Passing Wisdom from One Generation to the Next

Introduction

Although the immediate reason for writing this letter is to pass on wisdom to my grandson Dan and my nephew Arland, it is really for all people who want to know just a little bit more. That is why I'm putting it on my website rather than sending them a letter, which may disappear after just one reading. It gives them the right to decline reading a volumnous work without being afraid they will one day be asked, "What did you think of what I wrote?"

The Beginning

When you are a teenager, you begin putting together all the facts of life that you've learned since birth. You can think! What a marvelous thing. Now you begin to ask and answer questions. What is right? What is wrong? Why is it right? Why is it wrong? What do I want to become? Is that the right thing for me? What if I change my mind after I've already started to do something with my life?

I'm going to answer your questions. That is, I won't tell you specifically if you should become a banker or police officer, but I'm going to give you all the information you need to answer those questions for yourself. This letter is going to be long. Just keep reading it, and portions of it, until you have all you want.

The first clue is in the above sentence that you just read, "When you are a teenager, you begin putting together all the facts of life that you've learned since birth." The clue is this, "all the facts of life that you've learned since birth." What about all those facts of life you haven't learned since birth? That's what I'm going to tell you about.

I'll try to put this in a somewhat logical order, but some of it must be in random pieces of information. Read it straight through if you wish, or read from the topics that interest you at the moment.

The really good stuff comes near the end. It tells you how to get and do anything in the world that you want. However, to understand it, you need to read what comes first. What I write at the beginning of this letter helps you understand what I mean at the end of it.

You Can Have It All

You need to know that you can have and do almost anything you want. You don't have to be stuck living on the low end of life. You can reach any height. I'm going to tell you how to get it. I know because I've got mine, and I know how to get more if I want it. I'm not living where life put me. I'm living where I put myself, where I want to be. You may not think so much about where I am, but that doesn't matter to me. I'm not living your life, and I'm not living my life to please you. I am where I am and who I am because I put myself here. I chose it, and I'll tell you how to choose and obtain anything you want.

One thing you should remember, where ever it is that you end up in life, you did it all yourself. You put yourself there. Everything you thought, everything you said, and everything you did put you right where you are. You alone and no one else are responsible for what you did, where you went and where you wound up. If you don't like it, then only you can change it. Furthermore, if you're at the beginning of your life now - if you're a teenagere - then you can make your life anything you want it to be.

About God

I'm going to talk about God, Jesus and the Bible in this letter, but not too much here. I only want you to know that God is involved.

Life Is Hard

You may have heard the expression that "Life is hard." It's like saying, "Tough luck. You just didn't get what you want. Bad things happen to good people." But that's not what I'm saying. This is really important, and you should learn what I'm about to say.

All life struggles. I don't mean all "human" life. I mean ALL life. Plant life, animal life, microscoptic life, and human life. We all struggle in life, and that is good. It makes us strong and able to live.

Take a tree for example. It grows outside without protection from the sun and wind. It's a living thing, and it has to survive extreme heat, sun rays, cold, wind, termites, woodpeckers, and disease. The more bad stuff it endures, the stronger it becomes and the better tree it is.

Even microbes have to struggle in order to survive. Microbes are animals so tiny you can't see them with your eye but you have to use a microscope. These little animals must find their own food, protect themself against poisons and against other microbes that would eat them.

Everything is a struggle. When you began school, you had to learn the alphabet. That was hard then, although it's easy now. When you began to walk, you fell down many times. That was a struggle. Everything good you do and have and are comes from a struggle. If you become a bodybuilder, you have to work your muscles hard every day. Working your muscles, making them struggle, makes them strong, beautiful and good.

Therefore, struggle is good. It makes you better. Love struggle. It will give you what you want. For example, you had to learn the alphabet before you began to read. Learning the alphabet was a struggle, but you did it. And now look what you can do with all your reading. That little struggle, which seems so simple to you right now, opened up a whole new world to you.

That is what is going to happen when you struggle. You're going to become strong and good. Therefore, don't get angry and depressed when things are hard. Learning the alphabet was hard. When you get through it, not only can you do much more, you can also help your friends who are going through the same thing.

