The Seeds of Success and Wealth Sprout from Dreams

“Whatever the mind of a man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”-- Napoleon Hill

Yes indeed! The seeds of success and wealth sprout from dreams. The seeds of big success sprout from big dreams. If you dream the impossible, you achieve the impossible noting quite clearly that “impossibility” is only a thing of the mind. Big dreams challenge the mind and the intellect of man. These are the dreams little minds usually misconstrue as impossible dreams. Whatever one person has succeeded in doing, another person can do same and even better. Your rate of achievement is in direct proportion to the size of your dreams, your passion to follow-up on your dreams and your determination to succeed. Money making follows a similar pattern. If you dream little dreams, you stand a very good chance of making little money. Life is a fair and just employer. It only pays you what you deserve by your own efforts and nothing more. If however you dream big dreams and make follow-up commitments, the results will overwhelm you. Remember always that in the quest for wealth accumulation, those who succeed do not necessarily do different things, they do things differently. This is what has always made the difference and will continue to make the difference between the rich and the poor.

“It is the first duty of every man not to be poor,” posits George Bernard Shaw. He should know because his era witnessed poverty in its cruelest form in human history. Everyone has a clear choice to make and that includes you. World famous motivational speaker and writer Dr. Robert H. Schuller posits that “nothing is impossible.” He has a valid point. Something may appear impossible to you because you are yet to address your mind fully to it. Remember, “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe it can achieve.”

Take the ageless Biblical story of David and Goliath related here slightly out of context. We are told that Goliath was a terrifying giant warrior while David was a tiny shepherd boy. David’s kinsmen were so terrified of Goliath that they felt the wisest thing to do was to avoid him. Many believed it was impossible to confront Goliath. As the story goes, David felt otherwise. While his kinsmen saw Goliath as too big to hit, David saw him as too big to miss. He elected to confront Goliath. Armed with his faith in God and his seemingly impossible dream of ending once and for all the crippling threats from Goliath, he challenged Goliath to a duel. David went into this epic battle armed with only a sling as a weapon. We all know that David killed Goliath and the rest is Biblical history. David dreamed and believed he could and he did. We now know that “the impossible becomes the possible when a man and his God confront a problem.” Whatever is your lot my friend, start dreaming today. The future belongs to dreamers who will have the sense of purpose to actualize their dreams.

 

Why It Pays to Shun Greed

“Make yourself an honest man and then you may be sure there is one rascal less in the world.” –Thomas Carlyle

People do unethical things more out of greed than anything else. It is because of greed that people cut corners, cheat and generally do things that demean their persons and put their businesses in jeopardy. Greed makes people shun ethics, bend the truth, take undue and unnecessary risks for instant gratification. It is greed that lures people into gambling and many other negative vices. Remember the parable of the straw that broke the camel’s back? That is what greed does to the greedy. The following story best illustrates the danger of excessive greed.

“A wealthy farmer was once offered all the land he could walk on in a day provided he returned by sundown to the point at which he started. To get a head start, early the next morning, the farmer started covering ground quickly because he wanted to get as much land as he could. Even though he was tired, he kept going all afternoon because he didn’t want to lose this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to gain more wealth. Late in the afternoon, he remembered that the condition he had to fulfill to get the land was to get back to the starting point by sundown. His greed had gotten him far from the starting point. He started his return journey, keeping an eye on how close he was to sundown. The closer it got to sundown, the faster he ran. He was exhausted and out of breath and he pushed himself beyond the point of endurance. He collapsed upon reaching the starting point and died. He did make it before sundown. He was buried and all the land he needed was a small plot.” Adapted from Shiv Khera, “You can Win”

Let me add that even though this farmer was already wealthy before this extremely greedy adventure, no portion of his wealth followed him into the grave.

 

Why You Must Maintain Good Health

“Men will spend their health getting wealth; then gladly pay all they have earned to get health back.” –Mike Murdock

The first wealth is health so it is imperative to maintain good health at all times. Many people in the name of business have ruined their health. Some have found it impossible to get their health back even with all the money they made. Many are even willing to give all the money back in exchange for good health. The bad news is that it is always too late for this. It is in your best interest health-wise to balance your work schedule. You need a healthy mind and body to be able to work. This you can do by eating good and balanced food in the right proportions at the right time. Avoid doing anything in excess. Smoking, taking drugs and drinking alcohol will help to shorten your life and productive years. Listen to your body signals and form the habit of seeing a Doctor when the signals are not good. Divide your day into three parts of 10 hours for work, 8 hours for sleep and 6 hours for extra-curricular activity. This is the best way to stay healthy.

