Rich Dad Advice That Changed My Business Philosophy For The Better

Which Of These Two Most Reflects Your Approach To Business?

In my twenties I had the good fortune to read Robert Kiyosakis Rich Dad books. While all of the information in these books had a huge impact on me there was one story that literally changed my view of business and my philosophy regarding business forever.

In fact the lesson learnt from this one story impact every decision I make in my business today.

I will let Robert tell the story in this extract from the 'Casflow Quadrant' then come back and tell you why this is such an important story for you and your business …

Extract From Cashflow Quadrant

"My Rich Dad told me a simple story when I was 12 years old that has guided me to great wealth and financial freedom. It was Rich Dad’s way of explaining the difference between the left side of the CASHFLOW Quadrant™, the 'E' and 'S' Quadrants™, from the right side of the 'B' and 'I' Quadrants™.

Once upon a time there was this quaint little village. It was a great place to live except for one problem. The village had no water unless it rained.

To solve this problem once and for all, the village elders decided to put out to bid the contract to have water delivered to the village on a daily basis.

Two people volunteered to take on the task and the elders awarded the contract to both of them. They felt that a little competition would keep prices low and ensure a backup supply of water.

Self-Employed Thinking

The first of the two people, Ed, immediately ran out, bought two galvanized steel buckets and began running back and forth along the trail to the lake which was a mile away.

He immediately began making money as he labored morning to dusk hauling water from the lake with his two buckets. He would empty them into the large concrete holding tank the village had built.

Each morning he had to get up before the rest of the village awoke to make sure there was enough water for the village when it wanted it. It was hard work, but he was very happy to be making money and for having one of the two exclusive contracts for this business.

Business Owner Thinking

The second winning contractor, Bill, disappeared for a while. He was not seen for months, which made Ed very happy since he had no competition. Ed was making all the money.

Instead of buying two buckets to compete with Ed, Bill had written a business plan, created a corporation, found four investors, employed a president to do the work, and returned six months later with a construction crew.

Within a year his team had built a large volume stainless steel pipeline, which connected the village to the lake.

At the grand opening celebration, Bill announced that his water was cleaner than Ed’s water. Bill knew that there had been complaints about dirt in Ed’s water.

Bill also announced that he could supply the village with water 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Ed could only deliver water on the weekdays. He did not work on weekends.

Then Bill announced that he would charge 75% less than Ed did for this higher quality and more reliable source of water. The village cheered and ran immediately for the faucet at the end of Bill’s pipeline.

In order to compete, Ed immediately lowered his rates by 75%, bought two more buckets, added covers to his buckets, and began hauling four buckets each trip. In order to provide better service, he hired his two sons to give him a hand for the night shift and on weekends.

When his boys went off to college, he said to them, "Hurry back because someday this business will belong to you." For some reason, after college, his two sons never returned. Eventually Ed had employees and union problems. The union was demanding higher wages, better benefits, and wanted its members to only haul one bucket at a time.

Work Smarter, Not Harder

Bill, on the other hand, realized that if this village needed water, then other villages must need water too. He rewrote his business plan and went off to sell his high speed, high volume, and low cost, clean water delivery system to villages throughout the world.

He only makes a penny per bucket of water delivered, but he delivers billions of buckets of water, and all that money pours into his bank account. Bill had developed a pipeline to deliver money to himself as well as water to the villages.

Bill lived happily ever after, and Ed worked hard for the rest of his life and had financial problems forever after. The end.

That story about Bill and Ed has guided me for years. It has assisted me in my life’s decision-making process. I often ask myself, "Am I building a pipeline or hauling buckets?" Am I working hard or am I working smart?"

And the answers to those questions have made me financially free."

So How Did This Story Change My View Of Business Forever?

Well consider the story and then look at what most small business owners are doing.

Are they more like Ed busy running around doing all the work … or are they more like Bill who got busy working ON his business and ended up building a pipeline?

What about you and your business? Which of these two are you?

The vast majority of business owners are like Ed in that they think business is all about them doing the work.

This is most evident when it comes to marketing and finding clients for their business.

In any given week as a business owner you only have so many hours that you can dedicate to sales and marketing. The thing that makes the most difference in your results in the long term is how you use those hours.

Two Approaches To Finding Clients

When it comes to marketing your business and finding clients there are really two approaches you can use.

The first, similar to Ed, is that you view sales and marketing as something you do. So you spend the time you have alloted to sales and marketing busy running around going to networking events, collecting business cards, making tons of phone calls chasing people, running around doing coffee meetings, trying to influence and persuade (ie Closing) people on your products and services.

If you are advanced in your thinking you may be busy running around all over social media, on Facebook and Twitter being extremely social, maybe even  controversial to get attention and get noticed. You spend all day dreaming up witty things to post, and then you are busy engaging in all these running threads and discussions all in the hope that you will form a relationship with someone who you can then call up and try and pitch them on why they need your widet, or to come to your event etc.

This approach, while it will work and you will get clients just as Ed was able to supply water to the village, leads to eventual failure.

Why?

Because as a business owner you are human and basically things happen in life that are beyond your control. If you entire marketing system and business comes to a grinding holt the moment you have to take time out of your business then you don't really have a business.

So the question is this … is your ability to get the next client directly related to your manual labour efforts?

If so you might want to consider an alternative view …

How Bill Would Build A Marketing System

There are some people, like Bill, who take a completely different approach to marketing and attracting clients … and it sets them free from them being the major constraint in their business.

These people spend the same amount of time each week in sales and marketing … except for one key difference.

Instead of spending their time chasing the next client they spend their time building a marketing system that will attract clients to them on autopilot.

I want you to think about that for a moment.

If you have a marketing system that acts like Bills pipeline and attracts clients to you in a never ending stream and completely removes you out of the picture … how different would your business be?

For most small business owners this would set them free of the need to be constantly chasing the next client.

The same amount of effort applied to your sales and marketing can have two dramatically different outcomes in a years time … either you will be good at chasing clients but will have to keep doing it forever because if you stop your business stops, or you invest the time to build a marketing pipeline that runs on autopilot attracting leads and converting them into clients.

The choice is yours as a business owner … it all comes down to how you cast your mind forward and apply your intellect.

So How Do You Make The Switch?

Making the switch from working like a dog like Ed to building wealth pipeline like Bill is easier than you might think. First you need to buy into the essential belief that your time is better invested in building pipelines than it is carrying buckets of water.

If you believe that and are ready to make a change then join me on a special webinar …

"24 / 7 Autopilot Client Attraction System"

On this webinar I will be sharing with you the key elements to consider when building your marketing system that acts like a pipeline.

Get The Details And Register For Webinar Here

We are so fortunate today to live in a world where technology allows us to automate large parts of our marketing system.

This is really the key to you being a business owner that is free from having to constantly chase the next client.