Wealth File #6
Rich people admire other rich and successful people.
Poor people resent rich and successful people.
By T Harv Eker
Poor people often look at other people’s success with resentment,
jealousy, and envy. Or they snip, “They’re so lucky,” or
whisper under their breath, “Those rich jerks.”
You have to realize that if you view rich people as bad in any
way, shape, or form, and you want to be a good person, then
you can never be rich. It’s impossible. How can you be
something you despise?
It’s amazing to witness the resentment and even outright
anger that many poor people have toward the rich. As if they
believe that rich people make them poor. “Yup, that’s right,
rich people took all the money so there’s none left for me.” Of
course, this is perfect victim talk.
I want to tell you a story, not to complain, but simply to relate
a real-world experience I had with this principle. In the old
days, when I was, let’s say, financially challenged, I used to
drive a clunker. Changing lanes in traffic was never a problem.
Almost everybody would let me in. But when I got rich and
bought a gorgeous, new, black Jaguar, I couldn’t help but
notice how things changed. All of a sudden I started getting
cut off and sometimes given the finger for added measure. I
even got things thrown at me, all for one reason: I drove a Jag.
One day, I was driving through a lower-end neighborhood
in San Diego, delivering turkeys for a charity at Christmastime.
I had the sunroof open and I noticed four grimy guys perched
in the back of a pickup truck behind me. Out of nowhere, they
started playing basketball with
my car, by attempting to shoot beer cans into my open sunroof.
Five dents and several deep scratches later, they passed
me screaming, “You rich bastard!”
Of course, I figured this to be an isolated incident, until just
two weeks later, in a different lower-end neighborhood, I
parked my car on the street and returned to it less than ten
minutes later, to discover that the entire side of my car had
been keyed.
The next time I went to that area of town, I rented a Ford
Escort, and amazingly, I didn’t have a single problem. I’m not
implying that poorer neighborhoods have bad people, but in
my experience, they sure seem to have plenty of folks who
resent the rich. Who knows, maybe it’s some kind of chicken and
egg thing: Is it because they’re broke that they resent the
rich, or because they resent rich people that they’re broke. As
far as I’m concerned, who cares? It’s all the same, they’re still
poor!
It’s easy to talk about not resenting the rich, but depending
on your mood, falling into the trap can happen to anyone,
even me. Recently, I was eating dinner in my hotel room,
about an hour before going onstage to teach an evening
session of the Millionaire Mind seminar. I turned on the tube
to check the sports scores and found that Oprah was on.
Although I’m not a big fan of television, I love Oprah. That
woman has affected more people in a positive way than almost
anyone else on the planet, and consequently she deserves every
penny she’s got... and more!
Meanwhile, she’s interviewing actress Halle Berry. They’re
discussing how Halle has just received one of the largest film
contracts in history for a female actor—$20 million. Halle then
says that she doesn’t care about the money, and that she
fought for this humongous contract to blaze a trail for other
women to follow. I heard myself say skeptically, “Yeah, right!
Do you think I and everyone else watching this show is an
idiot? You should take a hunk of that dough and give your
public relations agent a raise. That’s the best sound-bite
writing I’ve ever heard.”
I felt the negativity welling up inside me, and just in the nick
of time I caught myself, before the energy took me over.
“Cancel, cancel, thank you for sharing,” I yelled out loud to
my mind, to drown out that voice of resentment.
I couldn’t believe it. Here I was, Mr. Millionaire Mind
himself, actually resenting Halle Berry for the money she
made. I quickly turned it around and began screaming at the
top of my lungs, “Way to go, girl! You rock! You let ’em off
too cheap, you should’ve got thirty million dollars! Good for
you. You’re incredible and you deserve it.” I felt a lot better.
Regardless of her reason for wanting all that money, the
problem wasn’t her, it was me. Remember, my opinions make
no difference to Halle’s happiness or wealth, but they do make
a difference to my happiness and wealth. Also remember that
thoughts and opinions aren’t good or bad, right or wrong, as
they enter your mind, but they can sure be empowering or
disempowering to your happiness and success, as they enter
your life.
The moment I felt that negative energy run through me, my
“observation” alarms went off, and as I’ve trained myself to
do, I immediately neutralized the negativity in my mind. You
don’t have to be perfect to get rich, but you do need to
recognize when your thinking isn’t empowering to yourself or
others, then quickly refocus on more supportive thoughts. The
more you study this book, the faster and easier this process
will be, and if you attend the Millionaire Mind Intensive
Seminar, you will dramatically accelerate
your progress. I know I keep mentioning the Millionaire Mind
course, but please understand, I wouldn’t be so adamant about
this program if I didn’t see for myself the phenomenal results
people get in their lives.
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