If you were given the option to (1) get rich quickly or (2) have a skill that allowed you to make money over time, which would you take?

If you make money by luck, chances are, that money will dwindle away. However, if you make money by skill, there’s a good chance that your money will continue to grow.

Far too often I come across people and businesses who make plenty of money, but never seem to have enough to pay their bills. The truth is, you don’t have to make a lot of money to operate comfortably if you develop your ability to manage money. And once you learn how to manage money, you’ll discover how to make more money.

Just the other day, I was having a conversation with a reporter who asked me “how is it you’ve been able to build credibility at such a young age?”. Of course, initially I found this question to be a bit silly (meaning that I would have preferred to talk about how business leaders can improve their businesses rather than talk about myself).

However, after I had time to reflect on the question a bit more, I realized that it was actually a great question in regards to building better businesses. Businesses are built on trust and trust is directly linked to credibility and expertise.

For those of you who know me, you know that I’m not the kind of person who procrastinates…ever. In fact, I’m typically on the extreme opposite of procrastination. Well, recently I procrastinated; I made the mistake of putting off a business-related task I didn’t want to do and, as any logical person would expect, it almost backfired on me. As I’m sure most of you would agree, it’s not easy for us to admit we made mistakes (especially to other people). However, I think it’s important that we realize when we make mistakes so we can try to learn from them. With that being said, here are a few lessons I pulled out of my mistake and how to stop procrastinating.

One question that news people ask from time to time is how I’m able to stay so calm in heated situations. The short answer to that is, who knows. Maybe a mixture of genetics and previous experiences? Or maybe I’m just weird..I don’t know. Nevertheless, a recent conversation with a friend about an upset client of his, led me to think about how I would typically try to handle this sort of situation.

In a recent conversation with a friend, I was inspired to hear him talk about how he enjoys taking time to make goals and to steadily make progress. The conversation got me thinking about why it is that, sometimes, less talented people make much more progress in life than people who seem to be naturally talented.

Is it because some people have a better set of circumstances than others? Or maybe it’s because some people are just more driven to succeed? Or maybe it’s a combination of different things.