Why Hard Work Will Never Make You Rich!
I let my personal trainer, Jeff, borrow a copy of “Rich Dad Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki. A few weeks later during our workout session he blurts out, “You know what — I’m carrying buckets!”
“Huh?” I replied.
Jeff reminded me in the “Rich Dad” book Kiyosaki gives the example of someone carrying buckets to supply a town with a water and another person building a water pipe line to carry the water. It took longer for the pipeline to be built but once it was done – the money would continue to come in with or without him.
What are you doing?
Sadly most people are carrying buckets. They are getting paid based on the hours they work. Everybody has been taught to think the harder you work the more money you make.
Guess what? “Working harder” is totally and entirely subjective. What constitutes working hard to one person might be lounging on your butt to another.
So what if that’s completely wrong? What if it’s really the smarter the work, the more money you make? You’ve heard that expression before – but stick with me and I’ll explain what I think it really means…
As I was sitting here writing out this – we had a chimney repairman and a landscaper come out to the house. Out of my window I could see both of them doing their jobs. Let me tell you these guys work DAMN hard.
Both of them get up very early in the morning and put in a full day’s work. The chimney repairman is dangerously perched at least 50 feet above the ground for most of the day. And our neighborhood landscaper is breaking his back carrying heavy bags of mulch all day in the blazing sun.
The point is these guys put in an honest day’s labor for honest day’s wage every day. They aren’t sleeping on the job or goofing off. They’re working their butts off – but that’s not enough!
Do you know the big secret neither one of these fellows (or most other people) ever figure out?
It’s so simple once you understand and it can have a profound effect on your wealth. Here it is…
Your income cannot be limited by the amount of hours you can put in. That’s it.
Each one of us are given 24 hours and it doesn’t matter if you are a chimney repairman, landscaper, CEO, homeless bum, or Internet mogul. We all have the same 24 hours to work with. Most people simply work -get paid, work – get paid, work – get paid. You put in 8 hours on the job – you get paid for 8 hours. You put in 40 hours a week – you get 40 hours in salary. That’s the way we’ve been taught to do it – and the sad truth is you’ll never get ahead doing what everyone else does. (Re-read that because that’s really a lesson in itself).
Personally – I believe in using leverage…
I prefer to work once and get paid over and over and over again. And there are lots of ways you can create recurring revenue for yourself. It could be via royalties from an invention, a song, or a book. It could be from network marketing. It could be from real estate. It could be dividends from investments. Or it could be from a multitude of other ways aside from the typical 9-to-5 grind.
The majority of my income day-in and day-out is a direct result of work I did 1, 2, 3…even 7+ years ago or more. I like that! 
For instance, if you create an information product to sell (like a report, ebook, software, video, etc) you only have to do the work once of creating it and once to write the sales letter.
Then if you set up some automatic promotion avenues like an affiliate program or autoresponder messages – you can continue to get paid for that product indefinitely. One of biggest income streams is a product I created 7 years ago and still makes me a nice six-figure income each year.
Frankly, I couldn’t turn off my recurring revenue streams right now if I tried. That’s because much of what I’ve created has fed on itself. One product refers people to another. Our affiliate network (over 45,000) refer people to our sites. Some of our sites cross-promote our other sites, etc. etc.
When you keep working on activities that have recurring value you’ll create a momentum that’s tough to stop. But the truth is — it IS hard work in the beginning. Or at least what most people perceive as ‘hard work’. But it’s like a rocket taking off in which it burns most of its fuel on lift off.
You need to put in the hours and effort upfront and then you can ease off the throttle. But if you don’t put in the extra effort upfront you’ll never achieve lift off and get that momentum you need.
The more you think about doing the work once and being paid multiple times the more creative your mind will become. Ask yourself the right questions and you’ll get the right answers.
My thinking is squarely on how can I get the most leverage nd ongoing income from any activity? For instance, if I do a teleconference series (like web copy secrets) then I will sell the LIVE calls for “x” amount and then have the calls recorded to turn it into a product I can keep selling for “y” amount. Then going even further, I could take
excerpts from that product and use them as articles or free ebooks to be passed along to get additional business. Do you see how it works? Try to get paid over and over again for activities done once. Make that your mantra.
In fact, even this post, if I’m lucky, will become a recurring income producing activity. I wrote this material once and the publicity from it will hopefully get a few more people to my websites and into my marketing funnel.
Now of course, I’m not saying that every activity I do each day is highly leveraged because I still do some “dumb stuff” but I’m working on outsourcing as much as I can and focusing just on income producing activities (just like you should).
Before tackling a project or putting in your hours – ask yourself how you can create a recurring revenue stream for yourself with this activity.
August 26th, 2007 at 10:13 pm
Thank you. If you can get me moving you deserve a medal.
August 27th, 2007 at 4:35 am
Yanik –
You are absolutely right.
To this, I would add that realistically, not everything we touch turns to gold – and that, especially when you begin “your mileage may vary.”
But, in fact, failures are a necessary part of success – and that’s okay.
I only mention this for the sake of the reader who has botched an information product, or the marketing of it, or has not found the right alchemy to make it profitable.
