Craftmatic Adjustable Beds, Retirement & Riches

As a young guy attempting to put himself through college, one of the first jobs I had was selling Craftmatic adjustable beds. This was an “in home” presentation and most of my prospects were elderly people who needed the bed for health reasons.

Occasionally I would present to someone seeking comfort, but not often. Most needed the beds versus wanting them.

In the beginning I really sucked at selling beds.

I didn’t follow my trainer’s instructions and I tended to “wing it” versus coming from a position of having practiced, drilled and rehearsed a polished presentation.

But after a few weeks of not making any money and really needing to eat, I started to pay attention to the people who were selling beds. What were they doing differently? Could I copy them and product the same results? So I took notes and spent my off time practicing. I felt silly doing it, but it worked and I soon started to actually earn a few commission checks.

Within a couple months I was topping the production charts. Me. The shy guy. The guy that couldn’t sell!

Three Major Lessons Learned

Now here it is almost 30 years later and there are three lessons I learned from that experience that have had a profound and dramatic impact on my life.

First, I learned if you set your mind to task and are willing to do what most people aren’t willing to do – you can and will produce a significant result.

In my case I had to get past my “know it all” attitude, swallow my pride, and acknowledge there were people with much more experience than me that I could learn from. Then I had to be willing to APPLY what I had learned in my head. To make this happen I practiced, drilled and rehearsed for hours when I really wanted to be doing something else. This turned head knowledge into practical knowledge.

Today I often live out this lesson by hiring coaching, mentors and trainers whenever I enter a new arena. I’ll buy books or proven systems and actually FOLLOW THE SYSTEM until I can replicate the result the coach, mentor or trainer is having. Because, honestly, there are still many many people with much more experience I can learn from and it seems to me to be the fastest way to produce the result I’m looking for.

Instead of learning via the school of hard knocks and experience, why not leverage all the experience they already have and trust it to produce the same result for you?

Second I discovered you can go from good to great by continuing to refine your skills and strategies.

Once I started making sales I continued to polish my presentation at home. I noticed where I could use improvement and I worked towards making those improvements. Tony Robbins calls this CANNI – a state of constant and never ending improvement. (What’s the 2nd “N” stand for, I wonder?)

The challenge today is the same. Once you reach a certain level of expertise, knowledge or achievement – isn’t your natural response to stop working so hard and start coasting. Any why not? You’ve learned more or done more than the average person and you can feel good about that, right?

And therein lies the danger. Complacency. Being comfortable being mediocre. Because if we aren’t growing we’re dying. So I always strive to do better. It’s what keeps the edge on life. Onwards, upwards and forward.

Here’s the lesson that has had the biggest impact on me….

Working for Money Sucks – It’s a Faulty Plan

85% of the elderly people I visited with were broke. Many were living in poverty. Most were getting help from family, friends, the church or government.

After working hard for 40 years or more…
most people are sick, dead or dead broke!

And I am convinced they did not plan it that way. I’m convinced they firmly believed they were doing what was right for themselves and their families. They thought, sincerely believed, working hard for 40 years and saving what they could for the future was the right thing to do.

Then life got in the way as it often does. College for the kids. Unexpected expenses. Over consumption during the earning years. A sour economy and, heaven forbid, health challenges.

40 years of working hard and they suddenly wake up to a nightmare. They are broke and living in poverty.

The lesson? Trading time for dollars as a primary retirement plan is faulty. It does not work and the evidence is overwhelming. If you trade time for dollars (work a job) and aren’t saving and investing a substantial portion of that money each and every month for 10, 20, even 30 years – you risk waking up to a nightmare of poverty.

So how do I apply that lesson? I always, always, always focuse most of my time and effort building out multiple passive income streams. These are cash flow systems that continue to produce a result even if I am unable to be present once set up. And I always, always, always shy away from bad debt – cars, boats, a vacation funded by Visa or Mastercard. Not because all debt is bad but because the interest will eat you alive and you really need to be investing these funds versus just giving them away.

Most important – I refuse, absolutely refuse to trade time for dollars. Everything I do MUST have some type of residual component to it because the writing is on the wall – eventually you won’t be able to produce. Plain and simple. You’ll lose your health or your job or the economy will go south. The stock market may wipe out your investments. And you’re home equity may dry up to nothing.

So for me an my family – multiple streams of passive, residual income is what helps us sleep at night.

And it’s WORTH the price of learning how to make it happen. It’s WORTH the price of failing forward. It’s worth working hard, stretching beyond your comfort zone, and deciding to never quit no matter what.

Because if you don’t – then what? What options will you have in 20, 30, or 40 years?

Wake up and work hard now to create your own reality. Seriously. It’s time, and you and your family deserve it.

Poverty sucks. Go ask any of the “over 60″ crowd greeting you at Walmart. Do you think they are working there by choice?

Read More:

1. Business Opportunity Fraud: An Inside Look Years ago the FTC came down on a guy who...
2. Turning UP Your Income Thermostat Twelve years ago, I worked for a large corporation here...
3. Caring Enough to Care Back in the late 80′s I picked up a book...

Tagged as: job, passive income, residual income, trading time for dollars