How to Make Money like Elite Athletes

A certain businessman was leaving home for a six months around the world trip. Just before his taxi to the airport arrived, he left called three of his employees, Mike, John and Frank. He gave Mike five hundred dollars, gave John two hundred dollars and one hundred dollars to Frank. Then he left.

Mike had a degree in marketing and had an interest in web and mobile marketing. He visited a few forums, read a few blogs and decided that his business idea could work. All he needed was a software product to help him start a premium SMS horoscopes business. He acquired the software for $97, bought a domain name for $10, built a website using a free website builder.

He acquired a 13,000 horoscopes database in an excel spreadsheet for $46 and loaded them to his software. Then he started placing targeted classified ads on his local newspapers, magazines and websites. People started subscribing to his service for $1 per message. By the time his boss came back, he had spent $498 and made $1,032.

His boss was really impressed with his creativity and hard work. He rewarded him by telling him to keep the whole $1,032. Last time I heard of Mike, his business was growing rapidly. He had over 2000 paying subscribers for daily horoscopes and had acquired a writer to help pumping out the horoscopes daily.

John on the other hand was a carpet cleaner. He bought a vacuum cleaner and some cleaning equipment at a garage sale. Then he started knocking door to door and making some calls to drum up business. Times were tough in the economy and everyone preferred to do their own cleaning. But he still managed to make to make $450 from his cleaning services business. His boss was impressed and just like Mike, he was allowed to keep all the money.

Frank on the other hand went to chill out with the boys at the local pub. He was good in playing pool so he spent his days there. He was very happy that the master was gone. He took his $100 buried it under his son’s bed. When the boss came back, he was shocked at how fat Frank had become from all the fish & chips he had been eating and the copious amounts of alcohol he had been consuming.

The boss was furious. He asked for his $100 and Frank rushed to get it. He was such a slob. He went to his daughter’s bedroom and started looking for the money. He cursed her when he did not find it. But by good luck he remembered that he had put the money in his son’s room. The boss was still waiting outside and was wondering what was taking Frank so long. He was getting angrier by the minute.

When Frank came out the boss said “You wicked and slothful punk. How could you hide my money in your own house? Did you not even have the sense to put it in the bank where you could have earned a few cents in interest? Hey Mike, take away that $100 from this punk. To everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance, but from him who doesn’t have, even that which he has will be taken away.”

Taken Away

My friend, the way to earn big money just like the top athletes do is to use your talents. Don’t tell me you do not have a talent. Each of us has a talent. Maybe you have not found out what your talent is (YET), but do not say that you do not have a talent.

If you do not practice or use your talent, you will forever be struggling. Painful but true. We were taught in school to work on our weak areas. If you were not good in math you were told to stay longer and practice and improve on your weak area. Shun that mentality. You only live once. Play up your strengths.

The trick with elite athletes is that they focus on their sport of strength. You do not find Tiger Woods trying to compete in long distance running. You do not find long distance runners trying to compete for swimming championships.

Why then do you spend so much time trying to improve your weak areas? Be brutal. Use your talents or lose them.

Have a look at the numbers below, from Sports Illustrated about athletes who focused on their strengths and are now earning big bucks.

• Tiger Woods - He has been the top earning sportsman for five years in a row. He is a pro golfer and focuses on it. In 2008 he earned $128 million in salary and endorsements. At only 32 years of age, he has earned over $800 million in his illustrious 13 year career.
• Phil Mickelson - Yet another pro golfer. He took earned $62,372,685 in 2008.
• LeBron James - Made $40,455,000 from playing basketball in 2008.
• Floyd Mayweather - Made $40,250,000 from Boxing in 2008.
• Kobe Bryant - The Los Angeles Lakers star made $35,490,625 in basketball in 2008.

Believe in yourself. You are good in something. Find your talent. Carve your niche and perfect your angle.

I spoke to a wise old man who had made an obscene amount of money in Australia and he told me the trick to making it big and earning more money than football stars is:

a)      Give Something of Value

b)      Build a Distribution Network

c)      Repeat Ad Infinitum

a)      Give Something of Value

Money is the medium of exchange of value. If you have little or no money, it is in most cases an indication of how much value you have given to others. Tiger Woods earns that kind of money because of the value he brings to the companies he endorses. Star basketball players provide entertainment to millions.

What are you good at? What can you do to provide value to others? There are many ways of providing value and getting paid for it. That will be a topic for another blog post. For now, just think of what you can do for others. Ask not what others can do for you but what you can do for others. Sounds cliché but it is so true.

b)      Build a Distribution Network

I like innovative charitable organizations. Some of the most successful charitable organizations are masters of building their donor networks. You will find their donation boxes in schools, companies, churches etc. They realize the power of a distribution network.

Say for example you operate a small bakery. Instead of focusing all your energy in making better bread, why not spend some of your time building up your distribution network? You could contact small supermarkets, big companies, churches, government departments etc to be buying your bread on a regular basis. Once your distribution network is in place, you can ramp up production and quality.

Elite athletes use the power of cable TV to bring entertainment to millions of homes. That is how they are able to entertain so many of us and get paid those huge numbers. In all due respect, brick layer will not get paid the same amount of money as a bakery owner with a huge distribution network.

A charismatic speaker who speaks at seminars will not make as much money as one who focuses on DVD and tapes production. The DVDs can be distributed and provide value without him being there. They can be plugged into his distribution network. Find a way of delivering value without you being there.

c)      Repeat Ad Infinitum

To make the really good money, you need to be able to provide that value and distribute it on an ongoing basis. In our example above, Mike has a better business model than John because he is providing his value to more people and is building a good distribution network. In addition he can deliver that value even when he is a sleep.

Summary

I hope you have got the significance of this blog post in terms of boosting your earning capacity. Remember to use your talents to create and deliver value on an ongoing basis.

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