Do not stop working on the TYPES of leveraged revenue generation methods like discussed here.
As Yanik may agree, you can have any number of duds, but a few hits can carry all the rest! In the book “The Long Tail” this is Hollywood’s exact formula for profitability.
They throw a stack of movies out each year and usually 20% of the films that make money, make SO MUCH MONEY that they eclipse the losses of the other 80.
Leverage – it’s what’s for dinner…
Rick Butts
http://RickButts.com
August 27th, 2007 at 6:35 am
After some very sound Fartherly advice about life;
Succinctly put Yanik, it took me far to many years of pure practise as an artisan, to become profoundly aware of how fruitless and inefficient hard physical work really is, in not obtaining that frustratingly unachievable outcome of pure perfection, a healthy bank balance, and a lot of r and r.
Byron
August 27th, 2007 at 8:40 am
Yanik, if YOU know this secret….and I know this secret…and everyone who reads your blog knows this secret…then why do high schools insist on teaching kids to exist like mindless jellyfish?
Who teaches kids to think? Who decides on what the teachers are ALLOWED to teach the kids to think? Surely in a capitalist society books that teach capitalism would be included in the classrooms?
Are we truly the smallest percentage of free thinkers who insist the world is round when everyone including the King believe it to be flat?
Keep leading Yanik!
August 27th, 2007 at 11:25 am
Right on, Yanik. It’s a good philosophy.
It may not apply to everybody. We still need the scientists, the engineers, the researchers, etc. to innovate progress for us to benefit afterwards. Let’s assume they follow their true calling.
Let’s also be thankful for the chimney sweeps, the landscapers and all the others that allow us the luxury of a more leisurely lifestyle. Without them, we would be stuck with these and many other chores.
Plenty more thoughts….
but let me return to studying your course, Yanik.
Christel
August 28th, 2007 at 7:35 pm
Yanik, you are talking about me.
Chimney repairman, 50 feet above ground, working while carrying steel at risky heights, true hard labor. Can’t stop because the pipeline is not yet complete.
Please take time to visit my blog BUILDING JOYFUL FAMILIES and advise how I can stop carrying buckets.
Many thanks,
August 29th, 2007 at 11:15 am
Christel,
You’re right about needing everyone else. I agree. Like Earl Nightingale called it the “great flywheel of life” – but hopefully for people who do want to break free – this is some inspiration.
*
Alex, keep going. No shame in being a chimney repairman at all – however since that’s something you want to get out of – you are already on the path with the awareness of leverage. It seems like you are on your way instead of watching TV in your sparetime you are creating a foundation for your recurring revenue.
August 29th, 2007 at 12:13 pm
[...] to me and that’s fine. But Ron LeGrand is a 7 figure earner and so are James Brausch and Yanik Silver. Read their blogs and see what they have to say. They all basically say something that amounts [...]
September 12th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
Internet Affiliate Marketing…
Thanks for sharing the information. This is some really good stuff and many of us need to read this post….
September 19th, 2007 at 11:45 pm
Yanik,
I think I’ve got one for you to take the cake for a winning spot on this program.
I have been in network marketing for 20 years. It’s been a roller coaster to say the least, but I have been full time and support my family as a professional working from home. BUT that’s not what this post is about…
For the last several years, I have been dying to follow a passion and turn it into an internet marketing business. This is going to sound strange, but I want to save the world. Really! I’ve had this domain for a few years now and just have not taken the time to really get into developing the ideas and learning the internet marketing side of things to make it work.
The domain: http://www.healing-planet.com
The idea:
1. Educating people on proper health and nutrition (our health care and state of health today is SO BAD) People just don’t get it. The hospitals are jam packed because of our WESTERN DIETS – and it’s only getting worse!
2. Alternative Medicines/Therapies – All natural health care? Let’s face it – health care is quickly turning into SELF CARE! Big Market!
3. Green Living. The next 10 years will turn this saying into a household word. This is about to become a HUGE market. Everything from alternative fuels to carbon free living – write that one down: “Carbon Free Living”
I do ok with Network Marketing, but I want to do more. I want to really help facilitate change and I know that my ideas and the resources I have can make a huge impact with the proper exposure – not to mention with some of your ideas – I am pretty sure that I can turn this into a big money business too. Sure that would supply more lifestyle – but also (and more importantly) help further a great cause. We (humanity) are going in this direction anyway, no matter how you look at it now. I would like to be one of the internet marketing pioneers to help spur a lot of this info and education forward and help create the huge paradigm shift that is already starting to happen.
Whataya think???
So anyhow… PICK ME, PICK ME
Thanks!
Robert
http://www.RobertKuntz.com
(not exactly my professional site)
November 16th, 2007 at 11:03 am
Hi Yanik,
Thanks for the cool tips.
It’s great to share with us your strategies & methods for
success.
Keep going and we’ll talk soon.
best wishes,
Elitsa
October 6th, 2008 at 3:18 am
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” If you work hard on your job, you could make a living. If you work hard on yourself, you could make a fortune. Your income is primarily determined by your philosophy, not the economy. Success is something you attract by becoming an attractive perso…