There’s nothing wrong with having a JOB mentality. Just like there’s nothing wrong with riding a 10 speed bike. Both are ok; both are fine.
But, there can be serious problems if you try to use a JOB mentality to achieve financial success. This is no different than the serious problems you’ll encounter if you try to use a 10 speed bike to cross a river. In both cases, the “mechanism” isn’t designed for the task at hand.
If you want to cross a river, I’d suggest you use canoe, a boat, a raft … but not a 10 speed bike. And, if you want to achieve financial success, I’d suggest you ditch the JOB mentality; start developing a wealth mentality.
I’m convinced JOB mentality is the number one reason why most people never achieve financial success. You see – in my opinion – JOB mentality is spend mentality. Therefore, for a person looking at the world from a JOB mentality perspective; the money coming in equals the money going out. Or, more likely, the money going out is much greater than the money coming in. And, this JOB mentality “equation” is independent of income. In other words, the income could be $500, $1,000, $10,000, or $100,000 per week but the result would be the same … broke.
Did I ever have JOB mentality? Yup. I still have some of this thinking stored in the back corners of my mind even though I voluntarily left the JOB world way back in July 2009. Old ingrained thinking habits and patterns – even destructive ones; ones that hold you back – die slowly …
Here’s an excerpt from my book, Working my “BUT” off!: Reflections of a property investor where I discuss JOB (Just Over Broke) mentality.
JOB Mentality
I’m convinced, if you have a JOB mentality, you can never leave the JOB world! I’m also convinced the JOB mentality brings with it some very financially damaging baggage. Until you offload this baggage, you’ll always be in the JOB world; you’ll always be thinking JOB. And JOB thinking is broke thinking.
“How so?” you ask.
Well, why is it that some very wealthy professional athletes, movie stars, musicians and lottery winners go broke? Would more money help them? Is that what they need, more money?
I doubt it.
You give them more money, they spend it. And, that’s what I mean by a job mentality. JOB mentality is “spend” mentality; earn it; spend it. Earn more; spend more. A never ending pattern that’s independent of how much money you make.
Sounds like the government doesn’t it? Maybe that’s why governments go broke. Maybe that’s why more taxes will never be the answer – more taxes; more spending; more spending; more taxes. And, the cycle keeps repeating …