Suicide

Every teenager has thoughts of suicide. Some even attempt it and some actually do it. I'm writing this to tell you that thoughts of suicide happen to all teenagers. It's part of growing up. It will pass away. No matter how strong it seems now, it will go away. Don't think you've got to do it simply because you're thinking about it or want to do it. Endure it if you can and get help if you need it. When it happened to me (around age 16) I just endured it and it went away.

Suicide in adults is a different matter. Adults who contemplate suicide need to get help right away. Perhaps they haven't learned these things that I'm telling you now, and they don't know how to handle life. Whatever the reason, Don't take adult suicide lightly. Get them help.

Wisdom

Throughout your life, you're going to wonder about wisdom. Some people go to far off places like India to learn about the mystery of life. They ask a guru on a mountain top. Other people join strange cults and religions, seeking to learn something that no one else knows.

Well, I happen to know about wisdom and I'm going to tell you about it now. Wisdom is knowing what to do about things. Knowledge is knowing things and wisdom is knowing what to do with your knowledge.

Wisdom does not live on a mountain top in the bearded, wrinkled head of a little old man. Opinions may rest there, but not wisdom.

Have you heard of "Horse sense" or "Common sense"? Those are common English expressions that we use to mean "wisdom." Wisdom is common and all around us. It is not on a mountain top or in the desert. It is in your home, in your car, at work, down town. It is abundant and available. If you go a long ways away to find wisdom or you join a strange cult, then you have missed it already.

Let me give you some examples of wisdom. Is murdering someone wrong? Then don't do it. That is wisdom. Does it hurt when you hit your hand with a hammer? Then don't do it. That is wisdom. Here's more wisdom. You can't decide not to hit your hand with a hammer after you've already done it. You have to decide beforehand. Therefore decide and take the necessary precautions not to do it. That is wisdom. You can't decide to wear your seatbelt after the car has already had an accident and you're dead. You've got to decide to wear your seatbelt before the accident. That is wisdom. You can't decide not to smoke after you already have lung cancer. You've got to decide not to smoke before you get lung cancer. That is wisdom.

The Bible says the same thing that I've just told you. It's found in the book of Proverbs, chapters 1, 4 and 8. Very briefly, it says this. It talks like Wisdom is a woman. She says, "Listen to me! Listen to me! I will tell you what to do." She says that she is not hiding in some cave or mountain top. Instead, she is in the shopping mall where everyone else is. She said that she is shouting at people at the top of her voice, and anybody who listens to her, she will save. Anybody who doesn't listen to her is a fool. Wisdom will give you wealth, happiness, long life, health, and friends. Wisdom is available right where you are and it is called "common sense."

The Bible also says this, "The very beginning of wisdom is to acknowledge and respect God." That's important. If you screw that up, you've screwed it all up.

You Are Both Right and Wrong

Everything you've learned came from outside you. Everything you learned came from your parents, the movies, TV, your school, your relatives, your friends, the newspapers, magazines, comics, billboards, and everything that is surrounding you. But what if it is not enough, or worse, what if some of it is wrong?

The United States contain about 6% of the world's population. What about the other 94%? People from China, Japan, India, Africa, the Mideast, and South America do not have the surroundings you have. They don't have the same parents (if they do, then your parents are extraordinary people). They don't have the same friends, newspapers, schools, magazines, television, and everything else. They think they're right, too, just as you do. Why would you think you are right and everyone else is wrong? Maybe they're right in some things and you're right in some things. But nobody is right in everything.

Here's the important lesson: People assume what they learned first must be right. Or, the first story they heard must be the correct version. Have you ever heard a joke and then a few weeks later you hear the same joke from someone else, but it's told in a different way? What's your first thought? You think the second person didn't get it right. The second person is telling it wrong. But what if you are the one who heard it wrong? What if the second person has the correct version and you heard the wrong version? People assume they always hear the right version. They first assume they are right, and anybody who disagrees with them has got to be wrong.

I'm not telling you to question everything you learned and reject everything your parents taught you. Instead, I'm telling you to be prepared to be wrong. If someone comes up with a different version than what you heard, don't assume that they're wrong and you're right. Listen to what they have to say, think about it, and if it is important, check it out.

