Never mind “manifesting money”, how about becoming rich?

OH NO! I’m about to pick on Steve Pavlina again, I resolved to lay off for awhile, but then he went and posted “How to Manifest Money”, and really…it’s not like I have a choice in the matter now. In it, he advises Playfulness (vis-a-vis, your relationship with money), Knowing (that the money is already there), Detachment (as opposed to desperation), Power, Upgrading, and Congruency (in your beliefs, no wait, in the “vibes your putting out”) – and relates the program in action as he teaches his 10 year old daughter how to forage for loose change on the ground…apparently Steve is a master at it (my daughter is 4 and I’m teaching her chess, linux and how to read a statement of cashflows…)

Anyway, fuck all that new age crap. Even though some of it is true. Forget needing some cash fast to make rent/mortgage/crack/gambling debts whatever, what you really want is to never have to worry about money again. You want financial independence, you want to be rich. Here’s how you do exactly that:

#1 Make A Decision

Instead of sitting around wishing you had more money and fantasizing what you would do with it, make a decision to take control of your own life and go out and change things. Over the years I’ve seen people make amazing personal transformations and turnaround near-poverty conditions to amass enormous personal fortunes. When I ask them “What Happened?” they almost always start with “Well, first off I made a decision…..”

They made a decision to (pick one), lose weight, stop drinking, take control over their own lives, etc etc. But the common theme I find when I talk to a lot of Cinderella stories is that “decision point” that starts everything off. Sometimes there may be a HUGE lag between that initial decision and seeing palpable results, but if you make that decision with conviction, it will at the very least sit around under skin for awhile and percolate in your subconscious.

#2 Identify your most Limiting Impediment and Get Rid of It

There is one glaring issue in your life, probably so painfully obvious that you will dance around it, rationalize it and avoid it and basically do anything other than admitting it’s there and facing it. This is the single, largest impediment between where you are now and where you want to be and on the surface it may have little to do with money.

In my case, I was an alcoholic. I couldn’t make it through a day without booze and once I took a drink I couldn’t stop. Until I did stop though, it was impossible to get to where I am today.

This “one big impediment” can be anything, and what is stopping you from realizing your goals of financial independence may be completely harmless to somebody else (for example, my wife drinks wine like a normal person, I can’t understand it). For you it may be television, drugs, sex, procrastination, negative thinking, gambling – basically something that you habitually do, that if you simply stopped doing that one thing your life would open up in so many ways it would seem almost “pink cloud-ish” for awhile as you get a sense of the possibilities that now lay open before you.

#3  Become financially Literate

This is what you do while you’re undertaking the process of dealing with #2 above. Odds are you’ll need something to fill the “void” that giving up your most crippling addiction/weakness has left in your life, so fill it with knowledge on the financial mechanism of the world. There’s a great Brian Tracy audiobook called “Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires” which is a great introduction to the topic for a meager $4 or so. Then while you’re at it get and read Richard Dobbins’ What Self Made Millionaires Really Think, Know and Do – it’s out of print but you can usually get used copies via Amazon. Finally start reading the first three books of the Rich Dad series.

That’s to start. Basically plan to read about 100 books on wealth building, finance, economics and investing over the course of your ramp-up to being rich. Make a habit of this, never stop it. From here on in you’ll be constantly upgrading your knowledge.

Eventually you will know more about finance, economics and investing than the talking heads on TV and the mutual fund guy down at your bank.

I owe some success to having good mentors over the years, and I still remember years ago one of them telling me with a slight twinkle in his eye, “Son, if you know how the system works, how all these different forces interact [ he was referring to interest rates, inflationary expectations, etc] then it’s almost impossible NOT to make money”.

#4 Be Patient

Understand this now:

Every Single Program that purports to make you rich fast is designed to transfer your money to the person selling the program.

There are no exceptions. If you understand and believe this, move on. If you do not, go back to the top of this section and read that sentence 200 times. Keep doing this until you get it.

How long will it take to become rich?

The most common number I see from people who teach this sort of thing is 7 years. From the time I quit drinking and drugging to the time “my ship came in” was about 6 years. Having said that: you will find that there is not one definite moment when “your ship comes in” when you weren’t rich one moment, you suddenly are the next. It’s a gradual process, but I timed mine to a particular transaction which really locked things in for me. But I had stopped worrying about money a long time before that.

#5 Make a Plan

Yeah, vibrating higher is nice, visualization can be an important tool, “creative imagineering”, um ok. Whatever. The universe is not conspiring to make you rich. (Conversely, wealth is not a zero sum game. If you become rich it does not mean somebody else has to be poor. In fact it’s very nearly the opposite, but I digress…..)

Figure out how you’re going to get rich: starting a business is usually the best way. People try other methods (daytrading, stock market, flipping houses, etc) and usually go bust. Start a business in a field you know and understand, and eventually you can just pay other people to run it, while you collect the profits.

So plan your business and then figure out how you’ll get there.

#6 Set Goals

I have admittedly not been hugely diligent in this department, but I am starting to do this now and the results are staggering. You can shortcut the entire process by starting sooner than I did to set written goals and then work toward them,

#7 Save Money & Have Capital

I’m going to give you two snippets from two “gurus” and you tell me which one is more useful and practical:

Option A) “I never save money because I know I can manifest as much as I need at any time” (Guess who – Steve Pavlina)

Option B) “There is nothing so pathetic as a person who can’t seize an opportunity that has presented itself because he has no capital or savings to act with” (Brian Tracy)

The answer should be “Option B” because it’s the correct one. The path to financial independence is one where you have income flowing into your life whether you work or not. You do that by investing and owning assets that produce cashflow.

Remember earlier when I said I measured my “6 years” to a particular transaction which really “locked things in for me”? Well basically I was presented with an opportunity of a lifetime – a chance to takeover a business I owned a minority interest in. I was not the only minority shareholder who wanted to take over the business. But guess what, I had the seed capital to put together a proposal that flew. The seed capital was essential. I had to go “all in” but I had the ability (savings, capital) to do that. Some of the other guys sitting around the table didn’t. Hence, I now own the business and it’s the centerpiece of my financial engine and I got it at a price that is in retrospect a steal) But without that seed capital sitting on the sidelines, it would never have happened.

While Steve Pavlina may feel saving is a waste of time, the fact is that whatever one has to do to “manifest money” into one’s life, well that requires work, whether you’re scouring the ground for loose change or manifesting a larger amount. What Steve may or may not realize is that as an online guru and information publisher, his savings are in “his list”.

If you ever listen or read online marketing gurus talk about their trade, it all comes down to “their list”, this is their list of subscribers, conference attendees, product purchasers, etc. When guys like Steve Pavlina (or Joe Vitale, or any other info marketer) wants to “manifest abundance into their lives” it usually means pulling a new info product out of their ass, or organizing some touchy-feely seminar and then blasting their list. That’s how they raise money when they need it.

Personally, I prefer recurring revenues and passive income. It comes in whether I’m manifesting abundance or not.

So once all this comes together into a coherent life situation for you, you tie it all up in nice bow and you

Own Assets, Invest Your Capital & Live Your Life

Eventually, your full time job becomes overseeing your capital. You invest it in income producing businesses and assets that produce cashflow, and then you spend the rest of your time living your life.