at 48days.com/askdan

PLUS, we’ll announce the winners of our Strangest Secret Challenge from September and the winners from our Podcast Survey.

A few notes from our Strangest Secret Challenge:

“I started eating healthier- I want to lose 25 lbs before the end of the year. I’m taking classes to advance my sales career now. I want to be a better husband to my wife- spending more time together doing activities.” – Joe Helmuth

“I’m buying and reading the other books mentioned here that I don’t already have – Man’s Search for Himself, Wake Up and Live, and The Magic of Believing.” – Rick Davis

” I will keep listening.” – Vickie Smith

“Plan of connecting 10 want-to-be real estate agents per week to market center team leaders. Even with a big drop-out rate of 80 percent – to have 50 agents within 4 years who are top producers – generating 4000/ month of profit share. This profit share is willable to our kids for when we aren’t here.” – Joyce Brown

“Finally write that book!! Live every day with a higher level of purpose and expectation.” – Jerry Klem

So here are our discussion points for today’s episode:

Questions:

Do you have any “full-time children” living at your house?

A fascinating discussion surrounding the job market in China shed light on the cultural and economic dynamics at play. Chinese youth, despite completing their college degrees, often struggle to find employment. As a result, some are earning income from their families by offering services such as errands, cleaning, or caretaking.

While this provides a temporary solution, concerns arise about the long-term implications of relying on parents for financial support. The trend is called “lying down,” referring to millennials taking a break from the constant pressure of achievement.

Are you a “discouraged worker”?

There are a lot of new trends in the workplace in this arena:

Nowadays, many workers “coffee badge” at the office before heading off to work from Starbucks or other locations. Even in jobs that require office presence, some swipe their cards and work remotely. Companies are grappling with this new dynamic and its implications.

There are 5.5 million individuals in the United States who are not in the labor force but want a job. These individuals are not counted as unemployed because they are not actively looking for work or are unavailable to take a job. It is important to be prepared for unexpected occurrences and have a plan in place, as many people who have lost their jobs or experienced unexpected changes have realized the benefits of being self-employed. Being self-employed puts individuals in control and makes them less vulnerable to economic disasters.

I absolutely love my work, however, I know deep in my heart it could be better...

There are two ways to make more money when you have a business:

Find more customers
Sell more to your existing customers who already know, like and trust you.

I encourage you to look for ways that you can go deep with the customers you have now.

When looking at building a brand for your business, think about Joe Polish, who has Pirhana Marketing and developed a system called Rich Cleaner System. He realized the more valuable service that he could provide was helping other cleaners build their business rather than cleaning more businesses himself.

He made the decision to do this and sell his course back in 1992 and continues to sell that course, making millions of dollars.

If you’re really good at something, consider teaching others to do that as well. So when naming your business, don’t let it limit you.

Don’t be afraid to make the decision to go really niche. We had a lady in our 48 Days Eagles Community recently who developed a book and a course for an extremely niche audience of case management workers and has done extremely well with that.

If you have business acumen, think about something like Angie or Thumbtack that connects people who provide handyman services with people who need those services. The big money is marketing, in finding the jobs, not doing the jobs.

It’s in leveraging your information and expertise that you have the potential to grow into ongoing residual significant income.

How do I get past being too tired to start the actual side business that I want to do?

This a Catch-22 situation. I see people who are exhausted from the work that they do. But I also see those same people who find the energy when they start to launch that dream side business of their own.

Being too tired means you don’t really have an idea that really fires you up yet.

Quotation:

Key Takeaways:

Understand that selling is the world’s highest-paid profession. The real key to wealth is who is selling, not who is doing the work.
Ask yourself what are you doing well that you could teach to others. That may be the key to your real wealth more than doing more of what your doing or even doing it 10% better.
How will your life change in 2024? This is the time to be thinking about that.