Let's talk about the concept of paying it forward. You know there's a lot of propaganda in news coverage that tends to paint wealthy people in a certain light, a negative light.
We've all gotten the consistent diet of stories of corporate scandals or nut jobs in Hollywood or marriages that don't last or professional athletes in trouble with the law. That tends to kind of paint an over washing image for most people of what is associated with wealth and being a wealthy person.
That if you get to the point where you have been very, very, very successful then it's almost impossible to really enjoy life because all of these other things are going to naturally fall out of line and my personal opinion on that is that kind of propaganda is put out there intentionally because I believe that people's minds are easier to control when you have painted and image for them that to be successful is a negative and a bad thing.
It keeps them in a place where there may be certain parties, there may be interested in keeping those people for their benefit, but I like to paint a different picture for you on regarding wealthy people. First, of all, most truly wealthy people, you are pretty modest, you will probably never know them by seeing them on the street, if you didn't deal with them personally in business.
Statistically, people who are wealthy actually give the most, not just in the number of dollars but also in the percentage of their income that they give away. Christine Comaford which is one of my favorite entrepreneurs in entrepreneur cultures of all time, I know at one point she had reportedly given away half of her entire net worth because of how fulfilling that she said it was to do that for other people.
One of the things that get people to that level of success is understanding and being in alignment with the concept of paying it forward. Another mentor of mine, Bart Smith, a long time ago took the words giving back out of my vocabulary and what he told me to explain the reason why he wanted me to do that was because if you reach a certain level of success you won't really be giving anything back because no one gives you anything.
Anything that you get that is worth having that you keep, you're going to have to earn it but you will be paying it forward, making sure that the next person has, whether it's finances or an opportunity or information, to help that next person out.               The vast majority of truly successful people do that on a very regular basis but you don't have to get to the point where you are rich in order to do that. You can start now. So, I would say that if you're not involved in your community or there's not someone that you are mentoring or helping, even if you have not reached a high level of success, everybody is a teacher. There's always something that you know that someone coming behind you needs to know or some information that you have that that person needs to gain access to.
I would invite you to be very, very open to helping people who are trying to get to the point where you are even if you're not a huge success yet. Even look for those opportunities to go out and pay it forward and help that next person.