Tony Robbins Personal Power Day 17 How to Condition Yourself for Wealth 360p

[Music] unlocking the financial genius within you. That's what today's subject is about here on day 17 of personal power. I want to talk to you today about what I think it really takes to become wealthy in financial terms. Specifically, we're going to talk about today how to condition yourself for wealth. Because I'm going to make a statement right now that may sound like an oversimplification to you, but I have to tell you that it's true in my experience, and my experience is how to shift myself and other people's finances from struggling to absolute total abundance. And that statement is this: If you do not have enough money in your life, there's one and only one primary reason. You have not conditioned yourself for wealth. I'm going to show you exactly how to do that in these two tapes today and tomorrow combined.

Let's start with a little understanding about money. First of all, when you talk about money, have you ever noticed what an emotionally charged issue it is for people? I mean, people usually go one extreme or the other. Either it's like real positive for them and they get real excited, or they say, "Yeah, I want to be able to make some money. I want to make things happen in that area." Or you see the direct opposite extreme where people literally have contempt for it, as if it was something evil or suspect, something that you should avoid at almost all costs. And that usually shows up, obviously, in their lack of economic well-being. Why is it such an emotional issue for us? Well, we could spend several days just analyzing all the associations that have been attached to money throughout the years, both in religious terms as well as in business terms, all the experiences that we've had. But the truth is, money is nothing but a representation, a means to measure the exchange of value between people.

So, one of the questions that I've asked myself is, why do so many people fail to achieve financial abundance in a country where financial opportunity surrounds us? Literally, at every moment, it beckons to us. And yet, most of us never do that. We never create the financial abundance we deserve to have. So I asked the question, "Why not?" Why don't people succeed financially? Out of that question, I started getting some answers on my own. But I also started getting answers by going out and modeling some of the most successful people in the world financially, people that are in the 100 million to billion dollar class. I figured, "Hey, if I'm going to get some answers, these people can tell me." And I look for people specifically in that area who have made it financially on their own, people who have started with little or nothing, ideally. And by the way, there are many more than you realize. We live in a country where people can generate net worths of 100 to 500 million dollars starting with a little idea for a computer in their garage, or where somebody can go to IBM as a young kid and become a billionaire by his mid-thirties, an example of Bill Gates. So there are lots of role models of unbelievable possibility. And you may say, "Well, that's not my goal." I can appreciate that. But these people certainly know how to create and build wealth, and more importantly, maintain it.

You know, years ago, there was a book written called "Think and Grow Rich," and I'm sure you've heard of it. You've probably read it as well. It's one of those very first books that I read when I first started reading personal development material. And you know, the book was based on the research done back in the early 1900s when Andrew Carnegie asked Napoleon Hill to actually make a study of what it takes to build wealth. And my own work in this area could be called "Think and Go Rich" today, because that is, in today's society, with today's distinctions, in today's technology, what is today's approach to building wealth? What really makes the difference financially today? And what I found is there are certain distinctions that have not changed, because the building of wealth is fundamental. And so, a big part of my research has been, what is the mindset of wealth? What does it allow certain people to not only expect it, but find a way? What I've found is that most people, even when they learn how to do things, if you don't handle what we're going to do in these next two sessions, they usually sabotage it. Because most people have what I call "wealth wounds." In fact, I'm working on a chapter for a book called "Wealth Wounds: The Seven Reasons Why Most People Never Make It Financially and How to Heal Those Wounds." And what I want to give you is a small preview here of at least some of those basic fundamentals right here in this program, so that you can begin to use those right away.

