Raising Entrepreneurs

Welcome back!

I was just reading an article today, and I thought I’d share it with you all, because it really makes an excellent point.

The writer moved into a new house, and found a “buried treasure”. I’ll let you read the details for yourself, but the point of the article is wondering what sort of mindset you would need to have to stash what was, for the time, a small fortune, in a corner of your house and keep no record of doing so.

Why do people have such fearful attitude towards money?

What’s worse, if such attitudes existed in our family in the past, how do we free ourselves of them in the here-and-now?

Because if we don’t, those inherited attitudes will poison any efforts we make to get ahead financially, or to teach our kids better habits with money. As Catherine writes,

While it is obvious that you have inherited some wonderful family traits like beautiful blue eyes, musical talent, sense of humor, passion for the arts or a grand work ethic, there is also a very good chance that you have also inherited a strong fear or even aversion to wealth and abundance.

It seems ludicrous to think that we might have fear of or aversion to wealth and abundance, when we think that we desire those things so passionately.

The messages, though, are quite subtle, yet pervasive.

For example, are you offended and annoyed by the blatant prejudice against wealthy people displayed by mainstream TV dramas?

Or hadn’t you noticed?

Choosing an example at random from my recent experience, my family watched an episode of Law And Order SVU yesterday. In this program, a young woman fell from a penthouse balcony. During the course of the program, the wealthy family who owned the penthouse were gradually exposed to have little or no family affection, an amoral willingness to manipulate the system to prevent their kids from suffering the consequences of breaking the rules, a sense of entitlement, and incestuous emotional dynamics. Oh, and the habit of procuring prostitutes for the boys in the family from age 13 or so.

This is not uncommon. In fact, if you run through in your mind the various protraits of wealthy families, both documentary and dramatised, can you find even ONE example of a hard-working, self-sacrificing, loving parent who does all the right things for their kids in terms of encouragement and emotional support – and is wealthy?

We are told, by our family programming and by our culture, that if we become wealthy we will be unloving parents.

I personally know several families who have millions in assets and/or seven figure incomes. For the most part, they are more caring, emotionally mature, and pleasant to associate with than your average office worker, school teacher, or nurse.

It bugs me when I see these lousy portrayals of wealthy families in the media. If they were consistently stereotyping black people or Mexicans in the same way, there would be uproar and protests in the street! I know the image doesn’t match the reality.

Sure, some wealthy people have bad attitudes, especially those who were born into wealth.

But on average, you will find more love, compassion, emotional maturity and spiritual development in a bunch of self-made millionaires than you will in just about any group of employees.

So, there you are – that’s one place to look for those hidden fears and aversions to being wealthy. Let’s see how many others you can come up with for yourselves …

Image: freeparking