Don't Hate The Rich - Be One Of Them!
 Willie Crawford

When I was a child, growing up on the farm in North Carolina (
extremely poor), my grandmother's favorite saying seemed to be
"Money doesn't grow on trees!"

She was also fond of unintentionally misquoting the Bible and
saying "Money is the root of all EVIL!"

As I listened to my elders, and the others around me, I learned
that "It was easier for a camel to pass thought the eye of a
needle, than for a rich man to get into heaven."

It was gradually hammered into my head that the rich were to be
scorned, and that they got that way by stepping on the poor.  I
also learned that we were "very lucky" that we didn't have
many things. For example, we didn't have a telephone,
television, a car, or air-conditioning during most of my
pre-adult life. My grandmother use to make us feel better by
pointing out that "Sleeping under a cold air conditioner would
make you sick."

Many of us grew up exposed to similar thinking and similar
teachings. We were taught that there was something inherently
wrong with being rich.

As I grew older, I was exposed to many very rich people. They
taught me that it wasn't wrong to be wealthy, and they also
helped me understand that part of our psyche that makes us feel
better by blaming others for our problems.

I learned that there was a time in history when many of the very
rich did indeed treat the lower classes very badly. This was a
time when people were little more than property, and in most
countries the rich didn't see a reason to be polite to the
working class! Being treated so poorly, the working class did
often refer to the upper class by such terms as "stinking rich"
and other MUCH harsher terms.

Even today, there are places where the rich do treat the poor as
property, or as just "labor." That's the reality, and that's
life.  Instead of complaining about it, if you find yourself in
that predicament, your job is to extract yourself from the
extreme poverty... first of all. Then you will have the ability
to help the less fortunate.

For me, the process of escaping poverty really began with
changing my thought process. I had to retrain my mind, pushing
out the old "poverty mentality" and replacing it with a
"wealth mentality."

As I spent more and more time around the rich, I learned and
began to appreciate some of their sayings. Two that really seemed
to stick were:

1) "Rich people have large libraries, poor people have large
televisions." I've seen several variations of that saying, but
they all pass along the same basic message... that constantly
learning new things is one of the keys to moving ahead.
Vegetating in front of the television only allows temporary
escape as we live our "dream lives" by watching those of
others.

Television largely hypnotizes us, and puts us in a state where we
can at least temporarily imagine ourselves in the shoes of the
actors and actresses. That's the only way that we can mentally
get so wrapped up in some of the shows that we watch.

2) "The best thing that I can do for the poor is not be one of
them." When I first heard that saying I thought that it was
cruel, until I saw the truth in the fact that I cannot help out
the poor (financially) unless I'm not poor too.  Getting
involved in activities that seek to transfer the wealth from the
rich to the poor doesn't work. Instead, to escape from poverty
you need to learn from the wealthy, and discover ways of creating
more wealth.

A big part of the problem is that many of us grew up with a
poverty mentality. That mentality teaches that "If you have
more, then I must have less."  After all, the pie is of a fixed
size, so if you get a bigger piece, then that leaves less for
me.

The rich know that the pie is limitless. Instead of grabbing for
a bigger piece of that pie, you should help the pie to grow
bigger. When the pie is bigger, there is naturally more for
everyone.

The Internet proved to me that the pie is indeed limitless.
Consider creating and selling digital products which is what many
of my mentors and I do. When I create and sell an audio course
that is digitally downloaded, I am selling part of an endless
supply of electrons. After I create an audio product, in
downloadable MP3, I can sell a million copies of that product,
and there is STILL enough for everyone in the world to have more.
By creating that product, I literally produce a pie of unlimited
size.

Once you wrap your mind around that concept, a whole new world of
possibilities opens up. Being on the Internet also opens you up
to a whole new world of possibilities. You'll see that not only
is the pie limitless, but it can also be shared across borders.
We are no longer confined to the effects of, and restrains
imposed by, conditions in our own countries.

As an example, I personally have friends and mentors on several
continents. I teach and speak on several continents.  Over the
next five months, I am scheduled to speak at seminars in
Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, The United Kingdom, and all
across the United States. I'm also exploring speaking
possibilities in the Caribbean, Africa, and South America.  For a
farm kid that spent most of his youth on welfare (government
subsistence) this is very powerful proof that it's not the rich
that hold us back.

So, how does a poor farm kid move from extreme poverty to an
international speaker who literally has direct access to
international financiers, governmental leaders, and celebrities?
I did it by letting the rich teach me! I read and studied
voraciously. I went through an endless stream of audio tapes, and
lately audio CDs, listening to them and studying what they taught
over and over again until I actually "wore out" many of the
tapes!

In the Internet marketing arena, I studied what people who were
living the lifestyle that I wanted were doing. For example, I
have a friend, and mentor, over in the U.K. who earns an
incredible living from the Internet working just a few hours per
week. I let him teach me how. He spends the rest of his time
managing an offline business, serving as a politician, and doing
other things that are important to him. You can check this friend
out at: http://www.StinkingRich3.com/wc
<http://www.stinkingrich3.com/wc>

The secret is studying what the wealthy are doing, allowing them
to teach you what they are doing, and then doing the same thing.
If it works for them, and you do the same thing, then it should
also work for you. Right?

Your big challenge is identifying accurately what the rich are
actually doing. Often it looks like one thing is the reason for
their success, yet when you talk to them, or manage to get close
enough to really study them and their habits, you discover things
that 99% of the world completely misses about them.

I'm only going to share with you one of my mentors today.
That's the one in the U.K. He works VERY few hours at his online
business, yet earns more than 99.9% of the "Internet marketers"
that I know.  He really understands the wealth mentality. He
teaches people like me how to get rid of the "poverty
mentality" and to develop that wealth mentality. Take a few
minutes to get to know one of my mentors now. He's at:
http://www.StinkingRich3.com/wc
< http://www.stinkingrich3.com/wc>

Another secret to success, and increasing your wealth, is closely
managing who you allow to "rub off" on you. Our thinking is
heavily influenced by those that we are around every day.  If you
are around negative people, their constantly spewing negative
energy HAS to affect you. If you are constantly exposed to those
who have radically changed their lives, they prove to you that
you can do it too.  That's a big reason why I attend seminars,
conferences, and networking events sponsored by the people that I
want to be like... those who have the lifestyle that I desire. I
encourage you to do the same. When you can't actually be
surrounded by them, at a minimum completely IMMERSE yourself in
recorded materials that they so generously make available to you.
There you have the key to gradually becoming one of the rich,
instead of mearely envying them.




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Willie Crawford has taught thousands how to build successful
online businesses since late-1996.  His membership site
contains over 30 interviews of leading online marketers
sharing their views on "How To Break Into The Internet
Marketing Inner Circle."  You can access those interviews
at: http://TheInternetMarketingInnerCircle.com
http://theinternetmarketinginnercircle.com/