Napoleon Hill in ‘Think and Grow Rich’ dwells on all kinds of topics, stories, examples, and exercise, surprisingly he does not talk about money. This might seem strange for a book about “growing rich.” But here is another one: ‘You Too Can Be Prosperous,’ by Robert Russell. Another great author, and again, it does not have much to do with money at all. One of the keys to creating wealth for yourself is to understand that money is not the goal.
What these authors have come to understand is that creating wealth has very little to do with focusing on money. Really, what it has to do with is your mind, your attitude, and the way you think.
Webster’s Dictionary defines wealth as “an abundant supply.” It does not say an abundant supply of money. Money only has value because we believe it to. It is printed on paper that is actually quite worthless.
So when someone says that they want to make alot of money, what they mean is that they want the things money can be traded for: lot of money, what they mean is that they want the things money can be traded for: the cars, the resorts, the houses. But most of all, they are pursuing the ultimate luxury: the freedom of time to enjoy it.
Therefore, when Bob Proctor says that money is not the real goal, this is precisely what he means.“The goal is not simply amassing wealth, but rather, an ongoing journey of growth, both personal and financial.” This can be a tough concept for many of us to grasp. After all, we have been taught our whole lives that the point of making money is to accumulate as much as we can.“That is looking at it backwards.”
Money consumes us if we do not have it. The price of most products and services is continually increasing and you could care less. Why should you worry about something over which you have absolutely no control? But if you did not have money, you would sure be thinking about it. “It consumes our time and our energy. It reduces our infinite mental and creative powers to a worry machine. This is why you need to break out of this cycle and stop making excuses. This is why you need to realize money is not the goal.”
Many people think you need to have a great deal of money to accomplish anything of value. This simply is not true. Just like water, even small amounts of money applied in the right way can be deceptively powerful. Only a small amount of water rushing in a mountain stream can knock you off your feet. The secret is not in the amount, but the motion.
Money works in exactly this same way. As small amounts are invested in opportunities that produce cash flow, they come together to form a river, which provides a constant stream of wealth. Proctor believes that those who know this Law of Circulation understand that they are a conduit for money to flow through, not a stopping point.
We all know the cliché ‘seeing is believing.’ Proctor reiterates that that is a very skeptical and negative view of the abundant and limitless opportunities life has to offer us. It reechoes that you can only trust what is in front of you, and belittles the significant—even limitless—powers of your imagination, your intuition and creative self.
Proctor bemoans “And yet, we hear it our whole lives over and over. It becomes a part of our thought process and we do not even know it.” Wealthy people understand that this cliché is exactly backward—before you see what you want, you have to internalize it. You must believe in what you can achieve—only then will you see it happen. In other words, wealthy people follow the credo that ‘believing is seeing.’ The only thing that makes you different from a billionaire right now is a wealthy mindset, and the cornerstone of that mindset is belief.
Napoleon Hill in ‘Think and Grow Rich’ reveals that he interviewed hundreds of successful, wealthy people and discovered that while each of them had become successful in a different way, they all had a certain mindset in common. Because they expected success, they attracted opportunities that others did not. They were able to see solutions that others could not.
You need to believe what is already the truth. “Within you is the ability to create a unique path to fabulous wealth. You have to trust yourself and seek out only those who have traveled such a path to help guide your journey.”You also have to be willing to let the comments of critics and naysayers slide off your back. There will be many who will tell you your dreams are unrealistic and your goals too far-fetched. And ‘seeing is believing’ leads you directly to life only based on perception—and for many of us it can be a life we hate. Make a promise now. Listen to yourself first. Reality is what you make it.
The wealthy have the consistent ability to act when opportunities present themselves. Most people think of opportunity as something that arrives with great fanfare—a blaring, obvious event that assaults you with its obviousness.
It is almost as though we expect a giant neon sign flashing the word“opportunity” to appear with a brilliantly-lit arrow to point the way. It does not work that way. That is where awareness becomes important. Proctor knows from personal experience that opportunity slips past each of us every day. “Sometimes it is a whisper that comes during some of the most trying times of your life.”
Successful people often view defeats and failures as opportunities…not obstacles. Their CVs are often messy—they have been fired, thrown out of school. They have often faced significant personal tragedies that would sink the average person—maybe for good. But these people chose to see these trials as challenges to be met and opportunities to be grasped. As a result, through adversity, they prosper.
The wealthy also understand that wealth is a process. It rarely happens overnight (though it certainly has). However, there is a danger in sudden wealth.If you become rich before you have developed the wealthy mindset, then you stand in danger of losing that wealth forever. We have all heard about lottery winners who end up penniless a few years later.
Contemporary culture is filled with celebrities and athletes whose sudden rush to fame and fortune leads them to profligate lifestyles that leaves them poor with much of their lives left to live. These people were never taught to think wealthy. Because of that, they have almost no chance of achieving lasting wealth that frees your mind from the preoccupations and distractions of money forever.
Money is not the goal. It is a tool to achieve our real goal of living our lives according to our dreams and starting to grasp our limitless potential. Financial success is not wealth. It is a consequence of achieving real wealth.
That is what separates the truly wealthy from the rest of us: finances, employment status and time constrains do not control their path to success. Believing is seeing—and they are absolutely focused on these ultimate goals. If you have a wealthy mindset, you do what you love—and make money doing it. It is not the goal—it is the result.
In truth, wealth exists inside you. There are things you love to do; those are the things you would happily do even if you were being paid nothing to do them. The people that create a great deal of wealth are doing exactly that. The money that follows is the logical result of them following their dream. Money is not the dream. We are all hard wired to do something. And we need to find a way to do that “something”.
By Capt Sam Addaih
