Tuesday, July 5, 2016

How to Get Rich!

The advantage of being almost 70 years old is that I know a lot of people.  Some of them are Rich, even 1%er's!  Yes, they have 40, 000 Dollar appliances and don't spend their money as I would, but most of them work 12 hours a day, and some maybe sixteen.  It is like being Lucky!  The Harder I work the Luckier I Get!  My favorite story is my Mexican Friend, story book sneaking across the desert  when he was 17!  Picked apples for nothing a pound and mad a Hundred Bucks a Day!

He found Paradise and was willing to work to keep it.  Eventually he went through hurdles and jumps and became an American Citizen!  I bought him an Apple Pie!  Now he is the lead painter where I get my metal work powder coated and makes decent money with even some benefits.  He started at the very bottom, part time and minimum wage.  And earned his way to the top.  He deserves it. He bought a nice 3 bedroom house after living in a trailer for 5 years, always saving his money!  He works a lot of side jobs, in the evenings and most every weekend.  He is doing this for his children, puts all of his side job money into a separate account for his children.  And considers himself very lucky to be able to do that.

In order to "get rich" you have to have a cause Bigger than yourself.  You do it for the World, your children, community, something extend beyond yourself and beyond the now.  Most of us get money and spend it.  I once gave an employee a thousand dollar bonus and it was gone in a weekend! I am sure he and his wife had fun for the weekend but then it was gone.  Vanished.

Really, the idea about money is to keep it.  When I first started out in the construction business I worked for someone else and got paid every Friday.  One Friday I would buy a book (on construction) and the next Friday I would buy a tool.  When I could afford it, a nice tool and when I couldn't, a dollar screw driver, but always a tool, always establishing a habit.  Tools and books and learning became my investment.  I was just starting out and there was no reason anybody would hire me.  I got some experience by driving around the neighborhood, stopping at different houses and from the street, in my truck I would draw blueprints!  I would draw an addition to the house, then figure out the material list, all the steps involved to build what I had drawn.  When finished I would toss them in the garbage.  It was just practice but I got good at it.  So good in fact that I could bid any job in two hours or less.  No one paid me for this practice.

A friend of mine wants to be the World's Best Horse Shoe Expert.  He is pretty good but every day he makes ten horse shoes on his forge and throws them away.  Practice..

So many people have the idea that if they are not getting paid they won't do it. That is the route to Poverty.  Even to make a good cake you need to make some bad ones.

Next I will tell you the story about a friend of mine who took a notion to build a yacht.  He did and went sailing for five years.  Nice Story.

2 comments:

Barbra Joan said...

Always love your 'stories' Jerry, because they are true.
Here I am almost 80 and still learning my craft, still practicing, still buying books, looking at videos and taking classes both online and in person..
So that when I grow up, I'll be able to do what I love. LOL !

Jerry Carlin said...

Never stop Barbra, we can keep going as long as we have something to do!