 For many years my father woke up as early as 4am to get ready for work. He left the house before 4.30am and would return most times, a few minutes past midnight. We lived on the mainland. He worked on the island. What this meant is that to beat the constant traffic, he had to leave the house very early so that he could commute to his workplace that was miles away. And because traffic was often hectic at night as well, he returned very late. Each time I would watch him eat his almost cold meal, which mom had prepared hours earlier. Afterwards, he would watch a few minutes of TV, then go to bed some minutes past midnight, to wake up again by 4am. He did this for years and I was constantly shocked each time I thought about it. When he finally left the job years after I had graduated from college, he got a pension of about $1,500. We were happy. We thought that would be the end of poverty for us and we would walk straight into paradise. Weeks later, I heard my parents shouting and brawling at each other. It would be the first of many more shouting and brawling. What were they shouting about? Well, my dad had thought he'd gotten his hand on quite a large sum of money he'd never had in a long time. And so, the poor man had begun to have the best pleasures he couldn't have in a very long time. All too sudden, in a matter of days, the $1,500 pension had dwindled to almost nothing. When my mom had seen the possibility of us crawling out of poverty with such amount of money, my dad had seen a chance to have the fun he'd never had in all his life. Years later, he would complain and continually mourn about why he was so poor, even though he grew up working so hard, much more than most of his mates. I had worried about this too for a long while. But after that $1,500 incident, I began to understand why my dad was poor and would remain poor even though he always worked hard. This is my own story. You would think I learned from my dad's horrible mistake. Well, I choose to believe I acted like a chip after the old block once. At one time, when I had just left the university, I was dead broke and yet determined never to get a job. I was going to build a business from scratch and succeed at it. First, you have to know I had never started any business before now, and so had never known success or failure in business. Secondly, I was proud and sure about my ability to succeed in business that I never bothered to read too much of business books. I was convinced I was above most of the mistakes and pitfalls those few business books described. So I got lucky. My first business picked up and fast. I was earning so much money, I didn't know what to do with it. I figured since I had so much money, and there was plenty where the money was coming from, I could do lots of giveaways. So I became Santa Claus, giving money away as much as I could. If I saw a need, even if it wasn't my business, I gave money for it. If he told me you needed money for breakfast, I wouldn't only give you money for breakfast, I would top it up with the money for your lunch, dinner, and even enough to pay your bride price. Just kidding, but you understand. I thought I would continue to have money because jobs were coming, but look, the snowstorm hit hard when all of a sudden, clients stopped coming, jobs stopped coming, money stopped rolling in, I was dead broke. I was so dead broke, I saw the lowest denomination of my country's currency six months later, and wondered why they still made this note. I was so broke I hadn't seen or touched money in a long while. Don't ask me how I ate, okay. I fed off of people. Years later, after experiencing a bit of fresh air in my finances, I wondered why I worked so hard and still became broke for a long time. I also considered a lot of people who were in my shoes. It didn't take me long to know why I was working so hard, but still remained poor. I wanted so much money, yet I knew so little about how money works. So when money comes to me, I mismanage it, and since money mismanaged does not grow, I stay poor. The discovery that set me free, an angel investor once said to me, when you had so much money, you spent all you had, not knowing you were eating your seeds as well as your produce. I didn't understand that until recently. You are broke not because you aren't working hard. You are broke not because you don't stay up all night doing what most of your mates will not do. You are broke because you lack a mindset that can never attract money. You are broke because you do not understand money and how it works, and so you will spend most of your life working hard and still stay broke. You are as broke or as rich as your mindset about money. Here's what I mean. Three years ago, I joined a religious organization who believed in the fact that money is evil. We were taught never to pursue money but to wait for God to handle food on a golden platter. The whole time, I was confused. We believed in working so hard, and so we did, but the bulk of us in that religious group were always hungry. We never had enough to eat, and truthfully, we always begged from each other. For a long time, it got me wondering, if money is evil and we shouldn't be longing for it, why are our lives so messed up because we don't have enough money? I kept thinking about that question, while I suffered needlessly for more than three years. Soon, I had a breakthrough. I realized that God never stopped his children from making money. God never planned that his children would be holding out plates begging for their next meals. Religious folks just took the money issue overboard. I found out we were broke, poor, always hungry, and constantly begging because we had a mindset that repelled money. You are as broke or as rich as your mindset about money. Wealth is a mindset. Whether you like it or not, your attitude towards money will determine how rich or how poor you will become. Your wealth is entitled to how hard you work. If hard labor was what determines how rich you would be, most people in prisons would be richer than most of us. Wealth is a mindset. No matter how long you teach a fish, you can never make it fly. No matter how much you spend training a rat, it will never be able to talk. No matter how hard you kick a hyena on the butt, it can never stop laughing. It is his nature. In the same way, no matter how much money you give to a man with a poor money mindset, give him some time. He will soon become poor. Author of The Secret of the Millionaire Mind, T. Harf Eka wrote, If you want to change the fruits, you will first know to change the roots. If you want to change the invincible, you must first change the visible. Your belief about money becomes your reality. What you hold about money becomes true in your life. As long as you believe money is evil, you will never have money. As long as you believe money should always be spent, you will never have money. As long as you believe you should only save money, you will never have money. As long as you believe money is everything and your only means to true happiness, you will never have enough money to make you happy. As long as you believe the money you have will never be enough for you, you will always need money. As long as you believe in going the easy route, you will never have money. As long as you do not believe in sacrifice, in giving before you can take, You will always be broke because what you have will never be enough for you. If you must be rich, you must understand how money works. If you must have so much money, you don't have to bother your head about money. You must know so much about money that your mates are unwilling to know. You must read books on money, watch videos on money, attend seminars on money, etc. Do what the rich do and you will always have money. Think like the rich and you will become rich. Think like the lowlife and you will end in the gutters. You are a result of your mindset. You will realize then that hard work is not often a guarantee for wealth. Sound knowledge about money and having a rich mindset is If this video inspired you, like this video. We love you.