MILLIONAIRE SUCCESS HABITS
What came out of my mouth next shocked me. I said, “I never want to go backward,” and for some reason I got emo- tional. With hindsight, I realized the most important thing that happens when you ask yourself “why” seven times is that you switch from grabbing the answers from your head to pulling the answers from your heart and soul. My heart was speaking and I could feel it. I remember that I started sitting differently and speaking with a different tone, because physically, my body started to feel different. I was working hard to stop the tears from streaming out of my eyes because my staff was watching. Then Joe, whom I had just met for the first time, was staring directly into my eyes, only a foot away. He asked, “Why is it important that you don’t want to go backward?” And here’s what I meant, and here’s what my heart was try- ing to express: I know what it’s like to be broke and grow up with no money. I know what it’s like to wear hand-me-downs. I know what it’s like not having food in the refrigerator. I know what it’s like to be basically homeless as a kid, because I experi- enced it with my dad. When I was 11 years old, I moved in with my dad and we literally lived and slept in a small bathroom inside a house my dad was trying to fix up. There was no heat anywhere, and the bathroom was the smallest room to keep warm, so that’s where we slept. And growing up in upstate New York, we had some brutal winters. We had an electric heater and took the doorknob out of the bathroom door and put the cord through the hole. We plugged in the electric heater and dragged in a small mattress and slept on that together. I’d get a ride to school in a car that had no heat and with doors held closed by rope. I remember making my dad drop me off down the street so no one would see just how poor I was. I was in a steady state of feeling insecure and feeling inadequate and that was a place to which I never wanted to return. This is my story, and I’m not suggesting that you and others haven’t had it worse. But I remember my mom struggling before I helped her retire. I remember my dad always struggling before I helped him retire. I remember what it felt like not to be able
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