I’ve made mistakes. I’ve made a ton of them. The beauty of making mistakes is that there is a lesson to be learned in every single one of them. When I first started my peer tutoring company a couple of years ago I got pretty excited. I thought this was going to be my ticket to financial freedom. The problem was that I had created another job for myself. I now had two jobs; one full time and one part time in my business, which meant I had to work more in exchange for a small increase in earnings. I learned a powerful lesson from this experience - that getting another job wouldn’t get me ahead. I also learned ‘the big lie about money’.

How many of you have ever noticed that there are a lot of people caught up in the rat race to get ahead? We all want more money, more toys, more time so that we can do more. We want more of everything. We all want to have financial wealth and abundance so that we can do whatever we want whenever we want. I believe that all of this is attainable as long as we our willing to re-examine our beliefs about money.

The problem is that most of us try to get ahead by working harder and longer hours to earn more money. The funny thing is that money isn’t even the problem. The problem isn’t out there; it’s in here…. in our heads! Our minds are a powerful thing and they simply haven’t been programmed for wealth. They haven’t been wired for riches. The reason for this is because we were told a little fib when we were young. We were told a lie. The lie that we were told at a young age is this:

“Study hard and get a good job and you will have money and security.”

We were told that if we had a good job then we wouldn’t need to worry about our future; the company would take care of us. We would be financially secure with a good retirement and benefit package. This was ingrained in our minds when we were very young. It was ingrained in us by our teachers and by our parents. It was ingrained in us and we began to believe it. We began to think it was the truth.

The truth is a lot of people have lost because of this belief and they may never recover. I know a handful of people who are well past their retirement age and they are still working hard at a full time job. They are not being taken care of; they are taking care of themselves by working in a job. I also know a few engineering graduates who worked really hard to get their degree and they are still jobless. They believed in a system that doesn’t work. They believed if they worked hard and got good grades, they would get a good job. Once they got a good job the company would take care of them.

I believe this idea is not the truth. It is a lie. I also believe that the wealthy have known this for a very long time. The wealthy are rich because they know something that we don’t; they think differently than the masses when it comes to money.

Where Did We Go Wrong

I believe the problem is with the educational system. The traditional educational system was formed many years ago. Since the beginning, the educational system has taught us how to be professionals - lawyers, doctors, engineers and teachers; and also trades - mechanics, carpenters, brick layers, etc. It has taught us scholastic studies but not money studies.

It was the educational system that has failed to teach us how to manage money and develop the attitude to build wealth. If we didn’t learn this in school then we must learn this from our parents. The problem is that our parents grew up in the same educational system that we grew up in. They learned the same basic things about money that we learned - to study hard, get good grades and get a good job.

The only thing with this idea is it’s an old idea. It limits your potential and it limits what’s possible. If you want to lead a limited life then get a job. The idea of getting a job has been around for so long that we forgot to check in and see if this idea still works for us today. Instead we simply trusted and believed it was a good idea. We didn’t bother to ask ’Why’ it was a good idea.

Our beliefs about money and the way we think about money stems from years of education by our parents and teachers. We were taught to get paid for our time. The problem becomes even more serious when we start to run out of time. When we get caught up in the rat race we not only run out of time we also run out of money. Suddenly this old idea about money doesn’t seem to make sense anymore.

The fact is that we are all growing and evolving at such a rapid rate that this idea alone is not enough. Times are changing and so is the way we think about money. We are living in a very exciting time where change occurs so much faster than it did 20 years ago. In order to change our financial situation we will need to change the way we think about money.

Beliefs Examined

Be courageous and re-examine your old beliefs. If you truly want to make massive changes in your life then you will take the time to be responsible for your own mental activity. You will do this by getting clear on your beliefs. You can do this by asking the following question, ‘What are my beliefs about money?’.

Then take the time to write down your answers on a piece of paper. Once you have a list begin to go through each one and honestly ask yourself why you believe this. Can you honestly come up with solid concrete reasons for each belief? Take the time to do this and you will be surprised by what you find. You will be surprised to learn that most of your beliefs were not built on a solid foundation.

If you’re looking for a practical way to get some insight on your current beliefs and then change them, check out and apply the material covered in my post titled, How To Change Your Beliefs With Praxis.