HOW ARE YOU WIRED?

Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is in my blood. I think it partially emulates from my father. My dad owned several different businesses and partnered in a few others, so his spirit in that regard may have rubbed off on me.

When I was in the sixth grade attending a parochial school in Michigan, I was a chubby child. Like most children, I loved candy and always had some on me. Everyday someone would say, "Aaron can I have some candy?" You must understand that, back then, vending machines were not in schools.

Being a fat kid, I admit I didn't like to share. (As I think about it now, I'm in super shape. I work out five days a week. And I still don't like to share my food. Maybe my weight had nothing to do with it.) Rather than giving my candy away, I came up with an idea. I used to buy my candy for a penny a piece. I bought a bunch of candy and started selling it for a dime a piece. What a margin! I was selling just to my own class and selling out every day. Then I decided to get a rep in every grade from fourth to ninth, and I was making bank!

I found a need, filled it, and made a profit! T. Harv Eker, in Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, said, "Do you know the definition of an entrepreneur? ... A person who solves problems for people at a profit."

I love to create! Making something from nothing and watching it grow gives me a thrill like nothing else. Some people think working for an employer is safe; but I don't view it that way. Employers can fire you at any time, so I've never understood this mentality. Safety to me is being able to create something where I can determine my own financial outcomes, and nobody can fire or lay me off.

I've been a protestant pastor for twenty-eight years. Don't worry. I'm not about to give you a sermon or pass an offering plate. The church I've pastored for the last eighteen years I literally started under a tree. I've heard pastors say they started in a storefront. Well I started in a no-front! We couldn't afford anything, and the tree was free. Within a week, we had a church building with a gymnasium. But that's another book. My point is, when working on anything, whether religious or secular, I've always been wired to create.

The all-important question is, "How are you wired?" At the end of the chapter I will give you some action points that will help you determine your wiring.

Leader or manager

When you are evaluating how you are wired, one of the important subquestions you will have to answer is, "Am I a leader or a manager?" I used to think that, if you were one, you were automatically the other. I was totally wrong. Leaders and managers have very different characteristics. Leaders are great at casting the vision. They can spell out the big picture and get everyone excited about the end result. Managers, on the other hand, are great at catching the vision and putting the skeleton together and then the flesh on the bones. Leaders are great at big picture. Managers are great at the details and the right now.

I am a leader. Can I manage? Yes, I can manage. When my business was small or when I lost a vital key position, I've stepped in and managed that division. Do I like managing? Absolutely not! Am I good at managing? No. I am very average at managing. However, when you are small in the beginning, a lot of times you have to do a bit of everything. As Tony Robbins said, "You are the cheapest employee you can hire, but it doesn't mean you are the best."

There are some people who advocate you need to spend time and work on strengthening your weaknesses. I couldn't disagree more. Time is a commodity that is being spent at a rapid rate and one you cannot redeem. Therefore, I believe in focusing on my strengths and hiring people to do what I am weak at or just plain don't like to do.

To franchise or not to franchise

There are some people who believe franchising is entrepreneurship and others who don't. I'll leave that for Paul Brown, who ignites this debate. Yet it is very important for you to decide which path you choose to go down to achieve your childcare center dream.

Jeff Elgin wrote, "One of the misconceptions many people have is that franchise companies are looking for true entrepreneurs. Most franchise companies have a set plan that they have spent years of trial and error on and make their franchisers adhere to explicitly. If the truth be told most of us true entrepreneurs don't want to be told what to do." Personally, I don't want to be told where I can advertise or that I can't implement a new idea I've come up with that I think would work in my market. So, franchising wasn't a good fit for me. In my opinion, franchising is more for those who are managers and are averse to large doses of risk.

ACTION STEPS

Answer the following questions:

a. Do you structure your time well without someone else managing your schedule?

b. Are you a disciplined person?

c. Do you need a steady paycheck to feel safe, or do you enjoy working on commission?

d. Is your desk messy or always organized?

e. Do you find joy in making sure every detail is done to perfection?

f. After conceptualizing, are you comfortable delegating and allowing others to evolve your ideas?

g. Are you often accused of thinking months or years ahead of where you are at the time?

If you are self-motivated, well structured, disciplined, and don't need a steady paycheck to feel safe, then, you most likely have an entrepreneurial spirit.

If your desk is always neat and you thrive by paying attention to detail, you are most likely a manager.