So, the obvious question is, what is the number one reason why most people fail financially? And the answer is so simple that it eludes most of us. It's because we associate negative things to having excess money. In fact, the word "excess" by itself for most people is a negative. So, wonder why we don't ever have it. The very thing I talked about here earlier in this program, the thing that runs our whole life is two things. What are they? Anything we associate pain to, we're going to avoid, especially if it's major pain. And anything we associate pleasure to, we're going to move towards. Now, you may again say, "Tony, what are you talking about? Of course, I associate pleasure to making money." Because if I had money, that I could really have more time to be with my family, I wouldn't have to work at certain things. Or if I had money, I could give certain things that are really important to me, or I could support a specific charity I believe in. Or, you know what? I could travel, or I could just do whatever I wanted, as quick as I wanted. Or I could have the ultimate wardrobe or jewelry, or I could have favorite cars or homes whenever I wanted them. I could learn to fly or master any skill, or hire the best teachers, the best coaches. Of course, I want money. If you don't have it, you're right, you do want it, but not bad enough. Because while you want it, you have an approach-avoidance. You also simultaneously have all the negative associations. And we alluded to these earlier. I don't know if you remember them, but I want to remind you, repetition being the mother of skill. What are some of the negative associations that people sometimes link in their subconscious mind to money that keep them from literally attracting it? Or they start to attract it, and then their brain gets scared and says, "Oh my God, this might lead to pain," and then sabotages it. Well, some of them are things like, "In order to make it, I'm going to have to work so hard, I'll have no time to enjoy it, so why even try?" Or, "Gosh, by the time I earn a lot of money, I'll be old and gray anyway, so why even go after it?" Or, "To make money, you got to be really smart, and I'm not smart enough." Or, "To make money, you have to take advantage of other people, and I could never do that." Or something like, "Well, gosh, you know, if I made money, I wouldn't have any time to be with my family." Or, "If I made a lot of money, people will start judging me." Or, "If I make a lot of money, well, then I'll just have to pay more taxes, and then the IRS will be after me." And then what will happen? People usually worry about these things. And people have no money at all to start with. They knock themselves out of the game before they even get to bat. Or, "If I make a lot of money, I probably won't be as spiritual. I mean, I'll get sucked in." And of course, I remember reading the Bible, it said, you know, "It's easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than the rich man to get into heaven." And gosh, you know, it's hard for camels to get through needles. Classic misinterpretations like that cause people to live in experiences of lack. And I don't know of any place in the world where when people feel like they're living in lack, where they feel like they don't have enough, where that encourages the highest level of the human spirit to come out on a consistent basis. Now, I might be wrong about that, but I gotta tell you, wherever I see lack, I see crime in mass. Wherever I see lack, I see people trying to escape with drugs. Wherever I see lack, I see people taking advantage of other people and making it okay, justifying it by, "Why, I had to survive." I don't think lack brings out the best in the human spirit. I think when we have abundance, what happens is we stop focusing on ourselves and how we're going to survive, and we have enough to start focusing on who we really are, which are human beings or spirits that are here to contribute. And I think when you're in the position of trying to survive, your focus is on you. When you've learned to handle that message, when you really know you've got your act together and you don't have to worry anymore, it's much easier for people to look at, "How can I contribute to my fellow man?" Now, I'm not saying that you can't come from a position of lack and be a contributor. Obviously, you and I can name name after name of people who've been able to do this and are role models of possibility, even though they grew up with nothing financially and never had anything. So, I'm not saying money's the only answer. I'm just saying in this culture, in this time, if you had a choice between having it or not having it, why not go for it and have it too? Why not use your money as a powerful tool for positive influence on the people's lives you care about, as well as your own? And enjoy having it. Get off the guilt trips that have stopped you in the past. It is that sense of guilt that if you have more money than somebody else, or what if you made more money than your father? Oh my gosh, God, what a wound that would be. It's that kind of thing, those negative associations that are keeping you from having what you want. So, if you do not have all the money you want in your life, you associate more pain to having more money than you have now than not having it. It's that simple. Now, with the technology that we've learned, you can condition yourself to change those feelings and those beliefs. And we're going to talk a little bit more about that on the next tape. But I want you to know, that is the number one reason that most people don't succeed financially, according to people that are most successful in the world at obtaining, maintaining, and building wealth.

Here's the second wealth wound. And by the way, I picked those words very specifically. I want to get a clear picture that if you don't master and handle the seven things I'm about to talk about, then every single day, you're probably experiencing a financial bloodletting. What's happening is you are experiencing the pain on an ongoing basis of wounds, things that are literally dripping out of you, your own financial well-being. And there's no excuse for it. You can handle it easily and quickly. Here's the second one. The second reason these people say and have told me thus far that people do not succeed financially is, not only do they have negative associations to money, but even if they have okay associations, they never make having an abundance of money an absolute must. Interesting distinction. I'm not saying love money and make it your God, because that's the way to absolutely be certain that you fail in life, that you destroy everything that's valuable. But what I am saying is, make it a priority so you get it handled. And make the priority not just getting by, make the priority massive abundance. And come up with a specific figure you hold yourself to. I'll give an example. People who consistently stay at a specific weight, who are once fat but really stay thin, and they don't really vary a whole lot. In modeling these people, I found that they have certain things in common. And I do a whole health seminar called "My Living Health Seminar," but just to give you an idea or a distinction. The one thing that they all have in common is they have decided upon an ideal weight, a weight that they must be at, and they have a specific amount they can vary, and it's usually small. Let's say two or three or four pounds maximum. If, for example, they say, "I'm going to weigh 235 pounds," and all of a sudden they creep up and they see their 238 pounds, instantly they do whatever it takes to get back to 235, because 235 for them is a must. Do you follow me? The same thing has to be true for you financially. You've got to have a certain level of finances that you must be at. If you ever vary, you got to do something about it immediately, otherwise you get caught up in what we call Niagara's current, right? Where day to day, you just get caught up in making a living and doing things and putting things off, and it doesn't happen. So, the only way you're going to succeed financially is when you decide on a specific amount of money that you must have in your life, and it must be well beyond what your absolute needs are. So, in other words, what I'm asking you to do is take something that seems right now to be an accessory, money, and make it a necessity. Find an amount of money that would be considered abundant, and make that not only abundant, but a necessity in your life. You follow me? That's critical if you're gonna have long-term wealth financially. And if you don't do this, there's no way you'll be able to have the amount of money I know you'd like to have in your life.

