You can create a new Pattern
of Success
Man is not the creature of circumstances; Circumstances are the creatures of men.
— Benjamin Disraeli
Let me tell you my story.
When I was growing up, I felt I was the most ungifted kid in the entire world.
Honest! I had four things going against me.
First, my grades were bad.
As early as Grade 2, I failed in Math and Pilipino—two subjects I abhorred like ampalaya1 juice concentrate or an antibiotic capsule that
accidentally breaks open on your tongue. Yuck.
I felt I was dumb exponentially raised to the power of three. My academic goal in life was to reach the high grade of 75. One day, one of my subjects reached 82 and I almost collapsed in shock. I went to my teacher and asked if she made a mistake.
Today, I’m guessing I probably had some form of mild dyslexia, but during my time, they just called it bobo.
Second, I was bad in sports.
Some kids were dumb but at least they were good in sports. But I was bano.
I dreaded P.E.4 It was pure social torture.
For example, the teacher would ask me to dribble the ball—and while everyone would watch—I’d lose the ball, chase after it, manage to step on it, slip and splatter myself on the floor. And everyone would burst out laughing for five minutes straight. Yep, even the teacher would laugh. (Do you notice my deep resentments coming out here?)
1 bitter gourd
2 stupid
3 physically uncoordinated
Obviously, no team wanted me. I was left standing alone until the teacher forced one of the teams to get me. So I’d enter the game and make them lose 10 points in 10 seconds. (I did the impossible.) And they’d hate me to bits.
Third, I was poor.
My allowance was 50 centavos a day when the prevailing rate was two pesos.
I remember going to the canteen clutching my 50 centavos in my hand. “Coke please,” I asked. The saleslady looked at my coin and said, “Coke is 60.” I looked at the other goodies and asked again, “Cheeze Curls please.” She shook her head, “That’s 60 too.” I finally asked, “What can I buy with 50 centavos?” She looked around and fished out something tiny. “Marie,”5 she said.
At that precise moment, my classmate stood beside me with a five- peso bill and said, “Coke, Cheese Curls and a hotdog sandwich please.”
Triple ouch.
Fourth, I was ugly.
Yes I was. (I know it’s hard to imagine that now…) They called me refugee and tipaklong.
Let me say this again: I felt I was the most ungifted person God ever created.
But today, I write books, compose songs, publish magazines, produce concerts, lead organizations, speak on radio and TV, run small businesses… just to name a few things I do today.
I didn’t become Albert Einstein but I literally changed my life. Speaking of Albert Einstein, did you know he was dumb in school? Here are three actual quotes from his school teachers…
No matter what you do, you will never amount to anything.
— Albert Einstein’s first teacher
Your mere presence spoils the respect of the class for me.
— Albert Einstein’s second teacher
5 a biscuit
6 grasshopper
It doesn’t matter; he’ll never make a success of anything.
— The response of Albert Einstein’s teacher to his father’s question on what profession Einstein should pursue. They were almost right. Because at age 16, Albert Einstein failed an entrance exam to a polytechnic college in Zurich.
What happened to that dumb kid? Why did he come to be one of the greatest scientists of the world?
sECREt
enlarge Your
Psychological Wallet
There is a secret psychology to money. Most people don’t know about it. That’s why most people never become financially successful.
A lack of money is not the problem; it is merely a symptom of what’s going on inside you.
— T. Harv Eker
The first giant reason why people are poor is because they don’t want to be rich.
As absurd as this may sound, it’s true.
Because subconsciously, we don’t think it fits us. We feel it’s not who we are.
Here’s what I learned.
If you want to make small incremental improvements in your life, change your behavior. But if you want to make dramatic, quantum leaps in your life, change your beliefs.
8
They try to save.
They study how to invest. They start a tiny business.
But it’s not enough unless they rewire their thinking process. Otherwise the old thinking will sabotage their new behavior.
Let me repeat what I said in the first page of this book. Your money problems are mind problems.
And the first mind problem is your core beliefs about yourself. unless you change your picture of yourself in your mind, it will be almost impossible to get rich. Even if you have all the skills and connections in the world. Even if you earn huge amounts of money, you’ll lose it all again—if you don’t enlarge your psychological wallet.
Tony Meloto, founder of Gawad Kalinga—an amazing movement that builds homes and rebuilds lives of the poorest of the poor—says, “I’ve realized that poverty isn’t the lack of jobs or the lack of money. It’s the lack of dignity. The poor have lost their ability to dream. That’s why we build very colorful GK houses. When the new owner of a GK house wakes up each morning and sees the bright colors of his home, he realizes that he can dream again.”
Enlarge your psychological wallet.