Tagalog Version (Click Here)
Orison Swett Marden asked what you would think of a prince, the heir to a wealthy kingdom and the child of a generous king, who runs away from the castle to live in suffering and poverty because he wrongly thinks that his father won’t leave him with anything. When you meet that prince, you see that no matter how much his father tries to give him some wealth, food, and a good home, the prince refuses all of it then turns around to complain about all his “bad luck”.
You’d probably think that the prince was insane or something.
Unfortunately, a lot of us live like that prince. Life gives us all sorts of opportunities and ideas, but we wrongly think that we can’t or we don’t deserve to use them. Some of us also think that it’s “noble” to suffer in poverty for some reason.
It’s time to get rid of that way of thinking. Here are three reasons why we actually deserve to be wealthy and prosperous.
3 Reasons Why You Deserve to Be Wealthy
1. You were made to live well.
There’s an old Filipino saying, “if your blanket is too short, learn to bend”. That means we must learn to put up with and accept suffering. If we think that way, it’s unlikely that we will ever achieve much in life. A better way of thinking is that if there’s something we don’t like, we have to learn to change things for the better.
There’s no good reason for us to suffer. Orison Swett Marden explained it well: “The Creator never made a man to be poor. There is nothing in his constitution which fits drudgery and poverty. Man was made for prosperity, happiness, and success. He was not made to suffer any more than he was made to be insane or a criminal.”
Instead of simply accepting hardships and suffering as a “natural” part of life, we have to remember that we can actually change our circumstances for the better. Similar to how humans changed the world by inventing stuff like farms, medicine, and computers, we can also change our personal circumstances for the better. Although it would often be very difficult, it is possible. We were given gifts and personal talents for precisely that reason after all.
Let us be done with thinking of poverty as a virtue. It is a common vice.
— Catherine Ponder, The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity
2. Rewards go to the deserving.
If you’ve lived an honest life, working hard to earn what you have, do you somehow DESERVE to suffer? No, you don’t. If that’s the case, then why do some of us refuse life’s rewards out of a false sense of humility? There are some who pass over opportunities for better-paying careers, business opportunities, pay raises and promotions and all sorts of gifts because they think they don’t deserve it, they are afraid of the responsibility or work involved, or they pass them over because they think someone “less fortunate” deserves it more.
The reason why some gifts and opportunities are given to us is because, most likely, we DO deserve them. We must learn to accept great opportunities whenever they come. Success doesn’t always arrive all at once. It comes from a thousand little steps in the right direction, and we won’t get anywhere if we don’t actually take those steps forward and take the opportunities that open for us.
3. You help more people if you become more successful.
Some people wrongly think that rich people ONLY got rich because they cheat or abuse others. If you think that way, you’re likely to have trouble with your career and financial life. Why? Simply because you don’t have the right mindset for success. Wealth is earned by doing good, and those who try to cheat their way to success usually get punished. TRUE wealth comes from helping people.
Let’s say you’re a coffee shop owner. How much would you earn if you serve some ordinary coffee to only 10 customers a day? Probably not a lot. Now how much would you earn if you serve coffee to 100 thirsty customers a day? A lot more than the previous example that’s for sure. What if you serve coffee to a million or a hundred million customers a day or more? You’d likely earn a whole lot.
That same principle can usually be applied to other forms of career or business. A performer who can entertain a million viewers will often earn much more than one with just a few dozen. An agent whose projects serve millions can earn more than those who serve a few people a day. Now it can be different for those who offer super premium services or products like the best surgeon in the world or an internationally renowned painter, but overall the more people you help and serve, the more you will earn.
Want more proof on how the more successful we are the more people we help? Just look at the things we use every day. Our computer, phone, cars, and more. Who made them? Do you think the owners of the companies and factories that made them are poor? What would our life be like if all their products have never been made? It probably wouldn’t be as nice as it is now.
The great painter Michelangelo once said “The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.” We have to aim higher than what we think we can. The more successful we become, the more people benefit from what we do.
Before we end this lesson, let me leave you with one last quote from Catherine Ponder, author of The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity:
It is shockingly right instead of shockingly wrong for you to be prosperous.
Obviously, you cannot be very happy if you are poor, and you need not be poor. It is a sin.
Poverty is a form of hell caused by man’s blindness to God’s unlimited good for him.
We all deserve to be wealthy and prosperous. We all deserve happiness. Understanding that fact will help improve not just our own lives but the lives of others as well.
Did you enjoy reading this article? If you want to learn more, check out YourWealthyMind’s Facebook Fanpage here on this link!