Why you shoud NOT focus on money (first) in any business (a warning to newbies in DM)

Introduction

Reading DP for a few months now, I frequently stumble upon questions how to make money fast and posts with headers like “How to make 100$/1000$/10000$/etc. with something…” I found a lot of them quite helpful, but they can be misleading in a specific way for newbies.

I’ve decided to make this post as a warning, that might help some of you whom just started (or starting) a moneymaking a path in digital to avoid one (not always obvious) mistake that may lead you to failure in any niche. This post is based only on my personal experience; although I’ve seen that some of my friends had the same problem, I would rather avoid talking about someone.

My path in Digital started around 3 years ago, and I had a chance to work with multiple companies handling various tasks. Over this time, I’ve been working in sales, marketing research and development, advertising, handling SEO and SMM, affiliate marketing (and management), even starting my own projects (twice). And everywhere I’ve faced the same issue: once I start making good money (from my point of perception), in a month or two everything starts falling apart, instantly! Same story every time ending up with a search for a new job to make a living.

The last and biggest failure happened last summer and led me to reach my lowest financial, social, and emotional point ever. However, at that point, I finally had time to figure out what exactly I am doing wrong.

So the trap I’ve fallen into was actively (or rather constantly) thinking about how to make more money. Looks weird, right? Because that is exactly what we came here for. But here are some details to show you how this common thought may ruin everything you’ve achieved so far.

Where is the devil here?

Well, it is all in our heads. I won’t get deep into neurobiology and since behind all of the processes, only the most important points.

If you are that kind of person, who can easily get in a rush, or lightened up with a great idea, you might notice how fast you could get obsessed and forget about everything else.

It happens because of Dopamine – a neuro-mediator hormone that gives you a feeling of motivation. When you think about something, desirable that may happen in future, you automatically form expectations that lead to the increment of this hormone.

The increment of dopamine leads you to be even more focused on the idea, which is being followed with a powerful inner call to action, leaving you less time to overthink your actions.

However, our brain is not able to handle multiple tasks consciously, so it takes the most important or emotionally supported idea as prior, and build the rest of the details in a narrow range around it.

In this state, you are being “blinded” by your own brain, without a possibility to see things that are obvious when you are in a relaxed (unmotivated) state.

Putting it all together, once money became my focus, I simply forgot about the truly important aspects of my work. Those that have built the foundation of my relationship with customers, partners, and co-workers. But thinking about them from moneymaking perception, they seem to be non-profitable.

How to avoid this and focus on what is really important?

The good thing about failure is that you finally find the time to think about what you are doing wrong and come up with a solution.

I believe that our state of mind and thoughts are playing a very important role not only in achieving success but also in all aspects of our life. Therefore, my personal key to the problem was changing my point of view over some common things and looking deep into the details behind making money.

Here are 5 principles that I've come to and found them to be extremely helpful:

1. Money has no value.
No matter how hard your financial state is, remember – money has no value on their own. They are a trading unit, a resource that provides possibilities. Only the goods and services that you can purchase have their value, but not money on their own.

2. Think of the result.
Why do you need money? Pay the bills, buy a car, or travel to another country? Great, so now you can focus on that. To make it even better, focus on the values and benefits that you will gain from things you want, how they will help you (or someone) to become better.

3. Give first, take later.
Stop thinking about how much money you can get, think about how much you can give instead. Try thinking about values of your product or service, how your customers/partners/colleges will benefit from it, which of their problems you or your product can solve and what possibilities it will open.

4. Be grateful, instead of taking things for granted.
Show your appreciation to those that you work with, and rewards that you receive. When you give meaning even to something very common in relations, it becomes meaningful for others as well, making them want to give you even more.

5. More and Better.
No matter how good you are and how much you give, try thinking on how you can improve that from time to time. This will reflect not only on your gain but will help you to become more progressive and adaptive as well.

Why does it work?

The answer is pretty simple – empathy.

No matter how big our brain is, we react rather emotionally than rationally most of the times. Emotions, as a result of chemical reactions in our brain, play an important role in how we perceive and interact.

Empathy works all the time, un(sub)consciously. People feel your mood without even thinking about it, and it affects a decision making the process more than you imagine. Did you ever have a feeling of strong suspicion to another person without any reason for that? Did you ever had an experience of being at 99% rationally convinced that you really need to make this purchase, but that 1% would still shout to you that “they just want to take your money”? Or does it comes more pleasant when you feel compassion and a desire to help you out from another person?

