It is so common for the younger generation of farmers to be pressured by family, friends, and even the community to make purchases that are often far too large for them, before they are ready for it. Co-signing on a massive loan for your kids is a great way to set them up for failure. You are throwing them directly into the deep end without teaching them to swim. If you feel like it’s the wrong decision, then don’t make it.

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Just because your parents decided to do things a certain way does not mean you have to as well. Once the kids have returned to work on the family operation, and tried something new that gets instantly shot down, they have only further conditioned them to be employees. You don’t want to leave your operation to an employee. Your kids need to be incentivised with responsibility, leadership, and ownership in the operation if you want them to stick around for 30-40 years.

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You will never be criticized by people doing more than you in life, only those doing less than you will criticize you. The comments area on my Facebook ads were constantly a drain on my time and attention until I realized and accepted that. People can be scared into inaction simply by the fear of how they will be criticized by what they want to do or try. The people that matter are the ones that have walked the path and offer up advice and feedback.

Check out the Impact Legacy Farmer is having on the American Farmer here:  www.legacyfarmer.org

You can’t take the stress with you. There will always be things that trigger your stress and responses from you. When something triggers a response from you, it is almost never the response you want to have. Something that can help derail a bad response to a trigger is thinking back to the other times that the trigger has happened and recognizing the fact that it didn’t stop you in the past and it still won’t now.

Check out the Impact Legacy Farmer is having on the American Farmer here:  www.legacyfarmer.org

When I worked at the bank we were all treated like and trained to think like employees. Do what I tell you to do, do not ask questions, no complaining, and no opinions. How do you think that makes the employee feel? This applies to family businesses too. There is absolutely no incentive in any of that.  

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Right now everyone seems to be dropping tons of money and investing a lot of borrowed money. Just because things are going well at the moment doesn’t mean you should put the entire future of the operation in jeopardy to make a little extra right now. Be sure you are making your decisions based on reality and on your numbers, not emotion and greed.  

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Typically, when you don’t have money, you think that money will solve your problems. Even if someone gave you a ton of money, it would only be a Band-Aid because YOU are the real problem, not the money. This is why we focus so heavily on knowing your numbers, because it allows us to identify and fix the root of the problem, and not just cover it up.

Check out the Impact Legacy Farmer is having on the American Farmer here:  www.legacyfarmer.org

So many in our industry have no idea what the difference is between an estate plan and a will. How many billions in assets are going to go through the court system because one person didn’t set up an estate plan? The recourse can last for years, simply because these things weren’t set up correctly. 

Check out the Impact Legacy Farmer is having on the American Farmer here:  www.legacyfarmer.org

When you grow up in a small town, hearing all kinds of gossip, it conditions you to care about what everyone else thinks of you and your decisions. It causes people to feel guilty, shameful, and to not act on things that need to be acted on. God’s is the only opinion that matters. We all have to face him at the end, and compare ourselves to the version of us that could have been. 

Check out the Impact Legacy Farmer is having on the American Farmer here:  www.legacyfarmer.org

How many of the people that surround you in your life are completely honest about where they are in every aspect of their lives? We are conditioned that mistakes are bad so we just lie about them to ourselves and others, rather than learning from them and sharing what we have learned. Once you decide to be open and honest, you become so much more powerful. 

Check out the Impact Legacy Farmer is having on the American Farmer here:  www.legacyfarmer.org