Do you remember Y2K?
To most people, Y2K was to be the end of the world as we knew it back at the end of 1999. When the clocks rolled around to the new year in 2000, because of the way computers were set up to manage dates, a catastrophe was anticipated as the worlds computers were expected to collapse.
Doesn't 1999 look strange now that we are in 2012....it looks almost ancient when written out!!!I expect that, like many others, you were waiting for something to happen, not too drastic I hope – like a plane falling out of the sky as the Air Traffic Control's computers crashed? No! ......Nothing like that happened. Banks wiping out our overdrafts? Yes please!!! Did they? NO!
Me? I went to Las Vegas. The party town. The town where only they know how to party. The only place to be at a time of year like New Year. And yes, I flew back ON NEW YEARS DAY!!! I had faith. Few else did though because the plane was virtually empty!!.If you've never been to Las Vegas you must get down there. It is truly a party town with an atmosphere second to none. The mood is exciting, the people are exciting (at least the winners are, that is), there is a continual air of excitement that something big is going to happen, and happen soon. You spend a lot of time walking around watching, listening, sharing in the excitement.
Life is a bit like Vegas.We live in a continual world of anticipation, ofexcitement, of knowing that the next "big one" could be ours. So we hang around and play the game just one more time. Giving the handle just one more pull. Place one more chip on the green baize. Get one more person on board. Tell the story just one more time. Answer the phone again, just this once! Because you never know when you'll hit the jackpot.
I was sat playing the machines at 25c a go! Lost some, won some. People all around me were also playing those machines. Some machines were 25c like mine, some were 50c. Others were $1 with some going as high as $25, $50, and some were even $100.00!!!!!!
As I sat there pumping in my 25c I soon realized that we were all playing the same game. All doing the same thing, pulling the same handles, watching the same little wheel. And then doing it all over again. There was one time that I was up 70 points. Now at 25c a pull that's only $17.50,so I carried on playing.
Had that been on the $100 machine I would have won $7000.00.....
...... and I would have walked.
...... and I would have walked.
It then came home to me that in business, as in life, you only get out of it what you put into it. The more that you put in so the more that you get out. Now we all know that life is a gamble, but yours and mine isn't. Provided that you invest not only your money but your time also you will gain the benefits.
Those machines in Las Vegas didn't respond to the money being invested in them; they were responding to the time investment. Time had to be spent pulling that handle. It was pulling the handle that made the whole thing work. Building a business is the same.
Anyone can go and make a money investment. Anyone can go register a business. But are you prepared to spend the time in telling your story, networking, attending the meetings, placing the ads, answering the phones.
Are you prepared to spend time on your investment? You see - if you were to do these things for yourself then, like Vegas, you would become a center of attraction. You would be exciting not only to watch but to be with as well. People would gravitate towards you. Your business would explode. Gambling, life, and success aren't so much about what you know. It's what you DO with what you know that counts.
Investing money without investing the effort?
Now that's what I call gambling!
