To Make Money - Be a Little Different
Apr 12th, 2007 by Freddie
Whilst in Cyprus last week I squeezed in a day trip to the Troodos mountains which dominate the Western half of this quite large island.
These days the journey is not arduous as there are superb roads which are also largely traffic free.
It’s a winding, journey of some 50km as you climb snake- like from the hot and busy port of Limassol into the cooler, clearer air of the mountains. We stopped a few times to admire the sensational view and also to enjoy… the silence… which was almost total.
You could hear birds singing over a mile away and the only other real sound was the wind swaying the pine trees.
Heaven.
Silence is a precious commodity in the world we have created.
Then it was onwards and upwards with the temperature dropping nearly 3 degrees F per 1,000 feet. (If you want that in metric – I’ll leave it to you!) That’s the adiabatic lapse-rate for you – the tricky little devil (I noticed on the plane home that the outside temperature was -88F! You wouldn’t last twenty seconds in that.)
Soon we reached the high village of Troodos. And what’s this? Snow on the ground - in April! Amazing! I lobbed a desultory snowball at my companion just for larks. He chucked one back at me which contained more ice than snow. Ouch!
Time for sight-seeing… and the point of this travelogue.
There wasn’t a lot there except for a huge stall selling nuts, Turkish delight, stem ginger and honey. I bought a few bits and pieces and then noticed that behind it there was another large stall selling…
…nuts, Turkish delight, stem ginger and honey.
And behind that, another stall selling… you guessed it… nuts, Turkish delight, stem ginger and honey.
How many times have you seen this on your travels?
The Tunisian market with dozens (literally) of stalls selling identical leather handbags, belts and wallets?
The African traders selling identical carvings of elephants?
The Thai stalls with an identical selection of knocked- off designer watches?
This shows a profound lack of business acumen and reveals a key money-making point which is…
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To Make Money – Be a Little Different
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Don’t try to be exactly the same as everyone else…
Sell different stuff. Offer a different service.
I don’t mean you need something totally unique never-
before-conceived-of-by- humans. Just be a little
different.
If one stall is selling nuts, honey and Turkish delight,
then you sell herbs, spices and sweets; or cakes,
biscuits and jam.
The woman in the rear stall was moaning. Can you guess
what about? Yes, the fact that all the tourists bought
from the front two stalls and by the time they
discovered her, they already had groaning wheel-barrow’s
full of nuts, Turkish delight, stem ginger and honey.
No s**t???
Yet it had obviously never occurred to her to sell
something different to them.
Incredibly, really.
Don’t make this mistake yourself. Find something new or
an angle on something old.
Most importantly, check out the competition BEFORE you
launch your bright new business.
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Quote of the day
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“I found it easier to get rich than I did to make
excuses.”
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The Awesome Power of Compounding
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Here’s a simple secret known by the rich and successful
for centuries – the power of compound interest.
All this means is – money you keep your sticky little
hands away from – and time to let it grow.
The easiest version of this is saving.
Successful people learn the savings habit early, often
as children.
It has another name – ‘gratification postponement’. Not
eating ALL the sweets now, but saving some until later.
Greedy children with poor impulse control eat all the
sweets now.
Many adults, as soon as they get some money, dream-up
ways of spending it. Usually, it has to be said, on
consumer trash.
Wise people enjoy some of their money now, and save the
rest. They know that when a little time has passed, that
money will have grown many fold.
Example: Put five grand in savings at 7% a year and add
to it just £80 a month and you’ll have a quarter of a
million after 40 years! Okay, 40 years seems a long
time, but if you started at 16 you’d only be 56 when you
collected the loot.
Example: Put ten grand into stocks and shares and add
10% of your salary (let’s say £2,500 a year or about
£200 a month) and you’d have two hundred grand after
twenty years and a million after 37 years! (assuming 10%
average per year).
Yet people in their millions retire broke and
embarrassed. After a lifetime of hard work they’ve
managed to save – nothing. They accumulate – nothing.
They leave behind them – nothing.
They’ve spent the lot, basically.
It’s never too late to start this winning habit, so if
you haven’t got any savings at the moment, I strongly
urge you to start today, even if (particularly if) you
“can’t afford it”.
The future comes around pretty quickly. You can be broke
in that future, or have a very tasty nest egg to draw
upon.
The choice is yours.
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Time Saving Tip of The Day
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CREATE A TV-EXERCISE SESSION. Exercise in front of the
TV, while you’re catching up on the news, or watching a
favourite program. Doing both at the same time could buy
you 30-60 minutes of free time later, and your viewing
session will be a lot healthier!
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Okay that’s it from me today. I’m off to search the
Internet for a recipe which uses nuts, Turkish delight,
stem ginger and honey, of which, for some strange
reason, I seem to have a cupboard full!
Yours,
Stuart Goldsmith
