According to the teaching of John C. Maxwell, author of over 70 books on leadership and self-development and rated #1 leadership expert by Inc. Magazine, the most difficult person to lead is self. If you can lead yourself successfully, then you will definitely have success in leading others. Since this Spring, I have become a student of John Maxwell Team and I have been reinvigorated with the desire to learn, grow myself and to help others grow to new heights in their personal life, businesses and careers. As I delve into the subject of self-leadership, light bulbs have just been popping on all over the place because I can connect so much with self-leadership.
First, what is self-leadership? Law #1 in John Maxwell's 21 Irrefutable Law Of Leadership is The Law of the Lid. John teaches that leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less. In simple terms, the Law of the Lid states that everybody had a "lid" or a ceiling on their leadership ability and no one can lead beyond this lid. So then, my answer without referencing any material, is the ability to effectively master and grow one's self in the development, with consistency, of discipline, character, knowledge, focus, dedication and awareness to achieving one's life purpose through career and personal endeavours.
It goes without question then, that in order to be successful with money, just as with business and career we need to apply the Law of the Lid and grow our knowledge and awareness, and part of this awareness is knowing what to do when you don't know what to do. Having the right people on your team including having an advisor who is knowledgeable in the areas of money management and financial security that are important to you. Self-leadership with money also means being disciplined to use tools and services to manage your income and debt; being proactive in planning and organizing your financial affairs. Planning allows you to be strategic and effective in areas of tax reduction and deferral which will pay tremendous "dividend" in the long run as those tax savings can be reinvested for your own economic benefit. The opposite is doing this in a hap-hazard way, where sometimes you hit and sometimes you miss.
Over the years what I have observed in my career as Investment Fund Advisor and Life & Health Insurance Advisor, it's not the people who earn the most or who are better educated who end up with the most money. I see many examples of immigrants who didn't even go to high school, came to this country (Canada) worked hard, took some chances, and end up with very decent net worth where as their Canadian born highly educated children are not as successful with money or even struggle financially. The main differentiating factor? The first generation immigrants have habits, attitudes and disciplines that is lacking in their offsprings.
The long and short of the matter is that our financial results are directly correlated to our self-leadership and we need to have a growth plan for ourselves which includes a growth plan for our money. In other words, a financial plan.
BEVERLEY ALLEN, FLMI
Beverley
Investment Fund Advisor & Life and Health Insurance Advisor
Desjardins Financial Security Investments Inc.
Desjardins Financial Security Independent Network
Ontario Central Region (OCR), GTA West Branch
5070 Dixie Road
Mississauga, On L4W 1C9
#MoneyTalkwithBevAllen
