Are you a Maker or a Taker?
During my days in corporate, I spend several years in International Banking and Global Markets. The term “price maker” is when you are approached to make a price – you are the price maker, and the other person is the price taker. Over the years I learned that in business and life, the people that are makers, get what they want, and the takers, take what they get. Takers believe what they get is “as good as it’s gonna get” and settle for what they get.
Being a maker or a taker is a choice. Makers know what they want. They have a plan for what they want – they make it happen.
Takers have no plan to get what they want. And this is primarily because they don’t know what they want, and more importantly, why they want it.
I often ask my daughters what they want. Over the years they have learnt to focus on a regular basis on what they want. It helps them when they do their monthly Cash Flow Forecasting. From my previous posts you know they do Cash Flow Forecasting every month for a rolling 24-month period.
One of my favourite questions to ask Business Owners & Leaders is, “What do you want?”. For at least a decade now, very few have answered me. The reason for the low response is that they don’t know, and the reason for that is they have not been asked before.
Most Business Owners reply with, “What do you mean?” and that’s a fair reply.
My reply is always, “How do you want to live the rest of your life?” where your life consists of –
Your income – getting the salary from your business that you want;
Your health;
Time spent with family & friends;
Your personal growth & achievements;
Time spent on fun & recreation;
Work/life integration –
Time spent with and on life partner, kids, holidays, time away from work, etc.;
Involvement in your local & business community;
Running your business –
Are you involved in business activities that you enjoy doing the most, and have the greatest potential impact?;
Generating Retained Earnings from your business;
Do you want to exit your role, and even the business at some point? When?
Do you know what you want? Do you know why you want that? Do you have a plan to get what you want?
Do you surround yourself with other makers, or do you have takers around you?
Be the owner of what you want. Stop blaming the government, the bank, fuel prices, your circumstances, etc.