“Zero to $1 million This Year!”
“Skip the learning curve. With our system you’ll earn millions in 30 days!”
“It’s so easy, even a child could do it.”
They scream these concepts at you in every way possible: television, radio, magazine, newspapers, even the mail in your mailbox (what little you still receive).
But if you’ve been wanting a change, they may intrigue you.
If you’re worried about your job, it may be enticing.
Now, if you could just scrape together the (insert large price tag here) you’ll be able to read how easy it is to get rich fast.
Accept for one problem.
There is no easy way to get rich quick.
I’ve often said Andrew and I are a seven year overnight success story. That’s because it took us seven years of working corporate, spending nights and weekends learning photography, starting our business out of our home, learning the details of entrepreneurship, and sticking with it year after year until we figured out the pieces to make it a success.
Sure, it looked easy once we got there. And when the recognition started, people around us saw us go from “nothing” to “instant recognition” in a short period of time. But what they didn’t see is the learning period that took place before the growth spurt.
So from my viewpoint, there are 3 ways to get rich quick.
1. You can get lucky and win the lottery.
2. You can inherit from a long lost aunt.
3. You can engage in illegal activities and businesses.
Any of these methods work. Yet they are once in a lifetime, shot in the dark methods. Meaning they may happen to you once, but they aren’t sustainable because you did nothing to set up a plan to make sure it happens again and again. It was simply luck. You were in the right place at the right time.
If your true goal is to become a millionaire overnight, change your concept of what “overnight” truly means.
Instead of looking for ways to get rich overnight, look for proven systematic methods that will show you the path to get rich.
Yes, that’s what we figured out over time.
The key was learning to crawl before we could walk. And learning to walk before we could run.
We had to become the best photographers we could be. And that meant practice, practice, practice. We didn’t think we were photographers just because we had a camera. We learned from many, many experts. We attended class after class, seminar after seminar. Then we developed our own style – a recognizable style.
We had to become great at business. We built systems for everything we did. Customer service became our number one focus. We always gave 110 percent more than we promised and our customers noticed. We built raving fans that talked about us and sold us to their friends long before they ever picked up a phone or visited our website.
We learned we had to be completely different from anyone or any other photographer we might be compared to. When they visited photographer after photographer, and got lost in the detail of price because it all looked the same, they would visit us and say “WOW”. We found what made us “us” and used that to push ourselves way beyond the average photographer.
So, is it possible to become rich overnight? Of course. But I wouldn’t count on it.
Instead, right now I would look at my future a little differently. I would ask myself 3 questions.
1. What will it take to become the best photographer I can be?
2. How can I make my customer service shine above all of my competition?
3. What will set me apart and make anyone who enters my studio say “WOW”?
There is no right answer. There isn’t a cookie cutter model that will lead you to those answers. But you can follow the advice of others who have “been there, done that”. It will show you the path and lead you to make your own discoveries. You will eventually say “I get it” and it will lead you to your own success.
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