How our Mindset can Determine our Financial and Social Status

Some time ago, one of my neighbours told me about a motivational video called “The Secret”. She lent me the video and I only watched part of it because I lost interest along the line. I mean, it didn’t make sense to me then. I was deep into a financial crisis to have time to listen to what they called “Law of Attraction”. I mean, what has a law or an attraction got to do with helping me pay my bills and offset my debts? Anyway, I returned the CD with a huge “thank you” and “I enjoyed it so much” kind of smile. At least I wasn’t completely lying.

Years later, another person told me about how positive energy attracts good things and negative energy attracts the opposite. I told this very person to go to physics class and lay down his argument (lol). For my ‘ignorance’, I received a book as a gift from this ‘teacher’. Guess the name of this book – The Secret (you can imagine). Honestly, I haven’t had time to read the book because I didn’t want to confuse myself. But a post I saw on LinkedIn about how rich men think helped me understand this theory (The Law of Attraction). I will tell you how.

I’ll first like to define two major concepts I want to use in this analysis – the rich and the poor. When I say ‘the rich’ I mean those people that know how to manipulate the resources within and around them to generate income for themselves and their dependents. By ‘the poor’ I mean those who are unaware of any resources within or around them that can be used to generate their much needed incomes. So, don’t take offence whenever I use any of those terms.

Alright, so here we go. I’m an extrovert – yeah, that’s me. This means that I relate easily and freely with everybody irrespective of their financial status and all. But I noticed that anytime I’m in the midst of the poor I am always uncomfortable because I will have to be careful with what I say so I don’t get them angry. I have to agree with them that there is nothing good about Nigeria; I have to agree with them that everybody is starving; I have to agree with them that no matter how hard you try you can never make it unless you become corrupt; I have to agree with them that all those rich people out there killed their wives and mothers to do money rituals; I have to agree with them that going to school is a waste of time. In fact, for every conversation had with them, something negative must come up. If I make the mistake of disagreeing with them, I will automatically become a traitor (trust me, you don’t want to be there).

With these people, I have to keep my brain in a standby mode (or should I say sleep mode?). If I mistakenly say anything that sounds intelligent to them, I will be seen as an anomaly and therefore no longer a member of the group.

But in the rich man’s camp I can freely express my ideas and have them appreciated and constructively criticised. I can receive insights into everything that exists in the community. I can get motivated by someone’s success story. I can get a mentor who thinks my intelligence needs to be well channelled. I can get someone that will tell me the economic activities that can bloom within my area. I can get someone who will encourage me to take a risk. I can also get someone who is pushing up and wouldn’t mind if I tag along.

Now let me connect what I learnt about this Law of Attraction to my experiences in these two camps. Please, I’m debating this based on the physical sense, not on the metaphysical (I’m not a guru). So here’s the deal – a positive mind attracts positive mind, while negative mind attracts the opposite. Therefore, like minds attract each other.

The truth is that the rich want to keep connecting with the rich, while the poor are comfortable with their kind. The rich man there wants to meet with someone who can give him ideas on how to increase his income. He wouldn’t want to invest his time, energy and money on gossips and complaints about how bad everything is. The only complaint he can endure is how a business venture didn’t turn out as planned. But this complaint must be followed by a solution. The poor, on the other hand, spends the time he will use to think up solutions to problems on lamenting and accusing others. He will seek out his kind who will lament with him. He wouldn’t be comfortable in the midst of those who wouldn’t see his reasons for the complaints. The poor has actually accepted defeat and is now pointing accusing fingers at the ‘causers’ of his problems (which are everything and everybody).

What am I trying to say here? Sometimes our mindset could either make or mar us. For us to be successful in everything we do, we need to think positively; we need to see opportunities in everything; we need to stop complaining and start looking for feasible solutions to our problems; we need to think of how to move ahead and reach our goals despite the hurdles (in fact, we need to turn those hurdles into job and business opportunities); and we need to learn to conquer our fears. Above all, we need to mingle with the rich.

We cannot attain our goals if we don’t have mentors to guide us on how to do so. Mentors are usually those who have been where we are and are already where we wish to be. They are therefore among the rich. It will not be possible to have a mentor if you have the mindset of the poor. Trust me no one wants to listen to a complaint, unless there is a solution proffered by the complainant. So, stop complaining and start taking action.