Money is everything if you have the wisdom to use it properly.
If you studied in a missionary school in Uganda and then offered your time and service at an Anglican, Pentecostal, or born-again church, you may have been raised to believe that money is evil. You might have felt guilty for earning money, driving a car, or owning a home.
In many ways, you may have squandered your money, giving it all to religious programs that never materialized or giving it away to avoid a make-believe prophetic doom. It was in my early forties that I realized money is actually everything. All you need is the wisdom to apply it.
It puzzles me when I meet people with so much money, loving spouses who lavish them with anything they want, and children who lack nothing, yet they look at me with obvious envy. What could I possibly have that they want? They have everything. With half of what they own, I could turn my life around and the lives of so many people under my care. I could travel to all the countries I desire and make worthy investments.
Then I pause and go through my diaries, blog posts, and comments on my work from clients and customers. I begin to understand the root cause of some people’s envy: my confidence, my ability to articulate, my resilience, and my capacity to move on from setbacks and take on new projects with gusto, as if I have otherworldly strength.
Money can’t buy these qualities, which are the source of envy and misguided resentment. I have spent days, weeks, and years building myself to become a person of unrivaled resilience. I wake up early, read a lot, and spend time learning from the best in the industries I am growing in. The internet is a valuable resource, and I spend time listening to particular people and applying their qualities.
If you focus on building the person you want to become and shaping your life, others around you will shine their light as well. There will be no time for envy because you will be busy doing things that matter and enjoying them. In the same way that people invest and build their business empires, I build myself.
Now, all I need is to become Billionaire Bev. How about that?