I grew up in a home with some very creative parents. My mom, dad and sister were entrepreneurs and I started my first business with my sister when I was 14. There was always something going on and someone always seemed to have a new idea for something. But how do you monetize ideas?

My mom took her business from a side based business in her living room to the leader in her industry right before my eyes.

My dad also had a lot of brilliant ideas. Some of them were huge. Like a smokeless cigarette that he developed and patented (mind you this was well over 30 years ago).

You could have the best business idea in the world, but do you know how to monetize it and are people ready for your idea?

I learned first hand the “value” of ideas when our house was invaded by spies a summer when I was 16. Our mail was stolen and strange things kept happening to us. If you have seen the movie The Insider with Russel Crowe it’s a great picture of how things unfolded for us that summer. (Seriously, this is not some funny joke!)

When I read that the tobacco industry had spent about $35 billion dollars to research and develop a smoke-free cigarette, I got sick to my stomach.

After my dad’s patent expired, a huge market of vape is everywhere. And no, my dad did not invent vape, his invention was different. Everyone in our family were highly sensitive to smoke and back then there were no smoking laws and people smoked everywhere! It was horrible for non-smokers. The idea of a smokeless cigarette was quite brilliant.

So why am I telling you this? The point is that if you are not able to monetize your ideas, they are worth nothing, no matter how brilliant they are. Just like so many other entrepreneurs my dad ran out of money and resources and he wasn’t able to monetize his idea that could have been worth millions, if not billions.

It wasn’t that my dad’s idea wasn’t valuable. It certainly was, and surely the tobacco companies agreed or they wouldn’t have been hanging around spying on and intimidating my dad. My dad just didn’t have the know-how, resources and proper connections to turn it into cash.

But you may ask, why did my dad’s idea fail while he ran out of money  when my mom, while being ridiculed by most, took her business to the top of her industry?

My dad’s idea was too radical and people weren’t ready for it at the time. He was way ahead of his time. It was before the smoking laws started to happen around the world and before people were really concerned about second-hand smoking and it’s effects on people. Part of it was timing.

However, often people get stuck in their own patterns, limiting beliefs and programming which can majorly hold them back from monetizing their ideas.

I do believe that in my dad’s case, there was subconscious programming that prevented his idea from taking off. Your mind controls everything, and if there are beliefs that you can’t do something or have something, then you’re going to manifest exactly what you believe, no matter how hard you try.

My dad was willing to bet everything on this idea. He was willing to do whatever it took. But he also had a lot of limiting beliefs about money. He grew up in Norway during the German occupation. Stores were empty and food was scarce during his childhood years when most of the subconscious programming is being created.

Is your subconscious beliefs keeping you from reaching your goals and dreams and monetizing your idea?

He would talk about wanting to be rich in one sentence while talking bad about what he called “rich and greedy” people in the next. You can’t attract abundance if you have that attitude about money and wealth. I also believe he didn’t think he was worthy of having what this opportunity could have given him. (Potentially millions or even billions.)

And as a result, his idea never took off and he drained his finances.

When my mom first started her business, people laughed at her. They said to her: Do you really think you could make THAT a business? She was practically ridiculed. Not much later her business was overflowing and she had to franchise in order to be able to keep up with the demands. She became a pioneer in Norway for the type of work she did and practically created a new industry that didn’t exist before her.

My mom had a very different mindset around money. She grew up in Switzerland in what was a much more affluent family than my dad’s. She loved luxury and beautiful things and looked upon money with very different eyes than my dad. I believe this is a huge key as to why she succeeded and my dad didn’t.

Both had brilliant ideas, but I would have to say my dad’s was on a much grander scale than my mom’s idea. Yet, my mom pulled it off, and my dad didn’t.

And you could also say that if my dad had the right connections at the right time, he could have gone from rags to riches overnight. It is possible, but that didn’t happen.

But one thing I know for sure. My mom’s certainty in her idea, her conviction and confidence that she had something very special was contagious and the right people were hungry for what she had to offer. I do believe her poise and confidence in herself is what made her so successful.

My mom also had much more of a business mindset than my dad, who at heart was an artist.

My dad was not as confident in himself. He believed in his idea but he had a lot more limiting beliefs that got in his way.

The moral of the story: I believe anything is possible and you are your own biggest hero or enemy, depending on your mindset.

Your mindset controls more than 90% of your success. You can have the best idea in the world and fail, only to realize someone else took your idea and succeeded with it while you fell on your face.

You can also have ideas that aren’t that special at all, but because of who you are, because of your attitude, confidence and mindset, you can do incredible things with it.

So, listen to your intuition and follow your guidance. Get out of your own way, even when people laugh at you. Chances are they’ll come back later when they see you succeed and ask you: How did you do it?

Keep working on your mind. It’s the train that drives your life and controls your results. That I know for sure.

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