What is the root of all evil and why does the lack of money affect people negatively? Have you ever lost a friend over some really stupid stuff that maybe you find yourself saying "that shouldn't happen"? Maybe it was a loved one or an ex, and looking back it shouldn't have happened. That happened to me when one of my best friends would always ask me for money. It happened because I had money and he didn't. At first, I would always give it to him. Then I started giving it to him and kind of mentoring them a little and helping them out because I believe that making money and building wealth is a skill that you can build, just like you can build the skill of running long distances.
So I started teaching him. He started doing it a little bit, and then he ended up asking me for more money. I ended up finally saying no in a respectful way, and I told them what I would do is share with you a five-step strategy that's going to help you make way more money than you ever thought, but I can't offer you any more. I never heard from him ever again. I sent him dozens of messages and made dozens of phone calls. He never responded. This was one of my best friends for 7 years, not just an acquaintance, and over this same period of time, since we last spoke, I went on to become a multi-millionaire. Find out why The Lack Of Money Is The Root Of All Evil.
The Root Of All Evil Isn't Money, It's The Absence Of Money
They always say The Lack Of Money Is The Root Of All Evil. That is totally real. Last I heard from another one of my friends, he's still broke and he's still asking people for money. I'm going to share with you five very powerful things and a couple controversial things that we generally think are blocking you from getting more money and that it's easier than you think. That is one reason why we think of what is the root of all evil. The root of all evil isn't money; it's the absence of money. Maybe in another dimension, the root of all evil is money. In this dimension, lack of money is the root of all evil.
The reason I believe that is because you and I are in the best time in human history to make money, build financial freedom and extend the good we can do far beyond our own physical presence to create our own freedom in a world where governments are declaring people non-essential and all of this shenanigans. So I'm on a mission to share the things that really changed my life. One of my mentors sat down with me and said, "Follow these five steps and we will never look back."
Broke Is Actually A Mindset And So Is Wealth
So the very first thing that I was trying to teach my friend that really changed my life financially was to understand that broke is actually a mindset and so is wealth. For most of the time that Ashley and I were broke and she was in credit card debt, we didn't believe that. We thought it was because it's unfair. We thought it was because we weren't getting a big break or maybe because some publishers said no to one of my books or I got denied for some event or some podcast. That is one reason why we assume what is the root of all evil.
There was always an external and logical explanation for why I was broke; thus a broken mindset, and so is wealth. Being broke and having wealth isn't a circumstance; they're both states of mind. So what this is basically doing is that old adage that says nobody can fish for you indefinitely. What was the big mistake that made it so? My friend is still broke, and I have become a multi-millionaire with no debt. What's the difference? I decided we had similar political beliefs, we had similar social and spiritual beliefs, but we had one shift in how we viewed our realities.
Nobody Could Fish For Me
My belief was that nobody could fish for me. His belief was that people could fish for him, and if he asked enough or felt worthy enough, then he would always find a willing giver of their catch, which in many instances was me. So my broken mindset was that I believed if a different political person got in office or the financial system changed, the banking system changed, or the education system changed, I wouldn't have a college degree and I always got denied by publishers and speaking events.
That is sometimes we wonder what is the root of all evil. So I had all of those types of logical things that I thought needed to change one day. One of my mentors sat me down and said, "You are broke because you have a lot of reasons why you're broke." My most prominent one was my age, which I thought was too young. He told me, "You keep telling me your age and it's a justification for why you're broke and it's stupid." So then my wealth mindset became, instead of justifying why I don't have money, I needed to learn how to fish. Why? I don't have any money.
Stop Saying You Cannot Because You Are Broke
I said that like a caveman, but get this, what happened? My friend had a broken mindset. He needs other people to fish for him. Historically, this is how politicians take control, and governments have taken control throughout history because they posed as saviors many times. We put other people on a pedestal because we don't understand that we can earn a lot of money. That is why we wonder what is the root of all evil. So we put other people that have it on a pedestal and hope that, because they have it, they will always take care of us.
