In my own quest for this fantasy, I’ve obliged to attend some business opportunity invitations. At all times, the room is packed with people from all walks of life. All in search of this holy grail.

During these meetings, the attendees are made to listen to live testimonials from people in the organization who have made it to the top. Almost uniformly, the speaker relates how he was once a lowly employee working from 8 to 5 often with unpaid overtime work, unable to spend time with his family, missing the childhood of his kids, having an unbalanced life and missing out on the juice of life due to work. This will be followed by being invited by a friend who asked him to “just listen” to the business opportunity meeting and the rest being history. He goes on to show his big house in an exclusive subdivision and another vacation house elsewhere, his flashy cars, the yearly international trips all paid for by the organization and most of all the free time that allows him to enjoy his life and be with his family. He goes on to say: “It’s so easy to achieve all these things. Just join us now and we’ll teach you how”. Wow!!! The talk is certainly mindblowing! Everyone in the room is salivating with envy. Then comes the how and slowly, one will feel the excitement slightly go down.

I don’t have anything against it. Of course they need to get the crowd all excited and pumped up, otherwise nobody will join them. And it’s true that the person who spoke really accomplished all of them. I also believe that if you stick it out with them and do your stuff, you may have a chance to be as good as their best performer.

However, don’t be fooled that it’s going to be easy. As is true in anything in life, nothing can be gained easily. To be good at something whether in school, career, business or our personal lives takes time, a lot of effort and sacrifices, persistence and some degree of failure. And so it is in these types of business. I don’t think the top performers in the organization were good at it right away and I don’t think this kind of business is applicable to just about anybody.

I do not mean to say that you should not get involved in this kind of business. Who knows, you might actually be good at it. However, you must realize that there is a learning curve in becoming good at the business and that you must definitely not leave your job way before you have a stable and reliable stream of money which is enough to support you and your family. In my analysis, you must have at least some of the following qualifications in order to be successful in this type of business.

1. You must have the willingness and humility to learn something which might be totally different from your professional background or what you are currently doing.
2. You should not have any qualms about selling because the initial stages of the business will definitely involve selling something.
3. You should be the type of person who likes being with people and can practically start a conversation instantly even with the strangers you fall in line with at the grocery store.
4. You should not be afraid of rejection because more people will reject you than be enticed in your business.
5. You should be willing to sacrifice your free time, at least initially, when you are doing this outside of your work hours because in order to make it big, you need to spend a lot of time generating contacts, calling them and meeting them in person.
6. You have to be consistent and persistent. You need to do the prescribed hours of calling, generating contacts and closing the sale before you achieve mastery.

So the next time you go to a business opportunity meeting, check yourself first in the mirror if you have what it takes.

This article appeared on the November 16, 2010 issue of the Business Mirror. http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/home/banking-a-finance/3738-the-lure-of-part-time-high-income-business

Breakfast: 1 cup coffee, 3 pcs pan de sal with hotdog and fried egg
Snack: 1 small bag of chips with tetra pack orange juice
Lunch: ½ cup of rice, bangus sinigang
Snack: pancit bihon
Dinner: 1 cup of soup, ½ cup of rice, chicken adobo with 1 glass of iced tea
This type of diet is very common among Filipinos. It is complete with carbohydrates, proteins and fats but very much devoid of healthy fruits and vegetables.

We have all been exposed to the concept of antioxidants. They have been advertised as anti-cancer but they mostly come in pills or supplements.

Fruits and vegetables are nature’s health gift to man. They are packed with so many vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and other substances that are beneficial to the body. Man has been very good at identifying, isolating and synthesizing these antioxidants and packaging them as supplements.

Unfortunately, these supplements will never work in the same way as when they are derived from their original source. Fruits and vegetables, in their natural form contain different kinds of good substances that we have not yet all identified. Taking these antioxidants as individual substances in the form of supplements will never completely take the place of eating fruits and vegetables in their natural form (not the canned variety which is very high in sugar). Taking these supplements will also not undo very poor dietary habits.