Well, I think you get the idea by now.

Feel free to ask questions in PM or down below if you have any, would be glad to answer them.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoy and find it helpful!

 

True. Enter a business opportunity with the intent to not make money but to build a marketing enterprise you'll be proud of.

As I read through the OP my thoughts were that two people pretty much stated these concepts with much fewer words.

Jim Rohn when he said, "in service to others." and Zig Zigler when he said, "If you give other people what they want they will give you everything you want."

 

You need the money, but the righteous motivation is found in actually giving the public a quality service or product that they like. You get honor from the good opinions of your customers, not from the cut-throat attitude you'll be getting from just focusing on making buck.

 

That's a valuable idea that so many people tend to forget. Normally, the first stage of any business is all about spending money, not about making it. Digital marketing and Internet business are not an exception

 

It is always better to focus on providing quality products rather than your financial gain/loss, because if you truly enjoy or are passionate about what you are involved with then it should sort of fall in place, even if it takes a long time!
Stay patient and focused, remember the goal.

 

I personally feel it's better to focus on providing service to others. If you do that the quality of your product should shine naturally.

 

I would agree with products and service being interchangeable in that one or both should be the focus, as opposed to profits.

 

Ummm.... I'd have to disagree. If you're starting an online business, your first concern should be how it's going to make money. This is the advice that leads people to run sites for years while funneling more and more money into them with no strategy.

Unless you're VC funded or trying to be the next Gary V (you won't), if you're not turning a real profit (including money to pay yourself) within 6-12 months, you screwed up. Period. End of story.

 

Depends on what sort of business you are running, but as for those businesses that typically survive the long-term, the value of providing quality services and products far outweighs initial profit margins, especially initial.

 

If you provide a high-value service to enough people you won't need to worry about the money aspect. But if you place your focus only on income you take the risk of putting forth less than your best effort.

"You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want." Zig Ziglar

 

Again, more platitudes that mean nothing. If you provide a high-value service to enough people but don't focus on profit, you'll end up out of business or homeless. This is the kind of mindset that contributes to most new businesses failing in the first few years.

You can spout Zig Ziglar all you want. Just remember that Zig Ziglar was a commission sales rep who made money on each sale starting early in his career.

 

At the heart of business should be care for customers, don't you agree? Especially any business someone would want them or their family to frequent, yes?

 

A commission sales rep who understood (at least eventually) that high-quality service and product and not the hunt for wealth leads to the largest reward.

We create our businesses to make a profit, certainly. But if you focus entirely on the money you run the risk of promoting shoddy products and services. If you fall into that trap you won't retain the customers that you need for the success you seek.

 

I just started studying work motivation. It does not really go into the owner's perspective, but the money plays a part in the equity theory. You can read about it here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_motivation#Equity_theory

You can say that if the owner feels there is a balance between his efforts and rewards, then motivation will be high, provided he falls under the equity theory personality.

 

Who exactly do you mean by "owner" here? Your example refers to "employee" and it's understandable that an employee's attitude/reaction/actions/expectations would take certain paths based on his perception of the reward he receives for his self-perceived level of production.

But I think that a business owner (if that's who you're applying this too) doesn't really look at his efforts in the same way as the employee does. Because of that, I think this description of equity theory doesn't quite apply to the motivations of the entrepreneur. If the business owner sees that the rewards he "deserves" aren't coming to him he adjusts his plan to move the business in the direction necessary. He doesn't become disgruntled and back off his efforts or sabotage the business.

 

Owner of a business.

I agree with what you just said. I wish there was a wiki page on entrepreneur work motivation. What I do, is just interpret it according to my situation as an entrepreneur, because I am one as well.

At first, the money really mattered. Once I had enough, I grew into a people person who is driven to build win win relationships.

 

That actually well describes how I think most entrepreneurs start out - thinking about the money and then growing into the "service to others" concept of doing business.

 

Psst, checking off my daily checklist is the funnest part. That is a secret indeed. That is my most noticeable arousal right now. It might change later. I just use notepad and put an x by the ones I complete. Then count them up to see if I can beat my highest score. It truly is a priceless game.

My action plan is all about business relationships.

 

Very nice article, thanks for sharing!