Introduction

I hope the next few pages you read sound outrageous and ostentatious. I want everything in this book to shake you to your very core! For years now it has been my deepest desire to become a world renowned cerebral pyromaniac! I have always wanted to create a literary work of art so mentally liberating and with such enriching content that the resulting book earns a permanent place on your bookshelf beside Rich Dad Poor Dad, The Richest Man in Babylon, You are a Badass at Making Money, Money: Master the Game, Killing Sacred Cows, and of course Money and the Meaning of Life.

I truly believe I can be an inspiration and guide for you as you break free from your financial pressures. I sincerely trust that after you finish each and every word of this book, your beautiful brain will begin to impact you in such a profound way that the changes will be noticeable within weeks. Perhaps even hours!

It’s important to note that almost 9 years ago to the day of me writing this book, I had $0.01 in my bank account, which was super ironic – I mean, I actually did have a penny to my name, which by definition means I was massively broke. I’m sure you have heard that expression: “I’m so broke I don’t even have a penny to my name.” I mean, how poor is that exactly? It’s obviously an exaggeration, because while I did have one penny to my name, I was still badly broke.

I am talking about I knew the exact days and hours each grocery store had free samples, broke.
I was at the stage where I would be friendly and super nice to people so I could eventually attend their weddings, graduation parties, birthday parties, business gatherings, Christmas parties and engagement parties so that I could eat the free food and drink the free drinks, broke.
I was using the bathroom in public places, drinking only from water fountains, broke.
Never applying sunscreen because it required money to purchase the sunscreen, broke.
Wearing the same clothes for multiple days, broke.
Only utilizing flip-flops so that I did not have to buy shoes and socks broke.
I was doing a single swipe on each arm to make the deodorant last longer, broke.
Not having a bed frame or box spring and sleeping on just the mattress resting on the floor, broke.
Clipping coupons, broke.
Using BING instead of GOOGLE, broke.
Using only the free version of Pandora, broke.
Keeping my ex-girlfriend’s Netflix sign in and using her account, broke.
Taking my foot off the gas pedal and coasting down hills to “conserve gas,” broke.
Drinking Natural Light from a can, broke.
Never buying or even reading free books, broke.
Never investing in myself, broke.

The real problem is, I had no clue why I was so broke. I worked super hard. I knew math. I kind of knew that I needed to make more money than I spent, but somehow that was never the case. I felt as if I could never make more money than I needed to live, much less enough to live comfortably. I thought I had all the knowledge I needed to not be broke, but there I was, shopping at Kroger, listening to some music through my headphones (the ones that came with the phone) looking the cashier in her face while I was smiling, knowing my card was about to get declined. The entire time I was trying to wrangle up an excuse. I only had 4 items on the belt. Chicken breast, ramen noodles, a head of broccoli and one 16oz can of Fosters beer. Total, $7.89 and I was about to NSF.

I swiped the card. The transaction went through. I was totally shocked, but 100% confident I was going to have a $35 NSF (non sufficient funds) fee hit my account that night, which meant that mathematically, this meal was about to cost $42.89.

Do you know what really hit me hard that night? Would you like to know the massive turning point? Let me tell you the story.

As I walked out of that Kroger around 11:57 pm, I found a penny on the ground. I leaned down, bag in my left hand, picked the penny up with my right hand and smiled. As I walked towards my car, I noticed this lady who appeared to be in massively dire straights. She shuffled towards me as she swayed through the barren, dimly lit parking lot. Her blonde hair looked like she’d ran a marathon in a hurricane, her grey sweat pants made it appear she’d just finished playing paintball in a ketchup factory, and her shoes were, well, they might be old Dasani bottles? I knew immediately she was going to ask for money. And I knew I had none.

As I got closer and closer to my 2010 silver Toyota Corolla, she too moved closer towards me. I was about 15 feet away from her and she asked loudly, “Sir, my car done broke down just a few miles down the road and I need gas money. Can I have some money for gas so I can get home to my four kids?”

I asked, “Where did your car break down?”

She pointed in a general direction.

“How much do you want?” I asked.

And she said, “Just some spare change?”

I said, “Ma’am, I appreciate you asking me, but I literally have negative money in my bank account. This bag contains all of my food for the next 3 days, I don’t even know if I have enough gas to get home, and I’m truly the worst person you could ask for money – but I did find a penny about 15 seconds ago. Would that help?”

Her reply? “Well damn, it seems you might need the money more than I do.” And she reached in her pocket and offered to give ME money! What???!! Are you kidding me? At this point I felt like collapsing! I had that weird feeling of wanting to run, cry, jump, yell, and laugh at the same time. My whole demeanor was massively confused.

I said to her, “Ma’am, thank you, but I can’t accept your money. Here is the penny I found. I appreciate your generosity and I hope you find your way home.” She smiled, accepted my penny, and walked towards the store. I honestly hope her life has worked out for the best, because that moment of generosity changed my life and set me down a path of introspection that could change the world.

