By Kalinda Rose Stevenson, PhD.

One of the enduring beliefs in American society is that people can pull themselves up by their bootstraps and succeed if they work hard and persevere.

Today, the Associated Press published an article that claims that people are losing faith in this belief. It asks the question:  “Is everything spinning out of control?”

“The can-do, bootstrap approach embedded in the American psyche is under assault. Eroding it is a dour powerlessness that is chipping away at the country’s sturdy conviction that destiny can be commanded with sheer courage and perseverance.”  (Read the whole article at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25311529/ )

There are many reasons to feel powerless. The news is full of heart-wrenching stories about 500 year floods, massive earthquakes, and devastating typhoons.

The economic news consists of more bad news after bad news. Gas prices are over $4.00. The price of corn has reached $8 a bushel. A loaf of good bread will set you back another $4.00.

Meanwhile, the biggest banks are laying off employees. Foreclosed houses sit on the market. People lose equity in their homes.

At times like these, it is easy to be discouraged and to lose heart. And these are the times when it is especially important to choose the hero’s path rather than to sit on the couch and lament how bad it is.

These are the times when a hero takes on the challenge to act when acting requires courage and determination in the face of many obstacles.

In one of my favorite hero’s journey stories, the silly/profound movie, “Joe Versus The Volcano,” Joe makes the statement. “I am my only hope for a hero.”

Don’t let yourself be swamped by bad news. And don’t look outside yourself for a hero to rescue you. This is the time to be your own hero about money.
 

Making money after the summer solstice is a test of persistence. Each season of the year has its gifts and its challenges. The gifts of summer are warmth and light, the essential elements of growth. At the same time, the greatest challenge of summer is persistence.  Most people begin new projects with enthusiasm, even though starting a new project can mean a lot of work.  The essential money-making characteristic of a money hero is persistence.

Back in my gardening days, I used to live in New England. I used to think that the most successful crop in my garden were the granite rocks deposited by ancient glaciers, granite rocks that had to be pried out of the cold ground, and deposited with the others in the rock wall at the edge of the property. No matter how many I had pried out the year before, each spring thaw heaved another crop of rocks into my garden.

It’s hard work to plant a garden, but spring is the time of promise. There is something about a new beginning at the end of a long, hard winter to motivate hard work. Each year it’s the same. You repeat the magic ritual of planting seeds and setting out small plants, carefully placing them into the earth with the ardent expectation that they will grow and flourish. You imagine the garden in its fullness even as you dig in the bare ground.

And then the summer solstice brings the summer season. And with the change in season, you face a different kind of work. You have to tend what you have planted.

Summer work is tending, weeding, hoeing. And it means working when the sun is hot, or when the sky is so perfectly blue that you want to quit working and go off to play.

Summer is the time when it is easy to quit. You tell yourself that it is too hot, too buggy, or too humid. Or it is so beautiful that you want to go swim in the lake or go for a picnic in the woods. The famous fable of the ant and the grasshopper catches the temptation to stop working in the summer.

Summer is the real test of persistence for all of us. Most of us can begin our projects, with hope and hard work. The capacity to persist in the middle of summer divides the beginners from the finishers. Who wants to be out weeding the garden in the hot sun?  Yet weeding the garden in summer is an essential step to producing an abundant crop.
 
This is the lifecycle of any creative project. Every project has a beginning, a middle, and an end, just as any dramatic story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Middles are always the hardest to sustain because they are not as exciting as beginnings and endings.

In the classic “hero’s journey” story structure, the first act sets the scene, introduces the characters, and sets the hero out on the journey. In the third act, the hero has a final confrontation with the primary antagonist that either ends triumphantly or tragically. In either case, the hero is permanently changed.

The middle act lasts as long as the first act and the third act put together. In this act, the hero keeps enduring in the face of obstacle after obstacle. The middle act is the hardest to write. The middle act shows the hero slogging along between the bold beginning and the final brave resolution.

