GRASPING THE GOLDEN RING

GRASPING THE GOLDEN RING

Quick Success Method: Love melts situations that 
seem impossible. -CATHERINE PONDER 



DURING DINNER ONE NIGHT, one of my new friends 
looked at me and asked the question I didn't want 
to hear - "How did you become homeless?" 

By now, most people have heard my story of 
being on the streets of Dallas in the late 1970s 
and struggling in poverty in Houston for many 
years after that. 

But I had never explained exactly how I ended up 
in such dire circumstances. When I answered the 
question at dinner, everyone at the table stared 
at me. The woman who asked the question sat 
there with her mouth open and eyes unblinking. 

She asked, "Why have you never said this before?" 
My friend Mark Ryan was sitting there, also 
staring, and said, "As long as I've known you, 
you've never told this story before. It's riveting. 
This changes everything." 

Changes everything? 

Riveting? 

They all said I had to tell the story now. 

"Given the current financial crisis and with people 
losing their homes and their jobs, this story needs 
to be told more than ever before," Mark said. 

I heard them and realized I agreed. 

So here's the story... 

I knew I wanted to be an author when I was a 
teenager. I wanted to write books and plays that 
made people happy. Everywhere I looked I saw 
unhappy people. I believed I could help them with 
humor and stories. 

During that time of the mid-1970s, I watched 
sports. I don't today but back then the Dallas 
Cowboys were the rage. Roger Staubach and Tom 
Landry were heroes. I got caught up in the 
excitement and felt the place for me to make my 
name was in Dallas, Texas. 

I lived in Ohio at the time. Born and raised there. 
I worked on the railroad as a trackman, doing 
heavy labor all day long, working weekends and 
summers from the age of five. 

I saved my money, packed up my bag, and took a 
bus to Dallas. It took three days to get there. I
was lost in the big city, of course. Being raised
 in a small town in Ohio didn't prep me for the
 hustle and bustle of a city the size of Dallas. 

Before long, I wanted out. 

But I still wanted to be an author. 

At that time major companies were building oil 
and gas pipelines in Alaska and the Middle East, 
and offering to pay big bucks if you were willing 
to go to either place. I wasn't keen on going to a 
foreign country and doing more labor, but I saw a 
chance to make money, save it, and then go on a 
sabbatical where I could write for a few months 
or even a year. It seemed like a brilliant strategy. 

I answered one of the newspaper ads that 
promised to get me pipeline work at an extra-
ordinary hourly wage. I went to their company's 
office, met an upbeat sales person, and ended up 
giving him all of my money - my entire savings, 
about $ 1,000 - based on his promise that I'd have 
overseas pipeline work in a week or two. You 
might guess part of what happened next - but you 
won't guess all of it. 

Within a week or so, the company that took all of 
my money went out of business. Their doors were 
closed, no one answered the phone, and no 
forwarding addresses could be found. Shortly 
after that, the company went bankrupt. And not 
long after that, the owner of the company 
committed suicide. There was no one left to try 
to get my money back. 

I was alone. 

I was broke. 

I was in Dallas, far from home. 

I confess that my ego got in the way here. My 
family back in Ohio would have taken me back in 
and welcomed me back home. But I was head 
strong and determined to somehow survive. 

Well, I did survive — by sleeping in church pews, 
on the steps of a post office, and in a bus station. 
It wasn't an easy time, as you can imagine, and I 
never used to talk about it. It was too 
embarrassing. 

When I told this story at dinner, everyone agreed I 
had to share it with you. They said that people 
are finding themselves in the same situation — 
they trusted a government, or a corporation, or a 
person, or a bank, and now they are losing their 
homes and their jobs. 

Hearing that I went through the same thing three 
decades ago and not only survived but prospered 
to a level that the Joe Vitale of 30 years ago could 
hardly imagine, ought to be inspiring to you, too. 

I got off the streets and out of poverty by 
constantly working on myself — reading self-help 
books, taking action, scrambling at times by taking 
whatever work I could find, but always always 
always focusing on my vision: to one day be an 
author of books that helped people be happy and 
stay inspired. Along the way, I created the 
seven steps I'm going to reveal to you in this 
book. 

If you're in a place right now that doesn't feel so 
good or seem too safe, I urge you to remind 
yourself that this is only temporary. As I say in 
my book, The Attractor Factor, this is simply 
current reality, and current reality can change. 
You can help it along by doing what you know 
and need to do. (You always know what you need
 to do. It's a matter of actually doing it.) 

But remember, the sun will shine again. 

It always does. 

