For the last several years, my wife Amy and I have been teaching ordinary people how to create success in a home based business. These people range from stay at home Moms to former military officers and all have one or both of these  common goals: Time Freedom or Financial Freedom. It seems that as people realize how much fun they are not having in their current lives, they start to look for alternate ways to provide them with a different kind of lifestyle. Most people, including you, want a change to take place in their financial life or their personal life. Most people have no idea what that change is, but they know they want it. Some people are very clear on what they want to change but have no idea how to do it.

This is where we come into the picture. We were at this same stage several years ago. I was in a job, knowing I didn’t want to be there, yet I didn’t know how to change it all. Hats off to my wife for finding the way to make that change occur. She discovered a simple system designed for people with zero experience in network marketing or internet advertising. It is a system designed to inspire change in people’s lives. It is a system created by visionaries who wanted that change to happen in their own lives and then in the lives of thousands of others as well.

The simple fact is, most people spend their entire lives just living day to day. They fail to plan for their future. They fail to plan for much of anything thinking they have a sense of security. Until one day, that security ends with a layoff or a dip in the economy and then what?

Why live your entire life enjoying the struggle when you have the ability to skip the struggle and just enjoy life. Time Freedom is reserved for those who step out of the ordinary. Financial Freedom is reserved for the ones who are willing to take a risk and stick their neck out on the line. To have both, it requires leverage. Leverage over your time!

That is simply all my wife and I do. We show you Leverage!

What is an Entrepreneur who is everywhere all at once without ever having to set foot outside his home? Wealthy! Wealthy with Time and Wealthy with Money!

I think it’s about time for you to learn how to walk the walk that most of the people you associate with everyday will never walk. It’s time for you to learn how to walk the path of Leverage!

Yes, if you are currently in a home based business, you are a business owner. You own and operate your own successful or unsuccessful business right out of your home office. For some, that home office can be where ever their feet take them, just as long as they have their phone. For others, it’s right at home in their office.

So what do business owners do? Well, they do business, and doing business means that they make money! Now, in a home business, it is just as easy to make money as it is to “not” make money. It takes the same amount of effort to succeed as it does to fail. The difference between success and failure is smaller than you think. Very small actions taken during the day, every single day, will move you closer to or farther from success.

Here are ten mistakes home business owners make that will obviously move them closer to failure:

1. They give themselves a back door, a quit date, an ultimatum or an excuse.
2. They treat it like a hobby instead of a business. When I think of a successful business owner, I think of someone who is his business. He is always thinking and looking for ways to increase his business. When I think of someone with a hobby, they tend to get to it when they have a little extra time. I can tell you this much, unless your home business is a priority, it will fail and produce “hobby” income.
3. They play small. They place a little tiny ad, they market a little bit, they call a few people, they don’t think big enough. Their decisions are most likely being driven by fear, instead of ambition.
4. Half invest themselves. In most network marketing opportunities, there are income levels. If you are not playing at the highest level you can, you are playing small. You can’t catch the BIG fish by fishing in the two foot wide aquarium.
5. Don’t use the products. This is huge! I know in my business, I suggest to everyone I choose to mentor, to purchase the products. Purchase whatever products you would like to be paid for. Know your product! A Nike shoe salesman better have owned and used a pair of the shoes he is selling. Otherwise, he is going to look a little foolish when someone asks about the product.
6. Inconsistency. It takes more than a few drops in a storm to soak a driveway. Instead of working their business, doing income producing activities every single day, they choose to skip it here or there. Skip your business, skip your goals!
7. Play the blame game. It’s their mentors fault, the companies fault, the compensation plans fault or their teams fault that they haven’t had the success they came here for. Personal responsibility is a myth.
8. Don’t follow the system. This is called “re-inventing the wheel.” In other words, thinking that their way is better. The system is in place because it works. Why re-invent something that isn’t broken.
9. They are dishonest. You have all heard of the term, “fake it til you make it.” In my eyes, that’s a lie. Standing in front of that Mercedes and that huge home, all of which belongs to someone else, is dishonest. If it’s not yours, don’t claim that it is.
10. Failure to mastermind. There is no other industry in the world that operates like Network Marketing. You don’t see McDonalds willing to share their marketing techniques with Burger King. Home business owners, yes that’s you, are willing to share with others the things they are doing to create success. Believe it or not, this part of the system.

