You Need Money to Make Money. True or False?

A few weeks ago I had a family friend post this line on Facebook, and boy did he get his share of responses. In a day there had to have been at least 80+ people who commented, and it wasn’t a simple thumbs up, or Yes’s and No’s; there were very in-depth answers with rationales, examples, and hyperlinks. I was a little astonished at the responsiveness the post received, but I was more so curious how a simple question could prompt so much thought.

I did not read through all of the replies, or the replies to the replies, or the replies to the replies to the replies, so I don’t know if someone made this point, but Gabe, here is the correct answer to your question.

Do you need money to make money? Yes, and no...but more No than yes.

You need money, but it doesn’t have to be yours nor does it have to be earned prior to starting your project. Many a millionaire built systems and prototypes from scratch and only started raising money when they had already made significant progress. AND raising money is really easy.

I took 30 seconds to think about ways to do it, and here is what I got:

-Apply for lots of credit cards and max them out, paying only the minimum balance each month - Take Business loans -Ask Family and friends to help out -Crowdfunding -Reaching out to angel investors

See, it is not hard! It can be very risky, but it's not hard, thus making fundraising a very secondary issue when it comes to getting an idea off the ground. Two much more important things to consider are 1) Grit and 2) Flexibility to Improvements. These are much better determiners as to how successful you will be.

For those who don’t know: Grit is unwavering mental focus and determination on a goal or idea, and Flexibility to Improvements is adaptability to defining who you are talking to and how you are doing it. I will be writing more about this later, but THOSE are your determiners, not money.

As Kevin O'Leary from Shark Tank said, Money is gasoline used to help make your idea burn brighter, and help your goals be realized faster. Don’t get caught up in the dollars and cents of an idea, just simply get started and be willing to work through and adapt to the challenges that are coming. If you focus on being the best provider of (whatever) product or service, the money will come. Trust me.

Just another one of #ToyesThoughts