Your job right now is to focus on what you want 
and keep it in sight. 

Yes, keep taking action; 

Yes, stay positive and surround yourself with positive people; 

Yes, be of support to others. 

But remember, if I or anyone else can survive 
homelessness, poverty, job loss, or any other hard 
time, then you can survive it too. Please hang in 
there. One last thing: 

I admit that there were times I wanted to throw
in the towel and get myself out of this life. 
Thank God I stuck around. Had I left early, I 
would have missed a life of magic and wonder, 
success and fame I had never dreamed of before, 
priceless relationships and experiences, and much 
more. 

I have no idea what wonderful good is headed 
your way — and neither do you. What you have 
to do is stay the course and follow your heart. I've 
written the seven steps in this book to help you 
attract money now. I know what it's like to 
struggle, and I know what it's like to succeed.

The latter is far better. 

So let me tell you how to change your life... 

I've traveled a great deal in the last couple of 
years - since the beginning of what's been called 
the worst recession since the Great Depression 
in the 1930s - and I speak to thousands of people
about how to attract what they really want in 
life. Even those who were skeptical are now 
much more interested in finding out how to 
attract wealth. People are being laid off or losing
 their jobs, while their homes and assets have 
been slashed in value, and are now eager to hear 
what I have to say. Those that once found it easy
to be positive and upbeat about their future are 
now frightened and unsure. What's the solution 
to all this? 

I've spent a great deal of time and developed 
many programs to help people find joy, happiness 
and financial freedom in their lives. However, 
many people have decided to sit on the sidelines 
until now. They felt their lives were fine, their 
relationships okay, and their career or business 
good. They didn't feel the need to try anything 
new or different. They were close-minded. Now 
it's a different world. The lives of literally 
millions of people have reached a critical 
juncture. They feel as if they're running out of 
options and searching for anything that will help 
- even if they used to think it was a little too far 
out of the ordinary for them. 

Just writing that makes me smile because I was 
once one of the most skeptical, negative people 
around. I didn't have a dime to my name, a roof 
over my head and I'd borrow money from anyone 

and everyone that I could with no clue how I 
would pay it back. The interesting thing was that 
this happened in the 1970s and early 1980s as the 
oil market cratered and unemployment 
skyrocketed. 

Sounds a little familiar, doesn't it? 

I know what it's like to be unable to even imagine 
a future for yourself as everything that you 
thought you believed in crumbles around you. 
Back in those days, I would grit my teeth as the 
talking heads of the day discussed people's 
worries over how they would retire or when 
people's assets would recover their value. And 
here I was just hoping I could find some way to 
pay for food! 

Each morning during that horrible time, I would 
see the same dejected, hopeless expression in my 
eyes in the mirror - the very same expression I see 
on many people today. Though I understand how 
they feel, and how you may be feeling about your 
financial situation, I know that with tremendous 
struggle and hardship comes tremendous 
opportunities. What?! 

Opportunity??? 

I know you've heard that before and might not 
have taken the idea seriously but it's true. As 
humans, we tend to float along doing what's 
easiest or most familiar. We stay in our comfort 
zone. It may be lousy but at least it's known. It's 
not until we are plunged into turmoil that we 
begin evaluating our lives and then, and only 
then, are our minds finally open to change. 

I know this because that's what happened to me.
If I hadn't been homeless and financially destitute, 
I might have trudged along living a boring, 
average life for the next few decades. But things 
were just awful. I couldn't keep going the same 
way. It wasn't working and it was obvious - even 
to some-one as stubborn and hardheaded as I was 
at that time. 

Financial hardship has a way of beating the pride 
out of you. Unfortunately, it also destroys your 
self-confidence and you become convinced you 
are hopeless. This is where the real problem lies. 
You no longer believe in anything. Not in 
yourself, not in your ability to overcome, not in 
the knowledge that tomorrow is another chance. 

You lose hope. 

I can tell you from my own experience that this 
lack of belief isn't about reality - it's about 
perception. Just because you have less money in 
your pocket than the next person, doesn't make 
you less of a person - but it can make you feel 
that way. When everything around you seems to 
be good isn't there. Opportunities are all around 
you. It only takes one, yourself, to change the 
course of your life completely. 

Now, you may be thinking,"I couldn't attract 
money if you slathered me with honey and rolled 
me through a bank vault!" But that isn't reality. 
Anyone can attract wealth into 
their lives if they choose. It makes no difference 
what the economic conditions are or what the 
stock market is doing. In fact, the entire world 
could be in chaotic meltdown mode and you 
could still attract money! 

