Money changes people, sort of. I think we all know someone who would be dangerous around a sudden windfall of cash. The worst thing that can happen to this person is money, the reason being that they will rush out and buy copious unnecessary items to fill up the void that is their soul. Hit the jackpot today, hit the mall tomorrow. I met a woman once who was so caught up in brands and the image of wealth that the moment she came into some money (from an insurance payout following a minor car accident that wasn’t her fault), she announced she was dashing out to buy some “Escader,” “Christian Dinor-ah,” “Lewis Vitton,” and “Prader.” Clearly, she wasn’t able to even pronounce the brands but now she could buy them all and load up her closets, masking a low self-esteem in her “personal house.”
The money wouldn’t help fill up her spiritual bank, her mind and soul. I was saddened by how this woman talked. While I tried to explain to her that the material goods wouldn’t make her happy and satisfied in the end, she wasn’t ready to listen.
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Which brings to an important detail I want to address. You are ready to get real, and get rich! For some, hearing what I have to say about certain things may make you uncomfortable. I may suggest something that goes so against conventional wisdom and your deepest held beliefs that you may want to calm down and sit down. I don’t care what you think or don’t think about what it takes to be rich. My hope is that you learn to dispel at least a few lies and learn how to turn a lessons and my message into action. A car can be supplied and gassed up to the max but it still won’t go anywhere without someone starting the engine and pressing the accelerator.
Getting real is about getting aligned with yourself first and foremost. You can’t get rich unless you come in to who you are, your purpose, and then build your richness from the inside out. We see many celebrities fall from grace when they get a taste of success but don’t have a solid foundation—a grounding rooted in a deep knowing of themselves—to support their continued prosperity. I don’t even care of name names. The tabloids say it all.
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Some people are driven for money. But let’s face it: money isn’t hard to make; assassins, prostitutes, and drug dealers make money. You don’t need to be lucky to make money. People confuse luck with not only success, but also with money. At the end the day, you have to ask yourself what kind of a pillow you want to sleep on and how well you want to sleep at night. I’ve seen so many people walk away from loads of money for this simple reason: they just weren’t happy. All the money in the world can’t buy confidence and self-esteem. It may be human nature to think the grass is greener on the other side, and that money can make a difference. I’m going to show you otherwise.
It’s been argued that $50,000 is the income level above which there’s a law of diminishing returns on the happiness meter. More money doesn’t beget more happiness. While it’s been shown that money buys more happiness when it moves you out of poverty and into the middle class, money loses its purchasing power quickly once you reach $50,000. In other words, there’s an enormous difference in your happiness if you earn $10,000 or $50,000, but an insignificant difference between earning $100,000 and $1 million. In the transition between poverty and mid
