Supercoach - Michael Neill [60]
To understand what does lead to financial security, imagine this scenario:
You live in a cold climate. Your partner asks you to put some more wood on the fire, but when you look in the woodpile, it’s almost empty. What do you do next?
If you’re like most people, you either go out back and chop up some more or drive down to the nearest shop and buy some. In fact, you get plenty of extra so that the next time you want to build a fire you don’t have to go back out unless you want to.
Now, imagine this scenario:
You live wherever it is that you live. Your partner asks you if there’s enough money to go on vacation this year, but when you look at the bank account, it’s almost empty. What do you do next?
Well, if you’re like most people, you panic. You either make up excuses as to why you can’t take a vacation or lay down the law about why vacations are overrated and a waste of money anyway. Secretly, you feel like a bit of a failure and resent the heck out of your partner for wanting to go in the first place (even though you’d love to get away as well). Perhaps you vow to yourself to work harder, or find a better-paying job or less demanding partner.
What’s the difference between the two scenarios?
In the first, you recognize that wood is just a commodity—something you need from time to time for a specific purpose and that it’s easy enough to get more of with a little bit of effort.
In the second, you’re acting as if money is in some way magical—something you always need more of and that would make your problems magically disappear if only you could somehow get enough of it.
But what if money were just a commodity, too— something you use from time to time for a specific purpose and that it’s easy enough to get more of with a little bit of effort? If money were just a commodity, you wouldn’t panic when you were running low—you’d simply go out and get more of it whenever there was something you wanted to buy. You might even get plenty of extra so the next time you wanted to buy something or go somewhere you didn’t have to go back out unless you wanted to.
And herein we discover the first part of the secret:
Financial security doesn’t come from
the amount of money you currently have;
it comes from your ability to get
more of it whenever you want.
The fact is, money and wood (and metal and pork bellies) are just commodities. The difference between them is that you buy wood with money and you “buy” money with service.
This gives us the second part of the secret:
Master the art of serving others
and you will secure your financial future.
In this sense, money is just a measure of the difference you’re making in the world. If you’re not making any difference, it will be difficult to make any money.
The Art of Service
1. Who do you currently serve with your work? In other words, who benefits from what you do? What value do you (and your work) create in the lives of others? For example:
“I’m a plumber—my work benefits my clients, the company who sends me out, and my family. I fix leaky pipes and faulty plumbing, but more than that, I help people have hot showers and warm radiators in the winter, and cool air-conditioning and clean tap water in the summer.”
“I’m an artist—my work benefits the people who see it, the people who buy it, and the galleries and Websites that display it. The value I create with my art is to bring a sense of beauty and aliveness into the lives of the people who view my art.”
2. Who else could you serve? What additional differences could you make in their lives?
“As a plumber, I could be of service not only to anyone who lives in a house or apartment building but also to companies and even the city I live in. Perhaps there’s some way I could be of service to the local utility companies and the hardware stores where people go to try to fix their own plumbing problems.
“I could offer do-it-yourself tips to my customers so that when it’s a small problem, they could