Why You Are Broke

When I was eleven, my father was in prison for misappropriation of funds – a euphemism for taking his clients money to pay his staff.

One night my Mother took my sister and I to the grocery store and bought what seemed like a feast of tropical fruits for us to enjoy after dinner. It seemed like a strange thing to do, given it was an ordinary weeknight.

After dinner Mum spoke the words that changed my view life from that point forward. “Enjoy this meal kids” she said…”I have no idea where the next one is coming from”.

In that most frightening moment I made a declaration to myself that I never would never feel that desperate or impotent again. I vowed that my children would never have to hear such words from my lips.

This defining moment set up for me a pattern of being that drove for me from that day forward.

I set for myself a demand that I would achieve financial independence even though I had no idea what that even looked like.

Anthony Robbins says that people are more motivated when moving away from pain than when moving toward pleasure. I was given an unfair advantage in that regard.

I fail a lot. More than most people. I won’t go into my prolific list of my seemingly insurmountable failures. I will leave that for my book.

I believe what matters is how a person relates to failure. It seems to me that people who succeed over and over again have no personal relationship to failure. Simply put, failure is an event and not a person or personal trait.

In my Internet marketing business I have introduced thousands of people to dozens of companies that provide exceptional products and services. Many of them offer fair and equitable vehicles to earn unlimited income.

So why is my business not a millionaire producing factory?

I believe most people are looking for something external to themselves to generate their success. That’s why expressions like “secrets to success” cause information products to sell like hot cakes.

The reality is that success principles are no longer a secret. Napoleon Hill published Think and Grow Rich in the later years of the world’s deepest financial depression. If you pick up that book today and follow the instructions you will succeed - guaranteed. There are hundreds, maybe thousands of books that you can buy for less than $50 that will give you all of the information you need to be a millionaire or achieve whatever financial goal you aspire to. It is unlikely that you will follow the instructions though.

Most people want to be wealthy about as much as they would enjoy receiving a massage. Receiving a massage equates to how much effort they are willing to devote to attain their wealth.

Every day I hear stories from people about how they spent an amount of money (always a lot in their view) setting themselves up in a business and “it” didn’t work.

On further investigation, they usually gave the business up in about a month or two. They gave up as soon as they had collected enough no’s to support their view that their current life was the best they could do.

Don’t get me wrong. I used to be the same. Problem is, once you see the matrix for what it is, there is no going back.

People are desperate to sell their view of the world. It’s an intoxicating story. We live in a world that supports this impotent view. A view of a world where we don't have enough "stuff".

Many people have no idea that their life has a consequence.

They think they are trying to succeed for themselves. They want to succeed so that their life gets more comfortable.

It doesn’t even occur to them that they might have a responsibility to themselves, the people they love and indeed humanity to get over this self-induced trance. They refuse to wake up from this addictive delusion of lack.

We live in a world of abundant prosperity where opportunity abounds. If you don’t see this truth to be self-evident then you have some self development work to do.

The question is who are you willing to give up being to succeed?

I am going to make a few statements that I believe describe what there is to give up. My assertions are axioms drawn from what I have learned to date. Take what you need and leave the rest. But consider this. The points that aggravate you the most may require deeper investigation.

Aggravation often happens when we are trying to hide something from ourselves. Our ego doesn’t’ want us to be uncomfortable. It will do anything it can to stop us from getting over our limiting beliefs. It sounds exactly like the voice of reason and uses our own voice against us. Consider that aggravation may be a sign that you have hit pay dirt in terms of what there is to get over

• Broke is a lifestyle choice. You chose it and commit to it every day. Sometimes situations happen that take away all of your money. This doesn’t make you broke. This is just a mess you need to clean up. Clean it up and get on with it.
   
• Learning how to sell is vital to succeeding financially. The good news is that you are selling every moment of every day. The bad news is that you are probably selling a small, broke and largely useless view of what is possible for yourself and others. You probably surround yourself with people who support and enable this view. You are addicted to it.  Your conviction in this lie makes you a perfect salesperson for your product. Your product is being broke.
   
• Being broke is not virtuous. It is just being broke. You are no use to the world broke unless you have forsaken worldly goods to make a difference in another way. Forsaking wealth for spiritual attainment is a higher form of wealth. Don’t kid yourself that you have achieved this kind of wealth. Even the Dalai Lama says that you should not become a monk if shirking your worldly responsibilities is your motivation.
   
• The world is not full of people who just want your money. Con artists do exist. The fact that they exist is not an excuse give up on yourself and the world you live in. So maybe you have been ripped off. Maybe it wasn’t just your version of a story. Maybe you really were duped. So what? Do you think you are the lone ranger? Get over it and get on with it.
   
• You haven’t succeeded financially because you don’t care enough about yourself, the people you love or the rest of the world to get off your ass and achieve it. You can’t feed the world or give sight to the poor if you are broke and full of self-pity. You just can’t be bothered and you are making excuses for it.

Then again, I could be wrong.