ART OF GETTING RICH

“In this new millennium the winner is no longer the one who has the most toys, but the one who has the most joys”

Magda's savings account swelled to figures she had never seen the likes of, on top of which she accomplished to have possessions that most people could only dream of, having a huge, stylishly furnished crib in a very nice neighborhood, a dreamobile in the driveway, as well as posh suiting & booting, hi-tech gadgetry, digital this and the latest that. But don't be fooled by the rocks that she got, she was still true to the rock upon which her life was built. With all she'd had going for her, she still had much to be modest about. For in this new millennium the winner is no longer the one who has the most toys, but the one who has the most joys, and success is ultimately measured in terms of happiness and balance. The internal possessions have much more value, since they are a scarce commodity these days.

    In the end, for her to feel truly successful it didn't matter how much she earned, nor how much she possessed, nor how many trophies she had won, but whether she felt she spent her time doing something really meaningful. Even though most people around her chased money at the expense of meaning and measured success by the size of their valet, as far as she was concerned all those ordinary connotations of success could never beat the thrill of having an important effect on humankind, or at least on her community. Common definition of success usually bases itself on external possessions, but for Magda success meant having tamed all the personal demons as well as possessing all the internal weapons [virtues]. Only then a person could feel the true sense of achievement and happiness, and become a magnet for good things in life as opposed to always struggling to get them.

“She saw the things she owned ending up owning her”

    Surely, she enjoyed all of her toys for some time, living a dream life, but it turned out to be in someone else's dream. In spite of everything, this was not her dream. For long time she thought it was, only because she had lost sight of what really mattered. But now that she got things in perspective, she saw the things she owned ending up owning her. In other words, the more she had possession of, the less time she had to enjoy it, since she had to work harder to maintain them. Most days she didn't have a minute to call her own. Although it appeared she had more freedom of choice than ever, somehow that freedom was quite illusory. The sense of duty and responsibility, as much as the craving for more things and more power had consumed her to the point at which she had actually not much choice in the end, but to pursue her riches further. It forced her to put her private life on hold, meaning the best things such as love, friends, traveling and spirituality had to be sacrificed. In the absence of a steady boyfriend by her side, she wore success as a fashion accessory.

    On the whole she was becoming more and more capsized by the way her job was taking over her life. It was starting to get to her. Still, after a while she had the choice to continue on that road or not. Well, since she was of the breed inclined to take the less traveled road, it wasn't like she had a choice there after all. Unlike most people, she wasn't going to settle for a good life; it was a great life that she was after. So she had to make the leap; first of all to see all physical objects as only shadows on the wall of the Plato's cave. With a shift in perspective, she discovered that the shadow play was not the real thing. Even an Aladdin's cave is still a cave, when you come right down to it. It's not the treasure that give us pleasure, but the way we handle it.

“Being rich is having money; being wealthy is having time ”  - Margaret Bonnano

    The passed few years Magda got caught in her career and in doing so she put her spiritual self on a shelf. In the course of the recent events, she couldn't shake off the feeling that she had somehow devoted herself to a wrong cause or that somewhere along the way she took a wrong turn. Just like a bird, we need two wings to move forward – a material and spiritual. Negligence of either one will sooner or later cause a downfall. We need the best of both worlds for happy living. She discovered then that the ladder she was climbing all that time was leaning against the wrong tree. In other words, she didn't feel like working for a company that didn't appreciate her talents and undermined her contribution. Surely she had better things to do with her time. As a result she lost the taste for her work, and was dying a little more each day as she felt trapped in her job as well as betrayed, noticing also that she herself betrayed her own innermost dreams. There was no denying it, the job that had given her so much pleasure before, it was giving her too much distress now. It just goes to show, only that which once gave us joy, gives us sorrow later on, and vice versa. Looks like there's two sides to every coin. Her work was becoming less fun by the day and was no longer in alignment with her deep-seated beliefs, values and principles. She had to draw the line somewhere. However, letting go was easier said than done. Probably because she thought that leaving the firm was in fact quitting rather than letting go. How does one know the difference, is what I want to know.

   All things considered, Magda was seriously thinking about a climb-down and a downshift to a simpler life, because she was more interested in enjoying her life than in climbing some career ladder.

   

The rest of the story shows Magda's journey from being rich to being wealthy

   

O

nce I had shared a story with a poor lady about flying first class to an exotic island, and staying in a bungalow over the water, where I could feed the fish from a window in the floor. I told her that in the context of explaining how I am eligable to give prosperity advices, how money was infinite, and how l could travel in style, and still do many good things and how everything is possible to everyone, given they follow the rules of prosperity.

She was less than impressed with my reasoning, asking if I shared my infinite financial resources with the people living in desperate poverty a few miles down the road from my lavish accommodations, there on the island. She also asked if I would give some of those infinite resources to a single mother who is working two jobs and can't afford to go to the next town, no less exotic islands (meaning: to her).

The basis of comments like these is of course, “You have plenty, and others don't. They need it. You should feel very guilty for this, and start giving away all your money until you are back at the level of the poor people around you”

THIS IS THE KIND OF EVIL BELIEF THAT KEEPS SO MANY PEOPLE BROKE!

It is based on the idea that people who have wealth should disburse it to the unfortunate ones who don't. Why? Because they don't have it. Because they need it. What about earning it?