The third major wealth wound that drains most people's drive financially, in fact, keeps them from ever developing a great deal of wealth in the first place, is suffering from the problem or falling into the trap of never ever developing an effective strategy on how to build wealth in the first place. I mean, listen, if all it took to succeed financially was for you to associate lots of pleasure having money, pain to not having it, in other words, you really made it a must, and that was it, then we'd all have it. But see, that isn't enough. If that's all it took in life to succeed was absolute passion for something, then every kid would have had a pony when he was growing up. That's not quite enough. You've got to have an effective strategy. Hey, if you're running east looking for a sunset, you've got a problem. I don't care how enthusiastic you are. So, you've got to develop strategies on how to one, attract money into your life in the first place. How are you going to create that initial income? Two, how to manage that money so that you can invest it and get money to be your slave instead of you being a slave to money. In other words, get your money to make you more money, so it's not taking more of your time and physical effort, but where you literally begin to leverage yourself. And then three, strategies on how to share money so it gives you a tremendous amount of joy. Because to me, that's a strategy that's critical also. Otherwise, why are you going to keep getting it? Your brain has got to link pleasure to it, or it won't continue to work for it. And if you can learn to share with people, I've found that yes, giving yourself things is fabulous, and you should do that. But if you can also share, it'll give you even more joy. It'll give you all those pleasurable feelings you've really wanted. Those are three strategies that are critical.

So, how do we go about mastering these strategies? Where do we come up with this? I mean, we weren't taught this in school, that's for sure. No one said, "Hey, take Wealth Building 101." So, how do we go about it? And the answer is simple: We use modeling. Remember one thing I talked to you about earlier that has helped me to be effective in various areas of my life? It's been getting role models, finding people that are effective, and finding out exactly what they do. That's all you have to do in this area as well. You need to find people that are successful financially and find out exactly what they do on an ongoing basis that creates that success. In other words, they aren't just lucky. In order to get this result, they're doing certain things on a daily basis. And it's a lot simpler than you can imagine. Hey, I turned my entire life around financially in less than 12 months. I was the guy in that 400 square foot bachelor apartment. 12 months later, I had a million dollar net worth. That's not a small turnaround. I moved my little 400 square foot bachelor apartment to my castle. All of that came from modeling successful people financially. So, there are lots of strategies. In the short few minutes that we have here, I can't obviously cover all those strategies with you in this tape. That is a study within itself. But I will tell you this: If you're interested in developing absolutely effective plans and how to start from literally zero or a small amount of investment and build significant wealth, financial abundance in your life, that's specifically what a good portion of my life has been focused on. And I've interviewed and developed the strategies and modeled the strategies of some of the most successful people in the country. And I know how to put it across simply. So, if you want to know about that, please do call us, because we do seminars on that specifically. And you don't have to come to our seminars. There are other people's too. There are other books, or you don't even have to go to any seminars. You can go and meet these people directly and model them yourself. You can find people in your own neighborhood, people around you have done extremely well, and find out exactly what they're doing that makes it work. Become like an investigator. Become like a hunter. And your prey is now wealth. And what you're going to do is stalk it. You're going to study its habits. You're going to notice where it goes. Really follow this prey. And then don't kill it, make it your pet. Take it home, make it your friend. Take good care of this pet, and this pet will take really good care of you. Gosh, if you can make earning money and developing wealth fun, you can't believe what will happen in your life. It doesn't become your whole focus, but it becomes a part of what creates joy for you in life. And while you're doing it, by the way, you're adding value to other people's lives. Because the only way you can possibly make money is to create an exchange of energy and value for other human beings. That's the only way it can be done. And by the way, once you've really studied and you have developed a plan to develop wealth, the only thing you're going to need in addition is a good vehicle. And again, part of your plan should be how to get that vehicle, how to develop something for you so the earning money even while you're sleeping. How would you feel then? Instead of feeling like every day there are things you had to do just to keep up, just to support your family, just to have a certain level of lifestyle. So developing not only a plan but the right vehicle is very, very important. And again, that's things that we teach and things you can learn on your own by modeling other people. But that is wealth number three: failure to get an effective strategy for consistent wealth building.

