Quest

I attended T. Harv Eker’s Millionaire Mind Intensive. My girlfriend raved about how amazing this program was and at first I was really excited. This was a three day event and I got first in line. I was disappointed that she wasn’t going to meet me there for the opening session. Still, I kept my chin up and walked into the auditorium.
As soon as the rah rah sessions started I knew I had made a big mistake. I nervously looked around for the door and wondered when an appropriate time would be for me to leave the scene. I like money making and I like marketing but I am not a big fan of rah rah. You know what I am talking about. I mean fist pounding, blood and sweat, soul shaking rah rah sessions.
Tell me what to do to make money and I can learn from it. I take good notes and have good follow through. But don’t ask me to be a cheerleader for prosperity. It makes me feel uneasy.
But as I sat through this tirade it slowly transformed into a soul changing, mind bending, rejuvenating event. It was ground breaking. I can say this because for the first time I realized what money was. Money, or the lack of it, centered around one critical thing for me. All money was at the end of the day was one simple thing.
Service.
This hit me over the head like a ton of bricks. I figured out that all money really was service. If you lacked money or were living in a state of lack then it meant that you were not serving as many people as you should. If you had a steady flow of customers that took your service then money would flow freely to you. Now I realize that many of you out there are pretty smart. I’m just getting this for the first time.
This was absolutely ground breaking to me because I grew up in a steady stream of institutions. I went from Catholic grade school to high school, college and Universities and then got clobbered in the ruthless and humiliating hallways of Corporate America. I was prepped and stuffed for the chopping block under the guise of freewill and freedom of choice.
It never occurred to me to have a free form thought all my own.
Heck, I didn’t even know what money was until I tried living on it. After I got out of the doldrums of society and took the gutsy road of real entrepreneurism I realized how completely naked I was. I really didn’t know what money was or how it functioned. I had people in higher realms of authority to dictate its value to me all of my life.
I place this blame on my college professors who repeatedly brainwashed me to the point of stupidity and uselessness. I had it ingrained upon my thick skull that $40 grand a year was all one really needed in this life or any other life for that matter. Forty grand was enough to keep you fat and happy. I am not making this up. In fact, this was a real number that was being touted around in a number of learning institutions that I attended.
But that’s not the scary part. The scary part to me was that nobody I attended class with at the time ever challenged this paltry amount. That simple fact still disturbs me to this day. It baffles me how so many kids in my age bracket listened to this terrible advice and followed these professors from week to week like blind sheep.
WELCOME TO THE 2000′S – EVERYONE IS A MILLIONAIRE THESE DAYS
I refuse to take guilt for not becoming a millionaire sooner. This recent wave of “millionaire thinking” did not exist when I was involved with institutions. In the 90′s they were still telling kids in college to pursue jobs. The focus was to get a job. That was the function of the University. And to stay more in line and to ensure that you would never have an authentic thought form of your own the University endorsed the mindless Greek fraternity and sorority system.
Thanks guys but no thanks. I avoided that whole scene thank God.
The truth is I never had to pay a dime for any of my friends in college.
Universities were not in the habit or the business of cranking out non-conformist thinking. The job of the University was to create mindless, soulless corporate drones who take mundane jobs and become cogs on the wheel. They were to go out into the world en masse and procreate and create more confused, conforming, in the box thinking individuals to populate “the system”.
So like the mind numbing Nazi soldiers I repeat the infamous words, “I just did what they told me.”
I drank the Universtiy kool aid and got crappy results. This was later reinforced through other forms of institutions including religion and social groups. And would you believe that in just a few years time of leaving the safety of University living that I was beyond miserable, broke and unhappy?
Oh, say it ain’t so.
I am actually embarrassed to say that I partook in formal education in the 90′s. I am embarrassed that I participated in a lot of my institutionalized activities. I would like to erase the time that I spent in those nerve shattering, confusing and ridiculing environments but you only live once. Time does not reverse.
So to take sole blame for my total state of lack makes total sense. But for life to turn out any other way would be nothing short of miraculous. I admit to contributing to my misery but I will tell you that nobody back then ever talked about creating millions of dollars. That did not happen until after 2001. And to be even more accurate nobody really talked about it much until the horrific events of 911.
Now everyone is up my ass about it.
BREAKING FREE FROM THE PRISONS AROUND US
The mental trappings of the self are perhaps the most damaging and soul crushing prisons of them all. You can destroy your mind, body and spirit over your own limiting beliefs about success and failure. These can be reinforced with religious convictions, cultural beliefs, corporate identity, social identity and political idealisms. I can proudly say that I have thrown out a lot of these frameworks of limited ideologies. I can also admit that I do not miss them in the least and feel a good 20 pounds lighter in my chest because of it.
As for the ones I had to leave behind – I am quite confident that they do not miss me.
I am luckier than most people when it comes to breaking free from mental prisons and institutionalized living. I never grasped my cultural roots because I was taken away from them years ago by moving from school to school. Being Native American is more or less meaningless to me as I grew up in a homogenous institutionalized society.
I later ended up leaving my church after 911 after receiving some racial slurs from fellow parishioners. It appears that I was mistaken for being of Middle Eastern descent of which I am not. But I got to thank them for opening my eyes to the type of closed minded and simple short sighted viewpoints of my social peers. I left that whole scene immediately and never looked back.
As for corporate America, I had actually left that years ago. Just like the church I found that I did not miss that much either. I did not feel tied into any type of group and for the first time I really felt like I was truly alone in the world.
I liked that.
I liked that a lot. Because for the first time in my life absolutely nobody was watching me. Best of all nobody was eyeballing what I was up to. I could do whatever I wanted to and I could come and go whenever I pleased. It was exhilarating.
T. Harv Eker talks a bit about breaking out of certain mindsets that inhibit wealth. It is amazing to see this in action and to be able to recognize it. I was pretty sure I could break out of the typical negative thought patterns and do amazing things.
But one thing that really needed to get out of my way was how I viewed money. My professors wanted me to believe that trading time for money was A-OKAY. This is great in theory until you actually try doing it for long periods of time. You sacrifice more than your time. You also fling away your physical life, your sanity and pack yourself in a tiny box and live with limits.
My big take away moment centered around the money issue. I realized that I could have as much money and freedom that I wanted. I just had to find a way to create more service for people that I dealt with. That was so liberating to hear. When I reached that moment I was elated.
We have a saying in Michigan which I find rather disturbing. It goes like this…. “We refuse to partake in Michigan’s sagging economy”. Well, la-dee-dah. I’ll tell you what – you had better start participating in this sagging economy because that is where the money is.
All the money you need is not going to drop out of the sky and fall straight into your hands.
You should wake up each and every morning and praise God above for sending you a recession. All a recession really is at the end of the day is a warning sign. It is a constant reminder that we lack serious leadership. It means that companies and business leaders are living with tired norms and need direction. It also serves as a large road sign that people are looking for new ideas and are open to suggestion.
As long as the old ways aren’t working there is room for improvement. Fortunes are made under these kinds of conditions. So in this type of market you must provide things that aren’t there. The market is receptive to something new and exciting. That means that the time can be right for you and your new crop of goods and services.
That could be some very good news for you. Taking your ideas from concept to money in the bank can become a reality. So I am asking you to take the leap of faith and to start thinking of money as levels of service. If you are providing this for people then you can definitely make a difference in your own personal finances.
Money is service and service is everything.