Physical Growth

You know that your body begins to grow before you are born. You start as a small dot, smaller than a period. As you grow, you become about 21 inches long and weight about seven pounds. Then you are born, but you continue to grow. Eventually you become about 5' 8" tall and weigh about 175 pounds, and then you stop growing. Well guess what... Your brain continues to grow, too, even thought you can't see it.

I'm told that when a human baby is first born, it can't see anything but blurry stuff. It's like puppies being born with their eyes closed, and it takes several days before they can open their eyes. Babies cannot see clearly either, the minute they are born. It takes awhile.

After birth, the baby sees, hears, smells, tastes, feels and moves. All of that is bringing in information to the brain. The brain develops and puts it all in place. Little grooves are cut into the brain by electrical impulses that come from nerve endings. These grooves help the person to think and understand. When a baby is learning to talk, the brain is physically changing to accommodate that language. A person's native language is literally burned and etched into the brain, like it might be burned onto a CD. The baby's brain grows after it is born.

So why am I telling you all this? Because recently I heard on the news about a discovery. The discovery is this, the human brain cannot fully understand and comprehend "responsibility" until it gets to be about 18 years old. Now I know 18 years old is the age we Americans say a person becomes an adult. Don't think that just because we chose age 18 is the reason we say the brain cannot handle responsibility until 18. That was just a coincidence. The fact is, we didn't know when a person could fully handle responsibility. But recently we found out, though scientific investigation. Age 18 is about the time a brain matures to the point where it can fully understand responsibility. If you are age 16 or 17, then you are old enough to understand what I said, whether you want to believe it's true for you or not.

Only a fool thinks a law applies to everyone else but himself.

I don't care if you are old for your age, or "mature" for your age. The brain is a physical organ that develops and we can measure it. Use it according to knowledge and wisdom, not according to your own pride.

That piece of information is really important for you remember. If you use it, it can save you and your children untold grief and misery.

The Army Does Not Make The Man

The military, like college, does not make a man out of you. Either institution allows you to become what you have already decided to be. If you have already decided to be a mature, strong, ethical man, then you leave the military or college as a very mature, very strong and very ethical man. But if you are growing up to be a useless, drunken, no-good, ignorant bum, then when you leave the army you will be the most useless, drunken, no-good ignorant bum that anyone can imagine. The military simply allows you to manifest what you already are.

The military, or college, makes a good person great and a bad person lousy. Decide to be good. Your decision is your responsibility, and that must come first.

You Become Your Parents

Have you ever heard the expression, "He's just like his father (or mother)"? Have you heard, "Like mother like daughter" or "Like father like son"? Here's another one, "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree." And finally, "If you want to know what the girl you're about to marry will be like in twenty years, just look at her mother."

I'm older than you, and I have the advantage of knowing more about my history and our ancestor's history than you. Your parents are not filty rich, are they? No, of course not. Would you say they are about at the same level as their parents (your grandparents)? Yes, they are.

Your parents are approximately at the same level of income, education and attitude as their parents. Your grandparents (I happen to know) were at approximately the same level of income, education and attitude as their parents. Furthermore, from stories I've been told about my grandparents (your great-great-grandparents), they were at approximately the same level as their parents.

The lesson is simple. We learned how to live from our parents. We assume that is the way to live because that is the first thing we learned. If we are broke, it is because our parents taught us how to be broke, and we taught our children how to be broke. If we have a bad attitude, it is because our parents taught us that is the attitude to have, and we passed on that "wisdom" to our children.

If you want to break out of the mode and become something your parents are not, then you must learn things that your parents don't know. And because they don't know it then you don't know it because you've never been taught it. You've got to go find it, and learn it.

How do you learn it? Two ways, from books and from someone else who already has what you want. There are plenty of books on attitude adjustment and financial success at the bookstore. Start learning, so you can do more. Find somebody who already has what you want and ask him to teach you. It works.

