Managing your expectations for making it big

We all know the saying, you can’t have your cake and eat it too. It’s a common thing for most people in business: they want to make a lot of money but also want to do very little work for it, or want to have a certain lifestyle.

 While you can achieve really good financial success with very little effort, you do need to start early or be okay with having that ‘success’ later on down the track.

 Stop dreaming – it doesn’t happen overnight.

 If you invest in things like index shares or ETFs early enough, you can potentially be retired at 30-35 with enough money inside these shares to give you an income that pays for your lifestyle and keeps up with inflation. Using this tactic, you can actually get to that lifestyle really easily, but the problem is time and money. You need an initial sum of money to invest and then 20-25 years to achieve that return. Most people don't want to wait 25 years, they want it today.

 The only thing you can do about wanting this big grand life with very little input today is to stop dreaming. There's really no other way to do it. It's either stop dreaming or win the lotto.

 Much of this misconception about being able to achieve success overnight is amplified by social media influencers, people making YouTube videos and earning $100,000 a month or whatever.

 For example, Matt Does Fitness creates videos on YouTube. He has almost 2 million YouTube subscribers, brand deals with Gym Shark and he's making hundreds of thousands of pounds a year. He bought a house near the water in Brighton UK.

 But it’s taken him eight years to get where he is now.

 Eight years ago he was a PE teacher at a local high school and it wasn’t what he wanted to do so he just started creating this YouTube channel and kept building it. His videos were terrible but he just kept at it. Four years into the channel he was making enough money alongside his partner’s income that he could quit his job and focus full time on building the channel. He just kept pushing and pushing and now, eight years later he's making this money.

 The reality is that probably 1.5 million of his subscribers have only subscribed in the last year or two and now they think this guy's been an overnight success.

 The moral of the story is that you need to be more realistic in your dreams and desires. You also probably need to talk to someone who has achieved what you want, or flesh it out with someone else so they can bring you back to reality...

 And then you just have to be patient.

 Why the hurry?

 There are a lot of 20-30-year-olds who I've talked to who are wanting to build these big businesses, this big lifestyle, and they want it all before they’re 30-35. What they forget is that 40 is still pretty young! I know plenty of 40-year-olds who are still in the middle of their careers, they’re still just making it through that middle management leadership area where they still haven't made it to the big time - but they're still living great lives.

 They’ve got wealth because it's just the years (time) that has helped them do that.

 If you’re looking for a quick way to achieve your success, just slow down and be patient. Make a plan to get to where you want to be, stick to it, and you will get there.

 Here are three steps to get you started managing your expectations and working towards your success.

1. Mindset – is this something you want to actually pursue?

 Jump on YouTube and watch some videos of people who have gone there, been there, done it. Gary V or Tim Ferriss, All those big guys who are quite famous, who actually took years and years to build up their name and their profile, some of them it took a decade or more to do it. Go watch their videos and start consuming their content. They share a lot of great stuff.

 Why? It might just be a fleeting thought that you've had and you don't want to go into this spending money just for someone to tell you what you probably already know.

 Gary V's approach of how to be successful is very similar to how to lose weight. You just need to eat a good diet and exercise. That's it. Getting success in life is the same - you just need to know what it is that you're trying to achieve, to find a solution, and then put in the work. When you break it down, it's actually really easy but no one wants to go on that journey. No one wants to actually make that effort to go through it, they just want it now. So, get your mindset right first.

2.  Find a business or life coach

 Once you have the mindset of this is actually something I do want to pursue’ (or you've been thinking about it for a while and you are ready to go for it) then your next step is to find a business coach.

 There's plenty of great business coaches and you don't have to limit yourself to someone local. You can get a business coach from America, London, wherever. However, you might want to get a local business coach so you can meet and talk to them in person.

 Do some research, ask for some references, don't just rush into the first one you find or someone else’s recommendation. Ask to talk to the business coach’s clients, ask for case studies. Do your research properly and then go through the process with them. You're not going to figure this out in one session with a business coach, so again, be willing to spend that money and lose it if it doesn't work.

3. Talk about it as much as possible and surround yourself with others on the same journey.

 Talk to your friends, talk to other people, talk to your partner - talk about it as much as possible. Surround yourself with other people who are doing what you want to do. You're the average of the five people that you hang around, so the five people to start hanging out with are the people that you want to be or that you want to emulate. You'll start picking up what they do and see.

 Quite often people who have had some success love to share it. You can always have a coffee with them and they'll tell you things that they've done. There's plenty of ways that don't necessarily involve paying someone for that information now but you do have to map it out properly.

What do you think? Do you think the internet and the rise of influencers have given us bigger expectations and reduced our patience for them to happen?

 Drop a comment below, I’d love to hear your thoughts. If you’ve enjoyed this article please like or share it with your network.