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

“Have you heard the phrase that success leaves clues? I have found in my experience that failure leaves more clues.”

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

This is a quote taken directly from page four of the first chapter in the book. It comes at a point where Jamie is talking about being completely honest with ourselves in order to figure out what is holding us back from creating wealth—what is keeping us from being wealthy, despite the fact that we all have it within us to succeed.

Identifying The Clues Left Behind

The trick is to be able to identify those clues that failure leaves behind. For Jamie, that led him to the realization that largely, he was living in denial, and that that denial was a crutch that he used to keep himself from facing reality and the more uncomfortable parts of making money and building wealth.

What Denial Looks Like

If you put some thought to it, it’s not hard to recognize this type of denial. Any time you have ever said that you don’t care about money, or that there are more important things in life, you have denied your real desire to have money and build wealth.

Denying our desire for money is entirely counter-productive; and there is not a lot of sense in it. All that denial does is holds us back from achieving financial freedom. And that keeps us from achieving the lifestyle that we want—from enjoying those things that yes, are more important than money, but that we are left with no time or energy to enjoy.

An extremely important first step in creating wealth and achieving a freer lifestyle lies in facing our denial head-on, and acting to counter-act it. Money is not an evil. It is a tool. It is a thing, but it is also the thing that can allow us to find that life balance so that the more important things in life can and will be enjoyable.

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

It’s important to go further than to achieve a dollar-figure for wealth. We talked last time about the 1% who will be “rich” by age 65. But what we didn’t do is qualify that categorization in terms of achieving real wealth.

More Than Money

Here’s the thing—being wealthy is about more than just reaching a magical number. It’s not about having one million dollars in the bank, or about owning your home, or several homes. It may be in part about those things, but achieving wealth (at least what we are trying to achieve through the 21st Century Academy) is really about achieving lifestyle. So what is lifestyle, then?

What Is Lifestyle?

Jamie McIntyre defines lifestyle with this simple equation:

· Lifestyle = Time + Money

You see, achieving a wealthy lifestyle is not just about getting money into your bank account. It’s not just about owning property and “things.” Achieving the wealthy lifestyle is about having money, but also time. You can, and many people do, have money without the time—these are the people, probably most of the world’s population, who work and have money, but need to continue working to maintain those properties, life needs, and possessions. If those people stopped working tomorrow, they’d lose their things. So they have not really achieved a wealthy lifestyle. Obviously you could have time on your hands and not have money, but that would leave you without the lifestyle you are dreaming of, unless that lifestyle is to be penniless and homeless.

You do not have freedom in lifestyle until you have the financial flexibility to make your choices and pursue the lifestyle you want. That comes from having an abundance of not only money, but time, too. When you can say truthfully that you have a level of freedom, comfort, and flexibility in both, you can say that you have successfully achieved financial freedom and a wealthy lifestyle.

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