130 – May 10
“Every morning I get up and look through Forbes’ list of the richest people in America. If I’m not there, I go to work.”—Robert Orben
Many years later, I had the opportunity to return the favor to my friend, Gaye, who had helped me define the underlying values that were important to me in my work. She had owned her own business for several years, doing advertising specialties out of her home. She arranged for companies to have gift items printed with their logos on them. It was a nice little business, but emphasis on the “little” nature of her business kept her from realizing most of her material dreams.
When she came to the Financial Stress Reduction® Workshop, Gaye wanted to change the way she was doing business and make a quantum leap in her income. Working alone out of her home, she had a six-figure annual gross income, but because of the high cost of goods sold, her net was very small. Gaye was having trouble making ends meet. She cried on my shoulder as she told me she had to borrow money to fix her old, broken car. As we worked together, she saw that she really enjoyed the creative and sales part of her business, but disliked the administrative and fulfillment tasks. It was fun for her to devise a marketing item for a client, to get just the right jacket design, color, material, and logo within the budget specified. She loved the meeting, greeting, and schmoozing with clients and potential customers, but running around buying materials, calling manufacturers, shipping, typing letters, invoicing, and bookkeeping she loathed.
We came to the conclusion that the best of all possible worlds for her would be to merge her business with a larger company in her field, and to take a position with them in which she had responsibility only for creative ideas and sales. The ideal company would have many staff people who would handle the other administrative tasks. Within two months of making this decision, Gaye had her new position with a major, multi-million dollar company.
“Chellie, it’s amazing!” she called me to report. “I had no idea what was possible to do in this industry! When I was in business for myself, I was happy to get a $3,000 order. But here people are writing $300,000 orders! I ask them if I can stand by them and watch while they write up these $300,000 orders because I’m hoping it will rub off!”
It did. The next year, she wrote nearly $2,000,000 worth of orders, bought a new car and her dream home in the hills.
Owning your own business is not always the best of all possible worlds. Maybe you can find a job where they pay you to do just the fun things you like doing. Who do you know who’s doing that? Copy them. Or be the first one on your block to do it.
Change your mind. Change your job. Change your money. Change your life.
Today’s Affirmation:
“I expand my knowledge and ability to manifest riches every day!”
Human beings are such creatures of habit that we create realities for ourselves and then feel locked into them as if they were “real”. Then we forget that there is always another alternative, that what we created can be dis-created and something new can take its place.
You can create a new line of products or services. You can find different clients or a different job. You can choose a different income level. You can choose new partners, and a new family if you want to.
Gaye has been my friend since 1974, when we met during a little theater production of “Little Mary Sunshine”. She played the lead, Little Mary, and I was her maid, Nancy Twinkle. We had a ball and became fast friends, along with Corinne, who played Madam Ernestine. The three of us stuck with show business for varying lengths of time, but eventually chose other careers that were on our life paths. But our friendship never wavered, no matter what career or profession we were involved in.
Be open to change. But hold fast to glorious friendships that will make your life’s journey both meaningful and entertaining. As the old song goes, “Make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver, and the other is gold.”
