hello I’m Gary Shotton and today we’re going to talk about different pathways and in regards to that the different pathways to business ownership and we could make an analogy to start with that starting a business would be a little bit like going on a long trip and depending on where you’re going and how you’re going to travel you would prepare differently you would bring different things with you let’s say it’s just a short trip within 50 miles you probably wouldn’t pack much you wouldn’t packed anything you’re just going to go there and come back and in a similar way if you’re going to go on a long trip I just recently last year went to Africa was gone there three weeks we packed differently in my case I like to do carry on so I don’t carry a whole lot of extra luggage so I don’t have to worry about luggage but I still plan for that trip so in starting a business think of it if you would in that way there is a different way but for different people to get to different destinations in business ownership so in starting a business you see many of us are starting at totally different points from point A to point B let’s take myself I was raised with a family that was farming and ranching and they were entrepreneurs I all I knew all of my adult or not my adult my childhood was whether I realized it or not I was absorbing the way an entrepreneur would think my dad was a classic entrepreneur not afraid to take risk very intelligent not school savvy didn’t have a degree her you know he he did graduate from high school but not to college but it was perfect for me because I got to watch and think back now more so now waking back than when I was there because I was as a young man young boy I was thinking about girls and sports but I know now how ingrained that culture the way dad thought the way he handled himself that had a very positive effect on my life my business ownership life take someone else that didn’t have that advantage they’re starting on their trip from a totally different starting point and they’re in a way starting from ground floor and there’s where there’s no exact formula that you do this this this and this and then you’re going to own a business I believe that our lessons are teaching and including this lesson is building a strong foundation you can’t go wrong if you but-first build a strong foundation that’s why someone wants that wants to advance quickly not that our love teachings are the perfect example of entrepreneurship but it’s full of great examples many hundreds now of teachings that if a person would engulf themselves not from the idea that this is how I start my business but from the idea this is how I start thinking differently this is how a business owner would think and it’s not an exact formula so depending on where you’re starting would make a big difference on how you would approach your destination how you’re going to get there now for those that aren’t of the advantage that I had let me make a few suggestions let’s say I might go ahead and get a good job there’s nothing wrong with that I had my first 10 years out of college was working for a big oil corporation and I’m still gaining experience in life so you might want to get a job you get a good job of the best you can and maybe that job ideally would be only 40 45 hours a week and now you’re gonna have to set aside some of your extra time to experiment do some things that would be experimental towards ownership start a yard sale start start selling something on the side start creating something that you’re not dependent upon the but you’re now learning and experiencing some real-life business ownership from a very foundational point of view while I was working those 10 years for the oil company I had all kinds of business things going I had some cattle that I purchased on the side and in fact if I hadn’t have done that I wouldn’t have had any money to move and come I had a rock business that I had on the side that I picked and got a mining permit to pick up granite rocks that had beautiful lichens of black and white and orange that would be very nice for the outside of a instead of brick could be a rock face on a wall or on a fireplace I had a pallet business and I did these things on the side and I was I was always into something I had a garden I didn’t make money much on the garden but I offset expenses I had chickens and I had raised eggs I had a milk cow so I had more than one milk cow and in the cattle business I I learned how to start baby calves from from scratch from just off of their mother I was working for someone else but I was experimenting and learning my business skills even when I moved to my new town I tried to get a job that’s what I was thinking because I was going to a particular Bible School I’m thinking ok I’ll get a nice job but I couldn’t find one but I did do some work until I started my own first business it was a moving and storage business it was using my dad’s borrowed horse trader to move furniture and I got my first truck and I then I started realizing that I was trying to work for somebody else and I can make more money myself working for myself just me and one helper that’s how I started for several years or a year and a half or so and and I could make more money doing that than working for somebody else it was an easy jump for me even though I had these years of experience with my dad and even though I had this 10 years experience while I had my good job I was still naked baking a gentle step in to the point that man this is a pretty easy step because I’ll pay myself more than somebody else will pay me so I became my first employee in our terms we call that the first job the first business was a necessity I needed money so I did what I could with what I had in my hands in a second it moved into what we call a lifestyle business it was enough to pay the bills and it was only after a couple of years then that I started thinking okay I can hire employees and put systems and put things together to have a business with employees so it’s not easy just to say here’s the exact formula for you to start a business and and in so many days or so many so many months or so many years you’re going to have this business it’s all in my opinion proportional to your willingness to change the way you think and your willingness to experiment at the highest level possible now for some there might be the idea that this is too big a leap to actually start and own your own business without a pattern and so when somebody says hey could you create a plan for me to own our own business I might jump to the idea of looking at a franchise where somebody else has already created the details of the business they whatever it is there’s all kinds of franchises that are everything from housecleaning to picking up dog droppings in the lawn to all kinds of food of course there’s every kind of food you can imagine that you could cook but there again you want to in this experimenting mode there’s other lessons that are foundational you want to find something that’s in the center of your your wheelhouse the in-center of what you like to do because you just can’t copy somebody else in my opinion that’s part of changing your culture changing the way you’re thinking and you know you’re on this journey you’re going on a long journey and it’s not overnight and I guarantee you it is not overnight if it happens overnight it’s probably not going to last and so you’ve got to build a foundation at every level and you’re looking at what you really want is what I had for my chill from my dad okay I was able to acquire the knowledge of an entrepreneur and pass it on to the neck receive it as the next generation and whether or not your children are going to be business owners or not doesn’t matter they need to be financially savvy they need to be financially good stewards you know because money is not the answer the guy with the most mother the person with the most money at the end of life does not win you know how much he leaves when he dies all of it that’s the reality so that’s not the gauge but money does pay the bills well I hope you see that this changing the mind and changing your own personal thought pattern is critical for your success and when you do change that a step by step I believe that with God’s help you’re going to find the right thing that fits you you’re gonna have some supernatural help and you’re gonna grow start small and grow step by step by step just like we teach in all the lessons we can we can put before you well I hope this helps