Look at the blockbuster trilogy movies. Star Trek (the early ones,) The Lord of the Rings, The Matrix. Each movie is one act in a three-part drama. The middle movie of such trilogies tends to be the darkest and the most problematic. And typically, the middle movie is the least satisfying of the trilogy, resulting in bad reviews and unfavorable comparisons to the excitement of the first-act movie. It’s hard to be a hero in the middle of the journey, and it’s not as much fun to watch. Yet the middle act is essential to the structure of the drama. The hero who faces the antagonist at the climax of the movie has earned the right by persisting through the trials of the middle.

In the seasons of the year, summer is the middle act. It’s fun to plant in the spring. It’s not much fun to weed and hoe in summer. Yet, the harvest in the fall depends on what happens in the summer. The heroic task of summer is to stick with it, even when you would rather be doing something else.

The true mark of the hero is the willingness to keep on keeping on. This is also the true mark of any successful person who finishes any creative project, whether it is writing a book or building a business or anything else that requires sustained effort over a long period of time. You keep on keeping on, even when you would rather be doing something else. The word for this is “persistence.”

The famous quotation by Calvin Coolidge expresses the reasons why persistence is such an essential characteristic for success.
 
“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”

And so at the beginning of summer, when the days are long and the temptations are great, the question is, “What did you begin in the spring that you need to sustain in the summer to harvest your reward in the fall?”  The essential requirement for making money of a money hero is persistence, even in the long, hot days after the summer solstice.

Kalinda Rose Stevenson, PhD
 

“I am my only hope for a hero.”
Joe in “Joe Versus The Volcano”  

“A hero is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with his freedom.”
 Bob Dylan

“Heroes know that things must happen when it is time for them to happen. A quest may not simply be abandoned; unicorns may go unrescued for a long time, but not forever; a happy ending cannot come in the middle of the story.”
Peter S. Beagle  

 “I believe it is the nature of people to be heroes, given the chance.”
 James A. Autry

“To think great thoughts, you must be heroes as well as idealists”
 Oliver Wendell Holmes

“The Secret” has been a colossal phenomenon about how to create abundance, using “The Law of Attraction.” When my adult son first watched the “The Secret,” he objected to one dramatic episode. A boy wants a bicycle. He hopes and dreams for the bicycle and spends time gazing excitedly at a picture of the exact bike he wants. And then he sees the bike in the window of the bicycle shop with a “SOLD” sign on it. The boy becomes upset and gives up hope for the bicycle. After a period of despair, he again focuses his hopes and dreams upon receiving the bicycle. Throughout the entire episode, he does nothing but dream. The episode ends when the child opens the door to find his grandfather with the coveted bike as a present. We last see the boy riding off happily on his new bicycle.

The episode is meant to demonstrate that happy and excited thoughts focused on a desired outcome will result in getting what you want. In “The Secret,” the boy “manifested” his bicycle as a result of his concentrated positive thoughts and feelings. This is the secret of abundance in “The Secret.”

My son contrasted this story with his own experience. When he was in middle school, he wanted a Go-Kart. We said he could have one if he earned the money for it. So he went out and offered to work for people in the area. He raked leaves, swept driveways, and did other odd jobs. In a short period of time, he earned enough money to buy his Go-Kart. He “manifested” his Go-Kart as the result of concentrated intention and hard work. He has commented more than once in the years since that we did him a great favor by encouraging him to work to buy his Go-Kart rather than to buy it for him. It taught him that he could have what he wanted by taking focused action to get it.
 
I don’t mean to dispute the validity of “The Law of Attraction,” or deny the possibility that people can manifest what they want to have by concentrated thought. In a world of quantum possibilities, the mind is a powerful creator. I do mean to make the point that entrepreneurs are much more likely to get what they want than dreamers are, because dreamers merely dream, hoping for an outcome. Entrepreneurs act upon their dreams to produce abundance.

On contrast, so many of the stories addressed to children teach magical thinking as the method of manifestation. Fairy godmothers wave magic wands, genies grant wishes, boy wizards recite magic incantations. Children also learn about Santa Claus with his flying reindeer as the great wish fulfiller, a giant rabbit who brings colored eggs and candy, and tooth fairies who exchange baby teeth for cold, hard cash. As a child, I even learned to wish upon the first star I saw at night. I had no similar instruction in how to turn my wishes into reality by creating an action plan.

