What’s in your head?

I’m currently reading about a young man, Tony Hsieh who at age 24 sold a company he co-founded for $265 million. At 34 he sold yet another company he’d co-founded for $1.2 BILLION!

What I’m getting from his story, so far, is not that he’s ultra rich now or that he became a sterling success while most of us were just starting out on measly salaries- no – what I’m getting from his story is how this young man’s mind worked.

Hsieh is one of those people I consider a born entrepreneur.

So let’s skip the part about his billions (very hard to) and focus on the reason I’m writing this. Your success has every (single) thing to do with how your mind works.

You have to decide to be rich (whatever that means to you) and program your mind to think rich.

So many times I have seen poor people squander opportunities to get out of the dumps. It’s sad. It’s heartbreaking and yet I’ve learned that some people – no matter how many opportunities come their way will NEVER ever be rich. Even if money comes to them in hoards and it will leave in hoards.

Some will come so close as to sniff success – even touch it but they will never ever live in the comfort of success. Why? They are poor in their minds.

You will never ever ever ever (you get the infinity I’m trying to illustrate) get a poor person out of poverty until they change their minds.

This is why poverty becomes a generational cycle. This is why countries that are poor now – will probably be poor in at least the next hundred years – unless somehow there’s a shift in how people think.

So what’s the lesson in it for us? Think rich.

Thinking rich means making the decision that you will not squander opportunities.

It means if you’re good at something – find out how to be great at it.

It means learning new things and not being intimidated by failure. It means being bold and ballsy enough to turn down crap offers and mediocre ventures. It means stepping out of the norm – thinking completely out of the box and not being scared of being unpopular.

Thinking rich means not being intimidated by where you are but being empowered by the vision of where you’re going.

It means STOP! scrambling at straws to make meaning of what you feel is a pathetic life and be grateful enough to make the most of the opportunity to have a great life.

You are far greater than you know. You are unique in ways no words could ever fully describe.

You have the specific gifting you need to succeed and the world needs to advance. Yes you!

Never was I so desperate to find ways to earn money as I was after the birth of my son.

I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving him for hours on end and, for me, having a regular job would, most likely, mean that.

Most of my days were spent thinking of how I could become financially independent to the point where I stopped enjoying the time I did have with my son and instead stress took over.

Then I realized the truth of what I’d once heard Keith Johnson say. “One of the reasons you have to be rich is so that you can have the time to do beautiful things.”

The notion of enjoying life upon retirement (in my 60s) did not appeal to me. In fact I didn’t have until 60. My son was here and now and I needed something here and now.

Long story short – the clarity of what I needed to do to earn a healthy income came when my prayer changed to “God give me something to do that will make me money,” to “Father change my mind. So I can think the way I should. To do what I need to do to: 1) Do something I’m passionate about 2) Earn me a healthy income.”

And reluctantly I added: “In that order.”

When you ask for something to do – you may get that thing and only that thing – and maybe whatever other opportunities that specific thing will bring. However when you open yourself up to your mind being changed POW! The sky really is only the beginning!

And as it were I stumbled upon a T.D Jakes teaching on this very subject which you can listen to here.

As I begun to open (and fortify) my mind and as I started to read up on literature that spoke to where I was going – ideas begun to flood in so fast I started walking around with a little book to write everything down. I couldn’t keep up with how fast stuff was flying into my head!

Poor people (generally) look for help from the outside.

Rich people look into themselves and how they can make it big…ger.

That evening I heard Johnson speak, he went on to say two very profound things that I wrote down and have now begun to experience:

  1. Your inner world creates your outer world (i.e. what’s going on in your head is what determines your life’s experiences)
  2. Success is not something you pursue. Success is something you attract by the person you become.

I’d like to leave you with this – you may be looking for investors to get your big idea going – but imagine this: the Creator of the universe (as in every component in it) – you know the Guy who made the stars, the moon, the earth – the ground we walk on – water – air – everyone and everything you see – that Guy so believed in you He decided to be your very first investor. He invested in you an incredible mind and the most remarkable ideas in it.

I reckon it’s about time you cashed in on that investment and start thinking the way you were meant to.

P.S. That book I mentioned earlier is called Delivering Happiness: A path to Profits, Passion and Purpose by Tony Hsieh.

 

Hannah Viviers is a financial journalist and founder of HV Public Speaking

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