Here's wealth wound number four. This one's pretty simple: failure to consistently follow your plan once it gets set up. See, there are people who actually have developed a good plan. They've got some good role models. They worked really hard. They've studied finances. But they don't get themselves every single day to follow through. Like, for example, I'm sure you've heard about all the different kinds of programs where people teach people how to get rich overnight. And you know what? Some of them really would work. A lot of them don't, obviously. A lot of them are scams. But some of them really do work. The problem is, people don't work them. They go to a seminar and they learn how they're supposedly going to build something financially, but they never follow through. It's mind-boggling. But the problem is, they don't have what we're teaching you, which is how to get yourself to follow through, how to condition yourself so you consistently take those small steps that create huge financial abundance. I mean, one of the simplest examples that I can give you is one you probably already know about. But the question is, have you followed through on it? And that is the whole principle of compound interest. You're familiar with it, aren't you? Gosh, if you're not, you need to introduce yourself to the principle. What it basically says is this: If you take a certain amount of money and you set it aside, and all you do is allow that money to continue to bring you interest, in other words, you lend it to a financial institution or make a simple investment, a very secure investment, and you get a return of, let's say, 10 or 16 percent. Now, by the way, when I say that to some people, they say, "Oh, you couldn't get a secure investment at 16 percent." They simply don't know the strategies. There are people whose net worths are over a hundred to five hundred billion dollars who will tell you that anyone, even with a very small amount of money, can earn over 20 percent annually on their money in a very secured way. In fact, that's part of the strategies that we teach in our money seminars. But the point is, let's just say you took a small amount of money, let's say, for example, $3.25 a day, $100 a month, and all you did was invest that and got a 16% return on your money, and all you did was do that every single month. In other words, every day you followed your plan, you put a little $3.25 away, $100 a month, and you invested it at 16%. What does that mean if you don't take that money out and you really stick to your plan? Answer: After five years, what you have is $8,000. After 10 years, you've got $21,000, just $100 a month. After 15, over $41,000. After 20 years, you got $75,000. After 25, you've got over $125,000 by investing $100 a month. Now, maybe that's not going to make you wealthy within 25 years, but we're talking about a simple little thing you could do every day that would be absolutely painless. Hey, let's say you decided to be a real big spender. You said, "I'm going to be a major investor. I'm going to put a big $6.50 away a day." That's right. I'm going to cut down on a few Pepsis. I'm going to cut down on a few boxes of cigarettes, whatever it is you'd spend that on, and I'm going to actually put that away and invest it each month. That's a whole $200 a month in investments, again at 16%. Check this out: After five years, at only $200 a month, $6.50 a day, you've got almost $19,000. After 10 years, without touching it, simply $6.50 a day investing it the way we would teach you to, real simply, you'd have over $60,000. After 15 years, $150,000. After 20 years, over $350,000. After 25 years, you have just under a million dollars, just by putting aside $6.50 a day. See, the biggest reason most people don't make money is not because they can't figure out how to do it, but because they don't follow through. They don't do those simple little daily things that can make them successful. And again, this is not the only way to be wealthy. This is just a nest egg. This is not learning all kinds of active strategies. This is not learning all the ways you can build wealth through additional income. This is just taking the small amount of resources that any human being can virtually get their hands on, and you can develop it. That is a major wound: not following your plan. Obviously, what we teach you is how to be able to get yourself to follow through in anything, especially a financial plan.

Here's wealth wound number five: relying on experts. You go, "What do you mean, Tony?" I mean, who else can I rely on? Take a wild guess: yourself. You've got to get to the point where you have enough expertise that you can make your own financial decisions. If you don't, you are going to experience a major financial wound, and it may kill you financially. It may destroy you financially and create something like bankruptcy. I'm speaking from experience. I was in a position where I thought, "I don't want to have to deal with this money stuff. I don't care about money. I just want to go out and help people and do my thing." Yeah, well, I got a company and stuff, but let somebody else handle all that. Well, I let them handle it all right, and I woke up a few years later $758,000 in debt. I mean, try that on for size when you've been working and doing 270 seminars in a year, every day, giving 100%, caring about people, and not paying attention. And I got good advice from good people, but the bottom line is, they gave me advice that wasn't effective. You've got to know. I'll tell you another area you better become an expert in, and that's taxes, because the tax laws are changing so often, and even the experts who are supposed to be able to tell you exactly what to do can't agree. So, either you give up and hope everything's going to work out well? The IRS won't buy that. If there's a problem, they're going to come see you, not your accountant. So, if your name's on the line, you better know what's going on there. Otherwise, you could get yourself in big trouble. And if you know what's going on, you can pay the appropriate amount of tax and not more than the appropriate amount of taxes that are out there as well. Hey, listen, you wonder how important taxes are. One-third of all the wealth you're going to earn in your lifetime goes to the government in taxes. One-third. Best you learn to manage that effectively and not overpay. That's not being intelligent. That's not being patriotic. Listen, if you want to help your community, take that money and invest it directly in a charity or something you really care about directly. Don't overpay simply because you don't know what the rules are. Just remember, you're going to spend more money on taxes than you'll spend on your children's college education or virtually any other investment you're going to make in your life. So, it makes sense to understand this area. Again, I'm not saying just go out and only be a self-study and don't get any input and don't get any advice. I'm saying bear in mind that the decisions that you make financially are your decisions. You will pay the price or you will reap the rewards. So, best you understand them.

