Most Agents step over Dollars to Pick Up Dimes….do you?

“Most agents step over dollars to pick up dimes, do you?”

December is a great time of year to release new movies.

Historically, July is #1 and December is #2 in box office earnings.

Last December, Hugh Jackman and Zac Efron starred in the movie: The Greatest Showman. Movie trailer is at the bottom of this email.

The Greatest Showman is about P.T. Barnum.

His story, like most successful people, is fascinating. A real hero’s journey.

I consider myself, an archaeologist of success and personal development. There is something magical in reading the words from men and women from back in the day. Men and Women that struggled against all odds to “make it”.

While Barnum gave many other speeches, this was the one that had the longest lasting impact on the audience.

The famous newspaper editor Horace Greeley said this speech was worth, “a hundred dollar greenback” to a beginner in business.

Many people said Barnum’s advice helped them become wealthy.

What I like most about the speech – The Principles (and you know how I feel about living a life guided by principles and not tactics). Even though this speech is 149 years old, the principles delivered by Mr. Barnum have stood the test of time.

That bolded line is why I’m an archaeologist of success principles.

Imagine you are in a theatre in the late 1800’s when P.T. Barnum, one of the most colorful and successful men in American history, strolls out, his eyes bright, his smile lighting up the stage.

You and the rest of the packed house have eagerly waited to hear what the greatest showman of all time has to say about becoming a success in life.

And…

He delivers!

Here’s an excerpt from the speech (read until the end – the payoff):

“In the United States, it is not difficult for persons in good health to make money. Those who really desire to attain an independence have only to set their minds upon it and adopt the proper means.

The road to wealth is as plain as the road to mill. It consists in expending less than we earn; that seems to be a very simple problem.

To have an income of twenty dollars per year, and spend twenty dollars and six cents, is to be the most miserable of men; whereas, to have an income of only twenty dollars, and spend nineteen dollars and six cents, is to be the happiest of mortals.”

He goes on to explain that the above statement is more than surface deep as most would read it (or hear it) to be. There’s a much bigger lesson to becoming wealthy than JUST spending less than you earn.

And most people (they) don’t understand this concept.

He says, “They fancy they are so wonderfully economic in saving a half penny where they ought to spend two.”

He goes on with a story capped by a goose-bumply mic drop.

“A few years ago, before kerosene oil was discovered or thought of, one might stop overnight at almost any farmer’s house in the agricultural districts and get a very good supper, but after supper he might attempt to read in the sitting room and would find it impossible with the inefficient light of one candle.

The hostess seeing the dilemma, would say, It is rather difficult to read here evenings; the proverb says, You must have a ship at sea in order to be able to burn two candles at once; we never have an extra candle except on special occasions. These occasions occur, perhaps, twice a year.

In this way the good woman saves five, six, or ten dollars in that time; but the information which might be derived from having the extra light would, of course, far outweigh a ton of candles.”

HELLOOOO!!!

Now that’s a mic drop.

If you don’t “get” it – maybe you never will.

Either way, Feliz Navidad