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“To live through an impossible situation, you don’t need the reflexes of a Grand Prix driver, the muscles of a Hercules, the mind of an Einstein. You simply need to know what to do.”    -  Anthony Greenbank 

  

Mathew surprised me with the character he displayed when he had to give-up his job and face the life of uncertainty putting his marriage and future at risk. How dare Mathew do something like that when he knew the group of children he was managing was losing competition and contract deals with label companies? How dare Mathew subject his family to a life of discomfort by giving up a Six figure salary in Xerox where he was the top sales man cashing in commission upon commission? I kept pondering and wondering what was on his mind; the path he wanted to venture in looked so bleak but he gave up comfort, nearly lost his wife, his future happiness for a talent, he saw in his little daughter. The talent that almost 50% of world’s population has and only 2% of this 50% make it a professional act not to talk of reaching national or international acclaimed stardom. The circumstances were not favorable as the group of girls he was giving his life for were not showing signs of succeeding. This may in turn be the winning the formula: making adjustments and persisting on a giving goal. 

  

Mathew was managing his little daughters group while working in a job and they were not succeeding then how come he gave up his job. Mathew knew he had to change the formula; he was not moving ahead so he had to try a different formula in order to win, Why is it that when he gave up his job, lost his comfort and nearly lost his wife that he bagged his first major contract with Columbia records which eventually catapulted his daughter to an international icon bagging the greatest awards in her genre, influencing the world, becoming a world class brand; this was bigger than the American dream. This was only made possible because Mathew Knowles decided to make an adjustment in his life and persistently believe in Beyonce.

  

Every time I watch the biography of Beyonce on “E” channel; the part where Mathew gave up his plush job for no justifiable reason to manage his daughter’s group full time always keeps me on my edge. It makes me understand that it is this life changing decision that differentiates the stars from the normal guys that work the face of the earth. Every star and icon that walks through the face of this earth has this similar pattern of succeeding. In our everyday life, we have to win in almost every little thing or we are simply left out. If we don’t win, we are not a force to reckon with. Most guys are the king pin in their family because they have a plush job; everybody runs to them for help. Most churches rely on the people with large amount of money because they believe it sustains their church. Everybody identifies with a winner and it is this reason that makes people risk their hard earned money in investment program in order to win.  

  

Everybody wants to move ahead but not everybody wants to go through the process of what a winner goes through. Not everybody wants to go through the pain and sacrifices that reveals the glory. Not everybody can be smart. Not everybody can make an adjustment when they find they are doing things the wrong way. Most people in life persistently do things the wrong way and expect a different result. They simply believe that providence would act in their behalf by doing the same thing the same way. They tell themselves that I may become lucky this time around without changing the formula. Most people go to work every day and invest in stocks, mutual fund and term deposit and simply want to get rich. They want to escape the vicious cycle of rat race without any adjustment, without any risk. Albert Einstein has an adjective for these sets of people; he used a noun to represent it though: “insanity”. 

  

Well, don’t get me wrong! I am not saying people should give up their job (far from it), I am saying people should make the necessary adjustment needed to succeed. I am saying people should stop groveling and complaining about their situation and create the situation they want. I know a lot of people look at people that have won in their chosen genre and want to be like them but cannot just take the needed risk. They know that Mr. A has cleaned-up nicely and they are aware of the adjustments that Mr. A made but cannot just follow the path of Mr. A. This particular thought pattern really does worry me where people are not ready to make adjustment but are ready to hate on their neighbors that made the adjustment. They keep having one excuse or the other for not making the needed adjustments. They simply fail to understand that the guy that won also had the same excuse but chose to make the adjustment anyway. 

  

When I graduated from University and wanted to get a job; I told myself that 20% of my income would go into shares. I wanted to get rich so I believed stories and books that shares were the way to go. After getting the job, I kept placing my money in shares then reviewed after a year but I was getting minimal payout from it. I decided to increase the percentage but was still not happy with the returns. After 4 years of perpetually investing in shares, I realized that putting my money in shares can never make me rich; it can give me some occasional money but cannot give me the needed dough to make me comfortable, I realized that to make money in shares, I had to risk millions into it gain an appreciable amount (this formula takes place in almost all traditional investments). But where would I gain the millions from? I was literarily a millionaire in paper but I had to work for a year to get that million which was paid monthly. Then I came across an e-book that shook me, the book was free (wow! The best thing in life are really for free), it talked about investing in your mind as oppose investing in platforms. It talked about value creation as oppose to just placing your money into the next best investment vehicle. 

  

This was a turning point in my life; I realized that all I had been doing was preventing poverty instead of attaining wealth. I stopped trying to be poor but started trying to be rich. I realized that it took the same energy to stop trying to be poor than to start trying to be rich. If it took the same energy, time and prayer to stop being poor as it takes to start being rich then why don’t I start being rich. I wrote an article on this last year: I came across it again and found it very fascinating; the difference between the rich and the poor: Click HERE to view. 

  

TO BE CONTINUED