I know many people who think small.
They think I am foolish because I don’t care that I wasted four dollars on parking or spent too much on my sea bass soy paper roll at Sushi Unico. However, the way I think is just a matter of scale. In my opinion I still think small. As a child, my father was very frugal and counted every penny. I grew up being very concerned over small things. If I lose a pencil at school or wasted a single sheet of paper, I would be very upset. As I grew older, I grew out of this mentality despite constant bickering and protest from my miserly father. The important thing to understand is that the scale of your thoughts influence and affect the scale of your achievement as well. If you only think about the small things, you can never achieve big things. My father went to MIT and Harvard, got the best grades possible, and did well in his career. But, he thought on a micro level and is retiring on a very limited budget — but, comfortably. His mother also thought small and worked hard her entire life to retire on a very tight budget. She was educated and had good jobs her entire life. And yes, she survived until the end, but counting each penny the entire journey on an almost impossibly tight budget.
A story of two identical guys
There was a story that was told to me at Kabbalah Center in Los Angeles. Kabbalah is a spiritual side of Judaism and also currently a sect of Judaism that has an orthodox, yet spiritual interpretation of religion, life and just about everything else. The story was about two almost identical guys. They both were the same age, the same height, and the same IQ. They went to the same type of schools, studied the same topics, and everything else was similar. Their parents had the same type of background, similar incomes, and similar education. One of the guys made a comfortable income his entire life. But, the other became a billionaire! What’s the difference you might ask? One thought big. The average guy just wanted an average life. He could not think beyond what other people were doing. He didn’t think it was possible to become extraordinary. But, the rich guy had a burning desire to be amazing and believed it was possible. He envisioned huge success and worked constantly for that goal.
Losing track of priorities in business
When we do business, we can easily be distracted by one hundred things. There are so many things to pay attention to in our business. There are personal things like family, health, entertainment, social engagements, etc. With a hundred things constantly grabbing our attention daily, it is only natural that we spend a lot of our time thinking about things that are small, or at least not the most important. Business people in India think about their image, whether they get enough praise and respect from their customers and workers, etc. In India, they will think all day if they are paying Rahul a few Rupees more than he is worth for his call center work. They will think if the light bill is too high, and if that Rick Shaw Walla ripped him off. Sure, I think about the same things. Maybe Rajesh took an hour off and billed you for it. Maybe Sangita was on a phone call to her mother on company time. If you spend all day thinking about these things — you have the rupee mentality. In business, you need to try to focus on the bigger priorities which often don’t have analytics. Do your workers have good mojo? What does that mean? Do they have good drive, good energy, and do they gravitate or repulse your clients? It doesn’t matter how little you pay someone, if they lose you clients, they are a disaster. If you pay another guy too much, but he keeps attracting new clients, maybe you should pay him more instead of complaining. Did you miss an important marketing idea or opportunity because you spend an hour arguing with someone over a bill? Did you calculate your loss from getting stuck in traffic yesterday? Instead, spend a little more time staying late in the office to get some critical tasks done. Or spend an hour identifying which of your several dozen tasks is the most important and why.
The point to remember
I have written several quick articles on the Rupee mentality. I didn’t realize that I used that exact phrase twice in a title by accident. Now, I’m using it a third time since it is a catchy phrase that did well. But, the point of this article is to identify priorities and then focus on them. My Guru says, “Focus on priorities and forget the rest.” When you are a busy guy, you have to forget a lot of things otherwise 24 hours a day just isn’t enough. The second point is to dream big and envision your dreams coming through. I’m not saying not to argue over bills or waste time thinking about how the cab company charged you for too much waiting time. Just keep that stuff out of your head for the most part so you can focus on the thoughts that are going to get you your billion dollar empire!
My story — from dreamer to workaholic.
As I progress and evolve on the complicated path of my business, I realize that I want to grow, and that I am growing. The hard part is that I have no idea what I am going to evolve into. I see multiple paths that I could go down, and it is hard to see how they unfold. I agree with myself that I should spend more time meditating on those possible outcomes to strengthen them as well as meditating on huge financial success. Some people spend too much time dreaming. When I was younger I did lots of dreaming and not enough hard work. As I realized that extra hard work had to be done every day, I stopped dreaming enough. We all need to develop that balance of working the right amount and dreaming the right amount. But, when you are dreaming — don’t dream of Rupees, dream of Crores! Don’t dream of pennies, dream of billions!
You might also like:
Think big, but start small in business
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/10/14/think-big-but-start-small-in-business/
How to expand your thinking in business
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/11/14/how-do-you-expand-your-thinking-in-business/
Jeremy’s 11 tips for better business decision making
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/06/29/jeremys-11-tips-for-better-business-decision-making/