2

Wealthy Mindset Series #28

The Power of a Decision   

As you know, one of the most important keys to creating wealth is the right attitude. In Series #27 we spoke about how the wealthy delegate and outsource certain functions of their life and/or work.

In the series today we will talk about how the wealthy understand the power of a decision.

This is good timing from the standpoint that it is the near end of the year, and we are near the end of this series of the attitudes of the wealthy.

Recently I had the pleasure to tour the southern part of the United States with my wife. While in Nashville, TN, we met with my wife’s nephew, Jeremy, and his wife, Melissa. Both of them are doctors, but they came from far different backgrounds. This email is about a decision that Melissa made when she was a teenager.

Melissa was raised in Kentucky and her family was poor. When I mean poor, I mean dirt poor. She had two siblings, multiple step-siblings, and only one nice dress that she could wear to church each week. All the other children could see it was the same dress each week. And as kids do, they made fun of how poor this family was. I am sure you can imagine the hurt.

They lived in the countryside and too far away from the city to have city services like trash pick-up. So they had two choices, pay a small fee to dump trash in the landfill or burn it. She refers to her step-dad as the “trash burning red neck.” He would wait until the school bus dropped Melissa off at home in the afternoon to burn the trash. This way all the other kids could see how poor they were.

This was her mom’s third husband and not exactly a nice man. Besides the embarrassing trash burning, in one instance Melissa found this beautiful multi-colored lizard. When she showed it to her step-dad, he crushed it with his foot.

At age two and a half she and one sister were sent to live with her grandparents. For a couple of years, until age five, Melissa was influenced by a family that could show a better future. When she was sent back to her mom she became consciously aware of her poverty and did not want that for her life.

Melissa noticed that when her mom graduated as a nurse, the rich people were doctors. It was then, at age 13, that Melissa decided to become a doctor and was encouraged by her mom. As you might expect, this decision was not encouraged by other members of her red-neck family. The rest of her own family made fun of her, because she had goals. They told her she would end up just like the rest of the family; poor and pregnant.

Instead, Melissa made a plan to reach her goals. At age 14 she started to work at Taco Bell. Before she turned 16 she was the manager. She purchased her own car and two years later moved into her own apartment. She applied to college and worked to support herself. She took one year off to work as an emergency room technician, to save more money for medical school.

In the required essay when she applied to medical school, she wrote about why she should be admitted and included information on her past and the decision she made at age 13. She was accepted, and graduated as a doctor with a specialty in obstetrics and gynecology (OB-GYN).

Melissa met her husband when they were both medical students. They now have two children, a lovely home in Nashville, and two excellent incomes.

The wealthy understand there is power in a decision. Melissa made a decision at age 13, to become a doctor. I made a decision when I was broke at age 50. With only 15 years left before most people retire, I had to get busy and create a secure future. For me, the plan was, to invest in multi-unit rental properties, and get the bulk of the funding from other people.

You can make a powerful decision at any point in your life and alter your future. Any struggle you have comes from not making a decision. What decision have you avoided that you are willing to make now?

In the next article of the wealthy mindset series you will understand how and why the wealthy recharge.

To Your Prosperity,

Rennie

  • Mark says:

    Thank you Rennie. You made a big contribution to me in 1998 to actually measure my net worth. I have been tracking it every since. I had been talking about being a millionaire but never did the math and doing the math changed the focus to drive the results and grow the numbers.

  • >