Wealth wound number six: financial complacency. Hey, if you want to make sure that you absolutely fail in life, the quickest and easiest way is to begin to rest on your laurels. That is, to get so comfortable that you stop paying attention, you stop doing the things that are necessary that create success. It happens with your physical body where you start to take it for granted, you don't exercise anymore, and wham, you pay the price. It happens in relationships. You go, "Well, the person knows I love them," and you stop expressing it, and all of a sudden the relationship begins to deteriorate. There is a law of life that we must never forget if we want lifelong success, and that is: whatever you fail to use, you lose. Remember the Bible story of the talents? Remember the great merchant? One day he knew he was going to go on a trip and be gone for quite some time, and he wanted to make sure that his money, his talents, which was a measure of silver in those days, was going to be invested effectively, that in fact, he would prosper even while he was gone. A very wealthy and bright man, he decided to entrust his talents into his three servants. And he brought the first servant and he explained that he'd be leaving, and then he said, "I'm going to give you five talents. Please take care of them while I'm gone." The second servant, he brought in, he said, "I'm going to give you two of my talents. I'll be leaving. Please take good care of them, and I'll be checking in with you when I come back to see how you've done." And again, he did the same thing with a third servant, giving him only one talent. When he finally returned, he called each of the servants in one by one to see how they'd done with his talents. The first servant came in and said, "Sir, I took the five talents you gave me, and I traded them, and I used them, and I invested them, and they have multiplied. I now have for you, sir, ten talents." And the master said, "Well done. That's excellent." He brought in the second servant. He said, "What happened with you?" The gentleman said, "Well, you gave me two talents. You know, it's kind of scary out there a little bit. You know, I went out there, some people try to steal one of the talents. It was kind of tough, but I hung in there. I pushed real hard. I made some wise investments, and sure enough, I've doubled the talents. They've gone from two to four." And the master said, "Well done. That's excellent." The third servant was called in, the man who was given one talent. He came in, and the master asked him, "What did you do with the one talent I gave you?" He said, "Sir, well, you only gave me one talent, so I couldn't afford to take any chances. So I thought I'd protect the talent by taking it and wrapping it in a napkin and then I buried it. That way, nobody could steal it." The master turned to the servant and said, "You, sir, are a wicked and slothful servant." Which I guess means he was kind of upset with him. And the bottom line, he said, "Take that talent from this man and give it to the man who has ten." Now, you might say, "Well, that's not very fair." Hey, nobody said life was fair. But in reality, those who do well with what they've got will be given more. That's the first lesson to get from the story. I think the second lesson is, lots of people, when I talk to them about wealth wounds, why they don't have money, and how they can turn it around, the first thing they tell me is, "I don't have enough to do this. I don't have enough to invest." Listen, you don't have enough *not* to invest. You must find a way, otherwise you will never have what you want. Bearing what you have will not give you more. It will cause life to take away what little you do have. So, the message is right from the Bible itself: If you don't use what's given to you, you're going to lose it, period. You've got to make sure that once you start to succeed with your wealth, that you don't sit down on it. Because see, if you don't actively try to build more, you're not adding more value to other people. The only way to multiply your wealth is to invest your money, which creates more opportunity, more possibility for others around you. Otherwise, what you're doing is hoarding, and it will be taken from you. Make sure you don't get so comfortable that you stop focusing. Financial wealth comes from consistent focus on how to continually create, maintain, and build your financial foundation.

So, we've talked about six very powerful wealth wounds, things that drain our capability financially and cause us to erode the foundation of unlimited financial possibility and freedom. What's the seventh one? Well, let's imagine that you've handled the first six, and you've really done well, and you've built something up. And now you finally have got something here. You've really built some wealth. You've got a major foundation here. You've got some freedom. And then one day, something happened you never anticipated. Something happened you never thought would happen in a million years. You have what we call a minor disappointment, like losing 50% of your wealth overnight, or like being in the stock market one October day and seeing all that you worked for dwindle down in a matter of hours. How does this relate to wealth wound number seven? Well, number seven is what kills most people, even after they begin to really succeed. It's the final kicker. That if you can master this one, if you can patch this wound up and heal it, you can remove all the scars from your financial body and actually get to experience what it feels like to move in the world we call wealth abundance, an unlimited sense of possibility in your ability to create opportunity for yourself and the people you care about, the opportunity to have influence in your lifetime. If you can heal number seven, you get all of that. If you don't, all of a sudden everything you worked for drops out. And wealth rule number seven, I'm sure you figured out by now, is allowing financial crisis to turn into financial ruin. In other words, I don't care who you are, how bright you are, how successful you are, how hard you work at being brilliant financially, I can guarantee you one thing: you're gonna have some major learning experiences. Remember earlier when we said that success is the result of good judgment? Good judgment is the result of experience, and experience, unfortunately, is often the result of bad judgment. I can guarantee in your lifetime, there's going to be places where you have bad judgment. The best financial managers have bad judgment. There are things you cannot control. If, when those crises occur, no matter how bad they may seem, you allow that to become the completion of your financial picture, you say, "Why even try?" Or, "Here, I did all this, and this is what I got rewarded." Or, "Gosh, I can never invest again because I tried this thing one time and I lost all my money." If that happens, you have the ultimate wealth wound. In fact, you have a dagger that will murder your financial future. The bottom line, that may sound harsh, but it is real. This is the one that kills most people. They go, "Well, I tried this one thing one time, so gosh, I can't do that again." Or, "I tried this thing and I gave it all, and this is what happened, so I better not do anything again." And you know what that's called? Death rattle. They'll never happen. They'll never have what they want financially. You've got to be like a rubber ball and bounce back up and learn from what happened there and reinvest wherever you are. Remember the key belief system I shared with you earlier? The past does not equal the future. If you believe it does, it will control your financial future. You must get up and take another cut at the ball. Hey, Babe Ruth struck out more times than anybody in baseball history, but he also got more home runs. You got to be willing to get up there again. If you focus on the failure, you'll never have what you want. You must take financial crisis and learn to transform it into financial opportunity. Through the new distinctions you have, you'll be able to accomplish much more. But you do have to have a little thing called faith. And I know that doesn't sound like a financial term, but the bottom line is, without it, you'll never make an investment in your life. And you've got the ultimate wound. Every religious book on the planet talks about the power of faith. With the faith of a mustard seed, what you can do. I'm not talking about blind faith. I'm talking about learning from situations and then taking new action in a direction that makes sense. You must heal the seventh wound in order to ensure your future and create ultimate financial freedom. It's within your grasp.

