⬇ Full Transcript of Episode #13 Below ⬇
Are you a bridge builder or a barge worker?
Hey, guys, this is Justin Prince. So are you a bridge builder or a barge worker? A barge worker, every single day, it’s all about them. If they don’t work, they don’t get paid. Every single day, back and forth, back and forth, driving the barge back and forth, and if they don’t show up for the next month, six months, a year, nothing happens. They [00:00:30] don’t make any more income. A bridge builder is someone that, every time the cars passed on the toll, they make a little bit of money, over and over, because they built their business with a system and a process that’s not only about what they can do, it’s about what we can do.
Right now in your business, are you a bridge builder or a barge worker? If you threw your cell phone in the ocean, your laptop in the ocean for the next six months, how much money would you make six months from now? Have you built a business and a system that allows you residual ongoing income?
Now, here’s what I want to share with you. In 1954, in Michigan, they started construction [00:01:00] on the Mackinac Bridge. Now, this connected the lower and upper peninsulas in Michigan. Here’s what was so interesting, is every single day, the barge workers would go back and forth, back and forth, barging the cars and barging the people back and forth to work or to home. Now, here’s what was so interesting. Every single day, those guys would make money, every single day. Every two weeks they’d get their check because they’re doing that barge working every single day.
Now, the bridge builders looked at this, the entrepreneurs looked at this and said, “There’s got to be a better way to do this whole thing. Instead of going back and forth every single day with these [00:01:30] barges, what if we actually built a bridge? What if we have a transportation system that, every time a car passed, it would pay $3 toll?” Now, you say, “Well, that’s a much better idea. Let’s do that. That sounds cool.” Well, here’s the problem, is it took almost four years to complete the Mackinac Bridge.
Now, if you’re a barge worker and you’re going back and forth, making money every single day, and you’re watching these bridge builders go out there, and they’re taking the time and the effort to build this bridge, and they’re about halfway done, can you image what [00:02:00] the barge workers are saying to them? “Hey, how’s your bridge coming? How much money are you making? Are you a millionaire yet?” Like, “He thinks he’s going to become a millionaire with a stupid bridge.” No, you’re like, “Well, no, people don’t drive halfway on and drive back. It’s not done yet. It’s going to take four years to build this whole thing,” right.
Eventually, once the whole bridge was built, they had $3 tolls every single time a car passed the bridge. Every single time, the bridge builders were receiving a $3 toll, over and over and over, because they’d built a business system, [00:02:30] or a process, that wasn’t all about them. This is how you become a bridge builder and not a barge worker.
Let me share with you three tips that will help you to go from the mentality of a barge worker to the mentality of a bridge builder. Number one is think long term. Bridge builders understand that it doesn’t happen overnight. Bridge builders understand the concept of delayed gratification. They’re willing to put in massive amounts of effort and time and work and vision today because they know that long term, they’re going to set themselves up, versus the barge [00:03:00] worker who wants the instant gratification, instant gratification, like, “How much should I make today?”
You have to change this mentality. One of the biggest challenges we have in our society as a whole, not just with entrepreneurs and leaders and so on, with everybody, is, like, “What’s in it for me? How fast do I get paid?” Instant gratification. Not everything is Instagram, where it goes from zero to a billion overnight. Not everything’s that. Most things take time, they take effort. Most overnight successes were 10 years in the making. Give yourself the patience to think [00:03:30] long term.
Number two is build a system. Build a system to where people can replicate the same activities without you having to be there. Build a system to where people can know what to do without you being the one that tells them, where it can actually going forward without you being the one that’s driving it forward, because there’s a process or a system.
And then number three is trust the process. What I’m going to share with you is this, is one of the most important things you can do is think long term, build the system, and then just trust that the system and the process works. [00:04:00] If other people have gone ahead of you and are succeeding on that path … now, imagine that bridge analogy … if people have already crossed the bridge, if you will, and you’re just now getting on the bridge, just trust the process. You don’t have to reinvent everything. Just trust the process, give yourself the perspective to think long term, and just, every single day, do the right things every single day to run through the system, through yourself, and through your organization.
Remember, guys, your goals, your dreams, [00:04:30] they’re important. Your pursuing them is worth it and your accomplishing them is necessary.
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