Are you too busy for details? Is it about getting to the destination? If you are always accused of thinking beyond your means, these are usually signs you are a leader.

DESIGNING THE DREAM

Imagination

I wonder if you were like me as a child. Did you have such a great imagination that you could pick up anything and transform it into reality with your mind? I was a huge Star Trek fan. Captain James Tiberius Kirk was the man! I would pick up a pear, and instantaneously it would become a communicator, and I would be hollering, "Scotty, get us out of here! Beam us up, Scotty!" You couldn't tell me that I wasn't the captain of the USS Enterprise.

I could go on and on, telling you stories of how I was Johnny Soko, and my wrist was the watch that made Giant Robot launch or my Lego was the device that turned me into Ultraman. My imagination gave me the freedom to be anyone I wanted to be and do anything I wanted to do.

Then something happened. I grew up. When I was a child, I was encouraged to dream, fantasize, and believe in the impossible. Yet the older I got, the more teachers and other adults discouraged me from dreaming. They told me to be practical and realistic. Thank God I didn't listen.

Your imagination is the greatest gift you have been blessed with to design your life. The mere fact you are reading this book means you already understand that the most successful people didn't achieve their success by being practical and realistic. Playing it safe will never give you the big returns you are looking for in life. I love the way T Harv Eker puts it. "I get ready, I fire, I aim!" 1 This is the exact opposite of what we've been taught — "ready, aim, fire!"

Most of the people in your life have consciously or unconsciously beaten down your imagination. More people sit around and try to top each other's stories on how hard life is, rather than try to top each other stories on how they are going to achieve their dreams. If you really want to succeed with your childcare center(s), you are going to have to learn how to dream again and hold on to that dream.

When you hold onto a dream, it becomes reality to you. Then you operate from that reality. Let me give a little bit of a crude but very relatable example. Do you remember being a child, asleep and dreaming that you were in the bathroom? In the dream, you went through all the motions. Then suddenly you felt something warm running down your leg and realized you were still in bed! Your subconscious didn't know the difference between reality and your dream. So, you operated as if you were in the bathroom.

If you can dream again and get that dream into your subconscious, you will start operating in life already from a position of "I can" rather than "I can't." That's a huge advantage, as it opens your vision to see opportunities and resources in front of you that normally you are blind to seeing. This is because your personal awareness system is enhanced.

When I decided to buy my black Lexus, something strange happened. I started seeing black Lexuses everywhere. Did they just suddenly appear? No, they didn't just appear out of nowhere. They were always there. The only difference was that my personal awareness system was heightened to notice black Lexuses because I had decided to buy a black Lexus.

Hotel in Birmingham, Alabama

In October 2006, I went to Birmingham, Alabama, to speak. This was an in state yearly engagement so I drove from Mobile. If you have ever driven I-65 on this route you know the most boring stretch of highway on God's green earth is between Mobile and Montgomery, Alabama.

However, this trip was different. As I was driving, I started thinking about whether I should open a day care. I had been toying with the idea for some time but seemed to always dismiss it for one reason or another. The person who had invited me to speak in Birmingham happened to have started a childcare center in the area, which had grown to almost four hundred children. This time, the thought just wouldn't leave me alone.

Due to a couple of conventions in the area, the hotel I always stayed in was booked, so I ended up in a hotel near the University of Alabama at Birmingham. I arrived at night, and the first thing I noticed was noise — lots and lots of noise! It was Saturday night, and kids were partying, and I had to be up at 6:00 a.m. I attempted to sleep, but the later it got, the louder the noise became.

Upset isn't an adequate adjective to describe how I was feeling. I couldn't sleep. I was tired of staring at the ceiling watching the fan spin, and I'm not a big TV watcher. I got up, went to the desk, and found the cheap pen and little notepad hotels provide in your room. I opened curtains, looked out at the square with all the partying kids, and sat down at the desk.

I started thinking, If I had a daycare, what would it be like? First, I sketched out buildings and floor plans. The property would be large enough to account for overflow space because, of course, my business would grow so fast I'd need it almost from day one of opening.

My spot near the window was getting too noisy, so I moved to the bar counter and started writing there. I wrote about how the children's faces would look coming in every day. I wrote about how some children would never want to leave and would beg to stay. I wrote down our own cartoon hero — Butlerman — and an area called little Aaron's Place.

In other words, I began to dream again as it pertained to opening a childcare center. I didn't consider how much anything would cost or if I had the expertise to do any of the work. I simply dreamed. It's amazing what happens when you dream and take off the weights of "what if" or "how will" or "how much." The freedom you get from the experience of dreaming and imagination is simply amazing.

