I recently released my newest book, The Midas Touch: Why Some Entrepreneurs Get Rich and Others Don't, with my good friend, Donald Trump. This is a book on entrepreneurship for entrepreneurs—something both Donald and I are extremely passionate about.
The reason Donald and I wrote this book is because we've learned the hard way that there are five, essential qualities entrepreneurs need to have in order to succeed. These qualities aren't a guarantee for success, but not having them is a guarantee for failure. And we want you to succeed.
So, over the next few weeks, I'll briefly share some thoughts on each quality. For more on each quality, I encourage you to purchase a copy of Midas Touch.
Last week, I wrote on the number one essential quality of an entrepreneur—strength of character. This week, I’m writing on essential quality #2—F.O.C.U.S.
Today, we live in a world of instant gratification.
When I was a kid, we had only a handful of channels on the television. If you wanted to know something, you had to go to the library and spend some time to look it up. If you wanted to know how someone was doing, you had to write them a letter – or if you had the money, call them long distance. And if you needed directions, you had to stop at a gas station to ask.
The world has changed since then. Now, there are thousands of channels on TV and most people can’t stay on one for more than a few minutes. If you want to know something, you look it up on Wikipedia in seconds through your computer or phone. If you want to know how all your friends are doing, you spend a few minutes on Facebook. If you want to talk to them, you text them – or six or seven of them – right away and all day long. And if you want directions, you hit a little map button on your phone.
This instant gratification is a result of living in the Information Age, which is a double-edged sword because living in the Information Age gives more people more opportunity than ever in history to become rich, but it also makes it harder to become rich because we’re all suffering from ADD.
Today, we live in a world that finds it hard to focus.
Because there is so much information at our finger tips, our minds, especially young people’s minds, are conditioned to move from one stimuli to the next. It is rare these days to focus on one thing for a sustained period of time.
If you want to be a successful entrepreneur, however, you have to learn to F.O.C.U.S. Simply, this means Following One Course of action Until Successful. This takes time and effort – and, as we talked about last week, strength of character.
For many entrepreneurs, it takes years to master a business sector or asset class. It takes the dedication of studying hard, building your financial education, cultivating relationships, and learning from mistakes. And during those years, you’re looking at many long days, putting in lots of hours for little-to-no pay.
The difference between wannabe entrepreneurs and successful ones = F.O.C.U.S.
At the end of the day, the difference between a successful entrepreneur and a wannabe entrepreneur is F.O.C.U.S. Many wannabe entrepreneurs are looking to get rich quick. So, when one avenue doesn’t pan out, they move onto the next. The problem is they are never successful because they never put in the time and effort required to be so.
Rich Dad has never been about getting rich quick.
We’ve always been about a lifelong journey of financial education.
No one is born an entrepreneur. You become an entrepreneur over many years of learning, hard work, and F.O.C.U.S.
If you want to increase your financial education – and your F.O.C.U.S., I encourage you to check out our Rich Dad Education courses. If you want to really take your game to the next level, I also encourage you to look into Rich Dad Coaching. Because sometimes what we need most to F.O.C.U.S. is someone to tell us when we’re getting off course and to encourage us to forge ahead.