Choose to be rich! (questions/answers)

A reader asked me questions about the last post, so here are my answers.

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Why is it that the rich get richer while the poor get poorer?

They have different philosophies about life.

QUESTION: How do you define "philosophy"?

ANSWER: A philosophy is the very structure of a person's life. In other words, we are ALL practicing philosophers, whether we know it or not. Our beliefs are CLEAR from the way we behave every day, the way we spend our time, with whom, doing what, etc. For instance, someone who spends 40 hours working for someone else necessarily BELIEVES that working for someone else is better than running his/her own business. There is no right or wrong here, it's just that the person believes that working for someone else is "right for her." Since belief tends to perpetuate itself because it has great momentum and "reality," it is always difficult for people to change. This is why Jim Rohn says that to change your fortune, you have to change your philosophy.

Poor people have developed the habit of buying, buying, buying. Often, they buy on credit -- that is, they buy with money that they DON'T have!

QUESTION: But why do people spend so much? Why spend on credit?

ANSWER: They are missing something in their lives. I call it "compensatory consumption." Of course, people eventually realize that no amount of consumption of material things or sensations can adequately compensate for what the soul is sorely missing. The soul misses the freedom, the joy and the growth that no longer are possible in many workplaces. There is a spiritual longing or lack, and people try to fulfill it at the physical level. Even in love and relationships, people try to compensate at the physical and emotional level while at the spiritual level, it is often lacking. A soul mate is when all three levels in one human being merges with all three levels in another human being.

QUESTION: Peter, have YOU ever experienced love with a soul mate?

ANSWER: I won't answer that question unless you give me a Kleenex box. So there's your answer! :-)

Rich people, on the other hand, have developed the habit of selling, selling, selling.

QUESTION: Define "selling."

ANSWER: Marketing actually comes before selling. Marketing is all about being "sexy" while selling is all about being "seductive." Being sexy is a perception while seduction is a process. "Sexy" means "obviously having what they desperately want." Indeed, "sexy" doesn't necessarily mean a feminine figure of 36, 24, 36 (although if you do meet such a woman, please give me a call asap!). In other words, marketing is more visual while seduction is more verbal. "Se-ducing" means "to draw to oneself." The art of seduction is a sophisticated art, I teach that in a separate workshop, contact me for details! :-)

I know the following is obvious, but let me state it anyways:

Buying = You lose money
Selling = You gain money

Assuming that everybody wants to gain money, then why is it that most people buy more than they sell? In fact, most people do not sell much.

The only thing they sell is themselves. It's called a job. For instance, a person would sell his labor 8 hours a day in order to receive cash.

The key to financial freedom is to project your mind, your creativity, your ideas, etc. ONTO an object, and then to multiply that object infinitely so as to sell to the masses.

QUESTION: What do you mean by "project your mind"?

ANSWER: My young Padawan, projecting one's mind is a mental art that requires practice. It requires that you connect to your Infinite Source within. To do this, you first have to DISCONNECT from all the sound and noise and chaos that characterize modern society. These distractions also come from your own biography, your "personal history." Forget who you are. Forget what you've done. Be reborn. Be new. Be fresh. Peer into the depth of your soul and you will see a dancing star. This inner star has infinite light, infinite creativity, infinite imagination. You just have to let it express itself. But you've got to capture its expressions by writing it down! This is why I always say that "the jet set is the jot set." People who jot down their ideas, eventually become the elite in society through their highly refined and magnificent wealth creation ability! Yet, they are the creative, cultural, financial, intellectual elite not because they are smarter than you. We all have the SAME infinite creative ability. It's just that they have stopped resisting their own genius, and have practiced the art of allowing their inner star to shine. They have very little ego. They are almost pure souls.

QUESTION: Wow!

ANSWER: Indeed.

This is precisely what Henry Ford did, by creating the assembly-line auto manufacturing system which produced thousands of black T Model cars.

This is what Bill Gates did, with the Windows operating system.

This is what Jeff Bezos did with Amazon. Notice that in this case, the value is co-created by consumers since they "contribute" their computers and Internet connection -- two assets without which the Amazon business model would not work.

