The word positioning means to be well placed in a path of opportunity, ready and able to harvest, extract, and leverage opportunities when they show up. This means that positioning that creates wealth involves three things: a path where opportunities flow, your position on that path and your ability to extract and leverage opportunities when they show up. Thus, for positioning to work for you, something of value must be flowing your way.
Thankfully, one of the resources that flow our way is money. Money is in constant circulation because the moment it enters your hand, it is ready to either leave or stay. When it leaves, it enters the central money circulation system, ready to be extracted by someone else who is well-positioned for it. When it stays, it remains with you as savings until you decide whether to invest it or lose it. Thus, if you spend 90% of your income every month on expenses, you are losing 90% of your money back into circulation.
While we all must lose money back into circulation to keep life going, money lost into circulation does not make you rich. It is money harvested from circulation, saved, and well invested that leads to your own freedom. Thus, unless your money harvesting abilities exceed your money-losing abilities you will not achieve financial freedom. When you contribute money into the system more than you harvest you are hustling. But when you harvest more money than you contribute you are positioning.
So, what is the difference between Hustling and Positioning for wealth?
The Difference between hustling and positioning
Hustling is the constant grind of pursuing money because you are losing more money by putting back into circulation than you are getting out. Positioning is being in the path of opportunity flow and having a system to harvest more money than you lose. To illustrate this concept, let me use an example. Imagine for example that I give you the task to catch 1000 butterflies. Butterflies are a species of animals that are in constant motion just like money. So, let’s see the different ways you can achieve your goal. Your first strategy may be to catch the butterflies by hand.
To do this, you will have to pursue them one after another. Yet, butterflies have an advantage that you do not have—they can fly and are faster moving than you. Thus, if you choose this strategy, you will wear yourself out by the time you have caught only 100 of them. This is what hustling looks like, and what 80% of working professionals are doing. They are pursuing a fast-paced moving item—money, wasting time, and catching only a few.
Ok, let’s look at another strategy that you may use. Perhaps you decide to use a net instead. This strategy will help you catch more butterflies, but the method is still the same. You will have to pursue the butterflies and maybe you could catch 500. What if you decide to hire 100 people to each catch 10 butterflies instead? This looks like a better strategy, but the people will still have to pursue the butterflies. At the end of the day, you may achieve your goal, but you will be adding cost and stress to the equation.
So, what then is the best strategy?
The best strategy is to position and not pursue. Whenever you are dealing with something that has the advantage of speed over you, the best strategy is not to pursue it. Pursuing will always keep the thing ahead of you. The best strategy is to go ahead of it and position in front of it for an easy catch. When you position, you can achieve your goals faster, with little time, workload, and cost.
So, how do you catch your 1000 butterflies?
To catch the 1000 butterflies, all you need to do is to first answer the question. What do Butterflies want or love? Butterflies love flowers and are attracted to beautiful gardens. Adult butterflies get their energy from nectar contained in the flowers in a garden. Thus, rather than pursue butterflies, you simply focus on building a beautiful garden and then position the garden where they can never miss it. Once the garden is set, all you must do is set a trap for the catch and then take a seat, grab a cup of coffee, and see your 1000 butterflies flow into your trap of their own accord. This seems to be what the wealthy people are doing and why hustlers can never be successful.
So, if positioning is the answer, how do you position for wealth?
To position for wealth, you need to do three things.
1. Focus on people
People are the means through which money moves. Money does not have legs, so the only way money moves is through people. This means that you must do something for the people that already have the money to get it. And the only thing that will allow them to give you their money is when you solve a problem for them. Problem solvers, also known as business owners, are the wealthiest people in the world. Without the ability to solve problems, especially high-income ones you cannot increase your income or achieve financial freedom. The more measurable, specific, and unique the problem you solve, the more money you will make. People are the real wealth in circulation, and not money. And they are also the real answers to your more money problem. The truth is all the money you want and will ever need is already in the hands of somebody else. But the only way to get it is to solve a problem for them. Thus, the more people you can solve problems for, the more money you will make. Sadly, employees are stuck with one employer, and until you can solve problems for other employers outside your main employer, your chance of achieving financial freedom is slim.
2. Choose a proven path to wealth
To create wealth, you must choose a path where wealth is already circulating as not all paths lead to wealth. Some paths can only help you get by. For example, the path of a teacher is different from the path of an entrepreneur. While the entrepreneur’s path has been proven to produce many millionaires, the teacher’s path has no such capacity. Thus, the path you choose is important as far as wealth is concerned. Also, within a path not all places and positions are profitable. For example, research shows that 70% of businesses die after the first five years even though they are on a proven wealth path. This means that you must choose a profitable position and place for success to happen within a path. So how do you position in a given path? There are three things you must do.
The first is to choose a unique position. Your position on a path is what differentiates you from others on the same path. You must be unique and different to stand out. The second thing you must do is to choose a unique place. Your place on a path is the unique category you have carved out for yourself. For example, Apple is in the phone niche market. But the design of Apple phones and their features puts it in a different category from its competitors. The third thing is your solution, which is the uniqueness of how you solve the problem. If people are going to give you any money, you must solve the problem in a unique way.
3. Create your own wealth garden
To position and not pursue wealth you must create your own wealth garden. A wealth garden is a center of resources that benefits and attracts other people. To create your own wealth garden, you need to do three things. The first is to develop a strong personal brand. Money does not flow to you when you are a Nobody. Money flows to you when you have built a name. Who are you and what would we find when we Google your name? If your name does not ring a bell you would struggle to create wealth or extract maximum wealth from the system. The second thing you must do is own and control valuable assets. If people are going to come to you, they will come because you have certain assets that they can benefit from, leverage on, use, buy, borrow or share. When you own and control valuable assets you become a natural magnet for the people that need those assets. The third thing you must do is to have valuable relational capital. Relational capital is the ability to pull people, firms, or institutions together for wealth creation purposes. Since money flows through people, the more people, capacities, and resources you can pull together for mutual benefit, the larger the wealth you will create.
But how do you do all these you may ask?
The simple answer I can give you is to focus on the part of you that can give you the greatest wealth leverage. There are three parts of you-the physical you, the Mental you and the spiritual you. To create maximum wealth, you must focus on developing your mental capacities (Creativity and Skills) and spiritual capacities (Identity and Alignment of Purpose) more than you do your physical energy. Hustling simply means that your physical body is doing most of the work and this is the fastest way to end up with a pile of medical bills in retirement. To create wealth and preserve your health at the same time, you must focus on working your mental and spiritual energy more than your physical energy. This is the only way to separate your income from physical work.
