September 16, 2024 • 10 mins
Being wealthy or rich are vastly different things. Many, if not most people who are rich live in unimaginable poverty when it comes to free time. We pursue money because we think it will give us freedom, but freedom in our business is not a function of how much money the business is making.
In this podcast we will talk about the difference between being rich and wealth, and how one can lead to being a hostage and to having a JOB, and the other leads us to FREEDOM in our business. We’ll give you the Significance Formula to show with Utter Clarity the very few resources we need to live a life of significance, get off the treadmill, and get back to the passion that brought us into business in the first place.
Check our special offer for the Making Money is Killing Your Business: https://bit.ly/m/3to5Club
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
Welcome back to the Get Off The Treadmill
podcast for small business owners and entrepreneurs, where
we show you how to build a successful
business and to have a life too.
We're going to dive into another topic that
helps us make more money in less time
and to get off the treadmill so we
can experience a life of significance.
And now your host and the author of
(00:25):
the number one bestselling business book, Making Money
Is Killing Your Business, Chuck Blakeman.
Hi and welcome.
This is Chuck Blakeman.
I'm excited to be with you today.
We're going to talk about the difference between
being rich and wealthy.
In my first six businesses, I spent most
of my time trying to make money, thinking
it would give me freedom.
(00:46):
I came by that focus on making money
very honestly.
I think we've all been taught that money
is the goal and that if we have
it, everything else will fall into line.
We get money, we'll get freedom.
So I just assumed that money would make
me free.
But it didn't.
For six businesses straight, I got money and
I got no freedom.
And it turns out that 85 years of
(01:07):
research by Harvard says otherwise.
Research shows money doesn't make us happy, it
won't give us freedom, it shouldn't be the
goal.
Actually, other research shows there's some correlation between
happiness and money until you get to the
point where you can cover all your basic
living expenses.
And after you've got them covered, money does
not apply to making us happy or giving
us freedom.
(01:28):
But I didn't know any better, so I
was doing what everyone else was doing, chasing
money in order to get freedom.
After a couple of decades of making decent
money building six businesses, and I should note
here, I'm a slow learner, hopefully it won't
take you that long, I had a blinding
flash of the obvious, or what we call
a BFO, that I wasn't any happier than
I was a couple of decades earlier.
And worse yet, I had a lot less
(01:49):
freedom.
I had to ask myself how I ended
up there, and of course, the hard answer
eventually found me, I had actually made this
whole thing happen.
The old saying, he or she who makes
the rules wins, or in this case, making
rules where you don't win.
I had made rules that were making me
win at the game of business, but lose
at the game of life.
This was my fault.
I had no freedom to enjoy the money
(02:10):
I had.
So long story short, I have now invested
a couple of decades in learning how to
achieve real freedom in my business, not from
it, and I now have the privilege of
helping others do that.
A couple of years ago, I got a
call from somebody asking me to take a
look at their business and see if there
was any way to make it less dependent
on them.
Their business was rocking, and they were taking
home, I think, close to a million dollars
(02:31):
a year take home, not bad.
They mentioned how very grateful they were about
the wealth they had been able to accumulate.
And after talking to them for a few
minutes, I suggested, I need more information, but
I'm not sure you are wealthy.
And of course, they pushed back hard and
listed all their assets, and that gave us
a topic for our first meeting together, freedom,
which led us to a new understanding of
(02:52):
wealth.
Their financial and hard assets were impressive, but
as we walked through their work and their
work week, it was apparent they were very
poor when it came to time and availability.
They were hostages to their business.
They didn't actually own the business like they
thought the business owned them.
Even though the IRS would disagree, I would
have categorized them not as a business owner,
(03:12):
but as an income producer like I was
for the first six businesses of my career.
Without their direct involvement in producing revenue, there
would be almost none.
Anytime they stop, the business stops.
That's an income producer.
But I asked for their definition of freedom,
and they gave me a fairly classic definition.
