Having reviewed the numbers of our five years in expediting, it is as clear to me as the sun in the sky that a one-truck (straight or semi), husband/wife expediting team with a good work ethic, clean record and ordinary ability, can, in 20 years or less, build a net worth of one million dollars; by setting that as their goal, acquiring the necessary skills, making certain lifestyle commitments, adopting certain business practices and using their expediting earnings to achieve it.
Having reviewed the numbers of our five years in expediting, it is as clear to me as the sun in the sky that a one-truck (straight or semi), husband/wife expediting team with a good work ethic, clean record and ordinary ability, can, in 20 years or less, build a net worth of one million dollars; by setting that as their goal, acquiring the necessary skills, making certain lifestyle commitments, adopting certain business practices and using their expediting earnings to achieve it.
Some will dismiss this view as pie in the sky or seeing things through rose-colored glasses. While such figures of speech are easy to use, the numbers make the stronger case. When I look at the numbers, it does not surprise me that a goal-oriented team can earn their way to a million-dollar net worth. It does surprise me that so few teams set out to do it.
Perhaps it is not that millionaire-oriented expediter teams are wearing rose-colored glasses. Perhaps it is that others are wearing blinders that keep the million-dollar possibility from seeming real or the required effort from seeming worth it.
Indeed, in the EO Open Forum, the mention of above-average financial results in expediting moves certain people to respond with mockery, disdain, personal attacks and/or jealous rage. Others are quick to warn that a million-dollar net worth is unwise to hope for, and they are quite convinced it cannot be done.
I say it can. While it is true that some teams cannot do it, it is not true that all teams cannot. In other words, some teams can. I also say a happy and optimistic outlook is more profitable and fun to maintain than a grumpy and pessimistic one. Given a choice between rose-colored glasses and blinders, I’ll choose the rose-colored glasses every time.
That would lead some to suggest that the realistic view — the objective and clear view that lies between rose-colored and blind — is best. I agree. And that leads me straight back to my experienced-based, numbers-based, million-dollar conclusion.
Most team expediters have not paused to seriously consider a million-dollar goal. I believe that is due more to a lack of vision than a lack of opportunity. Before you can work your way to a million dollars, you have to see your way to a million dollars. If more expediting teams saw it was possible, and saw how, more would set out to do it.
It is like discovering a new route that you wish you had known before. For years you take the same road through an area. Then something happens that forces you to reconsider your present ways. It might be a construction detour or a wrong turn. It might be a pickup or delivery at a new location in the area. Something leads you to discover a route that was there all the time but you did not previously see. The new way helps you avoid tolls, congestion and saves miles. Now that you know about it, you use it all the time and wonder why you did not see it before.
As it is with trip planning, so too it may be with expediting goals. It is not that a better route was not there. It is that you did not see it. It is not that you were prohibited from or incapable of taking the better way. It is that you were not looking for a better way. You were not looking for a better way because you already believed you knew the best way.
That is not to say that all expediting teams should have a million-dollar goal. I am not saying that at all. For expediters that have non-monetary goals, have big home-time or free-time goals, or believe that becoming a millionaire will somehow degrade one’s quality of life or moral standing on this earth, theirs is the better way for them.
But there are at least a few expediting teams out there that have a million-dollar goal. For them, the worst case is not that a negative event would prematurely end their expediting career. It would be to complete an expediting career and have little to show for it. Their goal is not about money as an end in itself. It is about focusing our efforts today for financial freedom tomorrow.
While some teams do not have what it takes to build a million-dollar net worth, there are some that do. The goal is specific and easily understood. While certain facts must be accepted and skills possessed to achieve the goal, there is nothing hidden or mysterious about it. If the desire and work ethic are present, the facts and skills can be learned by a team of ordinary ability. And most important, the mindset can be developed to make it happen.
The effort required to become a millionaire expediting team is no greater than the effort required to work hard and have little to show for it at career end. It’s not just about staying out and getting good loads. It’s about being always mindful of your goal and making the moment-by-moment choices that help you achieve it.
In other words, it is as much a mindset as it is anything else. It is a mindset that requires the patience and self-confidence to lean into it day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year. In good times or bad, it is a mindset that makes decisions based on their ability to carry you toward the goal, and not on the pleasures, ease, or seemingly-good other opportunities of the moment. That is not to say you never take a vacation or consider a different venture. It is to say your down time and opportunities are considered in light of your declared goals.
The million-dollar mindset pushes you through obstacles that may have stopped you before. Have you avoided starting a business before because you are not good with numbers? That stops some people dead in their tracks.
The million-dollar mindset does not allow you to give up on yourself so easy. It will instead allow you to believe that, just maybe, you can go to Wal-Mart, buy a children’s math book, and teach yourself how to add, subtract, multiply and divide well enough to run a one-truck expedite business. It will take some time and effort, but the million-dollar mindset will change the way you talk to yourself. Instead of saying, “I can’t do math.” you will say, “If a kid can do this stuff, so can I. And I’m going to push myself through it because knowing math is required to achieve my million-dollar goal.
“Do you shy away from starting an expedite business because you fear failure or fear you will make mistakes that will lead you to fail? That stops some people dead in their tracks. Again, the million-dollar mindset does not allow you to give up on yourself so easily. Instead of stopping when fear rises, the million-dollar mindset will motivate you to take a deeper look at yourself to figure out what is really going on. You will ask, “What is it really that I fear and why?” You will see that most expedite failures are attributable to a small number of causes, and that by knowing the causes, you can take steps to avoid and fear them no more.
Do you decide against starting an expedite business because you lack the financial reserves people say you should have before you begin? Once again, that would stop some people in their tracks. But the million-dollar mindset will not accept “I don’t have any money” as an excuse. It will instead lead you to see that money can be accumulated by changing your behavior. And it will give you the desire and discipline to do so.
It is long, the list of reasons people shy away from starting an expediting business. And in many cases, the items on the list are legitimate and good; such as kids at home, an ailing parent that needs care, the physical inability to live and work on the road, and the knowledge that life on the road is not for you. But other reasons will collapse under the scrutiny of the million-dollar mindset, if you allow the mindset to take root.
So, how do you develop a million-dollar mindset? It is not as difficult as you may think. Or, to put it another way, you develop a million-dollar mindset by deciding how you will think. The secret is in the word itself — mindset. You set your mind.
How do you do that? You set a goal and set your mind. The goal tells you what your destination is, and what stands between you and it. If you have your mind set on becoming a successful expediter, you know immediately what the right choice is when presented with the option of watching TV for two hours or studying up on the industry. If you cannot begin a business now because you do not have financial reserves, changing your spending habits and even your lifestyle to build reserves becomes the desirable thing to do — if you have set your mind.
It is not as easy as all that. No expediter I know proceeds easily and happily from one intermediate goal to the next. We all suffer setbacks. We all have lapses in judgment, vision and self-discipline that degrade our performance. But even then, your mindset can serve you.
Whether it is a million dollars or something else, keeping your eyes on your goal, and your mind set on getting there, tells you what to do next to get where you want to be.