The diet above provides calories, the major components of the basic food groups but it is sorely lacking in healthy nutrients and fiber. It also contains a lot of sugar (in coffee, tetra pack juice, pan de sal, iced tea) and refined carbohydrates (pan de sal, rice, chips, pancit) which can cause blood sugar to suddenly spike.

So how can we makeover this diet?

Breakfast: 1 cup coffee, 3 pcs pan de sal with hotdog and fried egg. Add ½ cup tomato and cucumber
Snack: 1 small bag of chips with tetra pack orange juice. Add 1 piece of fruit
Lunch: ½ cup of rice, bangus sinigang. Add 1 pc banana and 1/2 cup vegetables to sinigang.
Snack: pancit bihon. Add 1/2 cup mixed vegetables
Dinner: 1 cup of soup, ½ cup of rice, chicken adobo with 1 glass of iced tea. Add 1 cup lettuce and 1 piece of fruit

Making the above additions to one’s diet increases the servings of fruits and vegetables from 1 serving in the previous menu to 6 servings.

While we were going through her expenses, I noticed that almost everytime, she has some money lent to a friend or an officemate or that she buys things that are unnecessary or that she has the latest brands of so many things.  She also goes out a lot and I don’t think she doesn’t spend anything during these times no matter how she attests to the contrary.

I can’t help but realize that one of our problems is the inability to say “No” or to admit that we can’t afford something.  This is one of the biggest enemies of financial independence.  So long as one is unable to acknowledge and take steps to counteract this problem, the person will simply be running on the treadmill of paycheck to paycheck living.

“I can’t afford it” is a very decent thing to say.  A person who can say this is honourable.  I don’t think it diminishes him but in my eyes, it elevates the person to his higher self.  Saying I can’t afford it takes courage, self-work, self-love and discipline.  Initially, it is very difficult but I believe that in the long run, all the efforts are worth it.  This is one of the important steps to financial freedom.

The difficulty lies in our inability to distinguish what we have from who we truly are.  We equate money, things and status to better selves.  I’m not saying that money is not important because money is important.  However, money loses value when that is all we have.  It loses meaning when all we can show are the things that money can buy.

The real value of money comes from its ability to enhance people’s lives; its ability to give more meaning to people, to educate, to cure, to show appreciation, to comfort, to bring peace and give dignity.

Let us all work on changing our mindsets about money.  Money is good and it is a very important tool.  Here are some of the things that I have done to nurture my money mindset.

1.  Education.  Financial education is no longer an elective.  It is something that I consider extremely necessary.  The ability to become financially independent does not only rest on the amount of money we earn but also in our ability to keep and grow the money.  Knowledge on these aspects does not always come naturally to us.  No matter how our parents taught us about money, I believe that we still have a lot to learn from other people and that we need to actively seek it out.  Read books and invest on seminars and workshops.

2.  Be in the company of like-minded people.  Financial freedom will only become effortless once we have developed the proper mindset.  We need to spend a lot of time developing this mindset.  All else follows when we are in the proper frame of mind.  Being outside the mindset makes the journey very difficult and often elusive.  Staying in the company of the right people strengthens our belief and opens up possibilities that we never thought of.  We will thrive and grow in this positive force.  This energy is life-giving, health-promoting and wealth-building.

3.  Use money to help other people.  The real purpose of money is to make life better.  After we have reached a certain threshold, the amount of money becomes unimportant.  Helping other people does not necessarily mean giving to charity but may be facilitating other people achieve their own wealth as well.  The best defense against poverty is not by giving alms to the poor but in building a person’s capacity to provide for himself.

Money can be very emotional.  It has ruined families, ruined friendships and ruined lives.  I think that it is actually “the lack and love of” money which are the root of all evil.  Lack of money causes a desperate father to rob or kill people to feed his family.  Lack of money can cause a women to sell her body and soul to feed her children.  Lack of money can cause people to be corrupt and dishonest.  Lack of money can cause people to do unpleasant and unfavourable things.

