The Mindset to Live FreeNow then, you want to know what the big threat is to you getting to your retirement? What this drain is that makes people miss their exit to wealth? I’ll tell you: Yourself. I’m not being a smart alec. It’s absolutely true. As you start to acquire a little money, every instinct in your body will be driving you to spend the loot somehow. Your pockets will be on fire- all those things out there- a new car, stereo...... Stop right there. You’ve just fallen into the trap. There is an invisible threshold or ‘Chinese wall’ for every person’s wallet that makes them ‘sell out’- they give in to the “well, I might be dead tomorrow” excuse and spend the money they’ve built up through saving and investing it. The amount is different for everyone, but for the majority, it seems to be around $5,000. When people see this amount in their accounts, it just gets too much. They start to dream up ways to fritter it away. Have you noticed how the first question people ask when they discover that you’ve received even the slightest amount of money is “What will you spend it on?!”- it's just our nature. In your current position, you could well be looking at a figure like $5,000 and say, “I'd be grateful for that alone”. Believe me, once you finish this course and get under way with your plans, 5k will soon seem to be loose change- especially when you see how easily it can be acquired- and the danger is to say “easy come, easy go”. Put yourself in that position. What is your ‘sell out’ point? Let me re-phrase my question: Have you heard about the power of compounding? Let me ask you a question to demonstrate this power: You have a choice. You can work for $1,000 a day for the next 20 days OR you can work for just $1 a day for the next 20 days but compounding by double each day. Which do you want? Make a decision before reading on. Let’s see how the two options work out:
Those who chose the first option will fail in their endeavor and you must listen closely to this level to rectify this approach. Those who chose the second need to appreciate why and how important it is that they make this approach central to their daily life. If you take the cash out too soon before reaching your freedom figure you will never make it- you’ll be back to square one- I bet you would have been quite tempted to pull money out at day 15 ($16,384) wouldn’t you? But you were only five steps to $524,288! Don’t reward success by undoing accomplishments. It’s the equivalent of sticking to a diet so well that you reward yourself with a huge piece of chocolate cake! You know the power of compounding, so let’s make it work in your daily life. Anyone for Marshmallows? During the 1960’s an interesting experiment was conducted with the most conclusive and revealing results. On the Stanford University Campus, Psychologist Dr Walter Mischel tested a class of four-year olds and then tracked them periodically through their lives. The experiment itself was simple. The class of youngsters were presented with a single marshmallow each by their teacher and then given a choice. They could have another marshmallow upon his return if they waited patiently for him to do an errand. Alternatively, they could have only that one marshmallow, but they could have it now if they didn’t want to wait. They were left alone in the room then with their single marshmallow while the teacher left the room for fifteen minutes. Some children covered their eyes or sung to distract themselves, while others gave in and simply ate the marshmallow. Those children that still had not eaten their marshmallow upon the teacher’s return, were rewarded with a second. Many years later, the children that had waited were compared to those that hadn’t and the results were dramatic. Those that had waited were generally far more successful in every aspect of their lives. It’s not too late for you to adopt a new concept in the way you live in order to get you to your freedom figure. I call this concept ‘pleasure postponement’. In other words, the ability to delay indulging yourself today so that you may indulge yourself twice as much tomorrow. An example of pleasure postponement is that of full-time study for a qualification to further your career- it may mean that in the short-term you are not as well-off as your counterparts who are in employment, but in the long-term, you will be better off than them because of your studies. The wealthy are disciplined. To get to where they are, they temporarily postponed certain pleasures to create even more pleasure in the future. That future comes round quicker than you may think and those disciplined people who are able to keep their hands off the single marshmallow, are soon able to enjoy their two marshmallow reward. Meanwhile, those that chose to simply grab the marshmallow as soon as it was offered, look in envy at the ‘lucky’ people with two marshmallows and become bitter about this (they then probably vote for politicians that offer to steal marshmallows by force from people with 'too many' and redistribute them). You need to have the clarity and focus to see this through without giving in to pressure. When you see friends and family buying new cars and clothes etc, will you be able to resist not joining in? Or do you have the depth of character to think single-mindedly about the long-term goal? The majority have such little personal power, the only way they can cheer up their dreary lives is to spend money (usually borrowed money) on a load of consumer junk for comfort that will no doubt be found on the scrap-heap or a garage sale soon