How To Get Rich By Being A Creator Of Wealth, Not A Consumer Of Wealth

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How To Get Rich By Being A Creator Of Wealth, Not A Consumer Of Wealth
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“You can get everything you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.” — Zig Ziglar.

“When the producer names the tune the consumer has got to dance.” — Gil Scott Heron.

“Six mistakes mankind keeps making century after century: Believing that personal gain is made by crushing others; Worrying about things that cannot be changed or corrected; Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it; Refusing to set aside trivial preferences; Neglecting development and refinement of the mind; Attempting to compel others to believe and live as well as we do.” — Cicero (Roman philosopher, statesman and orator, 106-43 B.C.)

Be A Creator Of Wealth, Not A Consumer Of Wealth

To become wealthy you need to become a source of wealth. Think about that in depth, really let it circulate. What does it mean?

It’s an incredibly common misconception that becoming rich is simply about “getting something” that is outside of you or outside your reach, and taking hold of it.

Going after wealth this way means that you are little more than a perpetual consumer of wealth… and will always be in need of more money!

Instead, think of it the other way. Reverse the flow. Aim to become rich by becoming a provider or producer, not a consumer.

If all you are is a consumer of wealth, you will be like a hungry child… constantly in need. Not only does this make getting wealthy difficult, it is also more of a struggle to be in the world this way. You can end up being a burden to people – and they may tolerate you for a while (if you have charm) – but the balance of power in your life is always wrong. People ultimately seek to be rid of people who are a burden to them – it is a fact – whereas they will seek to draw closer to people who provide or produce wealth and other forms of value.

On the other hand – if you have put yourself in a position to be able to provide something that people really need, people will flock to you rather than trying to avoid you. They will give you money. Getting hired becomes easy. If you provide something that they urgently need or greatly appreciate, they will be prepared to give you large amounts of money because you are invaluable to them.

This is why a San Francisco lawyer can confidently say “I am $400 an hour” and people will pay it. This person provides value that others urgently require.

It’s one of the fascinating paradoxes of wealth that in order to become wealthy, you don’t necessarily need to think about how to make yourself rich. Figure out how to make others very wealthy, safe, healthy or happy – and you will have the greatest opportunity to make yourself very wealthy in the process. If you can truly increase people’s wealth, health, or quality of life, people will give you money hand-over-fist to do so.

If you can demonstrate sufficiently well that you can increase other people’s money – with solid agreements and impeccable, detailed, accurate plans that actually work – they will straight up write you checks and hand them over.

This is what wealth coaches mean when they talk about becoming “attractive to wealth”. If you are this person, wealth wants to come to you.

Most people who dream of getting rich, are over-focused on “getting the money”. They operate under the belief that the money is “out there” and that all they need to do is “go get some of it” – so off they go, trying to “get the money”.

If you are so hungry for wealth that you cannot find any impetus to do anything for others, you will not get wealthy – you will become a crook.

It’s important to note where so many people fall down here. I am not being religious, or moralistic. I am being strategic: If you want people to part with their money and give it to you, the best way to do this is to provide ultimate value. Those who are only trying to make themselves wealthy will generally have a harder time getting wealthy. Those who make it their goal to make others wealthy, happy and successful, will have a much easier time getting rich. This is not some new-age or moralist aphorism! It is straight-up financial strategy.

Of course, in order to become rich, you need to be results oriented, determined and strong. But in “going after the money”, you might be attempting to use force rather than attraction. Attraction works a thousand times better, any day. You can chase after something all day, and all you will do is make it run away from you – but if you are attractive to it, it comes to you without you having to go anywhere.

How To Become A SOURCE Of Wealth

Have you ever considered what it means to become a source of wealth? Think about that carefully and consider what it means. It means that you are able to generate prosperity for those around you.

By shifting your focus onto being able to make other people rich, you in fact align yourself directly with the “current of prosperity”. If you can make others rich – for real – you can make yourself rich (and extremely popular) in the process.

Becoming a source of wealth means to use every resource you can spare to make yourself more valuable, more useful, more skilled, more healthy, more knowledgeable, more wise. This is true investment; investing in yourself.

Aligning yourself with what other people want also means awareness of what products and services are in the greatest demand – and providing these. This is why market research is so important. Market research is ultimately about having a deep understanding of what other people want and what drives them.