“Lack of money” is an illusion.  It is a state of mind that many of us are in.  It is a state of mind of “There is not enough of everybody” or “If I have more, other people will have less”.  “Lack of money” is so imaginary such that a person can continue existing in this state even if he is already wealthy by all standards.

So I started shifting my consciousness towards seeing money in a positive light.  I worked on (and continually do so) seeing money in a positive way from one of bad, evil, dirty to seeing money as a tool that can actually do good.  I worked on shifting from feelings of guilt and unworthiness to one of having a deep conviction that “Everybody has a right to wealth and that it is not bad to aspire for it”.  I convinced myself that it is my responsibility to get to a point of being very wealthy because it is part of my evolution.  It is no longer just about having the money but it has already become a force seeking expression.  It has gone above the plane of the physical to the metaphysical.  What a great idea it is to go beyond worrying about money to sustain day to day needs to one of being able to use money to empower more people and drive them towards achieving their full potential.

Money is not about having more things (although we also shouldn’t feel guilty about having beautiful and worthwhile things around us), status and all the external trappings that come with being successful.  It is about evolution, meaning in life and getting to a point of believing what we are capable.  It is about learning and living the true meaning of abundance.  It is truly a state of mind.  It is about experiencing our capacity to give without thinking that we grow less.  I want to be wealthy because I want to use it to help make other people’s lives more meaningful.  This is my mission.

Financial planners always admonish us to start building an emergency fund and our retirement plan.  We save up for buying a car, a house, weddings, birthday celebrations, high tech gadgets and for anything that we wish to acquire.  But we don’t plan and save for being sick.

“Hindi kami handa sa gastos” (“We were not ready for the expenses”)

“Biglaan kasi”  (“It happened so suddenly”)

I often here these words from patients or relatives when they are suddenly stricken with illness.  They sometimes question “Bakit naman nangyari ito sa akin” (“Why is this happening to me?”) or “Bakit naman ngayon pa ito nangyari?” (“Why did this happen now?”).  Most of the time, all I can say is “Ganun talaga” (“That’s just the way things are.  These things really happen”).  You see, life generally doesn’t warn us when it will strike out on us especially when it comes to being sick.  Quite often, there are no warning signals.  It will hit us when it hits us.  No one is exempted (not even doctors).  For a newbie, it is very difficult to comprehend but after seeing them over and over and over, I have realized that the best defense is simply being prepared.  Minimize our risks but still always be prepared for damage.  I have embraced this fact and it felt liberating. That is just the way life is.

If there is something that I am thankful for in becoming a doctor, it is in having realized these things long before they happen to me and I am taking every step I can to be prepared.  Becoming a doctor made me realize how important money is and that I need to learn about the trinity of money and to take this study seriously which is why I became a registered financial planner and continue to educate myself regularly.

I have been practicing medicine for more than 10 years.  Breaking the bad news is already something which is commonplace for me.  I have learned the technique and mastered the art.  But despite that, it still breaks my heart every time I do it.  What crushes me more is when patients’ suffering is compounded by the lack of resources.   It makes the situation bitterly painful.  Hence, it is my obligation to let you know.  Please listen to me.

During the course of my clinical clerkship, I came to the conclusion that money is necessary if we want to help people.  Our burning desire to help people and our talents alone will not be enough.  In the hospital, I realized that patients will not do very well if they do not have the money to pay for medical bills.  Another very sad reality is that healthcare is ridiculously expensive anywhere in the world.  I have trained in both private and public hospitals and the situations in these two settings are no different.  Even in public hospitals, healthcare is not free.  Only doctors’ services are free.  The patient has to buy most of the medicines and materials and pay for the laboratory tests.  If the patient does not have the resources, doctors can do minimally to help them.  Even if we give our services for free, if there are no materials to work with, there will be very little benefit to the patient.  There have been countless times when doctors have spent their own money to care for their patients but there is only so much that we can give.

These harsh realities have prompted me to be interested in money…….in making money, in keeping or saving money and in growing or multiplying money.  These 3 components form what I call “The Trinity of Money”.  I am now focusing my money education on all three.  I think it is unwise to leave out any one behind.