But if you keep any level of that mindset, then your chances of success are akin to your statistical probability of winning the lottery because it's based on always finding someone else that will fish for you instead of learning how to fish. Number two is to stop saying, "I can't because I'm broke," because my friend always had things that he wanted and things that he wanted to do, goals and dreams. But because he was broke, he rationalized why he couldn't do the necessary things to change his financial life, and I could spot that pattern because it was my biggest self-defeating pattern.
What Is The Root Of All Evil, You Want To Make Sure That You Apply It
So when I was broke, I would say things like, "I'll save once I get more money." So it's just things that I was able to apply in my life that I learned from other people that are far more successful. Sometimes we wonder what is the root of all evil. So I can say this is some life-changing information without feeling weird about it, because it's not even my information. Now I digress, but let's move back to number two. You have to stop saying, "I can't because I'm broke." I want you to think of one way that you can do that. What is one way you tell yourself if financial independence is the difference between what you earn and what you make?
I never had financial independence because I thought I was broke, so I would tell myself, "I'll save once I get more money." I'll save once I get more. So I want you to think of one of those ways that you do it in your life. You want to make sure that you apply it. If you don't have a pen and pad handy, there are a million YouTube videos you can click through, but I want to make sure that you don't just get entertained, that you get something out of it.
What Is The Root Of All Evil? Try Challenging Yourself First
So now the question is, what is a way? I listened to a talk by a millionaire financial expert, and in this financial seminar he said that the way you treat dollars is how dollars will treat you, and I thought, well, how do I treat dollars? Sometimes we wonder what is the root of all evil. I treat them very well whenever I get them. I spend them right away, and I don't save any of them. Therefore, I continued to create that type of financial reality for myself. I shifted it and when I was making a minimal amount of money, a thousand bucks a month, I started saving that.
At first I was like "Can I save five percent of it?" Then I realized "yeah, I could actually just say five percent. Can I say ten?" Whereas before my limiting belief was "I couldn't save any because if I did I'd have nothing left." I started really small so I could prove it to myself. Then I found out that Sir John Templeton, one of the most famous investors ever, said that he would save eighty or ninety percent of his income. I said, "Maybe I could save fifty or sixty percent," and I started challenging myself.
I Am My Own Financial Source Of Supply
What happened was I realized if I wanted to keep this ratio of saving 50% of everything that I make, the problem wasn't that I was broke, it was not my current circumstances. I started making exponential leaps, whereas my friend was focused on asking me for money in the same way that a lot of people just think if they just vote for somebody else, if you just vote for the person that's going to offer more free stuff, then you'll be better off in the short term, it may be.
My shift from going from a broke mindset to a wealthy mindset was realizing I am my own financial source of supply. Sometimes I seem to wonder what is the root of all evil. This was game-changing. Number three is to learn to forgo low-ROI pleasure in exchange for long-term sustainable achievement of objectives. If you adopt the wealth mindset, you will see that your energy and time are your most valuable commodities or resources, and that every time you spend time on something or expend energy, you are investing your time or energy.
I Started To Forgo My Short-Term Pleasures
If you think of your 24 hours in a day as an investment, when people are broke, they invest their time and energy into low ROI (low Return On Investment) projects. Things that keep them at the same financial level that they're at, and when I shifted from a broke mindset to a wealthy mindset, I started to forgo my short-term pleasures. In order to not totally starve myself of it, I adopted something called my "splurge account," where I would put about five percent of whatever I would make in a given month. I would go blow that on a massage or a nice dinner.
When I started making a little bit more money, I'd save it for three months so my wife and I could actually go on one really nice night in a local hotel we couldn't afford. We would just do it one day. At times I wonder what is the root of all evil. These were splurge ways because your brain works off dopamine and if your brain gets psyched out by not getting any rewards from serotonin, dopamine, or rewards, then it won't find meaning in your financial objectives of achieving financial independence.