Your Roadmap is Yourself

When we become adults, around the 35-45 year age range, we may look around and wonder, "How did I ever get here?" The answer is, "Everything you did, everything you thought and every attitude you had brought you to where you are now." If you don't like it, then the answer is simple, change your thinking, change your habits and change your attitude. Those three things take you anywhere you want to go in life.

Improve your thinking, habits and attitude. It will change your life for the better.

When I left college to join the army, I had a thought that served me well for my whole life. At that time I realized I did not learn enough at high school or college. I was still ignorant in many things. My grades were average, Cs, Ds and an occassional B. That meant I learned some things but not everything I should have learned. That meant I was ignorant and had a long ways to go. Then I got my idea.

I had perhaps another fifty years to live. What does it matter if I don't know everything right now this very minute? I'll just continue learning. I'll continue learning about English grammer, about history, about math, about the Bible and God, for the rest of my life. And so I did. I'm still learning, and I'm doing it on purpose. I don't claim to be the smartest man in the world, I only claim that I am smarter now than I used to be, and I did it on purpose. You can too.

You Can Have What You Want

This is one of two things that interest people most. The first is, "You can have what you want" and the second is, "What do I want"?

It doesn't matter what level of education you have. There is a magazine that comes out yearly. It's called Forbes 400, and it is a list of the 400 wealthiest people in the world. It tells their stories. If you read that magazine, you will see that about half of them don't have college education. A few of them (one or two) don't even have a high school education. You don't need a college education to become wealthy (if that's what you want).

But if you want to become a doctor, you must have a college education.

In the magazine Forbes 400, you will see that about 15% of them (about 60 out of 400) inherited their money. They got it from their parents The other 340 wealthiest people in the world earned it. You can too.

What did the wealthy people do to become wealthy? First and foremost, they decided what they wanted. Second, they found a way to get it. You can do that, too.

Getting a Good Job

About 90% of the people in the world - but let's talk about the United States - about 90% of the people in the U.S. have a job. That seems to be the way to go. But you know what? About 95% of the people in the U.S. are not wealthy. You will never get wealthy having a job. However you can be well off.

If you get a job and want to be well off, then you must get a good college education, find a good company and work hard. And then changes are good you will have a good retirement. A lot of people go that way and there is nothing wrong with it. I just want to warn you, however, that even with a good job your retirement is not secure. For years we have had companies that either went out of business or bankrupt and they did not pay off on the promised retirement. That includes the United States government. If you work hard, you may get a good retirement, and that is what 90% of the people try to do.

What about the other 10% who do not have a job? Well, about 5% are not employed; they have no income. About 2% are self-employed with a low income. About 2% are wealthy, and 1% are super wealthy.

If you want to be wealthy, you must be self-employed, and then that is not guaranteed. It's just that is the only chance you have to become wealthy.

By the way, notice that your parents, and their parents, and their parent's parents all had jobs. If you want to be just like them, then do what they did.

There Is No Limit to Money

Money is being created all the time. You may have as much of it as you want without depriving anyone else of one cent. Business creates money. You do not become wealthy by taking money away from poor people. For one thing, poor people do not have enough money to make rich people wealthy. Instead, business creates money, and you can be in business.

In the United States we have what is called "capitalism" and "free enterprise." "Capitalism" means business. "Free Enterprise" means that you and anybody else can go into business if they want to.

When a person goes into business, he creates money. Money from business is used to pay employees and to purchase goods made by other employees. Businesses keep people in jobs. Businesses make owners wealthy and it keeps poor people paid so they can live good lives.

Businesses are not created to make employees rich. They are created to make owners rich. Any employee who tries to get rich by having a job is not going to succeed. Jobs are not created to make employees rich. That's like trying to get across the ocean by drawing a picture. Drawing pictures are not the way to get across an ocean, and having a job is not the way to become wealthy.

There Is No Limit to Opportunity

Have you ever heard the expression, "Opportunity knocks only once"? Well that is wrong. Opportunity is knocking all the time everywhere. The problem is, most people hear it only once, if at all. If you're focused on getting a job, then you're going to see job openings here and there. But if you are focused on getting a business, then you're going to see business opportunities here and there.

