Money.

Money fascinates us. Divides us. In some cases, creates us.  As Roger Waters wrote in the progressive rock anthem of my youth:

Money, it's a crime
Share it fairly, but don't take a slice of my pie
Money, so they say
Is the root of all evil today.

So they say...

I’ve been studying prosperity—which of course, is greatly influenced by money—for more than 40 years now. My work is about taking the first principles of prosperity, the ones you learn when you read great works like The Science of Mind, by Ernest Holmes, As a Man Thinketh by James Allen, and Prosperity by Charles Fillmore, and try to apply them in a world populated by brainwashed puppets attacking each other on social media…political discourse which has now devolved to a place where the President of the United States of America calls people names like “traitor,” “piggy,” and “retarded”…and leaders of the Democratic party think billionaires shouldn’t exist and seem to sincerely believe wealthy people are evil for simply for being wealthy.

How in the actual fuck did we get here?

I’ve written whole books on that subject, so won’t repeat all that here. But it’s a great time to look at money and how we make it.  Missed it when it came out, but recently found my way into Simon Sinek’s book, The Infinite Game. If you haven’t read it, allow me to strongly encourage you to do so. It’s great at provoking thoughts about how and why companies are run, and exposes the conventional wisdom about mission statements, vision statements, and company values for what superficial tropes they have become.  If we earn our money and run our companies for short-term, finite results, we create short-term finite results in our entire world.

Why I have passionately pursued my work on prosperity all these years is because I see the infinite game. As I wrote here, money—and all true forms of prosperity—is infinite. And the way we create a more prosperous world is not by seizing the assets of billionaires and distributing them to the poorest members of our society. (I promise you that within two years all the money would be right back to where it started.) We make the world more prosperous by elevating the consciousness of the population, person by person.

My research on prosperity has greatly accelerated as I’ve been mapping out the curriculum for the new cohort of my Breakthrough U growth accelerator program for entrepreneurs starting January 1^st.  Yes, it’s true that I want to create thousands of new millionaires and help many more millionaires become billionaires.  It’s just that I am not motivated to do that because it will make them wealthier.  It’s because I want them to be part of the global movement of making the world more prosperous.  The money is one of the results of a growth process, and no doubt, the money will enhance your life in many wondrous ways.

But the greatest reward is who you become.

What’s the fun in flying private on a Gulfstream if you have no one to share it with? Will becoming a billionaire when your IPO floats really matter if you’re one Big Mac away from a stroke?  What’s the joy in earning your first $300 million if your kids couldn’t pick you out of a police lineup?

Here are two statements that appear to be similar:

• Earn money by doing good.
• Do good earning money.

In fact, they are quite different, because the order of words matters by a scale of magnitude. If you believe in the first statement, you’ll be operating at a higher level than most, but are still playing a finite game.  If you live your life by the philosophy espoused in number two, you’re playing an infinite game.  Because when you do good making money, you’re able to continue doing more good, making more money, creating an endless cycle of expanding prosperity.

The foundational philosophy of my Breakthrough U accelerator is summarized in the 7 Elements of an Abundant Life.  If you haven’t read it, you can download it for free here.

Peace,

- RG

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