Do you want to be rich?
Few people will say no – so why is it that more people aren’t rich – and what does it take to become rich?
Let’s start at another place.
Many people feel that they don’t get what they are worth.
Or – they feel that they aren’t worth more than they get – which can stop them doing anything.
Paul McKenna, in his book I can make you rich talks about the idea of a wealth thermostat.
Your wealth thermostat is set to a comfortable level for you. Wherever it is right now tells you what you feel you’re worth.
For example, think about how much money you’d be comfortable losing. Is it $5 or $5,000? How much do you have in the bank. How much do you earn?
Ask yourself where you are right now financially, and you will know where your thermostat is set.
You might even be able to assign yourself a net worth. Hopefully it isn’t negative.
Then, you need to understand why you are where you are.
And the chances are it’s because of the relationship you have with money – which you learned from the time you were a child.
The way your parents thought about money and stuff and saving and spending are all going to have an effect on how you think about those things now.
So far so obvious – you think the way you do because of the way you were brought up. And you’re worth exactly what you are have and are getting right now.
So the first job, if you’re not earning as much as you want to and don’t have a good set of habits and relationship with money, is to fix those things.
Imagine being the kind of person that is comfortable earning and having 2, 5, 10 times as much as you have now.
Examine the thoughts you have about money, why you have them – and change your mind!
That’s what McKenna says, anyway, and there are exercises in the book that walk you through how to reprogram your internal thinking.
So far so good.
But here’s the thing – just thinking you’re worth more doesn’t make you worth more.
You also need to do something.
What is your capacity to create value?.
If you’re a public servant, a salaried person, can you relate what you do to monetary value?
You may do things that are more important than money – but if you want to be wealthy – that may mean you have to do something else that creates value.
And value is determined by the person who receives it.
You have to create value for some else – whether that is making them money or saving them money.
What you do has to make a real difference to someone else.
Then, you must make sure you get a share of the value you create.
In the end, as Bryan Tracy says, everyone works on commission. Even if you’re on a salary, you’re on commission.
You will get a share of the value you create. The more value you create, the bigger your share will be.
Raise money and create a billion dollar company and your 7% founder share will make you rich beyond your wildest dreams.
Create an agency and solve business problems and your fees will be more than a salary could ever be.
Open a shop and sell people what they want and the pennies you make as a margin will mount up.
In summary – you need to change what is inside your mind – how you see yourself so that you feel like you deserve to be wealthy.
But you also need to change what you do on the outside – how you create value because you will only get a share of the value you bring.
Your wealth generator is the combination of what’s inside your mind and what you do on the outside – reprogram both to go from where you are to 1000x.