1.2.1.1 Ignorance is expensive

A young man by the name of Bruce came to the drug rehabilitation centre I was running a few years ago. Now, Bruce used to drink lime green cordial straight from the bottle. (Cordial is a very sweet drink concentrate that must be diluted with water before consuming. It is popular in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.) One day he saw someone mixing water with lime green cordial. “What are you doing?” he challenged. “You’re a real tight wad!” Surprised, the man turned to Bruce and said, “Bruce, let me tell you something. You’re not supposed to drink cordial straight from the bottle.”

Do you know why Bruce drank lime green cordial straight from the bottle? Because he didn’t know any better. Many of us are like Bruce. We want a better life. We want to be prosperous. We want to improve our relationships. But we’re going about it the wrong way and we just don’t know any better! You see, what you don’t know will hurt you. You must deal with the mentality that cripples and sabotages your finances, your relationships and your prosperity. The first thing you’ve got to do is shift your mindset, and the next thing you’ve got to do is get rid of some of your mind viruses.

I am sick and tired of the mind viruses that are crippling people living in the western world—especially in my own nation of Australia. Sadly, Australia is becoming known as a nation of whingers. But it’s not just evident in Australia. As I travel the world I see it other countries as well. People want to change everything around them. “If I could only live in a better suburb!” they say. “If my children could only attend a better school! If I could only get a better paying job!”

Some of us want the economy to change. Some of us want the weather to change. For some people there’s too much rain. For others there’s not enough rain. Some people don’t like the summer and others don’t like the winter. My friend, you can’t change the economy, you can’t change the weather, and you can’t change the seasons. The answer to your problems is not out there, it’s in your thinking; it’s in your mindset.

The answer to your problems is not out there—it’s in your thinking, it’s in your mindset.

There are many viruses out there that infect our minds. These viruses are reflected as attitudes and thought patterns that have entered our minds quietly and unobtrusively over the years. Many of them we catch during our childhood. When we’re young, we’re vulnerable and teachable, and we absorb both good and bad mindsets because we don’t know any better.

Many of these viruses affect the way we think about money and success. If you catch these viruses, they limit your opportunities for success because they cause you to see everything as negative, as threats, and as problems.

Here’s a mindset shift: For many of us, our reaction to bills shows we have a mind virus to bills. Don’t focus on your bills, instead focus on your assets. Let me illustrate. I love receiving bills! You may think I have a problem. But it’s true! I love bills. Too many people shake in their boots when a bill arrives in the mail. If you’re one of those people, you need to shift your mindset about bills. Do you know what bills mean to me? They mean that I am decreasing my liabilities and I am increasing my assets! Now there’s a real mindset shift! You see, for many of you your reaction to bills shows you have a mind virus about bills.

You can quickly recognize mind viruses in other people by the way they react to things, like other people’s success. You can easily test whether someone has a mind virus by asking them questions. For instance, ladies could try this on their men: next time you go shopping for a dress, ask your husband or boyfriend to go with you. When you see a really expensive dress, tell your husband or boyfriend, “I’ve chosen this one! Isn’t it nice!” Then watch for his reaction, because what comes out of his mouth will reveal whether he has a mind virus.

You can also test whether your friends have a mind virus. Tell a friend about a successful CEO of a well known corporation who recently resigned and was given a multimillion dollar hand-out... and wait for your friend’s response. Here’s how they may respond: “How could someone be paid so much money! No one’s worth that much!” My friend, if you’re earning one million dollars and you’re making the company one billion dollars, your earnings are small change! What your friend is really saying is, “Why isn’t that me?”

Would you want someone who is paid $50,000 to be running your country’s total investments? I don’t think so! Highly paid heads of corporations are paid according to the value they bring to the company. A poverty mindset declares, “No one’s worth that much!” But a prosperous mindset says, “Yes, but they increased the company’s earnings this year by one thousand times!”

Here are more ways to uncover mind viruses. Talk to a colleague about how wealthy business people seem to be better than most at clever tax avoidance strategies... Next time you are at the hairdressers, talk about how so many celebrities end up divorced within a few short years... Talk to your work mates about network marketing... Tell your parents you’re giving up your job to pursue your dream of becoming a musician in a rock band...

Thirty examples of mind viruses

Here are just 30 mind viruses I’ve spotted, some of which you too may have caught over the years:

