In this article I will look at one of the main reasons many people go through life working so hard and not getting anywhere, and be warned - the idea may be contradictory to what you have been told in the past.

Let's consider the following statement:

An average person does 100 things only one time; a master does only one thing 100 times.

At Investors Direct, we have over 7,000 investors and developers on our database, so I believe we have a sizeable sample to talk about whether the above statement is true or not.

What I have found is that the most successful clients normally do the same thing over and over again, and they do it better every time as they have formulated some kind of efficient system to achieve better results. This not only shows up in their investment portfolio, but also in their professional life and business as well.

Whereas the less successful investors are always looking for different things or better things to do before they even build up a system and get good at what they started, so everything they do remains average.

We all know that being consistently average in anything these days doesn't get us very far financially. Some people may blame their industry, boss, colleagues, etc for their lack of financial success, but the fact is there are hugely successful people in any industry or any profession.

In my observation, all the people who have accumulated great wealth give 100% commitment to one area first, and they stick to it for as long as it takes to get them to at least the top 10% in whatever they're doing. They don't run around doing 100 things at the same time in the hope that one of them will work out one day.

Most wealthy people know how to build the momentum in whatever they're doing to generate wealth, they don't get distracted easily as they know that you don't become wealthy by being just OK in many areas. The truth is you can only become wealthy by being one of the best in one specific area first.

If you think you can do two things exceptionally well and make a fortune from them both at the same time, consider this question: can you beat Lleyton Hewitt at tennis or Tiger Woods at golf?

The answer is obviously NO otherwise you wouldn't be reading this article. Let's say Lleyton and Tiger decided to diversify into each other's game, dropping their individual ability by 50% in their own profession, can you imagine what kind of money they will be making?

You and I are obviously not making the same money these guys are making right now. So if they didn't have the chance to try to be good at two things at once in the hope that one of them would work out alright, what chance do you and I have?

I know the following statement may sound controversial to some of you, it's only my opinion and you don't have to believe a word I say…prove it to yourself. If it's good, use it, if it's not, throw it away.

Diversification before we accumulate real wealth is a fear based strategy. People diversify their money or energy hoping that when the worst happens they can still hang on to something. The problem is hanging on to a percentage of nothing gives you nothing.

90% of people don't become wealthy because fear runs their lives; diversification is music to their ears. How often do we let our fear of loss stop us from getting what we truly desire?

Diversification can appear in a few different forms;

• For employees - they are working for someone and doing the minimum just to keep their job, whilst putting the rest of their energy into preparing for their next job or their own business opportunity;
  
  The interesting thing is almost every employer can see right through that, and employees with a diversification mindset will carry this habit from one job to another. If they do have their own business one day, they will be working on this business and preparing themselves for the next business – our habits run our lives.
  
  The only employees who can be successful in any job or future business opportunities, are the ones who devote 100% to their current job, and work like it's their own business;
  
  I have been asked many times by my clients how they can have their own business one day or become a partner of a successful business. Almost every successful employer will tell you this: devote 100% of your time and energy to your current employer like the business is yours, this is because if you can't do it for others, you won't be able to do it for yourself either;
  
  If you're currently an employee, do you know that very few employers will ever tell the truth like I did here? This is because if every employee knows this secret, there will be too many employers and not enough employees!

• For employers - they get bored with what they do and start to look for other business opportunities, or they get greedy and think they can take easy money from somewhere else. For example, many accountants want to get into finance, insurance or property development, thinking that the grass is greener on the other side. If someone can't make serious money from their core business, why would they be able to do so from another business? If they have already worked out how to make good money from their core business, they should spend their energy duplicating that instead of building something new from scratch.
  
  GE, arguably the most successful business in the last few decades, has a rule that if one of the business units doesn't make it to the top two in their industry, it will either be sold or shut down.
• For investors - before they make any serious money, they start to diversify into shares, property, bonds, gold, etc, hoping people who invest on their behalf can do better than they can for themselves.
  
  You don't have to like what I say here, but how's it sound so far?

  You are the only person who cares about your money…if you don't care, no one else does. Some investors would ask; if diversification before we accumulate serious wealth from one area of investment is no good, then why are we told to diversify?
  
  The answer is to this is really dependant on who told you this and what you want for yourself - you know what I mean.

• For our target market - aspiring property investors and developers will try buy and hold, renovation, positive cash flow, wraps, small redevelopment, house and land packages, land development, syndication, strata title single title buildings, commercials, retails, offices, industrial properties, property trading, etc.
  
  Most people will try some of these strategies once, then complain that there's not enough money in it. How often do we get it right the first time? Until you develop a system of some kind and make the whole process as efficient as possible, your portfolio is not going to be impressive.

