I was introduced to Forex trading back in 2005, and it took a LONG time before I truly understood what I was doing.

Many years later, I settled on a trading approach that worked well enough to pay the bills.

That was when I thought I had “made it”.

But as I continued along my trading journey, I came to realize that I’d painted myself into a corner. Since I was paying the bills with my profits, I literally could not afford to take a break from trading.

Every time the market rallied or dipped 20 pips, I had to be ready to jump into a trade. I was stuck to the computer for hours on end, and had to skip more than a few meals to manage my trades or to keep a lookout for new profit opportunities.

I ended up becoming very high-strung, my personal relationships suffered, and my health deteriorated… I even developed a stomach ulcer before turning 30.

Before I knew it, I had become a slave to the market.

Trading Became Just Another Job

Technically, I didn’t have a boss to answer to. But there was no doubt that the market was calling the shots in my life.

How I felt, when I ate, when I could go to sleep… was all determined by the market.

I had practically no control over my lifestyle.

And one day it hit me…

I had signed up for just another job.

Employees Exchange Their Time For Money

I thought that being a trader meant that I could make money without getting a job. But with the way I was trading, it was no different than having one.

In fact, it was worse. With a job at least, you get a guaranteed paycheck plus sick/vacation days off.

With trading, getting sick means I don’t get paid. And if I go on vacation, I don’t make money.

This made me realize that my approach to trading was flawed.

I wasn’t just trading currencies… I was trading my time for money.

Something had to change.

Entrepreneurs Exchange Leveraged Value For Money

The paradigm shift came when I started thinking like an entrepreneur rather than an employee.

Instead of thinking, “how I do I make an income trading for myself?”, I started thinking, “how do grow my income by providing (trading) value to others?”

This was the mindset shift that enabled me to decouple my income from the time I spend on trading.

Now, instead of trading 10 hours a day with my own capital, I can spend a fraction of that time trading AND have others to copy my trades for a performance fee.

Rather than having to attain, for example, a 4% monthly return on my own capital, I can make the same amount of money (or more) with a 2% return, and with people copying my trades.

Trading Value Can Be Leveraged; Time Cannot

There’s a hard limit to the amount of time and effort I can spend on trading each day.

If I wanted to raise my income trading for just myself, I’d have to increase my capital and/or my returns. The latter is especially difficult to do.

In multiplying the value I provide to trade followers however, I can grow my income to a level far surpassing that of trading just for myself – It is far easier to increase the number of trade followers by 10% than to increase the average monthly return by 1%.

To increase your trading income, starting thinking like an entrepreneur

Paradoxically, my income shot up when I stopped focusing on myself (like an employee) and started focusing on providing value to others (like an entrepreneur).

If you can trade profitably, it makes much more sense to provide a valuable service to others, than to just trade for yourself.

It took me a long time to realize this. Don’t make the same mistake I did.