Who do you THINK you are? In all the wealth creation, self help, motivational writings etc, we all tend to forget the person who has actually obtained wealth. Because most people equate money and luxurious surroundings with happiness, they assume, that anyone with money, should be happy, and if they are not, hard luck, they just do not seem to care. This is a very sad state of affairs, because if we can learn from the already rich, it can assist us with our wealth. As we all know there are plenty of clichs that are derogatory towards the wealthy, but these are mainly used by the people trying to obtain wealth, because they give them as an excuse if they fail. These sayings are really detrimental if you are trying to visualise future goals, because they keep cropping up in our vision, and they send out a negative thought. The idle rich, filthy stinking rich, the smell of money, you cannot buy happiness etc., why on earth would you aspire to become wealthy, if you think that your friends and neighbours, are going to think about you in these negative ways. The unfortunate truth, is that if you do not obtain your wealth correctly, and learn how to cope on the way through, that is exactly what happens. We can look back only one hundred years , when there was a very clear divide between rich and poor, and the poor did not aspire to even think about obtaining wealth. This was the era when many of these sayings evolved. Today things are very different, because in many societies, normal working people, suddenly find themselves, with large amounts of money. We have people winning lotto, we have people making vast amounts of money, in businesses that did not even exist fifteen years ago, for example internet based businesses. The most common way today that people find themselves with a substantial amount of money, is of course through property, and the family home. If someone of my age, had bought two properties when they were 25, today they would be worth possibly $2million. It could be a lot more, if that suburb, had become one of the classier suburbs in the area. This means, that there are lots of millionaires out there, who have not actively done any additional work, to obtain their wealth, but have got it through the rise in property prices. Does the saying idle richapply to them?, I should imagine, that they would be very hurt, if they thought that people were saying that about them. If this person then starts thinking, that they should now act, as they imagine the rich should behave, we have a recipe for disaster. They could alienate their friends, they could move to an area, that is filled with like minded people, who are also struggling for an identity, and they then get on the keeping up with the Jones syndrome. As you can see if you are not prepared for wealth it can create more problems than it solves. Your entire life is governed by one thing, it is in my opinion, the secret to everything, you must be AT PEACE WITH YOURSELF. This is a bit of a sweeping statement but in all my counselling and all the cases that I study, it proves to be true, all happy people, whether they be rich or poor, are at peace with themselves. The person who has wealth thrust upon them gets confused, they are not mentally prepared to handle the situation, and the person who obtains wealth, at the expense of a family life, and just has this ambition to be rich, is also confused, because he arrives, with very few friends, and realises what he has lost, and missed on his way to the top. He may of course feel he can be friends with the person who got his wealth by default, and who happens to live next door, but what will they have in common? One is a high flying jetsetter, and the other is a guy who may have had a very mundane job all his life. I am not saying that they will not be great friends, but I am sure that you will agree that the odds are against it, they will both have very different outlooks on life. How many good stories come out of these enormous lotto type wins? not many. When the winner is interviewed , most of them say that they will not let it change their lives. I have news for you, unless you give it all away, it cannot fail to alter your life, even if it is only replying to all the letters, from your friends and family, telling you why they deserve to have a small portion of your good fortune. The only help given to these people is the offer of a financial planner, to assist them to make more money. All that happens in most cases, is that the winners carry on with their current ways ,but do the things they are doing now to excess. The outcome in a lot of cases is that the money has brought any thing but happiness. As you can see if we are not prepared money can cause a lot of problems. There are situations , where people have worked hard, enjoyed their life on the way through, had a great family life, looked after themselves, and supposedly done everything right, but when it comes to retiring , they have difficulty spending the money that they have accumulated. This is because their thinking suddenly changes, they start thinking of rampant inflation, stock market crashes, a property collapse, or a drop in interest rates. At this point they decide to take it easy, and forgo the retirement they had planned, just in case all these things may happen. Unfortunately they eventually die, and their large amount of money, has become even larger, because none of those things happened. The money is then handed on to their children, who up to this point, have been jogging along quite nicely, they have their vision, everything is rosy, and then someone gives them all this money. If they are not prepared to deal with it, once again it will cause more problems than it solves. There are magazines devoted to following the wealthy and reporting on their misery. These magazines only sell, because we are conditioned to search out this information, to enforce the fact that there is possibly something righteous about our meagre financial position. Without the correct mindset, a majority of people who have obtained mega wealth, are absolutely miserable. Why then, is the richest man in the world, who lives in a mansion worth $260 million so happy. Yes Bill Gates is extremely happy, for one reason, he is at peace with himself and he has a purpose in life. He has given away billions of dollars, and has now retired so that he can spend the rest of his life giving his money away to various projects and charities. The great thing is that the more he gives, the more it encourages other very wealthy people to get involved, and set up their own projects to help people.And there we were saying how horrible the rich were. I agree there are many people who are wealthy that come across as very obnoxious, but a vast majority of people in the mega rich class do have philanthropic traits. So now you have food for though, when you think about rich and poor, give some consideration for the poor wealthy people. |
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