I have two pictures hanging in my office.
The first is a painting of trilliums. It was done by a famous local artist, Doug Hook. I grew up with Doug’s son. Doug’s pretty old now, but he’s still alive, and his art is expensive. Hanging a Hook print in your office means that you can afford the best.
The other picture is a photograph: a hockey team of 11-year-old girls with my daughter Avery in the center. Their jerseys say “Catalyst” on them. They’re all sweaty and smiling, fingers set in the “we’re number one” sign, celebrating some win. You can see in their eyes that they think, “This is it, we’ve made it to the peak of life.” And they might be right.
A Doug Hook painting on your wall means you’ve made a lot of money.
A pic of your kid’s team–that you can afford to sponsor–means you’ve made it.
One of my first conversations with Sherman Merricks (owner of Dynasty CrossFit and Two-Brain mentor-in-training) is one of my all-time favorites.
I asked about Sherman’s financial goals. He said,
“I want my wife to walk into a store and buy any dress she wants without looking at the price tag.”
The reason Sherman and I want to be successful is because our income goals were set to support our lifestyle goals.
Every December, entrepreneurs in the TwoBrain family set five goals in five categories:
Lifestyle Education Travel Service …and Income.
Income is last, because it depends on the others:
Where do you want to travel next year? What will that cost? What will you learn? What will the education cost? Who will you serve? What will that cost?
My service goal includes helping youth through sport. Volunteering to coach a local hockey team creates a perfect backdrop for life mentoring. It gives me an excuse to tell them they’re awesome; to buy them cool stuff; and to share their wins.
But without profit, none of that happens. And that’s why I run profitable businesses.
I DO buy stuff for myself–like the Doug Hook print. But that’s not my goal–that’s just the happy leftovers.
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