21st Century Academy

“…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

In the last post we looked at what Jamie McIntyre had to say about looking at our failures as clues to our current financial status. We introduced the concept of denial, whereby people use excuses like saying that money is not important to them, or that there are more important things in life. A lot of people have a hard time arguing against that, but if you read what Jamie and his millionaire mentor have to say, you start to figure out that yes, indeed, most of us are living in denial of how important having money is to each and every one of us.

More Important Than Money

Jamie McIntyre‘s mentor explained it best:

“You know most people would agree with you that there are other things more important than money. A lot of people say they are not interested in money, but can you guess what the people do who usually say that? They go and work for it because they are just like you Jamie. You go off and work your whole life for money and the whole time you say you are not interested in it. Would you not say that is a classic case of denial?”

No doubt, put that way, you can deny this no less than Jamie could. It is entirely self-defeating to say that you do not care about money, but then allow your entire life to revolve around it.

The beauty is that it really does not have to be this way. You can find a balance in which you can create wealth, make money, and live life—and right the balance so that making money by working your life away does not have to rule your life and times.

Think about it. You may say, and certainly believe, that there are more important things in life; things like family, security, and enjoying life. That is even true. But if you spend the majority of your time chasing the dollar by traditional means, are you really attending fairly to those things? No, you are not. And therein lays the paradox. If money is not the most important thing in life, you have to stop letting it rule yours. Easier said than done? For most people, the answer is yes, until they get a real financial education, an education for life.

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