To focus on money or to not focus on money...If you're ballin with cash, please read.

[Errol Santos]

I've noticed a pattern with succesful people. And that pattern is they don't really care about money and really care of getting their service/product to the customers and them being happy. Here's a few examples


#1 - Steve Jobs book Biography. I don't remember this word for word because I read it a while back but if anyone knows the exact words please correct me. But he said something like this. "When I was 21 I was worth 1 million, Age 22 I was worth 10 million, Age 23 I was worth 100 million, but it didn't matter because I never really did it for the money"


#2 - I was watching a Bill Gates interview yesterday, he was talking about his goal when he first started. And his goal was to put a computer in every home and offce. You notice how it doesn't say that he wanted to earn X amount of money each year.


#3 - Book: The Sedona Method by Joe Vitale. This will be word for word from the book.
"Years ago, Scrully Blotnick conducted a study of 1,500 people. They were put into two categories: Category A said they would pursue money first and do what they really wanted to do later. Over 1,245 people went into that group. Category B, made up of 255 people, said they would seek their interests first, and trust that money would follow later.
What Happened?
Twenty years later, there were 101 millionaires from the entire group. Only one came from group A. The remaining 100 millionaires all came from group B, the group that said they would pursue their passions first and let money come later. Right there is another clue on how to attract money.
Where is your focus—on money or passion?"


#4 - Steve Pavlina recently. He's been blogging about creating value instead of getting a job. Which means focus on giving rather than making the moolah.


I could go on forever with examples like this but I was just thinking about all of it recently...Whenver I make a goal to make X amount of dollars a month. I would make crap for that month. When I didn't care and did whatever. I would seem to earn more money. It feels like when I play video games all day or go out, then come home, I would have more sales by not thinking about sales. In all my business ventures. I've always made just ENOUGH to get by...Pay the bills and eat decent. Which I'm happy with because I don't have to do the whole job thing or 9 to 5 or whatever you wanna call those time wasters. And it's like that right now. Just earning enough in my business to get by. So my question is instead of focusing on making X amount per month. What should I focus on? Right now what I do is I compose music for rappers and singers. Should I focus on getting more plays? Page views? Should I focus on getting music in the hands of rappers and singers? Maybe this is going to one of the first steps in business which is knowing who your target market is. I remember reading an old post by Steve Pavlina about dark workers and light workers. And I have to admit I am a dark worker. I am an all about the money person. I am an all about me person. But at the same time I would never rip people off and I'm a win/win type of person. So don't think I'm evil. lol. But it feels good when I make money when I sell music. People give me compliments all the time saying things like "You're music is so good, I love your music" or things like that and honestly, if I had to choose money or compliments I'd take the money.
The reason I sell music now is because of example #3 up there. And I'm glad I am doing this. I make music as a passion, but the reason I take time to post them up, do contracts that take 20-30 mins. Answer emails, text, phone calls. Is for the money. So when broke rappers come up to me asking for a free beat and I say no they say something like "So it's all about the money isn't it?" My response is "Hell yes it is".

So basically, I think I shouldn't focus on money. So what should I focus on? Creating value like Steve Pavlina said? That's cool But I like Bill Gates approach where his goal seems to be definite. Like in "Think and Grow Rich" They say you have to have an EXACT amount desired. So "creating value" is cool but, what's something more exact that I can focus on with my music?

Thank you all for reading this long post

Errol Santos

[Elenny]

Originally Posted by Errol Santos

And I don't know if this is rude but If you're gonna give me advice can you please BE the part I'm asking for or actually be a person making some money. The one thing I dislike about forums is people can just read books and not do what is taught, then go out preaching.

I was going to thank you for your post and give you some advice, but after reading the quoted paragraph, I don't want to sound "preachy".

[Errol Santos]

Hey, I didn't realize how bad it was til you pointed it out . I went ahead and removed it. Sorry.

[magi13]

Some people get lucky, that's not just a pattern. ^^, some are really born rich.

Just do your best and make most of the situation

[Jonathan Browne]

What I think you should do is support some rapper/singers (like myself) and team up with them and try to make it BIG. The real money comes from producing something that actually becomes a hit not just selling beats to people who never go anywhere with their music.

That said, you have some good beats.

Check out my music at MySpace.com - The 5 Percenters - NEW BEDFORD, Massachusetts - Rap / Crunk / Hardcore - www.myspace.com/mykblaze

[AlexG]

After going through some wild inner personal chaos I have come to conclusion.

