>>> If you don’t know the million dollar difference between money and wealth, you’ll always struggle to have any of them. Read on to find out…
One of the most common mistakes I see entrepreneurs making is that they are trying to make money instead of focusing on creating wealth.
As I see it, there are TWO fundamental problems with trying to make money:
- Money itself has no inherent value and it does not actually exist AND
- Your brain struggles to visualize concepts like ‘money’
Lets delve a little deeper into these two problems…
PROBLEM #1: Money Has No Value And Does Not Exist
Money is a man made concept that we all use to measure value, but does not have any value itself. These days it’s even more intangible because money doesn’t even exist in reality – it only exists as numbers sitting in some computer system somewhere.
So trying to make money is as fruitless an activity as trying to see air. You can see the results of air moving as the trees sway in the breeze, but you can’t see the actual air itself.
By the same token, you can see the results of money flowing through our economy, but you can’t see the actual money itself because it is just a concept. You could argue that the paper notes in your wallet are money, but I assure you that they are not. They are just paper notes that have no value outside your economy.
If you don’t believe me, try taking 500 million Zimbabwean Dollars into your local grocery store and buy a loaf of bread with them. Your grocery store is going to laugh at you, right?
Why? Because your 500 million bucks has no inherent value of its own. You may as well use them to light a fire in your living room on a cold, rainy night.
So, that is problem number 1. On to problem number 2…
PROBLEM #2: Your Brain Struggles To Visualize Concepts Like ‘Money’
There’s a saying in NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming – the study of how the mind works) that human beings never do anything that they have not first seen themselves do in their imagination.
What this means is that we always imagine doing something in our mind before we actually do it. This is why VISUALIZATION is such a useful tool. When you visualize something, you are far more likely to achieve it.
The problem is that you brain cannot visualize money because money is not a thing – it’s a concept.
You can visualize having some paper in your wallet (what you and I call money), but that just attracts having more paper in your wallet – not more wealth.
Am I making sense here? Are some light bulbs flashing in your head? I hope so.
My point is: Trying to make money is never going to make you rich.
Unfortunately, if you’ve been learning about the Law Of Attraction from the hit movie, The Secret, they’ll tell you to focus on money. Good luck with that…
So how can you attract more money into your life?
The Real Difference Between Money And Wealth
My favorite definition of Wealth comes from Roger James Hamilton, the creator of Wealth Dynamics:
“Wealth is what you have left when you’ve lost all your money”
What he means is that your wealth consists of the things like your passions, your network, your track record, your access to resources and your knowledge of your industry.
Whereas money is intangible, wealth is tangible. Whereas money is impermanent, wealth is permanent.
If I were to hijack a wealthy person and dump them in a foreign land with no money, they’d soon be back on their feet again because although they might have had their money taken from them, they never lost their wealth.
You often read about wealthy people who lose all their money and then make it back again. This is because they never lost their wealth.
By contrast, somebody who has no wealth, but a lot of money, will soon find ways to lose their money.
Lottery winners are a great example of this phenomenon. The US lottery statistics show that within only TWO years, 50% of all lottery winners are worse off than before they won the lottery!
This is becasue although they have money, they are not wealthy, so their money goes away quickly.
This revelation was HUGE for me.
One Last Very Important Distinction…
Money is attracted to Wealth… it follows wealth, not the other way around.
If you shift your focus from making money to creating wealth, you’ll begin to see the world in a new light where opportunities to create wealth that attracts money are illuminated all around you.
The easiest way to find out how you can build wealth easily and naturally is to take your Wealth Dynamics Profile test.
Without knowing your Wealth Profile, you really are flying blind and leaving your success to chance.
20,000 entrepreneurs have already taken their test and have discovered their most natural path to wealth. If you also want to be wealthy and say goodbye to money struggles, I highly recommend that you do too:
http://www.MyWealthDynamics.com
Talk soon,
Bruce
P.S. When you take your Wealth Dynamics test, you’re going to get a whole bunch of killer bonuses. Check them out here:http://www.MyWealthDynamics.com
P.P.S. I’d appreciate your thoughts on this conversation. Please leave me a comment below.
you h=just opened my eyes wider. look, i had the idea that wealth and money are 2 different things but had not had it put better and switrter than the way u just put it! bravo!
God bless you!!
Bruce…. I just want to THANK YOU for sharing. You are REALLY focusing on creating Wealth! Now you’ve got another person that’s a reader: ME!
You are so Straight to the point… that’s good man! I felt so identified with you cuz I write songs, and YOU helped me to open my eyes MANY times.
My life has Really changed man. Miracles happening EVERYWHERE.
THANK YOU BRUCE! Your MUZIK ROCKS!!! 😀
Bruce,
Your last point is truly key. “One Last Very Important Distinction… Money is attracted to Wealth… it follows wealth, not the other way around.”
In my work I use the term with my own definition “Masterman.” A Masterman* IS Wealthy because he sees opportunities to create wealth that attract money.
Great stuff, Bruce!
Thank you,
Sherrie Rose
“The Love Linguist”
* http://mastermanoflife.com
Hi Bruce
Ive been to so many seminars and talks about on the topic but it never clicked until know.I suppose it does not matter how many times you listen to the message but its really about when you ready to receive it.Its such a great feeling to be in flow im so greatfull for everyone that has crossed my path that guided me to this point.
Thank you so much for your contribution.
