The Trick To Money Is Having Somebook is one of those books that is with me wherever I travel. I love it because of its simplicity and wisdom.
It was written by Stuart Wilde, the author that absolutely fascinates me. He is well known in the metaphysical circles for his no-nonsense approach and edgy attitude. By edgy I don’t mean that he is emotional or aggressive or anything like it, I simply mean that he always says what he means, no matter whether it sounds somewhat offensive or unconventional.
For example, he says in this very book that poor people will sooner or later suffer from their lack of contribution which they use as an excuse to their religious beliefs. Here’s how he puts it:
“All philosophies which teach that poverty is groovy, do so as a cop out. It keeps the non-performing members happy for they can live in the ego-trip of thinking that somehow their lack of creativity and effort will be blessed at a later date. I think they are in for a rude awakening but that is irrelevant.”
Not many people say things as they are, because they are scared for public criticism. So I really appreciate people like Stuart Wilde, who fearlessly talks from the heart. When I think about it, when I say something along these lines, I get a bunch of letters from critics. He published A Book containing many of such remarks, I wonder how many criticism letters he got:)
In the The Trick To Money Is Having Some book, Stuart describes how to start receiving more money by being open to it, knowing your worth and understanding what spirituality really is.
The book is divided into 11 chapters. Here are the short summaries for each chapter.
CHAPTER ONE: THE TRICK TO MONEY IS HAVING SOME!
In the first chapter he talks about the importance of the feeling about money. No matter how much money you have, you should pay attention how you feel about it. If you feel that you have little when you look at what you have, you will remain poor. If you appreciate and are happy to see the money that you have (even if you have very little of it), this attitude will attract more money to you.
I absolutely love this paragraph in chapter one which actually describes the experience I went through (and am going through) which is absolutely amazing:
"The reason why making money is such a joy is that it allows you to grow spiritually, to understand the finer subtleties of life and to come to grips with many aspects of yourself. This does not imply that rich people are necessarily spiritual, but it does infer that poor people probably are not.”
That is so true. When you improve yourself and understand the spiritual aspect of you, all your life changes for the better. And when you decide to master money in a spiritual way, it’s such a growth process. You can actually witness your money growing when you obey the spiritual laws, understand your worth and provide massive value.
And I also have to agree that poor people are not spiritual. I know that this statement of mine will make many people angry, but I would always stand my ground on this one. Those people who are the poorest are the most judgemental, angry and negative people I have ever met. And that is NOT spiritual.
CHAPTER TWO: TICK-TOCK: THE DESTINY OF THE MASSES
I absolutely love this chapter. It starts with a powerful line:
“In the ordinary world of mechanical-man (tick-tock as I call it) money is the key symbol of survival.”
This could not be said in a better way. Those people who are poor are so because all their focus is on survival. As T Harv Eker noted, when your whole focus is on survival, there’s no time to thrive. When you focus not to lose, do you ever win? No! You absolutely must focus on thriving if you ever wan to become wealthy.
What you focus on you get. So when poor people focus on survival, they indeed survive, but they never thrive. This so reminds me of my parents. All the cries and worries of my mother about her financial situation kept me insecure about who I was and what I’m capable of for such a long time. It’s good that I woke up though, and I hope that books such as this one will wake up other people, who are still asleep.
In the The Trick To Money Is Having Some book, Stuart Wilde explains that those people who are in a survival mode are ego-bound. Ego is the one who tries to keep them obsessed about their survival because ego is mortal and it wants you to believe that you are mortal too.
I also really like the bit in this chapter where Stuart talks about government-supported people. People who are on welfare forget their creativity and put their survival in the hands of others. He says that if those people would suddenly be left without income from the government, they would “trot off to work the following morning like good ‘uns”. That’s so true. That helplessness is such an illusion they buy into because they don’t want to wake up as they are scared of what they might discover. But when they have to, they will obviously do so. And that is only possible with extreme actions I’m afraid, to awaken people who have been sleeping for a very long time.
Stuart Wilde further on talks about the love of the status quo. Masses hate seeing changes, and so when changes occur, most people are at loss. But those who are aware, know that when big changes happen, there are plenty of opportunities to make big money.
The author also shares his understanding that poor people only believe in what they see with their own eyes. “They think that life is serious and they look at all those little pieces of green paper (or whatever color the government is using this year to pretty up the paper and make it look like it might be worth something) and they are prepared to die of cancer to get a pile of it.”
