LAW #1:
THE POOR CANâT
HELP THE POOR
Wisdom is wisdom just as truth is truth. Neither truth nor wisdom fall victim to change. With that notion in mind, the fundamental principles that differentiate the forthcoming laws from all others are the depth of a different understanding and revelation.
These laws are not âtheory,â but the result of actual experiences and events learned over the course of 30-years of successful business practices in the financial services industry. Through the challenges, success, and failures, I discovered hidden laws that, if followed, will secure great levels of achievement in both your business and personal life.
Keep these laws deep within the very core of your mind and allow them to become a pivotal part of how you process and implement decisions. Once you do, you will quickly notice that those around you take the easy road and do not follow these fundamental Laws on a daily basis.
Throughout this book, you will find three integral steps to achieve success. First, you will recognize and identify. Next, you will analyze and derive a plan, which will adjust and change for unknowns as you move forward. And finally, you will find yourself better positioned to evaluate your results to ensure you are accountable and moving towards your goals. The best part is these Laws will be so deeply embedded in your mind they will easily becomes habits.
However, make no mistake, these are hidden laws that constantly occur around you whether you are aware of them or not. Like most of the laws in this book, Law #1 begins by offering a concept that seems both obvious and familiar. To say the poor canât help the poor doesnât initially sound profound or particularly deep. But, take a moment to evaluate this statement because Law # 1 is the foundation for the rest to come. When reading each chapter, it is critical to always remember these are not a list of 40 obvious things you ought to consider. These are 40-Unbreakable Laws of Money. Get ready to prepare for the deeper meaning of simple statements like the one above.
Once again, when we hear the word poor, the first definition that pops into our mind is: âa person without money.â Even the dictionary concedes that.
The American Heritage Dictionary defines poor as: 1. Having little or no wealth or money; 2. Lacking a specified resource or quality. 3. Lacking in value, insufficient. 4. Pitiable.
Accepting that initial definition, Law #1 makes perfect, undeniable sense. Itâs along the lines of trying to save a drowning person without being able to swim yourself. But letâs take these examples a little further and consider other areas where your life may seem deprived or underprivileged:
Poor in spirit: How about poor in spirit? Have you ever been around an individual that had a broken spirit? And I donât just mean a religious connotation; Iâm talking about a spirit that has completely lost hope. If you have a broken spirit, whom can you help? Probably no one. So, can the poor help the poor? Nope. If you donât have it, you canât give it.
Poor in love. Have you ever met someone that was heartless? You know, the type of person who seems to care little for others and lives his or her life as if everyone is literally the enemy.
In business and in life, you do not have to be heartless. With every transaction, there is always a win/win result to secure if you care enough about the other person involved in the deal.
Most people are aware that whatever you âsowâ onto/into someone else comes back to you. You reap what you sow, and it works both ways. If you plant carrots, you get carrots. If you sow tomatoes, you reap tomatoes. If you were to plant weeds, youâre going to get weeds in return. And if you plant nothing, you will still get those pesky and unwelcomed weeds. They are just the product of inaction.
If this sounds familiar to you, it should. Not just because itâs a spiritual law, but because it was shared, explained and demonstrated by Jesus Christ. Coincidentally, He also taught another law about love when He said, âLove your neighbor as yourself.â This Golden Rule says, âDo unto others as you would have them do unto you.â So, if youâre poor in love, you will reap loneliness and it will be hard for others to love you in return.
Some may respond, âWell, I can buy all the friends I want.â There are many people that actually believe those words, and many more even try to live by them. With this behavior, anyone can be fooled into thinking a friend is a friend when he or she is clearly not. Always remember, those who are in it for the money will always run out when the money runs out. Like magic, they vaporize into thin air. Be careful not to get caught up with those types of people. Their love is for the money; not grounded in your friendship.
Poor in wisdom. Everyday, you probably come into contact with a lot of people who are poor in wisdom. The foolishness of their actions is often displayed within their mindset. A great example is your fellow drivers on the road. As they display their anger, impatience, and occasional rage, it is clear they are behaving in a foolish and immature manner. There is no wisdom in those decisions or actions.
Mark Twain said, âThe trouble isnât that there are too many fools, but that the lightning isnât distributed correctly.â Put another way, only God can fix stupid. I will say this as tactfully as I can. There are a lot of stupid people out there. Now, some of you may feel as if I am being harsh on humanity, but remember, I didnât say ignorant, I said stupid. Stupid means that you understand the information and situation, but donât properly evaluate the potential outcomes, risks, and consequences. The American Heritage
Dictionary defines ignorant and stupid as follows:
Ignorant: adj: 1. Lacking education or knowledge. 2. Demonstrating a lack of education or knowledge. 3. Unaware or uninformed.
Stupid: adj: 1. Slow to learn or understand. 2. Lacking intelligence. 3. In a dazed or stunned state.
Again, ignorant means never told or educated. Stupid is an educated individual that makes a decision with little regard to the cost. Clearly, there is a pointed difference. Perhaps a little nicer term for stupid is âfoolish.â Do you know anyone that has ever done something foolish in his or her life? Of course you do. Weâve all done foolish things in our lives. But for purposes of this example, Iâm referring to something much deeper.
If youâre poor in wisdom, will you know how to discern anything or anyone? Without wisdom and discernment you will leave yourself susceptible to be swindled, defrauded, or even deceived. Do you think being poor in wisdom, undiscerning, and naĂŻve would have any impact in your financial condition and business? It most certainly does. Weâll get more in depth in the forthcoming chapters.