Notice the word introspection. That very same night I began to think at length about why she had offered me money, but most importantly, why I’d turned it down. What if she did just run out of gas, but had millions in the bank? Was I too good for her money? Did I let my perception of how this lady looked, walked, and spoke create a judgment of her character?

Of course I judged her. I judged her hard! I took everything at face value. I didn’t feel like she had any money, and I certainly did not feel I deserved any of her money. So I started asking questions and talking to myself while I was sitting on the mattress that occupied my living room floor (since my house had no other furniture).

The questions I began to ask internally and even out loud (like a real crazy person) went something like this.

Why am I so broke?
How do I make more money?
How hard do I have to work to make $100,000 a year?
How do I make 1 million dollars?

And then I did something unique. I asked a question I had never asked anyone, especially myself.

I asked, “How much money do I deserve?”

And that question made my face bunch up. My body posture changed. It actually made me physically scratch my head, because I didn’t have an answer to that question. When you don’t have answers, what do you do?

You jump on the internet. In my case I used BING because they would “give a $0.10 credit for every 1 hour spent searching with them.” And I searched: “how do I make more money.” For the first time since high school, I started reading. And a few days later, I started reaching out to wealthy people. Over the next few days, weeks and months, I started asking different questions.

And my life changed forever.

“The quality of your questions determines the quality of your life.” – Tony Robbins

Let me help you do the same, right now. Let me list some questions that will shake you up a bit.

Questions like:

Why are we told that money doesn’t grow on trees?
How did entire generations of people, billions of humans, grow up to believe that the love of money is evil?
Why is the question “how much money do you make” so visceral and stabbing?
Where did the term “filthy rich” come from?
What do other cultures believe about money?
Why do so many people believe the stock market is only moved by fear and greed?
Is it true that rich people are mean, stuck up, and bossy?
How much are you worth?
How much do you want to be worth?
How much money do you want?
How much money do you feel you deserve?

If money was endless, how much would you have and what would you do with it?

The topics of money, sex, religion and politics are rarely discussed in the open, at least in a cohesive and uplifting way. That’s my goal in the following pages. I want to tackle the mindset of money! I want both you and I to learn something together; to grow, progress, and enrich lives.

It’s my objective in this literary journey to be the person that subliminally challenges you, while simultaneously changing many of your long held (usually subconscious) beliefs. This book, hopefully the first of many, is the culmination of my sleepless nights as ‘ye olde brain’ would not turn off as my mind constantly begged and prayed to one day be successful.

These ground breaking, life changing, and financially shifting words are the thoughts that I could no longer contain after a decade of thinking differently, asking insanely good questions, observing, listening, studying, reaching out, volunteering, giving, crying, hugging, writing, deliberating and waiting.

“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”

Well, Mr. Mark Twain, I am very happy you found your why. And I am also very thankful to have stumbled across mine as well. My mission and my why is to enrich lives through mentally liberating education. Your mission right now is to finish this entire book. In my life, I’ve found it super easy to start something. However, it’s always much harder to finish. Determination, perseverance, and discipline are important personal attributes to success, but it’s our actual beliefs that will either hold us back from starting, or prevent us from finishing.

So far, you are doing incredible! Keep reading and let’s enrich lives together, because at the end of this book, your life will never be the same. After you finish this book you will have completed one more step on your marathon of becoming wealthy! And I am talking about real financial riches.

I am talking living life to your fullest potential, wealthy! Like making $10,000 a month while you sleep, wealthy! Looking at your multiple bookshelves with hundreds of books that you’ve read cover-to-cover, wealthy.

Affording personal chefs, wealthy.
Driving whatever cars and flying in whatever planes you want, wealthy.
Owning 100,000 shares of AAPL, wealthy.
Actually having multiple lock boxes at multiple banks, wealthy.
Never needing a bank for money, because you are your own bank, wealthy!
Having multiple businesses, wealthy.
Going to whatever restaurant you want, wealthy.
Tipping the waiter 100% and smiling about it, wealthy. Having the most stable, kind, warm, welcoming relationship with your family, wealthy.
17 Sleeping in as long as you want, wealthy.
Flying first class to Rome with your entire family on a Tuesday because it’s exciting, wealthy!
Feeding millions of homeless people each year, wealthy! Being 100% financially free, wealthy.
Having your own foundations, wealthy.
Affording the best healthcare on the planet, wealthy.
Building schools and hospitals and centers of learning, because you want to improve your community, wealthy.
Finding your WHY and living it every day, wealthy!

My friend, thank you for taking this journey with me. We are on it together and I’m right beside you, each step of the way. Let us contribute, grow, love, progress, help others, and discover how incredible you are when you have unlimited resources at your disposal!