So, what I've offered you today in this tape is a very clear look at the reasons for financial failure. What I want you to do now is to handle these things in advance. The time to handle a problem is before it ever comes up. And so, what I want you to do is your exercise for today is to condition yourself for wealth. How? By understanding the seven fundamentals that make the difference between financial success or ruin. You now know them. Let's begin to implement them. I want you to take out your success journal right now, and I want you to use these seven distinctions to give yourself a financial checkup. See if there's any place where you're wounded or you need to heal yourself. And quick, how do you do it? Start with number one. Ask yourself specifically, "What are some of the beliefs that I have that are probably keeping me from increasing my personal wealth, from attracting financial abundance? What are the beliefs I've got about that that are probably holding me back, making me feel like, 'Oh God, that wouldn't be right'? What are they?" And identify them. Question number two. Remember, we said the reason people don't succeed, they don't make having financial abundance a must. Financial survival is a must, but not abundance. So, ask yourself the question, "Do I have a specific amount of money that I have selected that is well beyond my bare necessities, something that would represent massive financial abundance, that I absolutely am committed to having, that I have made a must?" And if not, you need to design that number and you get yourself to make it important enough that you will make this happen, no matter what. Three. Do I have an effective strategy to build my wealth and to absolutely achieve those goals and surpass them? If the answer is no, I want you to commit to do something today to find out more. Write somebody, call somebody, talk to somebody, and find out what are some initial steps you can get to master your finances. Don't put it off, even one day. This is critical. Four. Practice what we're talking about here. Get yourself, once you have the plan, analyze. Have you in the past gotten yourself to follow through consistently? If the answer is no, please use what you're learning here on how to get yourself to follow through, to use your personal power, and just do a little bit each day. Just like we're doing here, we're taking things a little step at a time, each day, but each day builds on the day before. Give yourself that benefit. Question number five. What do you need to learn so that you can make the financial decisions in your life with good input? But what do you need to learn about taxes, etc.? And actually make a list of the things you don't understand and go find someone who can give you those answers. Six. Gosh, I'm giving you a lot of work here, aren't I? I've gotten carried away here, but this is an important subject, and I want to make sure this gets handled for you. Because I see so many people that have such a great life emotionally and mentally and their family, and I see them in so much pain because they just haven't handled their money. It's so insane. You know, you've got to handle this thing. I hope, I hope I've gotten through to you on this, and I'll give you a lot of homework. Just do it. Okay? All right. Six. Six. Just write yourself a sentence or two that makes it really clear why you're going to continue to follow through even when you start to succeed, where you won't get caught up in going, "Well, I'm doing pretty good." Where you'll keep a financial vigil. Don't do what I did. You know, I had to learn the hard way. Learn the easy way. Pay attention to your finances consistently. Don't just, you know, get comfortable and allow things to dwindle or give up the power to somebody else. And finally, number seven. Develop a belief within yourself. And when I say this as homework, I'm asking you to develop or write a belief that'll support you. But if I was going to tell you what it is, what it is for me: Develop a belief within yourself that no matter whatever happens financially, that who you are personally is much bigger than anything that could ever happen to you financially, bigger than anything that could happen to our economy. You know, I know that there was a point when my whole financial world looked like it was in absolute ruins, that it was over, looked like I was going to lose my home, my castle, after working so hard, lose the business that for me was like my child, you know, I'd given everything to. And I remember my wife and I sitting down at Christmas, right when we got in some of this fabulous news that said that, you know, everyone was telling us we have to go bankrupt because of this unique interlude with a partner. And I remember sitting down with her and saying, "You know, honey," I said, "maybe this is a test. Maybe this is a test to see whether or not we've gotten hooked financially, where that's really what's most important." That's what's most important to me is our relationship. No matter what happens, we've got that. I mean, we've made this money, and we could do it again. You know, we might have to start over, but who cares? You know, we had a lot of fun building it. We could create it again." She said, "You know, you're absolutely right." And for a few minutes, we just hugged each other. We cried a little bit. We hugged each other, and then we felt incredible. And I waited a few minutes, and I thought, "You know, now that we know that, let's not go into financial ruin. Let's not prove it financially. As long as we really know that in our gut, let's turn this baby around." And we got on a horse and we did it. And I'm telling you, it was one of the most powerful experiences in our life of being able to absolutely take control of adversity and turn it around. So, I offer you the same opportunity. Develop a belief in the core of your being that you are more than finances. Clearly, as hard as I pushed you to really take care of this, equally hard, get clear that finances is not the game of life, but it's one of them. And the reason I stressed it strongly with enthusiasm is because I think it's the one that most people concentrate on least and creates the most amount of pain. Because getting a relationship, most of us figure out how to deal with. Getting a chance to handle our physical body, there are a zillion books on dieting, everybody's trying one next week. But how many people really spend the same amount of focus on their finances? We know the answer: 95% of the United States at age 65 is either dead broke or dead. You don't want to be one of these people. So, let's make sure that this is a brand new beginning for you. Let's make sure that today you take some new action.

