Wealth File #5
Rich people see opportunities. Poor people see obstacles. Rich people see potential growth. Poor people see potential loss.Rich people focus on the rewards. Poor focus on the risks. It comes down to the age-old question, “Is the glass half empty or half full?” We’re not talking positive thinking here,we’re talking about your habitual perspective on the world.Poor people make choices based upon fear. Their minds are constantly scanning for what is wrong or could go wrong in any situation. Their primary mind-set is “What if it doesn’t work?” or, more often, “It won’t work.” Middle-class people are slightly more optimistic. Their mind-set is “I sure hope this works.”
Rich people, as we’ve said earlier, take responsibility for the results in their lives and act upon the mind-set “It will work because I’ll make it work.” Rich people expect to succeed. They have confidence in their abilities, they have confidence in their creativity, and they believe that should the doo-doo hit the fan, they can find another way to succeed. Generally speaking, the higher the reward, the higher the risk. Because they constantly see opportunity, rich people are willing to take a risk. Rich people believe that, if worse comes to worst, they can always make their money back. Poor people, on the other hand, expect to fail. They lack confidence in themselves and in their abilities. Poor people believe that should things not work out, it would be catastrophic. And because they constantly see obstacles, they are usually unwilling to take a risk. No risk, no reward. For the record, being willing to risk doesn’t necessarily mean that you are willing to lose. Rich people take educated risks. This means that they research, do their due diligence,and make decisions based on solid information and facts.
Do rich people take forever to get educated? No. They do what they can in as short a time as possible, then make an informed decision to go for it or not.
Although poor people claim to be preparing for an opportunity, what they’re usually doing is stalling. They’re scared to death, hemming and hawing for weeks, months, and even years on end, and by then the opportunity usually disappears. Then they rationalize the situation by saying, “I was getting ready.” Sure enough, but while they were “getting ready,” the rich guy got in, got out, and made another fortune.
I know what I’m about to say may sound a little strange considering how much I value self-responsibility. However, I do believe a certain element of what many people call luck is associated with getting rich, or, for that matter, with being successful at anything.
In football, it might be the opposing team’s player fumbling on your own one-yard line with less than a minute to go,allowing your team to win the game. In golf it could be the errant shot that hits an out-of-bounds tree and bounces back onto the green, just three inches from the hole. In business, how many times have you heard of a guy who plops some money down on a piece of land in the boonies,and ten years later, some conglomerate decides it wants to build a shopping center or office building on it? This investor gets rich. So, was it a brilliant business move on his part or sheer luck? My guess is that it’s a bit of both.
The point, however, is that no luck—or anything else worthwhile—will come your way unless you take some form of action. To succeed financially, you have to do something,buy something, or start something. And when you do, is it luck or is it the universe or a higher power supporting you in its miraculous ways for having the courage and commitment to go for it? As far as I’m concerned, who cares what it is. It happens!
Another key principle, pertinent here, is that rich people focus on what they want, while poor people focus on what they don’t want. Again, the universal law states, “What you focus on expands.” Because rich people focus on the opportunities in everything, opportunities abound for them. Their biggest problem is handling all the incredible money making possibilities they see. On the other hand, because poor people focus on the obstacles in everything, obstacles abound for them and their biggest problem is handling all the incredible obstacles they see. It’s simple.
Your field of focus determines what you find in life. Focus on opportunities and that’s what you find. Focus on obstacles and that’s what you find. I’m not saying that you don’t take care of problems. Of course, handle problems as they arise, in the present. But keep your eye on your goal, keep moving toward your target. Put your time and energy into creating what you want. When obstacles arise, handle them,then quickly refocus on your vision.
You do not make your life about solving problems. You don’t spend all your time fighting fires. Those who do, move backward! You spend your time and energy in thought and deed, moving steadily forward,toward your goal. Do you want some simple but extremely rare advice? Here it is: If you want to get rich, focus on making, keeping, and investing your money. If you want to be poor, focus on spending your money.
You can read a thousand books and take a hundred courses on success, but it all boils down to that. Remember, what you focus on expands.
