The Truth About Money

Deep inside the SLS Hotel in Las Vegas lies a cavernous restaurant called Bazaar. Helmed by the celebrity chef, Jose Andres, you can order the finest charcuterie, rib eye steaks 2.5 inches thick, and if you call a day in advance, a whole suckling pig delivered to your table (recommended for groups of 6 or more).

It’s not cheap, but it’s worth the visit. Last month, my friend and business partner Bedros Keuilian and I went and brought along our friend Andy. Young Andy was in awe of the restaurant, and the prices. He’s just getting started in his career and hasn’t yet acquired a proper money mindset.

The right money mindset doesn’t mean throwing around money to show off, or wasting it on frivolous purchases. The right money mindset means that you know how to attract opportunity and properly allocate your capital. It also means, as Bedros often says, that you recognize money as simply being “a vehicle to freedom and lifestyle”, and not something to pursue for its own sake.

I am frugal, and live a simple life. Bedros is also a good steward of his money. He has built several multi-million dollar businesses, and as a result, he lives the good life. Sure, he has treated himself to a couple of toys, a Nissan GTR and a few nice watches, but other than that he wisely reinvests his profits back into his rapidly growing business, invests in rental real estate, and supports his family of four.

More importantly, the good life also allows him to be a servant to others. He’s donated over $200,000 to Shriners Hospital, and he’s coached thousands of personal trainers to grow their businesses.

Bedros has also built a franchise, Fit Body Boot Camp, where each week over 49,000 clients visit a location for a workout. Think about that for a moment. Bedros is directly responsible for helping almost fifty thousand people lose weight, look great, and get healthy every week — all because he was willing to take action on his big ideas.

The right money mindset begets a virtuous cycle. When you make money and invest it into new opportunities with an abundance mindset, you begin to overcome the scarcity mindset that many of us have been burdened with because of our upbringings.

Bedros, for example, emigrated from Armenia. His family arrived, legally, in America in 1979 dead broke. At the age of 5, he was responsible for dinner each night. His parents would hoist him into a dumpster behind the grocery store and he’d pick out the food that “wasn’t so bad.”

That can scar someone’s money mindset for life, and leave them in a state of perpetual scarcity. But Bedros overcame this obstacle. He realized the more value he added to the world, the more rewards it would bestow upon him, and money would never be an issue.

He realized that he needed to develop high-value competencies, such as salesmanship, both in print (copywriting) and face-to-face. By adding value and gaining these skills, Bedros went from broke to financially successful, and each day he attracts more opportunity than he can handle. That was the big lesson we wanted to teach our young friend Andy in Vegas.

“When you serve others,” I told him, “You attract the opportunity to make a lot of money.”

“And if you have the right money mindset,” Bedros said, “You’ll deliver value and receive value in return. You’ll grow wealthy and be able to help more people, and that is a good thing, despite what you hear in the news and despite the negative talk you hear from other people, or worse, in your own mind.”

“Plus, having the right money mindset allows you to make the right decisions with your money once you’ve earned it,” I said to Andy who was getting excited at the prospect of getting rich, “Basically, the right money mindset guarantees that you will continue to grow your wealth, rather than losing your fortune, as has happened to so many others.”

“So how do I get the right money mindset? Andy asked.

It’s a great question. Everyone needs help with getting the right money mindset. Bedros and I have slightly different approaches, of course, because while the right money mindset is a general concept, the details are specific to each individual.

Some folks need help making money, others need help saving money, and some folks need help spending money. It’s tough to wrap up a generic money mindset lesson, but I’ll do my best.

In my opinion, the best approach to a healthy Money Mindset is…

To not need a lot of money… You must be able to overcome the power that money has over most people.

If you can agree with the following statement, then you have the right relationship with money.

If the world was to take all your earthly possessions and ask you, “What do you have left?” and you could truthfully reply, “Everything,” with a calm smile on your face, knowing that you have your family, friends, and integrity, then you, my friend, have lived the right way and won the game of life.

Now all that being said…

We’re here to make money.

But if you can truly live by the statement above, then you will make the right decisions right now for your future. You won’t take short-term gains that sacrifice long term wins.

To make money, you must have Big Ideas and you must add value to the world through the implementation of your ideas. You need to surround yourself with others that think big, like you, and that will support you on your quest to add value.

This is why it’s so important for you to get out of your comfort zone and attend seminars, connect inside and outside your industry, and hang around people that are better than you and make you play up a level.

For example, if I only talked to my neighbors in my small hometown, then I’d think that making $40K was good and that getting a $1000 tax refund every April was a reason to celebrate.

It’s not.

But if you hang around Go-Givers, generous people that are wealthier than you, then you will see what is truly possible when you have a BIG IDEA that adds value to the lives of millions.

That’s when the Money Game is ON.

So it comes down to this. The truth about money is…

“Your wealth is the average of the wealth of the five people you spend the most time with.”

The number one thing you can do today to improve your money mindset is to play UP a level. That might mean taking a millionaire to lunch, joining a Mastermind group, or hiring your first business coach. You need to attend seminars and be in the room with Bedros, Mark Ford, Tim Ferriss, Dan Kennedy, Oprah, Sara Blakely, Tony Robbins, and so on and so forth.

Your money mindset, your habits, and your ability to generate big ideas are all greatly influenced by other people. Fixing your money mindset starts with choosing the right external factors — your friends and your environment. Go to good places and spend time with good people and you will develop the right money mindset and attract great opportunity into your life.

Hope to see you at one of our events soon.

Click here to attend the next Mastermind with Craig and Bedros.