One of the barriers that home-based business operators often fail to overcome is something I refer to as “short term thinking”. You may have heard it referred to as “lotto mentality”, “get rich quick” or, if you’ve read a lot on the subject, as a “failure to defer gratification”.

You see, many people are in a bad place financially, and are desperate for a quick fix. These people see the glossy ads on the web, promising untold wealth for little work, and they want a piece of that action. They sign up expecting a magic wand that will fix up their situation in double-quick time.

Sadly, for them at least, this is unrealistic. Real, sustained results come about over time, by building up an income-producing asset over time, and by resisting the temptation to spend every dollar earned in commission on luxuries, or even servicing credit card debt.

If you haven’t done so already, get your hands on a copy of Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” – now do NOT panic, or ignore this advice just because it’s written by a millionaire, or because it is generally recommended reading for people looking to become wealthy themselves. The advice and philosophy is equally applicable to the 97 percent, just as it is to the 3 percent!

One of the key ideas that Robert Kiyosaki writes about is the creation of income-producing assets; in other words investing time and money creating something that effectively works for you, earning you a recurring income. Now this asset could be a stock investment, it could be real estate, or perhaps a business. The key idea is that this asset, once you have made the effort to create it, will continue to make you money with little or no further input on your part.

I hope you can see how this can apply even if you’re simply looking to earn a little more to spend on life’s luxuries (or more increasingly to pay off consumer debt). By investing a small amount of money and time, having the self-discipline to invest back into the asset (e.g. in the early days at least, spending small commissions on growing the business instead of seeing them as extra spending money), you can easily set up a revenue stream that will continue to reward those initial efforts, month after month.

By deferring your need for gratification (i.e. not looking to buy yourself a treat right away) this revenue stream builds up, providing a solid secondary income stream that is yours to use as you wish. Whether that is paying off credit card bills, or paying for a family holiday, the choice really is yours.

Conversely, the short term thinker will make (maybe) $100 in commission in month 1 and use it to pay a bill. The following month the commission is still $100 because nothing has been done to grow the network. After a few months of this, and perhaps with the commission cheques decreasing in value, it’s all too easy to give up, stating that “this business doesn’t work”, or “it’s not for me”. In reality it’s simply the approach that needed adjusting or, as Robert Kiyosaki would say, it’s a lack of “financial intelligence”.

As I write this, I am reminded of a story I heard as a child, about a shoemaker. I need to check, but I think it may have been the story “The Elves and The Shoemaker”. The concept I am thinking of specifically is that the profit from a pair of shoes was used to buy the leather required to make 2 pairs of shoes, with the number of pairs doubling each time. This is the same concept I am touching on above; you can either spend the profits from one pair of shoes (or one commission cheque) on treats for yourself, or you can invest that back into your business which is then the start of exponential growth in your business.

It’s a simple choice, and one that I sincerely hope more people will start to make to improve their lives.

Will you make the right choice?