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Let's check in with "yourself" for a minute here: if you are doing many things to make money at the same time right now, unless you're already extremely wealthy, my guess is that you're broke (or you're broke in comparison to where you could be by concentrating all of your attention on the one thing you do best).

In my opinion, only truly wealthy people earn the right to diversify their money and attention. Many people hand over their money to others to manage before they have gained the necessary experience to handle money themselves. I believe that you're only given the amount of money you can handle, anything more than that will go to someone else who can handle it better.

Some people may ask, "What if I choose the wrong thing, should I still stick to it?" How do you know if you have chosen the wrong thing? In my observation, you can't really choose the "wrong thing" to do, whatever you're doing right now is what you are meant to be doing, sometimes for a reason that you may not be aware of.

All things are neutral for everyone; it's only our perception that makes them right or wrong. There is really nothing wrong out there, we can pretty much pick up anything we feel passionate about and make good money from it. If you don't believe me, just take a look at who's making a fortune in doing what you're doing or what you would love to do.

By the way wondering, "Is this right for me?" normally occurs when we are only 10% away from making serious money. 90% of people give up when they're 90% of the way there, because the last 10% normally shows very little improvement for a long period of time and the silence is deafening! Just take a look at how many professional tennis and golf players never make it to the top 100. At this point, most people believe they have gone as far as they can and think it's time to move on and start something with "better potential" or "less competition".

The truth is that there is no "wrong thing" to do, there is only the wrong "me". If we keep walking away when we're 90% there, we haven't developed in ourselves the necessary attribute to go all the way to serious wealth. We remain the same person with the same capacity and our limitations will show up in our next "opportunity" again and again, when we once more quit at the last 10% of the battle and miss the chance to make serious money.

We've all heard the saying, "It's always hardest to make the first million". Of course it is…it takes time to make someone a "million dollar person" and it doesn't take much time for a "million dollar person" to make another million dollars.

After seeing so many people do well in different industries with different opportunities, I have come to a simple conclusion;

There is no "better opportunity" out there, there is only a better "me" in here. Do the best in whatever we are doing right here, right now and go all the way before we diversify our attention.

So the strategy to avoid wealth is: keep looking for better opportunities before you truly reap the rewards from the one you have started & keep doing many things at the same time hoping one of them will eventually work out.

Question:
Why would most people use this strategy, that doesn't create serious wealth, by default? The answer is obvious…when most of us get to the 90% mark and can't move forward quickly, it's a lot easier to blame our current circumstances such as our job, boss, workmates, industry, etc.

To say I don't have what it takes to make it work in my current circumstances and be willing to work on ourselves first, almost goes against human nature.

Most of us reach our personal capacity or the edge of our comfort zone when we're 90% there, and we back off before taking it all the way to make some serious money. Every time we back off from that last 10%, we plant a seed of doubt in our minds that we will ever make anything really happen at all. This becomes the main reason why so many people just can't get started with anything after a while, because they have tried so many things and feel they've failed in the past.

So going all the way to complete the last 10% can not only make us some serious money on our first attempt, it's also absolutely critical for that next opportunity, because you know that you have what it takes and you can make a quicker and more confident decision when the next opportunity comes along.

People who are not doing the best in what they are doing right now don't know that they are killing off their opportunity for future success little by little, every day, as their confidence erodes a bit more every time they know they didn't do their best.

How many of us change from job to job, profession to profession, business to business, opportunity to opportunity, spouse to spouse, and it has always been someone else's fault that we didn't make it. Really the only thing in common through all of those circumstances is us. Let's face it, what we don't like about others, we don't like about ourselves. What we say about others tells us a lot more about ourselves than them.

That's why it's a lot easier to stay poor and unsuccessful, whereas it takes a very strong individual to become wealthy and successful.

The day we decide to take responsibility for our current situation: our income, our net worth, our relationships, our opportunities, will be the day we are on our way to financial freedom. Until then nothing will set us free financially.

Yes, you hear me right, nothing, nothing at all; not our next opportunity, not our next boss, not our next job, not our next spouse, not our next business partner, not our next team, nothing.

We are the only thing that counts in the whole wealth creation process. When we become someone with more substance, better opportunities will present themselves to reflect this, not the other way around. Once we take full responsibility for our circumstances, we become the co-creator of our reality.

Final thought
Have you ever wondered why poor and unsuccessful people all have a To Do List, and rich and successful people all have a Not To Do List?

Once we take full responsibility for our financial situation, deciding what not to do is the next step to serious wealth. So, what is on your Not To Do List today?

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