During elementary school, as a child growing up on Cape Cod, I was involved in a summer children’s theater. I had some small acting roles and did some behind-the-scenes work. During the production of “Peter Pan,” I sat in a theater box to the upper left of the stage and did sound effects. One sound effect was to jingle little bells for Tinkerbell.

In the story, Tinkerbell drinks poison and is dying. Peter Pan calls out to children everywhere to save her life by believing. Peter addresses the audience directly and claims that if there aren’t enough children who believe in fairies, little Tinkerbell will die. At that point, the audience gets involves and wishes Tinkerbell back to life. My part in the dramatic moment was to jingle the bells louder to show that Tinkerbell had been restored by the fervent wishes of the children.

Now, many years after my brief career in theatrical sound effects, I look back on Peter Pan as one more way that the adult world teaches children magical thinking. Maybe it is all part of the wonder of childhood and maybe it is all harmless stuff. But I am not convinced. The common denominator in all of these fantasies is to instill in children the idea that if you only find the right magic spell, the right genie, the right wizard, the right fairy godmother, do the right things to please Santa, then you can have what you want.

Such magical thinking does not end with childhood. When we get older, we can substitute hope in winning the lottery, hitting the jackpot, or buying into the latest biz-op as the way to get rich without doing anything beyond hoping for abundance.

Whatever else “The Secret” teaches, in this one episode about a child who wanted a bicycle, it teaches magical thinking as the method to achieve abundance.
 
In contrast, successful entrepreneurs do what my son did. They don’t use magical thinking to accomplish their dreams. When they want something, they do something about it. As a result, entrepreneurs are more likely to create wealth and abundance than any other group of people.

One way to overcome magical thinking is to understand the real nature of money. Be sure to get your free “52 Heart Of Money Insights.” 

Kalinda Rose Stevenson, PhD 

An entrepreneur abundance strategy is characteristic of the way entrepreneurs approach business. Whether or not entrepreneurs ever use the word “abundance,” the mindset and actions of entrepreneurs are the same mindset and actions that produce abundance.

“Entrepreneur” is one of those umbrella terms that can cover a range of meanings. In essence, an entrepreneur wants more out of life and is willing to do what it takes to have it. An entrepreneur is a dreamer, but dreamers are not always entrepreneurs. The primary skill of the entrepreneur is to imagine what does not now exist, and to take actions to create it.

Entrepreneurs are always “up to something.” Talk with an entrepreneur and you will hear some big plan, some bold idea, some powerful dream to create something that does not currently exist.

Compare someone who buys lottery tickets each week with the hope of striking it rich with the entrepreneur who sets out to create a profitable business. One hopes for an abundant outcome. The other takes action to create an abundant outcome.

Of the two choices, acting to create abundance has vastly greater probability of success than hoping to win a jackpot. Certainly, people do win jackpots, but the odds are miniscule. And the sad result is that many lottery winners end up worse off than they were before winning because they have no idea how to handle their new abundant money.

Years ago, there was a TV show called “The Millionaire.” Each week, a rich man sent his assistant out to give a million dollar cashier’s check to someone. The point of the show was to see how the money changed the recipient. It was usually not for the better.

What is the connection between being an entrepreneur and creating abundance?  Both require a similar mindset. Abundance is the direct result of a creative process. Abundance requires focused action toward your dreams rather than a passive hope that someone will leave abundance on your doorstep. The best strategy for abundance is to become an entrepreneur and create your own abundance.

One of the best ways to create your entrepreneur abundance strategy is to understand the real nature of money. 

Be sure to subscribe to your free 52 Heart of Money Insights. 

by Kalinda Rose Stevenson, PhD

Interest rate changes are the most widely publicized method the Federal Reserve uses to control the money supply.

