 It was written in 1910, so more than 100 years ago now, and it is the foundation of, well, one of the foundations of the law of attraction. So you probably had heard of the law of attraction, the movie, The Secret. Well, the science of getting rich is one of the foundational texts that informs that movement. And I wanna talk to you today about some of the best concepts from the science of getting rich and also what I don't like about the book. So here we go. Let me start with the things that are good in the book, the concepts that are inspiring, you can get something from it, and then I'll end the video with talking about the things that you should be concerned about in the book. Okay? So the first concept that I found beneficial is the idea that anyone can get rich. And by rich, we're not talking about a rich life or holistic health, no, no. This book is talking about money, getting lots of money. Okay, and again, that's one of the things I'll talk about later why I think this book is one of the bad things about this book, but, and one of the bad things about the law of attraction movement. But anyway, so let me go with the concept. Anyone can get rich, anyone can be financially wealthy. It doesn't matter what your background is, it doesn't matter what niche you're in, what profession you choose. It doesn't matter if you start out with access to money, access to capital, or you start out broke and have nothing. So that's one of the core messages of the book is idealism and optimism, that if somebody else who has had your kind of background has made it financially, then you can too. Think about it, right? You are handicapped, you are a minority in your society, you're not as smart as you would like to be or as good looking, it doesn't matter. If somebody like you has been financially successful, then you can too. And in fact, if somebody like you hasn't, then you can be the first one, okay? Anybody can be rich if you follow, if you take action based on certain principles, okay? So now this book was written over 100 years ago. So back then there was very little, maybe no understanding of the idea of privilege. So male privilege, white privilege, or whatever majority class privilege in one society, intellectual privilege, you're born smarter than others. Yes, of course knowledge and intelligence can be developed but it's true, some people are born with better brains, better processors than others. How you look, of course, some people, doesn't matter how much makeup you put on or whatever, some people just have better bone structure that they were born with, how tall you are, what neighborhood you happen to grow up in, what kind of parents, family, all of that is privilege of some kind, right? That does, the fact is some people have a greater burden of trying to attain wealth than other people and we need to recognize that. But the problem I have with the privilege conversation is that some people take it and they become too much of a victim about it. Oh, look, look, I have these issues and they just keep talking about their limitations. And of course, if you argue for your limitations, you get more of it because that's what you focus on. So this book helps us to focus on the possibilities that no matter where we are, what we came from, we can be rich, okay? So that's the sort of bottom line there. The second major principle from the book is that creative potential is everywhere. This book talks about a formless substance that pervades the universe. Every particle of empty space is pervaded by this formless substance according to this book that is ultimately creative. And any human being can work with this formless substance to produce business ideas, solutions to problems, gets you unstuck from any challenge or issue that you have right now, okay? So no matter your situation, no matter where you are physically in the world, that formless substance of creativity pervades the whole universe. And I'll just talk a bit about my own personal beliefs on this stuff. I believe that God, I'm getting into dangerous territory here because you and I might disagree with what God is. But I really reconnect with the idea of God as well, kind of like the Star Wars force. God is the energy of love and intelligence and virtue and all the goodness of the world. That's the energy that pervades every tiniest particle of this entire universe. God is there and the energy of love, the energy of creativity. So that's my interpretation of what this guy is talking about that the formless substance is creative and intelligent and can produce anything. So yes, God is with you everywhere. And God invites you to use your God given abilities to create. And by create, we don't literally mean, you can form something solid from nothing like out of thin air, although in the future as people practice their abilities, maybe that becomes more likely. But what we're talking about here is that your creativity is with you everywhere you go. So it doesn't matter how much, how stuck you are, how broke you are, how in a situation of just you can't see how you can possibly get out of this hole, doesn't matter where you are, this formless substance is there with you. God is there with you. Unlimited potential is there with you. Okay, so that's the idea of this creative potential is everywhere. The third principle I wanna bring forth is this idea of beware the belief in current appearances. Beware your belief in current appearances. What you see