Calling Hugh Gaugler

Hi Hugh,

You're ideas have really helped me out this past month. I was wondering what other business advice, stories, experiences, and ideas you had that you'd be willing to share with us.

Sorry to put you on the spot. No pressure :)

Success,

Erik Lukas

Thanks for the positive feedback --- glad I was able to help.

Your post kind of caught me by surprise, and made me think. Jeeze, gosh, hmm...., etc.

Anyway, I remembered something that helped me make a real financial breakthrough several years ago. Maybe it can help you too.

Here's what happened: I noticed that whenever I had a period of high production with a good money flow, I had a tendency to relax and ease up on my production. An "Ahh, I'm OK now that I've got some cash" kind of attitude. Perhaps this is a natural tendency, I don't know. Maybe I'm just a lazy kind of guy!

In any case, one day after a period of high personal production, I found myself flush with cash, and I felt that comfortable "it's time to relax" feeling settling in. That's when I realized that relaxing and easing up on production is the exact WRONG thing to do in that situation.

When you get production into high gear and get ahead cash-wise, whatever you do, DON'T sit back and rest on your laurels! This is the time to pour the coals on production and push yourself up into an even higher income range.

Here's why: It's a resistance thing. Ever had to push a car that wouldn't start? It's a whole lot harder to start the car moving than it is to keep it in motion once you've got it rolling. Resistance to motion is always highest at the point of STARTING.

This applies to business as much as it applies to moving physical objects.

If you've got some cash coming in, you've got your business in motion --- and, realize it or not, at this point it is relatively easy to move into a higher income range. You've already overcome the inevitable resistance that crops up when one attempts to get a business started. What you've got to do now is INCREASE your production, not scale it back.

How? Concentrate on doing more of the things that got you the cash. Drop doing anything that doesn't contribute to your production. Reinforce your successful actions, don't drop THEM out!

The point: It is much easier to move into a higher income range when you've got a small or large abundance of cash and some production momentum.

Relax, and you'll inevitably squander the cash. That might be temporarily enjoyable, but once the production momentum is broken, guess what: It's going to take a whole lot of effort to get that money back.

I wouldn't be surprised if this is the source of the "boom and bust" syndrome that some businesses seem to experience over and over.

So if it crops up, ditch the "it's time to relax" attitude and PUSH yourself into higher production and a higher income range.

It might even be temporarily painful, inconvenient --- or whatever --- but you'll never regret it!

I once saw a sign at a road construction site in Pennsylvania that read "Temporary inconvenience for a permanent improvement."

That about sums it up!

---- Hugh

Thanks Hugh - this was advice I really needed to hear right now!

I've noticed the same tendency in myself.... When money starts to roll in, I tend to start to "relax" a bit and enjoy it.... Which, as you say, is often the precisely WRONG thing to do at that time!

It's always much easier to build on something which is already succeeding, to make it even MORE successful. I like to try this with my own projects.... For example, even though my old site "Entrepreneur-Web" hasn't been updated for a while, it's still there.... It still helps to drive traffic here to Sowpub, and it is also still helping to build my ezine subscribers too.

Windows of opportunity open and close, but when the window is open you have to jump through it! If you hesitate, that window may shut and the opportunity could be lost forever....

Often, the most windows of opportunity are open just when you are having success.... People see that success, and want to work with you. So, that's why it's important not to "rest on your laurels" - because that's often when the windows of opportunity are most available to you!

Thanks Hugh, for sharing that great piece of wisdom....

- Dien