Richie Rich or Paulie Poor?

Which one are you? Are you Richie Rich or Paulie Poor? No, not in terms of actual money in the bank. In mindset. Because at the end of the day I think having the mindset is more important than the actual dollars.

At least in the beginning. Let me explain.

In order for one to become rich, it's not just about having a great job that pays you a ton of money to work with after the bills are paid. It's not even about having a lot of money in the bank to make "this or that" very wise investment that changes your future for the good forever more.

It's about thinking rich. It's about being fully aware of the potential and the possibility. It's about knowing full well, deep inside, that the goal is achievable. That anything is possible with the right mentality and behavior, and the right amount of work and knowledge.

You want to know something real? I never went to college. I have never had a fancy job, a fancy title, credentials or a pretty little degree to hang on my wall. I did it the hard way just like so many others have to do it.

I got out of the Navy and I worked in manufacturing for 15 years. I did a little stint in pest control for almost 5 years. I have been in sales for the past 7.

Am I rich? By my definition, I am. I am not hurting for money, let's just put it that way. But again, it was never about the dollars. It was always about the mindset and what that mindset made me do.

Are you Richie Rich, or are you Paulie Poor?

Think about that question long and hard, because it makes all the difference in the world. Trust me, I know what I am talking about here.

How do you feel? Isn't that the question we ask ourselves all the time? What we answer with can sometimes make all the difference in the world how we actually feel.

The mind is a very powerful thing, you know. It really is. And it can make us feel and do things depending on what we think.

You go out for a good night of drinking with friends, and then you wake up in the morning. Your head hurts, your stomach is wrenching. You feel like crap because, well...

You drank too damn much, obviously. And you should feel like crap.

But what's the real reason you don't want to get out of bed? Because you are telling yourself, "I drank too much and I should feel like crap." You are setting yourself up for a reality that may or may not exist, and for whatever it is worth, whatever you think will become reality.

What the real reality is, is that you can make your own reality. Once you get up and start moving around, get a good cup of coffee in you, and just tell yourself, "Today will be a wonderful day," you start to form a mental idea that how you felt before you got out of bed is only in your imagination.

Okay, okay, you might still throw up a couple of times. But just work with me here as I present this analogy.

Have you ever heard the old saying, "I think, therefore I am?" What you think and what you feel can have great influence on what you are. It can shape your decisions, it can hinder your best intentions, and it can get smack dab in the way of your hopes and dreams.

It can influence what you do.

Richie Rich, or Paulie Poor. Come on. This is such a good question.

You see, there is one thing about me that I can say with absolute confidence. And that is, no matter how much money I did not have, I never once told myself I was poor.

Not once.

If I was 13 and had $100 in a savings account my mom and dad opened up for me, I was rich. When I bought my first car at 16 for $425 and still had $125 left from what I had saved, I was rich. When I had $1000 in the bank, or $3000 in the bank, or $10,000 in the bank...

I was rich.

When I made my first $100,000, I was rich. I was rich at $200,000 and $300,000. I was rich.

When I bought my first house and had money left over to buy furniture, I was rich. I could do whatever I wanted, and I had more than I needed. I was rich.

The key takeaway here is not how much money I actually had. It was not about how much I earned. It was not even about the small investments I made to accumulate and build what I had.

It was all about the mindset. It was all about what I told myself. It was all about my attitude toward money, my attitude toward my position, and the attitude that all of that afforded me in the way of motivation to know that anything was possible, and to keep going despite the odds against me.

And despite the reality. I was not rich. But had I told myself that, my mind would not have been able to see anything beyond that reality. I would have acted as though I was poor, and all of the decisions I would have made would have continued to keep me poor.

What you feel, and how you think about it definitely has an impact on what you achieve. Because it sets the stage for what comes next. Either you tell yourself you are rich and that you can become richer, and you do things to make that happen and make it continue to be true and truer. Or you tell yourself that you are poor and there is no hope and you spend it all, and you have nothing.

You see, the way I see it, Richie Rich and Paulie Poor are really not all that different from each other. What sets them apart is not how much money they have. What separates them is how they think about how much they have. And what they see as the value of what they have. And especially the future value of what they have.

You can get up in the morning and let yourself succumb to that massive hangover. Or you can get up and deny it, take the bull by the horns, and just get on with your day. It is all up to you. It is all up to the way you think about it. It is all about the reality that you create for yourself.

Paulie Poor would simply lie in bed all day suffering. But Richie Rich? He's going to get up and get on with it. Because Paulie Poor thinks his efforts will be hopeless, and Richie Rich thinks there are fruits to be enjoyed.

When it comes to money, you have to simply forget about what you don't have. You need to wake up each day and tell yourself what you do have, and how that will add to what you will have one day.

Are you Richie Rich or Paulie Poor?

Richie Rich wakes up every day no matter what he has, and no matter whether he is truly rich, and says, "I am rich. And I will be richer." Paulie Poor wakes up every day and says, "I will always be poor, and I can never be rich."

And this folks is what separates the haves from the have-nots. It is what separates the rich and the poor. It is what makes the difference as to what your ultimate financial position is in the world. It is what makes you do what you do. For the good, or for the bad.

The world presents opportunities. At the end of the day you do with those opportunities as you see fit. But if the mindset is right, the possibilities are endless. It is entirely up to you what you want to be, and what you will be.

Outside influences are as much a part of your imagination as anything is. Either you imagine things are impossible, or you imagine all things are possible.

You decide. Richie Rich, or Paulie Poor.

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