There are unlimited business opportunities, therefore you cannot ask me to name them. They are everywhere and I can't name them all. But I can make up a few just off the top of my head. For example:

Elderly and handicapped people frequently can take care of themselves but they need somebody to check on them regularly. A business entrepreneur could begin a business that calls up the elderly and handicapped once a day. The customer or the customer's relatives would pay you $40 a month. You would call that person every day on the phone and talk for five minutes, just to be sure that person is OK. Five minutes a day for five days a week makes an income of about $22 an hour. You can hire someone for $10 an hour to make telephone calls. If the customer does not answer the phone or needs help, then you call the number they gave you to call in case of an emergency. You can set up this operation nationally and be incorpoprated. You can become a millionaire by helping elderly and handicapped people live independent lives.

Have you ever heard the expression, "Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door"? Here is an example of that:

The United States officially is a capitalist and free enterprise nation. They encourage small businesses. After all, business creates money and the United States is the wealthiest nation in the world because the US is the only nation that was established to be capitalist. The US has a government policy to purchase a certain percentages of its goods from small companies. Not only big companies get the money. What does the government need that you can provide? Writing paper? Cell phones? You can go into business that provides services to the government. Think of something.

Have you ever heard that stuff in Mexico is cheaper? You can buy really good leather boots in Mexico for $10 and sell them for $100 in the United States. Likewise, you can buy really good stuff from small countries such as Borneo and Micronesia and made a good profit in the USA. They will mail the stuff to you because they want the money. Check it out. You can do it. The United States runs on business.

The point is, opportunity is limitless. All you have to do is think about it.

Changing Your Mind

What if you start to do something and later change your mind? What if you go to college for five years and then decide that what you studied is not what you want to do after all?

First of all, don't worry about it. That happens to many people. It is not the end of the world. It takes about five years to become successful in what you decide to do. If you change your mind about things, you still have plenty of time to start over. It's OK.

You've heard about Moses in the Bible. He got a great education until he became 40 years old. Then he did nothing for 40 more years. That made him 80 years old. That is when God called him and told him what to do. He started his whole career at 80 years old, and he changed the world. He's the one who started writing the Bible. The whole world is different and better because of what he did after age 80.

Perhaps Moses lived too long ago for you to care about. OK, how about Kentucky Fried Chicken? Do you know about that? Harland Sanders, the man who started Kentucky Fried Chicken, was 65 years old when he started it. For most of his life he was a cook. When he retired at age 65, he got the idea of selling fried chicken, and eventually he built Kentucky Fried Chicken. He became a multi-millionaire in eleven years time and he started when he was old. It takes only about 5 to 10 years to get rich, if you do it right.

Do you know McDonalds? Ray Kroc, the guy who began McDonalds, was 56 years old when he got started in McDonalds. When he died, his wife was taking in $16,000 per month (or was it per minute?). Anyway, they were billioinaires. Pretty good for an old man.

You can do the same thing. If you start out doing one thing and change your mind. That's OK. Start something else.

The biggest mistake some people make is they are to afraid to start anything. Don't be afraid. Get going. Do it.

Get Advice

Be a fan of getting advice from others. Be SLOW offering advice to others but eager to get it from others. You don't have to act on it; just get it.

The first and best people to get advise from are your parents. No kidding. There is not one parent alive who went to bed thinking, "What can I do to screw up little Johnnie's life tomorrow?" Your parents may not be the brightest people on earth, but they have more experience than you do and they want the best for you. You can depend on them to come through for you. Parents have already been through what you're going through, but you have not been through what they have been through. Seek their advice first. They can help.

Remember, learning does not stop at 18. Your parents were 18 once, and they continued to grow. The more they grew, the more they learned. Are you 18 and they are 40? When you get to 40, remember, in those years it took you to get to 40, they were also continuing to learn and to change their opinions, habits and attitudes. When you are an adult, your parents are not the same people who raised you. They are different. They have changed. Continue to seek their advice.

Ask advice of people who have what you want. That is, if you want a million dollars and your parents don't have a million dollars, then don't ask them how to get a million dollars. But if you are having a marital problem, ask them about that because they have had marital problems of their own and they learned things the hard way. Get their advice on that.

