I’m going to take a break from the string of posts I have been writing to talk about something that has been bothering me lately. Over the past few months I have been reading conflicting stories on CNN about the economy, gas prices, and other things that seem to affect us on a daily basis. You hear from one expert that we are in a recession, from another one that we’re not in a recession, or even two experts arguing about what the actual qualifications are for a recession. We all probably agree with the experts who say that high gas prices are bad for the economy. Well, I read a story recently from an expert who said that falling gas prices, as they are now, are bad for the economy. It appears that they are and indicator of a coming recession.
The point that I want you to get out of this is that you can find evidence or news stories by experts to support any view of reality that you want. You can find some experts that will tell you that you need to stay away from real estate because prices are dropping due to all the foreclosures. On the other hand, other experts say that now is the perfect time to get into real estate for the very same reason, so many foreclosures make prices low. People are selling off their stocks and leaving the stock market because prices are falling. I heard from another expert that now is the perfect time to get into the stock market because every time in our history that stocks have dropped like this, the market has increased by better than 50% in the next two years.
Instead of letting other people define your reality, pick your own view and go find evidence to support it. I will give you a few examples of people or companies creating their own reality.
I had a prospect back in June join my team in my network marketing business. She had already paid the money to join and received the business kit. She was a physical therapist and had just started working at a wellness center and thought that the Nikken products would be something that she could recommend to her clients. But she said she was really busy with the end of the school year and hoped to get to the business kit in a week or two. Well, I tried unsuccessfully to reach her until finally I got her on the phone at the end of July. Consistent with her belief that she is too busy, she never got around to even opening the business kit. In addition, she has quit the wellness center because she wasn’t getting any work. She said that the economy is bad and that people are not going to wellness centers. She admitted though that she didn’t do any marketing for herself, so is the lack of work because of the economy or because nobody knows she’s there because she never marketed herself. Her belief that she is too busy and that the economy is bad has created that reality for her.
The next example is the company that I work for (yes, I still have a JOB). They are a small company that competes against monster companies like Allen Bradley and Siemens to sell PLCs and other automation products. The company president knows that the economy is in recession but also believes that a recession is the company’s time to really shine because our products are much less expensive than the competition. So even though the economy is supposed to be bad and July is generally one of their slower months, they had the highest sales in their 12 year history. I’ve heard from the day that I started that this company is the company of choice when times get tough in the automation industry. That is what they believe and that is the reality that they are currently living.
The last example is of me and my network marketing business. For the longest time I limited myself by believing that people wouldn’t buy the more expensive items that are offered through Nikken, the network marketing company I am with. Also, like the lady I mentioned in the first example, I didn’t do any marketing. And sure enough, I didn’t sell much. In the past several months I have been learning how to market on the internet and that big ticket items are actually the best products to have because when you do sell them they make you a lot of money. They have to be worth the price and deliver the benefits of course. During June I really got busy with marketing, mostly with pay-per-click advertising on Google, and in the middle of a bad economy, sold almost $2000 worth of product which netted me a check for a little over $400. Not bad for someone just starting out. I changed my reality by changing my beliefs.
So, what reality do you want to create for yourself? Do you want to believe that the economy is shot to pieces, that you are too busy to make positive changes in your life, and that you will never make enough money to do the things you want to do? Or do you believe that life is good, the economy is improving (at least your economy), and that you can have money if you chose to make some changes?