And one more thing. I don't want to leave out, and that is one of the greatest ways to become wealthy instantaneously is to understand the essence of real wealth. And that is, I had the privilege of interviewing Sir John Templeton several times. And he's obviously been a facilitator of financial mastery. And I asked him, "What does it take to be wealthy?" And John's response was, "Gratitude." I thought, "Wow." He said, "Yes, Tony." I said, "Think about it. How many people you know have an immense amount of money, but they're emotionally poor? They live in worry, they live in fear, they're angry all the time." He said, "When you are grateful, it doesn't matter how much money you have. When you're grateful, you're rich. And no matter how much money you have, when you're not grateful, you're a bore." I thought, "How true." And so, let me tell you a way that I use to keep that gratitude. Because I have the unique privilege in my life now where I don't ever have to work another day of my life. It's an amazing feeling. So, you only do things because you're passionate about them, because you love them, because it taps into your six human needs. You start to feel like you can really contribute and grow and make a difference. Because I had the experience very young of the stress of not doing well financially for my family. I'm talking about when I was a child, and we had a Thanksgiving where someone came and delivered food to our home, and my father was upset by it because he felt insulted. But I'll

Tell you what, what came out of it for me was unbelievable gratitude and the desire to give something back. And it's a big part of what's driven me ever since.

And so, one of the things I started doing when I was 18, I didn't really have any money, but I said, "I want to give back." So I went out on Thanksgiving. Instead of just eating turkey, I just said, "What I'd do is I would go out and I would be grateful." And the way to do that for me was Thanksgiving was to give thanks, to actually give back to others. So I went and fed three families, actually two families the first Thanksgiving, and then it became three for several years. And I went as the delivery boy so I wouldn't be insulting to them. And it was the most incredibly rich experience for me because it reminded me, number one, that I was capable of not just taking care of myself, but taking care of other people too. It reminded me of what the best parts of me were, and it made my life feel like it came full circle. And that's grown, as you might guess, over the years. As I became more successful, I got my friends involved. And then many years ago, I created the Anthony Robbins Foundation, and now we feed 125,000 people in 65 cities in the United States and Canada, and now there are programs overseas as well.

So, my point is, I want to invite you. No matter how tough a situation you think you're in, remember someone else is doing worse. Someone's in a tougher place. Your worst nightmare financially is someone else's greatest dream, especially if you travel to other countries in the world. So, one great way to change your financial consciousness, if you would, to change these old patterns, these old associations, is go do something. Go do something in the next three or four days for someone you don't know. Go do something where you give, even if you feel like you've got nothing to give. Give of your time, give your energy, give up your money. Because when you do that, you teach your brain that there's more than enough. And that'll start to make you feel grateful. It'll make you feel like you're contributing. And that'll make as big a change as any other form of neural associative work you could ever go about. So, really, don't just think about this, go do it. Go do something. Either go and work just for an hour at an old folks' home, or go and talk to somebody who wants a friend, or go and commit a small amount of money, no matter how tiny you think it is, and make a difference to something you believe in. Or take your kids and go down to the shelter and just spend an hour feeding people. You know, do something good. And I think you'll begin to feel like, "Hey, you know, I deserve to do well."

And I'll tell you one other belief I have, one final one. I used to struggle so much with doing well financially, and I'd sabotage it and so forth. To one day I thought, "You know what? Receiving is evidence you've given consistently. If you're receiving a lot, it's not luck, it's sowing and reaping. And if you keep sowing good seeds, you're going to reap." But you know what? Sometimes you sow good seeds because of your mentality of mixed associations, you basically don't reap. You just let the new fruit, the new value, the new benefits that are available to you, you don't notice them, so they die on the vine. You've got to make this change. When you do, your life not only will change, but all the people around you that you can touch can change. Because you remember something, you cannot give what you do not have. You can't give money if you don't have it. You can't give time if you don't have it. And if you get this area handled called abundance, the richness of your life just jumps. And you'll find that all this is synergistic. When you do well in finances, if you've worked on the other things we've talked about already, you're going to get some real synergy, some real momentum, and everything gets better.

So please, take this seriously. Focus on this. And if you're looking for tools, like you say, "Okay, Tony, I've made the mental change, you know, how do I go about making this work?" Well, then let me give you a commercial. You know, come to Financial Mastery. I mean, I know I sound like I'm promoting it, it's because I guess I am, because I really believe in it from my heart and soul. We've got people from 42 countries who come together. Some are incredibly wealthy, some have to borrow the money to come to the program. But we spend six days together, day and night, and we know they change our mental consciousness around money. We show you flat how to earn more than ever have in your life, and then how to keep it, and then how to invest it, and then how to enjoy it. You go teach me the first ones, Tony, I can figure out the last one, right? But really, how to enjoy it by giving and using it effectively, and how to protect it. So in this litigious society, somebody doesn't come and take what you've earned. And how to create a plan from wherever you are today to where you're truly financially independent, when you never have to think about money again. Well, you don't ever work a day of your life except because you want to, not because you have to. And that's really what we teach there.