If you want to know how to be successful in real estate, talk to a successful real estate person. DO NOT TALK to your friends or someone just beginning in real estate. Ask advice from people who already have what you want.

And here is something very important. Do NOT accept advice at face value from people who are speaking only from idiology. Idiology is a belief people hold that has not been proven. For example, some people believe that catrix from Mexico cures cancer, although they cannot produce one person who has been cured of cancer by catrix. Some people believe in the horoscope, although scientific investigation has demonstrated that the horoscope is unfounded and useless. Some people believe that space aliens exist in UFOs. Whether they exist or not is beside the point. Those people cannot produce one of them.

People talk as if they know something, but they are only talking from their own person idiology and not from facts. If you want to know how to get rich, talk to a rich person. Don't accept advice from a poor person who has a lot of opinions, no matter how confidently he expresses those opinions.

Prayer

I'm going to get religious or spiritual here because this is important. It works like magic. By thinking about yourself, you can probably tell that you are more than just a body. You are a spirit that lives in a body. If you cut off a hand, you did not cut off part of your mind. Your spirit lives in your body, but your spirit is not your body.

You've heard of tales about E.S.P., mind reading and stuff like that. You've heard that people in the Bible would give prophecies that came true in their future. I'm not talking anything about ghosts, mind reading, or E.S.P. I'm just talking about your spirit, that thing that we cannot see but each of us knows we have it and it exists within our bodies.

The spirit has power. I believe this spirit was created by God, and God has power. There are certain things we can do that defy explanation. It works, but we don't know how or why.

Prayer works. It may not work every time the way you expect, but it works many times and it has unexpected power. Let's say you are a child with a match and you go into the woods. You light the match and it blows out. Nothing happened. Or you light the match and start a little fire. Then you put it out. No harm done. Or you light the match, start a little fire, it gets out of control and burns down a forest. That is what prayer is like. If you pray and nothing happens, I don't know why. It just didn't happen. But sometimes you pray and you get exactly what you wanted. Other times you pray and it turns out to be so big that it exceeds your wildest dreams.

The biggest harm you can do yourself is never to pray at all. I have had many prayers answered. Now I pray expecting them to be answered, and most of the times they are.

Prayer is simply speaking what you want, but this time you speak it to God. With Prayer comes responsibility. If you pray, you must admit God exists. Likewise you admit that God has power over you as well as over the entire world. Furthermore, you acknowledge and do not deny God a claim over you.

Prayer is like anything else you learn and do. Could you read the first time you picked up a book? No, you had to learn to read. Likewise, maybe prayer won't work for you the first time you try it. But it works, and you need to keep on trying it. You will be amazed if you don't give up.

Magic

I said earlier that you are a spirit and that the spirit has a power that was given by God. If you go to the bookstore and buy almost any book that tells you how to become super successful, how to become wealthy, the chances are close to 100% that book will tell you that you must say what you want. Speak it out loud.

If you read the previous section about Prayer, you will realize a connection here. We have a spiritual power, and much of what we say, when spoken in faith and conviciton, will get us exactly that.

Be careful what you say, and be sure to say something

Rules of Wealth

Rules of wealth apply not only to money but also to a good life, a good marriage, good health, and a good walk with God. They are all the same rules. I won't tell you what they are here because that goes beyond the scope of what I'm trying to say. Instead, I suggest you go to a bookstore and begin buying and reading books about successful living. They all say the same thing, but they say it in different ways. Some books say it in a way you can understand and some do not. Just start reading books on success and it will change your life.

What Do You Want to Become?

This is a pretty important subject. Many people go through their entire lives wondering what it is they are supposed to do or become. That's expected when you are 16 or 18. It's dangerous when you're 25 and a disaster when you are 45. First I'll set the stage and then tell you about what's going on.

If you're a Christian and wondering what does God want you to do, don't decide you should be a minister just because you think God wants all Christians to be ministers. He doesn't. God calls certain people into the ministry, but not everyone. Don't think you must be one thing or another because that's what somebody else says.

