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I decided to rebel against the status quo. I wasn’t satisfied with the way things were and I wanted to change it. I made a choice to live my own life, moving away from the herd to follow my heart and trust that it will lead me to the become the person I want to be.
That was the one decision that could change the course of my entire life.
I began on a quest for knowledge on the truth about money. I wanted to learn why people are rich and why others are poor. How did people with harsh backgrounds and little education become millionaires and billionaires. Why is it taking a shorter time for people to get rich? How did Michael Dell become a billionaire in about 8 years? What do they know that I don’t know? What goes on in their head? How do they live their lives? Are they born that way or is it learnable by the average person? How do I have love, health, wealth and happiness at the same time? How do I make money with very little physical effort?
Realising that my family didn’t have the answers to these questions, I turned to my boss.
So Boss, How Do You Get Rich?
I asked my boss that question and I was shocked to learn that he wasn’t making as much money as his own employees. He told me over a cup of coffee that all his money had been wasted on a property investment that was losing money, his rented apartment, his bills and other expenses. He worked harder than any of his employees and had little time for himself.
That surprised me because he did look pretty sharp with his fancy gadgets and nice clothes. I assumed he was making some good money to afford to buy those stuff. Seems like he’s just putting up a front.
He shared with me that if he could live his life over again, he would have read and applied the principles in the book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki“. At that time I had no idea what financial freedom meant. I didn’t even know financial freedom was possible for the average person on the street!
I was lucky to see Robert Kiyosaki live in Singapore in 2002. He talked about the principles in his books on how to make money. It was very thought provoking. It challenged all my previous beliefs about money. My favourite book of his is “Cash Flow Quadrant“. I’m in the “S” or self-employed quadrant and I need to move the “right side” to the “B” and “I” quadrants or the business and investment side to really make it big.
There Is No Freedom Without Sacrifice
I started feeding my mind with books about money and prosperity. I made it a point of reading at least 1 book per week about money and self-improvement. My quest for knowledge led me to books like “Think And Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill“, “The Richest Man In Babylon by George Clason“, “The One Minute Millionaire by Mark Victor Hansen & Robert G. Allen“, “Multiple Streams of Income by Robert G. Allen“, “The Prosperity Series by Randy Gage“, “The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles ” and “The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley“.
What these books did for me was to open my mind to a whole new world of possibilities. I realised that I don’t have to be the smartest person, I only need to be smart enough to learn what other people have done and apply what they did in my own life to achieve what I want.
In order for a change in my life, I had to start with the man in the mirror. I had to change myself!
“For a person to build a rich and rewarding life for himself there are certain qualities and bits of knowledge that he needs to acquire. There are also things, harmful attitudes, superstitions, and emotions that he needs to chip away. A person needs to chip away everything that doesn’t look like the person he or she most wants to become.” ~ Earl Nightingale
I changed the people I associate with, limited the time I spent talking with my parents (Yikes! That’s because they keep talking me out of becoming all I can ever be.), watched little or no TV, changed the way I speak, changed the way I think, absolutely refused to take advice from someone who is worse off than me, chose my mentors wisely and cut out the money wasting expenditures.
I never lost sight of the person I want to be known as. I’ve always been true to myself about who I am now and who I want to be in the future. A lot of people are afraid that money will make a person bad but I believe that money simply multiplies who you already are.
I would tell anyone who would listen that I was going to be rich. Everywhere I went, I was greeted with frowns, words of discouragement and the usual “money is the root of all evil” lectures. The truth is I stuck out like a sore thumb in a world where most people have negative attitudes towards money.
In order for me to achieve my dreams and become all I can ever be, I had to become more, be stronger, smarter, tougher than I’ve ever been. I couldn’t care less about what others think about me. I don’t want to be stuck in a job forever and I know depending a job for a living is one of the riskiest things I can ever do.
What’s Wrong With Having A Job?
As far as I’m concerned, here are some of my reasons why I think jobs absolutely suck:
My parents can’t grasp the fact that there are so many opportunities available today in terms of money making opportunities than 30 years ago. Furthermore, I was born in a relatively free, stable and prosperous country of Singapore. There shouldn’t be any excuses for me to say “I’ve got no choice but to get a job”. Trust me when I tell you I’ve had enough of jobs after serving in the military. I would be proud to be able to say “I don’t have a job because I don’t want a job because I don’t need a job!”.
The Right Time Is Always NOW!
I’m not going to wait for someday to take action for it may never come. There will never be a perfect time to start. There is no better time to start accumulating wealth than when you’re young. The best thing about being young is that I’ve got no kids, no loans, no mortgages, very little commitments etc. I’m accountable to myself and this is the best time in my life to fail, make mistakes and learn.
If you’ve read this far, I hope you’ve enjoyed my experiences about money with you. Please join me on my journey from just over broke to financial freedom by coming back here for updates about my blog.
That’s all I have to say for now.
Till then, may your life be filled with health, wealth and happiness!
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