Let's See, How Does Money Work?

We Get Trapped By How We Protect What We Know About Money.

I wonder how many people drive automobiles in the world yet have no idea how the internal combustion machine actually does what it does.  Tons of people purchase additional 'drive train' warranties on their new vehicles and likely have no idea what components are connected together to make up the 'drive train.'  Give the vehicle owners a blank piece of paper and ask them to draw a sketch of the engine and drive train system inside the workings of their vehicle.  With the sketch have them label each individual piece of the moving system that provides the power of motion that runs their automobile.  You would be surprised what percentage of owners could not successfully complete this task well.

Most vehicle owners do not know how their vehicle runs.  Most do not care to know.  Only the gear heads care about stuff like that.  Automobile owners just care that their key works and the vehicle gets the job done.  They know where the handles, brakes and pedals are, the knobs, the seat belt, and what kind of fuel to put in their rig.  They know how to manage the gadgets that come with the car.  They know most of the rules of the road and generally follow them most of the time.  Millions of drivers travel the roads every single day and millions of drivers succeed in getting where they want to go.  It is not imperative that the vehicle owner actually know how the engine does what it does.  Most get to where they are going without knowing those details.

Did you know this would be the same kind of comparison we would find with business owners trying to describe how money works?  Go ahead.  Take out a piece of paper and start describing how money works.  I will wait.  Did you know that most business owners do not specifically know how money actually works?  Again, there are tens of thousands of business owners who do what they do every single day without needing to know specifically how money works in their business model.  Most get their business to go where it goes without knowing those details.  Running a business is no different than running a vehicle.  Once you drive the two of them long enough, you get a pretty good idea on how to drive them to where they will usually go.  Business owners do not necessarily need to be able to write an essay on how money works in order to operate a business model.  Most business owners could not pass that test anyhow.  I couldn't.

Then one day I met a very successful businessman.  We did not hit it off very well.  I was too arrogant to receive his friendship.  I acted like I knew more about business than he did.  As we spent more time together, I became more irritated about how he treated me.  He nicknamed me "hot rod."

We crossed paths during a period of time when the two of us where working together on a joint project.  He was also one of my customers at that time.  I was thereby forced to put up with his unwanted leadership.  I had a vested interest in allowing his influence to occur.  I wanted his business to come more my way.  He fully understood my position and took complete advantage of the opportunity to share some leadership with me.  It was a lot like being forced to attend a business class because the instructor had something on you that would hurt if he let it out.  It was like being blackmailed.  I placed myself into a blackmailed position.  I remember coming home one night and my wife asked me how my day with that businessman went?  I walked by her with a very short quip, "He's a jerk."  I think behind my back she smiled and quietly said to herself, "Good, it's about time.  He has met his match."

Then one day it happened.  He asked me to describe how money works.  He started it out like this, "Hey hot rod, since you are so successful in business why don't you help me out and tell me how money works?"  He paused until I spoke.  It was silent for a very long time.  I started to gather my best thoughts together and began to describe to him what I knew about money.  I was all over the board on the subject.  I had a lot of truths rolling down the isle of conversation which included some 'not-so-true' descriptions coming right beside them.  I had the microphone, I gave the show.  My stage, my audience.  He sat quietly and listened.  It was not a debate.  It was a one way road.  I felt good about it all day long.  I finally got him to shut up and to quit bugging me about business talk.  When I got home that night my wife asked me, "How's your business guy today?"  I replied, "I finally beat him at his wits today.  He shut up for the rest of the day."

Several weeks later he had an opportunity to ask me the question again.  He asked that same question exactly how he asked it the first time, "Hey hot rod, since you are so successful in business why don't you help me out and tell me how money works, only this time, get it right?"  I thought last time was quiet.  Boy, this time I found out how quiet the air can really become.  This time mother nature quit making her background noises.  It was dead silent for a long while.  Then I broke the silence and said, "I have a better idea, why don't you tell me?"  He quickly replied and said, "I thought you would never ask."

We Never Really Analyze How Money Really Works.

"It is amazing," he said, "That so many people get so wrapped up with themselves that they do not know how to ask what they need to know the most."  Then it got quiet again.  He did not move along until that comment settled into my thoughts long enough to begin to burn.  He watched for my expressions to signal when he needed to continue on.  In retrospect, he was not there to hurt me or beat me up about what I did not know.  Unfortunately, I was one of those millions who drives the car without knowing how the engine and drive train works.  I have only learned how to master the peddles, knobs and steering wheel.  I live in Oregon so I do not need to pump my own gas.  Someone else does that one for me.  He knew I did not know how money works, not specifically.  He wanted me to admit it.

