It takes money to make more money
When I was a little boy, I usually hear my parents say, “Money is the foundation for more money.” When I grew up, I started hearing a different version of this proverb; “The rich get richer,” “It takes money to make money,” and so on.
At age 17, I started having the dream of becoming rich, and there come to a big problem. If I believe what my parents have been telling me since I was a child, that money is the foundation for more money. Then I’ll have to accept my fate and endure poverty for the rest of my life.
Because everyone around me is poor, so if my parents, uncles, and aunties are poor, and money is the foundation for more money, then, since I was born by poor parents, I have to remain poor.
Reading Books Change Your Mind
That destiny seemed darker than what I want to accept, so I became curious. I started reading every book that came my way because I wanted to know what the rich say about money instead of what my poor parents say.
My first breakthrough came when I read a book by Clement Stone. I think the title of that book is “Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude” or something. Reading these books, for the first time in my life, I came across the acronyms, other people’s money.
Wow! Now I see a new possibility. Though I was yet to figure out how to get or use Other People’s Money, the mere fact that there’s something like that makes me break away from my parents’ and poor societal mindset about money.
I was excited. If indeed there’s something to be called, Other People’s Money, I will learn everything I can to know how to get and use it. I continued reading.
Then I read Think and Grow Rich, and that further my understanding about other people’s money and getting rich. My final breakthrough came in around the year 2008. I read Creating Wealth by James Allen, and You Can Negotiate Anything by Herb Cohen. In creating wealth, James Allen told the story of how he claimed on the national television that he could invest without money for a piece of Real Estate Property.
The journalists decided to take him up on his claim and set him up. He threw Allen into a city he never knew he was going to be and invest without money, He bought a piece of Real Estate. This story got me crazy, and nothing in the world could stop me.
I said to myself, “If someone could be so smart that he could go to a city invest without money or connections and buy a piece of Real Estate, I just have to figure out how to do this.”
In You Can Negotiate Anything, Herb Cohen breaks than the three simple strategies you can use to get whatever you want from other people, and that includes getting capital and resources to invest.
Reading that book is a game-changer for me, and I’ll forever be grateful to God for sending me such a book. Since the last 11 years and six months, I’ve been able to get money and resources to invest, again and again, even from some unlikely sources, and this is how it all started.
Game is in your mind
It’s all to start with your mind. I know you’ve been hearing this for a long time and I’m sorry I have to tell you again; the game is in your mind. Though positive thinking has become a cliché in our society, the truth is; if you think you can do something, you’ll look for every possible way to do what you think you can do, and if you feel you cannot do anything, you’ll look for some excuses.
My parents always say that money is the foundation for more money. If I had believed that, then, I’d tell myself, “Well, since I don’t have money, I cannot make more money.” But I threw away that belief, and that’s the first thing I asked you to do; throw away everything poor people thought you about money. Throw away the mindset that it takes money to make money because it doesn’t have to take your money.
Open your mind
I can tell you several of my exploits. I can tell you how I raise capital from strangers even though I had no collateral. I can tell you how I got people to give me their hard-earned money to invest, and I did this year after year till the point when I no longer need capital. But it all started when I decided to change what I believed about money.
So, if you genuinely want to invest without money, you have to open your mind and change what every needy person you know tells you about money. Everyone Needs Capital This is another truth I wish you do; everyone needs capital, and everyone needs the same wealth. Let me explain.
Give me three boys who are 15 years old. One of them wants to be an Accountant, the other wants to be a Lawyer, and the third wants to be an entrepreneur.
In our society, we are made to believe that the first two boys who want to be Accountants and Lawyers need school while the third boy needs capital.
I’m sorry; that’s not true. All of these boys need the same thing, and that is knowledge. In other words, the real capital anyone needs is knowledge, and I have a story to prove this.
In the year 2009, I traveled to a town in my country to start my manufacturing business there, except that I had no money. I called a friend, and he sent me some money but not even up to 10% of what I needed.
Start journey
But I started my journey anyway. I knew what I wanted: a manufacturing space, a residential area for me to live, and the trust of the supplier of the raw materials needed. Haven read Creating Wealth; You Can Negotiate Anything and other books, I believed I could get those things I needed even though I had no money.
Well, I did get everything I needed. Yes, I was rejected a few times. But when you believe something is possible, you’re not only going to try again after rejections; you’re going to be attractive to people because your confidence will convince them that you’re worthy of their support.
Learn before earn
Again, the real capital everyone needs are knowledge; the same knowledge which makes a lawyer employable is the knowledge that makes you get the resources you need to invest. If you hate books, you probably won’t ever know how to get the capital you need to invest in. You can’t possibly want to invest in other things until you have learned how to invest in your life’s most lucrative business, which is your mind.
Yes, your mind is the most lucrative business in the world, and if you are too lazy to invest in the most profitable business, why do you want to invest in something else? What do you want to spend? A few weeks ago, one of my friends came to me to tell me about Forex Trading. He wants to invest in Forex, and he needed me to support him financially. I love him, but I didn’t help him. Now you know that I’m a terrible devil. But that’s not it.
When I hear my friend talking, I know that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about, and that’s another problem most people have when they want to get other people to invest in their ideas. Don’t deceive yourself; most people who have money to invest in your opinion are brilliant.
If you want to see this in real life, watch Shark Tank on YouTube. You’ll see how Sharks can easily see the loopholes in your ideas. That’s what you’ll encounter anywhere you try to get others to invest in you because usually, people who have money have been either entrepreneurs or investors for one or two decades.
These people know fake enthusiasm, false ideas, and artificial market evaluation, so when you sit in front of them to talk about your plan, they can smell the rat 10 miles away. That’s why they won’t ever want to support your idea.
In the case of my friend. I can easily see how he underrated what it takes to make money in Forex Trading, and when someone underrates what it takes to build any business, you know they will throw your money into the lagoon.
So, what do you want to invest in? How passionate are you about such things? How many hours have you spent studying that industry? How many people, experts have you met to ask questions? How crazy are you about that industry? Don’t think you can fake the enthusiasm or the understanding of the market value or anything because anyone qualified to invest with you is probably going to be smarter than you and imagine 15 years old trying to deceive 25 years old.
Often, it’s pretty obvious. So far, I had told you my stories, how I threw away what my parents believe about money, and embrace a new possibility.
Until you do the same, you can’t get resources to invest because the battle is in your mind. I challenge you to first invest heavily in yourself, and I recommend that you start with a few books I mentioned in this video. I also advise you to bury yourself inside whatever you want to invest in. If you are like my friend who thinks he can harvest money with Forex Trading, nobody will ever support you because they will smell your fake enthusiasm even before you start taking. In part two of this article, I’ll be discussing some other specific strategies that have helped me raise capital, and I hope the article will be helpful.
