Nothing In Life Is Free… Even The Free Stuff

In Affiliate Marketing | 12 comments | permalink

How much do you want to earn per year? What is your yearly goal?

What I want you to do is write that figure down, remove the last three zeros, and then half it. You now have your approx value for one hour of your time. I want you to write this number down, and put in a place where you can see it every day.

You see, you will NEVER reach your goal if you have the mindset of someone earning a lot less.

The Differences In Mindset

Check out this difference in mindset between myself and Elena’s mother:

A couple of weeks ago I was at a family meal, and Elena’s mother excitedly told us that she had a coupon for a free 6 euro ($8) breakfast at a shopping centre approx 10 mins from our house. We declined the offer, and she persisted to tell us that “we should go, it is free”, and “we are crazy, why would we refuse something that is free?!?”.

Anyway, we declined once more, and then happened to be passing the shopping centre the following day, and low and behold there was a HUGE line of people waiting for their free breakfast.

By our estimation, it would be at least 30 mins wait in the line.

You Cannot Be Serious!

Now I gotta confess, this totally blew me away… I just couldn’t get my head around the fact that these people were using up their valuable time to stand in a line, especially when all they were getting in return was a small breakfast.

Perhaps this sounds a little strange, so let’s look at some of the math:

* Time taken to get ready & drive to the store, park etc… (20 mins)

* Time taken in line (30 mins)

* Time taken waiting for your food in a vastly overcrowded and understaffed cafe (20 mins)

* Additional money spent on drinks and extras ($10)

* Time to drive home (10 mins)

Ok, so it would actually use 1 hr 20 mins of our time, and at least an additional $10.

Comparison

So what I want you to do is to use the hourly value figure from earlier, is that figure higher than the $8 you would save for this “free” breakfast? My guess is that it will be substantially higher.

Listen, I am from a poor background, I was brought up in a working class family, and now I travel the world and spend a LOT of time, both personally and professionally with multi-millionaires and hugely successful people, so it is easy for me to see the differences between the mindsets of the rich and the poor.

Let’s look at the breakfast scenario from a different angle… if someone offered you $8 to stand in a line for them for over 30 mins, would you?

I wouldn’t.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying you shouldn’t do anything in life unless it earns you a ton of cash, heck, I play video games every week… but there are certain things in life that should be outsourced, avoided or ignored. This was certainly one of them.

From my experience the difference between and rich and poor mindset is the single main reason why the poor stay poor and the rich get richer.

Right, I am off for breakfast ;-)

Dean

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12 COMMENTS

  • http://www.AskMrVideo.com Mr Video

    This is AWESOME Dean. It puts into perspective the value of time and how much of it is wasted – without even realizing. Mindset is something I’ve been working on for a while now. Its starting to pay off but its been a challenge to move from ‘hourly’ to ‘true value’.

    Current score: 0
  • http://www.AskMrVideo.com Mr Video

    Of course this is for a 4 hour work week. Taking the last zero off your “number” brings you to a 40/hr work week.

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  • http://deanhunt.com Dean Hunt

    Hi Perry,

    Good to hear from you bud.

    Yes, you are right, I have edited it. The irony is that I got the formula from the ’4 hour work-week’ book.

    Speak soon.

    Dean

    Current score: 0
  • http://www.claimyourpowernow.com/dallas Lisa

    Dean,

    This is great. Very simple to see when put in play in a real life situation. The mindset / paradigm is a powerful shift to overcome for many.

    If it is okay with you I would love to use your blog for our Champions Club. Right now with the ‘recession mindset’ prevalent, we need a reminder to get that millionaire mindset back in focus.

    And by the way…love your new logo design…
    See you at the next Mastermind in Austin!
    Chicken Shit Bingo here we come!

    Lisa Johnson

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  • http://deanhunt.com Dean Hunt

    Lisa,

    Great to speak to you and Vic in Washington, and yes, Austin is going to be great.

    I will email you ref the ‘Champions Club’

    Thanks for the kind words.

    Dean

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  • http://www.payoffyourmortgagein8yearsorless.co.uk Diane

    Well this comes straight out the concept of challenging what the vast majority think.

    I played Robert Kiyosaki’s Cashflow 101 board game with my Mother in Law one evening, she was OBSESSED with the Pay Day! Not only that when we took her on vacation to Florida, she became equally obsessed with discount vouchers off breakfasts at the local Sizzler. She would rattle everywhere we went with the FREE mints and I think she must have spent every spare evening cutting out coupons, she had one for everything.

    Perhaps it’s a generation thing? Who knows, but I know someone who swears by If You Look After The Pennies The Pounds Take Care of Themselves. D’ya think?

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  • http://deanhunt.com Dean Hunt

    Diane,

    That was what I was brought up to believe, but every truly successful person I know thinks differently.

    Watching the pennies is a way for poor people to be slightly less poor.

    Do you think entrepreneurs, risk takers and high flying business people got to where they are today by watching the pennies and taking the low-cost and safe options?

    99.99% of people have this mentality, but perhaps that is what 99.99% are not in the elite when it comes to money and success.

    Just my 2c, feel free to save them for a rainy day if you wish.

    Dean

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  • http://www.myvirtualpartner.com/blog Deborah Carraro

    Many people often forget to examine the opportunity cost of free offers or really any kind of offer. Think about all the entrepreneurs out there who insist on doing it all themselves and waste a lot of time doing so. I know of someone who spent 40 hours trying to learn HTML and still couldn’t master enough to build a simple squeeze page. He was charging $250 / hour for his business coaching and yet didn’t grasp the concept of opportunity cost and outsource his HTML requirements.

    Thanks for the reminder.

    Deborah

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  • http://www.canadianguitarplayer.com mark

    I guess I have to make an admission here. I’m just stupid worrying about getting stuff for free or at a very low price.

    For what? I’ve got a dirt poor persons mindset.
    i can rightly admit it.

    That has to change.

    Thanks,

    Mark in Canada

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  • http://www.InternetMarketingSpeed.com James

    If you do what everyone else does you will get what everyone else gets…

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  • http://noneyet alvin

    did you read the 4 hour work week? or are you a student of dan kennedy? if not both.
    i love this blog

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  • http://deanhunt.com Dean Hunt

    Alvin,

    I read it yes, and I know Dan Kennedy and Bill Glazer well. I am speaking at one of their events in January (1,300 people)

    Should be fun.

    Dean

    Current score: 0