That’s, again, so true. The poor are not aware that they are not of this world, although they live in this world. They are like actors in a play who think that it’s a real life. Those who are poor get into all sorts of dramas and their focus is so into the details of life, that they c-o-m-p-l-e-t-e-l-y miss out the big picture. As they live this way, life goes really fast and then they approach the end of their lives with huge regrets. If they could only step out of this drama and see what life is really about, there would be no diseases, no stress and no struggle.
CHAPTER THREE: PULLING PEOPLE, THROUGH ACCEPTANCE
In this chapter of the The Trick To Money Is Having Some book, Stuart deals with the issue of seeking approval. So many people live unhappy lives because all they do is try to please others. And because they spend all their time trying to please others, they have no time left to do decide what they really want out of life.
He emphasises the importance of seeking your own approval only and accepting yourself fully. When you do, the rest of the world will accept you too. He says that you would be much happier if you would live the life your own way and ignore the opinions of others rather than live in a community in which you allow to be influenced by everyone in it.
He mentions that when you stop listening to others and start paying attention to your own feelings and intuition, you step out of the mass consciousness and start consciously create your life the way you want. And that’s true empowerment.
Stuart writes that when you fully accept yourself, you instantly become a powerful human being pulling other people to you. Your energy becomes pleasant and you start being liked by others.
Another amazing tip Stuart mentions in the The Trick To Money Is Having Some book is that you shouldn’t feel bad about charging people. Money is energy, so when you take the energy from someone, they will get it back. It’s all exchange, nothing ever gets lost. When you take some water out of one part of the ocean and drop it into another part of it, you did not really take anything out – all the water is still there. So the same goes with money.
Then he goes on to explain the importance of honouring money and picking up coins when you see them. Here he shares a really funny story about the incident he had when trying to get the penny he saw on the street. That was one of the funniest stories I have ever read and I remember when I first read it I couldn’t stop laughing for a very long time. It’s on page 36, if you happen to get the same edition as I did (my edition is very old, some pages are about to fall out from my book:)).
CHAPTER FOUR: …AND WHEN THEY SHOW UP, BILL ‘EM!
This chapter is dedicated to overcoming your beliefs about charging and your worth. When you value your time, you charge for it. If you don’t charge for the work that you do, you will perform it in a worse way in the future. If you charge little for the work that you do, you will get the worst clients, those who complain about your work and count every penny.
Stuart Wilde tells that there are many high income earners who don’t care how much things cost, all they are after is quality and energy. So instead of focusing on penny pinchers, it makes total sense to concentrate on those who are a pleasure to deal with and are willing to pay a lot for your time or products.
He tells that there are so many lifeless products and services and the prices are of such things are the same or similar. But when you invest your energy and try to make your products or services the best, you jump away from such energy draining environment and get into much bigger profits and get much nicer clients.
He also noticed (I noticed this too) that successful people are usually more lively than those who are unsuccessful. They have much more energy and their focus is on success rather than problems. As he puts it, “So the shakers and movers, by their very nature, are moving faster, taking more risks, investing more in the world than their less active counterparts”.
CHAPTER FIVE: MONEY MAKING IS A PIECE OF CAKE – CHOCOLATE CAKE
It’s all about exchange. What you put out, you get back. The reason why so many people are broke is that they put little or nothing out. This is universal, in my opinion. I know many successful and unsuccessful people. I truly noticed that unsuccessful people are looking to get and they think they win if they don’t give anything whilst getting something. However successful people always give. They give you their wisdom, their things, their time and they are open to receiving too.
Stuart mentions that it’s also important to notice what kind of energy you are putting out. When the quality of your energy is good, even when you give a small amount of it, you will get back quite a lot of things/money. So that’s the reason some people struggle in life. They put in a lot of hours of work, but nothing much is returned to them. So that means the quality of their energy is low.
Another great observation Stuart shares in the book is the importance of appreciating the successes of others. Those people who look at high achievers in disgust or envy and wish them bad will remain unsuccessful. It’s very important therefore to happily accept that some people are extremely successful and look at what they do to have become so.
In every chapter, there is a Dollar Dance Concept. It’s basically a very important statement that I guess Stuart wanted for the readers to remember. The Dollar Dance Concept of the fifth chapter is absolutely essential in my opinion, so I’m sharing it with you (from my good old book):
Here’s another concept which I must share with you because I found this to be true myself, and other successful people I know totally agree on this one:
“To make a lot of money you will have to decide to become somewhat abnormal. Normal people are rarely successful, and what success they do enjoy is often tainted by their discomfort in life.”
