If you’re struggling to make progress in any area of your life, it may be because you’re doing it for the wrong reasons.
For example, are you trying to grow your business so that you can buy luxury items?
Worse yet, are you buying trucks and equipment to impress the competition? To give the illusion of success?
Or are you working to create a legacy to leave to your family?
While it took me a while to fully appreciate this fact, with wasted time and regrets, family is more important than anything.
If you’re young and reading this, you may believe that your friends are the most important.
Cause you have more fun with them, right?
Well, while it is nice to have true friends, most of the folks you consider friends right now are merely acquaintances out of circumstance.
People you went to school with or worked with in the past.
And they all look after their own interests and the interests of their family over yours.
If you interpret my position on this as pessimistic, it’s not. It’s pragmatic and completely normal.
In order to be successful, you must keep the interests of your family paramount.
But not just in the short term. You must think generationally.
When you do, it ensures that the majority of your activities are fruitful.
Because impressing people just to make you look good will get you nowhere.
I’m not preaching to you here on this. I’ve allowed myself to fall into these traps as well.
Here’s one such story.
I have a friend who, about ten years ago, needed help creating some digital artwork.
Well, I happen to be pretty darn good at using the Adobe suite of products, including Illustrator, Photoshop, & Premier. (And I wanted to impress my friend with my abilities in this area.)
So being that I was a (nice, naive, stupid, schmuck) sort of a guy at the time, I helped him out at no charge.
Well, fast forward to about a year ago, and he was still hitting me up for help…at no charge…cause we’re friends.
Ugh!
WelI, as I was finishing up on something for him, I noticed I was getting frustrated.
I didn’t know what it was at first.
I was just agitated.
But then I recognized that I was annoyed because my energy was not directed at uplifting MY family or my CLIENTS and their families.
I was engaged in non-pay side activities that only benefited him and his business.
There was no reciprocation on his part.
Of course, it was my fault. Because I had allowed the situation to persist all this time.
So, I finally put an end to the arrangement.
I contacted him and told him that, moving forward, I would be sending his stuff to our design department and that he would be invoiced for their time.
And, you know what? I haven’t heard from my “friend” in about a year.
Making the decision to focus ONLY on improving in areas that benefit your family isn’t always easy.
Because you have to deal with the here and now, and it can be hard to determine who can help you best and what avenues to pursue.
But as you get older and wiser you’re better able to discern who’s a good fit and who will just have you chasing your tail.
That’s it for now. If you need help growing your business and want to get on a call to see if we’re a good fit, schedule a call.
Don Archer
Physical Address:
Don Archer
P.O. Box 104432
Jefferson City, MO 65110
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