Some of the characteristics that make one a source of wealth, can be easily observed. Goods, skills, knowledge, trade and services are obvious, measurable and tangible. But often there are other, less tangible, less measurable qualities which make one valuable to others – and some entire industries are built on these.

One such is simply the art of making people feel good. Even if you are not in the fields of leisure or entertainment, this point is still worth bearing in mind at all times. It is why service, etiquette, pleasant manner, presentation, courtesy, punctuality, politeness and trust are so important in business. They are all an essential part of the art of relationships and of making the experience pleasant. There are companies who I will go back to, time and time again, simply because of their personal service. Often, the prices are not all that different. But the added factor of trust goes so far that I will not only use these companies, but will recommend them to everyone I know.

There are successful business people I know who will state that relationships are absolutely the most important aspect of business.

A crucial part of making people feel good is positivity. People like to be around and work with people who are positive – because business thrives on hope. We are in business because of the world we hope to create, and because of the hopes and dreams we have for our future.

It’s another widely held attitude that in order to “make it” you have to sell out a little. However, ultimately it’s counterproductive. Be a bringer of high quality; of good ideas, of skills, of positivity, of results. Stay focused on developing the inner assets that will lead to greater interest, reputation and leverage.

Many people approach making money with the attitude of trying to get as much as they can for as little as they can. While this may seem at first glance like “good economics” or “efficiency”, if you adopt this strategy, it makes you disposable – whereas if you concentrate on finding a good scenario, one where your efforts will be noticed and appreciated – and then “going beyond” the call of duty, you will become indispensable. When you are indispensable, people will be much more likely to want to have you around and hand you more money.

How To Get Rich By Being A Creator Of Wealth, Not Just A Redistributor Of Wealth

The creation of wealth is probably the most overlooked and misunderstood aspect in the entire subject of wealth-building.

It is also one of the most important. This knowledge is relatively rare – and is therefore potentially immensely powerful. If properly understood and utilized, it might revolutionize your entire level of prosperity. For this is one of the secrets of billionaires, not just millionaires.

If everyone adopted it as their M.O., we would truly be living in a different world.

Despite the fact that creators of wealth have become some of the richest people of all time, I have noticed that few books on wealth talk directly about this critical subject. It is as if the modern mindset is somehow only dimly aware of these concepts. But to me they are the true treasure – one of the greatest secrets of wealth of all, if not the greatest.

The essential principle, that is the true foundation of being a creator of wealth, is simple to grasp and applies across the board.

Important newsflash:

The amount of wealth that is “out there” is not in any way fixed. It is absolutely not a finite commodity.

Most people think that wealth is a finite commodity, measured only as a number of dollars – and so, many try to get rich by merely trying to pull in some of what is already out there.

If you look at the bigger picture, they are ultimately only moving existing wealth around. It is of course possible to make good money that way – but there’s a far more interesting, potent and fulfilling way.

This is the way of the creator of wealth.

A creator of wealth does way more than just grabbing at some of the cash that’s floating around. They are focused on making things more valuable, or managing resources in such a way that items of greater value are created from items of lesser value. A creator of wealth has an understanding of systems which actually create wealth, rather than just pulling it in their direction. A creator of wealth doesn’t just “get money” – the way they get rich is by increasing the wealth of the world.

In ancient times, the creation of gold where there was none before was the goal of the mysterious subject of alchemy. The complex symbols of alchemical lore described the ability to transmute things from a lower form to a higher. A creator of wealth can be seen as a kind of modern alchemist – someone who is able to make wealth appear where there was none before… rather than just move it from one place to another. However there is nothing paranormal going on: The creator of wealth simply takes existing materials and conditions and make something more valuable from them. They can make beauty from ugliness, usable products from raw materials, synergy from chaos, productivity from barren dirt, brilliant solutions from chaos. A creator of wealth has an understanding of “where it all comes from” and works directly with the source.

Creating wealth is the very best way to get rich because there’s absolutely unlimited potential.

For a very simple example – if I take a disused piece of land and plant an organic orchard of apple trees, I have arguably made the world a wealthier place. There are more apples than there were before, and if my farming practices are good, the health of the soil, and the surrounding environs may be improved also.

