The Law of Cause and Effect basically states that for every movement of energy such as in a natural happening, or a human thought that takes the form of an image, feeling, desire, belief, expectation or action there is a corresponding effect. Simply put, every circumstance in this world is a consequence of an event or events. If this concept is applied to the issue of money, money by itself is not an event, rather; it is the consequence of other events. The amount of money you can access is the consequence of an event or events which you make happen. Therefore, if you desire to have unlimited access to money, the wise thing is to shift your attention to events that attract money instead of running after it. However, because of chronic poverty and its attendance past deprivations, most people in our society run after money. They do not have the understanding of the fact that money is not a cause but an effect. Money is the consequence of other actions. If you try to make money the action, you have gotten it wrong. It is just a misplacement of priority if you are busy running after money. It will surely lead to frustration and lack of peace even if you manage to accumulate some. Accumulating money or any other material resources will never bring you satisfaction and fulfillment. The only thing that brings joy, satisfaction and fulfillment is to identify what your purpose for humanity is and do it successfully. This is what you will be remembered for when you depart this world.
Apart from the fact that money is the consequence of other actions, it is also important to `understand that the quantity of money which is attracted by a particular action is a function of the quality of the action. For the purpose of this topic, our actions can be broadly categorized into two: Category (1) consists of Self-centered Actions and Category (2) are Others-centered Actions. People who engage in Self-centered Actions perpetually run after money. On the contrary, Others-centered actions have the capacity to attract money and other resources toward you. Successful people are other-centered while unsuccessful ones are self-centered. Let me explain each of the two categories to give you better understanding of this issue.
Self-Centered Actions Results In Frustration
Running after money is typical of people who are Self-centered. Any activity or action you engage in with the sole purpose of benefiting only you is an action in category one. Such actions have great tendency to limit your dreams, visions and goals, this consequently will place barrier on your achievements. This is so because your capacity to attract recourses, money inclusive, depends on the size of your dream. Your capacity to attract resources actually obeys the principle of magnetism in the real world. The size of a magnet determines its magnetic power. A small magnet will always be attracted to a bigger one. Let me state it clearly like this, a small magnet will run after a bigger one because the bigger one has more magnetic influence. Or have you ever seen a big magnet running after a smaller one? Never! Similarly, when you are self-centered and all your thoughts are just about keeping yourself comfortable, the ideas that will come out of such thoughts will be too small to attract any resources. Consequently, you will be the one being attracted to these resources, including money. What this means is that you will be running after money or any other resources that you desire to have.
Generally people in this category tend to focus all their attentions and energy on just themselves and their immediate family members. They are mainly interested in what they can get rather than what they can give. Even when people with this kind of mindset find themselves in position of authority, they exploit that position to accumulate unreasonable volume of cash and other material resources. Such people do not have the understanding of the fact that effective and good leadership is not meant to get but to give. They believe wrongly that the more material resources they possess, the more secure and successful they become. Though they seem to be wealthy, they still run after money. They are under what I call ‘money slavery.’ They are not really better off than their counterpart in the ghetto, though they live in VGC, Parkview or any other affluent location. They live in constant fears and worries because they know the foundation of their wealth is very weak. They know they are building house of cards that can collapse with just a little tap. When such people set-up business, their ultimate goal for the business is just to take care of their needs. As a result, they focus more on what they can get from the business instead of what the business can give to their customers. Before you know it, they are out of business. The evidence of this is not farfetched, how many Nigerian companies have outlived their founders for ten years? When I say Nigerian company, I mean companies solely founded by Nigerian. In fact, some of them actually die before their owners.
Others-Centeredness Results In Fulfillment And Success
On the other hand, people who engage in category two types of activities are generally others-centered. They devote their lives to adding value to other people. Their focus is primarily on making life better for other people. Their goals are not to make themselves comfortable but to make the world a better place to live. This kind of mindset expands their horizon and consequently their dream. When you focus your thinking on dreams which are bigger than you, it generates big ideas in your mind. These ideas will be so big and potent to the extent that they will produce very powerful magnetic forces that will attract necessary resources to make your dream a reality. When your idea which is the product of your thinking is big, it will attract resources in your direction. But when you have small idea, its magnetic force will be too weak to attract resources; hence you will have to run after resources.
Someone might be wondering in his mind, how do I generate big ideas? To answer that question, you need to understand that the size of the idea that is generated from your thinking process depends on the size of your dream. There is no way you can have a reasonably big dream if all you want is just to take care of yourself. Pastor Sam Adeyemi made a profound statement sometimes ago that: “Your life is too small to be the purpose of your life.” You need to expand your dream to create something bigger than you. Big ideas are generated by shifting the focus from yourself to others. When you focus your thinking on solving a particular problem for humanity on a large-scale, your mind will generate big ideas with powerful magnetic forces. These ideas, when acted upon become the causes which ultimately generate all your desirable effects such as money, fame, power and all the good things of life. Come to think of this, do you think Bill Gates, Sergey Brin, Larry Page, Chad Hurley et al and others will wake up and be thinking of what to eat or how to live in a good house or how to ride the most expensive car or how to get money to spend on themselves? The answer of course is definitely NO! Those things are effects of their others-centered thinking and actions. They are the consequence of their donation to the humanity. Before I conclude, I want you to think about these questions: Are you self-centered? Or are you others-centered? How do you intend to use your talent to make the world a better place for humanity? What is it you intend to donate to humanity? As you ponder on these questions, I want you to note that, life does not reward man for what he gets but for what he gives. Thank you for reading.
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Muyiwa Okeola
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