Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new.  Brian Tracy

Chapter 9

Be Bold!

Rule #20 – Be Bold When It Comes to Money

Fear stops us from living a truly prosperous life at times. I have been in contracting for about 40 years, and in that time I have seen many people lose money and go broke because of the fear of asking to get paid.  Boldness is far better and more profitable than fear.

You don’t have to be rude. Just ask. Or in some cases let them know that you need to be paid when the job is complete. We always do this on commercial jobs.

As we conclude the phone conversation about time and pricing, I just tell them we need to get paid the day we are done. They may say they don’t carry checks. We ask if they have a credit card and then ask if that will work for their boss. Also we add $3.50/hundred to do a card because that is what we are charged. Most of the time, they agree.

That is so much simpler than trying to collect from a company that is out of state. If you have ever tried that kind of collecting, you will know what I mean. Generally, it takes three months to get money that way. We just don’t do jobs like that anymore.

With smaller, local contractors we usually ask them to meet us and pay when we are done when it is the first time we have worked for them. Usually, people understand the situation and do just what you ask. If that goes well, we will bill them in the future.

If they object, then that raises a red flag. They may be ones that you would have a hard time collecting from anyway. Tell them you really need to get paid while you are there because they are a new account.

If you stick to your guns, usually they will do that.

This type of dealing with people about money also has the advantage of showing that:

1. You have some integrity.
2. You are not afraid of losing a job.
3. You respect yourself enough to conduct your business properly.
4. Thus, most people will have more respect for you and treat you better.

I worked with a young man years ago that told me the builder owed him for all the materials and labor for five houses. WOW! I asked him why he would do the next one if he was not getting paid.

Fear was the answer:

1. Afraid the builder would not pay for any of it if he asked for the money.
2. Afraid he would not get the next job if he insisted on getting paid.
3. Afraid of the confrontation.

He eventually went broke and got a job.

Fear… some call it sand in the machinery of life.

(More on this in Rule #45)

Boldness without being rude is one of the well-worn paths to The Prosperous Life.

Proverbs 28:1 ….   But the righteous are bold as a lion (KJV)

Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit.  Vince Lombardi

Chapter 8

Staying Out of Trouble

Someone once said that we don’t communicate well enough. There may be many reasons for that: the wrong choice of words, being unclear about what we really mean, or because we are trying to imply something we hope the person gets, but we really don’t want to come right out and say it.

By rephrasing the words back to the speaker, we can verify that what we are hearing is what the speaker meant.  This can be done with your spouse, children, coworkers or even your boss.

Rephrasing is to say back to the person, in your own words, what they said. “What I hear you saying is…..”

Example:

“What’s for dinner?”

“We were going to have chicken, but I forgot to thaw it out, and I have been so busy today I hadn’t even thought about it.”

“So are you wanting to go out for supper?”

“Would you mind?”

Here is another example:  The salesman writes up a repair order on two of his products sitting in a wholesaler’s warehouse. His company sends the repair order to an independent repair contractor. The contractor sees that one unit is a warranty repair and one has been damaged, probably by the wholesaler’s warehousemen. The repairman calls the manufacturer, and the manufacturer agrees to pay for the one unit with the defect but refuses to pay for the other damaged one.

During the repair the salesman shows up and says to the repairman.

“You are new at this aren’t you? I would hate to lose an account like this as I only have two accounts. Don’t let little “technicalities” cause us to lose this account. This time I will pay for the non-warranty repair.”

Rephrasing: “So what I hear you saying is that no matter what is wrong with the units, you want me to write up the invoice to the manufacturer to show that these are all warranty repairs. Is that right?”

If he says, “yes,” now you know he wants you to lie. You can:

1. Just end the conversation without confirming that you will do that and next time it happens, mention to the manufacturer what you have been instructed to do by their salesman.
2. Let him know that you will only bill warranty repairs to the manufacturer, and if he wants to pay for all the others, you will call him each time to confirm his continued willingness to pay.

Rule #18 – Practice Rephrasing Anything Questionable or Unclear.

Rephrasing can clear up many situations. It can help straighten out fuzzy thinking, help use the right words, make things clearer and at times keep you out of trouble.

Communicating well is part of The Prosperous Life.

Rule #19 – Never Look in the Windows.

I learned this from a direct sales company 45 years ago and have followed it ever since.  If you look in the windows of the house you are knocking on, first of all to passersby or even the homeowner, you appear to be a rube (an uneducated, unsophisticated country boy). This is just rude.

What if you arrived a little earlier that the lady had anticipated, and you see her racing half-dressed to the other end of the house and she sees you?  No matter what you do, that situation is a mess. And remember people talk.