Focus on becoming the best in your chosen niche, your chosen field.

Whatever you passion, your obsession is, focus on how you can become the best in that. The rest will come.

Its catch 22.

What most successful people who you mentioned have is an obsession in their chosen field/niche.

[amj]

If you enjoy making music, then make music. If the money is good, then keep doing what you are doing. If you want more money from making music, there's always ways to do that.

You said that broke rappers want free beats. I understand your frustration but think about this; Lil' Wayne got HUGE from doing free mixtapes. Free is the key word. People were (and still are) able to listen to his newest music for free. Once people heard it and liked it, they anticipated his next mixtape. It seemed that he kept getting better and better on each mixtape. Next thing you know, he's getting paid big money to be featured on other artist's songs. And look at him now!

My point is this; work hard at what you love, get really really really good at what you love, and get your product out to as many people as possible. If it's for free, then so be it. Or you can charge $100, $50, or whatever price is reasonable for you or your customers who want it free.

If you were at a stop light and heard your music being played in the car next to you, how good would you feel? Even if you gave that beat away for free, it would still feel great wouldn't it?

More and more people will ask about getting beats from you if you are good enough. That's when you up the price. But don't expect to get big bucks if you aren't the BEST at your craft. People will only pay top dollar for a great product. Hope this helped

Originally Posted by Errol Santos

I've noticed a pattern with succesful people. And that pattern is they don't really care about money and really care of getting their service/product to the customers and them being happy. Here's a few examples


#1 - Steve Jobs book Biography. I don't remember this word for word because I read it a while back but if anyone knows the exact words please correct me. But he said something like this. "When I was 21 I was worth 1 million, Age 22 I was worth 10 million, Age 23 I was worth 100 million, but it didn't matter because I never really did it for the money"


#2 - I was watching a Bill Gates interview yesterday, he was talking about his goal when he first started. And his goal was to put a computer in every home and offce. You notice how it doesn't say that he wanted to earn X amount of money each year.


#3 - Book: The Sedona Method by Joe Vitale. This will be word for word from the book.
"Years ago, Scrully Blotnick conducted a study of 1,500 people. They were put into two categories: Category A said they would pursue money first and do what they really wanted to do later. Over 1,245 people went into that group. Category B, made up of 255 people, said they would seek their interests first, and trust that money would follow later.
What Happened?
Twenty years later, there were 101 millionaires from the entire group. Only one came from group A. The remaining 100 millionaires all came from group B, the group that said they would pursue their passions first and let money come later. Right there is another clue on how to attract money.
Where is your focus—on money or passion?"


#4 - Steve Pavlina recently. He's been blogging about creating value instead of getting a job. Which means focus on giving rather than making the moolah.


I could go on forever with examples like this but I was just thinking about all of it recently...Whenver I make a goal to make X amount of dollars a month. I would make crap for that month. When I didn't care and did whatever. I would seem to earn more money. It feels like when I play video games all day or go out, then come home, I would have more sales by not thinking about sales. In all my business ventures. I've always made just ENOUGH to get by...Pay the bills and eat decent. Which I'm happy with because I don't have to do the whole job thing or 9 to 5 or whatever you wanna call those time wasters. And it's like that right now. Just earning enough in my business to get by. So my question is instead of focusing on making X amount per month. What should I focus on? Right now what I do is I compose music for rappers and singers. Should I focus on getting more plays? Page views? Should I focus on getting music in the hands of rappers and singers? Maybe this is going to one of the first steps in business which is knowing who your target market is. I remember reading an old post by Steve Pavlina about dark workers and light workers. And I have to admit I am a dark worker. I am an all about the money person. I am an all about me person. But at the same time I would never rip people off and I'm a win/win type of person. So don't think I'm evil. lol. But it feels good when I make money when I sell music. People give me compliments all the time saying things like "You're music is so good, I love your music" or things like that and honestly, if I had to choose money or compliments I'd take the money.
The reason I sell music now is because of example #3 up there. And I'm glad I am doing this. I make music as a passion, but the reason I take time to post them up, do contracts that take 20-30 mins. Answer emails, text, phone calls. Is for the money. So when broke rappers come up to me asking for a free beat and I say no they say something like "So it's all about the money isn't it?" My response is "Hell yes it is".

