Written by: Keith Blakemore-Noble, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
I was having a chat with a friend the other day, and we got on to the topic of success and money.
“People keep telling me I’m successful, but I don’t think I am,” complained my friend.
Now, I certainly view them as successful - indeed, their success is part of what drives me to emulate their levels of success. I certainly see them as ahead of me in that respect.
Yet here they were, feeling unsuccessful.
So I started pointing out some of my friend's many successes, exploring their very impressive and considerable track record of success.
At which point they dropped the killer line - “But I’ve not got much money. If I was successful, I’d have a lot more money by now.”
Woah!
How many of us can definitely relate to that?
We keep being told we are successful, yet we don’t see the financial rewards just yet, so we assume we are not successful yet.
Indeed, I am willing to bet that there are a great many of us who, at some point or other in life, have felt this so strongly that we have refused to accept that we are successful at all.
We are generally conditioned to believe that success = money. And that, money = success.
So, of course, if we don’t see money coming in, we assume this must mean we are not successful.
Which is not only bad for our morale, it can (and often does) lead us to assume that we are going down the wrong path, and we turn our back on our success and completely abandon any chance of money starting to flow as a result!
The reality is that it’s not success = money. Rather it is a success first, money later.
Think about it for a moment.
Imagine you are looking for a job.
You look through the papers, the online job boards, visit company websites, etc., and find a job to apply for. Success! You found a job to apply for! Do you get paid at this point? No. Oh…
You apply for the jobs you found, and one of them invites you for an interview. Success! Do you get paid now? No? Oh…
You turn up for the interview, and do well and get through to the final round. Success! Money? Nope, not yet. Oh…
The good news, you were successful every step of the way, and you get offered the job. Definite success! Money now? No? What?! Oh…
You turn up on the morning of your first day. Success indeed, but still no money! Oh…
Finally, it’s payday, having worked there for a few weeks (depending upon how often they pay their staff), working hard, establishing your worth. And finally, you get paid. Money at last!
Does this mean you were not successful until payday?
Absolutely not – you were successful every single step of the way. You can be sure, though, that if you’d decided, “No money so far, so I’m not successful, let’s give this up,” then you would have never got the job and never started receiving your salary.
Success first, Money later.
You have to demonstrate a consistent track record of growing successes in order to reach the point at which you become of sufficient interest to those who are prepared to pay.
Whether that’s an employer or client, it’s the same thing.
People will pay when they perceive it is worth it to them.
And you prove your worth by consistently building up that sustained track record of success.
It’s the dedication to one’s craft, the constantly growing and refining and honing one’s skills, increasing one’s experience, establishing a track record, all of which is a string of individual successes which ultimately combine to make your offering financially attractive to those who are prepared to pay.
You can’t miss out on the steps, and every step is, whether we can see it at the time or not, taking us ever closer to the financial reward for our sustained success.
So next time you are beating yourself up about not being successful because you don’t currently have money coming, remember that it is a success first, money later. The money will follow success once you have established a proven track record.
Keep on being you. Keep on building that track record. And sure enough, the money will start to follow once others can see you and your consistent track record.
Once you reach that tipping point, the money starts to flow, usually far more of it than you ever anticipated.
Enjoy it!
Keith Blakemore-Noble, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Keith is an award-winning coach, international speaker, and best-selling author who helps people transform their deepest fears into their greatest strengths.
Growing up, he loved the idea of being a performer, entertaining people, and wanted nothing more than to be an actor, magician, or hypnotist. Unfortunately, he was also painfully shy, finding it almost impossible to speak with strangers - this ruled out his ambitions and made it very hard to make friends or even connect with colleagues. So instead, he pursued a very successful 20+ year career in IT until he studied hypnosis and NLP to help him to conquer his own fears, which opened up the way for him to be all the things he dreamed of being. Since 2010 he has used these same skills and experiences to help over 5,000 people around the planet to conquer their own fears, quickly and permanently, earning him the title of UK’s 1 Fear Strategist. He has published several books, appeared on countless podcasts, written for many publications, and spoken on stages in Bali, Malaysia, Nepal, Singapore, Tibet, United Kingdom, USA, and Vietnam, as well as speaking at numerous virtual events globally.