I first ring the doorbell then turn away slightly from the door and step back a bit if that is possible.  On the second ring if the door is not answered, I also add a knock.  Sometimes doorbells don’t work.  Then we try a third time before I would call them on the phone.  Sometimes they are running the vacuum, etc. and did not hear you.

If you stand back a ways, you don’t seem to be so much in their space when they open the door.

Think about it!

Proverbs15:8….  The prayers of the upright are his delight (The New KJV)

Don’t wish it was easier wish you were better. Don’t wish for less problems wish for more skills. Don’t wish for less challenge wish for more wisdom.    Jim Rohn

 Chapter 7

Comfortable and Complacent!

Rule #17 – Don’t Become Comfortable and Complacent!

I meet many people every day, and many times I ask them what they do for work and/or how they got into the business they are in. Sometimes the stories are very interesting. I asked a young builder the other day how he came to build houses.

He said he was working as a foreman for another builder making about $50,000 per year. He told me that it is very easy to become complacent with that kind of income. He said you can pay your bills and live fairly comfortably.

Together he and his wife had read many financial books and had some understanding of how money worked. He said he did not want to become complacent at that level of income, so after he learned what he felt he needed to know about building houses, after about a year with this job, he quit.

He found a money man that agreed to build seven houses and split the profits 50/50 with him, and that venture was successful. A year later they parted company, and he now had enough to go the bank. They loaned him the money to start a couple of houses, and he was in the building business.

Many times we become complacent with our income because we are comfortable there.

• We know what it takes to earn that amount.
• We know the people.
• We know the routines.
• We know that we can pay our bills at that level.
• Our friends all make about the same.
• We are part of the group.

If we strive to move up a level or two, that would put us in unfamiliar territory. Weird as it sounds, most people would be uncomfortable if their income doubled or tripled.

• Their lifestyle might change.
• Their friends might change.
• What they talk about might change.
• And most are afraid of the unknown.

You see many people have bought into the idea that to really be successful you have to get a college education and go to work for some major company. That can be very comfortable – someone or a company taking care of you, and then complacency can easily set in. You could fight complacency, and climb out of your comfort zone.

Starting your own side business may be uncomfortable and may be a little different than your friends, but it may change your life in ways you never imagined.

For example: I have met people that buy and sell golf courses or others that buy companies from the IRS that were taken because of non-payment of taxes. They got the companies profitable and then sold them. I have also talked to people that buy mobile home parks after the park had been through bankruptcy two or three times. Then they made a deal with a company that repossessed mobile homes to put them in their park and split the rent.

Some 150 years ago most of the people in this country were self-­employed as we were an agricultural economy. But as the industrial age set in, people moved from the farms into the cities. Then they acquired some debt and had to stay in those jobs in order to pay “the man.” But it was comfortable.  A paycheck each week. Eventually complacency can set in.

This reminds one of the song Sixteen Tons by Tennessee Ernie Ford. One of the lines reads: “Saint Peter don’t you call ‘cause I can’t go, I owe my soul to the company store.”

This lack of funds and debt keeps us showing up on the job to get the money to pay the debt. We have been trained to be good workers for industry and good consumers for the global economy. Someone sold us on the wrong plan.

A billboard I see every day says: “A job for every Oklahoman, a workforce for every company.” Learn to think outside the box.

Learn to embrace the uncomfortable and beware of complacency. God wants us to be God-sufficient. For God to be our sufficiency, a college education is not required.  God’s hand is with us in everything we do as we are His children. So break out of your comfort zone, and kiss complacency goodbye. God has laid out the fundamental principles of prosperity in His Word. These fundamental principles are also laid out in our new book Poverty vs Wealth. Try it. It could be your key to The Prosperous Life.

Proverbs 24:10 If you faint in the day of adversity your strength is small. 

(English Standard Version)

Work hard at your job, and you can make a living.

Work hard on yourself, and you can make a fortune. Jim Rohn

Chapter 6

Have Some Respect

Rule #16 – Have Some Respect for Yourself

It would seem that there are many things to learn when you are learning about The Prosperous Life.

First, you would want to get born from above. No matter how much money you make or how high you climb in the corporate world or politics, if all you have to look forward to is 70 years and a hole in the ground; that is not much of a prosperous life.

If you have confessed Jesus Christ as your Lord and if you believe that God raised him from the dead, then you truly already have a prosperous eternal life to look forward to.

While we are awaiting the return of our lord, there are many aspects to The Prosperous Life to learn about. This one aspect starts with a story.

I walked into a warehouse the other day that I am in occasionally and observed the people walking around and through. There were people from the office, dressed very nicely, passing through checking on orders, men who apparently had decided that the warehouse was their life’s work, and another man that was the warehouse manager.

