Thursday, January 30, 2014

“Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls-Royce to get advice from those who take the subway to work.”



"Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand."
Several recent articles have addressed the self perceived "superiority" of rich people.  In fact, rich people really do think they are genetically superior and that poor people are genetically inferior.  I have never met a person who is well off economically that didn't believe they deserved and earned their wealth.  On one hand such an attitude is expected while on the other hand, you can understand how such an attitude leads to the creation of the elitist, fascist state.  You know the old saying, "If you are so smart, why aren't you rich?"




Since I came from a lower income family, I had a unique perspective of people who were well off.   I was fortunate enough to attend a small, private undergraduate college and belong to a Fraternity, where I associated with and was friends with son's(an all male school) of doctors, lawyers and business owners.  Almost all of my college friends came from families that were well off.  They were good people, but I was always amazed at the advantages those people had over someone who came from a background like mine.  They had much broader experiences in their life because they had the ability to take advantage of the opportunities that presented themselves.  Whether it was the chance to go to Europe for the summer or to take advantage of some special program to learn and better themselves,  they could afford to do it. 




I always remembered one Spring Break when someone came up with the idea that a group of brothers in the Fraternity House should go to Florida for some fun.  Within minutes, about ten of the house members were packed and off to Florida.  There was not one mention of the cost involved - they just did it, to use a Nike saying.  Of course I went home over Spring Break and worked to earn some money.




When classes were in session, those same "genetically superior" young men frequently came to me to help them with problems they were having in solving some class problems, or needing help to understand some concept in a subject.  What I learned was that even though I was poor, I could compete and excel in an academic environment with my Fraternity brothers.


There are two famous experiments that I am familiar with that demonstrates is what the wealthy have is exposure to opportunities and the money to take advantage of them.  I belonged to a group headed by a wealthy(multi-millionaire) man who said who could go to an unemployment office, pick several people and teach them in 90 days how to generate wealth so that they would never be broke again.  And that is what he did.


He went to an unemployment line in a big city and he offered to the people there a possible opportunity to learn in three months, a business technique that would allow them to have five thousand dollars in their bank account at the end of the 90 days.  The selected people could also continue to generate a good income and become wealthy without working for any corporation.   After interviewing numerous candidates, he selected three people who he thought really wanted to be rich.
Over the next 90 days, he personally instructed the candidates about what to do and how to do it and then gave them assignments to complete.   At the end of the 90 days, and without using any outside funds, all three of the "students" had generated at least $5,000 in hand cash and they now knew how to continue generating a good income without working for anybody else.  And over a longer time period, these people became very successful.


So how did these "inferior", lazy, no-good people who felt they were entitled to unemployment(sarcasm) suddenly become "superior".  They were given an opportunity which was free to them which means they could afford it and they were taught a method to generate cash.  They did not suddenly become geniuses.


In the next post I'll tell you about the second experiment in investing that produced numerous multi-millionaires from a group of people off the street.  The ingredients?  Opportunity and funding.



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