I remember the first time I was thinking about spending money for mentorship. While I realized I truly desired to learn and that working with this individual would catapult my success I was terrified of two things: Would I do what I needed to in order to put what I was learning into practice (in other words… would it work)? and How could we ever afford almost $12,000 while I was a full-time student and working to make ends meet with a wife and two very little children after recently coming back from living in China?
What I have discovered since has been absolutely life changing, but I believe a major turning point was when I made the decision, along with help from my wife, to go ahead and enter the unknown not because of blind faith, but because I realized that if I didn’t I would never realize what I wanted in life. I made the decision to move ahead even though I really did not know where the road would lead. Since then I’ve gladly spent tens of thousands of dollars on mentorship and I have not once regretted this expense. After a few years I began building it into my budget and now see it as a vital part of my growth and development as a person. In fact, I plan on spending more money on my development and growth in 2017 than I have made annually for most of my adult life.
The personal development industry has a fantastic reputation among business owners and entrepreneurs and a sometimes terrible reputation among people who work for others. Here’s the difference in my opinion. I recently wrote a blog post about the difference between those who feel in control of their lives and those who do not. In life there are many people who learn helplessness. They learn that what they do does not make a significant difference in their lives and end up giving up. There is a lot of research that supports this state of being. Another group has somewhere along the way learned that they can make a difference in their lives. This provides the reason that some people grow in leaps and bounds from mentorship and personal development and others realize very little change, if any, in their lives. Our beliefs govern how we live, how we interact with others, and eventually what our results are in any endeavor.
I have a strong statement to make that I fully believe. If you invest in yourself you will never be disappointed. Not only will you not be disappointed, you will also feel more in control of your life and future. I’ve heard a number of wealthy business owners say that if the world changed and they lost everything they owned they could make it all back in a just a few years. Why? Because they know how to build a business. These people actually own this knowledge and it is something that cannot be taken from them. Is this not empowering? The more I invest in myself… the more you invest in yourself, the less risk you have in life. If you invest your money in real estate and own a small empire that all cash flows and has no debt you now do not need to worry about money at all. If you invest in yourself and become the person you desire to be you now do not need to struggle with shame over all the desires you wish you had pursued in life.
Here’s a challenge: Most Canadians have a debt load that is scary. If you don’t have any savings it may prevent you from investing in yourself because you don’t understand its value. If you knew of a gold mine or oil rich soil in a piece of land that costs $200,000 near you and the gold or oil were worth millions of dollars, would you do anything in your power to purchase that piece of land? Would you not borrow any amount to purchase the land knowing that you would make that much and more back in the future? If you answered ‘no’ to doing whatever it took to borrow the needed funds, you need to stop reading any personal development musing until you grow in your mindest. If you said ‘yes’ why would you not do the same by investing in yourself?
Here’s another challenge: What does it mean to invest in yourself? Just like financial investments you have many choices; both strong and weak. Is university an investment in yourself? Sometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t. Just because you can invest in yourself and there are many ways to do so profitably (not simply financially) it doesn’t mean we all know how to invest. Here’s a quick checklist for finding ways to invest in yourself in a profitable way: 1. Know what you want in life and where you are going 2. Know where you currently exist in this world in relation to the first question 3. Find an investment vehicle that will take you from where you are to where you want to be. My guess is that the answer to question #1 isn’t simply about money, but is more about what you can do with the money and how you can spend time and energy on important relationships and endeavors that expand who you are. My guess is that the answer to #1 is about growth! If that’s the case, quit spending time on get rich quick schemes and begin investing in a mentor that will journey with you to your end goal. There’s no easy answer here. You need to do some research and go after what you want (just don’t take forever researching).
Final challenge: When are you going to begin investing in yourself?
p.s. The man in the picture beside me is Bob Proctor. One of my current mentors.
