By financial independence, I don’t mean independently wealthy. It means living within your means and striving to simplify your financial life. It means finding the lowest comfortable lifestyle, attaining it and appreciating it for what it is. If you are thinking, “what the hell does that mean?” that’s okay, it will make more sense as we go on.
For more years than I care to admit, I labored under the delusion that I would build my wealth, and live my dreams the American way and live happily ever after. I was successful, however, at proving that no matter how much you make, it will never be enough as long as you are merely focused on building wealth.
The Barbequian philosophy of financial independence incorporates at the core level being at peace with and grateful for who you are and what you have. There are basic needs that every human has, but there are degrees of luxury within those needs that can go from the most basic to the most opulent and excessive. The trick is to be in a place personally and spiritually that allows you to determine what that minimum common lifestyle is, free from the influence of the ego. And on the flip side, if you will let go of the ego enough to honestly explore this issue you will find that the more you simplify, the more you grow.
I grew up in a wealthy environment for the better part of my life. My father is a successful entrepreneur and he provided what anyone would call a privileged lifestyle to my family. We lived in the resort city of Cuernavaca, Morelos just south of Mexico City on a paradisiacal estate with maids, gardeners and all the luxuries money can buy. I was a very lucky person in the eyes of many and I was a cursed person in the eyes of others -and both were right. My parents were very religious people and we were brought up under the philosophy that “obedience is greater than sacrifice” and needless to say we were all pretty gung-ho about our beliefs and our religion.
We all grew up to hold positions of leadership in our church and we all learned the entrepreneurial drive from Dad, which carried over to our adult lives as a great foundation for living “the good life”. At the risk of inspiring the need to deploy the Waaaaaahmbulance, while we had all the luxuries a human can want, I can honestly say that I do not know my dad. While driving a brand new sports car from the time I was 15 was pretty cool, I would have given anything for my dad to go camping with me, or take me fishing, or just spend some time with me. I would have given anything for my dad to have taught me some respect for my mother through his example rather than his belt. And while I don’t mean to demonize my father, because he is a great guy, my point is that money isn’t everything and, in fact, it is almost nothing in the realm of what is truly important. And yet we spend most of our life chasing after it.
I have to chuckle when I see these late night ads for programs that you can buy to teach you how to create wealth. I find it interesting how over the years they have evolved from the “get rich quick” of the 80’s to the philosophy of creating wealth so you can help others – through a business model based on “integrity”, “honesty,” “a desire to help others”. This has a huge appeal to a populace of the new millennium with a broad focus on political correctness, sensitivity, and enlightenment, where the so called “New Age” thing is increasingly chic and religion is becoming a central part of life again. The marketing of these programs is very effective and there are a lot of people that truly believe in and subscribe to the philosophy of creating wealth in order to help others that are “less fortunate”. I have to wonder why, if their plan is so successful, they are spending so much time and effort selling the plan rather than executing it. Could it be that selling the plan is more profitable?
I have some very good friends that came by to visit and share their new business venture with me. They told me how they went to the seminar and were impressed with the presentation so they bought the “starter kit”. They were so impressed and so desirous to participate in a program whose very foundation is to create wealth so you can bless the lives of others, that they traveled to various cities around the country to attend further training seminars. Now they have set up their LLC, printed their fliers and are anxiously waiting for the phone to start ringing. This particular program helps people who are in financial trouble avoid losing their home by buying it. They even have a nifty little magnet sign on their car that says “We Pay Cash for Homes” with their number on it.
They shared with me some moving stories they heard at the seminars about a waitress who through casual conversation with her customer mentioned she was a single mom with a $1000 mortgage payment, working two jobs trying to make ends meet. When she picked up the signed credit card receipt she noticed an error and ran out to catch her customer. He said, “There is no mistake. How much is your mortgage payment?” “$1000” replied the waitress. “And how much is the tip?” asked the customer – and the waitress broke into tears as she realized he had just given her a month of mortgage payment as a tip.
The next story was about a homeless boy who was asking for some spare change and the gentleman he approached handed him a bill. The boy stood there with tears in his eyes as he saw the first $100.00 bill he had ever held in his life. My friends were proud to share that the person involved in both stories was the President of the company they are working with and how they can’t wait to be able to do similar things.
At first these stories are moving, inspirational and motivating (an excellent marketing combination) and anyone with a heart would love to be in a position or have the opportunity to do anything like that. Just hearing those stories feels good, so it must feel incredible to actually do it. Anyone who has participated in any altruistic act or act of kindness and generosity knows that it is a great feeling, but we still have the fact that what feels good is ego-based.
When I hear these moving testimonials for creating wealth to bless other people I keep going back to the examples of great people who blessed countless lives and I wonder when did Jesus of Nazareth say, “Be ye therefore wealthy so ye can bless the lives of those who are not”? I haven’t read anything to that effect in the Bible, the Tao Te Ching, the Bhagavad-Gita, the Koran, the Talmud, the Essene Gospel of Peace or any other scriptural book I have read.
Do these wealth creation programs work? Sure they do – if what you want is to increase your income. However, if “energy flows where attention goes” as Dr. Serge Kahili King says – and it does – where is energy focused on a wealth creating program? On creating wealth!!
The nobility of the principle of creating wealth in order to bless others cannot be discounted or questioned. The Universe (God, Allah, Yahweh, Great Spirit, Goddess, or who or whatever greater force you believe in I will refer to as “The Universe”) uses all of us to bless the lives of others in many ways. The world is in need of people who can give 1000-dollar tips and 100-dollar gifts. People who show that type of generosity will certainly be blessed themselves, but these are “in the moment” or “short-term” blessings. So as we remove Ego from the equation, we see that these stories are marketing tools to focus our attention (therefore our energy) on creating wealth in a way that meets the basic criteria for “goodness” regardless of your spiritual or religious background and it has huge “feel-good” (ego) appeal. If you want to increase your income and improve your lifestyle, that’s great! And if that is what you want, you should do it. But let’s be honest with our self and focus the attention appropriately. If our intent is to create wealth in order to bless others, and we truly desire to bless others, we have a recipe for failure from the start due to a conflict of focus. If our intent is split between 2 goals, as is our focus, neither gets the benefit of all available energy to bring about fruition.
Throwing money at a problem is seldom, if ever a solution, it’s a band-aid. So the people who sincerely want to help and bless the lives of others that fall for the marketing of “creating wealth to bless the lives of others” have done themselves a grave disservice. By focusing attention on creating wealth, that is what they will do. So now, they can – if they have the strength of character to actually do so – go around passing out band-aids to be placed on cancerous sores. At best they can hand out a temporary fix to an ongoing problem.