around you, what's happening in your life right now or in your work, we have this human illusion that what is existing is stable and will last forever. Oh, my job is always gonna be like this. Oh, my business will always not be successful. Even if you don't say it out loud, you have a subconscious idea that what is current, the current appearances is going to be like that forever. Or you look upon a field of weeds. It's all weeds, it's all ungrown and very messy. And you think, well, that's the current appearance and that's what it is. But then the person who sees creative potential and has the deep profound faith in that formless substance of intelligence that's everywhere that can be tapped at a moment's notice, sees that field of weeds and can see instead a beautiful garden or a developed building or whatever they're into. It's either a garden, a sanctuary, a building, whatever. But they can see, they can kind of envision it and see it. I believe in that. I believe in the vision more than I believe in the current situation. So we need to be aware of our belief in the current situation, thinking that it's stable forever. It's not, it's always changing and we have the power to change it. So be aware of your belief in your current situation. Okay, the next idea is go with trends, go with trends. If you're gonna become financially successful, I said this before, this is not in the book, but I said it before, where does money, where does your money come from? Where does your income come from? Do you know? Your income comes from other people's spending on you and your services and your products, right? Your money comes from other people's spending on you, your services and your products. And so if you want to make money, it means you need to go with the trends. If people are passionate and excited about something, if people are having problems, challenges in a certain area, they want solved, you're gonna be able to make money there versus you come up with an idea, you had an epiphany, you had a peak experience and now you want to make money telling people about your peak experience. Well, unless your peak experience is something they're interested in, you're not gonna make money. I'm sorry, you know? If you're studied, if you study with a guru or with some modality that other people don't care about, it's not a trend, it's not going in that direction, you're not gonna make money. But if you study something, a modality, you know how to solve a problem, you know how to help people achieve a certain transformation that more and more people want, well, you're gonna make more and more money. So go with the trends, that just makes sense. The next concept is that there is unlimited opportunity that you don't have to rush, okay? Don't be out of breath saying, oh my gosh, I had that idea first and there they took that idea and ran with it. Well, if you had the idea, it doesn't matter what you do. I mean, it doesn't matter if you got the idea first. If someone else took the idea and ran with it, they manifested, they created, they put the hard work behind the creation of that from idea to reality, then they should win. It doesn't matter if you had the idea first. It doesn't matter if you told them the idea. You could be, I could be telling you ideas all day long, but sitting back on my couch and telling you ideas. Ideas are just the seed. It's kind of like, you know, you plant a seed, but you never water it, you never tend to it. You know, you let people step all over it. You're not gonna grow into a plant, but the person who took your seed, you planted the seed in the ground and then they came and took the seed, right? Which would have done nothing because you would have done nothing with it. They came and took the seed. They planted it in fertile soil. They nurtured it, you know, carefully and wisely and then it became, it's theirs. They're the ones who did the hard work, right? So there is unlimited, actually that is, I realized that that's not really even the concept that I was talking about, but that's a different concept. The concept is that there's unlimited opportunity. You don't have to rush. So it doesn't matter if somebody else is doing something or that or whatever. Remember, create a potential, unlimited potential is everywhere and at all time, for all time. So wherever you are now, whatever society is going through right now, you still have unlimited opportunity. You, you still have unlimited opportunity. You just have to be willing to believe that and then be willing to believe in your vision more than the current reality, okay? All right, the next concept, it's a good common sense advice. I'm looking at my notes here. Do what you have natural talent for or what you want or what you're passionate to develop talent for. That just makes sense. If you're gonna choose anything you're gonna do, choose something that you're already better skilled than other people or you have such a passion for that you're really, you're so excited and energized and disciplined to put in the work to become better than somebody else and to become better than most people are at that skill. So, you know, do what you have talent for. Okay, the next principle is to visualize what you want. And now this is starting to get started. What I'm gonna say now is it's gonna start to sound familiar. Like, oh, well, George, come on. That's just law of attraction. Well, that's just thinking to grow rich. Well, both law of attraction, the