Article Presented by:
Willie Crawford
When I was a child, growing up on the farm in North Carolina ( extremely poor), my grandmother's favorite saying seemed to be "Money doesn't grow on trees!"
She was also fond of unintentionally misquoting the Bible and saying "Money is the root of all EVIL!"
As I listened to my elders, and the others around me, I learned that "It was easier for a camel to pass thought the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to get into heaven."
It was gradually hammered into my head that the rich were to be scorned, and that they got that way by stepping on the poor. I also learned that we were "very lucky" that we didn't have many things. For example, we didn't have a telephone, television, a car, or air-conditioning during most of my pre-adult life. My grandmother use to make us feel better by pointing out that "Sleeping under a cold air conditioner would make you sick."
Many of us grew up exposed to similar thinking and similar teachings. We were taught that there was something inherently wrong with being rich.
As I grew older, I was exposed to many very rich people. They taught me that it wasn't wrong to be wealthy, and they also helped me understand that part of our psyche that makes us feel better by blaming others for our problems.
I learned that there was a time in history when many of the very rich did indeed treat the lower classes very badly. This was a time when people were little more than property, and in most countries the rich didn't see a reason to be polite to the working class! Being treated so poorly, the working class did often refer to the upper class by such terms as "stinking rich" and other MUCH harsher terms.
Even today, there are places where the rich do treat the poor as property, or as just "labor." That's the reality, and that's life. Instead of complaining about it, if you find yourself in that predicament, your job is to extract yourself from the extreme poverty... first of all. Then you will have the ability to help the less fortunate.
For me, the process of escaping poverty really began with changing my thought process. I had to retrain my mind, pushing out the old "poverty mentality" and replacing it with a "wealth mentality."
As I spent more and more time around the rich, I learned and began to appreciate some of their sayings. Two that really seemed to stick were:
1) "Rich people have large libraries, poor people have large televisions." I've seen several variations of that saying, but they all pass along the same basic message... that constantly learning new things is one of the keys to moving ahead. Vegetating in front of the television only allows temporary escape as we live our "dream lives" by watching those of others.
Television largely hypnotizes us, and puts us in a state where we can at least temporarily imagine ourselves in the shoes of the actors and actresses. That's the only way that we can mentally get so wrapped up in some of the shows that we watch.
2) "The best thing that I can do for the poor is not be one of them." When I first heard that saying I thought that it was cruel, until I saw the truth in the fact that I cannot help out the poor (financially) unless I'm not poor too. Getting involved in activities that seek to transfer the wealth from the rich to the poor doesn't work. Instead, to escape from poverty you need to learn from the wealthy, and discover ways of creating more wealth.
A big part of the problem is that many of us grew up with a poverty mentality. That mentality teaches that "If you have more, then I must have less." After all, the pie is of a fixed size, so if you get a bigger piece, then that leaves less for me.
The rich know that the pie is limitless. Instead of grabbing for a bigger piece of that pie, you should help the pie to grow bigger. When the pie is bigger, there is naturally more for everyone.
The Internet proved to me that the pie is indeed limitless. Consider creating and selling digital products which is what many of my mentors and I do. When I create and sell an audio course that is digitally downloaded, I am selling part of an endless supply of electrons. After I create an audio product, in downloadable MP3, I can sell a million copies of that product, and there is STILL enough for everyone in the world to have more. By creating that product, I literally produce a pie of unlimited size.
Once you wrap your mind around that concept, a whole new world of possibilities opens up. Being on the Internet also opens you up to a whole new world of possibilities. You'll see that not only is the pie limitless, but it can also be shared across borders. We are no longer confined to the effects of, and restrains imposed by, conditions in our own countries.
As an example, I personally have friends and mentors on several continents. I teach and speak on several continents. Over the next five months, I am scheduled to speak at seminars in Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, The United Kingdom, and all across the United States. I'm also exploring speaking possibilities in the Caribbean, Africa, and South America. For a farm kid that spent most of his youth on welfare (government subsistence) this is very powerful proof that it's not the rich that hold us back.
So, how does a poor farm kid move from extreme poverty to an international speaker who literally has direct access to international financiers, governmental leaders, and celebrities? I did it by letting the rich teach me! I read and studied voraciously. I went through an endless stream of audio tapes, and lately audio CDs, listening to them and studying what they taught over and over again until I actually "wore out" many of the tapes!
In the Internet marketing arena, I studied what people who were living the lifestyle that I wanted were doing. For example, I have a friend, and mentor, over in the U.K. who earns an incredible living from the Internet working just a few hours per week. I let him teach me how. He spends the rest of his time managing an offline business, serving as a politician, and doing other things that are important to him. You can check this friend out at: http://www.StinkingRich3.com/wc <http://www.stinkingrich3.com/wc>
The secret is studying what the wealthy are doing, allowing them to teach you what they are doing, and then doing the same thing. If it works for them, and you do the same thing, then it should also work for you. Right?
Your big challenge is identifying accurately what the rich are actually doing. Often it looks like one thing is the reason for their success, yet when you talk to them, or manage to get close enough to really study them and their habits, you discover things that 99% of the world completely misses about them.
I'm only going to share with you one of my mentors today. That's the one in the U.K. He works VERY few hours at his online business, yet earns more than 99.9% of the "Internet marketers" that I know. He really understands the wealth mentality. He teaches people like me how to get rid of the "poverty mentality" and to develop that wealth mentality. Take a few minutes to get to know one of my mentors now. He's at: http://www.StinkingRich3.com/wc <http://www.stinkingrich3.com/wc>
Another secret to success, and increasing your wealth, is closely managing who you allow to "rub off" on you. Our thinking is heavily influenced by those that we are around every day. If you are around negative people, their constantly spewing negative energy HAS to affect you. If you are constantly exposed to those who have radically changed their lives, they prove to you that you can do it too. That's a big reason why I attend seminars, conferences, and networking events sponsored by the people that I want to be like... those who have the lifestyle that I desire. I encourage you to do the same. When you can't actually be surrounded by them, at a minimum completely IMMERSE yourself in recorded materials that they so generously make available to you. There you have the key to gradually becoming one of the rich, instead of mearely envying them.
About the Author:
Willie Crawford has taught thousands how to build successful online businesses since late-1996. His membership site contains over 30 interviews of leading online marketers sharing their views on "How To Break Into The Internet Marketing Inner Circle." You can access those interviews at: http://TheInternetMarketingInnerCircle.com
