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What Is Your Field Of Play?
Ever Get Hit With A 1000% Pay Raise From Your Boss?
The Employee-Boss Discussion that Never Happened…
Impressed at the loyalty and obvious returns you’ve provided at your place of employment, you confidently stroll into your boss’s office and demand a raise.
“I bring value to this company” you argue, “and I’m reliable and rarely call in sick “
Your boss crosses his arms, tilts his head skyward, and takes a big recline in his big red leather executive chair as if to say “Oh, this is gonna be good”
You take a deep breath and let it ride “Therefore, sir, I’d like a 1,000% pay raise”
Your boss smiles and pauses. He lurches forward ending his recline and hammers his hands to the desk.
“OK, what’s the joke? I’m busy.” he snides.
You reply, “No joke. I’m being serious. I make $9 hour. I want a raise to $90/hour.”
“How about this? You’ll get nothing and like it. Now, get out of my office, quit wasting my time, and if you do it quickly, I won’t fire you … how about that for an offer?”
You stammer out. I guess the boss didn’t think the 1000% pay raise was doable.
Why I Love Being An Entrepreneur, And You Should Too
This scenario is out in left field. As an employee, you’d never think to walk into your boss’s office and demand a pay raise greater than 10%, let alone 1000%. It is preposterous and laughable.
As an employee of any company, this is the playing field you are left to operate within— of course the word “play” implies that it is fun. To have someone dictate your value is no fun. To have your value minimized, is no fun. As employees of any company, this is your playing field.
As an entrepreneur, you play on a different field … a field where 1000% pay raises happen and in moments.
How?
Just recently, I tweaked some ads at my websites — I made them more prominent and placed them in better locations. The result of this action, increased my revenue stream from that activity by 10. It was a 1000% pay raise. Although this increase in revenue wasn’t monumental (we’re talking about just a few hundred dollars for this example) the point is this: As an entrepreneur, you play on a field where instant 25%, 50%, 100%, and 1000% “pay raises” are possible.
You have control to tweak your strategy, your business model, your marketing, and your processes. Add a graphic there, remove this step, add a field there, change this color — you have control over your actions and those actions, have direct impacts on your income — they can create your own “pay raises” directly through your actions. Of course, this road travels two ways — your actions also can create pay declines.
FASTLANE ACCELERANT
If you engage in certain “Fastlane” entrepreneurial activities, your income potential has an unlimited ceiling. However, some business activities operate within a limited scope of reach, creating a natural limitation in income. Some ventures are “Fastlane”, while others, are not.
When I owned my lead-generation company, I can’t recall how many time’s I’ve done things — new placements, new programs, new GUI processes — actions which lead to immediate “pay raises” … you do this on an ongoing basis, 10% here, 5% there, 3% there and guess what? Your revenue grows exponentially — your money tree thrives.
FASTLANE SIDEBAR
I remember changing the color of one of my forms and decreasing its size. It increased my conversion by a few % and resulted in about $2,300/month in extra revenue.
I remember when I first realized the power of the money tree … I was in Vegas, oh, probably about 7 years ago. I lost $2,000 in one day playing stupid-ass 3 card poker. After retreating to my hotel room with my tail between my legs, I realized. Why fret? I lost $2,000. On that day, my money tree made me $6,000. I came out $4K/ahead — while I gambled (or did whatever) my money tree was bearing fruit.
The Fastlane is about creating a money tree that lives, grows, and bears fruit while you live your life.
Cheers,
MJ
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When I was in my 20's, they laughed and said I was nuts. "MJ! You're dreaming!" Then, I got the last laugh. I retired in my 30's and now live a dream. Those same people now whore their life away for a paycheck only to reclaim their salvation on the weekend. With a correctly executed Fastlane plan, everyday of your life can be your weekend.
Great article. As I’m entering the fast lane the principals are making much more sense. Instead of understanding them intellectually – I am feeling them. Small changes or improvements on any business can increase income exponentially. I have been finding this out in my business. Be effective, not just busy.
Wam bam, thank you mam! Great article!
Love the article MJ!
Lately I’ve been really scared of entrepreneurship as I somehow kept running into horror stories of entrepreneurial ventures going belly up and ruining the owner’s financials and emotions, but reading articles like that makes me forget about difficulties tied with entrepreneurship and think of the potentially huge rewards awaiting the persistent entrepreneur! Thank you so much for keeping us all motivated and can’t wait to read the book!
MJ- You really are chipping away at the old “corporate way” that I have lived as a mantra for all these years. For so long, I really enjoyed making a nice reliable paycheck in exchange for my technical knowledge in the IT industry and enjoying my personal life on the weekends…but, the economy is in the tank! I was recently laid off (for the politically correct: a Reduction in Workforce) and now I realize that my paycheck was not reliable. Essentially I relied on my company to a fault when instead I should have been relying on my years of knowledge and skill to create something that no one could take from me….yes, I am angry, sad, even a bit devastated (sorry for venting) but you have opened my eyes to the possibility that I should focus on relying on myself. Thank you for introducing me to another way! My eyes are now open. ~your new Protege
@MissPink
When you’re an artist and love what you do, why would you give someone the power to own your canvas? Stop renting your canvas, own it — then you and only you, can own the art you produce – and NO ONE, can take it away.
I noticed the changes on the site and knew you’d be making more money right away! Small tweaks can make a big difference. I remember when I hired my first 4 sales people, they went out and made sales that first day and I realized that I was, overnight, in a position where I was going to make 4 times as much while working the same amount. 3-4 hours of interviewing + $100 for an ad, and I quadrupled my income. Why would anyone not want to do this?