Sitting in the terminal of our little airport I opened up my podcast app and made sure that I had a few episodes of my favorite podcast downloaded so that I could listen to them on my upcoming flight.
Recently I found “Born To Impact” by Joel Marion and Dan “Kill Mode” Long, a podcast by Christian entrepreneurs and leaders.
I wasn’t an entrepreneur and to be honest it wasn’t even really a thought to start a business at this point in my life.
The truth is that before finding this podcast, I listened to music for my daily commute to and from work. On every trip I took (every other week for work) I had either tv shows or movies downloaded so that I could binge-watch them on the flights. At night I would settle down and do nothing while watching tv.
Then one day I felt pulled to look for a podcast. I mean a few people had told me that I should find one.
Ok, what the heck I’ll give it a try.
I did a quick search and after reading a few reviews I found “Born To Impact”.
Anyways…..
Back to the airport.
As I boarded the plane I pushed the headphones into my ear to drown out the noise from the other passengers and pushed play.
I got my notebook out and started taking notes. (that’s how good this podcast was for me. I literally took notes from their content. Pages and pages of it.)
As I sat there listening they said something that hit me like a brick wall.
“Money is just a tool!”
Yeah easy for you to say, you have lots of it. That was my first thought.
Then they continued to explain what they meant.
Money comes and goes. You can always make more of it. Having money is nice but it’s not necessary to be happy.
I paused the podcast and let that one thought marinate in my mind for a while.
Then I do what I always do and I simplified what they just said and made it relatable to me.
My new version of it is this, “Money is just a vehicle. Some people drive Ford Pintos and some fly in Private Jets.”
All of the vehicles can get you to where you want to go. The main difference is the amount of time it takes to get you there, the comfort of the ride, and how others “perceive” you when you get there.
With more money, you can get to your next destination faster.
But faster is not always better.
Heck, some of my favorite memories so far in life have been long road trips with Jenna and the family!
When I first started my entrepreneurial journey it was never about money.
It might sound crazy, and you might not understand this but…..
Money is just a tool and one way to measure growth in your business.
Notice I didn’t say success.
Success is measured completely differently! Money might be one aspect of success to you, but it is not the sole contributor to measuring success.
Have you ever watched Shark Tank, the TV show?
Notice that when the sharks are really interested in a business they get down and dirty with the number pretty darn fast.
What does it cost you to make the product? How much do you sell it for? How much have you made so far in the business? How much have you made in the last 12 months?
They want to know the numbers.
But there is always at least one Shark that asks them a question like, “How long do your customers stick with you?” or maybe, “What is your CTA (Cost To Acquire) a customer?”
And when they find a business they really like, it is all about branding the entrepreneurs themselves.
One of the most heard phrases on that show is, What I’m looking for is a company where I can pour gasoline on the fire by adding some capital and expertise that I have!
They know that money is just a tool.
It is not how we measure happiness.
As I reflected on that entire podcast I found, I didn’t agree with them at the time. In fact it almost turned me off their podcast.
I hope that doesn’t do that for you.
But……
What I really discovered was that they were right.
Money is just a tool.
And we all have a choice in what we do with our tools. We can either polish them (save our pennies and never spend any of them).
Or use them to help us get more tools so that we can do different jobs and do them faster. (Invest those pennies in tools that help us grow.)
It is our choice what we do.
I chose to invest, not polish!!!
What are you going to do?
