Have you ever found yourself saying, “When I get my tax return I’m going to….,” buy me a new truck, go on a shopping spree, pay off my credit card or even just catch up on my rent or mortgage? If you have, no worries. You’re not the only one. I would say that 95 out of 100 people say that almost every year.

No big deal! That’s the way the system works right? You work a job for the year just making ends meet. You may have some extra to go on a vacation or two, buy your kids Christmas presents and maybe get a few nice things for yourself. But, none of it compares to tax return time! “Man, when my tax return gets here I’m gonna buy this or get that. “

I would have to say, and you should agree with me, that if tax return time is your biggest bonus of the year…something needs to change! You are getting paid to stay right where you’re at, dependent. Dependent on a job that isn’t paying you what you’re worth and dependent on a yearly bonus from your government, for struggling through the last twelve months of barely making ends meet. It’s like giving a lolly pop to a child who only gets one a year. The rest of the year, he’s sucking off the remains of everyone else’s lolly pops.

Look, I only bag on tax return time to make a point here. I encourage you, with all the fiber of my being, to change your thinking. Get out or your comfort zone, step into your creative side and start moving forward in a different direction…a direction that will have you paying taxes at the end of the year because you will have earned the income to do so. Instead of acting like everyone else, step out of the mold. Poor people make money to spend it, rich people make money to invest it, utilize it and to make more money with. It’s a tool, not a gift. When you get the wrench, fix the car. Don’t trade it for a tricycle.

If you think about it, it’s actually a privilege to get to pay taxes, because you know you’re helping the government support a family who needs the fifteen percent raise. Which they’ll need until they change their thinking from spending to investing…investing in themselves.

Now in closing, how many business ideas have you had in the past five to ten years? If you say none, I’ve got some great products you can SPEND your money on right now. But for those of you who have, USE your tax return on that. Start that business and move in the direction you are passionate about. If it succeeds, congratulations! You’ve broken the mold you were stuck in. And if it fails, congratulations! Now you know what to do better next time….and guess what? You’ve got another tax return to invest coming your way in exactly one year from time the last one came. You win!

Just remember, poor people spend it, rich people use it to create a better future for themselves and those around them. Which side of the scale are you on? Because on a completely lopsided scale, who’s always above the rest? The minority!

Just a quick statement about failure.

In my mind, failures are divided into three basic classes:

• Those who thought and never did.
• Those who did and never thought.
• Those who flat out quit!

So many people will never accomplish their life’s goals because of the fear of failure. The funny thing is, failure is inevitable. Failure is part of the balance of life. For every positive, there is a negative. Where there is great success, there will also be great failure.

If anyone is to achieve any amount of success in his life, failure is just part of the process. To fear that failure would be making a huge mistake, IF, and only if, nothing is learned from it. Failures are the stepping stones to that great, I like to say, inevitable success.

I say inevitable because if you don’t QUIT, success becomes inevitable. How many times can you run off the road until you finally reach your destination? It’s just a matter of getting back onto the road and pressing forward understanding the reason you went off the road in the first place.

So, since failure is inevitable in its many different forms, it would be better that you DID, regardless of the result, instead of never DID at all. Getting on the bike and crashing is always better than never getting on at all. Yeah the crash hurts a bit, but because of the hurt, you’ll avoid the crash the next time around.

So, I am proud to admit……I am a failure, but not a quitter!

What do you do when the only time you have to exercise is at five in the morning and your body just doesn’t want to get out of bed? Or what do you do when the daily grind seems to be taking you one direction when your goals are supposed to take you another?

Is it possible to hit the pause button, and while the movie is on pause, change it to a completely different movie? Can such a drastic change happen for regular ole Janes and Joes? Can you wake up Clark, and like in the movies, still turn into Superman at will?

Can you just start living the life you want and become who you want? Just like that?

Well, I don’t know if you can or not. That’s something that is between you and yourself. Do you actually listen to that little voice inside that is telling you all you are capable of, or do you just roll with the punches and take what life brings your way?

For me, the way I do it, is with a simple phrase I learned long ago called “Be, Do, Have.”

For those of you who know what that means, I sure hope you’re living it. BE the person you want to be, DO the things that person would do and then you will HAVE the things that person has. The part that most people struggle with is always the beginning….the BE.