Poor in character. Have you ever been around people who consistently lie, omit important points, or exaggerate reality? Whether it is a relative, close friend or business groupâwhat would be the impact if you hooked your wagon to theirs? Relationships rise and fall on trust.
Have you ever seen something as simple as a cashier giving too much change to a customer? As they leave the store, you hear them telling a friend, âI scored.â They gave me change for $20 and I only gave them $10.â But did they score? $10 is a high price tag for that individualâs character. Remember, whatever you sow you reap. Whatever you do to someone else will come back to you hundreds of times over.
If youâre poor in character, you will be poisonous. In life, you attract what you project. Lead with honesty and high morals and you will find similarly positioned people. But if you project poor character or a weak moral compass, you will find yourself surrounded with less than quality people. How will you set the example with your own kids? How can your wife or husband respect or trust you? If youâre poor in character, youâre poor in most, if not all things. Again, the poor cannot help the poor. Look out for those lacking in character, and donât be one of them.
Poor in finances. If youâre poor in money, whom can you help financially? Have you ever had the experience where you really wanted to help someone, but just didnât have the money? But rather than just moving on with your life, did you take the opportunity to do some self-evaluation and wonder why you didnât have money? Was it just a temporary condition or has it happened to you on numerous occasions?
If you didnât, you really missed on the real issue. Lacking money is just a symptom of the problem. The foundational problem is you are poor in knowledge and most likely have very poor discipline regarding finances. Poor financial knowledge and discipline will cause whatever money you do earn to fall right through your fingertips.
And the numbers support that there are many financially unknowledgeable folks. Over 30% of people polled in my meetings and conferences actually indicate that winning the lottery is part of their retirement plan. More than 30% of people somehow think they will defy the million to one odds.
Logically, I am sure we can agree that winning the lottery is not exactly great financial planning.
Worse yet, statistics show that people who do win the lottery are usually broke within three to five years. Very few are able to keep their money. Why? Probably because those same people were never trained and provided the knowledge to manage their finances. Remember, the poor cannot help the poor.
So the point remains: You must be educated and knowledgeable before you can be successful in finance! Some of the greatest examples I have dealt with are individuals that are highly educated and trained in the field of medicine. Most doctors have significant annual incomes, but there are all too many times when these same doctors were devastated by their poor financial choices. As educated, talented and successful as they may be, many were financially crippled because they were never taught to keep their personal assets away from the prying eyes of investigators, creditors and devastating laws suits.
The smarter and more educated the person, the harder it is to get him or her to listen to a solid financial direction. In my experience, this is due to the dedication he or she applies to their vocation or career. They rarely have time or the energy to learn about money. You will find yourself with an empty bank account and enormous debt unless you obtain valuable knowledge to remain competent in managing your finances.
Poor Attitude. There is nothing less attractive than a poor attitude. In my own businesses, I used to fire people for a bad attitude in a heartbeat. If you possessed a bad attitude, your talent, education and gifts were never a consideration. Some of my most highly educated, gifted and talented employees eventually lost their jobs because of their poor attitude.
Surprisingly, the ones that were not as educated, slower to learn, and made a lot of mistakes became some of my best employees and top performers because of their positive attitude and outlook on life. Even though more challenging to train, they had the kind of attitude that wouldnât give up until they had the job down to a science.
Poor attitude can never be overlooked. Why on earth would someone want to keep you around with an insolent or poor attitude? Zig Zigler observed that your self-talk has a direct bearing on your performance. So, if your attitude is bad, what is your self-talk likely to be? And if Zig is correct, what kind of performance can be expected?
Put another way, Mathew 12:34 says, in part, âFor the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.â (NASB) So, the words we say and the actions we take indicate what our heart, desires and attitude will be. If your mind and heart is full of âpoisonâ youâre not able to help anyone, especially yourself.
Poor in Knowledge. If I didnât have almost 30-years of training, knowledge and hands-on experiences, would there be anything I could teach you that wasnât just considered theory? Since I have been there and done that, the education I will impart to you is grounded in real world success.
I am confident that if you want to know how to fail, I know how itâs done better than most. With these failures come tremendous knowledge, experience, discernment, and wisdom how not to fail in the future. Learn from my mistakes, both big and small.
Winston Churchill said, âSuccess is often nothing more than moving from one failure to the next with undiminished enthusiasm.â
I love the example of Thomas Edison when he invented the light bulb. The records he kept on his experiments in developing the light bulb showed he failed over ten thousand times before he got it right. The problem was not his overall thought process, but rather, in finding a material for the filament that didnât burn quick enough. However, at the end of the day it was the simple act of removing the air from inside the bulb that ultimately culminated in success.
When a young man asked how Edison could continue with a project after so many failures, he responded, âYoung man, why would I feel like a failure? And why would I ever give up? I now know definitively over 9,000 ways that an electric light bulb will not work. Success is almost in my grasp.â It was shortly thereafter that Edisonâs light bulb became the light of the electrical world.
We now can literally see because of his never quit attitude. It is no small coincidence the very symbol of an idea has come to be the light bulb.
They say, âKnowledge is power.â While true, I take this statement one step further by saying that: âApplied knowledge is power.â This is a key point and youâll see the impact of this statement throughout this book.
There are a lot of smart people that are financially destitute because they have a college degree and are waiting for the phone to ring. That whole era has changed. If itâs not applied, it doesnât matter what you know. The very power of applied knowledge is immeasurable. If you have the knowledge, then get out there and apply it.
There are many people in the trades; say...