Everyone wants to get rich but very few are willing to sacrifice and pay the price. Have you ever wanted to do something or buy something nice but lack whatever it takes to get what you need? Do you have an experience in struggling to sleep at night because you have not eaten since morning? Many families in Africa have had a taste of that kind of life. Unfortunately, most governments in Africa lack a proper system of taking care of such families in times of need unlike in developed countries like the US whereby each citizen is entitled to a meal. It is not about the resources one has, it is about what comes from the inside that really matters.
Steve Down has launched a book titled Financially Fit for Life which I find very useful for any individual who finds themselves in such a situation. One of the chapters I find very interesting and relevant in an African context. I say this because despite growing up in Africa from a poor background (I mean very poor), I have a gist of what it takes to become financially independent. Steve Down seems to have understood this kind of experience, the reason he is doing so much in Africa.
Steve says, “Wealth is a matter of choice”. Do you get it? I am not sure you understand that choices are target specific in a way that one’s own choice affects them more than they affect anyone else. I am a young Kenyan, I was born from a poor family, my parents separated and I couldn’t stay with either of them. I had to live my life experimenting being a child under different guardians whether good or bad. Yes, it is true but it does not matter anymore because I have simply moved on and have learnt to invest in myself. Someone once said that we cannot choose a person who becomes our parent, whether rich or poor, but to remain poor is one’s own choice.
In many of Steve Down’s empowerment seminars I have attended, Steve always share six major necessities for a person wanting to get wealthy. One has to know that it is not okay to be poor, then set up a personal commitment to become wealthy. One has to set up a clear and passionate personal wealth vision and then set goals towards the laid out vision. Finally, one has to walk (or fly) by the vision to become wealth. This does not happen suddenly, but knowing what it takes to get wealth is a step closer to acquiring it if you start getting busy.