after. When I think about the thousands of dollars I wasted in this way I could cry...... The wealthy spend relatively little because they have discovered the value of money the hard way! If you look at the backgrounds behind the most wealthy 100 people in the USA, you will see that the majority started off with nothing. You see, once you liberate yourself from the need to work and start to live a fulfilled and happy life doing the things you actually want to, you won’t need the comforting that buying loads of consumer junk gives you. Don’t confuse lifestyle with wealth. Big incomes and big lifestyles don’t necessarily mean that you are actually worth very much. What’s the point in earning $100,000 a year if you owe $105,000? Many of the world’s millionaires live below their means. It is one of life’s little ironies that many of our trivial longings and so-called pleasures are substitutes for deeper longings. If you think back to Level Two, I touched on this then when I asked you to consider how you were really meant to spend each day of your life. Okay, you’ve seen the logic in the principle of pleasure postponement, but something tells me that won’t be enough to make you temporarily postpone your spending habits. Maybe you will after I make you a little angry? Ego Trips So you can now see the fact that one of the main reasons most people spend excessive amounts of money is to make themselves feel better about their dull lives- ‘retail therapy’ as it is endearingly branded by so many. But it goes deeper. Yes, I’m going to take you to that dark side of life again! Have you stopped to ask why people feel so bad about themselves that they become ‘retail addicts’? Could it be the fact that we watch so much television that we can no longer tell the difference between reality and fiction? I am of course talking about advertising. As you know, I believe in capitalism in the form of a fair trade of values and freedom of choice, so I don’t have a problem with anyone wanting to make a fair profit. What I do have a problem with is people trying to do that dishonestly. And that my friends, is exactly what so many large corporations do to you daily. It used to be the case that an advertisement for a product was simply that- in that it actually described the merits of a product and how it could be of usefulness to you. Have you heard of ‘market profiles’? This is the modern technique of advertising whereby the product itself is a secondary consideration. The advertising agencies first think of an image that their customers want, and then use the advert to coerce people into thinking that this product will give it to you. For example: Driving this boring family sedan will make strange exotic women attracted to you. Eating this food will make you lose weight and enable you to be as attractive as the model that is shown eating it. Sex sells. It is a common theme and at the heart of most commercials. But the way it is used is by displaying seemingly perfect men and women (after hours of make-up, lighting, fake tan and plenty of air-brushing) to make us feel inadequate and so crave the product in question to make ourselves ‘better’ people. Of course most people know deep down that just because you buy a certain product you won’t magically become a better person, but they prefer to buy the illusion and the advertisers know it. I have to mention this particular beauty product I came across the other day. It was made by a large, well-known cosmetics firm and was actually labeled “Anti-Gravity Cream”. Well I never! It’s amazing what these people can do these days- actually defy the laws of physics even! The laughable thing is that people are buying this product in droves and those very same people would probably dismiss wealth creation courses such as this one as some sort of dishonest ‘get-rich-quick’ scam! If that cream isn’t such a scam, I don't know what is..... Anyway, back to the main thread. When people find that these products didn’t actually turn them into Pam Anderson or Brad Pitt, what do they do? They feel inadequate once more and are ready for another product to make them feel better! Great news for the companies in question though. Are you addicted to image? The corporations can only use this weapon against you if you are weak and unintelligent enough to be taken in by the con. A League Of Power Graduate is completely happy with who they are, and so is unaffected. They are in firm control of their lives and live in the real world. The real world seems undesirable only to the weak and pathetic who are helpless prey to those that would manipulate them to extract value. The real world is a fantastic place! Knowledge of it not only gives you clarity of mind, it gives you the confidence and happiness to believe in yourself- who and what you are, which ironically, makes you more attractive to the opposite sex! More importantly, it is a vital philosophy used by many of the world’s wealthy to get to where they are now. Dealing in illusions is not a sound base for financial decisions! As well as image, both sexes have a certain weakness. With men it’s hi-tech gadgets, and with women it’s fashion, generally speaking. To the men out there, all I have to say is “Walk away!”. When you're out shopping, can’t you hear that voice calling you from Best Buy? “Psst! Come in and spend $500 on a new TV/stereo/computer etc”. Come on guys, you know what I'm talking about! If you can just resist that initial impulse and then visualize it sitting on a scrap-heap at a later date, you’re home and dry! To the women out there, without wishing to be sexist, “How many little black dresses can a wardrobe hold exactly?”