It's not what you know; it's who you know

In all honesty, the dreams I started fully having in that hotel room — or as a matter of fact, most of the dreams I've ever had — would have never come true if it had not been for the people I knew. I have been blessed to have elders and friends in my life who were dreamers and achievers. The quickest way to kill a dreamer and his or her dream is to put him or her around a group of people who have given into mediocrity and are driven by circumstance.

Just the other day, while I was writing this book, a friend of mine called me and told me he was going to make a million dollars in ninety days. He told me how he was going to do it and that he might write a book about how he did it.

My response? I gave him a couple of additional ideas to go along with his process that might help him achieve his goal. Now, have I ever made a million dollars in ninety days? No not yet, I have not. However, I have started corporations that have made over a million dollars over a longer period. Just because I haven't done it in ninety days doesn't mean it's not possible. There are plenty of people who have, and even if there weren't, my friend could be the first!

Our only limits are the ones we put on ourselves. My friend called me because he knew he would not get a "you can't do that" response. It's not that I'm a yes-man. Everyone who knows me knows you don't ask my opinion if you can't handle a straightforward response. However, I am of the school of Captain James T. Kirk. Kirk was the only person to pass Starfleet Academy's final test simulation. How did he do it? He reprogramed the simulation. Kirk's philosophy was that there's always a way to win.

I cannot emphasize enough the need for you to have dreamers/ achievers in your life. You need to be around other people who think big so their infectious spirit of optimism and possibility will constantly rub off on you.

Let's face it. Most people are negative. It's not that they see the glass half empty, instead of half full. They don't even see a glass because they believe somebody took their glass. That's why they can't get ahead. When you associate with these kinds of people, don't make the foolish mistake of thinking sharing your dream is going to inspire them. More than likely, their negative response is going to depress you! This does not just go for friends. It includes family as well. You must make a conscious effort to cut all contact with people who aren't possibility thinkers. In the case of family, you should limit contact with those who are in the realm of the unbelievers in dreams coming true.

If you are married, it is imperative that your spouse be on board. I remember twenty years ago coming home to my wife at the time and sharing an idea I had to expand a business I was running in a certain department. The first thing out of her mouth was, "What makes you think you can do that?"

I was livid but didn't say a word. Two things I swore to myself. First, I'd never share another idea I had with her again. Second, I was not only going to do it, I was going to do it in half the time and shove it in her face!

I achieved both objectives. Suffice to say, she is my ex-wife.

To be fair, over the years, she has said I was the only person she ever met who spoke a dream and made it happen. She even went so far as to say that she wished she was like me in that regard.

People telling me I can't do something has always been an extreme motivator for me. But most people are not wired that way. When a significant other throws water on a dream that's on fire, most people let him or her put the fire out without a fight. I can only speak for me, but I would not dare marry someone who was negative. Been there, done that. I am not going back!

You will note, I wrote earlier dreamers/achievers. It's not enough to associate with dreamers. You need to associate with dreamers who turn their dreams into reality. Many people have dreams or ideas. How many people make them come to pass? You need friends who buck the odds, go against the grain, and are not the norm. Normal behavior doesn't achieve extraordinary results. Thomas Edison, with only twelve weeks of formal education, was thought of to be "not normal" until, after thousands of attempts, he made the lightbulb. Then he was thought of as a genius! Don't be afraid to associate with out-of-the-box thinkers because, guess what? You are one of those out-of-the-box thinkers, or you wouldn't be reading this book.

Show me how

You need a mentor. Yes, you need a mentor! I'm repeating myself because this is vitally important. Having a mentor and having dreamers/achievers in your life is far more important than the information you may or may not know about the business.

I can hear some of you saying, "Well I'm cooked then because I don't know anyone in the business to mentor me." You are wrong. You know me. Through these pages, you know me, and I will show you how to get a direct mentor you may already know or a distant mentor later. Plus, you can contact me at daycareman.com, and my team can provide you mentorship. So don't sweat it. The key is realizing you need one.

I remembering listening to a recording back in the '80s of Rick Warren, author of the best seller The Purpose Driven Life. "It's good to learn from your mistakes," he says, "but it's better to learn from someone else's mistakes." Tony Robbins says the way he achieves maximum success and cuts decades into days is by modeling. He finds the best model and studies it.