I think they said freedom is the right
and the ability to act, speak, and think
(03:33):
as they please without hindrance or restraint.
Pretty classic definition.
Through my first five businesses, I would have
given a similar definition, but in the sixth
business I started in 2006, I had come
to the end of myself.
I was tired.
And for the first time, I had that
BFO about being an income producer, and I
used that label to describe myself and the
(03:54):
few decades of work before that.
I realized I wasn't really a business owner
in practice, but only on paper.
That's when I came up with a better
definition of freedom, specifically for myself, and then
for other business owners and any others who
wanted authority over their lives.
Fundamentally, freedom is the ability to choose.
That's the beginning of the definition.
But for us as business owners, and I
(04:15):
would suggest for most people, freedom is the
ability to choose what to do with my
time and my money.
That's real freedom.
I get to choose.
Wealth doesn't come from having money, but from
having both time and money, and freedom is
the same thing.
Freedom comes from having both time and money.
Wealth and freedom are very closely related.
(04:37):
And then we have a third resource we
put in there, personal energy through diet, exercise,
and getting our mindset right.
And when we have all three of these,
we have wealth, and wealth gives us true
freedom and the ability to finally get off
the business treadmill.
So the game we should be playing in
our business is how to create wealth, not
riches.
(04:57):
How do we get our businesses to regularly
and reliably produce both time and money, not
just money?
I know plenty of rich people who are
not wealthy, but I don't know any wealthy
people who don't have all the time and
money they desire.
That's not to say they're all one percenters.
They're not, but they have all that they
want of both time and money, and that
is a wealthy person.
(05:18):
First, we have to understand what time and
money really are.
We get sideways in this because society has
taught us that money is the goal, and
time is something you get when you retire
and stop making money.
A ludicrous notion in multiple ways.
To begin with, neither time nor money are
goals.
They are resources, which speaks to understanding and
(05:39):
motivation.
One of the reasons I've seen people not
make a lot of money is because they
didn't understand that both time and money are
just that, resources.
Those resources and the personal resource of energy
are how we get to the real goal
of building a significant life, whatever that means
to you, and that's the key.
We need to have a clear picture of
what a significant life means to us, because
(06:02):
if you don't have utter clarity about what
you will do with a resource once you
have it, it's less likely you'll ever get
enough of that resource because you really don't
know what you would do with it if
you had it.
If I don't know what a significant life
looks like for me, then I'm not pursuing
that as a goal of having a business.
I'm not going to experience my business giving
me back time and maybe not even much
money.
(06:22):
Remember, you get what you intend, not what
you hope for.
If we hope for a significant life, we're
not likely to get one.
If we intend to live in significance and
we have resolved to get the money and
the time from our business to create that
freedom, we are rich beyond measure.
We'll have another podcast on how to actually
get that significant life.
So we have a simple significance formula we
(06:43):
can focus on while we're running our businesses
to put the resources and the goal in
the proper perspective.
The significance formula is time plus money plus
energy equal the ability to live a significant
life.
The more we have of all three, the
wealthier we are and the more freedom we
can experience.
You might be thinking, I don't have time
to do this right now.
(07:04):
I'll get after it next year.
Sounds great.
Too busy on the treadmill.
Let's chase this rabbit next year.
Well, my good Irish friend John Heenan has
a question for just that thought.
His question is, are you making decisions based
on where you are or on where you
want to be?
And it makes sense.
If you're making decisions based on where you
are, where do you think you'll be next
(07:25):
year?
Probably the same place and still saying, I'll
do this next year.
It's like free beer tomorrow.
You know, tomorrow never comes.
Next year really never comes.
If you're making decisions based on where you
want to be, it might be more motivating
to you to start figuring out how to
get this done today, to get your business
to start giving you back time and money
today, not just money.
(07:47):
Getting back to my new friend who was
learning the difference between being rich and being
wealthy.
Remember the definition after I gave him my
perspective that a wealthy person is someone who
has both time and money regularly and reliably
from their business.
I asked if they still thought they were
wealthy or if maybe they were just rich.
