If you want to reach new heights in your business and professional life the following will be one of the most rewarding and biggest challenges you will face. This last year I read a book, Cracking the Millionaire Code by Robert Allen, who also authored Multiple Streams of Income. Cracking the Millionaire Code is a great read with several tips and ideas scaled for any business. However, there was one challenge presented in this book that really resonated in March of 2016. This one challenge impacted my business in the following ways:

• My cash flow stabilized and almost every single month had a net profit
• Business credit card debt was paid-off completely
• Paid-off a business loan early
• Established a reserve savings account and doubled my goals for savings this year
• Successfully increased my rates while only losing one client (temporarily)
• Went from an average of being 70% booked on a given week to 95-100% booked
• Smashed my production (sales and service) goals for the year
• Opened my own facility

In short, all my goals and hopes for my business that I had set and had been working so hard towards were exceeded. I also experienced several additional successes that occurred in my business that I wasn’t specifically focused on as a result of this challenge.

You might think that the challenge was some sort of bait-and-hook to buy their coaching services, etc. It wasn’t. The authors explain an interesting demographic within millionaires and very successful companies, they call them the “new enlightened wealthy.” The new enlightened wealthy are more philanthropic with their proceeds than your standard millionaire. They give away so much more than others.

Their challenge is to donate 10% of your profits to some sort of nonprofit or cause. Do this each and every month you have a profit. It doesn’t matter if your donation is $10 (assuming a $100 profit) or $5,000 dollars ($50,000 profit). Each month donate 10%. It’s preferred that you do so quietly without much fanfare or drawing attention to the fact that you do this. This seems counterintuitive, how can giving away more money make one more profitable? The only answer is in cosmic accounting. Call it God, Higher Power or Karma or paying it forward. When you use your profits to benefit something you are passionate about in helping others; be it bringing clean water to villages in Africa, the Red Cross, or a nonprofit helping battered women or refugees. Pick one and donate.

You can’t afford to delay. We have such abundance, even if you feel like you’re barely squeaking out a living, compared to others around the world or in your own neighborhood. I urge you to take this challenge and read this book. It’s worked for hundreds of businesses and individuals, it has worked for me and it will work for you.