Rich people also understand that you can never know all the information beforehand. In another of our programs,Enlightened Warrior Training, we train people to access their inner power and succeed in spite of anything. In this course we teach a principle known as “Ready, fire, aim!” What do we mean? Get ready the best you can in as short a time as possible; take action; then correct along the way. It’s nuts to think you can know everything that may happen in the future. It’s delusional to believe you can prepare for every circumstance that might someday occur and protect yourself from it. Did you know that there are no straight lines in the universe? Life doesn’t travel in perfectly straight lines. It moves more like a winding river. More often than not,you can only see to the next bend, and only when you reach that next turn can you see more. The idea is to get in the game with whatever you’ve got,from wherever you are. I call this entering the corridor. For example, years ago I was planning on opening an all night dessert café in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I studied location options, the marketplace, and found out what equipment I’d need. I also researched the kinds of cakes, pies, ice creams, and coffees available. The first big problem—I got really fat!
Eating my research wasn’t helpful. So I asked myself, “Harv, what would be the best way to study this business?” Then I heard this guy named Harv, who was obviously a lot smarter than me, answer, “If you really want to learn a business, get into it. You don’t have to own the darn thing from day one.Get in the corridor by getting a job in the arena. You’ll learn more by sweeping up a restaurant and washing dishes than by ten years of research from the outside.” (I told you he was a lot smarter than me.) And that’s what I did. I got a job at Mother Butler’s Pie Shop. I wish I could tell you that they immediately recognized my superb talents and started me as CEO. But alas, somehow they just didn’t see, nor did they care about, my executive leadership skills, and so I began as a busboy.
That’s right,sweeping the floor and clearing dishes. Funny how the power of intention works, isn’t it?
You might think that I must really have had to swallow my pride to do this, but the truth is, I never looked at it that way. I was on a mission to learn the dessert business; I was grateful for the opportunity to learn it on someone else’s“ticket” and make some pocket change to boot. During my tenure as the pie busboy, I spent as much time as possible shooting’ the doo-doo with the manager about revenues and profits, checking boxes to find out the names of the suppliers, and helping the baker at 4:00 a.m., to learn about equipment, ingredients, and problems that could occur.
A full week went by and I guess I was pretty good at my job, because the manager sat me down, fed me some pie(yuck!), and promoted me to...(drum roll please) cashier ! I thought about it long and hard, for exactly a nanosecond, and replied, “Thanks but no thanks.”
First, there was no way I could learn much being stuck behind a cash register. Second, I’d already learned what I came to learn. Mission accomplished! So that’s what I mean by being in the “corridor.” It means entering the arena where you want to be in the future, in any capacity, to get started. This is far and away the best way to learn about a business, because you see it from the inside.
Second, you can make the contacts you need, which you could never have made from the outside.
Third, once you’re in the corridor, many other doors of opportunity may open to you.That is, once you witness what’s really going on, you may discover a niche for yourself that you hadn’t recognized before. Fourth, you may find that you don’t really like this field, and thank goodness you found out before you got in too deep! So which of the above happened for me?
By the time I was done with Mother Butler’s, I couldn’t stand the smell or sight of pie. Second, the baker quit the day after I left, phoned me,and explained that he had just found out about a hot, new piece of exercise equipment known as Gravity Guidance in-version boots (you may have seen Richard Gere hang upside down in these in the movie American Gigolo) and wanted to know if I was interested in looking at them. I checked things out and decided the boots were dynamite, but he wasn’t, so I got involved on my own. I began selling the boots to sporting-goods and department stores. I noticed these retail outlets all had one thing in common—crummy exercise equipment. My brain bells went berserk—“Opportunity, opportunity, opportunity.” Funny how things happen. This was my first experience selling exercise equipment, which eventually led me to opening one of the first retail fitness stores in North America and making my very first million. And to think it all started with me being a busboy at Mother Butler’s Pies Shop! The moral is simple: getting the corridor. You never know what doors will open unto you. I have a motto: “Action always beats inaction.” Rich people get started. They trust that once they get in the game, they can make intelligent decisions in the present moment, make corrections, and adjust their sails along the way. Poor people don’t trust in themselves or their abilities, so they believe they have to know everything in advance, which is virtually impossible. Meanwhile they don’t do squat! In the end, with their positive, “ready, fire, aim,” attitude, rich people take action and usually win. In the end, by telling themselves, “I’m not doing anything until I’ve identified every possible problem and know exactly what to do about it,” poor people never take action and therefore always lose. Rich people see an opportunity, jump on it, and get even richer. As for poor people? They’re still “preparing”!
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