1. Money doesn’t grow on trees! Reality: That’s obvious… money grows in your head.
2. I’m not made of money! Reality: No, you’re made up of your thoughts.
3. We’d never be able to afford that! Reality: Work out how you can afford it?
4. It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s whether you had fun that matters! Reality: Generally it’s those who lose who say that.
5. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and the middle class go shopping! Reality: a jealous and insecure person says this.
6. I didn’t have it easy as a kid, so why should you? Reality: If you are successful, then your kids have had to make sacrifices, so they should be rewarded.
7. No one ever gave me a free lunch! Reality: Be the person who buys the lunch.
8. Money ruined my marriage! Reality: No it didn’t—you did it all by yourself!
9. Money made him greedy! Reality: No it didn’t¬—money magnified what he already was!
10. You mustn’t give people false hope! Reality: People can’t live without hope.
11. Who do you think you are... better than me?! Reality: Yes, I’m a work in progress.
12. The rich keep all the secrets to themselves! Reality: Many successful, wealthy people run seminars and write books to help others become successful and wealthy.
13. Welcome to my humble home! Reality: People say this out of a sense of false pride.
14. I’m just an average Aussie battler! Reality: There’s nothing Aussie about being a battler!
15. No one in our family ever amounted to much! Reality: The people who say that are the people who want to contain you rather than release you.
16. Don’t rock the boat! Reality: People who say that don’t want others to get ahead or achieve much.
17. Money is the root of all evil! Reality: No it isn’t—the love of money is the root of all evil!
18. I could never wear that! I could never drive that! I could never live there! Reality: Try it—you might get to enjoy it.
19. Money won’t make you happy! Reality: Well, neither will broke!
20. Life wasn’t meant to be easy! Reality: Don’t try to make life easy—try to make life better!
21. Get an education so you can get a good job! In fact, get a government job or a job at the bank! Reality: Working for someone else will rarely make you rich. Instead, become a business owner.
22. That child has Attention Deficit Disorder! Reality: Not necessarily—if they’re anything like me, they may just need to be taught some discipline or taught boundaries or taught to focus... Too often we’re quick to medicate the magic out of children.
23. You’ve got to acknowledge your strengths, but focus on your weaknesses! Reality: No, you will never build prosperity out of your weaknesses, you’ll only build prosperity out of your strengths.
24. I wonder how many people he had to walk over to get to where he is! Reality: In getting to where he is, I wonder how many people he helped.
25. I bet she’s never done a hard day’s work in her life! Reality: We judge people according to our own actions.
26. That’s impossible! It can’t be done! Reality: Impossibility is a mindset, not a reality.
27. You don’t have what it takes! Reality: You can learn to have what it takes.
28. It’s been tried before. What makes you think you can succeed where others have failed? Reality: Neil Armstrong was entitled to say, “Many have tried to get to the moon and failed, but someone has to do it, so why can’t I be the first?”
29. Some people are too ambitious! Reality: If you shoot for the stars you may just hit the moon, but at least you’ve left the earth.
30. We pay too much tax! Reality: You don’t earn enough.

One day you’re going to get caught with a mind virus

Now, look at what happens when you let a mind virus affect your judgment. These people obviously had a virus:

• “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home!” - Kenneth Olsen, President and Founder of Digital Equipment Corporation (1977).
• “Computers in the future may perhaps only weigh 1.5 ton.” - Popular Mechanics forecasting the development of computer technology (1949).
• “The horse is here to stay, but automobiles are only a passing novelty.” - The President of Michigan Savings Bank advising Horace H. Rackham (Henry Ford’s lawyer) not to invest in the Ford Motor Company in 1903. Rackham ignored the advice, bought $5,000 worth of stock, and sold it several years later for $12.5 million.
• “Man will never reach the moon, regardless of all the future scientific advances.” - Dr. Lee de Forest, inventor of the vacuum tube and the father of radio (1967).
• “Television won’t be able to hold onto any market it catches after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.” - Darryl F. Zanuck, head of 20th Century Fox (1946).
• “I have no political ambitions for myself or my children.” - Joseph P. Kennedy (1936).
• “What use could this company make of an electrical toy?” - Western Union President William Orton rejecting Alexander Graham Bell’s offer to sell his struggling telephone company to Western Union for $100,000 (1876).
• “I confess that in 1901 I said to my brother Orville that man would not fly for 50 years. Ever since I have distrusted myself and avoided all predictions.” - Wilbur Wright, US aviation pioneer (1908).
• “Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?” - Harry M. Warner of Warner Brothers Studios (1927).

The Myth of the Aussie Battler

One of the mind viruses that pervades the Australian culture is the myth of the ‘Aussie battler’. I have to admit that this is one of my pet hates. The whole ‘Aussie battler’ concept is nothing more than a negative mindset that keeps people suppressed and contained. It discourages entrepreneurship and it is a misnomer. It’s a hand-out mentality. People with this mindset say, “People owe me. The government owes me. Big business owes me. My workplace owes me.” The reality is that no one owes you anything. Instead, you owe life. There is nothing proud about the ‘I’m a battler, I’m owed’ mentality. When we look at any nation’s history, everyone who struggled, even though they may have failed, was honored because of their velour, because of the way they conducted themselves in hard times. The ‘Aussie battler’ mindset—which, by the way, exists in many cultures outside Australia—wants to tear down that which succeeds and expects to be rewarded for laziness, for ignorance and for non achievement. People with this mindset want to be rewarded for just turning up. The reality is that no one owes you.

There’s nothing Australian about being a ‘battler’. Australians are meant to be achievers, not battlers. There’s nothing ‘battler’ about Rupert Murdoch, Ian Thorpe, Nicole Kidman, Steve Irwin, Kylie Minogue, Russell Crowe, Lleyton Hewitt, Greg Norman, Don Bradman, the Anzacs, the 800 horsemen who liberated Beersheba (probably for the beer!) or any other great Australians who made their mark on the world over the past two centuries. Australia is not a nation of battlers.

The ‘Aussie battler’ label creates a particular mindset that says that if you are a true Aussie, then you must be doing it tough and you’re always going to be the underdog. This ridiculous notion of the ‘Aussie battler’ is responsible for centuries of Australians who have lived far beneath their potential level of prosperity.

A few years ago, the Australian Government introduced a financial support system for families with children. They were giving all families—those they love to call ‘average Aussie battlers’—a certain amount of money each month for family support. I immediately rang the government department that administered the payments and refused to accept the money. Why? Because I am not an ‘Aussie battler’ and I refuse to allow that mindset any space in my life. I do not want to see myself as a battler. I am a winner, a victor, a high achiever, and a walking prosperity machine.

CHALLENGE: Recognize your mind viruses and then reject them

My friend, you are not a battler! If your mindset is telling you “I’m a battler! Things are tight! I can’t afford that!” then your life will gravitate towards that mindset and your behavior will reflect that mindset. You need to realize that you can never be prosperous if the dominant mindset that governs your life and actions is one of disbelief, lack and negativity. Recognize it as a mind virus and fight to reject it.

We aren’t battlers, we are winners and we are achievers!