A favorite quote of mine.
From The Wizard of
Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin.
(Once, a few years ago,
I sent this quote to someone who was STUCK in passivity, career-wise, and this
quote alone completely changed his life):
"As a man's real
power grows;
and his knowledge widens,
ever the way he can
follow grows narrower:
until at last he chooses
nothing,
but does only and wholly
what he must do."
*
* * *
One day it hit me that I
wanted to help people become self-reliant and create wealth for themselves and
their families. It wasn't exactly a choice. I had just finished Time Warrior
and was enjoying the response to that book, and the break between books.
A year passed and my
publisher was ready for a sequel. My original idea for the sequel was Catch
Fire, yet another book about motivating yourself. Then I asked a trusted
friend and mentor about what ought to be next. What do people care the most
about? What's even more vital than becoming a warrior around managing one's time?
"Money," my
friend said. "People want to know how to make money. That's even more
important to them."
It hit me like a
thunderbolt and it was beyond choice. It chose me. I whispered to
myself, "wealth warrior."
*
* * *
something for you from
Wealth Warrior:
This kind of "service" does not pass the giggle test
When I say the word "service," what
do you think of?
If you are leaning
toward warrior, then I know you are not thinking of "public service."
Often people think of
politicians who have been in the government for long periods of time—senators, congressmen,
people like that—as being somewhat heroic for spending their lives "in
public service."
We see tributes and very
expensive dinners featuring toasts to these politicians who have "given
their lives over to public service" as if it was a tremendous sacrifice on
their part.
This whole "public
service" idea has inflicted confusion upon the word "service" in
the worst possible way.
Because this senator
(Republican or Democrat, doesn't usually matter) sitting there being toasted
and roasted is someone who has lived a lifestyle of deal-making and good-old-boy
favor-trading while never having to pay for anything. He is being chauffeured
and flown around the world like the king of Brunai on government money.
Not his money.
He has a huge staff
running around doing work for him so even if he has to sit in a committee
hearing, you can see the staff around him buzzing like bees—a staff of people
who have done all the real preparation for that meeting.
So, where's the
"service" they are all talking about?
Not only does this
"public servant" live off other people's money and do no work of his
own, this same public beneficiary gets rich, and receives huge speaking fees.
When he comes into office, his net worth is x and when he leaves office it's 100
times x—how did that occur?
Service!
Really?
No. Some company he did
a political (financial) favor for is now going to have him come speak for
$50,000 at their big dinner.
When presidents come
into office without a lot of money and leave multi-millionaires, even though
their presidential salary was not all that big, we have to wonder about the
term "public service."
It's a mockery.
It's hilariously
mislabeled.
It hardly represents a
service to the public.
This is one of the
reasons it's sometimes hard with clients of mine to have them understand that
the source of all wealth is service.
Because they hear terms
like "public service" and "a life of service" about these
people that they know are not serving.
They know that these
people are actually being waited on hand and foot.
While performing
"public service" from the back of a limo.
It's a tremendous
disservice to so tarnish this glorious word.
Part of seeing the
source of wealth for you and for me is to clean that word up and give it a
fresh new understanding so that it really means something. It really means
helping someone else, assisting another person, and delivering actual value.
Politicians are not
public servants. We just all call them that because we've fallen asleep.
It's like the hotel
operator said to me this morning. This is your wake up call.