You Can't Make It Big Thinking Small

The title of this article seems intuitive, except, I’m going to prove to you by the end of this article that we all do it; we all think small, and more than we care to admit.? Thanks to a bunch of poorly written books on finance 101, many people have adopted the mentality that saving a few cents here and there will lead to a healthy retirement, or better yet, a rich one!

Let me begin by saying that this article is not written for the segment of society struggling to eat and pay rent.? If you fall into this category, then you might need to cut pennies wherever you can.? You might end up taking a second job or a creating a side hustle, just so you can get by.? I’ve been there and I have done that and there is nothing wrong with it.? It got me where I am today.? Stick with good decisions and in a year or less, this article will be for you as well.? That said, this article is written for most of the professionals on LinkedIn, that although may struggle now and then to take a vacation or buy a few extra luxury items, have figured out how to pay their rent/mortgage and put food on their table regularly.

If you figured out how to pay your bills each month and are now working on how to retire wealthy, read on!? We’ll start with individuals, and we’ll end the article with corporations and the work force.

If I could figure out a way of making a dollar each day while in my sleep, I would put it into effect.? As a matter of fact, I have.? I self-published a Pictures & Poems book which I sell on social media and on my website.? I wake up each morning eager to see how many copies have sold over night.? I put in the work at the beginning and now I sit back and enjoy, until I come up with another idea.? But, if I need to spend 30 minutes clipping coupons (for example) so I can save a couple of dollars, I’d rather put my time to better use, like creating another book to sell.

The coupons are just an example and the bigger topic here is the danger of adopting a mindset of scarcity.? Let us analyze what that can look like.

A good portion of the people I know in my neighborhood have no problem going to the local store that also has a gas station, and waiting on line for 25 minutes to get gas.? For this article, let’s call this store “Store X”.? Afterall, saving five cents a gallon can add up to a dollar if your car has a twenty-gallon tank.? I did it a couple of times and only waited ten to fifteen minutes and decided this was not for me.? If you use simple math and basic automobile knowledge, you’ll see this makes absolutely no sense.? Let me explain.

Say I get a great deal by going to Store X and I save ten cents per gallon, and I have a twenty-gallon tank in my vehicle.? That is a saving of two dollars.? It turns out that the gas I normally get at the gas station across the street (not Store X) gives me better gas mileage.? If I fill up my tank at the gas station, I can drive my vehicle for 330 miles.? If I get gas for my vehicle at Store X, I can only go for 310 miles before needing gas.? That is a difference of twenty miles.? If gas is roughly four dollars per gallon and my vehicle gives me 20 miles per gallon (actually 19 but I’ll round up), then I saved 4 dollars by getting the better gas at the gas station.? However, I only saved two dollars by buying gas at the cheaper Store X price, and I had to wait on a ridiculous line.? Does this make sense?

Looking at it another way, if I continue getting the more expensive gas at the gas station near me, I can drive for 330 miles before re-fueling.? However, if I start fueling up at Store X which saves me two dollars on my tank, it costs me four dollars in fuel economy.? Therefore, going to Store X ends up costing me two dollars more.? ($4 loss - $2 savings = $2 loss).? If this is not clear, read it again, please.? Waiting in line to get cheaper gas will cost you more in fuel economy instead.? So, not only are you wasting your valuable time waiting to get gas, but you also end up paying more!? Clear?? The question is…how many people will read this and continue waiting on long lines to buy cheaper gas?

The first thing we learn about this scenario is that most of us sleep-walk.? We live our lives like zombies, doing what everyone else does, never questioning the matrix.? If our neighbor finishes their basement, then we finish our basement…better.? If our neighbor buys an electric car, then we buy one…faster.? If our neighbor moves to a bigger house, then we move to a monster house.? No thought, no analysis, no logic.? Just follow the herd.? This is a topic for another article, but it touches on the scarcity mindset discussed here because many people think small, due to everyone around them doing the same.

The second thing we learn about the scenario above (buying cheaper gas) is that so many of us think so little of our time.? Can you imagine waiting in line for twenty-five minutes to buy gas and only saving one or two dollars?? That is insane!? That is no different than saying… “I’m going to go find a job that pays me four dollars an hour.”? Two dollars in half an hour is four dollars an hour.? Would you in your right mind ever take a salary of $4 per hour for the same work you do now?? You don’t have to answer.? I already know what you are going to say.? So, if your time is more valuable than that, why do you do it?? Why do you wait in line to buy gas?? Why would anyone spend a Sunday afternoon clipping coupons to save five dollars later that week?? Why would I spend time managing a bunch of restaurant apps on my phone, so I can get points when I go eat there, once a week?? Remember the message you are sending your mind.? If you are willing to invest a large amount of time to make little money, then you are saying that your time is only worth a little money.

The point here is not to go over each method that is killing your time and keeping you from doing greater things.? The point of this article is just to remind us that we sometimes spend way too much time saving pennies, when we can put our time to more productive use.? There is a big difference between being busy and being productive.? Many of us stay constantly busy and we are rarely productive.

If you get a credit card that pays back 3% and use it for everything all month long, and then pay the bill at the end of the month, that is smart use of your time.? I know someone that makes thousands of dollars a year doing this, and no extra time is required outside of applying for the card.