secret thinking to grow rich, that had all came decades after this book. So this book was kind of like the, some people considered the kind of grandfather of the whole law of attraction movements. Okay, so visualize what you want, okay? So, envision the thing that you want to be successful with, the business that you want to be thriving. Can you, the more you can imagine it, the more you can see it, the more you can see all the details of it, the more that you're likely to actually be able to do it. Okay, but the more vague it is and the more you just kind of have this vague idea, the less it's likely to happen because the less likely you will know how to do something with it. Okay, so visualize what you want. The next principle is interesting. Spend your leisure hours turning it over and over until you memorize all the details of your vision. Okay, spend your, so basically, according to this book, okay, you should either be working on your vision. Okay, so the book acknowledges that some of us are in a job and we can't be building a business while we're in the job, right? So while you're in the job, do your job via a good employee, do the best work you can there. But then outside of your job, you should be either be working on your business, taking action to form your business, or when you're not forming your business and you're resting and relaxing, even during you're resting and relaxing, your leisure hours, you should be memorizing your vision, you know, thinking it through, seeing all the details. Okay, so that's the book's recommendation. So it is, well, this is also part of where hustle came from. Work all the time, hustle, hustle, hustle, right? So spend all of your time either working on your business or seeing all the details of it, just becoming obsessed with it is what the book recommends. Just get obsessed with all the details of your vision, all of this, because then if you get obsessed with it and see it all the time and think about it all the time, you're gonna start believing in that more than you believe in the current reality and you'll have such a strong belief that you'll attract people, you'll see opportunities where you didn't used to see them because life just keeps flowing in front of you, but you only see the things that you believe in, right? You only are able to, ah, there is something I could do right there. You wouldn't have seen that if you hadn't been thinking about your vision. Okay, so your leisure hours memorize your vision until it becomes clear detail, all the details, you can totally see it. Okay, next principle is probably one of the most popular principles from the book, which is to give your customers or give other people, including vendors, customers, give everyone that you do business with more value than they pay you, okay? And you think, well, George, that's the mainstream knowledge now. Well, this was written 100 years ago, okay? Before it was really mainstream knowledge, talk about value and things like that. So give more value than you charge for. So that's what I aim to do in my work. When I sell an online course, I price it at this current time, late 2018, I price it at 60, it might be priced at 675 or 100 next year, but I price it at 60. And then when people take the course, they're like, wow, this was one of the most valuable courses I've taken. It was worth way more than $60. Then I've done my job. I've done what the book is recommending, or if people take my MasterHeart program or my coaching and go, gosh, George, it's such a good deal. I mean, he charges less than most business coaches at his level does and he gets so much value. So that's what you should aim for in your business too, to give that experience to your customers and your clients and your students, that sense of, God, this is such a good deal. What an amazing value this is, the servers that you're providing. The next principle is also probably the other very popular principle from the book, which is shifting from the competitive mindset to the creative mindset, from the competitive to the creative mindset. So most people in business have a competitive mindset. And this is why business is so often stressful. There's conflict and anxiety and there's a lot of failure because people are always just trying to crush the competition. And they always think, well, if they won, then I must have lost, okay? Instead, can you shift your mindset that there is no competition, none? Not even somebody in your own town who offers the exact same service you do to the exact same people who live and work right next to you. Not a competitor, according to this book, not a competitor, it's a potential collaborator. You've got to shift from the competitive mind to the creative mind, to the collaborative mind. And it takes creativity to think, well, how can somebody who is next door providing the same service to the same people in the same town, charging the same price, not a competitor to me? How can I think of that person as creative? Well, let's take that extremely challenging situation and say, well, what if you combined and joined your efforts to do even better marketing so that you grew the pie instead of fighting for the same piece of pie, you grew the pie, you put your minds together and you put your dollars together to do even better marketing so that more people come to do your industry and into that, into your block so that more people are using both of your services. And then maybe you get