To Be Rich, Simply Stop Doing What Poor Folks Do
by Bill Gatten
I don't mean to sound maudlin or too "new-agey" here; but the one bit of magic
that I have managed to glean from my more than half-century-plus on this wobbly
little planet of ours (OK…four-fifths, then), is that WE as individuals are
absolutely in-charge. We are not only in charge of our own destinies, but also
in charge of the very clockwork that is the Universe itself. Although most of us
live our lives wholly oblivious to that fact, we are none-the-less in absolute
control of our health, our fates, our bank accounts, and our aspirations, and
those of others (…the world at large).
Think about it. Didn’t we (you and I together) send a man to the Moon and stand
with him in awe as he took his first step? Didn’t we send space ships and video
cameras to all the known planets? Didn’t we invent cures for Diphtheria, Polio
and Malaria? Didn’t we build the Hubble Telescope and put it into orbit around a
beautiful, inhabited water planet in a remote part of a remote galaxy, just
because we wanted to? Didn’t we harness and tame the electricity that has
enabled the Information Age in which we are now all basking? Of course we did!
There is no one individual who can take credit for any of that…it was humanity
that did it, and it will be humanity who travels to the stars and cures all
diseases, and conquers aging one day. And that’s exactly who we are, and what we
are capable of. As individuals, we need only to be in tune with all of it, and
remain steadfastly aware of all of it, in order to use it and take credit for
it. With each and every one of our achievements, somewhere along the line, a
solitary individual with a burning desire to alter the entire Universe
forever—with a little help from the rest of us—simply did so because they chose
to, and because they knew for sure they could. Here's my own little affirmation
(as it were…a mantra?), which I have taped to the dashboard of my car, my
bathroom mirror and on the back of my TV remote (with which I spend entirely too
much time). It's yours too, if you want it. I have to say that it's done all
right by me. But here’s the caveat: If you read it over once or twice and think
you understand its meaning, you will be wrong…it’s far more multi-faceted than
it appears to be at first glance:
I am perfectly in tune with, and solely in charge of, the Abundance of, and
which is the Universe and all of Life: I will, therefore, continue to prosper
and excel in the most spectacular of ways…always!
The core message here is simply that whatever it is that we choose to have, if
we truly want it (need it or not), it will be given to us on a silver platter
when we know for sure that it is our right to have it, and when we honestly
‘expect’ to have it. We can pray for it. We can hope for it. We can ask Santa
for it. But if we’ve already tried all that, and are weary of all that mewling
and moping and hoping; if we’re sick and tired of screwing around and waiting
for the good stuff that others seem to have more of than we do: then we must dig
in and holler. We have no choice but to tilt our heads way back and proclaim,
from the diaphragm, as loudly and sternly as we can, that what we want is
already ours and by damn, we’re going to have it…NOW! It’s funny, but sometimes
God doesn’t appear to hear too good when needs are whispered as supplications.
But when they are boldly demanded with stern self-assurance, he smiles and says:
“Alright! You finally figured it out! It’s about time!”
When you have asserted your self in this manner (figuratively or literally)…and
really mean it…my solemn promise is all that you honestly command into reality
will indeed appear. The most closely guarded secret relative to obtaining is not
the fact that if you truly want it with a good reason, that it will be given to
you. There’s a far more valuable tool that we need to understand. I can remember
the “poverty days (my own)” of not too many years ago, when I thought repeating
my mantras and my affirmations daily…with stern conviction…and paying larger
tithes than I could afford, would bring me financial relief. It did not. It
didn’t do diddly (so to speak) until I figured out the solution to the enigma.
