Today I meet a young man who has $100,000 labor contracts to put siding on Hilton hotels. He hires staff, lines up insurance, establishes employee housing for out-of-town projects, and runs a successful LLC. He’s the cheapest, fastest, and most efficient sider around here.

Oh– this young man cannot read.

So isn’t it funny how many “I can’ts” we throw at business ideas? How many dreams have you thrown away because of obstacles? Yeah, making the details work is tough. But is it tougher than being unable to read?

Often the most talented and skillful people–probably you–end up working for someone who seems dumber than a stick because of hesitations. We’re afraid. Working for someone else is safer and easier. A lot easier. How many of your skills are being utilized, even maximized? Probably not many. The selling points that attracted your employers probably aren’t even used that much.

My co-worker is a wiz with numbers. Her fingers can roll over a 10-key like it’s on fire, and her accounting skills are something to boot for. But the boss’s wife does all of the real number work. My co-worker’s knock-down number skills are used for nothing but phone number memorization. “Hey Jill, what’s so-and-so’s number?” “Jill, give me the address for so-and-so.”

Of course, my co-worker feels fine with little responsibility. But without something significant at work, do you ever feel like your mind is rotting? Like your brain is melting onto the monitor in front of you?

The way I see it, if you want to make a million bucks, you have to be willing to put a million bucks worth of work into your efforts. You can spend the rest of your life working beside my co-worker, taking no risks, saving penny by penny, and maybe hitting a million bucks when you’re, what. 80 years old?

Or you can charge ahead. Work like mad for a few years. Dig and dig at your endeavors. So you have a weakness. Find a way to work around it. The sider’s wife reads his contracts aloud and shows him where to sign documents. I guess the way he sees it is this:

Either he can work for someone else as a low-paid sider for the rest of life, unable to provide his wife and future family with much of anything. Or he can work like mad with his own company. He doesn’t need to read to put siding up.

If you want to be successful, you have to know exactly what you want to accomplish. You need strategy and focus with a clear line to point to. Unfortunately, most people never even get that far. Most people are standing around and wondering, “How the heck did I get here?”

I’ve always thought that because I have direction, I also have goals. Law school. Happiness. Financial security. But are any of these ideas goals? What would you do with a law degree? What will you do to gain happiness and financial security? And how will you even know when you’ve achieved those things?

Guess those plans aren’t actually goals. So if setting goals are so important, how come we don’t know how to establish them?

With all of the schooling, experiences, and opportunities your life has afforded, can you set true goals? The biggest deterrent is admitting that our goals might fail. Our plans might not work. No one takes a little kid seriously when he says what he wants to be when he grows up, so he feels free to keep dreaming and imagining his future. When you and I say our dream careers, people hold us up to it. They remember. Yet going to college doesn’t mean you’ll leave with the same perspective, and having the direction doesn’t mean you’re setting true goals.

So how do you set goals?
1. Be specific.

The biggest difference between having direction and having goals is the detail. Set dates and quantities. Don’t just bake cookies for the food bank; bake 350 cookies by January 4. You could plan on starting a business or say, “I will start a ___ business by the year ___.” We all need a kick in the butt’and who better than ourselves?

2. Tell someone.

Sharing our goals is the hardest part because we’re afraid of failing or finding dissatisfaction when we reach our goals. Tell a person who can encourage you, push you, and support you even when your goals change or don’t work out.

3. Decide if your plan is a goal or an idea.

Too often, we don’t know what we want, so we start talking, thinking, and dreaming. How much of this process is required for you to set your strategy? Some people spend their lives dreaming of the perfect goal the way some people are always looking for Mr. Right. Are you passing up Mr. Really Wonderful because you’re afraid that he isn’t quite Mr. Right? Doubt puts out passion faster than anything, so if you find something you’d love, why aren’t you going for it?

4. Go for it.
5. Follow up.

Make sure you’re working your way toward your goals’often!

You can spend your entire life climbing the ladder of success. But what you are climbing the wrong ladder? Tomorrow when you wake up, close your eyes and imagine the perfect life situation for one year from now’your work, your finances, your family, your health. If you don’t know what you want, then people who do know what they want take control of your life’your boss, your landlord, your local fast food places and advertisers, and shareholders of the businesses you spend your money.