together, you find out where each other is really the strongest and weakest and create something that's borrows on both strengths. So shift from any kind of competition at all to being creative, collaborative in every single situation. There is no such thing as somebody who should go down because they have the same business or whatever, okay? All right, next principle is deep gratitude for everything, even failures, knowing that something better is coming. So I like that a lot. I mean, this is not originated from the book but I think this is, I'm glad that the book talks about this. So deep gratitude for everything, including failures. So why would we be grateful for failures? And this is where a lot of us entrepreneurs go wrong is that we are so scared of failure that we don't try. Not realizing that there is as much value, perhaps more value and failure than there is in success. Because when you experience a failure, you are motivated more than ever to try to figure out what can I do differently? Whereas if you're successful complacency sets in and you don't grow as much as if you were to reframe failure as what can I do differently? How can I grow? And this is, I'll bring something in, not from the book but I believe the purpose of life is not money or success or pleasure or prestige or security or enjoyment. No, the purpose of the greatest purpose of life. Yes, you can have all that too but the greatest purpose of life, the deepest purpose that underlies all of that is growth. It's becoming better, becoming a better human being, becoming a better soul, becoming a better partner, friend, son, daughter, parent, everything, growth, becoming a better business person, ethical, et cetera. So deep gratitude for everything that happens in your business, including failures and even especially failures. It's like, ah, this is now motivating me. If I, so okay, so that's that. The next principle is do what you can now rather than worry about the future or the past. So my gosh, you know, my past shows me that I probably can't succeed. No, no, let the past be the past. Now reconnect again with that creative potential that is limitless and everywhere abundantly infinite in your life right now. Reconnect with that creative potential. Reconnect with that infinite possibility that is true for you and do what you can now. Don't worry about the future. Yes, envision the future, see it in detail, et cetera. But don't worry that it's not here yet. Oh, how come I did all this marketing and then I'm not getting as many clients as I want? You're worrying about the future. Okay, you're worrying about the future. Don't worry about it. Everything comes at its right timing. I'm not sure the book talks about that, but it's important for us to realize that there is such a thing as divine timing. Our job is to keep tapping the infinite potential now and keep growing whatever we can do. And it's the divine's job, it's life's job to bring the results when it's right for us to have them. So do what you can now. Don't worry about the results. Don't worry about what happened already. Do what you can now, okay. So now that I've shared the principles from the book, let me talk about the things to be careful about the book. And basically I would say the first chapter, maybe the second, I don't remember now, but the first part of the book is I wish it weren't there. I wish that they just started, I feel like as the book keeps going, it'll get better and better. And by the way, you don't have to buy the book to read it. I will put links below this video to give you the complete audio book that's available on YouTube for free because this book is now in the public domain. So even though people do sell on Amazon, anybody can take the entire book and put publisher for free now, it's legal. So I'll give you the complete two and a half hour audio book for free in the link below of the video. When I finish doing this, I'll put that in there. And then I will also give you the link to read the entire book for free. Okay, it's not a long book. So the first part of the book, first of all, the science of getting rich is of course a very hyped up title. And I think it's deceptive because this guy actually says that this is a science. Follow this, it literally says follow this formula and with mathematical certainty, you will get rich. With mathematical certainty, you follow this formula, you will get rich. It's a weasel, it's a weasel idea. Well, you know, because these concepts are so vague, right? These concepts that I just told you, well, when you follow this formula and you don't get rich, well, then they can blame you for not really following the formula properly because the following formula was too, it's very vague. So don't call it a science. Damn it, I'm like so, you know, I can't believe this guy is like selling it as a science. It's a mathematical certainty formula. It's ridiculous. It's not a science. It's just principles. You can call it principles of wealth or wealth achievement. Fine, science, ridiculous, okay? Especially if you respect science, you know that this is not the scientific method at all. Okay, all right, so, and the other thing I don't like about the book is, you know, particularly towards the first part. Basically, what I can tell from just reading this book, I mean, the book is very salesy, basically, the first part of it. It's trying to sell you on this idea, trying to make you believe in this book so much. It even says, don't