Killing Sacred Cows Blog

Getting Rich Your Own Way, written by Srully Blotnick, details a study that began in 1960 of 1,500 people representing a cross-section of middle-class America.

Throughout the twenty-year study, they lost almost a third of participants due to deaths, moves, or other factors. Of the 1,057 that remained, 83 had become millionaires.

When Mr. Blotnick’s team interviewed participants at the beginning of the study, the most widely shared impression they found was that “great wealth can come to you only as a result of doing things you don’t want to do.” They also noted that from the start, most participants assumed that chance would play a decisive role in determining who became wealthy.

They found that the 83 successful people shared five characteristics: They were persistent, they were patient, they were willing to handle both the “nobler and the pettier” aspects of their job, they had an increasingly noncompetitive attitude towards the people with whom they worked, and their investment activities—aside from their main career—consumed a minimum of their time and attention.

Writes Blotnick, “We originally expected the people in our sample to become wealthy by taking the money they earned at work and investing it wisely, in such things as stocks, bonds, and real estate…we thought there’d be no way for [them] to become rich unless they used their surplus income to generate more income…It didn’t work out that way…More often than not they made little or no money investing.”

In short, what the study unveiled was that the main source of wealth for the successful participants was that they found something they loved to do and they did it well. “In case after case,” says Blotnick, “they did increasingly well occupationally, while their pursuit of investment profits proved to be largely a waste of time. in the long run, it was their work which made them rich.” Blotnick concludes that investing in yourself, what you do, and with whom you do it are the most important determining factors of wealth.

Are you living your Soul Purpose ? If not, it's highly unlikely that you will achieve financial freedom.

“A person can have many talents and gifts and do many things exceptionally well, but your vein of gold, ah...That is the thing you do superbly.”     -Julia Cameron  

America's earliest citizens believed in an ideal that they called Providence, which is something that has been largely forgotten today. To believe in Providence means two things: 1) You believe in a Creator that governs, and 2) You believe that you were born with a unique mission that you alone can perform, and that the world suffers if you don’t fulfill your mission.

Providence is having a relationship with your God that gives you the faith and motivation to fulfill your unique mission regardless of the consequences.
Another way to say Providence is “Soul Purpose.” Soul Purpose is your unique set of talents, abilities, and passions applied productively and effectively, making tremendous impact upon the world and bringing the highest levels of joy and fulfillment for you and everyone you touch. It’s the mission that you were born for; it’s what you would do every day even if you didn’t get paid for it. When you’ve truly found your Soul Purpose, you create so much value for others that you’re almost inevitably paid very well indeed.

How do you know if you are living Providence and Soul Pupose? A good indication of that is if you can't wait to jump out of bed and begin every day with excitement and purpose. If you find yourself dreading going to work you know that something must change.

The best thing you can do for yourself and for society is to find and develop your passion--to revive the spirit of Providence in your own life and live your Soul Purpose.

Recommended Resources to Help You Find Your Soul Purpose:

Kolbe A Index

Strengthsfinder

Enneagram Institute