What does it mean when we ask ourselves, “are we going to make it?” In this episode of the Tropical MBA podcast, Dan and Ian share the five principles they’re using to ‘make it and build an 8 figure business.

Their 5 Principles of Wealth Building

‘Making it’ is all about having confidence.

• Meeting people further down the path you want to follow gives you the confidence to believe you can do it too.
• Seeing their mistakes, their strengths and the sacrifices they’ve made shows you what you need to do and, more importantly, what’s possible.
• Seeing other people achieve your goals with less should motivate you and give you confidence that you can do it too.
• The big takeaway here is to find precedent cases that you can model to get the same results.

Stop confusing low quality with hussle

• Bootstrappers use being ‘scrappy’ as an excuse for low quality work
• To achieve big, you need to go for quality, have high standards for everything you do. Set high standards for people to follow.
• You can’t compete and produce something world-class by staying scrappy and crappy. You need to start building higher quality products and services. Quality begins from within.

Making a living vs. making a killing

• Don’t get trapped chasing some arbitrary goal like $10,000 a month. It’s often just as hard to make $10,000 a month as it is to make $100,000 per month.
• Growing any business is hard, so pick one that has asymmetric returns and big opportunities.
• Managing five employees is just as hard as managing 50 in most cases
• Find a bigger niche, a bigger market to serve and solve bigger problems to make a killing vs just making a living.
• Have a bigger vision, and you’ll work just as hard for 10x the outcomes
• Getting out of your shitty position from a lousy job to a 6 figure independent income might take a lot of work. It could take five years or a decade of hard work to get to that position
• Most people aren’t willing to make this sacrifice and so never get there
• During those years, you will not live with the same luxury as those around you. You won’t be able to drive nice cars or live in nice houses. Your time and money will be spent building the asset to support your future.

Having fun is a competitive advantage.

• To do good work, you have to have fun.
• Fun is motivating and will create an infectious attitude and keep everyone working hard.
• The opposite of fun is anxiety and constantly worrying about your competitors. This happens when you’re trying to hold on rather than moving forward.

Build assets instead of cash

• When we started, we were always really good at managing our cash and not spending our money. We used to focus solely on profitability.
• But cash is worth nothing and doesn’t give you any leverage
• You need to find ways to make your cash work for you. Instead, pile it back into your business and work out how to use it to create leverage
• Your best investment is in yourself. You can generate way higher returns by investing in yourself rather than the stock market.
• Defer income to build assets; if you want to build, you need to defer.

Quotes

• If you have an hour to cut a tree, spend 45 minutes sharpening the blade – Abraham Lincoln.
• If you go for it confidently. If you’re scrappy and not crapy. If you focus on making a killing, not just making a living. If you prioritise fun and think deeply about the relationship between assets and cash in your life, there’s a strong likelihood that where you’ll end up after a few years of effort would be better than where you started.
• To work, you have to have fun.
• Building a business comes from a decade of work and reinvestment.

Relevant Links

Before the Exit – New Book

The Dynamite Circle

Tropical MBA on YouTube

Data-Driven Marketing

‘Scrappy’ is not the same as ‘crappy’ – Seth Godin.