The previous article was all about yourself. Knowing yourself is a virtue. Man thoughts are on autopilot, as we’ve seen before. These are thoughts you’ve repeated so many times and spoken out loud so often, you don’t think about it anymore. If you speak it out loud, your mind has to think about it first and then hears it again. There’s double traffic on the neuro pathway when you speak. Therefore it’s so important to think before you actually say it.
In one of the workshops was a guy called Fred. He was single and had nothing else to do those two evenings and a friend asked him to come along. Fred had a general interest in money and wanted to know more on how to manage his money. I also guaranteed that he would save more than it costs. The first part was all about mindset and convictions about money, no practical money management at all. During the first break, Fred came to me complaining that he didn’t learn a thing. He had a great money mindset, no unsupportive convictions or what so ever. He said he knew his pitfalls and usually walked around them, sometimes trapping into them, but it didn’t bother him. He told me he was fantastic with money.
After the break we went on with the convictions regarding money. He was starting to get pissed off because no practical thing has come up yet. Then he did rise his hand and started to complain publicly. He said he didn’t learn a damn thing and that he wanted to leave and get his money back. I’ve never had that before, and I also didn’t want him to leave.
Then I offered him a “hotseat” so I could ask (more like interrogate, sorry for that Fred) him all kinds of questions regarding his money mindset. I knew that there was a small percentage of the population that actually had no unsupportive convictions or behavior, but I guessed that this didn’t apply to Fred. I never ask for the numbers, only if it’s enough or expected or something like that. One moment we reached the point where I asked him if he earned enough money. He said he needed at least double of what he made now. I asked him why he didn’t want ten times more in stead of two. Now it turned into a firm discussion. One moment he shouted out “I’m not going to work my ass off for that stupid money!”. Yes, I thought, now I can help you. We’ve found the unsupportive conviction. He thought he had to work double as hard to double his income. Imagine how many hours Bill Gates must work to earn his money. For the majority money and time have a direct relationship. This is not true, money and value are connected. Fred was struck by lightning. At the end of the evening he really thanked me sincerely for the hotseat. Some others said I came on too strong on Fred, bur he was very happy about it. Now he’s able to work on himself.