Think & Grow RICH or Stay Poor

This post comes from guest contributor Mr. Smith. Please direct all thoughts and comments to him.

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“Emotions provoke your thinking; your thoughts will determine your actions; your actions determine your results.”
-The Chairman

Wealth and Poverty are both REALATIVE terms that exist among all races. Poverty can be broken into two catagories: Generational - 2 or more generations; and Situational - sudden death, divorce, etc.

Wealth and POVERTY can be traced back to one's thoughts, considering we generally learn how to think by the environment we grow up in. So it is true that the RICH get RICHer and the POOR get POORer. The chances of you doing drastically better than the tax bracket that you were raised in are highly unlikely.

INSANITY: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
“The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it's the same problem you had last year.” - John Foster Dulles

Growing up, my parents would always tell me that birds of a feather FLOCK together. As adults sometimes we forget that this rule still APPLIES. Take the time to think of your 5 closest friends and your ultimate income will be, on average, within 5% of each theirs.

If my parents or guardians were POOR, then go to a college where 90% of the professors are POOR; then I hang out with my neighbors or co-workers who are POOR… Chances are I'm going to be POOR too.

I believe that people can have and accomplish anything they want… But a wise man once told me that, “Blowing smoke in your own face will only make you cough.”

You can have anything you want, but you aren't going to get it with your CURRENT thought process. If you could get there with you current THOUGHT process then you would ALREADY be there. If you don't like where you are in life you can probably trace it back to your thoughts. This change will take time and might even be painful, but pain should be viewed as "weakness leaving the body.”

BELOW is a list of though-processes from Paine's book “A Framework for POVERTY.” The following describes the different thoughts of the different classes to the same situations. (P) - Poor; (M) - Middle Class; (W) - Wealthy.

Possessions
P: People
M: Things
W: One of a kind Objects, Legacy, Pedigree

Money
P: Used to be spent
M: Managed
W: Conserve, Invest

Personality
P: Entertainment, Sense of Humor
M: Stability, Achievement highly Valued
W: Connections: Social, Political, Financial

Social Emphasis
P: Social Inclusion he or she likes
M: Self-Governing, Self Sufficiency
W: Social Exclusion

Food
P: Quantity, Do you have enough?
M: Quality, Was it good?
W: Presentation

Clothing
P: Individual Style, Personality
M: Quality, Labels, Acceptance into the middle class
W: Designer, Artistic sense, Expression

Time
P: Present Thinking Only
M: Future
W: Traditions, History

Education
P: Not Really Important
M: Crucial for the climbing the ladder of success
W: Necessary tradition for making connections

Destiny
P: Fate
M: Choice, Can change the future with good choices
W: Nobleness Oblige

Language
P: Casual, Survival
M: Formal, Used to negotiate
W: Formal for Networking

Family Structure
P: Matriarchal, Women are the head of the house
M: Patriarchal, Father is head of the house
W: Whoever has the most money

Love & Acceptances
P: Conditional, Based on whether the individual likes them or not
M: Conditional, Based on Achievements
W: Conditional, Related to social standing

World Views
P: Local
M: National
W: International

Driving Forces
P: Survival, Entertainment, Relationships
M: Work, Achievements
W: Connections: Social, Political, Financial

Humor
P: People or Sexual
M: Situational
W: Social Faux Tas

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Can wealth be obtained by simply changing your way of thinking? Are there other factors that are more important? Does race and class play a significant role in this equation or are these obstacles that we create? What do you guys think?