So, I haven't held anything back on this tape, but you probably have noticed. But I want to plant that seed because there's nothing like spending six days and nights with 29 multi-millionaires and a billionaire and have them tell you how you do it. Because you know, they show you. "See, man, if that guy can do this, if I can see this guy over here who started with zero in a trash can and he built Hawaiian Tropics and they're doing hundreds of million dollars a year, and he didn't have any business background or any training, just like me. Hmm, maybe I could make enough to pay my lousy bills. Maybe I could have more money instead of more month at the end of the money. You know, maybe, maybe I could make a shift in that area of my life." And I, I just want you to have that. So whether you get it from me or somewhere else, get it.

And if you're looking for investment advice, there's so many choices around. I'll tell you who we bring to Financial Mastery: Sir John Templeton, Peter Lynch, the best in the world. But I'll tell you what else we bring. We bring the Beardstown Ladies. Have you heard about them? They're these grandmas, they're in their 60s and 70s. They come from Beardstown, Ohio, and they formed a little investment club. And together, over the last decade, they have a larger return on investment than most investment advisors, most financial traders in the whole world. They've averaged 25% over the last 10 years, can you imagine? But what's so cool about them is they come in, and instead of just, you know, you go read their book, but at the seminar, what we do is they come in and they become like our grandmas. We adopt them, they adopt us. You know, and they, I say, "Now, how do we do this? Walk us through it." Let's actually investigate like a company nearby, and we do a field trip, and we actually look at the company. They show you exactly what they do. We all do it together. And what's really neat is like one of them gets something, says, "Now, let me explain to you why investing is so much easier and so much more fun than knitting." And she goes, "No, really, it's much easier. Let me show you how it is." So cool. So, and then you leave with your own computerized plan on how to achieve your goals based on your goals, not what someone else has laid out for you.

So anyway, I'm giving you a bit of a commercial here, but all I'm trying to say to you is two things: Get a plan. If not with me, get a plan somewhere. Change your associations. And one of the most powerful ways to do that, besides everything else we've talked about, is contribute. Go do something for other people. Just prove to yourself there's more than enough. That's what changes people's lives. And by the way, if you say, "Well, I don't have the money to help somebody else." Bull. I'd say, "I got to meet my wife." She was in an audience where I was doing a quote, "free guest event." This is back in the early days of my career. And someone raised their hand and said, "Well, I'd like to go to that seminar of yours because I think it would teach me a lot, but I don't have the money." And I said, "Let me tell you something honestly from my heart. If you don't have the money to go to this seminar, then you better go to this seminar." And the guy looked at me with a blank look on his face. I said, "Really?" I said, "Because nothing's going to change until you learn the very tools I'm teaching you. You know, you've got to make the investment in yourself. You can't get to where you want to go by studying people that are struggling or people that are just doing okay. You've got to get to people who are doing it the very best." And I said, "What I'm teaching you is what others taught me, and I had to struggle to get to their programs, but it really made a difference." You know what my wife said? I've got to find out years later, she said, "I wasn't going to go to that seminar when you said that. I thought, I don't have the money, but that makes sense." So I say to you, if you say you don't have the money to go help somebody, you can't afford not to. You can help somebody. And then the minute you do this, the minute you reach down deep, you find a way to do for someone else, or do for yourself, but especially when you find a way to do for someone else, you teach your brain there's more than enough. And that's what a lesson I want you to get from this tape. I want you to change it. I want you to see that wealth is abundance, and abundance usually causes more of the best of us to come out. Remember, money will make of you more of who you are. And if you're good, it'll give you more to be good with.

So let this day be a brand new beginning for you. Take some action today that shows that what we've been talking about is real for you. Go out and do something unique for someone else, or make an investment in yourself, or make an investment, or go get a plan. But do something so your brain starts saying, "Hey, he or she means it. They're going to follow through this time. Let's get some momentum." Because little actions, a phone call, a book, a tape, a seminar, an action, something will get you on a roll. So make it a day of new birth in the financial realm, a new dawning of your financial stability and your financial power. And let yourself start to become a role model for the people around you of what abundance is: mental, emotional, social, physical, spiritual, and financial. That's really my message to you. Go through those seven questions, take a real good look, eliminate the wounds, and let's move forward.

And when you come back tomorrow, what we're going to do is we're going to deal with what I consider to be the final barrier to most people doing well financially in the long term. Because some people start to do well and then they sabotage it. So take my challenge today. Mark this day as the beginning of your ultimate financial freedom. And have some fun with it. Enjoy the process. So until tomorrow, let's expand our minds. Let's attract all the money you deserve. Let's move our life to a brand new level. And most importantly, let's live with passion.

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