A Special Independence Day Message | Brian Kaskavalciyan

This is the Wealthy Contractor Podcast brought to you by G4 Marketing. Interviews with today's top home improvement entrepreneurs about marketing, sales, money, mindset, and lifestyle. Now here's your host, Brian Kaskavalciyan.

Hey everybody, Brian here with a special episode of the Wealthy Contractor podcast. Now, I don't know about you, but with all that's happened over the last 18 months, I'm more sentimental, if that's the right word to use, about this weekend and this holiday than in the past. As we get ready to celebrate Independence Day, it's important to remember that as entrepreneurs and as wealthy contractors, Our highest ideal is freedom. The freedom to be, to do, and to have what we want from what we create and earn from the value that we create. However, in too many cases, we go into business for more freedom, but we end up with less. People don't always realize that a business has a dangerous tendency of taking on a life of its own. If you're not careful, the entity that you gave life to and kept alive with your blood, sweat, and tears, it'll turn on you and it'll trap you. Your business will make you its servant while it becomes the master. We strive to make more money and to take more time off so we can have control of our lives, but your business pushes back. Your customer pushes back. Your staff push back. Even your own internal programming pushes back. So many of the business owners I talk to are stuck in an endless cycle of erratic or inconsistent profitability. So many are stuck in the idea that they have to do all the work. So many are stuck on the idea that one day things will be different. You know, fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you view it, this is caused by our own thinking and our own beliefs. I say it's fortunate because we can change our thinking and our beliefs. And if you aren't making the money you want or experiencing the other freedoms you strive for, you can change what you think, you can change what you believe, and you can change what you do. I say it all the time. After nearly 30 years of being in business for myself, I know that success is more about mindset than it is about skill set. And you, my friend, you have chosen a life of uncertainty, risk, and discomfort. But you have a vision. You have a dream of a life that's bigger and than the one that you have today. That's a unique trait among successful entrepreneurs, the constant striving to be better, to do more, to have more. We don't dwell on the past and we're optimistic about the future. It's in your entrepreneurial DNA. You're resilient. You have drive, determination, and will. You have no choice but to keep moving forward. The majority of people, by the way, do everything they can to avoid those things, but not us, because we know that the only way to get more freedom in life is through risk and uncertainty. Now, I'll tell you this: in order for you to truly create the freedoms you desire in your life, you must first be absolutely clear about what it is you want. And then you must take 100% responsibility for every result and every outcome in your life. In my book, The Seven Secrets to Becoming a Wealthy Contractor, these two concepts are so fundamental, so important, I made them Secrets 1 and 2. Every wealthy contractor I know understands that good, bad, or ugly, We create our reality. Only when you accept the fact that you are the creator of your reality can you ever be free. Because in every moment you have a choice. If you aren't getting the results you want, again, you can change what you think, you can change what you believe, and you can change what you do. Now, the minute you allow yourself to make an excuse or place blame on someone or something else, for not getting what it is that you want, you have abdicated control of your life to something that is generally out of your control. Last week I was in Washington, D.C. and got to visit Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington. Admittedly, I never really realized what an absolutely fascinating and flawed, by the way, man Washington was. As I was touring through the property and the two museums on site, which I strongly recommend by the way, I was just in awe of how different life was back then and what the people of his day had to go through to earn their freedom. I believe our founding fathers were some of the bravest people in all of history. Washington, by the way, was a badass. They came to a foreign land, built communities, commerce, and a new form of government. It wasn't easy. They had to fight. They had to suffer themselves and unfortunately created a lot of suffering for others. And they had to die in order for us to have the freedoms that we enjoy today. The government they created was about allowing its citizens to be free. In fact, in the Declaration of Independence, we know that they said, we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They said that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are unalienable. By the way, I had to look up unalienable, which then takes me to inalienable, just to make sure I had the right definition. It means unable to be taken away from. They set out to create a place where every citizen had the right to live and pursue their own version of happiness without the fear of these rights being taken away by the government. The reality of it is we do live in a land that affords us an abundance of opportunity every single day. I think as entrepreneurs, we understand more than most how fortunate we are to stand on this sacred ground. There is nowhere in the world like the United States of America, and I believe the founding fathers would be proud of us entrepreneurs. While some dream about success and others shit on those that are successful, us entrepreneurs, We get up and we go to work. We solve our customers' problems, and in turn they pay us. Ideally, ideally, that exchange is a profitable one. And ideally, we turn that profit into wealth. With that profit and with that wealth, we create jobs and opportunities for others through our vision and our determination. When we provide those opportunities to others, by the way, we don't care where they're from, what color they are, or which god, if any, they pray to. If they share our vision of service, hard work, and dedication to the customer and each other, we welcome them with open arms. As entrepreneurs and as wealthy contractors, We do this without the luxury of excuses or placing blame when things don't work out as we intended, and certainly without waiting for something to be handed to us. We get up and we go to work every single day, and we love it. On this Independence Day weekend, I hope you're taking a little time off to rest, relax, have fun, recharge, and spend time with those you love. I hope you'll also remind yourself of why you went into business for yourself in the first place and what freedom really means to you. Next week, it's back to work, and I just wanted you to know how grateful I am for you, for your hard work, for the value you bring to your customers in your community. And I appreciate you being a part of the Wealthy Contractor community. I hope your business is affording you the freedoms you intended. I hope you're making all the money you want to make and that you get to spend your time the way you choose with those you love the most. I remain dedicated to your success. This is Brian Kaskavalciyan with G4 Marketing Group. And until next time, this is the Wealthy Contractor Podcast. Thanks for listening to today's episode of the Wealthy Contractor Podcast. Let me ask you, did it help you look at your business in a different way? Did it spark an idea or ideas that you hadn't thought of before? Do you have a list of action items that you can take and implement into your business or your life today? I really hope so. If it did, I'd like to ask you a favor. Would you leave a 5-star review of the podcast? By doing so, you'll help other contractors find the podcast more easily so that we can help them achieve more success, wealth, and freedom. And before you go, make sure you subscribe to the Wealthy Contractor Podcast so you get access to the latest episodes as soon as they're available. We're always striving to provide you with great content, so you don't want to miss what's coming up. In fact, if you haven't already, make sure you go to thewealthycontractor.com and get your free copy of my latest book, The 7 Secrets to Becoming a Wealthy Contractor. Just pay shipping and handling, and I'll take care of the cost of the book. So until next time, this is Brian Kaskavalciyan.