What is the greatest asset you can have? What will enable you to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start again, even if you lose everything?

Property tycoon Russ Whitney used to send off for every wealth creation scheme he saw advertised until finally he bought a tiny book that gave him the knowledge that he needed to be able to make money from property. He has gone on to create a multi-million training company teaching people how to make money from property.

Using 'How To' books to learn
I was an under-achiever at school. Far too boring. But luckily my mother instilled a love of reading into me at a very young age. And in addition to romantic historical novels and science fiction, I used to buy every 'How To' self help book on the market without even knowing that they were called self help books. 'How To Make Great Decisions', 'How To Love A Difficult Man' and 'How To Become A Woman of Substance' were three of the early ones. My friends used to take the Mickey mercilessly and I used to have to hide the books in a cupboard; but I couldn't quite throw them away. I didn't know it, but I was searching for the education I didn't get at school.

Why couldn't I throw them away when I'd read them?
Because I felt instinctively that somewhere in those books was The Secret. The Secret was the one magical thing that would make me successful. The key, the power. What I didn't realise, as I bought and read the books, but often didn't do all the exercises (oh, no, far too simple and obvious) was that it was not one thing that would make the difference.

What was I missing?
The fact that it's not one idea, not one secret, not even any one exercise, but a process. A process of education, of resisting the negativity that we are surrounded with day by day, it's a layering upon layering of ideas and ways of thinking, of glimmers of possibility, of keeping one's motivation going, of not giving up.

In the same way that fairy stories never quite fade from one's memory, making it exciting - even as a cynical 40 year old - to go into some sun speckled, dew drenched woods in early morning (you never quite know if you MAY see a fairy toadstool ring and hear laughter as the dancers flee), by continually exposing yourself to educational and 'How To' books and seminars, particularly around money and wealth creation, you are feeding your mind.

Travelling in the best bit
Mike Litman in "Conversations With Millionaires" says that one of the best reasons to set a goal to become a millionaire is for what you will learn along the way.

And if you learn something new, just one thing perhaps from each book, you are growing an asset so powerful, so creative, so full of potential for wealth creation, that one day you will explode with an idea that will create more abundance than you can imagine now.

I've said it before and I'll say it again...... before you dismiss it all as a waste of the rainforest, wouldn't it be tragic if not all of the 'How To' books and junk mail on wealth creation was junk?

How to feed your mind
Go to your bookshelf and dig out any books on money and wealth creation you have ever bought. Dust them off and start reading them again (and if you haven't bought any yet, get started with 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad' by Robert Kiyosaki).

This time, do the exercises suggested at the end of each chapter, if there are any. See what works for you. And by 'works', I don't mean makes loads of money to spontaneously appear in your bank account, I mean, see what tweaks your thinking, gets your creativity flowing, keeps your motivation high.

 

© Nicola Caincross of The Money Gym 2008. No content to be reproduced without written approval of the author.

Nicola is a Wealth Coach, Author, Publisher and Speaker, and the Director of The Money Gym.

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