Everyone who exchanges work for money is essentially a small investor at some level, and owes it to themselves to always seek out the best exchange of money for their time and effort that they can find. This means not only looking for side businesses to start, but also focusing on improving yourself, your abilities and skills set.

Your personal mindset has a lot to do with whether or not you find success. Growth is all about becoming conscious of actions and choices and bearing in mind how you can improve such.

Firstly, what is your ‘picture of heaven?’ What does "success” mean to you? "Successful” doesn’t mean the same thing to each person. You need to figure out what you define as "successful,” which is, in a very vague way, your long-term goal.

Next, transform the dreams of what makes you successful into specific, tangible goals that you can use. When you’re able to transform that into a specific goal, then you have something to work towards — that’s real as opposed to the vague concept of something that you might just be dreaming about.

Craft your values. You will discover that as you figure out what "successful” means to you and establish goals based on these, some values will be important to you. Values such as family, growth would be bases of your attitude towards success.

Most people are detached from their money in many ways. They don’t want to be ‘money-minded’ or be accused of ‘loving money’ Thus, they do not connect their hard work to the money they have, and they also don’t connect their account balance to all of the things they spend their money on.

This leads to a deep sense of "where did all the money go?” And often to a feeling that there’s something deeply wrong without really understanding what that is. The solution is to spend time and focus on this connection. Keep careful track of how you spend money.

Talk about money with your loved ones, even if it’s uncomfortable. Keep it in your mind and embrace it.

Get organized so that you do not have to agonize over what you have and what you do not have. Keep records, organized and update records, though a good and efficient filing system that would enable you to retrieve what you need easily.

Organisation would also enable you to know your priorities and put them where they should be, ‘first’. Putting these priorities first enable you to be your own promoter.

This is critical for success since you will not be swayed by all the enticements that would otherwise derail you when you are dealing with people who would affect your finances.

Organisation will also enable you to put your money where it would benefit you the most. This would increase your net worth on both the long and the short run.

You will be able to make intelligent and logical decisions as you look for options which will give you better results.

Thinking long term is also vital for success. Your best financial choices are made if you ask yourself what will have the biggest positive impact five years from now, with every decision you make.

This question will point you (almost always) in several positive directions: towards frugality, towards repaying debts, and towards good choices with regard to making your money count.

The toughest part is breaking from the customs that you are used to. Break old habits that hold you back, keep the changes simple and straightforward. This type of personal change is very difficult.

Revise your social circle. Look for new people to associate with. Remember ‘difficult’ is not synonymous with impossible!

The best mental image to keep in mind is that of the farmer who spoke during Liberation Day celebrations detailing his road to success. Embrace the idea that you are an entrepreneur.

Sam Kebongo is a skills and business advisory services consultant. He also teaches entrepreneurship at Rwanda Tourism University College.
sam.kebongo@gmail.com