21st Century Academy

Not unlike many of us, the blame and excuses that Jamie McIntyre was using often focused on issues in the past.

“One of my favourite excuses was, ‘If I could just get back all the money that is owing to me then I could turn my business around.’ When my millionaire mentor heard this he said, ‘Jamie, you could focus your energy on your past and try to collect all this money that is owing to you, that is called ‘old money’. Most people live in the past and they devote their energy to the past. If you want to become wealthy you need to devote your energy to your future. That is called new money.’ Then he gave me another pearl of wisdom. He said, ‘I guarantee if you take that energy and dedicate it to the future you will be a selfmade millionaire well before you ever collect the money that is owing to you.’”

–Jamie McIntyre, What I Didn’t Learn At School But Wish I Had

Letting Go The Past

We all seem to have something from our past that we can blame for not being rich now. Most of us will even have some instance similar to Jamie’s where we are owed money, or some outside influence caused a loss of money, and if we could just get that money back now, we could use it to seed our prosperity. However, the past is in the past, and wishing it back gets us absolutely nowhere.

It is a far better use of your time and personal resources to focus on the future and to take actions that will result in success, and in wealth and financial freedom. Do what we learned before—do the opposite of what most people do, and capitalize on living for the future, instead of dwelling in the past!

To Your Continued Success!
Sean Rasmussen
21st Century Academy
Universal Wealth Creation © 2004 – 2009

In the last post, we talked about how blame and excuses hold us back from creating wealth. In a future post, we’ll talk about the implications of looking to the past and dwelling on the reasons and excuses for our past failures and current positions. But first, let’s take a minute to clarify the difference between the two; because most certainly, even though there may be real reasons for your current state, there is a difference between a reason and an excuse.

Reason Versus Excuse

For this, we’ll go straight to the dictionary definition of a reason and an excuse:

• Reason: a: a statement offered in explanation or justification b: a rational ground or motive c: a sufficient ground of explanation or of logical defense ; especially : something (as a principle or law) that supports a conclusion or explains a fact
d: the thing that makes some fact intelligible : cause

• Excuse: a: something offered as justification or as grounds for being excused bplural : an expression of regret for failure to do something c: a note of explanation of an absence

There isn’t actually a lot of difference between these two words or definitions. The one difference that does stand out is the presence of the word “fact” in the definition of Reason. A reason has a basis in fact, whereas an excuse is simply a justification—one explanation for a current state of affairs, but not one that is necessarily based in fact.

Why Split Hairs?

This may sound like we’re splitting hairs, but there is an important difference here. The difference matters because when you excuse your action or past inactions, you justify your current state of affairs. When there is actual fact involved there may be real things to look towards to improve upon. This is where there is real potential for change. It is up to you to grab hold of that potential with both hands and make the most of it.

Now, all of this being said, there is only a limited usefulness in looking to past reasons before you start blocking your own path to success once again. That’s where we’ll pick up the next post, with more words of wisdom from Jamie McIntyre‘s millionaire mentor.

To Your Continued Success!
Sean Rasmussen
21st Century Academy
Universal Wealth Creation © 2004 – 2009

“…you can make excuses in your life and you can make money, but you can not do both at the same time.”

–What I Didn’t Learn At School But Wish I Had

We are continuing today to move on through Chapter One of Jamie McIntyre’s book, where the discussion is centered on why people fail to be wealthy. We are looking for the answers to why 96 percent of people (the people Jamie calls the “96 percenters”) end up dead, broke, or dead broke by the age of retirement. One reason for this that cannot be ignored is blame and excuses.

There’s Always A “Reason”

It seems almost human nature to create excuses and blame other people and situations for what we have not achieved. Mind you, when we do achieve and succeed, we are much less likely to do this, and much more likely to take the credit, but in the case of continued financial failure there is always a “reason” why things are the way they are (of course, these aren’t really “reasons” but excuses, but we’ll get into that later).

For example, Jamie used to say that the reason he wasn’t wealthy was that he was owed too much money by other people, or that he needed money to make money, or had too much debt, that he wasn’t born into money or handed a leg-up, or simply because he wasn’t interested in money (but we’ve already talked about living in financial denial). Or he would imagine that the solution was evading him, and if someone would just help him out, or if he could find the “right” career, then everything would fall into place.

A Familiar Feeling

I’m willing to bet Jamie’s litany of excuses sounds familiar to you; it seems as humans we are not all that original in finding excuses for why we are not wealthy. But whatever it is you are telling yourself, you need to start realizing that those are not reasons for your lack of wealth.

The only way these sorts of excuses become reasons you are not wealthy is because you give over your power to them. You allow them to become hurdles to success, but only because you choose to. These are hurdles that are easily removed because all you have to do is stop playing the blame game and stop making excuses. It may be a familiar and comfortable place, but it’s not a productive one, and it will never make you wealthy. Take back your power and start putting it to better use.

To Your Continued Success!
Sean Rasmussen
21st Century Academy
Universal Wealth Creation © 2004 – 2009