Fortunes Creator

Last night, I was listening to my MP3 player populated with my favorite subliminal, self-hypnosis and success mastery recordings, as I do every night. I do this because I believe passionately in the need to make the most of every minute…even those spent in REM sleep.

I started this habit several years ago during a period of situational depression, and it helped me so much out of that frame of mind that I decided to make it part of my lifestyle. Feeding my sleeping brain this way has improved my life in every facet, and I highly recommend it as a means of counterbalancing all of the negativity and ugliness we are all bombarded with through our encounters with dreadful people with bad attitudes and all of the terrible media stories we are exposed to…including stories of poverty, lack, famine and war.

Now, don’t write me off as a cold and self-involved person. On the contrary, I am an empath (i.e. I feel your pain) and over the years I have had to learn how to protect my own emotional state from negative influences and energy vampires.

Well, upon easing into semi-consciousness while listening to Brian Tracy reading “The Science of Getting Rich” I was struck by the intensity of the chapter on “avoiding poverty.” Our whole lives we are taught the virtues of being charitable and pitying the world’s poor.

The truth that “The Science of Getting Rich” conveys in a very matter-of-fact way is that the best thing that you can do for the poor is to become rich yourself, and impart your wisdom on to those less fortunate. While this idea is nothing new, i.e. give a man a fish, feed him for a day…yadda, yadda, yadda, author Wallace Wattles went on to say that you should not pollute your mind with images of poverty, nor should you speak of your own past struggles with lack of money or impoverished beginnings.

This one is a tough one. After all, most of us use our meager beginnings as proof that we “deserve” the good life once we start to live it. We humans tend to recount our own stories of heartache and financial hardships to others as some way of leveling ourselves with the lowest common denominator. Exactly the OPPOSITE of what we should do, especially if we desire to get rich (which anybody in their right mind wants, whether we are willing to publicly admit it or not).

Wattles says the best thing you can do is not to climb back down the ladder to prove to the poor that you are just like them, but instead to live your life in such a way as to inspire them to do what it takes to climb that ladder and join you on your plateau of plenty. There is always a way to better one’s self in this world and each individual is responsible to make every effort to become rich, productive and beneficial to society as a whole.

So, turn off the news and stop telling the story of when you lived in your Toyota Corolla that summer after college. Silently vow to yourself that those days are gone, never to return, and start a new business or balance your checkbook. Treat poverty like the disease of the mind that it is and avoid it like the bubonic plague.

Stop thinking that you have to surround yourself with people who are on a lower vibrational (and financial) plane than you, just so that they think you are a good, nice person.

If you aspire in a decent, law-abiding, and creative way to improve your own bank account, real estate holdings and family life, then you are a good person and you don’t have to prove it to anyone by giving away your hard-earned money. Instead, do something to fire up the ambition of someone who has fallen victim to poverty-itis…even if it is only to go out for a drive in your BMW, or write a blog post about stomping out poverty by simply being unwilling to accept it in your lifestyle.

I live in a country (the Dominican Republic) whose government sadly has publicly declared it “A Poor Country.” I have seen people accept a lifestyle of lack, simply because they were born into this “poor country.” Many do not raise their standard of living based on the assumption that it is “too hard to get ahead for the average Dominican.

I have also met people here who grew up in shacks with dirt floors who hitch-hiked 60 miles a day each way to go to college, get a degree in law or medicine and become very well off. Those people will all agree that living in that dirt-floor shack for 60 or 70 years seemed much harder than a few years of hitch-hiking and studying, and subsequently living a life of comfort, stability and luxury.

When you drive through areas populated with those who have bought into the poverty mindset, you will notice the filth…empty styrofoam restaurant containers, beer bottles, and empty plastic grocery bags strewn everywhere. And you see this pattern everywhere in the world, including of course the good ole US of A. As we know, it costs nothing gather up all that garbage and stuff it in one of those plastic grocery bags and put it out to the curb for garbage pick-up.

If you were to ask the people who live under these conditions why their yards are full of garbage, they would undoubtedly tell you that it is because they are so poor. But it is more accurate to say that they are poor because they are willing to live under such conditions!

Does that seem cold? Let them eat cake?

Maybe, as I know each person’s circumstances are unique, and we all have our own obstacles to overcome. But when there is always money for beer and time for playing Dominoes or watching TV, yet not enough money to pay the electric bill or time to pick up the garbage in the front yard…it is difficult to say that I am completely wrong.

There is one truth that cannot be argued with…the Rich care about making things better for themselves and for the world, and they strive daily, if not hourly, towards that goal. And through their efforts, ideals and goals they create jobs, support the economy and help others to improve their own lives.

So the next time you feel angry or jealous of Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Mark Cuban, Michael Dell or some other billionaire…take a moment to think of the number of lives that have been improved by the efforts of these men and the others like them who have amassed great wealth because they operate from a mindset of limitless abundance.

They didn’t fold when the newspapers say times are hard, the economy is slumping, or the proverbial “bubble” has burst. They keep their faith, adjust their sails and catch the winds of change. That is why the rich get richer while the poor get poorer. They find out how to profit no matter what, rather than crying about how bad things are, how tough it is and how there just isn’t enough to go around anymore.

To deny that “God” or the “Universe” has provided an abundance for all should be seen as blasphemy, don’t you think? I believe it was John Wayne who said, “I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor. Rich is better.” Yo tambien, Duke.

The author, JoAnn Roselli, is a successful living consultant, screenwriter, webmaster, entrepreneur, real estate investor and author of “How to Get High-Quality Plastic Surgery…CHEAP!” She resides in the Dominican Republic with her husband and their 12-year-old son.