The most effective pathway to achieving wealth is by owning your own business. In the book “The Next Great Bubble Boom” by Harry S. Dent he tells us that,

“The best single way to build wealth is to own your own business, especially one that can be systematically expanded or sold.”

So what does it mean to own your own business?

Quite simply it means owning a system that provides the needs and wants of a particular market. Now, whether it is a manufacturing business in China, an alternative health center in Hungary, a real estate office in Toronto, or an IT Consulting Company in New York – it does not matter! What matters is that your business is able to operate without you being there.

Wealth Secret #1: Business ownership means owning a business that can run WITHOUT you.

It does not mean, “I am only needed 10 hours per week.” It does not mean “I cannot be replaced out of certain jobs because I am the best at it.” Business owners simply OWN the business. They are not required to DO anything once the systems are set up.
Now, initially they spend a lot of time and energy building and designing a system that is to be ultimately run by other people – and not them! Therefore if you want to be an owner EVERYTHING you do in your business from DAY 1 should be designed to ultimately replace you.

So what are the most effective actions to take?

Consider the following questions.
“Can your car be driven by other people?” The answer is obvious. Of course it can.
“Can your business be run by other people?” If you’re like most businesses out there chances are it cannot. (And, if it can, read on anyway and share your expertise with us).

But for now, let’s go back to your car. Even if our car can be driven by other people we will have reservations about WHO we allow to drive our car. We may think there aren’t any GOOD people out there to drive it for us. But, if you simply look outside you will notice there are thousands of qualified drivers – so scarcity of drivers is not the problem.

In fact, there is an abundance of drivers and many of the drivers are much better at driving than we will ever be! Some of them even specialise in different types of driving. They drive race cars, trucks, minivans, off-road vehicles, jeeps etc. So you can see there isn’t a scarcity of GOOD drivers – it’s just that we do not have a system to attract, train, develop and retain the best drivers.
So, if you do not have a system to manage abundance all you can have is scarcity of drivers!

Wealth Secret #2. Systems allow you to manage the abundance of the world.
Without well designed systems people experience overwhelm and scarcity because there is simply TOO MUCH to handle. Just think about the number of products there are on the shelves in your local grocery store – and every year, more and more appear. Not less and less! The reason the bigger chains can provide all of these offerings is because they own a system that allows them to process the abundance of products available in the marketplace. The smaller stores cannot manage that level of abundance because their systems were never designed for it – as a result they are forced to remain small. (By the way, being small is totally okay if that’s what you want).

All successful business owners know this secret and if you want to be one you will need to design and build a system that will replace you – otherwise you will be stuck in running versus owning a business.

Wealth Secret #3: Train your ‘drivers’ to be better than you.
We often think that the people we hire should care as much about our business as we do. However, in reality that is not the case. We also don’t train and develop our people fully because of fear that they will – are you ready for this? – TAKE OVER OUR BUSINESS! – all the while not recognizing that this is the whole point of business ownership.

To illustrate this further, let’s go back to our car example. You may ask,
“But what if the drivers I hire don’t care about my car as much as I do?”
Yes, it’s true, our cars are very important to us – not just anybody can drive them. And, everybody wants drivers that will take great care of our car – just as much as we would. However, untrained drivers do not come pre-programmed to love your car as much as you do. And, guess what, when they get trained they may want to drive other cars – you’re not the only one with a car you know! So, you need to be prepared for that, and unless you’re willing to do this work it will be virtually impossible for you to be a business owner because you will be required for your business to run.

So, how can I increase my chances of having my ‘drivers’ stay?
The only thing that will have your drivers stay is the destination your business is driving to – your company’s Vision. Not only do you need to show your drivers how to drive your business, but you also need to show them where to drive it. Otherwise, they will drive off a cliff because they did not know that ‘cliff’ mean the end of the road – or in your case, the end of your business.

But I do not want to leave you at the cliff. I want to leave you with a choice.
Because if you have a Vision and allow your people to make the Vision their own, they will figure out how to steer the ship in the right direction – this happens naturally in the course of life itself.
Ask any true business owner out there. You may be surprised as to what they tell you.