 

How Much Are You Worth?

“If I were you, I would stand for something. I would count.” -- Benjamin E. Mays

“No one can make you feel inferior without your own consent.” -- Eleanor Roosevelt

One great question, “How much are you worth?” Great answers too but with some quite intriguing. It appears that the first thing that comes to people’s minds when asked this question is the amount of money they have or some other valuable properties they own. These thoughts obviously affect their responses. Very few people place values on themselves as separate and distinct entities devoid of material possessions. Incidentally, this is the only value my question sets out to elicit. Male and female responses have been largely similar with females valuing themselves slightly more. The bottom-line has been that everyone places a very high premium on themselves. However, when you ask how they arrived at the values they placed on themselves; you find that many based their responses on subjective values. Is it then safe to say that a person’s value is inestimable? Yes, but not quite.

In my own way, I have always approached this matter this way. How much will you charge me if I ask you to give me one of your eyes? Monetary values are usually bandied around. Some people even say there is no chance that they will ever sell their eyes. Very valuable eyes indeed! Stretch this further to your hands, legs, liver, lungs etc and above all your brain. Add all up and you will be amazed how valuable you are. If you are this valuable, how come some people always believe they are worthless when it comes to facing the facts of life? Something tells me such people have never bothered for once to value themselves. Anyone who attempts this self-valuation will never again look down on themselves.

 

Why Money is a Good Servant but a Bad Master

“If we are born poor, it is not our fault, but if we die poor, it is!”…… Bill Gates

In his book “You Can Win” Shiv Khera tells an interesting story of men who by all accounts had opportunities to be great but they all ended up in ruin. This is how he tells it:

“In 1923, eight of the wealthiest people in the world met. Their combined wealth, it is estimated, exceeded the wealth of the government of the United States at that time. These men certainly knew how to make a living and accumulate wealth. But let’s examine what happened to them 25 years later.

President of the largest steel company, Charles Schwab, lived on borrowed capital for five years before he died bankrupt.

President of the largest gas company, Howard Hopson, went insane.

One of the greatest commodity traders, Arthur Cotton, died insolvent.

President of the New York Stock Exchange, Richard Whitney, was sent to jail.

A member of the President’s Cabinet, Albert Fall, was pardoned from jail to go home and die in peace.

The greatest “bear” on Wall Street, Jesse Livermore, committed suicide.

President of the world’s greatest monopoly, Ivan Krueger, committed suicide.

President of the Bank of International Settlement, Leon Frazier, committed suicide.”

These are facts, which many business schools will prefer you don’t know. Many people are supposed to learn a lesson or two on why they can not afford to ignore or neglect any of the pillars that provide balance for meaningful existence. But many still do not learn. People have continued to pursue money as if nothing else matters, a direct consequence of which has been one tragedy after another.

The life and times of one of the richest men that ever lived Mr. Aristotle Onassis engendered yet another familiar tragedy. Aristotle Onassis was born on January 20, 1906 in the Greek quarter of Smyrna, an opulent city on the western coast of Turkey to humble parentage. He left home at the age of 17 after a family quarrel and sailed for South America. He arrived in Argentina and went straight into trading on tobacco, a Greek specialty at the time. With an earlier background of poor school grades, riotous and rebellious childhood, he faced a tough life in Argentina. He traded in illegal items particularly liquor and made friends with Turkish Generals who aided his illegal liquor business. He progressed in business and later went into buying old ships and refurbishing them to make them sea-worthy. It is through shipping that he made his fortune because America was then just opening up to Europe for the massive trade that ensued during and after World War II. This period enabled Mr. Onassis to amass so much wealth that grew in leaps and bounds. It was estimated to be worth over 300 million dollars in 1956. At the time if this death, his fortune was in the billions of dollars range.

Mr. Onassis was so engrossed in the business of making money that his marital and family relationships suffered a terrible neglect. Before his death on March 15, 1975, he had gone through three turbulent and heavily negatively publicized marriages. The last, being the marriage to an American former first lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy. Mr. Onassis headed a disjointed and non-functional nuclear family that ended up a complete disaster. His son Alexander died in a plane crash while the only child that survived him Christina despite having a stupendous amount of money inherited from her father died heart-broken and dejected. She was widely quoted before her untimely death that she had realized “money can not buy happiness.” She lived and died very young an unhappy and lonely lady. Wealth to the Onassis family did not bring happiness and peace of mind which money can not buy.