. Also, I hate to be the one to break this to you but “Yes, you can have too many hats, gloves and shoes!” Furthermore, what is fashion? Is it not the need to belong to a collective mind for approval of others? Do you have a mind of your own or would you prefer other people to tell you what is acceptable to wear and what isn’t? This school of thought is vital for the successful investor to make a killing as you will discover! Make it Brief, Make it Juicy and Make it Up! That’s the unofficial motto of the media and it says it all. The media are responsible for shielding you from the truth and encouraging you to waste precious moments of your irreplaceable life worrying and pontificating about the latest ‘hot issue’ they have chosen for you. And this is great news for us- media over-reaction to events is what opens up fantastic investment opportunities! You already know that the media exists solely to make a profit, and that they do this from the price of the newspaper and by selling advertising space. But let’s look at exactly how they get you to buy. Fear and guilt are the weapons they use to make you buy. Fear of anything new is present in most people and they therefore flock to see what this change is. Guilt is used by writing shock headlines about one of the thousand horrible things that happened yesterday to make you feel bad- if you buy the paper it eases your conscience. A League Of Power Graduate fears nothing because they see the truth. They never feel guilt because it is a wasted emotion and they take responsibility for their own actions and stand by them. Worse still, many of these stories are either fictional or completely distorted to create a dramatic effect. Allow me to illustrate. A high-profile businessman is questioned by the press as to why he laid-off two-thousand employees. He replied, that it was necessary for the company to survive due to the fact that a large contract had just been lost. When asked how he felt about the families of the laid-off workers, he replied that he deeply empathized but his concern has to be for the survival of the company or even more people would lose their jobs. The next morning, the headline rings out: DISGUSTING! FAT-CAT BOSS THREATENS MORE JOB LOSSES- Not quite a lie exactly, but I don’t think that’s what the man said, do you? Well it sure beats the truth! Truth doesn’t sell newspapers- people prefer to subscribe to fantasy. You can use the garbage they churn out either to work for you or against you. Carry on believing and reacting to the media. Stay in the mainstream of life. Just don’t complain a few years down the line if you’re in the same situation as now. You can only make an accurate investment decision based on fact. The wealthy know very well that the mainstream media is not the place to find them. That’s Entertainment! Of course, the media encompass a wide variety of guises. Entertainment is one I want to give an airing. Now you may be asking, “For Pete's sake! Is there anything this man doesn’t have a problem with?!”- I have a problem with anything that threatens to stop you making it to financial freedom- that’s my job! Just hear me out. You are regularly exposed to story lines with distinctly Socialist undertones (= wealth is a bad thing). This does not affect your conscious mind, but rather your subconscious mind and therefore affects your behavior without you knowing. Notice how self-made rich people are continuously portrayed as evil, bossy, selfish, mercenary, unhappy, dysfunctional, lonely, pompous pigs who always get their comeuppance. Well excuse me ladies and gents, but that is a crock! The TV and film producers aren’t bothered about truth, all they want is something that people will enjoy watching or reading and this sort of stereotype is popular because it is comforting for folk to think that their dreary and powerless existences are great because wealthy people are truly despicable. I love movies- I have an extensive video library and regularly visit the cinema, and I certainly don’t want to ruin your enjoyment of films. I just want you to see a philosophically flawed story line when you see one and not let it affect you and your efforts. Without you even knowing, your subconscious mind is being poisoned and influencing you to believe that money is worthless and being rich is awful. Hardly desirable for someone targeting their freedom figure! Are you ready? So are you ready to go for it? Or are you just aimlessly searching for the next ten bucks to blow in the shopping mall? I invite you to become a player in the big game now- that is my aim here- to make you lose the ‘small fry’ mentality by breaking free of all the ‘hang-ups’ that mass-society infects you with. Most people are terribly illogical, confused and inconsistent. Only a tiny minority have ever sat down and thought what they believe, why they believe it and whether or not these beliefs are valid. This single fact will reap huge rewards for you as long as you are not one of them. No amount of spending fortunes on consumer junk is going to make you feel permanently better about life or change who you are. Be proud of who you are- I certainly am, and without meaning to patronize, I’m proud of you for getting this far. I think you have guts and the will to win- this knowledge alone is enough for me to know that you are going to make it if you follow your training through to the end. I’ll leave you with the fitting words of Dr. W.D. Staples:
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