Pay Your Taxes – George Fraser, Summer Series Interviews

Pay Your Taxes – George Fraser, Summer Series Interview

Pay Your Taxes – George Fraser, Summer Series Interview

I decided that for the months of  July and August, each week, I will take one of the interviews from my book,  Tales of People Who Get It, and post it on the blog so that you may learn from some of the interviewees. This week we feature George Fraser, who didn’t pay his taxes on time, so the government placed a lien on all his funds. I learn something valuable from each interview I conduct, however,  some words of wisdom from George Fraser gave me what I needed to complete my first book on time “You have to have the discipline to focus on the thing that is in front of you. The second step now becomes your next first step so there is never a second step because you are focused on one thing at a time. If your goal is to write a book, what steps do you have to take to make that goal a reality? Do only one thing at a time because you can only walk down one road at a time, so walk down that road. FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS!” Although interviewees may be doing different things now, their words still hold the wisdom they did seven years ago. I am calling the eight interviews, the Summer Series Interviews.

Related: 

Living an Authentic Life – Gabriel Draven, Summer Series Interviews
Leading Women toward Self-Sufficiency, Anthea Rossouw – Summer Interview Series

In 2007, I published my book, Tales of People Who Get It, which is based on interviews with successful people. The Invisible Mentor blog was born of my book. Let’s take a step back in time to the fall of 2007, I had been thinking about ways to market Tales of People Who Get It and hoping for a burst of inspiration. While I was taking a walk in High Park in Toronto, it popped into my consciousness that Tales of People Who Get It was my Board of Invisible Mentors. What happened, without being aware of it, is that when I faced a problem, I would remember parts of interviews that I had conducted, and would know how to solve that problem. After conducting research, The Invisible Mentor blog was born, and five years later the concept of the invisible mentor has changed.

One of the reasons people say why they love Tales of People Who Get It is that the interviewees are ordinary people so they can see themselves in them. If the interviews resonate with you, consider purchasing your copy of  Tales of People Who Get It because there are over 30 interviews included. Seven years later, I am a better writer, and there are things that I would do differently today with the book, but I took a chance to put my work out to the world!

Pay Your Taxes – George Fraser

~Challenge~

We did not pay our taxes in a timely manner and the federal government placed a lien on all our funds. It handcuffed us in doing business.

~Resolution~

We made a deal with the federal government to pay all back taxes, and based on estimates we paid our quarterly taxes in advance.

~Lessons Learned~

1. Pay taxes on time
2. As a small business, if you withhold paying your taxes, the federal government can force you to go out of business by attaching liens to your financial accounts, preventing you from conducting business
3. The whole process can be very embarrassing
4. Not paying your taxes is one of the biggest mistakes that small businesses make

~How to Integrate Your Personal and Professional Life~

I spend 80 percent of my time on my professional life and 20 percent of my time on my personal life. When I was younger and raising my children the split was 50/50. My children are all grown now and on their own. I have been married for 32 years (should be close to 40 years now), so your relationship with your spouse becomes less intense as you grow old together.

The 80 percent of my time that I spend on my professional life is broken down into 60 percent of my time working on relationships associated with my business. The other 20 percent is spent on logistics of the business and travel.

Because so much of my time is spent away from my personal life, every time I return home it is like a honeymoon – it keeps the romance alive. I love my work so much that I do not consider it to be work. I get tremendous enjoyment from it. Working for me is like playing.

~Formula for Success~

Have a large vision for what you want, but think small. All success begins with small steps. Have dreams, have patience and the willingness to do the work. All great things in life start as a seed. That is, they start small. Most people are not willing to do the work. In a nutshell, the formula for success is large vision, think small and do the work.

~Major Regret~

A major regret that I always have is, knowing that I will never have as much time as I will need to do all the things that I want to do. I will always want more time. Because of this, I live each day as if I am going to die tomorrow. This keeps me on my toes and makes me more productive. I know that I am going to die because that’s inevitable, but I regret it because I cannot do all the things that I want to do.

~Favourite Quote~

My favourite quote is “First things first, second things never.” This is a quote that I made up and I always tell people because I believe in it. Whatever you have to do, break it down into steps and work on the first step. Your only focus is on that first step until it’s completed.

You have to have the discipline to focus on the thing that is in front of you. The second step now becomes your next first step so there is never a second step because you are focused on one thing at a time. If your goal is to write a book, what steps do you have to take to make that goal a reality? Do only one thing at a time because you can only walk down one road at a time, so walk down that road. FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS!

~Influential Book~

There are two books that had a profound impact on my life – <emWinning with People: Discover the People Principles that Work for You Every Time by John Maxwell and Destruction of Black Civilization: Great Issues of a Race from 4500 B.C. to 2000 A.D. by Chancellor Williams. Winning with People is about building relationships and is a seminal text to the work that I do – everything is about relationships. Destruction of Black Civilization helped me to understand what happened in Africa, what happened to what was once a great continent.

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Author Bio: Avil Beckford, an expert interviewer, entrepreneur and published author is passionate about books and professional development, and that’s why she founded The Invisible Mentor and the Virtual Literary World Tour to give you your ideal mentors virtually in the palm of your hands by offering book reviews and book summaries, biographies of wise people and interviews of successful people. Connect with me on Facebook and Twitter.

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