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Tag: wealth

  • In 1910 someone discovered the science of getting rich

    In 1910 someone discovered the science of getting rich

    Wallace Wattles argues in his book “the science of getting rich” that the universe is abundant and desires to lavish its riches upon us. It appeared in print in 1910 and inspired Rhonda Byrne’s ‘The Secret’. You will also find it for free at Project Gutenberg.

    What you’ll find inside:

    The power of positive thinking

    Wattles advocates for the power of positive thinking and constant focus on one’s goals to attract wealth and success. His mantra start with the following sentence and he repeats it throughout the book.

    „Man can form things in his thought, and by impressing his thought upon formless substance can cause the thing he thinks about to be created“

    Source:
    The Science of Getting Rich
    Wallace D. Wattles

    This might sound familiar, if you read “the secret” or are familiar with the idea of “law of attraction”. But to believe that good things are coming your way in a sense of “Just make a wish” is not what the author is up to.

    For him it is about priming yourself towards what you truly desire. To create a clear and definite mental image of the things you wish to have, to become or to do. Basically he asks you to focus on what you want with all you have. According to him, it is not about how hard you focus, but how firm you believe is.

    Transform from Competitive to a Creative mind

    Wattles states one prerequisite that is true today, as it was 100 years ago: it is to pass from the competitive to the creative mind.

    Have you ever wished for something so bad, that you were envious of others? Or have you wished to be able to do something and you tried so hard, that you didn’t recognised the solution at hand? This is the mindset that Wattles wants you to pass since it is not in harmony with the “formless intelligence” as he calls it.

    Gratitude is for him the key to align your creative mind. When you are grateful, you crowd out envy and competition. Being grateful will make you aware of your life situation and all the positive things around you. This will allow the creative energy to flow through established channels of natural growth and industrial and social order, as he states.

    This sounds very similar to thought shared by Ken Honda in his book “Happy Money“. He also emphasises on gratitude when it comes to your income, but also spending. Also in the book “Psychology of Money” you will find references towards greed vs. learning what you actually really desire.

    Believing is not enough, be useful

    While the creative mind is what enables the law of attraction, it does not imply that you get what you want. “The secret” by Bryan stops here and states, that it is enough to believe and you shall receive. Wattles believes in taking inspired action and living in harmony with nature’s intentions to achieve prosperity and personal growth.

    „In order to receive his own when it shall come to him, man must be active; and this activity can only consist in more than filling his present place.“

    Source:
    The Science of Getting Rich
    Wallace D. Wattles

    Wattles also has a timeless answer how to be active. According to his instructions, you should give everyone a use value in excess of the cash value you receive. If you think about it, he encourages you to contribute to abundance in life. So every of your transactions makes for more life.

    I would simplify this by stating that instead of just being and wishing, you could be useful to others and add your value to life. Being grateful will make you see what you have to offer already today, even if this might not seem much to you, it might mean the world to me or others.

    Conclusion

    • Be aware if your mindset is in the competitive or creative.
    • Establish an habit of gratitude. This can be in form of a question what you are thankful for in the evening or by saying thank you to yourself every time you do something that creates value e.g. spending money or finishing a craft etc.

    Further reading:

  • Get Rich Quick With Millionaire Fastlane

    Get Rich Quick With Millionaire Fastlane

    The author of “the Millionaire FASTLANE” MJ DeMarco sheds some light on how he got wealthy and how you can do the same. It sounds like a “get rich quick” scheme but I was surprised to find many timeless lessons about responsibility, market value and customer centricity.

    What you’ll find inside:

    I got this book as a present and it turned out to be an interesting read on entrepreneurship and how to accommodate wealth over a couple of years instead of decades.

    Millionaires mindset

    In contrast to the past books I shared in the past, DeMarco postulates, that becoming a millionaire will not work out for the most of us via compounding and patience.

    Don’t just chase money; create value—wealth follows those who solve problems for others. #successhabits

    In his view there are three types of paths when it comes to money:

    • sidewalks: Is about poorness, both in time and money. Most people on the sidewalks life for the moment and don’t consider their impact on tomorrow. They life beyond their means.
    • slowlane: The slow lane is an employment. You basically exchange your time and skills for money to work for someone else. As employee you make someone else rich. There is limited growth potential because increases on wages are more or less linear. Also any day has just 24h, so nothing to scale on this side as well.
    • fastlane: The fast lane is a business system allowing exponential growth by definition. Not every business falls into the category of a fast lane. If you are a self-employed electrician you can’t scale your time same as with the slow lane. The important factor is the business system that allows you to generate wealth independent of your time. I see parallels to goals vs. systems post shared earlier.

    3 Timeless lessons learned from this book

    #1 – You are responsible for your life situation. This also includes your financials. If desire to be wealthy but you are not, you should consider changing your behaviour.

    “If you want to keep getting what you’re getting, keep doing what you’re doing” – DeMarco

    With this you don’t have to resign your employment. But first acknowledge the fact that you are in the driver seat of your life. Reflect on your spending habits as a starting point.

    #2 – Be aware of your behaviour as a consumer and experience the creator point-of-view. Because we are all targets to the marketing machinery exposed 24/7 on all channels. Even this blog is an example of me selling you my thought process and you paying with your time and attention. Your mindset about money will change, once you understand that for the most cases, someone is constantly trying to sell something to you. The best way to grasp what this means is becoming a creator, a maker or producer to others. It will sharpen your senses about multiple means around you to address you as a consumer.

    #3 – riding the fastlane is hard work as nothing comes for free. “Rich people got lucky” is something attributed to the wealthy. What most of us neglect is the fact that being wealthy is not an event. It is the aftereffect of a process by which you improving your probabilities to deliver yourself to true wealth. This is to identify a business need, deliver a scaling solution and improve it by talking to your customers until you found the right formula.

    The dark side of the Millionaire FASTLANE

    DeMarco states, that the risk profile of a fast lane strategy isn’t much different from the slow lane but the rewards are far greater. While I agree on the later, I don’t agree with the risk part. It is oversimplified and does not count the individual life situation. This unfortunately leads to the impression that entrepreneurship is glorified without point out enough on the actual risk that is part of the game.

    There is still a lot of opportunities out there to “collect money on the streets”, but still the majority of startups fail. And if you decide to follow that path, you have to accept failure culture as part of you daily life. “Fail early, fail often” they say.

    Summary and takeaways

    • Getting rich quick not only about self employment, but a business system that generates wealth independent of your time contribution.
    • The fast lane strategy is not for everyone, because it requires a high tolerance for coping with failure.
    • Think of habits that fuel your maker mindset to become a producer first and consumer second.

    My next read is “Expert Secrets” by Russel Brunson on how to make profit out of your knowledge.