The warehouse manager was dressed nicely as well, clean shaven, nice work pants, shirt tucked in and smiling as he hurried about. The other people who probably were going to be warehousemen for the rest of their lives dressed less thoughtfully. Their pants needed washing. Their shirts were not tucked in. Some needed to shave.

It was easy to tell which ones were heading up. The next stop would be counter sales and then outside sales which would all pay better than working in the warehouse.

A few years ago, I was with a man that was doing bathtub repairs for a living. He got a speck of paint on his jeans and it irritated him. He said, “Today was the last day for these jeans as they are threadbare, and I got paint on them. Darn!” He took pride in keeping his clothes clean from paint until they were worn out. It was like a self-imposed challenge to keep his clothes spotless.

On the other hand, I have seen many painters that are covered in paint wearing clothes that look like they have not been washed in a month. They wear those paint covered clothes like a badge of honor. “I am a painter!!” constantly wiping their paint covered hands on their pants.

How much work would it be to keep a towel on your belt to wipe your hands on and keep your clothes clean?

I have a paint store that I have bought supplies from for years. I have seen the owner many times in the back mixing paint with never a spot on his clothes. His wife buys his shirts from garage sales cheap, and when he gets paint on one, it goes in the trash. He is always neat. He cares about his appearance, and he will probably take care to get your order right.

In the work I do, I am constantly knocking on people’s doors during the daytime. Many times the husband is at work and when that young woman with two young ones in tow looks out the peep hole, what do you think she would be more comfortable seeing? Someone dressed neatly, and clean shaven or someone with grease and paint on their pants, holes in their shirt, and a three day old beard on their face?

A three day beard on Friday night may be cool, but it is not cool when knocking on a young woman’s door, whose husband is gone, on Monday morning. It looks scraggily!

This is not just my thinking.  Some of the companies that I work for call the people after we have fixed the issue in their customer’s home. They ask the client:

• Were they on time?
• Were they dressed nicely?
• Were they clean shaven?
• Were you comfortable with them in your home?”

The reason is because I may be the only person associated with that company that the client has ever seen, and the company wants to be represented well.

How you dress says a lot about you. If you don’t pay much attention to how you dress, maybe you are not going to:

• Pay much attention to your job,
• Or to your speech,
• Or to the important details of your companies clients,
• Or their orders.

Sometimes people will try you out on a job or two to see what you are like —  how do you dress, do you show up on time, are you easy to work with, etc.  If they like what they see, you could step into a mega account.  You just never know where the next job will lead.  This is why establishing good work ethics, principles and habits will pay off in the long run.

One painting company I was on a forum with on the internet said this: “When our guys come to work, they are expected to wear clean clothes and if they have not shaved, I tell them that there are razors and shaving cream in the restroom. They either shave or they go home.”

I have read about painters that run large shops, and sometimes they include paperhanging as part of their services.  One paint company owner said he had two good paperhangers.  One was a young guy that did absolutely superb work and an old man whose work was good but certainly not the quality of the younger man.  Now the young man was a sloppy dresser, kind of slovenly in appearance.  The older man dressed in traditional painter/paperhanger clothes — slacks, dress shoes, white shirt and tie.  When the painter came to work dressed like this, they would put on some overalls AFTER they had met the people of the home for the day and the owners had gone to work.  When the clients would call back to the shop to request more paper to be hung guess which paperhanger had the most requests?  The old man!! I have heard of this happening in several cases.  Sloppy personal habits make people uneasy.  The workers seem less trustworthy.  Sloppy appearance and work habits are irritating to some people and others are not quite sure they want to leave the person home alone or with their children.

How you dress, personal hygiene, etc. says a lot about how you think about your job and yourself and your ability. This may not be true for every person, but it is what goes through the minds of the people that have the ability to promote you or hire you.

You could learn to observe how the people above you in the company dress and copy their style. (Unless they are slobs!) You will move up faster. (It should go without saying, but sometimes needs to be said anyway, take a bath and use some deodorant!)

Some people seem to think that once they are hired for a job, it is theirs for life and how they conduct themselves and how they dress is irrelevant. Your boss may never tell you what he thinks about how you take care of yourself, but, if you don’t pay attention to your outward appearance, don’t be surprised if you are passed up for promotions. Have some respect for yourself.

Everywhere we go we represent our Father and the company that sent us. This is simply another piece of The Prosperous Life.

Proverbs 22:1 A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches….  

(The Living Bible)

There are three things that are important to every man in this locker room. His God, his family and the Green Bay Packers.  In that order.  Vince Lombardi

Keep Your Integrity!

When I first got into this business, my focus was on solving the problems of the people that called. I would say, “No problem,” and get it fixed ASAP.

But as time went on and I became very busy, I began to try to get them to wait on me by getting them to sympathize with my problems in getting there in a timely fashion.  I talked about too many of the things going on in my life that were negative.

