Your Path to Wealth
Most financial seminar speakers and money experts give useful advice. They can get you excited, give you plans of how to sell yourself or buy certain investments. However, they miss one important detail.
To become a financial success, your plan NEEDS TO INCLUDE HAPPINESS.
“There can be no purpose worth contemplating* which does not include happiness.” — L. Ron Hubbard (*contemplating = ponder or have in mind)
For example, Jack and Alice both want to become millionaires, but their purposes are completely different.
Jack’s Path to Wealth
Jack is 31 and never visits his family. His parents are unhappy and broke. They regretted having four kids and blamed the kids for their financial failures. As a result, Jack is determined to not be like his parents, and to get rich as his highest priority.
Jack’s plan is to work a steady job, save as much as possible and get rich from rental houses. Even though he is slowly becoming wealthy, Jack is just as unhappy as his parents.
He says, “I sell insurance and I really hate my job. All I do is talk about car accidents or house fires. It’s really depressing and I watch the clock every day just waiting to leave. I would quit, but I need this paycheck.”
Jack also complains about his first and only rental home. “My rental is nothing but trouble. It’s got a leaky roof, the toilets keep getting clogged, and I especially hate collecting late rent payments.”
Jack says, “If I stick to this crappy plan, and live like I’m poor, I might have $1 million in the bank when I’m 65. Then I can quit, drink beer and watch TV all day. I’ll finally be happy . . . mainly because I won’t have to work.”
Jack gets so depressed with his path that he says, “Ah, to heck with it. I’ll just start enjoying a little of my retirement now.”
He buys a $10,000 entertainment system, a huge recliner and several cases of beer. Jack enjoys his beer and TV so much that he starts to miss work. He also ignores his rental house because it makes him unhappy.
Alice’s Path to Wealth
Alice is an overworked, underpaid and exhausted third-grade teacher. She and her husband want to become millionaires someday, but Alice is pregnant. Getting rich will have to wait.
Alice has an expensive habit that keeps them in debt. “I’m obsessed with cameras! Ever since I was little, I needed to have a camera in my hands. I feel bad about maxing out our credit card all the time, but I can’t help myself. I’m happiest when I’m creating photographs.”
So when she took time off from her job to have a baby, Alice discovered she had a lot of free time. “I found myself taking photos, and not just of my baby.” She took pictures of the clouds, plants, beaches, balloons, buildings and much more. Her pictures were so beautiful that her friends got her to sell them in local stores.
Alice soon made enough money that she could quit her teaching job. She could raise her daughter while taking pictures. Her big breakthrough came when she and her husband figured out how to sell her beautiful work online.
Because of her happy obsession, she is very productive and has posted more than 4000 photos for sale. People love them so much you can see them in hotels, corporate board rooms and even in movie sets.
Within ten years, she earned her first million. Alice has found her path to wealth. She says, “I have my dream job.”
What Is Your Path to Wealth?
Are you disappointed in your financial progress? Are you struggling to get rich? Is making money a boring drudgery to you?
If so, you CAN get rich by finding a better path. You can continue doing what you are doing, but change your purpose so it includes happiness. Or you can do something else based on a purpose that makes you happy.
Either way, start by discovering purposes that make you happy.
This is the key step to your success with money and everything else. Your path must make you rich AND happy.
Every highly-successful person and self-made multi-millionaire will confirm this fact, including Jack and Alice.
Jack Hits Bottom
Because he keeps missing work, Jack gets fired from his insurance job.
Because he ignores his rental house, the renter stops paying him, and he stops paying the bank. So the bank takes over his rental house.
He doesn’t care until he finally hits bottom.
During another full night of drinking, Jack passes out near his home and gets robbed. He wakes up with no shoes, no wallet and no keys.
He feels sorry for himself and starts to cry. People walk around him as he looks like a homeless, shoeless victim who smells.
Finally, Jack gets hold of himself and says, “That’s IT! Time to change my life or I’m going to wake up dead.”
He gets to work . . .
. . . and starts to bounce back.
Jack goes online and searches for help. He stumbles onto this idea that his path must include happiness.
He thinks about this for a few days and says, “OH! I’ve had no purpose to be happy. I thought I had to suffer until I was 65 so I could enjoy a few happy years of retirement. How stupid is that!”
Jack decides, “I want to make $1 million, BUT I’ll have fun. Not from selling insurance. It has to make me happy.”
A few years later he says, “I found a great job selling big entertainment systems to restaurants, convention centers and homes. I really enjoyed figuring out awesome systems and working with our customers. It only took me a few weeks to earn more than I did with insurance!”
Jack had learned everything about the systems. He learned how to train other employees. He was so happy that he made friends with everyone in the business.
Because of Jack’s enthusiasm, his boss made him a business partner and Jack earns his first million before age 50.
Jack says, “I can’t believe how miserable I was! I’m so glad I straightened out my purpose and got to work.”
The Million-Dollar Question
What can you do to get rich AND be happy while doing it?
Here are 15 ideas:
- If you like your job, become one of the best performers in your field.
- Start or buy a business that you love.
- Use your people skills to raise donations for charities that pay commissions.
- If you love high-tech apps, learn to make your favorites into even better apps.
- Help people find their perfect homes.
- If you love training people, make it your career. Start volunteering to train people at your job until you are indispensable.
- Write books, compose music or build apps that you would love to buy.
- Sell medical devices that save lives and pays high commissions.
- Learn to coach executives, get very good at it, and then start a coaching company.
- Get paid to organize perfect weddings and exciting concerts.
- If you enjoy fixing up houses or being a landlord, learn all you need to know from books and dive in.
- Do whatever it takes to improve the quality of your work until it gives you tremendous pride.
- Use your study skills and read 10-20 of the best investment books of all time. You will know how to successfully invest money in the stock market.
- Help app creators and investors start new companies.
- Start a second career to work in high-pay industries that make you happy, like construction, management consulting, high-end computer programming, health care, engineering, etc.
Five Action Steps to Find Your Path
1. Make a list of everything you can do that would make you rich. Even if you hate the work, add it to the list.
2. Make another list of everything that makes you happy. Even if it does not make money, put it on the list.
3. Find combinations from your two lists that can work together.
4. If nothing matches, repeat the above steps. Work on it for a few minutes each day.
5. Persist until a lightbulb goes off and you see your path to wealth AND happiness.
Be like Jack and Alice. Follow your path and enjoy your success.