How to become Rich and Successful? Don't chase money.

An ordinary human chasing money to get rich.

"Dad, what is the secret formula to get rich?"

He raised his eyebrows as he was sipping his hot tea. "Why do you want to get rich my son?" he asked. "I want to buy a brand new car. I don't have enough money for it. Every friend of mine has bought one.". He continued sipping his evening tea until it finished. "Let's go to the nearest showroom", he said.

The nearest car showroom was half an hour away from our home. As we were walking, I could see, people coming back from there workplaces after working hard in their jobs, with their shirts crushed and popping out of trousers, holding their briefcases, looking tired and cheerless, as if the life itself has been sucked out of them. 

"I think I too should work hard like them to become rich and successful", I said to my dad. He paused for a moment and taught me one of the most valuable lessons in my life. "You are staring at one of the biggest traps life has ever set for us, and it has got a name. Its called the infamous Rat Race".

The very next moment he was bombarded with a fair amount of questions. "What is a Rat Race?", "How to get out of it?", "Are we too in this trap?", "Is that the formula to get rich?".

Now, I am going to share with you, all the answers to questions my curious mind asked and my dad answered in a nutshell.

THE RAT RACE

Most of the people work very hard for very little money. The idea of having a secure job, 3-4 weeks of paid vacation and a paycheck at the end of each month and modest pension excites them so much that they never realize the trap they have set them for themselves. They narrow their vision unknowingly so much that now the fear of lack of money or paycheck at the end of the month scares the hell out of them, making them get up again in the morning and work hard for it again. And when they get a small amount of money in the end, they feel joy, desire, and greed to buy new artifacts. After spending the money, they again have the fear of absence of wealth for which they again work hard in their jobs. When a person is looking for a job, he doesn't have a mindset of becoming rich, but the fear of being poor is what drives them to work very hard for very little. 

It is a trap that is set by two of our emotions, fear, and desire. And unless and until you take control over them rather than they dominating over yourself, you will live in this race forever. Even if you are getting a good paycheck, you will just be another highly paid slave.

AVOIDING THE BIGGEST LIFE TRAPS

If you think about it seriously and learn to avoid one of the biggest trap, you can enjoy a great deal of freedom and security in life. And if you don't, you will end up like most of the people around you, making a lot of effort for very little worth and stuck in this rat race forever.

So how do avoid the trap? How do we defeat it? The main cause of poverty or financial struggle is fear and ignorance. We all go to schools, colleges to collect our degrees, have a great education and career, but they never told us how to handle money or fear of not having it. For many people school is the end, not the beginning. 

Most people use these emotions against themselves instead of working with them for their own good. It's important for the long term to learn to control the feeling of fear and desire and not let them change the way of thinking. Because of these emotions, most people live their lives chasing paychecks, looking forward to pay raises and job security, not realizing that they are already trapped in the rat race, not questioning where these emotions are driven thought are leading them.

To spend our lives running behind money due to fear and desire, and never exploring our dreams is inhuman. To work hard for money, thinking that one day it will change our lives and fulfill all our dreams only to realize later that it was not enough is cruel. To live a life dominated by the size of paycheck is not really a way to live our life. That's the trap you should avoid at all costs.

SO IS THERE AN ANSWER?

Yes, learn to use your emotions to think, not think with your emotions. Its when you have mastered the art of using your emotions rather than being dominated by them, you will have a wider view of life. Choosing our own thoughts rather than reacting to our emotions of fear and desire is the way out of this trap. Instead of getting up and going to work, only to earn little in the end because you are scared of a lack of money to pay your bills, you should ask yourself whether working the same way or even harder would be the best solution to this problem. The majority of people know their inner voice but are frightened to confront them, so instead, they chose to settle. Remember if your emotions go up, your intelligence goes down. 

You will hear this all the time that "Everyone has to work", "This is the only way of living", "I will take another job for the pay raise", but nobody asks themselves that will it solve their long term problem.

Rich and successful never work for money but let money work for him. They invest their time in learning about money. They uses their wider view of life by taking control of their emotions. Their imagination flourishes while those without it are still looking for a job to fulfill their dreams which may soon be replaced by automation and technology.

The intention of this article was not to demean someone or any profession but to help and support you in widening your vision to become rich.