Do you see? It takes just as much effort to not do things as it does to do things. Yes, you may miss a few of your favorite TV shows on your trip to success, but what would you rather have….an evening with House or an American Idol or a successful home business? One provides you with time freedom, financial freedom and a lifestyle of your design. The other is just a pastime.

Don’t fall short of the goal by making these simple, yet devastating mistakes. You are a business owner. Act like one!

During college did you ever think about being a walk-on in your favorite sport? Now, of course I’m speaking about the ones that didn’t have that full ride scholarship and a reserved spot on the team. However, this pertains to everyone, scholarship or not. So how about it? Did you? Did you actually try out for the team or did you just think about doing it? If you did try out, did you make the team? Did you give it your best?

This is about making things happen. It’s about creating a spot for yourself. It’s about wanting it bad enough that you’ll do just about anything to get it.

If you think about a walk-on, what comes to mind? Determination? Persistence? Vision? I can tell you this much, a walk-on is someone that makes the team out of pure will power. It is that person that knows they can hang with the big dogs, the high recruits, that already have a place on the team. This is a person with drive, with ambition and with a tremendous amount of self belief. There is no spot on the team for the walk-on. He has to create his spot on the team, work hard for it and claim it as his own. He has to earn the right to play with the big dogs and a lot of the time, is one of the better players on the team. Most if the time, the coach already has a good idea of who is going to fill the open spot on the team. So if that’s not you, you’ve got to want it more!

I’d like to give credit to Wendy Stevens for providing the idea for this post. True story, Wendy was actually a walk-on. She had a conversation with the coach one day about what she could do to make the team. The coach told her, “Play left handed!” So she did everything with her left hand. When opening the door, she would use her left hand. She brushed her teeth left handed. If you’ve never tried that, do it. It isn’t as easy as it may seem. Wendy was right handed, but she made the team. She used muscles that had never been used in that way before. She had to train these muscles to work just as good as her right hand muscles in order to get the spot on the team.

This is exactly the same thing that a new entrepreneur or new network marketer goes through. They get started in a business opportunity to create that spot on the team, to reach their goal of being a big time player. Once started in a business you quickly find out that you have never done some of the things you are now required to do. You must think differently, work differently and operate in a completely different way than before. So you work at it and work at it until it becomes natural. You are exercising your entrepreneurial muscles and the more you do, the easier the game becomes. The easier the game becomes, the better your chances are in winning that spot.

If you’re having trouble finding the way to get ahead, just keep being consistent. Consistency = exercising those muscles. By doing things that feel different than anything else you have ever done before, you will start adding new skills into your game. Once these skills are streamlined to perfection, you will gain that winners edge and claim your spot on the team as the walk-on who wanted it most!

A man was walking down a street. It was a very nice street with all kinds of shops, restaurants and people. It was the most prosperous street in town and this certain man was having a fantastic time. He was headed to a restaurant he had heard about and lunch time was approaching. Well, before eating the best meal he would ever have, he looked at a wall down an alley, and read something someone wrote. It said, “This is the worst street in the world. Don’t eat the food, it’s the worst food you will ever have and it costs way too much!” Well, naturally, the guy decided not to eat at the restaurant, which is also the choice that most people would make. Only very few actually go into the restaurant after reading the writing on the wall. These very few are the people that enjoy the best food and will continue to return to the restaurant regardless of what someone else says, because they know first hand and create their own opinions. It turns out, the guy who wrote that comment on the wall, which is graffiti, lives just below it in a cardboard box.

The internet is a wall full of graffiti from people who have been offended, found fault, found what they thought were greener pastures or just plainly quit. That’s why it is there. They can’t blame themselves for their own failure. That would be crazy right?! So they make their blame public by using the internet.

