Wealthology

by Akinaw Bulcha

  If you can see any patterns in what you‘ve underlined, if any theme stands out in your notes, and especially if you felt strongly about any statement I made, you‘ve got a big clue as to how you really view money. If you go page by page through all the letters, you can get a snapshot of not only how the ―real you‖ thinks about money but of the world in general.

  This new awareness may provide you with a clue as to what may be holding you back in your pursuit of financial success. On the other hand, the pattern can give you a clue as to what your real strengths are as you pursue prosperity. This awareness may give you a clue as to how you can alter your strategies to be in line with how your subconscious mind is bent.

  After looking at the pattern in what you‘ve noted in the letters, sit back and see how that might have showed up in the things you have in your life.

  If you give my letters to others to read, please don‘t mention this exercise. It will not bring others any benefit if their conscious minds know about the exercise in advance. One of the only ways to find out how we really think about anything is to get around the conscious mind which acts like a prison warden. The things it keeps locked up in prison cells are your real beliefs.

  Also remember that how we relate to money, shows us how we relate to everything else. It‘s true that ―money talks.‖ You may even find your life‘s purpose as a result of this exercise. Perhaps you‘ve been avoiding something you should look at. Have you been pretending not to know something?

  In my case, my experience has shown me that I‘m well suited for work as a business and personal consultant. Areas like education, insurance, fund management and especially, investing naturally fit my personality. I love solving problems, creating better systems, strategies and I can spot flaws in complicated organizations from a mile away.

  I hope this assignment opens your eyes a little bit to how you relate to money and the world of experience.

  “How you relate to the issue is the issue.” ~Ron Hulnick.

  Your Loving Uncle, Akinaw.

  Why Making Money Could Be Easy

  Dear Kidus, So far, we‘ve identified every possible thing that could affect your financial prosperity—including your subconscious mind, the principle means of productivity. The makers of things are your deeply held emotionalized thoughts or ―Heart Truth.‖

  How to change your thoughts to push you in the direction of your dreams is one of the most important questions to ask and is the last remaining question to be answered in order to get a holistic, accurate description of how lasting prosperity is created.

  Fortunately, our Creator has given us the ability to control our destinies. It seems the only way to change your inner self is through repeated and emotionalized affirmations of who you want to be and visualization of what you want to create. All other ―self-growth‖ or personal development techniques like forgiveness, grieving, meditation, etc., clear things up so that we are able to accept the truth that will produce the life we want.

  After a century of success philosophy, there still isn‘t anything better than Napoleon Hill‘s classic book, Think and Grow Rich, to show people how to use the power of their mind to get what they want out of life.

  The process he advocates is a voluntary or self-administered positive trauma to change the way your subconscious mind works permanently (think about my experience to understand this point). Hill advocates repeating an emotionalized affirmation to plant prosperity causing thoughts into our minds. It‘s just like gardening. When you plant something new, it takes weeks for the new roots to grow into the dirt. In the same way, for an idea to get planted, you‘ll be required to tediously read an emotionalized statement before the automatic process locks it in (it seems crazy at first but once you do it, your life changes easily).

  Once that new idea is locked-in, no more work is required. In fact, you stop working at that point. When I was reading hundreds of books I never once felt like it was work. I was trying to figure out how to sleep less so I could learn more. Hill had this theory that I‘ve found to be true from experience long before I had ever heard of him.

  Now, obviously, many people have succeeded without consciously using Hill‘s ideas, but that may be because they‘ve accidentally experienced something that wired their subconscious activity to think prosperous thoughts. But for every one person who has become successful by an ‗accident of birth‘, there are three or four that have done it through conscious application of implanting thoughts in their subconscious minds.

  In closing my letters, I have but one thing to say—fix your mind on the thing you want, the person you want to be and the things you‘re willing to do to get what you want out of life.

  If you come to the U.S. or if you stay in Ethiopia, you now have more wealth at your disposal than you could ever imagine—if you recognize it. “Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so you shall become. Your vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.” ~James Allen.

  Your Loving Uncle, Akinaw.

  Postscript

  If you want to get more value from the pages you‘ve just read, I have an exercise for you. Take out a piece of paper and write Kidus a letter. You can choose two topics to write about:

  a. Imagine that Kidus has just received a visa which will allow him to come and work in America. He also has $100,000 to his name because his father and sister (who live in the U.S.) came into some money and sent him some of their earnings.

  In this scenario, you think he should leave Ethiopia and start a new life here. Using the lessons you‘ve learned about the four principles of wealth creation, write out why he should relocate and what he should do with his money and give reasons for your advice.

  b. Kidus is in the same situation but he gets a visa to some other country (you pick); advise him on what he should do with his money. Give your reasons.

  As soon as you put pen to paper to complete this exercise, you‘ll begin to activate a wealth building tool that will soon be recognizable. All you‘re asked to do is write one letter (at least one page). There‘s a psychological reason for it.

