Reactions to my entry yesterday were…interesting. It’s funny, people either “got it” or they didn’t. More interesting: the people who “got it” where in secure places in their lives. The ones that didn’t are still wrestling with how to achieve their goals. My advice: try opening your mind, take a look at the situation objectively, and perhaps the situation will change. Yes, this is where the example comes in. Cue the music…
I’ve been playing Settlers: Rise of an Empire. It’s a strategy game where the objective is to build your city, keep your people happy, have good diplomatic relations with your neighbors and beat up the bad guys. What I do directly effects what happens later. Gather too many resources the stock house becomes full and people get upset. Under produce and people will complain in the market place (drawing attention to it). Careful consideration needs to be given on how far to expand…you get the idea. When you start the game you have a mindset, an attitude and that focus must be maintained otherwise you’ll lose.
You think life is any different? It amazes me how people can screw up their lives but can play strategy games flawlessly. They can explain meticulously why one move should be made over another but can’t see that buying all those shoes on a credit card when you can’t afford it will mess you up.
How do you fail in the game? When you don’t meet the objectives. When do you fail in life? When it’s screwed up or you don’t have the things you want. Or so I thought. I learned that there is another type of failure – when you have success and it’s not recognized. It’s like completing the objectives in a game but the game says “you lose!”.
Let’s say you’re a marketing director for a company and you successfully branded your company in an area where no one heard of it before (which was your goal) but, because this didn’t translate into sales revenue, you failed. Or let’s say you’re married and while your spouse was going through a hard time you handled your responsibilities and had their back, for a long period of time, but was told you weren’t doing enough and more was expected…even when you sacrificed to accomplish what you did accomplish.
That’s true failure…having success, something to be proud of and it’s not recognized. It’s painful, like expressing love to someone and they don’t see it (or worse don’t want it). So what do you do if this happens to you? That’s why I say there is a difference between the frame of mind of someone who wants to be wealthy and one of someone that wants to be rich.
The person who wants to be rich will be the one that ignores the successes because they didn’t directly benefit from it. The one that wants to be wealthy will see those successes, realize they mean something and will build on it, turning it into “wealth” (not necessarily money but something that might turn into money – depends on what “it” is).
The moral of this story: if you have the wealthy frame of mind surround yourself with like minds. Birds of a feather flock together….
