Wealth File #5

Rich people focus on opportunities.
Poor people focus on obstacles.

By T Harv Eker

Rich people see opportunities. Poor people see obstacles. Rich people see potential growth. Poor people see potential loss. Rich people focus on the rewards. Poor focus on the risks.

It comes down to the age-old question, “Is the glass half empty or half full?” We’re not talking positive thinking here, we’re talking about your habitual perspective on the world. Poor people make choices based upon fear. Their minds are constantly scanning for what is wrong or could go wrong in any situation. Their primary mind-set is “What if it doesn’t work?” or, more often, “It won’t work.”

Middle-class people are slightly more optimistic. Their mind-set is “I sure hope this works.”

Rich people, as we’ve said earlier, take responsibility for the results in their lives and act upon the mind-set “It will work because I’ll make it work.”

Rich people expect to succeed. They have confidence in their abilities, they have confidence in their creativity, and they believe that should the doo-doo hit the fan, they can find another way to succeed.

Generally speaking, the higher the reward, the higher the risk. Because they constantly see opportunity, rich people are willing to take a risk. Rich people believe that, if worse comes to worst, they can always make their money back.

Poor people, on the other hand, expect to fail. They lack confidence in themselves and in their abilities. Poor people believe that should things not work out, it would be catastrophic. And because they constantly see obstacles, they are usually unwilling to take a risk. No risk, no reward.

For the record, being willing to risk doesn’t necessarily mean that you are willing to lose. Rich people take educated risks. This means that they research, do their due diligence, and make decisions based on solid information and facts. Do rich people take forever to get educated? No. They do what they can in as short a time as possible, then make an informed decision to go for it or not.

Although poor people claim to be preparing for an opportunity, what they’re usually doing is stalling. They’re scared to death, hemming and hawing for weeks, months, and even years on end, and by then the opportunity usually disappears. Then they rationalize the situation by saying, “I was getting ready.” Sure enough, but while they were “getting ready,” the rich guy got in, got out, and made another fortune.

I know what I’m about to say may sound a little strange considering how much I value self-responsibility. However, I do believe a certain element of what many people call luck is associated with getting rich, or, for that matter, with being successful at anything.

In football, it might be the opposing team’s player fumbling on your own one-yard line with less than a minute to go, allowing your team to win the game. In golf it could be the errant shot that hits an out-of-bounds tree and bounces back onto the green, just three inches from the hole.

In business, how many times have you heard of a guy who plops some money down on a piece of land in the boonies, and ten years later, some conglomerate decides it wants to build a shopping center or office building on it? This investor gets rich. So, was it a brilliant business move on his part or sheer luck? My guess is that it’s a bit of both.

The point, however, is that no luck—or anything else worthwhile—will come your way unless you take some form of action. To succeed financially, you have to do something, buy something, or start something. And when you do, is it luck or is it the universe or a higher power supporting you in its miraculous ways for having the courage and commitment to go for it? As far as I’m concerned, who cares what it is. It happens!

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