 The one decision that will make you richer than 97% of people." Once upon a time, a young man went to his rich mentor and asked him, �Boss, I want to be rich. What can I do to be rich?� The mentor looked at his face with a terrifying look and asked him, �You really want to be rich? Yes, boss!� the young guy answered confidently. The mentor turned his back to the young boy and told him, �Meet me by the river 7am tomorrow.� The next day, the young guy woke up worrying, �I want to be rich. What does that have to do with the river?� Anyway, he got to the river and met his mentor at the appointed time. While at the river, the mentor asked him to go with him inside the river, held his neck and pulled his head inside the flowing water. The little guy struggled so hard to rescue himself from his mentor and when he ran out of the water, the mentor followed him to the river bank, looked at his face and asked him, �Do you really want to be rich?� �I mean it boss, I want to be rich� he answered as he breathed fast to recover from the incident inside the water. The mentor looked away as he turned his back at him again and said, �When you want riches as much as you wanted oxygen while I pulled your neck inside the water, you'll be rich.� The lesson here is very simple. When you want to be rich as much as you want oxygen, you'll be rich. The single most important decision you can ever make that will make you rich is to want riches as bad as you want oxygen. How bad do you want oxygen? As bad as you want life, because your life obviously depends on oxygen. Your life depends on money too. But you see, your life doesn't only depend on oxygen, it depends on money too. That's the truth and I'm not saying this to make you negatively desperate about money. Instead, I want to pull your neck inside the flowing river so that you'll be positively desperate for your life. Except we want to deceive ourselves, in this modern world, money is the most important thing in the physical realm immediately after the oxygen. You think about it. Just as any one of us would die if we lack oxygen for a period of time, we'll also die mentally, morally and even physically if we lack money for a period of time. The modern world is expensive and extremely so and that's why money is very important. The positive desperation When I was going to the business world over a decade ago, I was probably the most desperate human being on the planet. I was crazy, I was mad, I was not normal. There was nothing on earth you could tell me or do to discourage me. My father tried to stop me but I wouldn't listen. My mother cried but I wouldn't pay attention. One of my siblings threatened to disown me but only death could stop me. I wanted to build a company of my own. I wanted to have money. I wanted to be free to do anything I want with my life without being at the service of another human. I was desperate. But guess what? I couldn't do anything illegal or anything that is against my Christian faith. This is what I call positive desperation and this is what I challenge you to do. You don't have to lie. You don't have to cheat. You don't have to do drugs but you have to be desperate. You have to be willing to do ugly things. You have to be willing to deny yourself some pleasure. You have to be willing to delay gratification. These are all tough things and you need to be desperate to do them. If you don't want money as bad as you want oxygen, you can't be rich. The World of Cowards In my humble opinion, I think ours is a world of cowards. The last time I saw a courageous man, he was 15. Almost every adult I know is a coward. People are afraid of living. They are afraid of trying. They are afraid of taking risks. They are afraid of dying. They are afraid of everything. They are cowards. Unfortunately, the world was designed for the strong. If you are not strong, you cannot live a meaningful life because life has got nothing for you. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. You will never get anything in life except the things you fight for. Now John F. Kennedy said the irony of life is that, for us to experience peace, we have to prepare for war. It's that simple. No fight, no freedom. No war, no victory. No pain, no gain. Here are some tips that will help you. 1. Visualize your perfect future Visualization is a great way to travel to the future. Let me tell you why this works. You see, your brain doesn't know the difference between the real and imaginary pictures. That's why you cry when you watch an emotional movie. You know for sure that the scenes you are watching aren't real but your brain doesn't know it so it pushes you to cry. Now when you visualize a perfect future of yours, when you see yourself in your dream house, cars and with your dreamed freed life, your brain actually doesn't know that it's not real. What then happens is that when you wake up from your visualization and your brain finds itself in a different and often worse environment, it's confused. It then thinks something like, how can I be in a great place a few minutes ago and now in this bad place? Because of this, your brain is not happy with your present state. It wants to be in heaven you've imagined and because of that, it will force you to create that heaven. The more you visualize, the more you'll be positively desperate about achieving your goals because your brain will not just let you live in a bad environment when you showed her a better one every day. 2. Don't believe what the society believes When I told my brother that I wanted to be an entrepreneur, he told me that I should remember that our parents are poor and nobody will help me. Most of our societies believe that only the children of the rich and middle class can be rich. If your parents are not politicians or rich entrepreneurs, you are doomed because there are no opportunities left for you. The rich have taken it all. If you believe this lie, you are truly doomed. 3. Stop being around negative people Most people in the world are negative. They don't believe in their ability to change their life. The problem about you being around such people is that they will drag you to the gutter just as they drag themselves into it. To really be positive about life, your closest five friends should be positive. 4. Don't expect any easy gain in life You have to stop deceiving yourself. You have to stop expecting anything to come to you easily because it won't come. Except you're willing to fight, you can get nothing out of life. Life owes you nothing and it will give you nothing except what you're willing to fight for. You must be willing to make sacrifices, do the hard things, delay gratification and plan for a long tedious journey. In conclusion, remember the story of the boy who asked his mentor to show him how he could be rich. The only way to be rich is to want riches as badly as you want oxygen. If you don't want it very badly, you cannot get it. Thank you so much for watching our videos. Are you between the ages of 15 and 40? Then we invite you to join our new channel which was specially created to share with you inspiration and life's lessons to succeed in life. Recall it Under40TV, kindly look at the description box to join the Under40TV. We love you