  My goal is for you to get more value from this little book than you‘d get from a thousand lifeless, anemic, boring financial or economic books. As you write your letter of financial advice to Kidus, you‘ll feel something working. To get even more value from this exercise, compare notes with anyone else who might have a copy of this book (even try arguing with them).

  Add More Value by Revisiting Squirrelmerica One of the side effects of my experience of loss has been an obsession to avoid losing time. I‘ve attempted to say more with fewer words. To give readers more value than they‘d get from four, five or even ten financial books, I came up with a few creative solutions to economize space. You should know a little about that in order to mine hidden gold from the material.

  First, the four methods of wealth creation (capital management, economic literacy, productivity and entrepreneurship) have been created and written in such a way that when one is understood, the other parts become clearer, a lot like a puzzle, a combination or a Rubik‘s cube. In a way, there are five separate books in one. By combining one major idea from the section on entrepreneurship and one major idea from the section on economic literacy or productivity, you can keep adding value to your financial life. Remember that what you‘ve got in this book is the epistemology or truthology about making money in our economy.

  You can participate in letting the book (which is purposefully made to be more like an organism) interact with itself. You‘re the chemist; as you work with the contents in this book, new (but accurate) ideas will come up.

  Second, there are hidden reasons behind every analogy or story that‘s been included; they are created to teach without out your noticing (to consolidate space). I‘ll give you a hint by highlighting the most important analogy—the story of Squirrelmerica.

  Some of our financial problems result from a misunderstanding of capital. The Squirrelmerica
story explains the economy in a much more precise, and understandable way. The nutconomy only bought and sold one thing (nuts) to better explain how the economy really works. Here‘s another hint at unlocking the power of the analogy: Compare the Squirrelmerica story with the letter entitled, ―The One Thing You Must Understand.‖ By the way, the magician in the beginning of the story is the former Fed Chairmen Alan Squirrelspan, current Fed Chairman Ben Squirrelnanke, the Federal Reserve System and its silent partner the federal government. It‘s up to you to figure out the rest.

  Third, you can use this book as a reference tool to judge the information you get from other financial books and commentators. Most financial commentators and economists are ―for profit liars‖; their clients are big investment banks. Don‘t complicate the money making process by listening to their insincere advice.

  Fourth, I have avoided making technical economic differentiations and terminology. I do know, for example, that there is a technical difference between ―productivity‖ and ―production.‖ Part of the purpose of this book is to provide a method of creating money in our economic context. I wouldn‘t want people to go through what I did to get to a place where I can understand the economy.

  Lastly, I‘ve personalized economic ideas into more of a motivational book because I wanted to show that what‘s good for your financial life is good for our nation‘s economic health. And the story of our collective actions in the larger economy tells us something about the individuals in the society. The reason I‘ve used ―the larger economic context‖ to shed light on our personal finances is because it‘s a good teaching tool. It‘s easier to be objective about other people or the State.

  I also wanted to make economics easier to get because it‘s the most important topic to understand for our financial lives. I hope that in five to ten years, if you study money, investing or economics, this material will stay relevant.

  Keep Digging: A Note on Wealth Consciousness Readers who don‘t have a spiritual/psychological background may not get as much from this book as those that do. So, let me explain the importance of Wealthology.

  First, I wrote Wealthology with the understanding that we can‘t really learn economics without looking at the main actor in the economy—you. I also wanted to make sure that the benefit you get from this book would last. Wealthology is not just about money; it is also about how we relate to it. The letter on ―Quigley‘s prophecy‖, for example, is intended to show how people in every society fail to transcend their economic environment in order to see where it‘s taking them. We all just get wrapped up in the system even if our actions will destroy the system. That‘s just how it‘s been. But maybe it doesn‘t have to be that way if enough people realize what we‘re unconsciously doing to ourselves. The same unconscious drifting happens in our personal lives.

  Wealthology also assumes that there‘s the you that you pretend to be (conscious life) and then there‘s the real you (the subconscious). Our conscious minds are just a façade, a projection. It doesn‘t do anything for us except rationalize, compensate for what we don‘t have, for who we‘re not, protect us from emotional pain and make countless excuses. The real ―power behind the throne‖ is the subconscious mind.

  Wealthology is about empowerment. It seeks to get you in touch with the real you. What you produce in life is not a result of your conscious mind. You are really driven by the subconscious, the maker of things. And since ―making things‖ and selling it in the economy is how value (and therefore profit) is created, if you understand the power of the subconscious mind and learn how to work with it, you have a wealth producing asset that‘ll last.

  Almost everyone believes that we have a conscious and a subconscious mind. That‘s usually where most people stop. But let‘s keep going. The reason why I‘m so sure that you don‘t need to read another book on how to create wealth is because the information that is contained in the pages above has been received from the subconscious mind in a certain way. The power of repeated emotional experience to get the subconscious to bring a certain thing into your experience cannot be underestimated. So far so good, right? Okay, now, here is where I might lose you.

