Working hard will not make you rich…

Working hard will make you rich. Is this statement true or false?

It is false.

Working hard on the wrong thing will not make you rich. Working hard on the right thing will make you rich.

I very rarely disclose what I spend for consulting fees because most people would call me a fool. Yet they are fools poorer than I. And I don’t consider advise from poor people.

But it has become more clear than ever… it is extremely important that you are working hard on the RIGHT thing.

The price to buy this clarity is insignificant compared to the opportunity cost.

If your strategy is wrong, you are not only losing money. You are losing time pursuing the correct strategy. 

The opportunity cost can be monumental. For me, this could cost me several million dollars a year by focusing on the wrong strategy. I have done this. It was very expensive in lost opportunity.

And that is where hiring the right consultant, taking the right course or reading the right book can have monumental implications.

One book I read this year will add $811,000 to the top line from one idea I implemented. The book cost $5. My ROI is 162,200%.

Sometimes you hire the wrong consultant and it sucks. But sometimes you hire the right consultant and you buy 4 years of time.

Strategy is everything. It is not how hard you work. It is how hard you work on the right thing.

Your opportunity vehicle has to match your financial dreams.

Here is an example… I live near the beach and I was watching a company set out beach chairs for tourists. It is low capital cost to buy chairs, it is cheap labor to hire chair setters, it is high competition because there are no barriers to entry. Is it scalable? Yes to a degree. There are thousands of miles of coastline.

But later that day, my friend who owns a heating and air company installed a mini-split unit in my office. I watched his technicians artfully install a unit in a couple hours. They were highly skilled laborers, with materials that were marked up, and a barrier to entry with licensing. And almost every structure has an AC unit. There is near infinite scalability.

Which one of these scenarios is a better opportunity vehicle? Which would you choose to spend your time building? Which one will produce more profit and which business will be more valuable at the exit? Which one can you sell for millions of dollars?

Both are extremely hard work to build, but they are different opportunity vehicles.

More than likely the beach business will be worthless and a private equity company or competitor will buy the AC company. The AC company will probably be 10x more profitable and worth 10-100x more when sold.

It all comes down to strategy. Not hard work. Although the same amount of hard work is required for both. The outcomes are very different.

~Blue

PS is your opportunity vehicle the right one to be driving?

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