Contractors with great expectations generally earn more money – often very much more – than those with similar skills but who don’t expect to achieve the best contracts and biggest balances.
When I first made the leap into IT contracting in 1997, pretty much anybody who could string together a line of code was becoming a contractor. Back then, I thought those who weren’t jumping into contracting were just lazy. But a few years later, after attending a seminar titled ‘Unleash Your Power Within’, I began to realise that there’s a lot more to being a successful contractor than simply ‘not being lazy’.
What I really learned is that everyone has their own expectations of what they should be earning and what they can earn. I observed those around me and discovered that the successful, high earning, contractors I knew were, and still are, very good at managing the difference between personal expectation and actual reality.
There were contractors around me whose ‘internal earnings thermostat’ was set at say £50,000 a year, and when they achieved that level of earnings, they were quite content to stay at that level. And why shouldn’t they be, as that figure is around double the national average annual salary? But those contractors with internal earnings thermostats of £100,000 thought of £50,000 as ‘poverty’ and did not rest until their desired standards, and target earnings, were achieved.
What I now too often see around me is friction, where a contractor’s life is not matching their internal expectations. In many cases, this results in contractors raising the bar by investing in new skills and improving what they offer clients. But it can work the other way, too – I’ve seen contractors with greatness thrust upon them through circumstance sink back down.
I’ve met millionaire entrepreneurs at parties who have risen from nothing because they believed from the start that not only were they worth millions, but also that such wealth was attainable. With that outlook, they simply went out and got it. In the same room have been people envious of what others have, but who have done nothing to achieve it themselves because they fear failure and don’t believe they deserve any better.
That cheesy, though ultimately inspirational, weekend taught me a very simple life-changing lesson. If you want to be a better contractor and earn the fortune you deserve, then raise your standards and have great expectations.