Many times, there is a deeper root cause to our thoughts, than just petty habits.? In the case of a scarcity mindset, it is many times rooted in our childhood.? Many of us grew up within humble means and it was not uncommon to hear our parents say, “we don’t have money for that right now” or, “money doesn’t grow on trees” or, “do I look rich to you?”? Words are so powerful and can have a lasting impact, but our parents didn’t know any better.? If they did, I believe they would not have made these statements.? No different than us driving thirty minutes home from work and not remembering how we got there; we also think thousands of things each day just because we have been thinking them for so long.? In both cases, we have programed our subconscious through repetition, and we are now doing the same thing, day after day, without paying mind to any of it.? Some of us are driving without thinking and some of us are repeating limiting beliefs about money to ourselves and, to our children as well.

A humble upbringing can foster guilt during spending too.? Have you ever purchased a TV for your home or a piece of needed furniture, only to turn around and regret spending the money?? That is another limiting factor that will keep us from being wealthy or highly successful.? If you follow any of the famous millionaires or billionaires offering advice these days, you’ll notice that once they commit to a purchase, they earn the money to make it happen and they move forward.? No regrets, ever!

Having a regret about things we purchase is no different than telling ourselves that we didn’t really deserve them.? That is the message our mind is getting – mixed.? On one hand, we tell our mind, we are buying a TV because we need it and deserve it.? On the other hand, we feel guilt and therefore, tell our mind that we don’t deserve the TV.? This in turn feeds our other money biases and we end up in line for half an hour to lose two dollars in gas.

Like the wealthy, we need to learn how to spend our energy making money, not cutting cost.? Which one sounds more abundant?? Making or cutting?? Which sounds more limiting?? All of this is terribly important.? Don’t just take it from me.? I will leave you two books at the end of this article that have changed the lives of countless people.? These books will tell you the same thing, but they will be more elaborate and use many more examples. Listen to the language you feed yourself.? This will ultimately be a major deciding factor in your success.

Until this point, we have talked about personal finance.? Now, we will pretend to be a corporation.? If you read the stories of all major tech monsters today, you’ll find a common thread.? They all made their money by coming up with innovative solutions for existing problems, not by cutting cost.? On the contrary, cost was the least important item on their mind.? Many of them fed employees, offered them perks like gym memberships, discounts in local stores, and held team meetings at expensive restaurants.? Their focus was around making big money, not making big cuts.

Now focus on the companies that didn’t survive this past decade.? Look at their last coupe of years alive.? They were cutting office supplies, cutting benefits, cutting expenses, cutting travel, cutting bonuses, and even, cutting pay.? They went into survival mode and stopped being creative and innovative.? They stopped focusing on “making” and focused instead on “cutting”.? Sounds familiar?? Of course, it does; this is the mode many of us operate in.? Survival mode.? “What else can I cut?”, instead of “what else or how else can I make?”? Companies that go into survival mode have their lunch eaten by companies that have a growth mindset.? Companies that have a growth mindset start thinking about things such as, diversity, benefits, innovation, employee engagement, retention, bonuses, customer satisfaction, acquisitions, and so much more.? The only thing they are looking to cut is the amount of time people spend working.

On a smaller scale but still within the workforce, is the individual, or us.? We often see the C-suite as another planet, way out of our reach.? We say things to ourselves like, “I am in this position for a reason”, “I am too shy to be a leader”, “I don’t have the intelligence to manage a team”, “that is too much responsibility for me”, “my time will come, eventually”, “I am not in a rush to move up”, and so many more limiting statements that feed into our scarcity mindset.? One reason for this is fear of failure.? Sure, there are pre-programmed limiting beliefs from our childhood that we are simply regurgitating back.? But that is not all.? The heavy hitter in this case is our fear of moving up, then failing.? This has to do with scarcity, lack of self-esteem, and deeply ingrained limiting beliefs.? How do I know this?? For one, I have read about it.? And secondly, I have lived it and continue living it, to some degree.

Think about those times you have been the expert on a topic and were invited to speak about it.? You walked in with your head high, shoulders back, feeling confident and sure of yourself.? Is this how you walk when you are in the C-suite for a meeting or when you are meeting a VP or senior director?? If not, you are sending the message to your brain that you don’t deserve to be there.? The next time, throw your shoulders back a little and keep your chin up.? You must first believe you belong there before anyone else believes it.? Everything you see around you today started with an idea.? Everything.? Without the idea of an item, the item cannot come into existence.? Without the idea of you occupying an office, the office will never become available to you.? Don’t just imagine it, envision it!? See it!? Feel it!

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I’ll summarize by saying that how we talk to others and to ourselves affects the way we think, and what we think decides how successful we will be, or not.? Drop all your petty thoughts of scarcity.? If you save a penny, then you have only made a penny.? Your time is much more valuable than that.? Stop focusing on what to cut and begin focusing on how you will make more.? The time you would have wasted on a long line to spend two dollars more for gas, can now be spent coming up with innovative ideas and side hustles that can make you so much more money, time, and success.? Think big!? You deserve it!

Feel free to share your own experience and how you feel about this topic.? We don’t always need to agree with each other, but we can always learn from each other.? Thanks for getting this far and catch you in the next one!

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Juan David Londo?o

August 2023

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Recommended books:

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

Paperback:? https://amzn.to/47Iyzlq

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The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz, PhD

Paperback:? https://amzn.to/3spPDfS

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Bonus Book:

The Millionaire Fastlane by MJ DeMarco

Paperback:? https://amzn.to/3YVi55h

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