The enigmatic mystery all along was simply that if you don’t think you deserve
it, no matter how bad you want it, and no matter what you do to get it, you will
not truly desire it (burningly) enough to demand it with every screaming fiber
of your body and soul. And, until you do exactly that, your plans for
achievement remain too undefined to allow the Law of the Universe to “know” what
the heck it is that you’re supposed to have. Consider you’re walking up to an
airport ticket counter and saying, “I’d like a ticket please.” The ticket agent
then asks, “Yes, and where would you like to go?” You reply, “Well…someplace
better than where I am now.” Think about it…how far are you going to get before
your realize that you’re going to have to refine your objective and know for
sure exactly where you want to be. You also must know when you’re willing to
leave and when you’d like to arrive, and what your surroundings should be like,
once you get there.
The resolution of the “Mystery” then is: know what you want; brashly demand it
without apology; know that it is already yours to have; expect it without
embarrassment or doubt. Then, Voila! It’s on its way and you can’t stop it. Just
be very careful what you pray for…because your gonna get it! But wait! There’s
still another catch. There are a few things you must to do first in order to get
aboard the Achievement Train. These items are not necessarily daily exercises,
or life-changing goofy stuff you can't live with for long, and which embarrasses
your family when they see you doing it. But they are the ‘catch’ nonetheless,
and are summed-up very succinctly in the following quote by Louise Hay:
“In order to eliminate [any] ‘scarcity’ in one’s life, one must identify and
relinquish some [veiled] self-serving need that relies upon that scarcity for
its fulfillment.”
In analyzing this simple, life-altering truism, it become obvious that if, for
example, one were to desire to, say, lose weight, he or she would have no choice
but to give up something. For the weight challenged, take your choice: any two
of the following will do (and you can keep all the rest)--those scrumptious high
calorie foods; that insulin-spiking dietary starch; that satisfying couple’a
cold beers every evening after work (Oh God! Please! Not the beer!); your
sedentary lifestyle; or a blissful hour of not exercising every day. Another
prime example of a deeply hidden self-serving need that relies upon a scarcity
for its existence is “Failure.” In other words: “If I don't attain any success,
my need to bitch about everything and blame others for my failure won't be
impinged upon, and I won’t ever have to face the prospect of…failing. If I don't
try, no one can say I failed, and that way I won’t have to come back for an
encore (…and that’s very important, because even if I did accidentally succeed
once, who’s to say I could sustain my roll I was on, or ever do it again).”
For the same reasons, if one wants to lose the depleted bank account, and the
monthly late notices (“friendly reminders”), then he or she has no choice but to
firmly resolve to give up something. For starters, how about giving up, say, a
couple hours of TV watching per evening, two or three of those leisurely
Saturday afternoons per-month? How about giving up the safety inherent in
declaring that you don't like cold-calling? Or perhaps letting go of that that
fattening poverty building, oh so soothing, propensity for procrastination; As
Dr. Wayne Dyer says in his educational course by the same name:
You Will See It When You Believe It!
For our purposes, the key here is to simply understand, once and for all, that
in order to become successful in creative real estate financing, especially as
it pertains to the NARS Equity Holding Trust™, you do not have to change your
lifestyle, your religion, your spouse, your girth or the way pluck your nose
hairs. You merely need to identify and select a few of those replaceable
Self-Serving Needs, resolving to abandon them in favor of diligently taking for
yourself what you REALLY want out of life.
Bio:
Bill Gatten is a one of the few true "in-the-trenches" creative financing
teachers who actually practice what they preach. A highly successful real estate
investor and much sought-after national speaker, Bill's most recent book (of
many on the subject) is the very comprehensive, humorous and irreverent: "Making
it BIG in Creative Real Estate and Keeping it...This Time," a 500 page
compendium of all aspects of seller-carry, no-down, no-credit-needed, no-payment
creative real estate financing, featuring the dynamic "Equity Holding Land
Trust(tm) System" -- the PACTrust (tm) and NEHTrust(tm).
Educated at the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Bill's
45 years of work experience are in sales training, real estate investing and
institutional banking (former co-owner and founder, Westlake Bancorp; and the
former president and CEO of Gatten Financial Services, Inc. and Markay Equipment
Leasing, Inc., Thousand Oaks, Ca.).