read any other books. Don't listen to anybody else except the books that I recommend. So it very much tries to set itself up as a Bible, as a guru, like, and that's dangerous. I think gurus are dangerous. I don't know about you because now I should say a guru that says you should only listen to me and nobody else, essentially forming a cult. And cults are not the best thing for our free thinking and our most authentic personal growth because our authentic personal growth will always not be exactly the same as what our guru is saying, what our teacher is saying, right? And if our guru or teacher is open to that to say, you might find a different way than me and that's okay. Now the guru and teacher, of course, gives principles, gives guidance, warns to say, I've been there before, don't go there, I don't recommend you go there or I've seen other people fail going there. But the guru and teacher should always say, but if you're really called to try that, go ahead, that might be your path. But this book says, don't listen to anybody else. Only read this book until it's become the Bible. So the only thing for you basically is what the book is saying. And the other thing about this book that I don't like is it talks about how the purpose of life, the purpose of human life is to get rich. It doesn't beat around the bush, it says that. The purpose of human life is to get rich, to become financially wealthy and it is the noblest of all studies is financial achievement, is the noblest. Can you believe this guy says that? Not philosophy, not ethics, not virtue, not spirituality, not art and beauty. No, the noblest of all studies is to get rich, financially rich because, and this book continues to say, if unless you're rich, you can't give, you can't give to other people, which is bogus, right? Because all of us know that some of the most generous, biggest hearted people are also some of the poorest people. Okay, so giving isn't just about being able to buy stuff and give it to other people or giving people money. But that's what this book suggests is that you can't give unless you're rich, okay? And you can't love unless you can give. So therefore, you can't love unless you're rich is what the book's saying. Prove me wrong that the book doesn't say that if you're watching, no, no, that's not, no, no. The book says that, okay? Noblest of all studies, you can't give unless you're rich, you can't love unless you can give. So therefore, you can't love unless you're rich, okay? Not truly love. And it says that, and it says you owe it to God to become rich. So this book is also one of the foundations for the prosperity gospel, which is the Christian ministers who have these mega churches, who say, God wants you to be rich. Look at the Bible, God wants you to be rich. Nevermind anything Jesus says about, you know, the poor, you know, and being noble and, you know, no, let's not talk. And nevermind Jesus said, you can't get into the kingdom of heaven if you're rich. Let's not talk about that. Old Testament and, you know, says, you know, so the prosperity gospel got a lot and I think got a lot, modern day prosperity gospel got a lot out of this book. You owe it to God to become rich because that's the purpose of life, right? And, you know, one of the things I've noticed about this book is that it is supremely confident to the point of hubris, hubris, H-U-B-R-I-S. And it's true. If you are hubristic, if you are so confident, you tend to have an easier time becoming rich. Donald Trump, Donald Trump is the prime example of this. You know, he lies through his teeth, but he is so confident when he lies and he repeats his lies so many times that people believe him, but believe him. That's how you get a lie to be believed, repeated a lot and super confident when you say it. And people go, well, and if people don't like to research, you know, and they like you, you're likable and they don't like to research and you keep repeating the same thing. Of course, they're gonna believe you, okay? So that's part of this book's charm is that it's kind of like Donald Trump. It just keeps on repeating lies, but no, not the principles I said earlier, but the parts about the purpose of life and you can't give, you can't love until you're rich. It even gets us, it even uses Jesus. I can't believe it, and I wish I'm gonna have to find the quote, but it cherry picks from Jesus' words to say that we need to all become rich. I'm like, that's not how I read Jesus, okay? Let's see what else. And he says, even spiritual teachers should become rich. So that's part of it. Spiritual teachers should become rich so that they can teach other people to become rich in them. So let's see here. And he says that basically our spirit, and this is where part of the whole law of attraction and sort of modern day, new age spirituality comes from is that our spirit wants to expand. There's a life force. Life force wants to expand and the expansion includes material expansion. So all of us, the purpose of life is to live in a mansion, like the most luxurious life you can possibly live. That's the purpose of your life. And if you're not there, then you failed the purpose of your life. You didn't pursue the mansions and the cars and the opulent wealth. You know, and he says, yeah, you should have as much things as you can use. So he does say as you can use. And so, yeah, but he doesn't talk against excess. He doesn't talk in excess. He only praises excess to