Don't believe me? 

THE PROOF OF HISTORY 

You may have heard the saying that millionaires 
are made during economic downturns. Many 
millionaires were created during the Great 
Depression. There is no question it was the worst 
time for many people, but did that mean all the 
opportunities dried up too? NO! In fact, thousands 
of people became millionaires. And back then a 
million dollars went much further than it does today. 

Over the last 100 years people have proven 
repeatedly that attracting money has 
nothing to do with having the right education or 
knowing the right people. It has everything to
 do with your mind and your beliefs about 
money. I've said it many times but it bears 
repeating: if you aren't doing as well as you 
like, the only person standing in the way is the 
one you look at in the mirror every day. If you 
allow skepticism and negativity to dominate your
 thoughts it will soon devastate your bank 
account. Money will always match your 
mindset. 

Remember that: Money will always
match your mindset. 

Contrary to popular belief, an economic downturn 
is a good time to start a business. Start-up costs 
are much lower in a recession than in boom 
periods. Savvy entrepreneurs think about what 
people will need as the economy improves and 
then position themselves to provide those goods or
services. It is also true that many poorly run 
businesses close during a recession and their equip
-ment and assets can be bought at fire-sale prices 
for pennies on the dollar. Commercial rents 
become inexpensive and there are many workers 
available as unemployment rises. This allows for 
many opportunities. 

A good example of this is a man I met a few years 
ago named David. He was working construction 
doing small odd jobs around the neighborhood. 
After a few conversations I learned that he was 

actually a trained chef who'd been laid off a few 
years earlier from a local country club. He 
decided that the only way he would be truly 
happy was to open his own restaurant. His 
seemingly insurmoun-table challenge was that 
he couldn't afford the $200,000 it would take to
open a new restaurant. His family was in the 
construction business, so he worked in it as well. 
This allowed him to earn a decent living and 
save for his dream - a "Jamaican inspired 
restaurant." I encouraged him to stay focused on 
his dream and opportunities would present 
themselves to make it happen. 

A few months ago I ran into David again and asked 
how things were going. He was so excited he 
could hardly talk fast enough! One of the 
customers he's done some construction work for 
had some vacant commercial property in a prime
 location. It had recently been a restaurant that ultimately went 
under. All the equipment, dishes and fixtures had 
been abandoned in the building. The man told 
David that if he'd fix it up and reopen, he could 
have the first year's rent free and the next two 
years of rent at a substantial discount. 

Needless to say David's construction experience 
came in handy. He remodeled the interior and 
within two months, opened his dream restaurant, 
which made money from day one due to the low 
overhead. Would this opportunity have appeared
in a boom economy? Probably not. It may not 
even have happened if David hadn't shared his 
dream with all his construction customers. David 
focused on that dream, and when the time was 
right everything came together to make his 
dream a success. 

Just like business owners in the Depression era, 
those who open themselves to opportunity today 
are going to attract money! Right now while 
you're reading this. It's happening constantly and
could be happening to you, but it will only happen
if you don't let fear overwhelm you. Every time I 
see or hear something negative about the 
economy, I immediately think "Well, that doesn't 
apply to me." That's because I know how to 
attract money. 

When I talk about past recessions and the oppor-
tunities they presented, someone will usually say, 
"But things are different now." My response is that 
they are and they aren't. Yes, we live in a 
different environment than past generations. 
Technology has made our lives easier and more 
complicated at the same time - and it has also 
brought us more opportunity. These days you 
can start a business from your computer, you 
don't physically have to go find a market or open 
a brick and mortar store as people in the past did.
(You Can Click Here and Join Now) 

One of my favorite stories is of Ashley Quails - a 
self-made millionaire before she was out of her 
teens. Ashley, who was only 16 at the time, 
started a website called whateverlife.com from
her home in Michigan. She wanted to help her 
friends get cool layouts for their MySpace pages 
and provide her friends with easy to understand 
HTMLtutorials. 

When she started her website, she gave all the 
designs for free. She earned her money from the 
advertising revenue. It was a very simple concept. 
Ashley saw the need and wanted kids her age to 
be able to get really nice page designs for free. 
The website now receives several times more 
traffic than most circulations of popular teen 
magazines including Seventeen, Teen, Voguel 
-combined. 

Back in 2006, someone tried to buy whateverlife.
com from her for $1,500,000 and she turned down 
the offer. In September 2006, Ashley 
attracted enough money to buy a home for 
$250,000 cash. She works out of her basement 
employing family and friends and is 
attracting money every day. 