Then he goes on to explain that by “abnormal” he doesn’t mean “weird” or anything. He simply means that you have to change your mindset from that of lack to the abundance one, in order for you to make a lot of money. And the abundance mindset does seem strange to those who are poor.
In this chapter Stuart Wilde offers a very daring exercise for those people who are stuck in the mindset of the masses. To get rich, you absolutely must break out of the thinking of the poor, and the exercise in chapter five will surely help you do that.
Stuart mentions that to become truly wealthy, you absolutely need to take responsibility for yourself. You cannot become truly rich if you cannot take responsibility for your actions and your life.
CHAPTER SIX: FEELING RICH AND LOVIN’ IT
The Dollar Dance concept of this chapter is great, here it is:
"You have a divine right to choose whom you will play with and under what circumstances. By eliminating any energy drag, the positive good things in your life will resonate faster and faster.”
So many people put up with bad behaviour of their friends or relatives. I would never do that to myself, and I hope you wouldn’t either. The energy of other people affects you, therefore it’s crucial to hang out with those whom you want to be like.
As in most of the chapters of the The Trick To Money Is Having Some book, Stuart explains that the way you feel about money determines how much of it you have. When you get rid of negativity in your life, your feelings about money will change. When you eliminate negative people from your life, you will no longer feel fearful about your financial situation and thus more money will flow into your life.
The low energy can be transferred not only from people, but from things too. So it’s much wiser to surround yourself with a few things of good quality rather than with plenty of cheap stuff. As he puts it, “One good pair of expensive shoes, is better than a dozen pairs made under water by Brazilian convicts at two bucks each.”
Stuart in this chapter emphasises the importance of giving. By giving you don’t lose anything. In fact, when you give, you get more. So don’t hold on to everything you have, release some of it happily and know that more of the good things are on their way to you.
CHAPTER SEVEN: CONCERTED ACTION IN THE MARKETPLACE
This chapter is essential to read for those who got to the level of happiness by meditation and other spiritual activity but are still poor. Stuart explains that you have to enter the marketplace if you want to become wealthy; meditation and being spiritual is not enough.
Here author mentions that you can offer three things to the marketplace: a skill, knowledge or a product.
A skill, he mentions, is the least attractive because you have to be physically there to service your clients. That takes your time and your time is limited. However if you become exceptional in what you do, you can earn quite a lot of money because most people have mediocre skills. When you go the extra mile, you stand out from the crowd big time therefore you can charge much more.
Sharing your knowledge is another way to earn a lot of money. We live in the information age and there is a huge demand for the “How To” information. Your knowledge can be shared in hundreds of ways and it’s not limited by your hours, which is really important if you want to become truly rich.
It’s important, however, to have the knowledge very few people possess. Because if you have the knowledge that many people have (like when you get a degree), you will fall into the competition and earn very little or nothing.
So if you want to invest your time in getting some knowledge, only do so if the knowledge that you are going to receive is not possessed by many.
I would like to add that street smart knowledge will always be more in demand than knowledge received in educational institutions. So by getting knowledge I really don’t mean getting a degree or anything along those lines. Please don’t do that to yourself unless you want to become a doctor or a lawyer.
Stuart says that if you are a merchant at heart, the product is the way to go. Selling products is probably the easiest way to get wealthy as that doesn’t involve your personal time anymore. You can find many distribution channels and generate increasing amounts of income without your personal involvement. But no matter whether you are involved in the selling process or not, you have to love your product. If you love your product, it gets charged up with your positive energy and it’s easier to sell it.
Furthermore, you have to know your product, so that you could talk about it, pitch it and show to people that you are the expert of what you are selling.
No matter whether you choose to sell your skill, knowledge or product, it’s important that you provide quality and offer great customer service.
CHAPTER EIGHT: ORIGINALITY: THE RECIPE FOR EASY MONEY
There are lots of mediocre stuff in the world, so when you truly stand out with an effective product or service, you will be able to make a lot of easy money. So if you find something that is important to people but does not work too well and make it great and different, people will be willing to pay you large sums of money for it.
You can be original by not doing what others do, by selecting a completely different direction. Originality allows you to stand out from the crowd. People will notice original items but not the common ones, as we get exposed to thousands of mediocre marketing messages and average products every day.