It Gave Me Financial Freedom
So I learned to forgo my low ROI pleasure and replace it with a five percent splurge account that I opened up, a mobile banking new savings account, and I would deposit five percent there. Then I started focusing on long-term sustainable achievement of my objectives, which always varied from five thousand dollars a month to ten thousand dollars a month to twenty thousand dollars a month. I clearly defined what those objectives were, and I focused on being on purpose, which sometimes gave me less pleasure, but in the long term, it gave me fulfillment and a sense of purpose.
It gave me financial freedom, and anyone that moves from being broke to wealthy has learned to forgo low-ROI tasks. One of the ways you can implement this into your life is to take inventory of what happens in a day and label things if they’re low ROI or high ROI. When you're able to start to say no with courage and shift to the 80-20 principle, learn to focus on the high-ROI things, even if it means that you forgo some short-term pleasure based on your old broken mindset.
You Have To Define That For Yourself
Number four is to find your "why". So my friend couldn't find a "why" for himself because he was too focused on the "how." I had to find the "why I'll take finances seriously" for myself, and you have to define that for yourself. He never defined that for himself because he didn't worry about it because his "how," which was "how he was going to achieve his short-term goals," was asking people for money.
My "how" was that I was going to take 100% responsibility, become an entrepreneur, build different streams of income, delay my instant gratification, focus on long-term objectives, acquire the right skills, continue to save, continue to stretch myself mentally and emotionally, and learn more about myself. I'll just ask people for money. People are nice. I'll just keep asking people until they give it to me. I'll explain it in a really nice way. I'll tell them I’ll give them their money back. They'll give it to me. Sometimes we wonder what is the root of all evil. Now that "how" is dangerous because it's a variable that you don't control in the book Fastlane Millionaire by MJ DeMarco.
Build A Written Strategy For Your Income
He calls it uncontrollable, limited leverage. If your "how" is based on other people giving you money, then you have uncontrollable, limited leverage versus what we're going to talk about in step number five. Now number five is how to get controlled, unlimited leverage. Build a written strategy for your income. My friend was focused on busy work and passions and didn't take a few hours to mastermind "how". So his "how" was "let me ask people for money," but when you move to controlled unlimited leverage, which means you're moving to a financial reality in which you control the outcome, that's when things change.
If you're reliant on asking people for money, you are trapped in a controlled and limited leverage. whereas I shifted my focus to how I controlled building an income map. The way I did that is I started to think about how to earn money instead of why I couldn't. It seems simple, but it's kind of complex. Sometimes thinking is the hardest work in the world. Earl Nightingale used to have a quote; he said, "Thinking is the hardest work in the world, which is no wonder nobody does it," and so I sat down and I came up with an income roadmap.
I Started Building An Income-Earning Roadmap
This is something you can do. You pull out a pen and a pad, and you write out all the ways to earn income. This is also a good challenge, even if nine of those ideas suck, because I noticed we are taught to think it's too hard. We're conditioned to think that it's too complex or that we need to go to Wall Street or some stupid thing like that. The fact is, it's never been easier to earn money. We're in the best time in human history to do that. So I started building an income-earning roadmap.
So you'll come up with every idea that you can come up with. It might be online tutoring. It might be babysitting. It might be offering a new service in your business. So how could you maximize that? I started building a strategy. When you go to a particular set of "how you earn an income”, ask yourself how you can increase this. I came up with some ways to increase control and add more leverage to that source, which, because I didn't know anything about business, was to show up at farmers' markets all across the west coast of America and I would sell at a different farmers' market every day.
Numerous Sources Of Income
At farmers' markets, people come with money. They come with money to spend. I'd get a table for 20 or 30 bucks, and then I'd sell my books next to someone selling kale. I'd sell it for any price in cash. My books cost me about a dollar fifty to print, so anything that I made a profit on I would just roll that momentum over and my goal was to sell more and more books. Then I realized I only had so many hours in a day and I had to develop MSI. This is the second part of your wealth strategy, of your written strategy for income. That's important.