WE LOVE CHAOS 

When I say that you can attract money into your 
life right now, I can't tell you the number of 
people who think that means they can sit on the
 couch sipping margaritas while money 
miraculously flies in their window and lands in 
their lap. This is not how it works. 

In order to attract money into your life, you
must follow the seven steps I have laid out in 
this book - and not one of them says to sit on the 
couch and wait. Attracting money requires 
action and focus; these can't be pushed aside or 
compromised. Unfortunately, humans are chaos 
magnets so unless we take the necessary steps to 
change our lives, we will attract obstacles and 
problems blocking our path to success. 

I've also had people criticize me for presenting a 
program that focuses on attracting money. 
The truth is that most of my programs focus on 
attracting wealth as a whole. The difference 
between wealth and money is that wealth is what 
you have left when you don't have any money 
or your money has been taken. 

Think about it. You may have a wealth of love, 
wealth in your spiritual life, or many other 
avenues that don't have anything to do with 
physical cash in the bank. Money, on the other 
hand, is your foundation for getting by in your 
daily life. It is your resource. Without money, 
or some sort of resource to survive, you can't 
focus on attaining wealth in any other area of 
your life. 

But money is just a first step in achieving a better 
life, ultimately helping you to become more 
spiritual. 

I can vouch for this personally. When you don't 
have work or know where your next meal is 
coming from, spiritual or emotional wealth is the 
furthest thing from your mind. Living today takes 
money and once you have that stable foundation it
allows you to pursue those higher ideals. Money 
is needed and money is good. As you'll see in this 
book, money is also a powerful resource for doing 
good things for others. Money is not the be-all and 
end-all of your life. If you think it is, you are over-
looking true wealth and giving too much power to 
money. Money is just a tool. A useful one, but 
just a tool nonetheless. We turn money into a 
problem out of habit and mindset. 

Let me explain: It is truly the human condition to 
find problems, create them, and/or attract them. 
Even when you resolve a problem, you almost 
instantly fill the gap with another one. We do this 
without even realizing it. You have to understand 
that as one problem disappears,another bubbles 
up to take its place. That's how the human mind 
works.Some people like drama and chaos more 
than others, but we all seem to attract problems 
simply out of human habit. It's our current 
nature. It's our program. And many of our 
problems revolve around money. 

To paraphrase Buddha - life is suffering, but once 
you realize that life is suffering, you no longer 
have to suffer. You are free. At that point you 
realize that life is a theatrical experience and you 
are just playing your part in the script. You are 
detached. You are, in many respects, awakened. 
Yes, we are problem-making beings but you can 
also detach from the experience of the problems. 
You can witness them. You can watch them as if 
watching a soap opera on television. 

I often see this in airports during delays. There's 
always someone who loses their mind and rants 
and raves. Will this make the plane take off 
faster? No. Will he get there before me? No. 
Does he love chaos and drama? Yes. I can sit 
and view the scene with detachment because I 
know that delays are part of the game. It is what
it is - but many people haven't discovered that yet. 

A problem to one person may be a blessing to 
another. It depends on your intention, which 
directs your perspective. So where is the real 
problem? Is there even a problem at all? Dr. Hew 
Len, my co-author of the book Zero Limits, often 
asks, "Have you ever noticed that whenever there 
is a problem, you are always there?" He means 
that the problem is yours — yours in perception 
and yours in responsibility. Clear the beliefs in 
you that see it as a problem and the problem 
disappears. 

Poof! 

Your perception about money determines whether 
it is a gift or problem. The choice is in your mind. 

I recently met a young couple, both surgical techs 
at a local hospital, that were facing a foreclosure 
on their home. The husband, Kenny, said he'd 
been in a state of depression for weeks and 
unable to see any options. I asked, "Options for 
what?" 

He replied, "Options to keep our home." 

"Why are you so convinced those are the only 
options?" 

He stared at me for a while like I'd grown a horn 
on my forehead. But a home is just a thing - 
nothing more, nothing less. His emotional attach-
ment to that home was altering his perspective. 
There are many options and opportunities that we 
encounter every day but we are so sure that only 
one type of option or opportunity will work that 
we don't even consider any other possibilities. 
This doesn't mean it's easy. Kenny and his wife 
wanted a solution that included rescuing their 
homefrom foreclosure. I asked, "What would 
happen if you lost the home. Then what?" 

He thought for a moment."We'd have to start over." 

"And what would that look like?" 

Again he thought. "Well we could relocate to an 
area with higher pay as our hours have recently 
been cut at the hospital." 