say, no, there always should be more, more material things. And once all the world's materials have been used up, human beings will find other ways to create more materials. And I think that's probably true, but it's not the best message for the environment, right? It's terrible because they're like, oh, the creative substance is everywhere. So I could chop down all the trees, pollute all the rivers. And we'll still, human beings will have the ingenious creative potential to figure out how to un-pollute the rivers and grow more trees. And that's probably true, but it's, you know, as people do that, they become more and more callous towards the environment. And that's, I think that's a dangerous message. So anyway, that's what I don't like about the book is, let me see what else. Oh, he says, desire is possibility seeking expression and or function seeking performance and it should be fulfilled. So that's one of the things I don't like about the book is you should fulfill all your desires. Wait a minute. Okay, desire is possibility seeking expression? That's not, okay, that's a deceptive truth. There's a seed of truth in it, but it can be easily misinterpreted, easily misused. Desire is possibilities seeking expression or function seeking performance. So does that mean every desire is holy and every desire should be fulfilled? No. There's desire for overeating. There's desire for, you know, pornography. There's desire for, you know, greed and desire to crush other people so that you can have more. There's lots of desires or desire for excess and it's dangerous, you know, in my opinion. It's not good for the environment. It's not good for society. It's not good for your soul to be so materialistic. The people who have had near-death experiences of which there have been millions now, according to the studies, I have read thousands of near-death experiences over the years and one of the most common learnings, lessons from near-death experiencers. And these are people who have no agenda. Many near-death experiences share their stories and don't have books to sell. Okay, this is not just people with books to sell. These are just, I've read thousands of near-death experiences, most of whom don't have books to sell. Most of whom don't have, you know, spiritual mentoring services. And no, there's nothing wrong with that. Right, I have books to sell. I do spiritual mentoring, but these are people with nothing, no financial incentive. And one of the most common messages that they give us, even with those with books to sell, is that they become less materialistic. They realize that a focus on money getting and acquisition of wealth and luxury is totally missing the point of life. So that's what I want to caution you on in terms of the books framing, the start of the book particularly. However, and he actually even says, listen, you should get rich first and philosophize later. Get rich, make lots and lots of money and then figure out how to be spiritual and holy and all that stuff. Opposite of what Jesus says, right? Because Jesus says pursue first the kingdom of God and then everything else, including material things will be given to you. So he's exactly opposite of Jesus teaching and exactly opposite of Buddhist teaching, exactly opposite of Hindu, every spiritual tradition, nobody says get rich first and then worry about God later. Everybody says, get right with God first. Get right with your heart first. Become, realize, understand that the greatest purpose, deepest purpose of life first and work hardest on that first and then in your spare time. And with that energy, you can then pursue material sustainability and thriving and all that other stuff. Because in my opinion, this is my opinion now, building a business, trying to become rich, there's nothing wrong with that, it's just that the reason we're doing it is going to determine whether or not we really fulfill our purpose, mission and life. The work of becoming rich, the work of building your business, in my opinion, is to grow spiritually. That's really the reason and growing spiritually doesn't mean having more stuff and having more money and having more luxurious vacations and yoga retreats. Nothing wrong with yoga retreats, but you see what I mean? The modern day kind of not law of attraction, Instagram culture is that somehow spiritual means having lots of money to go on yoga retreats and ayahuasca experiences, those are all great, but that's not the purpose of life. So anyway, I hope this is helpful and interesting and I hope you benefited from this video. So thanks for those who were joining me here. It's interestingly, this is one of my least popular videos to date. I'm not sure why, I would love to know why those of you watching this and who have watched my other videos, somehow this literally, by this point in the live video, there's usually at least five to 10 likes and dozens of comments. Today's video, which is longer than usual, has no comments thus far and one like and I'm really curious why. Is it because I started with the whole getting rich thing and people think, well, I don't, George is not about that, so why is he saying that message? I probably should have placed my criticisms of this book in the beginning. So I'm really curious, how does this video differ from my other videos? Why isn't this video as interesting or helpful to you? So I would love to know. All right, thank you everybody. I wish you well and see you next time. Be well.