You have your primary income source, but to go from a broken mindset to a wealthy mindset, you have numerous sources of income. Warren Buffett has so many sources of income that he probably needs to hire someone just to keep track of them all. Robert Kibasaki has so many sources of income, he has to hire someone to keep track of them all. Oprah has so many sources of income that she has to hire someone to keep track of them all. But when you're broke, you think income comes from one source. Sometimes we wonder what is the root of all evil.
Nothing Happens Until Something Moves
That's how we're conditioned and that's why the cycle repeats. So I wrote down MSI, Multiple Sources of Income. You can do the same and come up with all of them. So I started coming up with more sources of income. Well, I could speak at unity churches and non-secular churches, and I'd do a speech on a Sunday about my inspirational and spiritual journey, and then I'd sell my book. I'd charge them 500 bucks plus I'd sell my books. Then I realized that I could add packages to youth groups. So I'd speak at the main Unity church, then I'd do a youth group and I'd sell my books.
All of a sudden, I increased my income again, and I kept adding to it. I realized that they were asking me to do workshops, so I started packaging workshops. Then, out of nowhere, I got a TEDx talk, and that's what's going to happen once you actually focus on following these steps. Things started to happen. It's just that they don't happen until you move. Albert Einstein had a quote that said: "Nothing happens until something moves, and that something is you."
If They Don't Find Them, They Adapt To Them
Nothing can happen financially until you level up in your life, but the broken mindset is to wait for things to change, whereas the wealthy mindset is to make things change. Sometimes we wonder what is the root of all evil. It's like that old George Bernard Shaw quote, and he used to say that "the reasonable person looks around at the world and they look for the circumstances that they want, and if they don't find them, they adapt to them." So I started developing a bunch of sources of income, then I had a book deal with Penguin Random House, the number one English publishing company in the world, for a second book. They gave me a two-book deal.
So all of a sudden, I had a new income source. I was in bookstores all over the place, then I was able to get colleges and high schools to pay me. I was able to get a sponsor for a high school tour that funded the whole tour because high schools didn't have very much money to hire me. I got a sponsor that wanted to be in that market and then that kept building and then I started getting people saying "hey, you know, do a workshop" and then I realized maybe I should start to leverage the internet. So then I made a YouTube channel that started growing. Then I had people in Iraq contacting me in China and Vietnam.
Controlled Unlimited Leverage
Different countries began contacting me, and I realized I wouldn't be able to visit all of them, nor would it be profitable to hold seminars in these countries. Why don't I build some online video courses? So I started building online video courses all of a sudden. Before I knew it, I had 10–15 different streams of income. This is your income earning strategy and this is how you enter the arena of controlled, unlimited leverage. controlled, meaning you control it.
The broken mindset is being on an uncontrolled income earning roadmap. Uncontrolled, meaning you don't control the variables, means you need to ask people for money. The climate needs to change. Unlimited leverage comes when you develop multiple sources of income because, all of a sudden, you have sources of income coming to you, whether or not you're directly working on them. Sometimes those take 6 months or 12 months to build, but then before you know it, you're making money while you sleep, you're making money when you're on vacation, and all of a sudden, you have multiple different income sources.
You Start To Break Free Financially
None of them may be million dollar ideas, but they may all be thousand dollar ideas, and they can multiply every month. This is your written strategy for income. This is what I taught my friend. All this stuff. Here's what I'm learning; here's what my mentors are telling me, "Here's what I'm working on; and we'd have good conversations; he'd be agreeable; he'd come up with ideas." He would never write him down.
He would never tape the plan to his wall and say, "This is my plan," because he'd get distracted by saying, "Oh, I need to get to this thing and I need to go do this. Could I have a thousand bucks?" and he wouldn't stay for part of the course because he never wrote it down. So for each step of income, "how can I increase the source of this income?" See if you can come up with an extra two, three, or four sources of income and a written plan of execution to start to move positively in that direction. Start to control the variables. Once you start to do that, that's when you start to break free financially.