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.

 

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.

Limitations of Money

“The best and most beautiful things in the world can not be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart” -- Helen Keller

Here now are some of the most important things you can not acquire with money.

A home: Money can and has built the most beautiful houses on this planet but certainly not homes. As you walk along the streets every day, you see many houses but among all these are very few homes. Houses are built with physical, visible and aesthetic materials but homes are built with important but intangible things like love, peace and harmony and the spirit of wellbeing. All these money can not buy.

Wisdom: Money can buy all the books in this word. It can hire the best teachers around but it can not buy wisdom. It can pay for the best schools but it can not make you wise. This is the main reason why anybody can make money buy very few can retain and grow it. That a man is rich does not necessarily make him a wise-man. Money has never been known to buy anyone wisdom.

Happiness: Money can pay for entertainment. It can pay for any type of amusement but it can not buy happiness. Happiness is a thing of the mind that can not be touched. It can only be felt. He who feels it knows it. Many rich people live unhappy lives while many poor people live happily within their means.

Sleep: Money can buy a good bed, provide the best ambience in a room but it can not buy sleep. Most of the wealthiest men and women around can not sleep well without drug inducement which damages their health on the long run.

Appetite: Money can buy the best food around but it can not buy appetite. Many intangible but very important things like good health and peace of mind are the primary determinants of good appetite. All these money can not buy.

Health: Money can buy the best medicine, pay the best doctors and pay for the best hospitals but it certainly can not buy health. If it could, no rich man will ever fall sick.

Marriage: Money can buy you a beautiful and expensive wedding ring but not marriage. Love and affection which are the bed-rocks of any successful marriage are things of the mind and they can not be bought with money.

Friends: Money can provide companions, praise-singers and sycophants but not friends. Friendship is a symbiotic relationship and it requires mutual collaboration and self-respect which money can not buy.

Beauty: Money can buy you the best clothes, cosmetics and general fineries but it can not buy you beauty. The good Lord Himself is in charge of beauty factory and every one knows He does not take bribes and He can not be bought. Many people have paid the supreme price trying to alter their looks by cosmetic surgery. The beauty business is today a multi-billion dollar business all over the world, all in vain attempts to alter God’s hand-work. Their success rate is dismal and it is there for all to see.

Time: Money can buy you a clock but not time. God is a God of equity hence the rich and the poor have only 24 hours in a day. No amount of money can buy additional minute for anyone no matter how rich. Time waits for no one whether rich or poor. God credits us with equal amounts on daily basis. This is what it has been and what it will forever be.

Money Myths and Limitations

“I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor---and rich is better.” -- Sophie Tucker

“A man is usually more careful of his money than he is of his principles.” –Edgar Watson Howe

Economists will tell you that “money is a medium of exchange and a means of deferred payment.” True, but modern civilization has conferred much more on money. People have virtually elevated money to something else. I have no doubt in my mind that nearly everyone knows what money is, it being a universal commodity. But the notion of its importance may vary from person to person. I do not know of anyone that will choose poverty if they had an opportunity to be rich. Money is good no doubt but it is certainly not everything. This article does not advocate the elevation of money to something else hence the necessity to clearly highlight the limitations of money. Peoples’ belief in the importance of money is not helped much by modern fiction writers and many soap operas on television designed for entertainment.

In my secondary school days, we read a lot of James Hadley Chase who wrote a few titles like: “You are dead without money; A whiff of money,” etc. These fictional presentations left indelible impressions in our young minds about the importance of money. Sadly, in this age and time, a lot of people still believe these things. Money is important no doubt but like everything else invented by man, it has its limitations. It is an irony of life that money which readily commands respect as one of the most important of human inventions abysmally fails when it comes to the most important things in life. There is no human invention which receives so much attention, so sought after and generates so much controversy as money. No doubt, money is important but so are its limitations. It is good to look for money but only by legitimate means. It is therefore not advisable to steal, kill or maim in order to have money. Poverty is not a crime but it is infinitely better not to be poor. Today, this wonderful piece of human invention called “money” is the only item that has succeeded in dividing the entire world into two distinct categories: the “haves” and the “have-nots” or the rich and the poor. “Many people have lots of money but they are very poor. The best and most beautiful things in life cannot be seen or even touched.”

In spite of all the limitations of money, it is immensely better to have it than to lack it. Money is good. It is not evil. It is excessive love of money that is evil. Money is an excellent servant but a bad master. “It is good to have money and the things that money can buy, but it is good too to occasionally make sure that you haven’t lost the things money can not buy. Personal prosperity means more than wealth.”

 

Why You Must Always Make Good Choices

There are two sides to every coin, so it is with life. What you see is what you choose to see. Life chooses for you when you hesitate or refuse to choose for yourself. The choice life gives you cannot be the best for you because life does not know your taste. It is you and you alone who know best what you want. The choice of which way to take is yours alone. The choice of what to do and what not to do is also yours. You can choose the way to success or to failure, to wealth or to poverty. There is no such reality as failure unless you accept it as such. This is a clear choice; which is yours alone. To make it rich, you must steer clear of failures and avoid things that failures do. Take a look around you, no doubt you will find that those who have failed in life and are generally living poor have a lot in common. They tend to make poor and unhelpful choices all the time.