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...