You see, if an alcoholic does not admit he has a drinking problem, he will never come to fix it.  Never.  The same holds true for a business owner.  If a business owner never admits that they do not know how money truly works, they will never fix it.  Never.  He knew that truth.  That is why he waited for me to admit it.  Why waste his time?  When the student is ready, the teacher appears.  It is one of the great laws of success.  I was ready to listen.  I knew he knew I did not know.  The door of good information just swung open.  He started teaching, I started listening.  He became my business mentor for eleven years.  He has since passed on.  I received many great lessons.

The best one may be the first one.  It usually is.  Money follows a couple of simple laws.  There was a time when I could not write them down.  Nobody ever shared them with me.  When we are born, fresh out of our mothers womb, we do not have the laws of how money works implanted into our minds.  We do not come equipped knowing those truths.  Furthermore, we cannot take any classes in our whole schooling experiences that cover the subject of how money works.  The only way we get to know the truth about the laws of money come from the life experiences we find on a trial and error basis.  Most of our best money lessons come form the errors we made.  Until someone comes along and describes how it really works, we live our whole life in the dark about what we have learned from those terrible money errors.  We do not 'get it' until someone comes along, who knows the truth, and decides to share it with us.  At the same time, we must also be willing to receive the information they share.  Until then, we just do not 'get it.'  We drive our vehicles every single day not worrying about how the engine and drive train truly works.  We live every single day without knowing how money truly works.  It ain't no big deal.

Rule number one.  Money has some fickle attitudes.  It is attracted or repels itself in certain ways.  Most people do not give it any thought as to how it is attracted or repelled.  They will blow off this truth because it seems so silly.  Millions will walk right by the value of this truth and give it little attention.  That is why most people do not have any money to speak of.  They routinely skip rule number one.  They diminish its value.  Rule number one is like the oil in your automobile.  Without the oil, nothing good will eventually happen.

Rule number one.  Money is fickle but is attracted to areas where solutions are occurring.  It is repelled by the things that create more problems.  The bigger the problems, the more fickle the money.  The greater the solutions, the more money the attraction.  This is rule number one.  Get it understood clearly.  If your business model introduces a new rule to its employee treatment policies that brings about more problems, what do you think money will do?  If you introduce a new payment plan that increases the problems your customers need to address, what do you think money will do?  You are smarter than I was.  Money will become repelled.  The fickle nature of money is governed by how much the problem can become.  Big problems, big money magically disappears.  Little problem, little money magically disappears.  When your business model brings problems to the table of transaction with its customers, the fickle nature of money will take over.  You will witness its truth in short order.  Money will become very shy in your business model.  It has nothing to do with personalities, unless of course, if your personality is a problem.

Rule number one.  Money is fickle, it is shy and it runs away from problems.  Money does not like to go where problems live.  Money does not honor the problems an employee brings to work.  The ones who bring problems to work get the lowest pay.  Money will see to it.  The employees who find more problems to highlight at work will discover how little their money came to help them out.  Money does not like problems.  It runs from them.  It will actually hide from them.  Most people go to work every single day and never once think about this rule.  They never once come to work trying to find solutions, which by the way, attracts more money.  Instead, they come to work to highlight the problems.  Compare the pay, people.  Those who work on solutions get paid more than those who produce the problems.  If a higher paid employee begins to produce more problems, they will eventually discover how their pay disappeared.  Money laws work on a pure basis.  It may take time for the money to get shy enough to disappear, but it will happen.  Rule number one is true and pure.

I do not profess to be a great teacher of the money laws.  I still have some serious flaws to deal with in my career.  However, I do know that solutions attract money and problems repel money.  If I want to earn more money, I need to make sure I am part of the solution process instead of being part of the problem process.  Money does not necessarily care who I am or what I believe.  It only goes to those things which become part of the solution and runs away from those things that are part of the problem.  That is rule number one to how money works.  "Get it' and start to do the things that will improve your income.  Start working on solutions.  Quit digging up problems for problem sake.  Quit making problems for others to find solutions.  You will scare money away from you and be placing it directly in front of their doorstep to receive.

Your current pay level is commensurate to how well you have been honoring this truth.  Look at your pay stub and it will tell you the truth.  You are getting exactly what money feels shy enough to avoid coming your way.  Your solution bank is running too low and likely overdrawn.  Your problem bank is spending like it is going out of style.  Money is responding accordingly.  Your pay stub is a reflection of how well you are driving the truth to the rules of money.  You are steering the wheel that determines how fickle money can become.

Millions do not 'get it.'  They drive their cars every single day and never once give it a thought as to how the engine and drive train works.  They do the very same thing with money.  They drive their income cars with the steering wheels of life, never once considering how the money they earn works.

Next time, we will cover rule number two!

Until then...