You will see all kinds of speculation about what the Federal Reserve will do before such meetings, which affects the stock market. You will also hear media reports about how changes in the interest rates will affect interest rates for consumer items, such as mortgages and credit cards.

This media attention obscures an important fact. The interest rate, which is also called the discount rate, concerns the rate commercial banks must pay when they borrow money from Federal banks. The interest rate changes do not directly affect your credit card interest rate.

The Fed changes the discount rate to make it more or less profitable for commercial banks to borrow money. The banks use this borrowed money to make loans to their customers.

Keep these two purposes in mind:

• The purpose of the Federal Reserve is control the amount of money in the economy.
• The purpose of banks is to make money by loaning money to their customers.

Whenever the Fed increases the interest rate that the commercial banks must pay to borrow money, the banks cannot make as much profit on their loans to its customers. When the Fed decreases the interest rate, the commercial banks can make more profit on their loans to bank customers.

Even though this change directly affects banks, Fed rate changes affect all of us, because they change the speed of money. If banks can loan more money at lower costs to the banks, the increased loans will increase the amount of money available in the entire economic system. If the banks have less money to loan, because the banks have to pay higher rates to borrow the money, money will increase more slowly.

The critical point is that consumer interest rates are not directly related to changes in the Fed interest rate. The Fed does not change consumer interest rates. The banks might change your interest rates on credit cards or your adjustable rate mortgage, but the change is not directly tied to changes in the rate the Fed charges banks to borrow money.

By Kalinda Rose Stevenson, Ph.D.

What is the difference between earning and making money? Check out my real estate investing book, “No Money Limits,” to find out how a bank creates money.

Monopoly is a zero sum game based on competition, based on a limited money supply. Since the money supply cannot increase, the players can win only by taking money from other players.

This fundamental reality of Monopoly is that one player wins while the others lose. This reflects the experience of the Great Depression. Thousands stood in breadlines while a few people became very rich.

Monopoly does not allow players to help each other. The rules forbid partnerships and loans between players.

What is the psychological lesson from such a competitive game? You learn that you are a solo player and you want the other players to fail. You would never want to help another player because that could mean you would lose.

What kind of economic model does Monopoly teach? It teaches that wealth comes to the most competitive. The only way to become wealthy is to take money from others.

This belief is deeply engrained in our shared consciousness about money and success. The game of Monopoly reinforces a common belief that the only way to win is to defeat your competitors.

What kind of success model is this game based on competition for a limited money supply? You don’t have to look any further than the statistic that 96% of the population will reach 65 without enough money to be financially self-sufficient. Instead of congratulating the 4% who somehow manage to create financial freedom for themselves in this economic system, you need to ask: Why do so many lose the money game?

The short answer is that many have to lose in order for a few to create wealth. The economic model of competition for limited resources demands that almost everyone must end the game broke for a few to become rich.

Attempting to create wealth according to the Monopoly model is a lonely struggle in a highly competitive game. There is always a winner in Monopoly. You might be the one to win. It is much more likely that you will be one of the majority of those who lose.

This Depression era game is stuck in the mindset and beliefs of a game that doesn’t create money. The winner takes money from others, but does nothing to create more money through transactions.

Mr. Monopoly had it wrong when he thought that the only way to win was to drive competitors out of business. It’s true that business is full of “black knights” and hostile takeovers from people who still treat business as a game that allows only one winner. But the Great Depression ended more than sixty years ago. It’s time for a new game with a new understanding of money. The fact is, you’ll make more money in transactions than you will in takeovers.

In this era, the most enlightened business people understand that you will make more money in joint ventures with others than you will by competing against them. When you take off the Depression era Mr. Monopoly glasses, you can see a new vision of money and business. Money is not currency. Money is an idea, and the only limits to money are the limits of your vision.

For your new vision of money beyond the zero sum game of Monopoly, be sure to
get the award-winning book, No Money Limits For Real Estate Investors:
Discover The Money-Making Secret In The Real Estate Game That Transforms Your
Money Struggles Into Financial Abundance by Kalinda Rose Stevenson,
Ph.D. at www.NoMoneyLimits.com.
USA Book News Best Books Winner in Business: Real Estate category
and Finalist in Business: Personal Finance category. No Money
Limits For Real Estate Investors is not just for real estate investors, but
for anyone who wants to know how the assumptions of the Monopoly Game keep people
struggling needlessly with money limits.