I mean, someone could walk into paradise and still find something wrong with it if they were looking for it. Right!? Thus is life. As an example, I live near Phoenix Arizona. I’m not saying that Phoenix is paradise okay, but when it rains, it cools off the entire town, and for a brief moment, can be paradisical. It only rains a few times a year there and people were actually complaining about the rain, wishing it would stop. This is proof that people will complain about anything, regardless of what a blessing it is.

Ten times out of ten, the guy to listen to is definitely not the guy who moves from one opportunity to the next, hoping that it will be better than the last. And ten times out of ten, the ones to listen to are not the bums writing graffiti in forums. The ones to listen to are the people who have created success. It just makes sense! You just have to ask yourself the questions, “Who do want to become like?” If you want to be a graffiti bum, take advice from the graffiti bum. If you want to be outrageously successful, take advice from the outrageously successful. Simple!

I eagerly await the day when the majority of the people take the advice of someone successful over the opinion of 30 people who are not. Following the majority has never been the way to create success in life. Otherwise, everyone would be outrageously successful. If you are following the majority, chances are, your results are just like the majority, average! Ask Albert Einstein if he followed the majority, Abraham Lincoln, Michael Jordan. There a leaders and there are followers. A follower, is not a leader.

It turns out, the restaurant owner in the story decides to leave the statement on the wall that deters so many people and is glad it is there. Why? It’s because he now gets the perfect customer. The customer who is loyal and returns often and tells all his other loyal friends about this great restaurant. The statement on the wall keeps out the ones who would have found fault, even in paradise! It keeps the ones out that are “wishy-washy” in their decisions and jump from one thing to the next. It keeps out the ones who are terrified to experience change. It keeps out the followers of the majority. The graffiti bum has actually done the restaurant owner a huge favor!

You, the one reading this, might be the one who bases decisions on what the graffiti says. If it is you, I hope you are enjoying “average!”

Choose to be the one out of 30 who can see past the graffiti and the bum living below it, who was the author of it.

From time to time I will get the question, “Is this a get rich quick scheme?” I think it is hilarious when I do because most people probably can’t even define what a “Get rich quick scheme” really is. I assume it is something that promises you that you’ll get rich with little or no risk or effort. I would think this would be something a little more like gambling or pyramids, something you can just throw a little bit of cash at in hopes to get a ton back.

Let’s analyze the phrase, “Get rich quick,” a little bit. I guess it really all depends on the rate at which one gets rich, right? Before we get into that, let’s establish what being “Rich” really is. It would be safe to say that being a “millionaire” would be a good starting point. There are a lot of factors to consider when determining if someone is really rich, so for the sake of time, let’s say a millionaire is someone who is rich.

Let’s do some basic math. I believe the average annual income in the USA is right around $35,000. How many years, at that income, would it take a person to make a million bucks? Don’t worry, I couldn’t figure it out in my head either. Here’s the numbers:

The average person will take 28.57 years to make an accumulative million dollars, with all or most of that going to pay their costs of living. This business opportunity puts you on a much quicker path to making your first million. Instead of a 29 year track, you hold the potential to do it here within 18 months to 5 years. It’s been done over and over again. It’s definitely not a get rich quick scheme, or a scheme of any kind, but definitely a get rich quicker “theme!”

Take a look at it this way. When on a long walk you come to a mountain. You can either choose to go over it or around it. Both ways will take you to the same destination. One will obviously take longer than the other and one will be a lot more risky. Which one will you choose? The one who chooses to go around, will happily stroll along using just enough energy and risk as needed to get around the mountain. The one who chooses to go over it, will become stronger with each risk, building muscle and confidence with every obstacle.

I don’t know about you guys, but I sure didn’t want to spread my first million over a period of 29 years. I took the shorter path. Really all it is, is the ability to take a risk. The risk in this business opportunity is not whether it works or not, but instead, a risk in whether or not you will work. That is the only risk there is. If you will work and make it happen, welcome to the shorter path. I look forward to working with you and seeing your tremendous success!