CHAPTER NINE: THE FORCE OF YOUR WILL PROJECTED
Your intention should be really strong if you want to make a lot of money in life. Most people’s intention is weak, and that’s why they get little results.
Accept nothing more than what you want and fearlessly go for it. Once your intention is set, you must be patient and persistent for your desire to materialise. You should focus on your target and never let go, no matter how long it takes. But you shouldn’t expect it to arrive one way or the other, because you never know how the universe planned out its arrival.
You should also know how to control and direct your will for it has the aspect of your soul. If correctly directed, it brings to you amazing results. Those people who are detached from emotions of the masses and direct their wills properly enjoy the results of their mastery of selves.
Stuart Wilde writes:
“The points to consider are, what do you want and how much energy are you prepared to exert to get what you want? If the level of enthusiasm you are willing to commit to your quest is not great, then obviously you don’t want what you think you do, or at best your quest is not that important to you.”
Most people say they want better lives but do they really? No, because they are not willing to change a tiny bit of how they live in order to gain more. So all the complaining that they do is useless as they themselves choose the circumstances that they are in.
Basically those people who achieve their goals do so by paying the cost required to get their goals, no matter how big the cost might be. So think about your desire. Are you willing to sacrifice whatever it takes to get your desire? If not, your intent is too weak and you may not get what you want. You have to know exactly what you want and aggressively demand that life would deliver it.
When your will is clear, people feel it and want to be with you. Then you can set your own rules and people will comply because of the force they feel that you have. That’s the time you should carefully look at how you spend your time and with whom.
Most people, however, feel too unworthy to go for what they truly want in life. They fail to collect real power around them because of their weak wills. As Stuart puts it:
“The mind creates boundaries that are fake and ungodlike. If you have no real emotion about your possessions, and if you do not cling to life in a desperate way, the Tao emanates from you.”
He goes on to say that if in such state you find a bag full of cash, you would take it because you will feel it’s an affirmation from the universe of your abundance. However those who consider themselves unworthy would hardly ever take such discovery.
Stuart, in the The Trick To Money Is Having Some book, writes that:
“As you concentrate upon yourself and your life you will soon become much more powerful than 99% of those with whom you deal. You should take care to temper your energy and not get carried away by the wealth or the position you find yourself in.”
I found this to be true myself. When my intent became clear, I gained much more power. This power influenced others in a big way, so then I realised how careful I have to be with it. When your will is strong and your intention is clear, most people will do without thinking what you are telling them to because their wills are so weak.
Also Stuart makes a good point that those people who are not spiritual might earn a lot of money, but whatever amount they earn will seem empty to them.
CHAPTER TEN: THE WARRIOR’S EAGLE EYE
Most people are capable of achieving what they desire but their lack of clarity stops them from getting what they want. But because most of people’s lives are so cluttered, they lack this sense of clarity which is vital if you want to become wealthy.
Stuart Wilde studied the history of the Mongols and was fascinated by their strong wills. They won the battles because they fought them as though they had no other option. Their sense of clarity was extremely strong which made them almost indestructible.
After reading about their history, Stuart created a five-day course called “The Warrior’s Wisdom”. In the course Stuart shatters the illusion around people showing that fear is not real and the intention is all it takes to achieve any goal that you have.
He teaches that unless you let go of most of the emotions in your life, you will not be able to achieve big goals. When you let go of your emotions, you are on your own. Here’s the paragraph:
“As you detach emotionally from life, you will naturally drift away from those you know and love. You will find yourself out on your own. That can be scary. People would rather live in a jail with their mates and the things they know than to be free, but on their own.”
Those who are emotional are confused, and confusion is the opposite of clarity. So clarity is not the concept widely understood by most.
We come to this earth on our own and leave it on our own. Although we may have a community around us, our souls have individual journeys.
Stuart Wilde goes on to share a good exercise about how to not lose sight of any deal and make the right decisions under pressure. It’s a very long exercise which, if you go through it, will make you much clearer about your goals.
CHAPTER ELEVEN: THE BATTLE PLAN
In this last chapter of the The Trick To Money Is Having Some book, Stuart advises to make a plan of how you will achieve your desires. He asks you to write down the overriding desire and then in smaller letters your secondary desires. The he suggests to make a space for the paper with your goals. You may put it in a fancy box with other important items that hold spiritual value to you or have a corner in your room dedicated to that paper.
Stuart then talks about the importance of writing down the tools that you have to use for your battle plan. He calls them “resources”. He mentions that resources can be your capital, energy and the relationships that you have with other people.