You might tell everyone how much you hate WalMart. The great thing about democracy lets you vote with every dollar you spend. Every dollar that you spend at WalMart is a dollar vote in favor of their practices and attitudes. Don’t say you hate WalMart; do something more.

You can gain an overwhelming sense of power in your own life when you set goals’it’s something most people never even experience.

Last night, the musician screamed into his microphone, “45 seconds until the new year. Have you made your resolution?”

Did you spend any time reflecting on ways that you wanted to be better this year? Given 45 seconds, I didn’t come up with a foolproof improvement plan. Lucky for me, I have a database of favorite Aridni articles that I often look to for inspiration:

What does it really take to make money? This article guides you in defining and reaching your financial desires

Is it better to let your dreams die or do a poor job? Todd’s had an idea for about a year… but he lacks skill. What does he do? What do you do?

No longer the bride today I celebrated my one-year anniversary this summer and found a finance partner to boot for – I discovered a 5-step plan to seeking goals and reaching objectives.

Are you climbing to the top when there is no top? Before you can get somewhere tomorrow, you have to think of where you are today. Examine the corporate ladder at your office.

Make your success move from the polls to the ballot Women are starting new businesses twice as fast as men. Three success secrets revealed–

One month to impress Define your image in one month, step by step.

Do you ever become so obsessed with something? So distracted that your daily living becomes influenced by your addiction?

I took a break from Aridni–I had to. My thoughts were too focused on net worth. And while money is an important topic, we cannot let it consume us. We can’t become this holiday’s Scrooge.

Stop to think. What is money to you?

Does money serve as a positive resource or an obsession?

Sometimes money does great things for us; sometimes money distracts us from the things that really matter. Can you spend a whole day without thinking of your net worth? Do your dreams, ideas, and inventions get blocked from your mind if you think there’s no money in your thought? Is it possible to be an enlightened millionaire? Would you do something for free, knowing that you could easily make a few bucks?

Do you want wealth or riches?

I know a couple that eats at fine restaurants every night. They drive expensive cars and travel the world with the highest class. …and they’re going to be working forever to maintain this style and consider retirement. When they aren’t traveling, they work all day and all night. They are rich.

This couple gets their riches by serving wealthy people. Wealthy people invest their money further and further through the labor of this rich couple. Wealthy people are willing to pay for temporary riches of the couple because in the end, the couple will have to seek new clients while the wealthy people will have profits without efforts.

What is money, anyway?

Money is only what you make it. We assign the dollar a value through society’s general acceptance; money, on its own, is worth nothing. The problem is that for must of us, the social acceptance of money holds no options. You can back out and say that these particular forms of exchange mean nothing to you, but then you lose.

This contract of money holds too many advantages for most of us to consider a surrender, of course. Money gives us the lifestyle we want and the image we want others to see. Image becomes especially frustrating for me at this time of year. I’m not buying expensive gifts like everyone else at my office. They’re all buying extras–newer iPods, fancy wines, media subscriptions and DVDs. If you want more money than you have today, you can purchase this money by pledging more of the money that you will have tomorrow.

On the flip side, one of my coworkers who buys fancy gifts is twice as old as me; she has no retirement savings of any sort. Money holds such strength that her decisions today will cause her to work far into old age.

What if I want more of this money? …because I DO!

I figure we have three ways of honestly making money:
1. selling our stuff
2. selling time
3. taking risks

You can guess what the first two topics represent. Sell your stuff–your heirlooms, your iPod, your house, your used appliances, and your garage sale junk. Sell your time–work for someone else for x dollars an hour.

But taking risks? That’s what Aridni is all about. Take risks by selling your money to investors, stocks, or bonds. Or possibly more powerful, find a way that your money can grow and raise more little dollar bills and coins–create a business. Your own business holds more leverage than selling your time or your stuff.

My only hope is that your business idea adds value to society, not destruction. I’m determined to find this avenue for myself, and I plan to ponder with you in the meantime.