What if everybody on planet earth was a taxi-cab driver. What good would that do? Some people have to be policemen. Some have to be cooks. Some have to be waitresses. Some have to be pilots. Some have to be shoemakers. What if there were no shoemakers in this world? That would be bad. The world needs shoemakers, and cab drivers, and cooks, and bankers, and cashiers, and everything else.

God created in us a desire to be something. If he calls one person to the ministry, he creates in that person a desire to be a minister. If he wants someone to be a millionaire, he creates in that person a desire to be a millionaire. Remember, we need millionaires in order to give people jobs in order to give offerings to church in order to send missionaries to foreign countries. We are all needed and God puts it all together.

There is a Bible verse that explains this perfectly. Psalm 34:7 says to love to do God's will and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Notice it does not say God will give you whatever your heart desires. Instead it says, what desires you have are put there by God. He gives you the desires that are in your heart; he put them there. Now think about this for a minute. Suppose somebody tells you that you should be a minister, but that is the last thing you want to do. Suppose you want to make shoes instead. (Don't forget, ministers and missionaries need shoes, too.) Wouldn't God be foolish to send you on an errand that you hate, don't want to do and will probably screw it up because you don't want to be there in the first place? On the other hand, if you want to make shoes (or make money), then that might be where God is calling you.

Do you remember what I said in the section about prayer? I said that with prayer comes a responsibility of acknowledgement and submission to God. This is the same thing. The Bible says you've got to desire to please God and then he will give you the desires of your heart.

Think about it. Suppose you wanted to be an airline pilot and God wanted you to be an airline pilot. Do you think there is anything that could keep you from becoming an airline pilot? Nothing at all. When God is on your side and you are walk with him to fulfill the desires of your heart, you're going to get it.

The Value of Money

Money is not worth anything, just like a rake is not worth anything. You can't eat it. You can't wear it. Money, like a rake, is good only from what you can do with it. If you use a rake in the way it was intended, you can get a lot done. If you use money in the way it was intended, you can get a lot done. It is how you use it, not the value of the item all by itself.

If you want money for no reason other than it is money, then you're a fool. The Bible talks about that, too. It tells the story about a rich farmer who kept getting richer and keeping it all to himself. The Bible says, "You Fool! Tonight you're going to die. What good will your money do you then?"

There is nothing wrong with having all the money you want, but there's a whole lot wrong with getting money for no reason other than getting money. Money is only a tool. It gets you what you want. You don't buy a hammer because you love hammers. You buy a hammer because you want to pound nails. In the same way, you don't get money because you want money. You get money because you want something else, and money is the tool you use to get it.

How Long Does It Take?

How long will it take you to get what you want? Well, for a really good dream, tbe effort to get it will last for the rest of your life. That is, you will be getting it for the rest of your life. But let's take something simple. Let's say you want one million dollars.

It take about five years to get one million dollars. Ten years if you're slow. You need to do these things. 1) Decide what you want. 2) Decide you're going to get it. 3) Find a means that will give it to you. 4) Work that means with all your heart and don't give up.

You might say that items 1), 2) and 4) are simple. It's number 3) that stumps you. Not at all. Do you remember the lesson in the section about Opportunity? I told you Opportunity is limitless. It's all around you. I can give you an example.

First of all, remember, there is not only one path to wealth. Some people became wealthy in oil, such as J. Paul Getty and John D. Rocketfeller. Some became wealthy in automobiles, such as Henry Ford. Some became wealthy in the movie industry. Some in clothing. Some in retail stores, such as Sears. There are all sorts of ways to get money.

So far we have found that, the strongest, most effecient way to get money is through network marketing. There are many network marketing businesses. Choose the one you want. You can go into health care, or cosemetics, or practically anything else. The king of network marketing is Amway and Quixtar. More millionaires have been in the United States made through Amway than through any other specific business.

You see, what you thought was the hardest, number 3), "Find a means that will give it to you," really turns out to be the simplest. Where people fail are in items 1), 2) and 4), the items you thought were the easiest.

Conclusion

Obviously there is a lot more to wisdom than what I've just said here. Start composing your own list. Keep a diary of wisdom and share it with your children and their children. It's fun and it will change your life.