Hallid
As always Bruce, you give value that is priceless! You are everlasting in sharing your passion in helping people. We become healthier and wiser as a result of the people we attract into out lives. Thank you for making a big difference in my life! Your paid courses are worth every dollar!! Louie Apsokardu
Bruce Hi
I like you immensely also your freshness and entheusiasm and this time I would ask you to look again at your money wealth issue. Yes I understand what you are intending to explain. The problem is this, I have met many self made very wealthy people who became very money rich by focusing on the value of money in their pockets or their bank accounts.
I know you are dedicated to your weblog otherwise you would not have published it.
I have a feeling it is like telling entrepreneurs “you have to make mistakes to succeed.” Try telling that to facalty examination board or your boss. By the way the uncorrupted quote is “to succeed in business learn by your mistakes. You see the gulf between the two yet at first sight the former seems to say the same as the latter. Another is the saying that it is difficult to make change. The fact is we make changes all the time and find it so easy we don’t even notice.
The original quote is, “when we really want something we make changes with ease, when someone else wants us to change for their sake we find it difficult to change.”
Like your explanation between money and wealth it is so important to think clearly what you are really saying in relation to what you think you are saying.
Bruce, could you rethink that blog article perhaps making it simpler and shorter would help make your point more clearly. I feel you can do far better.
Love your show, power to your camcorder.
Robert Paul
Hey Bruce
The whole wealth / money thing is something I think about a lot! And I have to say that this short post has made a real shift in me today (which I’ll have to return and explain some other time, once I’ve let it simmer awhile, and allowed clarity to emerge).
I don’t agree with Robert, by the way – you might be able to ‘do better’, but it’s absolutely brilliant just the way it is.
Your sense around money is good, and can be extended. Take a look at the History of Money as presented, at some length, at http://www.xat.org/xat/moneyhistory.html. Very though-provoking.
I find it fascinating that, with money, first there was gold. Then there was a paper replacement for gold, with a one-to-one relationship. Then that grew to a one-to-many relationship (the birth of banknotes). Then, in 1973, Nixon unilaterally broke the gold standard, taking the gold out of the system altogether and leaving just the paper. Then came plastic. Now, it’s largely digital – a series of 1’s and 0’s on banking networks that we don’t control, and have very little access to.
So it’s not just that the paper money is, in reality, worthless; it’s that the paper is rapidly being replaced with digits inside a machine – money couldn’t get much less tangible if it tried!
Kyosaki reckons property (real estate), gold and silver are the only three tru stores of monetary wealth worth considering. Everything else is vulnerable and ephemeral.
Good writing, man! To be continued…
Bruce,
Very good article. I’m glad I stopped by. Many people, myself included, get confused about this concept. Truly understanding this concept adds to our wealth!
Hey Bruce!
Thanks for hooking me up with the Wealth Dynamics test.
The insights and clarity about EXACTLY what I should and should not be doing has given me rocket fuel for my business activities in the past week.
Now I can stop trying to do stuff that I hated in my business (which always made me feel guilty and weak) and start ONLY doing what I do best. This is awesome.
I had my wife, who is my business partner, get her profile and WOW are we a power team now that we understand each others best roles. Funny because we were both trying to do the other persons job!
In the past few days I have had several of my clients take the test and I have been helping them understand themselves at a profound level. Now I am going to REQUIRE all of my clients to do the wealth dynamics test. Other wise we are wasting our time and energy.
Again, thanks for hooking me up with this stuff!
Your friend and fan,
Todd Sedelmeier – Personal Success Coach
in California
Hi Bruce, great article, and I absolutely agree about the focus on wealth. I’m still working with Darren Eden and bringing so much more of what I love into my life by accessing my intuition – music, creativity, and bigger plans than I ever dreamt I could make! This is all building into a wealth legacy that is way bigger than me, and a journey that is full of excitement. Having just left my job to make this journey more exciting still, this blog is even more reassuring!
In terms of the Wealth Dynamics stuff, I can’t comment fully as I haven’t done it. I believe that the more you know yourself, the more powerfully you can understand when you are living from your heart and when you are living from you beliefs about your capability. My concern from what I heard from Roger on Saturday(at Making it Big in 2010) was the concept of a need to ‘improve’ on yourself to ascend up the levels, when I’ve come to believe that we do better to take the ‘self’ and more particularly the identity out of the picture and go into the connectedness of our heart and imagination to create real change.
Hope you’re well. Take care x
So ABsolutely To The Point. I believe that you have “Hit the Nail on the Head” again Bruce. Do not change a single word in this article since it explains everything. Since doing my own Profile I have been so much clearer on my Purpose and life Mission, so here goes ! to Wealth Creation – Keep on Sailing Bruce.
Dear Bruce,
Thanks for helping get my link right and sending me here to this blog-post of yours. It has definitely made a change in my focus….MONEY IS NOT WEALTH!All these days I had been focussing on generating wealth in terms of money… now on its Wealth as wealth…the experience, the tangible assets which only I can have.
Like someone said in one the posts here, everyone, even the successful ones, have counted their wealth in terms of money, and that is what everyone is focussing on, those cheques and cash… things which just seem to evaporate in course of time. Thinking of money, as wealth, can make it more permanent…the bank balance is wealth and not just figures somewhere on paper.
I like your blogposts….keep it going, for they help change our focus.
Thanks, once again.
Hi Bruce,
I’m a big fan of yours, thanks for sharing man, i find this thought provoking and we lack people like you – who are extremely passionate (genuinely) about helping others – in a true sense of the word.
I’m based in Cape Town and discovered that at some point you were here in South Africa this year, i really felt like kicking myself so hard for not knowing. When coming again please update me in advance and automatically book me in as your no.1 fan cause my attendance is guaranteed for sure.
Take care now and keep well.
I like how you put the dollar not many people understand that it is worthless just a promissory note. Look forward to more.