It's a disorienting juxtaposition at first, but they
(08:08):
soon came to realize that wealthy people have
time, not just money.
And freedom requires that we have both time
and money at our disposal to do with
what we please.
They were just rich.
Rich people have money.
Wealthy people have time and money and that
gives them freedom and in whatever quantity works
for them to build their life that they
want.
I've learned the hard way that pursuing resources
(08:30):
like time and money as if they were
goals is just an empty pursuit.
And my friend figured that out as well.
Once he realized they were only rich and
not wealthy and definitely not free, they went
about changing the way business was done so
that it would produce both time and money
for them, not just money.
They moved from being an income producer to
a business owner and it took them a
(08:51):
little less than 18 months.
Sometimes it takes a few months, sometimes it
takes a couple of years.
They went from working five days or more
a week producing the lion's share of that
revenue so they could take home a million
dollars a year to working a day or
two a week and producing almost none of
the business revenue.
And now they take home exponentially more than
they used to with a much shorter work
(09:11):
week.
They are a business owner now, not an
income producer.
Sometimes all we need is just a mindset
shift to learn how to make more money
in less time.
So let's forget being rich.
Let's stop chasing money as if it were
the goal.
Instead I intend to be wealthy in both
time and money, which gives me the freedom
to live a life of significance.
(09:34):
After all, that's the goal.
And everything else is just resources to invest
in that goal.
As we focus on the goal and understand
the right place of time and money as
resources, that will play out much differently in
our lives and in our businesses.
Let's be wealthy, not just rich.
Let's use the significance formula, time plus money
(09:56):
plus energy equals the ability to create a
significant life for ourselves.
And let's choose wealth, not just riches.
If you choose riches, you're likely to become
a hostage to your business.
Choose wealth and you'll be choosing freedom.
I'll see you next time.
That wraps up another episode of the Get
(10:16):
Off the Treadmill podcast.
If you found this podcast helpful, please subscribe
and hit the like button to ensure you
are receiving the latest tools you need to
grow your business and to get off the
treadmill.
If you want more information on the 3
to 5 Club, the Crankset Group, or to
book Chuck as a business advisor, speaker, or
workshop leader, you can contact us at grow,
(10:37):
G-R-O-W, at cranksetgroup.com.
Until next time, have a great week.
Welcome back to the Get Off The Treadmill
podcast for small business owners and entrepreneurs, where
we show you how to build a successful
business and to have a life too.
We're going to dive into another topic that
helps us make more money in less time
and to get off the treadmill so we
can experience a life of significance.
And now your host and the author of
(00:25):
the number one bestselling business book, Making Money
Is Killing Your Business, Chuck Blakeman.
Hi and welcome.
This is Chuck Blakeman.
I'm excited to be with you today.
We're going to talk about the difference between
being rich and wealthy.
In my first six businesses, I spent most
of my time trying to make money, thinking
it would give me freedom.
(00:46):
I came by that focus on making money
very honestly.
I think we've all been taught that money
is the goal and that if we have
it, everything else will fall into line.
We get money, we'll get freedom.
So I just assumed that money would make
me free.
But it didn't.
For six businesses straight, I got money and
I got no freedom.
And it turns out that 85 years of
(01:07):
research by Harvard says otherwise.
Research shows money doesn't make us happy, it
won't give us freedom, it shouldn't be the
goal.
Actually, other research shows there's some correlation between
happiness and money until you get to the
point where you can cover all your basic
living expenses.
And after you've got them covered, money does
not apply to making us happy or giving
us freedom.
(01:28):
But I didn't know any better, so I
was doing what everyone else was doing, chasing
money in order to get freedom.
After a couple of decades of making decent
money building six businesses, and I should note
here, I'm a slow learner, hopefully it won't
take you that long, I had a blinding
flash of the obvious, or what we call
a BFO, that I wasn't any happier than
I was a couple of decades earlier.
And worse yet, I had a lot less
(01:49):
freedom.
