“If You Want To Build Wealth, Stop Prioritizing Money!”
After 10 months and 20 articles on “How To Make Money Run After You”, you will notice that all of my articles thus far have been about preparing you to manage the wealth that is about to come. In other words, those articles were about getting your financial house in order and becoming more financially intelligent. But more than financial smarts, I shared the emotional, psychological and attitudinal aspects needed to make wealth flow towards you.
Take note, if you have not yet read the first 20 articles, I strongly recommend signing up for the “Wealth Plan” so I can email you my previous articles from the very start.
Wealth Is More Than Just Money…
But first let me define wealth. To me, it is not just about money or material riches. To me, being wealthy is having a wonderfully abundant life which means simultaneously having an abundant amount of money, health, solid relationships, and time.
Many people strive to just become rich but not wealthy. Many corporate executives have this as their life story: they have huge salaries, travel the world first class just to meet clients, wine and dine customers in 5 star restaurants and clubs, but have no time to spend with family, they eat or drink too much, lose their health, and end up miserably trapped in what they think is a “wealthy” lifestyle. I know because I used to be one of them. Also, many businessmen and successful investors have the same predicament. They get trapped with maintaining their money level and status in the hierarchy of the elite, sometimes losing sight of what making money and wealth is really about, a wonderfully abundant life.
The key to wealth is about proper sequencing.
But unlike what most people think, prioritizing making money first among all of life’s aspects (money, health, relationships, time) isn’t always the best way to start your wealth journey. In fact this is probably what is holding you back right now. Tell me if you can relate, you work 20 hours a day, dead tired everyday for the past 10 years, and you haven’t moved any closer to your goal since 2002. Do you want to know why? Because you are prioritizing the wrong thing, when you most probably have to prioritize something else first.
Remember this, the key to wealth is about proper sequencing of your life’s aspects.
In my life, I prioritized finding my wife and building a solid and loving relationship with her first. Then came the need for more money, then when the money started flowing in, then came more time, and then now, for me at least comes improving my health.
In hindsight, I can say that this is not the optimal “wealth sequence”. I know because I have the benefit of looking back at my life and seeing the mistakes I made along the way, which I would like to now correct for you. So if you ask me what the optimal sequence should be, I would prioritize health, then relationships, then money, then time.
Health = Speed plus Clarity
A fit body and mind equates to faster and better decisions when it comes to building wealth, the activities and tasks you can accomplish in a day increase exponentially if you are healthy and falls drastically when you are not in tip top shape. It is common to sacrifice your health when you start getting more involved in your career, business or investments, you start exercising less and sitting down more, your life becomes sedentary and before you know it you start moving and thinking as fast as molasses. If I had one regret, that I could fix, it would be to not sacrifice my health for the pursuit of wealth.
Relationships = Wealth Connections
The most powerful tool for building massive amounts of Money and eventually wealth is through good, solid relationships. And what I mean by this are the connections you have with everybody that you have met and are about to meet. Everybody has a purpose in your life. Everybody has something of value, I learned (and continue to learn) this from my wife. Prioritize keeping communication channels open and continue connecting and networking with people. Prioritize building relationships as they will be crucial in your pursuit of wealth.
Money = Means
Money is a means to an end, and not an end goal itself. Your goal is to have a wonderfully abundant life and Money provides you with the means to achieve it. Now why is this not my first priority? Because money comes from the first 2 life aspects, health and relationships. I could not have gotten my first job in Islacom if I did not have a connection with the Head hunter who got me the interview (for the back story, go to my blog and search for “the true story of how I Created My first Job”) I could not have worked and gotten promoted quickly without my excellent health. So Money comes 3rd in the pursuit of wealth
Time = Freedom
Finally, True wealth gives you more time, and ultimate freedom. But it is an inevitable trade off between pursuing wealth and having to sacrifice a lot of it in the beginning. When you start out in life, you have lots of time on your hands, when you get a little older and responsibilities pile up, you will have less and less of it. And as I said, most people sacrifice this valuable commodity (together with health) in the pursuit of more money in the beginning. But as you get wealthier, the more time you should keep for yourself and your family. If you find yourself always short on time, especially for yourself and your family then its time to prioritize this aspect now.
In summary, building wealth is about right sequencing or prioritizing. Prioritizing making money as your first step is usually the wrong move. Check your priorities right now and check where you are in your wealth building journey, if you are still not where you want to be, then its time to re-sequence.
Good luck and God bless.
Author Box:
Mark So is a fervent businessman, Investor and educator. He is the Chairman and CEO of Businessmaker Academy—a business, finance and corporate training center. He is the founder and Chief Forex Trainer of Forex Club Asia, A Trading club of Forex Traders across Asia. He is also the Founder and Chief Trainer of the Philippine Franchise Institute which specializes in training and growing existing Franchise businesses. Mark, together with his loving wife also created wealthflowproject.com a website dedicated to teaching people how to make money run after you. A sought after speaker for business, investing, You may email your comments and questions to: markso@wealthflowproject.com or call the office at 6874445 / 6873416 / 6874645 for a schedule of his seminars