Whereas if I am only an apple trader, buying apples for one price and selling them for another, my work may be useful – but it could be argued that I haven’t added as much to the wealth of the world.

Although few will dare to admit it, the problems we have with the economy might be based on the fact that this simple formula has been neglected by too many for too long. Everyone is trying to get their slice of the existing pie; too few people are actually focused on making the pie itself bigger. Too few even understand or have developed skills in the arena of actually creating wealth, and too many have become trapped into devoting all their energy to moving the little pieces of paper around.

It’s sadly the same in the field of investment – too many people now view investing as a way to somehow get “something for nothing” by jumping on a bandwagon or some kind of train that’s already moving. The meaning of the word investment has unfortunately shifted towards this more false notion of wealth. These are speculators, not investors – and speculator, to me, is a polite name for a gambler.

A gambler is only concerned with an increase in price. An investor is concerned with an increase in value.

Warren Buffett understands this. Henry Ford understood this.

However, the mindset of the speculator has permeated our culture. It’s become a fashionable idea that you can get rich without effort, or without actually creating anything useful… but if you take a step back and look at the bigger picture; somebody has to make the effort. Wealth, ultimately, is not something that appears out of thin air – and if you manage to get money out of thin air, you are profiting because of work that somebody else did!

Part of the problem we’ve had is that the notion of luxury lifestyle has become so embedded in our culture (mostly through seductive advertising) that no-one wants to be a producer any more. Doing real, productive work is now considered low status, something that people from poor backgrounds do. If everyone’s trying to profit solely off of somebody else’s work, then ultimately the whole thing will collapse.

One of the keys to being a creator of wealth is an understanding of resource management. This is the reason why Boone Pickens and Buffett have been investing heavily in things like railways and wind power. Not just because they are gambling on the latest stock trend – but because they are investing in long term economic stability – which is something that needs to be built on a foundation of solid, sustainable infrastructure.

A tree with shallow roots cannot withstand the wind.

One of the big mistakes of modern economics is that wealth is measured in terms of the total price of commodities produced instead of being measured in terms of management of resources and productive assets. This is understandable when you observe that historically, many commodities are produced once a year, at harvest time – and that these things can be weighed, quantified, shipped and sold. But ultimately, all commodities come from resources and if these resources cannot be sustained, poverty follows. True measures of economic health should include factors for future potential. Is it just me, or does anyone else think that it’s ironic that growth seems to be measured in how fast we can cut things down?

Let’s say I get impatient, decide to sell out and cut down my apple orchard. I sell the timber and the land gets bought for some purpose or other. The asset may have been turned into cold hard cash – but the system has been abandoned. I might have made more money that year than the previous year (yay, growth!), but from next year onwards… there will be no more apples. No more profitability.

As the Native American proverb says, “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.”

It’s Aesop’s ancient fable of the Goose that lays Golden Eggs, once again. Always keep control of productive assets if at all possible.

Those who fully grasp these subtle principles, will in my view be able to set themselves up in a stronger position to beat out any recession. Their business will be focused on real value as opposed to the movement of little pieces of paper or strings of numbers on a computer screen.

Resources can come in the following forms. For example:

1) Health.

2) Workforce – ability to get tasks done. (Includes staff, computers, robots, machinery, transportation systems, processing systems, automation.)

3) Material resources and their degree of usability.

4) Knowledge, information, wisdom, skills.

5) Energy.

Can you do work, set up systems or create things which increase or improve any of the above resource streams? Have a look at the famous lists of some of the wealthiest people and most successful businesses. They will very often have increased resources in one of the above sectors. Creating wealth is what enables them to become rich.

Here are a few ideas for possible ways to create wealth:

Improving soil, air or water quality.

Providing beneficial ideas and information.

Inventing and creating robots, machines and automated systems that get more done.

Mining.

Renovation.

Sustainable agriculture, reforestation and terraforming.

Property development.

Recycling.

Processing – taking things and transforming them into other things – by separation, transportation, chemical and industrial processes, manufacture, remanufacture, etc.

Closed loop systems. (This is my top pick for the future!)

More efficient / improved processes, logistics and technologies.

New / alternative energy technologies, “clean tech”.

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