I had to ask myself how I ended
up there, and of course, the hard answer
eventually found me, I had actually made this
whole thing happen.
The old saying, he or she who makes
the rules wins, or in this case, making
rules where you don't win.
I had made rules that were making me
win at the game of business, but lose
at the game of life.
This was my fault.
I had no freedom to enjoy the money
(02:10):
I had.
So long story short, I have now invested
a couple of decades in learning how to
achieve real freedom in my business, not from
it, and I now have the privilege of
helping others do that.
A couple of years ago, I got a
call from somebody asking me to take a
look at their business and see if there
was any way to make it less dependent
on them.
Their business was rocking, and they were taking
home, I think, close to a million dollars
(02:31):
a year take home, not bad.
They mentioned how very grateful they were about
the wealth they had been able to accumulate.
And after talking to them for a few
minutes, I suggested, I need more information, but
I'm not sure you are wealthy.
And of course, they pushed back hard and
listed all their assets, and that gave us
a topic for our first meeting together, freedom,
which led us to a new understanding of
(02:52):
wealth.
Their financial and hard assets were impressive, but
as we walked through their work and their
work week, it was apparent they were very
poor when it came to time and availability.
They were hostages to their business.
They didn't actually own the business like they
thought the business owned them.
Even though the IRS would disagree, I would
have categorized them not as a business owner,
(03:12):
but as an income producer like I was
for the first six businesses of my career.
Without their direct involvement in producing revenue, there
would be almost none.
Anytime they stop, the business stops.
That's an income producer.
But I asked for their definition of freedom,
and they gave me a fairly classic definition.
I think they said freedom is the right
and the ability to act, speak, and think
(03:33):
as they please without hindrance or restraint.
Pretty classic definition.
Through my first five businesses, I would have
given a similar definition, but in the sixth
business I started in 2006, I had come
to the end of myself.
I was tired.
And for the first time, I had that
BFO about being an income producer, and I
used that label to describe myself and the
(03:54):
few decades of work before that.
I realized I wasn't really a business owner
in practice, but only on paper.
That's when I came up with a better
definition of freedom, specifically for myself, and then
for other business owners and any others who
wanted authority over their lives.
Fundamentally, freedom is the ability to choose.
That's the beginning of the definition.
But for us as business owners, and I
(04:15):
would suggest for most people, freedom is the
ability to choose what to do with my
time and my money.
That's real freedom.
I get to choose.
Wealth doesn't come from having money, but from
having both time and money, and freedom is
the same thing.
Freedom comes from having both time and money.
Wealth and freedom are very closely related.
(04:37):
And then we have a third resource we
put in there, personal energy through diet, exercise,
and getting our mindset right.
And when we have all three of these,
we have wealth, and wealth gives us true
freedom and the ability to finally get off
the business treadmill.
So the game we should be playing in
our business is how to create wealth, not
riches.
(04:57):
How do we get our businesses to regularly
and reliably produce both time and money, not
just money?
I know plenty of rich people who are
not wealthy, but I don't know any wealthy
people who don't have all the time and
money they desire.
That's not to say they're all one percenters.
They're not, but they have all that they
want of both time and money, and that
is a wealthy person.
(05:18):
First, we have to understand what time and
money really are.
We get sideways in this because society has
taught us that money is the goal, and
time is something you get when you retire
and stop making money.
A ludicrous notion in multiple ways.
To begin with, neither time nor money are
goals.
They are resources, which speaks to understanding and
(05:39):
motivation.
One of the reasons I've seen people not
make a lot of money is because they
didn't understand that both time and money are
just that, resources.
Those resources and the personal resource of energy
are how we get to the real goal
of building a significant life, whatever that means
to you, and that's the key.
We need to have a clear picture of
what a significant life means to us, because
(06:02):
if you don't have utter clarity about what
you will do with a resource once you
have it, it's less likely you'll ever get
enough of that resource because you really don't
know what you would do with it if
you had it.
