I was recently running a course for one of my companies. And, weirdly someone totally flipped out about money!

You can imagine the emotional riot the talk of ‘wealth’ and ‘riches’ causes in many people. I get the usual resistant responses (from poor people):

  • “You can’t learn how to be rich; you’re born with it/into it, or not”
  • “Money doesn’t make you happy”
  • “People won’t like me if I make a lot of money”
  • “Wealth isn’t all about money anyway”
  • “Money is hard to come by (insert taxes/recession/redundancy etc here)

And then there was tirade on day 1 on the course itself.

But first, can you relate to any of the above?

  • Have you ever experienced any of these ‘belief-myths’ in your own life?
  • Have you ever felt that you can’t attain both spiritual/happiness and guilt-free material riches?
  • That one of the above has to be sacrificed?

That was certainly the basis of the expletive-ridden tirade I experienced teaching people “How to be Rich” -

I’m (expletive) sick and tired of always being (expletive) poor. I’ve (expletive) had enough of not being able to afford anything. I’m (expletive) exhausted always worrying about my (expletive) bills never being happy because I never have any (expletive) money

Once I picked my jaw up off the floor, I’ll share my reply in a moment

But what I can tell you is this same person, in fact many of the people there, came to me totally anti-commercialism, anti-consumerism, anti-corporatism…

Like making money was bad, like making money must at the expense of other people, like making money is not ‘spiritual’

Maybe you can relate?

And the example that was used was Microsoft:

“Microsoft use consumers as dummies to test their products. They rip people off selling them crap. They make billions of dollars at the expense of everyone. They avoid paying taxes. They make money at the expense of others while billions of people are poor across the planet.”

Now I’ve got 2 big issues to deal with…

Before I reveal these 2 answers, let’s look at what wealth and riches really are:

Wealth and riches can be happiness,  can be a moment of presence, can be a gift, can be a smile, can be love, can be a lesson, can be contentment, can be gratitude, and can be material items that are a physical manifestation of the above

My guess is your ultimate dreams are expensive. Let’s say that you wanted to take your extended family to Necker Island for the once-in-a-lifetime holiday. You can’t get that for free; it’s seriously expensive. So is taking your family to Disneyland. So is giving to charity.

There is an important link between spiritual wealth of material wealth, which leads to my Microsoft answer:

“Do you think Microsoft serve many people on the planet? Do you think Microsoft have changed the lives of millions? Do you think Microsoft have left a long lasting legacy of progress?”

“And have you heard of the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation? The same foundation that Warren Buffett has also backed. The same foundation that is pumping billions and billions of dollars into charitable causes, ventures and social entrepreneurship in the developing world?”

“And would they have been able to achieve this amazing world-changing foundation without first making billions of dollars to be able to give away?”

Microsoft have effectively balanced the material and spiritual sides of true wealth.

All the billions they’ve made are making a huge difference. All the taxes they’ve saved are now making huge difference. All the lives they’ve helped (yours included?) continues to make use difference

And if Bill Gates wants a few private jet flights, a fancy home and a fleet of supercars, he’s spiritually earned it and I say fair enough. Only today, Mark Zuckerberg pledged to donate $45bn of his wealth to Charity.

And this leads me to my reply to the expletive-fuelled rant:

“So much unhappiness in your life is coming from a lack of ‘material wealth’ under the excuse that your being ‘spiritual’

Problem is, a lack of material wealth can in fact be anti-spiritual, because you become overly reliant on the material gain of others to support yourself, you take more than you gave, which is the opposition of spirituality

If you were to manifest more material wealth you can live a more spiritual life. You could give more away to do more of the spiritual things you love, without the worry of guilt and shame of having no money. You can then, and only then, make a big difference to others who we share this amazing planet with.”

I’m not saying this person had an immediate breakthrough, but over the course of the six-day course her attitude, mindset and focus of money totally shifted

I’m looking forward to seeing her go out make huge amounts of money guilt free with a massive smile on her face, and make a huge difference to this planet

And I say this to you:

Go and do the same thing. Go make tonnes of money. Go serve others at a much bigger level. Create a huge vision and make a difference on this planet

You’re only here for a short time so live life to the absolute richest, and have your legacy live on way beyond your time here

And I’m grateful to be a small part of that. I believe in you my friend