As I was talking one day, I could tell by the man’s face that he really did not want to hear all that.  As I thought about what I was doing, I realized that my focus had dramatically changed from being a problem solver to being a problem teller.

People are looking for problem solvers.  They’re not concerned with your problems. They just want their problems fixed. If you have too many problems, they will find somebody who doesn’t have so many.

So that’s how Rule #11 came about.

Rule #11 – Don’t tell people about your problems!

Your business will do better!

Rule #12 – Never work for just one company or client.

My sons were in Boy Scouts a number of years ago, and the Scout Master at the time was an attorney.  He had worked for the same company for about 20 years and had no private practice.  He had a nice home and a son in college, but when the oil company made some cuts, he was out of a job.  Since he had never developed a private practice, he was in bad shape.  He finally went to work for another attorney in the troop that had his own law firm.

It is never good as a contractor to only work for one company or client.  They can really put your feet to the fire at times to get lower prices – their own houses done cheaply or their jobs done for free.

I worked for an acquaintance one time that had just had a new home built by a large builder.  She told me that all the contractors on her home told her that they had just built their foreman a new home with free labor.  They either did his home for free or found another job.  What could they do?  He was their only client.

I have been offered large jobs in the past that may take a year or so.  First, they want it done at a cheaper price because of the volume of the work and the job security it offers.  Then they want to be your only client.  I have always turned those deals down.  What happens at the end of the work?  I would have no business left to go back to.  All my clients will have found other contractors, and I will have to start from scratch building a business.

They may decide in six months they want the price even cheaper.  They have you over a barrel.  They are your only source of income.

What if they decide in six months that Bob can do it even cheaper?  They will drop you in a heartbeat.

Trading your freedom of running your own business for the security of work every day is not worth the risk.

Rule #13 – Don’t stir the pot.

This can cover many different areas.

I used to tell builders things that I saw wrong with their houses that might cause them trouble down the road.  I found they usually took that as criticism.  Now I will tell them if the house is on fire, but that is about it.

I used to try to help people get their jobs done under the warranty they had.  That required many phone calls to set it up. I found that the some of the people I had to contact in order to accomplish this did not appreciate it.  As we could not turn in the warranty job ourselves, it required several calls to find out if the responsible entity had turned the job in for the people.  I quit stirring the warranty pot also.

Not stirring the pot is a good principle to live by in your work and in everyday life. The more you ponder it and watch, the better you will understand.

Rule #14 – Keep how much you make to yourself.

This is a great rule.  Each business has its own list of expenses and financial duties and benefits that most outside that business will not understand.

Years ago my mother saw a milk check (proceeds from a dairy farm for the milk they sold that week) that came into my aunt’s books.  Mother said, “Boy, I would like to have that for a week.”  My aunt said, “It looks like a lot, but if you saw the bills I have to pay, it would not seem like very much.”

People will not understand how your business is set up and perhaps what all is involved in the price you set. So it is best to just keep what you make to yourself.

Rule #15 – Keep Your Integrity.

Integrity is one of the most valuable assets you can have as a business person.  Integrity says you can be trusted:  trusted to tell the truth in situations – trusted to do what is right.

But integrity is often sacrificed on the altar of money.

I have a book that I look at often that has things I pray about in it.  At the top of the page is a list of priorities for life that I learned from Jim Rohn (a self-development speaker).  It is a very good way of ordering the priorities of your life.

1. God
2. Health
3. Family
4. Integrity
5. Career

Many people put their career in the number one position.  That would have to do with the making of money.  If you do this, you will sacrifice your relationship with God, your health, your relationship with your family and your integrity for the sake of your career or in other words, money.

God should always come first.  Then should come the taking care of your health.  Without health you are no good to your family or your career.

Family should come next and always before your career.  Then comes your integrity.  If you sacrifice your integrity for the sake of your career, you may lose your career also.

You may be tempted to lie to benefit a builder or plumber, etc. But once they know you lie, can they ever really rely on your telling the truth in any other situation?  If they really need an honest ­assessment, they will have to ask someone else.  Because they know you cannot be trusted.

I have lost accounts and friends because I would not change the facts to benefit them.  But if that is what they required for them to be my friend or for me to keep their business, is that what I want to build my life on?  My answer is always the same. NO. Keep your integrity. It is worth far more than money or position or more jobs.

I was analyzing a job for a hotel one time and told them what they should do.  One partner said to the other, “They told me you may not like what he tells you, but he will tell you the truth.” That is the reputation that you want.

In the long haul, having great integrity and being a person that can be trusted will pay great dividends. Always Keep Your Integrity.

Proverbs 17:24 Wisdom is the main pursuit of sensible men…..  (The Living Bible)