Tales of Twos Part Two: A Tale of Two Authors

Many people preach the gospel of not being afraid to fail. They casually say to a fledgling entrepreneur who may be about to risk it all that they need to “go big or go home” or, “no retreat, no surrender”. This is all well and good for others to say, but Make More Monie espouses that one should have a safety net prepared in the form of a back-up plan or some sort of fail-safe measure in place before any significant risk is taken as, well, in today’s times – as in Aesop’s Grasshopper and the Ant time – it’s cold outside.

In addition, establish a precommitment strategy; taking an action or actions whereby you limit future options to enforce your commitment to a particular course of action. This increases the odds of success via establishing parameters in advance to make it harder, if not impossible, for your future self to fail.

In military scenarios it may be strategically used where one side in a battle “strengthens” its position by eliminating its own options. A historical example of this, albeit an extreme one, was Hernán Cortés burning his own ships in 1519 during the Spanish conquest of Mexico. The Spanish commander established his and his men’s own point of no return, literally forcing them to do or die.

In his 1937 book Think and Grow Rich, author Napoleon Hill writes that whatever your mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve. This quote from the book has gained a lot of popularity in recent years as a way to describe the power of positive thinking and it certainly sounds impressive. However, on behalf of reality and physics, let me tell you that this is simply not true. I cannot jump to the Moon from Earth for many reasons, no matter how much I may want to, no matter how often I visualize myself doing it, no matter how many times I tell myself that I can and no matter how hard I train for the attempt.

One of the many keys to success is knowing our limits before striving to reach them. Many of us can achieve realistic (and sometimes even unrealistic), well-thought-out goals by following equally-realistic, well-planned, well-prepared strategies. This is not rocket science or brain surgery.

I say, “many of us” because, just as there will be goals achieved that are replaced with newer, more ambitious ones launched from the platform of the earlier achievement, there will always be instances whereby goals are not achieved. This is almost certainly not the end of the world (First or otherwise), so to speak, especially since they may not have been achieved due to circumstances that have absolutely nothing to do with anything we did or did not do. Things simply happen. Limits are prematurely reached, the time is simply not right or it simply runs out, someone may have been forced out of bounds or may have opened their mouth without knowing the shot.

Regardless of the goal envisioned, occasionally – and for any number of reasons – adjustments have to be made accordingly, including sometimes accepting newly-realized limits. The key to being satisfied with goals – either realized or not – is ensuring you don’t fall short of those goals due to a lack of trying.

Another great author; Sun Tzu, wrote over 2,250 years ago about the importance of not knowing just your enemy but yourself, suggesting that this is the key to success. In other words, hope, along with its religious counterpart; prayer, especially on their own, are not good strategies. Remember that reality, just like physics, is undefeated and from the perspective of us at Make More Monie, we don’t see that changing anytime soon.

Note: When you have made the conscious decision to really succeed, Make More Monie will endeavor to provide you with plenty of real-world examples of individuals that have “made more monie”, and who are happy to share exactly how they did it. No throbbing music, no pounding of chests and no primal screaming. Only top-of-the-line ‘fun’ancial mentorship with bottom-line results!

Disclaimer: The information contained herein should not be construed or considered professional advice. Nonetheless, thanks for reading! If it resonates, there’s “plenty more where that came from” on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X ‘n’ YouTube.

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