8 Practical Steps to Financial Independence

The New Year is fast approaching and the results are coming in. The decisions and actions you made have impacted both positively and negatively on your finances. Now is the perfect opportunity to pullover, look back and reassess your priorities.

You need to stop the blame game and look at the lessons learned along the way. You need to analyze the strategies you took, options offered, embrace it or return to the status quo.

To succeed you need to have the desire to grow. To grow you need to thread where you have not ventured before and do new things. Without desire there is no hope of achievement. Desire involves industriousness, enthusiasm and cooperation.

It is important to step out of your comfort zone. Stepping out of your comfort zone is fraught with dangers and risks. Frightful scenarios include capital flight, wasted time, and failure.

You will surely make mistakes along the way because no one is perfect. Some of the mistakes would be painful and cost you dearly.

This fear of failure has caused many people to turn back just before the rain. Some vow never again not knowing how close they came to success.

It is funny how many people turn back after paying the price. It is sad turning back after paying the high tuition fees.

Every type of learning comes with a tuition fee. This is because learning is not cheap ether tertiary or gained experience. There is no way around paying the tuition fees.

There are two ways every aspirating entrepreneur pays the tuition fees. The first way is to pay directly to an institution of higher learning. This could be a college, university, vocational institution or online course.

You pay directly to the coach, tutor, teacher or school. In this scenario the tuition fees are estimated and paid up front. Although the fees are paid there are still some hidden charges or fees.

Once the fees are paid they train you and impact knowledge the proper way. You gain theoretical knowledge of the subject matter from tested professionals.

Learning from a brick and mortar intuition has its advantages. You gain confidence and deep knowledge of the subject matter. After being taught if you leaned well you will still make your share of small mistakes.

This is the added tuition fees not paid directly to the school but paid by experience. The price you pay to acquire the skills you need to succeed are still part of the cost of education.

Over 40% of people bypass academic learning and go straight to learn by experience. Learning by experience in itself is an informal school of vast knowledge. The individual learn from hands on-experience.

The fees paid for this form of learning is much higher than conventional tuition fees. You go straight to the practical and essentially bypass the theoretical aspect of learning. You need to learn on the job, gain experience and make your mistakes.

This form of learning is very challenging, discouraging and expensive. If you are learning alone you need to be prepared to rise, fail or fall alone. Many learn from mistakes however a few use the setback as an excuse to abandon the project.

The price paid is very high with time, money and resources. The question is why should someone pay the high tuition fees, attend classes, learn and turn back when faced with challenges. Instead of learning the lesson they decide to pack their bags and go home where it is warm and safe.

There are many people who gained admission into schools of higher learning started the course and gave up midway. You are no Bill Gates and the outcome of future success is very bleak.

On the other hand there are some who found themselves in courses they never chose. They stock with it found interest in the course and are very successful.

There are some who gave up on trading shares because the market fell. Rather than figuring out what they did wrong and correct it, they decided to pull out of the market entirely.

So they spent countless hours developing the trading skill, gaining experience, learning lesson and spending lots of money then abandon the project.

I know some people after gaining experience and learning the lessons abandoned it to start a new business. When they start a new line of business and face the same challenge abandon the project. Some return to what they know and find success.

Risk tolerance is very important in any enterprise. It is true that everyone have different level of risk tolerance. However the reality is that if you are afraid to take risks you will never succeed.

Failure is part of success because they come in the same package. It is not possible to take one and leave the other. Anytime you start on a new venture you are going to an unknown frontier. You are invariably getting ready to fail before you succeed. It is a matter of individual choice to fail backwards or fail forwards.

It is important to learn from your setbacks. Many people face setbacks everyday but how you handle it is the difference between failure and success.

Someone shared an experience of how a petrol tanker caught fire and burnt 20 vehicles and 30 shops. His vehicle and shop were part of the carnage. He suffered huge losses however dusted through the rubble, salvaged what he could and started building.

The simple fact is that whatever happens to you the world keeps revolving and clock keeps ticking. Life goes on even if you choose to stop. What you chose to do when you face adversary makes no difference to the big picture.

What matters is what you think and do to go forward. The best life lessons are served in the crucible of adversary. You learn more when you are down in the dumps than when everything is figured out.