So at five in the morning, when the alarm clock goes off, do I reset it for seven, or can I BE the person I want to be. Honestly, that’s the secret for me. That’s exactly how I do it. It’s just a word, I know…but I repeat the word in my head when I hear that little voice inside. That voice just gets louder and louder, repeating the be, Be, BEEEEE….until I start to DO. At that point, with some consistency in Being and Doing, I will Have the health and strength I want for myself.

So it’s a good idea to scream it if you have to. Do what it takes. Be, Be, BE!

One of the biggest selling points of a home based business is the System! S-Y-S-T-E-M, Save Yourself Time, Energy and Money. It’s already in place to ensure your success, or at least make it a bit easier for you to succeed. It brings in the all too familiar term, “turnkey.” It’s all about duplication and making things easier for the newest person in the company to get into profit quickly, or duplicate their Enrollers results.

Parts of the system includes scripts, lead generation and pre-built websites, so that when somebody finds your turnkey website, pre-populated with content and pictures, they can submit their contact information. That information then goes into a lead management system that sends out pre-written auto-responders that drip bits and pieces of motivational information about their decision to start a home business.

MY SECOND BIGGEST MISTAKE…..I didn’t build my list and USE it properly.

For the first few years as a network marketer I used their turnkey websites and systems to generate my leads and I allowed those leads to go into their pre-built lead management systems. I took on the belief that once I called that lead and introduced the business to them, whether they got started with me or not, that their information was then useless. The lead was then dropped and I paid it no more attention, at least when it came to continued marketing.

I might as well have been throwing twenty dollar bills down the toilet!!

Although I made my profit from the sale, I missed out on continued, residual profits that can and will come from building your email list. I let tens of thousands of email addresses go to waste….Email addresses for people who were desperate for information on how to make money from home!

A huge part of creating an online presence(Part of my first mistake) is setting yourself up to win regardless. Having a contact form on your site that sends the information captured(email, phone number etc..) into an auto-responder system of YOUR OWN, is where it’s at. You wonder how people can make millions of dollars online with a blog and how network marketers can have continued success regardless of the opportunity they are part of. It’s because the real money, the real income comes from continually marketing to your list of subscribers….people that have opted into YOU and what you have to offer them. And if what you have to offer them is of value…..well….that equals income for you.

Right now, I use AWeber for building my list. In my opinion, it is the best one out there. I did a post a while back on starting an email marketing campaign comparing a few other services. Feel free to check it out.

And feel free to subscribe to my emails to see how I do things. You’ll find the form on the left side of this blog.

So I think my point was made. Do it right the first time. Build the list!

Unfortunately, Network Marketing companies come and go, or, you are someone that comes and goes, bouncing from one company to the next. Although a company seems solid, with a good product and great compensation, there’s no guarantee that it will be around forever.

My BIGGEST mistake as a home business owner, was putting all of my eggs into one basket. I put so much trust in the concept/product/owners of the company I was part of that I didn’t have a back-up plan. Now, if it’s all solid, there are no worries. But, if things go a different direction, if the company crashes, if the products lose their value or if any other variable happens that effects the company, it also directly effects your income. Instead of putting so much into the company, put that focus on the goal.

So imagine that 6 figure income you had managed to create while working your home business, suddenly gone, or significantly reduced. Now, if it was your doing, that’s one thing. But if was a direct correlation to something that happened in the company, that’s an entire different story! Without pointing fingers or taking a victims mentality, how does one recover from something like that?

Here’s how I recovered……I relied on the online presence I had. With the amount of content I have all over the net, the presence in social networking sites and the organic rankings on all major search engines, I had choices. With consistent, FREE traffic coming to my website, this site, a crash of a company wasn’t a complete disaster. All that did was gave me options.

I could…….

1. Join another business opportunity or….
2. Do something else with the traffic I was getting.

I could develop my own products and promote them on my site. I could completely monetize my website with sponsored listing from ad networks such as Adsense. I could continue to capture leads and sell them. I could promote affiliate products on my site. The list could go on and on.

So if you find yourself in a home based business, and you are purchasing leads, spending high dollar on CPC ads or don’t have a web presence, you may want to rethink your strategy. Set yourself up to win regardless of the opportunity.

One thing I teach people about marketing is to use three or four different sources of lead generation. If one or two drop out, you have the other two to rely on until they can be replaced. Without spreading yourself too thin, the same thing applies for your sources of income.

I believe in the Cortez concept of burning your boats, but I also believe in having a back up plan. Expect the best but prepare for the worst and you’ll never find yourself in a hard spot, without options.

Stay tuned for my SECOND BIGGEST MISTAKE in the next post!