His wife chimed in, "We could even become travel
-ing techs who earn even more money since we 
wouldn't have a house to hold us here." 

As they talked, ideas flowed. Within an hour, they 
were convinced that losing this home was perhaps 
the best thing that could happen to them as it 
had prevented them from pursuing other 
opportunities that would have attracted much 
more money. They had been so caught up in the 
drama and chaos of the foreclosure that they 
hadn't looked at it objectively, in a detached 
manner. Once they removed all the negative 
emotions they attached to the event, they were 
able to think of many good things that would 
come from it. 

When you face a problem or challenge in your 
life, it's only a problem because you aren't 
accepting what you have, and are focused on 
what you want with a feeling of lack or 
desperation. You need to be grateful for what you
have now and want more. When you do that with
awareness and detachment, the issue isn't really a
problem, it's just your next activity. When you 
take the edge off your stress, you can more clearly
see your next move. 

Let me explain. 

MONEY IS IN THE MIND 

I've always known that the idea of money is in the 
mind. Most money is just a piece of paper or coin 
that only means something to the one giving and 
the one receiving. It is an agreed upon exchange 
of value. This is a very important idea to keep in 
mind. Often, when people think of attracting 
money, they think of cash they can take to the 
bank. While cash is included, it also includes 
things of value that come in from other sources. 

For example, when David wanted to open his 
restaurant, the offer of a free year's rent is just 
as good as cash in the bank, because it was 
money he didn't have to spend. I'm always amazed 
at the gifts and other things that just seem to flow 
to me effortlessly It's not always money. 
Sometimes it may be my expenses paid to visit 
exotic places like Peru - where I can stand on 
the ancient stone steps of Machu Picchu and 
have a great experience. Other times it might 
be a gift that arrives unexpectedly like a 
beautiful handmade leather bag I once received. 

When you think of attracting money, think of 
attracting anything of value that will enhance your
life. Not only do I experience this myself, I hear 
about these types of gifts all the time through my 
blog or through email, as others are learning to 
attract money for themselves. While you may 
think that we are on a currency system, many 
things can still be acquired through trade or 
agreement without any exchange of money at 
all. This opens new realms of possibilities. 

The idea that money is in the mind highlights the 
fact that what you feel, think and know about 
money, determines your ability to attract it. 
Again, money matches your mindset. Many of us
have had a tumultuous relationship with money 
over the years. Once I finally figured out that the 
issues I kept struggling with were my own 
creation (due to the beliefs and perceptions I had), 
then I finally opened the floodgates and let 
money pour into my life. 

I'm often approached by individuals saying, "I don't
want to know about that mumbo-jumbo Law of 
Attraction stuff, just tell me how to make money!" 

How do you expect to attract money if you don't 
understand how to do it? Just like happiness, you 
can't pursue money. If you do, you will become a 
slave to the pursuit. The only way to experience 
true freedom, is to attract the money to you, 
allowing it to flow and circulate for the good of 
yourself and everyone else. 

Those who are desperately seeking money, often 
run around in a frenzied state of panic, not under-
standing that this mindset slams the door on all 
the riches that would normally flow toward them. 
Panic attracts more panic. Worry attracts more 
worry. Desperation attracts more desperation. In 
this case, like attracts like! 

STOP! 

The first step is to stop all the activities you've 
been doing and evaluate yourself and your mind-
set. There is no way you can take focused action 
in the right direction if you're unaware of your 
limiting beliefs that may be getting in the way. 
Until you commit to work on yourself, and your 
attitude toward money it will always elude you. 

Attracting money is not about getting lucky. It is 
not about a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It's an 
understanding of how money works and what 
attracts money to you versus what repels it from 
you. I have lived the worst type of life and now 
enjoy the best. And the good life can be yours 
too. I'm not special or blessed in some way. 
There's nothing making it easier for me and 
harder for you. We're all on the same field. I'm 
just a few steps ahead, but not for long I hope. 

In the next few chapters I will be revealing seven
steps you can take to attract money with ease. 
Though I have taught thousands of people how to 
attract things into their lives, many still have a 
difficult time applying the concepts to their 
finances. They seem to apply the ideas to relation-
ships, their spirituality and even their careers - 
but when it comes to money, they just don't 
attract it. 

Throughout the text you will notice me saying, 
"Do this, not that," or "Choose A not B." This is 
because I want you to be rich!! I want you to 
close this book and understand the path you must 
take to attract money into your life - no questions 
or assumptions - just the facts. 

If you're ready to learn my easy seven-step 
formula for attracting money now, please 
keep read on the page...