If I don't know what a significant life
looks like for me, then I'm not pursuing
that as a goal of having a business.
I'm not going to experience my business giving
me back time and maybe not even much
money.
(06:22):
Remember, you get what you intend, not what
you hope for.
If we hope for a significant life, we're
not likely to get one.
If we intend to live in significance and
we have resolved to get the money and
the time from our business to create that
freedom, we are rich beyond measure.
We'll have another podcast on how to actually
get that significant life.
So we have a simple significance formula we
(06:43):
can focus on while we're running our businesses
to put the resources and the goal in
the proper perspective.
The significance formula is time plus money plus
energy equal the ability to live a significant
life.
The more we have of all three, the
wealthier we are and the more freedom we
can experience.
You might be thinking, I don't have time
to do this right now.
(07:04):
I'll get after it next year.
Sounds great.
Too busy on the treadmill.
Let's chase this rabbit next year.
Well, my good Irish friend John Heenan has
a question for just that thought.
His question is, are you making decisions based
on where you are or on where you
want to be?
And it makes sense.
If you're making decisions based on where you
are, where do you think you'll be next
(07:25):
year?
Probably the same place and still saying, I'll
do this next year.
It's like free beer tomorrow.
You know, tomorrow never comes.
Next year really never comes.
If you're making decisions based on where you
want to be, it might be more motivating
to you to start figuring out how to
get this done today, to get your business
to start giving you back time and money
today, not just money.
(07:47):
Getting back to my new friend who was
learning the difference between being rich and being
wealthy.
Remember the definition after I gave him my
perspective that a wealthy person is someone who
has both time and money regularly and reliably
from their business.
I asked if they still thought they were
wealthy or if maybe they were just rich.
It's a disorienting juxtaposition at first, but they
(08:08):
soon came to realize that wealthy people have
time, not just money.
And freedom requires that we have both time
and money at our disposal to do with
what we please.
They were just rich.
Rich people have money.
Wealthy people have time and money and that
gives them freedom and in whatever quantity works
for them to build their life that they
want.
I've learned the hard way that pursuing resources
(08:30):
like time and money as if they were
goals is just an empty pursuit.
And my friend figured that out as well.
Once he realized they were only rich and
not wealthy and definitely not free, they went
about changing the way business was done so
that it would produce both time and money
for them, not just money.
They moved from being an income producer to
a business owner and it took them a
(08:51):
little less than 18 months.
Sometimes it takes a few months, sometimes it
takes a couple of years.
They went from working five days or more
a week producing the lion's share of that
revenue so they could take home a million
dollars a year to working a day or
two a week and producing almost none of
the business revenue.
And now they take home exponentially more than
they used to with a much shorter work
(09:11):
week.
They are a business owner now, not an
income producer.
Sometimes all we need is just a mindset
shift to learn how to make more money
in less time.
So let's forget being rich.
Let's stop chasing money as if it were
the goal.
Instead I intend to be wealthy in both
time and money, which gives me the freedom
to live a life of significance.
(09:34):
After all, that's the goal.
And everything else is just resources to invest
in that goal.
As we focus on the goal and understand
the right place of time and money as
resources, that will play out much differently in
our lives and in our businesses.
Let's be wealthy, not just rich.
Let's use the significance formula, time plus money
(09:56):
plus energy equals the ability to create a
significant life for ourselves.
And let's choose wealth, not just riches.
If you choose riches, you're likely to become
a hostage to your business.
Choose wealth and you'll be choosing freedom.
I'll see you next time.
That wraps up another episode of the Get
(10:16):
Off the Treadmill podcast.
If you found this podcast helpful, please subscribe
and hit the like button to ensure you
are receiving the latest tools you need to
grow your business and to get off the
treadmill.
If you want more information on the 3
to 5 Club, the Crankset Group, or to
book Chuck as a business advisor, speaker, or
workshop leader, you can contact us at grow,
(10:37):
G-R-O-W, at cranksetgroup.com.
Until next time, have a great week.
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