  Our subconscious mind even brings us information we‘ve never learned or experienced. It gives us perfect ideas that we could not consciously produce. Where does our subconscious mind receive information from? Why does that ―still small voice‖ always know the right answer? This is where the psychologists, theologians, philosophers and physicists offer their differing opinions because it gets so close to the ground of our being. St. Paul says ―in [God] we live and move and have our being.‖ C.S. Lewis made the case that conscience was God‘s way of getting into the physical universe. Napoleon Hill calls it infinite intelligence. Carl Jung calls it the collective unconscious.

  Since I know more about psychology and theology, let me offer my point of view—I have no idea! It‘s a matter of faith. Whether it‘s part of God, or whether God has given us a gift or whether it‘s just a part of Nature or nature, it doesn‘t matter (as far as using it is concerned). Either way, working with the subconscious is the only way to create our own destinies.

  Let‘s just say that we can all tap into a field of something somewhere that we call the subconscious mind which gives us perfect ideas and shows us exactly what we need to do to get what we want.

  The way we reach that field of ―something, somewhere‖ is through emotion. Rev. Bernard Beckwith has said that we live in a ―feeling universe.‖ I think he was saying what I know to be true from experience—we can access the power of the subconscious mind through emotion. And whatever emotion we feel the strongest will indicate to us what we"ll have the most of in our life.

  Wealthology is a product of my repeated emotional ―requests‖ to have knowledge that I could not lose. It‘s the thing I have most of in my life.

  To show that it doesn‘t matter how you ask for it, as a teenager, I used to pray every night for ―knowledge and wisdom‖—two things that could not be taken away from me. But I know people who don‘t believe in God that have received what they wanted through the gateway of the subconscious. They just wrote a statement (as I had done for my prayers) and requested other things repeatedly with emotion and they got it. The things they‘ve received from that ―something, somewhere‖ don‘t belong to them as surely as Wealthology is not a product of my own conscious intelligence. At the end of the day what do we really own that hasn‘t been given to us anyway? Being human is a humbling experience.

  I hope this clarifies things a bit. Keep digging into Wealthology. Re-read it. It‘s not an ordinary book that has been consciously contrived. The choice of ideas, words, sentences, phrases, sections, analogies and the people I trust are a lesson in themselves. There‘s a reason for every choice—even ones I"m not yet conscious of. I would love for readers to help me get more out of Wealthology myself.

  Why You Need to Keep Reading this Book I turned on the news to watch a panel of economists discuss the economy a couple nights ago. As the different people were giving different answers, I found myself feeling like there might be something the Obama Administration could do to speed recovery. The important thing I want to bring up is how tempting it is to want the government to ―fix things‖ although their fixes seem to make matters worse. We can‘t underestimate the unintended evils our government has produced in its attempts to fix things.

  The feeling I had was one based on a need to alleviate my fears. If fear can drive us to want to believe things that we know are not true, it‘s all the more reason for us to continually engage in activities that empower us. This book has the goal of putting every reader on par with the best economic minds in the world (at least for the purpose of creating lasting prosperity). Use it. You want to re-read it because fear is the eternal tempter.

  Nothing in this book appeals to your fears. Everything in it appeals to the best part of who we really are. If I wanted to write a book that would sell millions of copies without respecting you, I would‘ve omitted the
tiny section on foreign policy in these tense times and refrained from talking about the two institutions of welfare and warfare (the sacred cows of two large political parties). I would‘ve said everything was great with the economy or that it was ―just a cycle‖ or ―time heals all wounds.‖ I wouldn‘t have asked you to understand anything substantial or questioned your assumptions. Remember that there are deep psychological reasons for why I want to tell the truth (it"s not just because I"m a good guy) and why I genuinely care deeply that you really understand things as they are.

  You can spend your whole life being intellectually abused and never read what you‘ve read in these pages because the powers that be have an interest in your ignorance.

  A Final Note Nothing I‘ve said should be seen as partisan or political. There‘s always a great danger in speaking the truth—you‘ll please no one while angering some people. Please don‘t radicalize or politicize any statements that I‘ve made.

  For instance, someone may take my view that military spending destroys wealth as being anti-defense. It‘s not. Military spending is a luxury just as a home is a luxury and not an investment. My only goal is to explain the facts, not to take sides. Now on the other hand, I‘ve also said that welfare spending is wasteful and spiritually demoralizing; but I believe strongly in giving. When I was in high school, I volunteered to wake up early to go feed the homeless at a local parish. It was elective. As I got older I also helped build homes in Mexico and supported a child in Africa through the World Vision organization. Today I support organizations like Humanity Unites Brilliance that set up sustainable giving programs (education, micro loans, and clean water) to many parts of Africa. If you think I don‘t believe in giving, you‘ve got the wrong guy. What I don‘t believe in is waste.

  Government administration of welfare is wasteful because it reduces the amount of money that goes towards human needs and sometimes creates big problems (i.e., Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the housing bubble).