This is completely anti-prosperity and anti-humanity, because it completely disregards the laws of prosperity and human dignity. Prosperity and dignity are both based upon the premise: value received equals value given (you reap what you sow).

I do give more than my fair share to charities, and still get condemned by poor-minded people for not giving more away, by the same people who give next to nothing. They think I should not enjoy the full benefits of my work and smarts; instead I should just give all my hard earned resources to anyone who asks and needs. Not willing to give in to this unfair idea and to the accusations, I then engaged in a debate with the lady.
We started on the premise that although I give more to the charities than she does (well, she gives nothing), still in her eyes I was a badie, and she was a saint, so to speak.
This is how we argued:

ME: Why should I give to the poor? Do you give them?

LADY: I am poor. I have nothing to give.

ME: Why not? Why are you poor?

LADY: I didn't have the rich parents, nor the proper education.

ME: Neither did I. Neither did more than half of the rich. So what's your real excuse for not providing for the poor?

LADY: Not everyone has the intelligence genes. I guess I am not that smart.

ME: Neither did Einstein, who was dyslexic, and you must know by now that most of the rich are not that intelligent. I know I am not. So what's your real excuse?

LADY: You tell me.

ME: Are you sure you want me to tell you? The truth will hurt you.

LADY: Go on.

ME: Because you are ignorant, because you are stingy or skeptical, and because you are lazy.

LADY: How dare you! Who do you call lazy and stingy?! I work from morning till night to support my family, giving everything to my children before I give to me. And I might not know all the secrets of the world, but I'm not ignorant, I'm not stupid.

ME: I warned you, didn't I? No one wants to hear the truth. Well, the poor are poor, because like you they don't want to accept their own responsibility. They find comfort in playing a victim, and blaming the whole world for their misery. You think you are not stingy because you provide for your family, but it's your family, like it's your arm or your leg, so you are really doing it for yourself. But, you are right, you are a good woman, that was never an issue, I never said you were bad or anything like that. What I meant is this: I have a solution for you that would lead you from poverty to riches, it's a program that costs a bit of money of course. There are also thousands of other rich people who have similar programs for sale. You must have stumbled across them at some point in your life. And what did you do about it? Ignorance is no excuse, when there are so many books and programs out there to give you the know-how. Why didn't you get them? It's probably because you are either stingy, or your priorities are not right - you rather pay for make-up or cigarettes than for knowledge. Or maybe neither of these two are your issue, but something must be, because you are not doing something right if you don't have the right results in your life. You might be someone who doesn't believe other people enough or doubt too much in order to go for those programs, I don't know.

LADY: You think you know everything about me, but you don't know how it is to raise a child alone, how it is to work in a factory day after day, doing double shift, and not being appreciated for it...

ME: Oh, believe me I know how it is. You just described my own mother, who I love dearly. Nevertheless, the truth is, no matter what circumstances are making it hard for you to live your dreams, it is still a matter of investing in yourself, learning and knowing what to do, believing it and doing it. So if you don't have the know-how and faith, and don't do something about it, it makes you ignorant, skeptical and lazy, whether you want to admit it or not.

LADY: You are so rude and arrogant to call me all these things. Just as all the other rich guys out there, thinking money gives them the right to treat people like this.

ME: And how am I treating you any different than you are treating me? You accuse me of being bad from the start. I am the one here who is offering you the key to the lifestyle of your dreams, and what are you offering me, other than condemnation and despise?

LADY: I never wanted anything from you, I can take care of myself. And my family.

ME: I can see that. Why did you come to me then?

LADY: I thought I you could learn something from you, but I see who you are, and I have no interest in following the advice from a person who talks down on people from his thrown, who has no idea how it is in the real world.

ME: And what world do you think I come from and live in?

LADY: I don't care. Surely, not in the world of single mother trying to make ends meet the best she can.

ME: I told you lady, this is the exactly the world I'm came from, with my mother being in your position, so please don't tell me my world is not real and yours is. I feel sympathetic towards you, more so because my mom had to go through what you are going through. This is why I would like to give you a present, my 'Wealth' program, which normally costs over a thousand dollars. I hope it helps you find your way to riches, or at least to better life.

LADY: I don't need your sorry program, or your sympathy. I bet I am more healthy and happy than you are, something your money can't buy.

For your information, I am as healthy as I can be, and happy in love, and in life. But there was no point of arguing that with her, as I saw that whatever I said it rubbed off the wrong way with her. I don't know what in the world did I do wrong to be at the receiving end of her anger and hatred. I guess I shouldn't had answer her question truly, I don't know. Needless to say, with her not accepting my gift the lady missed yet another great chance in life to overcome her disadvantage of not knowing how to get wealthy, and her disadvantage of being too poor to pay for such programs. The key to riches was handed to her, but she threw it away. Talking about casting pearls... Some people prefer to get fish instead of a fishing rod. No wonder they stay needy.

Each of us have been given plenty of opportunities to raise above our circumstances, but we miss them because of our attitude problems, our egos, our victim mentality, our fears, doubts, beliefs... That is to say, each of us has already been given and will be given even more opportunities to make a better living, but it's up to us if we each take the responsibility over our lives and stop the blaming game for our own good, for our own riches.