What is a hero and what is a hero’s journey about money? 

According to Joseph Campbell and his work on the hero’s journey, the hero is anyone-male or female-who perceives that something is wrong in the hero’s world. The hero chooses to act to solve the problem, motivated by a sense of responsibility to restore the hero’s world to its balance. Usually the decision to act requires the hero to overcome initial reluctance.

The journey requires the hero to leave what is ordinary and familiar, to set out into a special and unfamiliar world. Along the way, the hero meets mentors who provide gifts for the task, as well as allies and adversaries, and finally must come face to face with the ultimate cause of the problem. The hero must act in spite of fear, persevere in the face of all obstacles, and do whatever is required to accomplish the task. If the hero defeats the adversary, the hero returns to the ordinary world. While the hero’s actions solve the problem for the benefit of the hero’s ordinary world, the hero is forever changed as a result of the journey.

In short, the hero chooses to act in the face of fear to solve a problem, persists in the face of obstacles, and confrons the real source of the problem, for some larger purpose than the hero’s own benefit.

Although most of us don’t think about the connection between money and heroism, this blog is based on the idea that the real solution to the problem of money in our world is to be heroic about money.

What I propose is a vision of money that combines the commitment to justice with a commitment to claim personal power over money.

This is my invitation. Commit yourself to your own hero’s money journey. Whatever your own experience with money, whatever you learned about money from any source, including your parents, your teachers, your religious leaders, the question is: Will you be heroic about money?

What sets heroes apart from most of us is that the hero accepts the challenge of the hero’s journey. In real life, most people do not choose to be heroic.  They choose to stay in their ordinary world, unwilling to face the challenge.

To be heroic means that you would have to leave what is familiar and enter into a special world. For many of us, that means moving from powerlessness, helplessness, and ignorance about money into the world of financial literacy. It means to claim the power of money in a world where money is the fundamental instrument of power separating the haves and the have nots. It’s no surprise that people with power want to keep other people ignorant about money. Power is money and money is power.

It would also require you to take seriously that we live in a world of extreme differences between the rich and the poor. Money is too important to be left to those who have no concern for justice.

When you have money, you have the power to have a greater impact in the world. Most of us are used to playing small roles, partly because we don’t have enough money.

In contrast consider what money can do when you have a lot of it. When a multigazillionaire, such as Bill Gates, decides to commit millions of dollars to a systemic approach to an endemic illness, such as eradicating malaria in Africa, it is the difference between small gestures and the possibility of real social change.

Why would you accept a hero’s money journey? One of the most alluring claims of our age is that money ought to come easily. We live in an era of get rich quick promises. Lotteries lure us with the dreams of striking the jackpot. “Business-In-A-Box” offers tempt us with the idea that we can rake in profits without doing any work.

Instead, the hero’s journey is not easy, not quick, and has no guarantees of success. Why accept the hero’s call to adventure? Jim Rohn claims that the best reason to set a goal to become a millionaire is not because of the money, but because of the person you must become to accomplish the goal. In other words, when you set out on a hero’s journey, the journey itself will change you.

When you make a commitment to a hero’s journey about money, you are committing yourself to discovering power that you never knew you had, in service of something bolder than simply acquiring more “stuff.”

Money is power. When you commit yourself to your own hero’s journey about money-whatever form that will take-you can make a difference in this world divided between the haves and the have-nots. You can also make a difference in your own life, to create abundance instead of constant struggle over money.

If you are struggling with religous beliefs about money, I have written a book about 8 sayings of Jesus about money, based on the idea of the hero’s journey, Going Broke With Jesus:How Heroic Stories Intended To Liberate The Poor Become Biblical Urban Legends About The Evils Of Money. This post is a revised excerpt from the final chapter. You can get your copy at www.GoingBrokeWithJesus.com