www.Paul-Bradley.com

Steve Pavlina recently wrote an article called 5 wealth lessons from 20 percent of a millionaire

I’m a big fan of Steve’s site, and I thought this was a great article with some really useful observations, but there were one or two points that I think could be clarified and some parts where Steve’s opinion seems to differ from mine.

Steve’s first point is “It’s damned hard to earn a million dollars from scratch”. Well, despite the fact that I haven’t done it yet, I actually disagree quite strongly with this. I don’t think Steve works very hard - not in the way I understand the word work. I don’t mean to imply he’s not a very driven and motivated individual - it’s abundantly clear from his articles that he is.

What I mean is that to me the term “hard work” implies doing something you don’t want to do, it implies that the things you are doing to create the value that’s earning you the money are things you wouldn’t be doing anyway. I don’t think that’s true for Steve, for me or for a number of people who have made a lot of money doing what they love. I’m not denying there are a lot of people out there who have made a lot of money without doing what they love. Sometimes they have traded their time, health or happiness for that money - often to later wish they could buy back time, health or happiness. It’s possible to make a lot of money like that through a brute force approach, but as in so many other areas brute force is better than nothing - just. When you find your passion and work doing something you love to do, you are productive without any concept of it being work

Steve is right that producing a million dollars worth of real value is a huge challenge - but I think the majority of that challenge lies in finding out what it is that you do well, that you enjoy doing and finding the right channel through which to deliver that value to the people who want it. The greater part of the work lies not in actually creating the value, but in discovering your purpose then finding ways to monetise it.

I want at this point to restate something Steve said which is that if you take this goal seriously you realise that it takes a massive commitment to have a real chance of getting there. There isn’t a financially successful person I can think of who isn’t hugely driven and doggedly persistent in pursuit of what they want, but that doesn’t mean it has to feel like work. Persistence also comes naturally when you find your passion.

Steve’s second point is “Self interest is insufficient motivation”. This may be true for Steve, but it certainly isn’t for a lot of successful people. Steve does mention this briefly, but I think it bears saying again. I share his point of view and I would find it very difficult to get motivated and fired up enough by money alone just because it would mean I could buy more stuff or feel richer, but there are undoubtedly people out there for who money is a big motivator - and it’s not the money itself, it’s the feeling it gives them, be that a sense of achievement, self-esteem, power, pride and status or being able to raise a finger to those who said they couldn’t do it. I think all of those feelings are better obtained through other paths, but there’s no doubt that for some reason they are motivation enough to make a lot of money. In the end, all the money in the world is spent on one thing and one thing only - good feelings. The trouble with making money through this brute force approach is you are not congruent - if what you are doing doesn’t align with your values and purpose you are fighting against yourself, be careful that you don’t substitute a hollow goal for a real purpose.

Steve’s points 3 and 4 are excellent, and if you haven’t read the article yet I’d recommend you go and do so now.

Focusing on creating value, and acting as-if you were already where you wanted to be are essential. These learnings generalise to so many different areas other than money as well. When you project the attitude of someone who is abundant and prosperous in whatever way, be it health, wealth, relationships or spirituality then people and events that fit that self-image will be drawn to you - you must then provide real value too, which is the foundation on which all success rests.

Steve also makes an excellent point about showing no mercy to trolls. People will always attempt to infect you with their petty limiting beliefs and to share their misery and their improverished view of the world with you. The vast majority of people you come into contact with will do this in almost any area in which you decide to do better than them, since they feel threatened by your success and their fragile worldview is threatened by your richer, more colourful more satisfying view of reality. Steve recommends “hanging up” on these people - just hit the delete key and move on. I recommend the same, but I also think that as well as eliminating these negative influences from your life you can also learn to filter them out. In the same way that when you are in a room with a ticking clock for a long time the sound becomes background and you are no longer conscious of it, you can learn to tune out negative influences and opinions and generate such a strong frame for yourself that you overpower them and they become laughable to you. I used to try and avoid negative people who would tell me that something was impossible or that it wouldn’t work, now I tend to listen and smile a wry inner smile knowing that I used to be just like them, I understand that their perspective comes from a place of scarcity and a “can’t” mentality and I also understand what a powerless place that is to be in.

It’s the last thing on my mind to offer up resistance to these kinds of opinions, since resistance just encourages them to push harder and harder, exhausting more of their limited supply of energy. I’m also not going to waste my time explaining anything to them, arguing with them or justifying anything to them - I’m not here to justify myself to anyone apart from me, and my time is too precious to spend trying to teach people things that can’t be taught but which can be learned. Understand that for them, what you are doing IS impossible, because they have chosen to believe it is. Do them a favour and let them have the pleasure of eventually discovering for themselves how these limiting beliefs and perspectives can be overcome.