The author emphasises that it’s important to take risks when you are going after your desires. You cannot achieve anything significant without taking risks. If you have fear about taking some action, gain more information about the field that you are in because knowledge dissolves fear.
Another area Stuart advises to look at when try to achieve your goals is “The Terrain”. By that he means the energy of the situation or the deal. Try to feel the situation instead of logically thinking about it as the mind tends to trick us.
He advices to pay attention to the timing. When the timing is not right you may lose. You know that the timing is wrong when you are against the flow. Only start ventures/deals when they feel in the flow, when everything comes together easily. When you start struggling, retreat and wait for a better time or gain more knowledge.
There is no limit to how much money you can make throughout some period of time, although the masses tend to think the opposite. People with abundance mindsets don’t assign a limit of money they can make per hour because it’s all about ideas and not the amount of hours you put in.
Lastly, the author explains that the trick to money is having some or at least believing that whatever you have IS abundance. When you stop being emotional about money, your creativity is freed and you get in the flow of life.
When you no longer think about money as a symbol of survival, you instantly start earning more because you no longer block yourself from larger amounts of money.
Conclusion
This book is not for everyone. Stuart Wilde is very honest and sometimes his honesty might be unbearable to some. He says exactly what he has in mind, no matter whether it sounds a bit rude or inappropriate. I personally love his honesty and this book will always stay with me, but I see how it might not be suitable to some.
His personality shines through in this metaphysical book about money. He doesn’t use fancy words and some of his jokes might not be appropriate to some. But he is a truly spiritual person having mastered all the areas of life and remaining his true self in public.
This book will clarify the money topic, inspire and motivate you to go for your real desires. It gives you plenty of information about how to get into the flow of life so that you would open up to increasingly larger amounts of money.
So if you are a spiritual person but you struggle with money, this will book will show you how to eliminate struggle once and for all. If you don’t mind the author’s edgy remarks and very honest observations, get this book here to start your journey to wealth.
NM: it is funny to watch how some people treat the money. Just a simple observation exercise for you:
look at your friends or colleagues how they pay for lunches, drinks, coffees and dinners when you go out. If they reach for money easily from their pockets/wallets or if they struggle looking for coins... It can tell you a lot who is poor and who is rich in your own surroundings.
It can also teach you a lot about yourself. Do you say good buy to your money easily? If yes, you are rich, if not - you are poor. As being rich and poor as mentioned above is not about how much money you have but it is about your mindset and how you treat the money or everything that you posses, let your money go easily and let them come back easily too - it is an open channel. Always keep in mind: you feel rich only when you spend not when you keep. There is one more point. Rich people never bother how much they spend or whom do they give away. They know for sure: THEY ARE THE MAGICAL CREATORS, the creators of this energy from nothing. Tomorrow they will create even more. They do not need to keep,as this energy gets attracted to them by definition because they are the CREATORS... Now one more interesting article to meditate on... Zucker-Splurge, Billionaire Misers
Mark Zuckerberg, who just made $20 billion on his Facebook stock exchange launch, was in Rome with his new wife. He had lunch in a Kosher restaurant for €32.00, and he didn’t leave a tip, tee hee. 10% is normal in Europe so he ducked out on €3.20 and it was reported he had dinner at another restaurant the night before, and he left no tip there either. It made the Italian news. Billionaire misers. The humans can be so creepy (see link to story below).
I had a very wealthy 100-million-dollar friend, who was very intelligent. I enjoyed his company. But I later discovered he was a miser, he’d get a voucher for a free dinner for two and take me with him. But when we ate out I’d notice he’d never tip the waiters, I was so ashamed. (I have always been on the side of the working class). I would hide my mobile phone under a napkin, so I had an excuse to go back to the table and drop a tip without him seeing me.
Sometimes, I used to have to carry his luggage as he refused to use the bell caps in hotels in case he had to tip them. Mind-boggling.
Zuckerberg made $20 billion from the launch of Facebook, then the shares collapsed and the value of the company went down $46 billion. So the new shareholders that stupidly bought the stock lost their shorts. It’s a tale of “haves” and “have nots”. There is a new term on Wall Street “you’ve been Zucked” meaning you have been duped, rolled over by white-collar crooks.
I’d like to predict that Facebook shares will become worthless one day, the day after the satellites go down and the Internet goes silent. Put that on ya wall, just in case. Stuart Wilde.