 

The Dangers of Excessive Obsession with Money

“If we are born poor, it is not our fault, but if we die poor, it is!”…… Bill Gates

History is replete with people who ignored being obsessed with money and they paid dearly for it. Many ruined their health in their quest for wealth. Some ruined their homes and families. Some cut corners and were caught by the long arm of the law. They ended up in jails, stigmatized and disgraced for life. Some lost their minds and the will to live then eventually committing suicide. The question to ask when you consider these disastrous consequences is “was it all worth it?” Obviously not! The fact of life which many people choose to ignore to their own peril is that a successful life rests on six pillars. These are the pillars that provide balance, support and all-round strength. If any of these pillars falls out of place or out of sync with the rest, a situation of imbalance occurs. If this happens, no matter how strong the other pillars may be, the individual involved will not enjoy a balanced life. For your life to be successful therefore, it must have the full support of your own pillars of:

Physical disposition: This involves good health and physical wellbeing without which you can not pursue any worthwhile venture. “The first wealth is health.” You must be in sound physical health before you can make meaningful contributions to your welfare and that of society.

Mental disposition: This represents your mental health, wisdom, knowledge and self-worth. Those who have “lost their marbles” can not expect to be useful members of society. An organized society usually puts mentally unfit people away in asylums to prevent them from causing harm to themselves or others.

Financial disposition: This is what some people at times pursue so single-mindedly that they neglect the others. The pursuit of businesses, careers and quest for worldly possessions which make for comfortable living define your financial disposition. Mindless quest for financial wellbeing has led many a man to disgrace and in extreme cases total destruction.

Social disposition: Man is a social animal. He likes to associate or be associated with. He likes to follow or be followed. This is what defines his social responsibility to his community. Society prospers and progresses when the individual members play their roles responsibly. If and when you become anti-social, you become a menace to society. The first thing society does in this circumstance is to put you away. Our prisons and remand homes exist primarily for this purpose.

Family disposition: The family is the nuclear unit that makes up society. When family values start to decay, the society runs into increasing problems of cohesion and security. Our homes, our loved ones and our families serve as legitimate reasons for our continued existence, welfare and wellbeing. If you can not find comfort in your own home, there may be very few other places on earth, if any, where you can find comfort. The family is that important and we should treat it as such.

Spiritual disposition: This represents your value system and beliefs. What you believe in and revere is the ultimate arbiter and moderator of all your actions and or inaction. This is the spiritual. Even if consciously or unconsciously, as a human being, your spiritual disposition plays a role in your welfare and wellbeing. Bestiality sets in when you lose your spiritual direction and become dangerous to yourself and to society.

It is your duty to ensure that all these pillars are strong and in perfect harmony if you want to live a meaningful life. If by your deliberate actions and or inactions one or more of them is neglected, your life will experience a major deficiency which can only be rectified by focusing attention on and re-erecting the missing pillar or pillars. Those who ignored this advice in the past paid a heavy price at the end of the day.

Poverty Choices You Must Avoid

“If we are born poor, it is not our fault, but if we die poor, it is!”…… Bill Gates

Lack of Vision and Imagination sufficient to recognize favorable opportunities: People, who are unable to use their minds positively, stand little or no chance of escaping poverty. The mind is subject to control and manipulation by anyone. You can control your mind when you choose to. That you lack imagination or you are unable to visualize is absolutely your own making. All these can be handled with clear and concise thinking which your mind can do. The only person who can think for you is you. One of God’s greatest gifts to man is his mind. This is the only thing that separates him from beast. Imagination is literally the workshop of the mind where desire is given shape and positive action plan is formulated. If you are incapable of using your mind positively, you may not be able to make money.

Ill-Health: A healthy-mind in a healthy-body is a must for success and wealth creation. Health is a feeling of wellbeing. Anything you do that undermines your good health and wellbeing will push you to failure and poverty. When you have not developed a Positive Mental Attitude, you can’t rest or sleep, you indulge yourself in excessive eating and drinking, you are stressed-up, you do drugs and abuse other substances; you are certainly on the highway to poverty.

Lack of Persistence: If you have the habit of not sticking to the job and you quit at the slightest obstacle, you lack persistence. The basis of persistence is willpower. I have heard that “the will to win is more important than winning.” The will to win is built by persistent desire. If you lack persistence, you are incapable of any worthwhile achievement. The game of life has no stands for spectators. Everyone is an active player. Those who win and get rich are those who have the desire and persistence to win and be rich. It is a clear choice. If you can’t persist, you can hardly achieve any worthwhile venture that will enable you to make money.