(Continuation ……)
By not giving in to your emotions, you were able to delay your reactions and think. That is most important. We will always have emotions of fear and greed. From here on in, it is most important for you to use those emotions to your advantage and for the long term, and not simply let your emotions run you by controlling your thinking. Most people use fear and greed against themselves. That’s the start of ignorance. Most people live their lives chasing paychecks, pay raises and job security because of the emotions of desire and fear, not really questioning where those emotion-driven thoughts are leading them. It’s just like the picture of a donkey, dragging a cart, with its owner dangling a carrot just in front of the donkey’s nose. The donkey’s owner may be going where he wants to go, but the donkey is chasing an illusion. Tomorrow there will only be another carrot for he donkey.
And as you get older, your toys get more expensive. A new car, a boat and a big house to impress your friends. Fear pushes you out the door and desire calls you. Enticing you towards the rock. That’s the trap.
So what’s the answer, Mike asked.
What intensifies fear and ignorance. That is why rich people with lots of money often have more fear the richer they get. Money is the carrot, the illusion. If the donkey could see the whole picture, it might rethink its choice to chase the carrot. Rich dad went on to explain that a human’s life is a struggle between ignorance and illumination.
He explained that once a person stops searching for information and knowledge of one’s self, ignorance sets in. That struggle is moment-to-moment decision – to learn to open or close one’s mind.
Look school is very, very important. You go to school to learn a skill or profession so as to be a contributing member of society. Every culture needs teachers, doctors, mechanics, artists, cooks, business people, police officers…etc. Schools train them so our culture can thrive and flourish. Unfortunately, for many people, school is the end, not the beginning.
Because it is ignorance about money that causes so much greed and so much fear. Let me give you some examples. A doctor, wanting more money to better provide for this family, raises his fees. By raising his fees, it makes health care more expensive for everyone. Now, it hurts poor people the most, so poor people have worse health than those with money.
Because the doctors raise their rates, the attorneys raise their rates., and the teachers….etc. which raise our taxes. Soon, there will be such horrifying gap between the rich and the poor that chaos will break out and another great civilization will collapse. Great civilizations collapsed when the gap between the haves and have-nots was too great. America is on the same course, proving once again that history repeats itself, because we do not learn from history. We only memorize historical dates and names, not the lesson.
Aren’t prices supposed to go up? The author asked.
Not in an educated society with a well-run government. Prices should actually come down. Of course that is often only true in theory. Prices go up because of greed and fear caused by ignorance. If schools taught people about money, there would be more money and lower prices, but schools focus only on teaching people to work for money, not how to harness money’s power.
But don’t we have business schools? Mike asked. Aren’t you encouraging me to go to business school for my master’s degree?
Yes, said rich dad. But all too often, business schools train employees who are sophisticated bean counters. Heaven forbid a bean counter takes over a business. All they do is look at the numbers, fire people and kill the business. I know because I hire bean counters. All they think about is cutting cost and raising prices, which cause more problems. Bean counting is important. I wish more people knew it, but it, too, is not the whole picture, added rich dad anglily.
So, is there an answer? Asked Mike.
Yes, learn to use your emotions to think, not think with your emotions. When you boys mastered your emotions, first by agreeing to work for free, I knew there was hope. When you again resisted your emotions when I tempted you with more money, you were again learning to think in spite of being emotionally charged. That’s the first step.
Choosing what we think rather than reacting to our emotions. Instead of just getting up and going to work to solve our problems, just because the fear of not having the money to pay your bills is scaring you. Thinking would be taking the time to ask yourself a question. A question like, “Is working harder at this the best solution to this problem?†Most people are so terrified at not telling themselves the truth – that fear is in control – that they can not think, and instead run out of the door. That’s what I mean by choosing your thoughts.
Remember what I said before: A Job is only a short-term solution to a long-term problem. Most people have only one problem in mind, and it’s short term. It’s the bills at the end of the month. Money now runs their lives. Or should I say the fear and ignorance about money. So they do as their parents did, get up every day and go work for money. Not having time to say “is there another way?’ Their emotions now control their thinking, not their heads.
Can you tell the difference between emotions thinking and the head thinking? Mike asked.
I hear things like, well everyone has to work, or the rich are crooks, or I’ll get another job, I deserve this raise, you can’t push me around or I’ll like this job because it’s secure.
Instead of “Is there something I’m missing here? Which breaks the emotional thought, and gives you time to think clearly.
Rich dad went on to explain that the rich know that money is an illusion, truly like the carrot for the donkey. It’s out of fear and greed that the illusion of money is held together by billions of people thinking that money is real. Money is really made up. It was only because of the illusion of confidence and the ignorance of the masses that the house of cards stood standing.
He talked about the gold standard in America was on, and each dollar bill is actually a silver certificate. What concerned him was the rumor that we would someday go off the gold standard and our dollars would no longer be silver certificates. When that happens, all hell is going to break loose. The poor, the middle class and the ignorant will have their lives ruined simply because they will continue to believe that money is real and that the company they work for, or the government, will look after them.
More to come.... (CHAPTER THREE Lesson Two: Why Teach Financial Literacy?)
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