Brian Tracy says, “You are not born a winner; you are not born
a loser, you are born a chooser.” This also applies to attaining wealth. “Knowledge,
skills and decision making processes ultimately determine your level of
success.” James Oh
Since you have decided to live a
purposeful and meaningful life, you might as well grow your wealth
exponentially at the fastest and highest rate possible. Therefore, it is
appropriate for us to make an informed and intelligent decision right in the
first place.
There are plenty of ways to build wealth. You
can choose the one that you are comfortable with. Examples are through new
business, job, investments and etc. Attaining wealth simply means that you need
to generate income that is much larger than your expenses.
It is a learnable skill to make
appropriate decisions in managing your personal finances. It is basically the
choice you make on every money matter.
Similarly, would you agree that life is a
choice? Every day, we have to make many decisions, one way or the other,
knowingly or unknowingly, impliedly or expressly. No action is also a decision.
If you do, what will you choose?
Let assume that you are given two companies to invest and you tell me
which one is a more viable business;
Assuming that company A with sales revenue of USD 100 million but
with no profit. However, company B with a profit of USD 20,000 out of USD 100 thousand sales. Which company
is a more viable business? Of course the answer is A.
You may ask why? Profitability is actually a measurement
of efficiency, efficacy and effectiveness whereas the revenue is a measurement of market catchment. Company B
with small market catchment can be easily removed from the market, no
matter how high the profit is. Does it make sense to you now? In short, company
B may die off easily. Hence, company A is more valuable than company B.
YOUR
CHOICE HAS EFFECT ON YOUR WEALTH
“May your choices reflect your hopes and
not your fears?” Nelson Mandela.
In short, we need not only look back and
get experience from our pasts but look forward and see hope in our future. No
one can live life without hope and faith. Meanwhile, stay vigilant, resilient
and look around to find means to grow wealth explosively and exponentially.
Most importantly look within ourselves and find our self through listening to
our inner voice. Stop thinking too much and just go where your heart takes you.
By doing so, you will then turn away from
your worries and focus your energy in building your wealth instead. Bear in
mind that worry will not add any value to your issue, but it will drain out
your time, energy, resources unnecessarily. Therefore, it is wiser to use these
saved resources for other useful purposes.
By knowing our true selves and passions,
we can then serve with utmost might and without much effort. This is because we
will truly enjoy what we are doing. That is exactly what we want from life and
we must be grateful with what life is giving us.
Otherwise, we are just swimming against
the current and feel unhappy all the while. Our Conscious Choice will determine
what our choices will be and we will never regret what we have chosen. We will
respond to it without any resistance and objection. In fact, we shall make the
best out of it, making us lack nothing. We will either chose to live now or
never. Because there may not be any second chance.
At times, it may involve simple choices
and at times it may be a difficult one. You may look back and think a situation
more complicated despite it being a simple one. Be cautious with our thoughts.
The greatest enemies we have to overcome on the way to success are not lack of
ability or lack of opportunity but fears of failure and rejection and the
doubts that they trigger.
Our mind is like a garden, we either grow
flowers or weeds. The choice is yours. Make yours a conscious decision. Act
wisely and boldly.
You may ask yourself honestly several
questions below:
- Is your mind your slave or master?
- Is your vitality equal to the
universe?
- Are you aware that the way life
treats you mirrors the way you treat yourself?
Your answers to the above indicate how you
are wired. Mental wiring is the mental conditioning, education, life
experiences, institutional learning and external influences in the course of
life. People knowingly or unknowingly wire themselves up for success or failure,
accomplishment or disappointment. And they are not aware that their false
beliefs, concepts and learning are destroying their opportunities, and fullness
of self-expression.
At times, we do not want to make a stand,
but rather find an easy way to resolve it. It is worthy to note that it is easy
to compromise, but it comes with a cost, at times it may be very costly. The easy
way may not be the right path. The right path is usually the narrow lane and
not like the highway. But the truth is that the choice is very much dependent
on the individual's past experience, background and other reasons best known to
him.
To make our discussion much clearer, below
are the two examples:
i) When it comes to matters of life and
death, do you seek the best doctor or the cheapest doctor? I guess any normal
and rational person will firstly opt for the BEST because they want the
specialized knowledge and precision. This is because you can't afford to
compromise after all, there may not be a second Chance.
ii) Another good example is planes. Do the
engineers or technicians do a thorough and precise check before certifying the
plane fit to fly? Absolutely yes! This is because we cannot afford to let the
plane drop from the sky. Here, is another clear example of no compromising on
standards.
So what about in life when it involves
loved ones? Do we compromise on that or insist on the best? There is always a
"cost" hidden, implied or express for every choice we made. We either
pay it now or later....later always being the higher and longer and sometimes
bigger price.