The success secret here is to remember that:

1. You become rich by selling
2. The best thing to sell is an object (physical or digital), NOT your person (your time)
3. To create a sellable object, you must project your mind/ideas/creativity/expertise/etc. onto an object
4. You must then find or create a system that delivers that object into as many hands or minds as possible

QUESTION: What do you think of the Internet as a method of delivering value worldwide?

ANSWER: It is indeed that and much more. The Internet or cyberspace is a highly accelerated "manifestational instrument." In other words, wealth manifests itself really, really, really fast. Look at the (young!) multimillionaires behind ventures such as Netscape, Hotmail, Google, Youtube, Skype, Yahoo!, Amazon, etc. There are many more to come, and they will come from outside of America.

Paris Hilton is a very interesting example of mind projection. She's not really projecting anything from her own mind; rather, it is the viewers who are projecting their thoughts and imagination onto her.

Or maybe she's projecting the glamorous image of a beautiful billionaire heiress, a seductive image that appeals to both men and women.

My point is that wealth requires a medium of transmission, and this medium can be a product or an image or a feeling.

In other words, financial freedom requires that a person change the focus from "me" to "media."
But how do you pour who you are into a medium like a book, blog, video, podcast, film, etc.?

This is an area where we can learn a great deal from Hollywood.

Writers, directors, actors, set designers, producers, etc. all work together to create experiential products (movies) that totally immerse people into a quasi-hypnotic universe of sound, images, feelings and words, all weaved into a nice (or horrific) story that touches the soul.

Well, except for Jean-Claude Van Damme movies, where you just feel the urge to hit something. Or maybe it's just me!

Anyways, my point is that to get rich, we all have to become like artists and begin to create something with our mind, our heart and our hands.

The road to financial freedom is, indeed, filled with self-liberating creativity and much imagination and artistry. It is a very enjoyable journey!

But it requires that people stop thinking of themselves as "employees who are working" and
begin to see themselves as "artists who are creating."

QUESTION: Why do most people think of themselves as "workers" and not "creators"?

ANSWER: It's because the industrial revolution, which created the modern plant and office, was based on routinization and standardization. The success of the "system" was based on efficiency, and efficiency requires blind obedience to routines and procedures. In such an environment, creativity was not only discouraged, it was punished by corporate policy. Today, however, due to increasing competition and the proliferation of creativity tools, people have more opportunities to create. People want to create. The creative instinct is an essential part of the human spirit. Organizations that understand this and enable their people to create, will win. Organizations that don't, will be evacuated like a sinking Titanic.

Once you switch your mind and self-concept from "worker" to "creator," I guarantee that you will feel much better and your life will improve at many levels.

QUESTION: What do you mean by "your life will improve at many levels"?

ANSWER: You will shift your mindset or philosophy from a belief that "reality creates me" to one that says "I create my own reality." You will begin to feel the awesome power of your mind to shape your life experience the way you want it to be. This increasing self-confidence and self-appreciation will then attract all positive things and people and events into your life. Many people believe that "everything happens for a reason." It would be more accurate to say that "whatever you are ready for, is ready for you." In other words, a "co-incidence" is nothing more than the intersection of TWO incidents: the Universe is ready to give you what you want, and you are ready to receive it. Most people are not "ready" to receive wealth or abundance or peace or true love or well-being etc. from the Universe, because they have low self-esteem and do not appreciate themselves. Imagine, for instance, hundreds of people lining up in front of your house, and they each carry a "gift": wealth, abundance, fitness, well-being, business success, friendships, etc. -- everything you want in your dream life. However, because you have low self-esteem and do NOT believe you deserve those gifts, you refuse to open the door. This sounds crazy, yet it is a common (and unnecessary!) tragedy. Human beings need to love themselves more. Self-appreciation must become a spiritual discipline that is taught in schools to the young.

You no longer see life as something limited, but as infinite raw materials from which your creative mind selects the right components to create objects of great beauty or great utility to others.

The best part is, throughout this creative endeavour, this artistic expression, you will FEEL like a very beautiful and wealthy being -- and indeed, you are -- and beauty and wealth and well-being will flow into your life.

NOTE: This post was particularly inspired. I encourage you to share it with friends and family!