Look to the Future

Here are Art Freedman’s words about why it is important to have a proper time orientation:
     “Amateurs dwell on the past. Professionals look to the future. A huge indicator. You’ve heard it plenty of times before. Learn from the past. I don’t want to make the same mistakes twice, and I don’t want you to make the same mistakes twice. I want to get better every day, and I want you to get better every day. But let’s not spend energy dwelling on the past. Let’s move on. It’s done. Get over it. Where do we have to go? That’s what matters. Focus on where we are going, not on where we have been. Where we’ve been was yesterday. Today I want to know what you’ve done for me today. Where are we going today?
     “I’ve worked with retailers where all they want to do is dwell on the past, and it’s totally nonproductive. You have a limited amount of time, you have a limited amount of resources—let’s put money attached to that—and you have a limited amount of energy. Now I don’t know about you, but I’m big on using that energy correctly. I’m big on it because if you work with those retailers I call energy vampires, they’ll suck every bit of energy out of your body in about thirty seconds. And then all you want to do is go find a bar and get filthy drunk. Instead of moving forward, after those experiences, we move backward. Why do people spend time living in the past? The past is known. They are more comfortable talking about what they know. Professionals move beyond this. Professionals are comfortable talking about the future.”
     For more details, please see page 33 of Making Money Is Not Illegal, Immoral or Fattening.