What would you do for those matters that
affect you most? Compromise or do your best? What cost might be reasonable for
your loved ones?
CAUSE
You have to be clear how your decision affects
your life. So, you tend to be the master of your mind to stay in control. You
will then be more conscious and cautious of your choice. This is because you
will exercise your discretion wisely knowing that it will somehow affect your
wealth as well. You will either adjust and align with the new reality and keep
yourself relevant at all times. Stay ahead and keep abreast of the new
development and grasp every opportunity that comes along.
This is because we rarely do what we
“should”. We do what we “must.” Creating
wealth is a must. The harder you work, the luckier you get. When the winds of
change blow, you will build windmills instead of walls. By strengthening your
mind, you are more capable of making best use of every opportunity to progress
and build your wealth. In this manner, your chance of growing explosively is
much higher. You know from inside that the cause is far more important than the
consequence. This is because the cause will determine the consequence of each
decision you made.
CONSEQUENCE
The consequence is something you can see,
just like the tip of the iceberg. Success is the result of your sacrifices,
efforts, hard work, actions you put on your every action. All these are hidden.
It is a natural result of the accumulation of your tiny decisions you made each
day. Every day you waste is a day you will never get back! Now is the best time
to get to work. Time is essence of growing your wealth explosively from every
resource you have at that material time and the focus you made by directing all
these resources to the area which have the highest potential growth in term of
product, magnitude and opportunity in the long run.
“Wealth is not the goal; the goal is what
you can do with your wealth.” Brad
Sugars.
COMMITMENT
Making
a commitment to your purpose, mission and goal is having a life of richness that comes from nurturing, caring relationships and from seriousness in pursuing your dreams and goals.
It is impossible to
have commitment without involvement. To put yourself in control of your life, you either make a promise and keep
it or work to
achieve your pre-set goal. By following through your commitments, you
are establishing your honour,
courage and strength to make yourself ever more responsible and respectable.
You must understand that the
power of your commitment lies in the strength
that comes from doing what you say, making something
happen, and living
in a way that is true to your beliefs.
Such power of honouring your commitments will enable you to
develop the attitudes and habits that give you what you desired
in life.
I must confess that my achievements are mainly due to my
commitment to everything
I desired in my life. I can sense that my commitment provides me the necessary power and propellant to
live in a way that is true
to
and befitting the values and what matters in
my life.
So, don’t just gain ground, gain height and depth.
CONDITIONING
To
achieve that effect,
we need
to strengthen and recondition ourselves to learn and practice the newly desired attitudes, mind-set and skills.
No
matter what expertise you acquire, you will probably agree that conditioning
plays a huge factor in how you perform.
If you are
not conditioned properly, you will never achieve peak performance in the area you seek! In
short,
conditioning is a process to equip a person to achieve
excellence in that particular area of expertise.
Have you ever pondered why
the small rope can hold a huge elephant?
Well. The truth is when they were
very
young
and much smaller; their master
tied them up with the same rope, which was strong enough to
hold them at that age.
As they
grew up, they were conditioned to
believe they cannot
break away and escape due to their past failures. They
believe the same rope can still hold them, and so
even as adults they never try
to break free.
It is amazing to think that
these animals can
choose to break free at any time, but because they
believed they could not, they remain stuck and
shackled right where they were. These powerful and gigantic creatures have limited its present abilities by the limitations of its past.
Like the elephants, how many of us go through life holding onto a belief that we cannot
do something or anything, simply because we failed
at it
once before? How many of us refuse to
attempt something
new and challenging because of
our so called inhibited mind-set?
I
failed to enter Form 6 in public school due to the National Policy, but luckily I did not fail to make an attempt to
continue my studies despite strong
objection
from my
family,
due to our financial constraints.
I chose
not to
accept
the false boundaries and
limitations created
by my past to pursue my future.
COURAGE TO CHANGE
Do you have the courage to do all the necessary changes about your
financial status? If you don’t, how do you expect your finances to change? The
secret of financial freedom is the courage to make changes.
You
must not think
courage is the absence of fear. In
fact, courage is
having the audacity to take steps in the presence of fear.
Therefore, it is normal and understandable for anyone to experience fear, phobia, discomfort or displeasure when making changes.
Many
still
lack courage to effect changes
despite
knowing that they have the calibre and consistency to
effect change.
Acknowledge your feelings but
move forward anyway. Regularly pick a new behaviour or thought pattern
and focus
on it every day to ease your discomfort. Begin now so
as to build a new
professional, positive
and profound habit.
What lies ahead will always be a mystery.
Don’t be afraid to explore, dream and discover.
Remember always that a man’s world is the
projection of his mind. When his mind is weak, he sees a problem. When his mind
is balance, he sees a challenge. When his mind is strong, he sees an opportunity.
