Make A Lot Of Money - Here's How

I've gone over this a little before, but the volume of questions I receive on this topic make it clear to me that I need to revisit the question of how to make a lot of money.  I guess because this site's title has the word "rich" in it, it attracts all sorts of people on the internet, and that's fine.  I don't have the hangups about money that some others do, and I don't think that having a lot of money is inherently evil.  As long as your growth as a person is accelerating at the same rate as your bank account, then you're A-OK in my book.  After all, it's what you do with your wealth that really matters.

The problem, though, with attracting all types of cash-seekers to this site is that many of them seem to be looking for that quick hit that requires a minimal amount of effort.  Lots of people want to know how to get rich quickly or easily, but as those of us who have been around the block a time or two will attest, achieving wealth is almost never quick or easy.  There's a reason why only a small percentage of people on this planet are absolutely loaded, and it's that only a small percentage of us have both the desire and the enduring drive necessary to get there.  Newsflash: If you want to make a lot of money you have to work your butt off!  There is no easy way unless your last name is Hilton or Walton, and even those families spent decades and massive amounts of energy to get to ultra-wealth status.  Anybody that tells you otherwise is selling you something, and that something is a big, heaping, steaming pile of BS.

This is not to suggest that your contracting or service business will necessarily require decades to make you rich.  I've seen situations where a young small business owner worked extremely hard and became a millionaire within 5-6 years (and it's a model I'm personally trying to follow right now), but if you're expecting to earn a six-figure income right off the bat remodeling kitchens and bathrooms then you're in for some disappointment.  It will take time.  It will take sweat.  It will take sacrifice.  If you really want to learn how to make a lot of money then you better be prepared for battle.

There's a Lance Armstrong quote that goes something like this: "Pain is temporary; losing is forever".  Apologies to Lance if I got that wrong but I think the gist is evident.  There have been days in my business when everything that could go wrong did go wrong, when the deck seemed stacked against me, when all signals seemed to be that I needed to give up and go ask my old boss for my job back.  But, so far at least, in each of these instances I've been able to pull back from that edge by reminding myself that pain is temporary and losing is forever.  It is the decisions we make in these instances of doubt and confusion that ultimately separate the winners that make money from the losers that make excuses.  When the stuff hits the fan 95% of us will wither and retreat.  The other 5% will fight on with the knowledge that no matter how bad today is it will be a better tomorrow, not only because things are never as disastrous as they seem in the moment, but also because they know that the other 95% will have thrown in the towel.  The 5% consists of some ornery and stubborn SOB's, and if you want to make a lot of money with your own business you'll have to be that way, too.

Okay, so let's say you've got the work ethic and you understand that in order to make a ton of money you're going to have to put in the time.  Next step: what kind of business to devote yourself to for the next several years or more.  I've gone over this in previous posts so I won't rehash.  I suggest reading about making money with a simple service, getting rich via replication, and finding a profitable niche, just for starters.  Just know that unless you're ready to scrap and bust your butt the rest is a moot point.  A tenacious business owner can make a go of it in the worst of industries while a limp noodle will have trouble growing a business even in the hottest fields.  Oh and, by the way, if you think that you can grow exponentially without spending at least a little money on the exploding opportunities that are available right now in small business web marketing then you are sorely mistaken.  Familiarize yourself with the leverage that the internet can offer or risk losing out on the huge percentage of consumers who no longer even use their phone book.

This post has sort of rambled on and I apologize to my regular readers for the sermon, as this is intended not so much for you but for the new folks who stumble in here expecting that I'm going to show them the "secrets" to making a lot of money without doing much work.  It was time for some brutal honesty. 

So, a fair and kind heads-up to the newbies out there.  Send me an email demanding to know "how to make a lot of money fast" and expect that I will reply with a link to this post and probably nothing more.