After having spent the bulk of my 20s being selfish, I’ve realized that helping others makes me happier than anything.
For the last 6 months unofficially, and the last month unofficially I’ve been coaching clients on how to live their best life and I can tell you that helping my coaching clients makes me happier than anything else.
As opposed to my life in corporate sales, where I sold mediocre products because I needed money, with coaching I’m selling something I believe in 1000% and I actually look forward to my coaching calls.
In fact my coaching calls are often the high point of my week.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not telling you to become a self-sacrificing martyr.
Money is and always will be my primary priority in business and it should be yours too.
As the always eloquent Lil’ Wayne aka says”
“I’ve got a stripper attitude, only money makes me move”
Because without revenue coming in your business will fail.
And then you can’t help yourself, your family, your friends or your clients.
But just because money is your primary priority in business doesn’t mean it should be your only priority.
In many sales jobs I worked, and often times quit, salesman we’re encouraged if not forced by management to view clients as an ATM.
To offer as little as possible and ask for as much as possible.
The metric was always new clients, new clients, new clients…
Because the old clients would get burned and churned.
And so would the salesmen for the matter.
I worked at one company that had an 80% turnover in staff from year to year.
The good thing is, when you run your own business, you control the entire sales process, from managing expectations to client service.
And in your business, money should be your primary priority, but happy clients should be a very close second.
Having revenue goals is great but so is having goals for how many people you can help.
One way to do that is to ask yourself, how many hundreds, thousands or even millions of people can you help over a lifetime.
Even if you can help 8 clients a month, for $1000 each, you can make six figures, and get the satisfaction of overdelivering and making your clients happy.
Because happiness is what it’s all about.
And happiness is the same emotion as love.
Whether it’s love for money, for a cheeseburger or for other people – when you feel love, you feel happy.
So why not structure your business around giving love to your clients, and receiving love and appreciation in return?
Not only do you make more money, but you get the gift of loving what you do, the gift of being happy.
And happiness is what it’s all about.
In all four areas of your life, your health, your wealth, your lifestyle, and your relationships, the logical end goal is always maximizing happiness.
If you’re feeling depressed, and you’re spending all night in your room, the best thing you can do for yourself is start helping others and get paid for the privilege.
Being in a depressed state is selfish and self sabotaging.
And I know, I suffered some serious depressed states in my lifetime.
And that’s not me trying to negate the pain, I know that pain very well and wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.
What I’m saying is that isolating yourself only makes you feel more depressed, and more unhappy.
Every single time I’ve chosen to be depressed, I also chose to isolate myself.
I told myself I didn’t have the energy to talk to anyone, and that in turn only made me feel worse.
When in fact, one of the best ways to boost your state is going out in helping others.
You can go from depressed to at least neutral in just one day of being of service.
And if you’re already happy, being of service in your business, and being paid for the privilege, will only make you happier.
The biggest problems in the world are health, wealth, relationships and lifestyle.
Each one of those verticals is a multitrillion dollar industry.
And every single one of the six billion people on this planet has problems in those areas, problems you can help solve.
When you pick the right service business for you, that solves the right problems, you get the twin gifts of wealth and happiness.
Because self esteem has two pillars: SUCCESS and SELF WORTH.
SUCCESS comes from competition and how well you’re doing compared to others.
SELF WORTH comes from cooperation, helping others, and feeling like a good person.
To maximize your happiness you need both and the right service business can do that for you.
Because without self worth, all the money in the world is just cold consolation.
As Jordan Belfort describes in his book, he had to do drugs all day to deal with the stress of his business.
This is because deep down he knew he was ripping people off and didn’t feel good about himself, even with hundreds of millions of dollars in the bank, he had to turn to narcotics to get through the day.
Chasing success at the expense of self worth will only end in a Pyrrhic victory.
Because you’re cheating yourself of one of life’s greatest joys, helping others.
If you’re unethical in business, you literally rob your emotional bank account to pay your financial bank account, which destroys the whole purpose of having money in the first place.
Because money is merely a tool for maximizing happiness.
So start living a life of service and reap the twin benefits and getting paid for the value you add, but also for the privilege of being able to help others.
Not only will you be happier for it, but so will your friends, family and clients.
And lastly if you need help building or optimizing a business that makes you happier and wealthier through a life of service, check out my peak performance coaching program.
