Freedom or Security?
An article by Jim Connolly 
In life you get the opportunity to choose between two routes; the route to freedom or the route to security.

If you choose security, you ALWAYS lose both!

Success is nothing more than freedom; freedom of choice, freedom from fear, freedom to live where you want, freedom to go where you want and freedom to be who you want. Although freedom is the cornerstone of a successful life, very few people embrace the route to freedom. Instead, they take the route to ‘security’, which is why the vast majority of the population work all their lives and retire broke, on a small fixed income.

For example, look at what happens when ‘the average person’ decides to invest their money.  A high street bank will offer them a ‘secure’ way to invest BUT pay them a very low rate of return (known as poverty rates).  The bank then invests this person’s hard earned money properly and makes 500% or 1000% profit!  Ironically, the average person’s desire for security is actually what stops them from ever becoming secure!

The great paradox of life is that the road to security is actually the least secure route! 

I spoke with a chap once who joined a steel company when he left school and stayed with that same company his whole working life.  He told me how he bought a small house when he met his wife, before having it repossessed 5 years later, when the company lost a major contract and put all their employees on part-time hours for almost a year.  His salary throughout his career was too low for him to save; so his entire adult life was spent just above the poverty line and he had nothing invested for his retirement.  I asked him why he stayed working with the same company for 40 years, under such bad conditions. 
“Job security of course!” was his reply.

I am not suggesting that you should take unnecessary risks in your business or your life.  What  I am saying, is that you should look at both sides of a decision and not just the potential cost if it all went wrong.  You see, even with the best opportunities in life, there is always the possibility for something to go wrong. If you focus too heavily on the potential pitfalls, your natural instinct will be to do nothing. 

You have to avoid this mindset because it is the hallmark of every single person and business on the lower rungs of the success ladder. They focus so much on what could go wrong, that they decide to ‘leave things as they are’ or ‘just hope things will get better’.  As a direct result, they miss every worthwhile opportunity that comes their way!

The truth is that things don’t ‘just get better’ – WE have to MAKE them better!

The road to security is all about fear
Those who embrace it spend their entire life making decisions, based on what they fear – not what they want.

The road to freedom is all about success
Those who embrace it spend their entire life making decisions based on what they want – not what they fear.

By the way, if you thought that the need for security only ruined the futures of the unemployed and those at the bottom rung of the employment ladder you would be wrong! I speak with consultants and business owners regularly, who have seen their turnover and profits either reach a plateau or start to fall.  In many cases this plateau has been damaging their business for many months (sometimes years), yet they decide to do nothing about it.  They moan about feeling unrewarded, they claim they want to become successful; however, they just carry on making the same mistakes and hope things will 'just get better.'

Why?

Because they would rather slowly go broke than leave their current ‘secure’ route and get expert help from someone who knows exactly what they need to do in order to achieve success!

For example; a small accountancy firm joined my sales & marketing coaching program. This worked extremely well for them and I helped them generate almost £150,000 in new business. 

Afterwards, the senior partner asked me if I would help him acquire (buy out) one of his local competitors.  I wrote to the local competitor and received a telephone call from their senior partner.  During the call, he told me that he had considered joining my coaching program several years earlier, and that had he known then, what he knew now, he certainly would have.  Instead, he became an employee of his one-time competitor!

The first accountant joined my program because he focused on what he wanted (freedom).

The second accountant decided not to, because he focused on what he feared (security).

In both cases, each accountant got EXACTLY what they focused on!
(For information on my Marketing Program, click here)

After a lifelong study into human potential, the late great Earl Nightingale told us that; “we become what we think about.”  He explained that the dominant thoughts we hold in our mind are what determine our future.  This explains why so many of the world's wealthiest people never graduated from a university and why the streets are filled with what the former American President Calvin Coolidge referred to as 'educated derelicts.'  The person who focuses on fear will attract fear and the person who focuses on success will attract success.

The answer
The answer to the freedom / security puzzle is both simple and universal.

Whenever you find yourself making a decision, always check that you are making that decision because it’s the right thing to do and not simply because it's the easy thing to do.

Why not take a look at your business and your life and ask yourself if you are making key decisions based on what’s easiest (the secure route) or what’s most valuable (the freedom route)?

If you want to achieve total success in any area of your business or your life, there is absolutely nothing stopping you; providing you get the expert help you need.  Everything you need in order to make a million (or another million) is out there; but only those who embrace the route to freedom are able to see it.

To your success,

Jim Connolly
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