It was 1975. Richard Simmons had big hair and dolphin shorts. Major high energy and those funky tank tops. He lost 123 pounds. He has kept it off for over 40 years because he was so inspired to teach the world how to live and be healthier.

It was 2004. Mark Zuckerberg was at Harvard. He didn’t need to lose any weight. He just had his grey hoodie and a passion to help people socially connect with one another online.

People buy what you believe. Not just what you sell.

Its 2012. You own your own business. You have pulled a “Richard Simmons” and cut costs. You’re running a lean business. You have less overhead. More of your sales are turning into profits, adding to your bottom line. You now have higher profit margins like Zuckerberg’s Facebook does.

Everything we hear and read today are that things are just ok with our economy. We have a gazillion people out of work and home prices are still trying to stabilize.

Ya think Zuckerberg and Simmons care about the economy? They are playing to win regardless of how bad things are. They have a burning desire to get their message out there. And we buy it, all day long. Why? Because we believe in what they do.

I believe that too many of us play defense in our businesses. We drive with our foot on the brake and not on the accelerator. Take it from me, I did that for 13 years! I could have had another bar Mitzvah in that time period! I cut back on my message, right when I should have stepped up to help people try and become financially independent.

It’s about time for us entrepreneurs to capitalize on why we left corporate America. To become financially independent, to do what we believe in, on our terms, and to make a difference out there.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 29th, 2012 at 10:30 pm and is filed under Business Building. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.