So basically, I think I shouldn't focus on money. So what should I focus on? Creating value like Steve Pavlina said? That's cool But I like Bill Gates approach where his goal seems to be definite. Like in "Think and Grow Rich" They say you have to have an EXACT amount desired. So "creating value" is cool but, what's something more exact that I can focus on with my music?

Thank you all for reading this long post

Errol Santos

[Dreamline]

If you have no real value to offer society, then your only choice is to go for the money.

Those people you mentioned had huge value to offer the world and the world beat a path to their door. The money just happened. But if they were flipping burgers instead of donating their billions that wouldn't fit into their piggy banks, I bet their quotes would sound different. In their cases, they don't have to even entertain thinking that way. So they probably aren't good examples.

Someone who is at that equillibrium state between it being about the money or about the passion and value would be better to seek advice from.

But judging by your title, you really only want to hear from people who will support and verify your position...tell you what you want to hear, so to speak, so you really need to chat with your club, not a forum which is, by definition, an open opinion group.

Jennifer

[sirkinm]

Originally Posted by Elenny

I was going to thank you for your post and give you some advice, but after reading the quoted paragraph, I don't want to sound "preachy".

Even if it came off a little harsh, I think it's legit to call out all of the armchair experts in forums. I've sometimes wanted to make the request "Please keep your speculation to yourself if you have no actual experience doing [fill-in-the-blank]." I've especially gotten a lot of advice re: how to make money, how to best publish yourself, etc., from people who have nothing to show for their own efforts.

[Dreamline]

So you want us to brag first, perhaps download a CV to make sure we have the right to offer advice in this thread?

That's balls...

I don't brag.

Jennifer

[sirkinm]

Originally Posted by Dreamline

I don't brag.

What do you call that then?

No, it's just that it's often unhelpful and misleading when someone becomes adamant about a certain position -- say, the superiority of traditional print over electronic print -- and then it comes to light that they have little experience in either.

Have you seen that Dennis Quaid movie where the airplane lands in a dessert, and the mismatched passengers have to group together to rebuild it, with the aviation engineer taking the lead. And then [spoiler alert] (highlight the following area to see text): They find out that the engineer's experience is only designing toy planes!! It's kinda like that

[Talkofthatown919]

If you do whatever you choose just for the money you will most likely not enjoy it and let alone get rich.

[Dreamline]

What do you call that then?

No, it's just that it's often unhelpful and misleading when someone becomes adamant about a certain position -- say, the superiority of traditional print over electronic print -- and then it comes to light that they have little experience in either.

That's why advice is only advice.

One hopefully uses their discernment and decides what makes the most sense when evaluating other's advice.

See, the thing about only accepting advice from people that have 'been there' is that it narrows your field of potential advice greatly and cuts out completely the knowledge of people that have perhaps friends or siblings that have succeeded or have a ton of education in a particular area but never sought that particular limelight for themselves. Like a record producer can tell you a ton about music and the music business but he may not have ever been a musician.

For me, the bottom line and major crux of my life is enjoyment. Gaining for my own sake but also for the sake of others. I have no beef with money but I have to have fun. Choosing something that was only about money would probably require me to sacrifice an aspect of my life that is frankly more important than money.

But if money makes you happy, go for it.

Jennifer

[ns123]

I am financially comfortable. I don't own a million dollar house though, but I am very comfortable. And I'm very happy with my financial state in life. So maybe I can offer a perspective... though I'm not going to prove to anyone that I actually am financially well... since that term is relative anyway.

Moving on...

When I chose my profession, it was because I knew I could make a LOT of money in it. It was pure greed. I wanted to be rich (not Bill Gates rich). But I wanted to be financially independent. In the middle of my profession, I realized, chasing the dollar didn't bring me happiness, that adding value did. I was more happy when I made a difference, that what I did helped some one... so I began to balance my jobs salary-wise to the amount of difference I could make.

So some one's motives can be pure greed... but once you have a certain level of money, many people start to realize what truly fulfills them is not the money in itself, it's helping others and adding value.

Right now, I'm at a level where I'm very happy with the level of money I make for the value I add. I could make more money, but it would not fulfill me the way I have discovered I deeply need.

So I hope that helps clarifies things. Some times, greed is a good motivator. But most people, once they reach a certain financial level realize that the money alone isn't all it's cut out to be. But you don't realize this until you have made that "certain financial level."