The Wealth Cure by Hill Harper

Author:Hill Harper
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group USA, Inc.
Published: 2011-07-03T16:00:00+00:00

WHO TEACHES US ABOUT MONEY?

“Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want, so they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then do what you need to do, in order to have what you want.”

—Margaret Young, American singer

Dinner with Mabel and Scott was fun, informative and inspiring. I enjoyed the freedom that being on the train gave me to interact spontaneously with people. Where would I have ever been able to bump into and then spend that kind of time with somebody like Mabel? When would I have been able to break bread with her and hear firsthand about one of the most significant personal and professional experiences of her life?

The story Mabel shared was a remarkable one, and there were many questions I wanted to ask. The time we were together flew by, but that’s not why some of the questions remained unasked. Despite the immediate intimacy Scott, Mabel, and I all felt and displayed in our conversations, I didn’t feel it was appropriate. I wanted to ask her questions that were a bit more structural. Questions about how she’d made the transition from being an employee to being self-employed, about how she’d learned to make certain decisions like what percentage of her sales income she’d use to reinvest in her company. These aren’t little pieces of knowledge that you just pick up on your own or through osmosis. It’s knowledge that you set out to learn, information that you go in search of. I didn’t ask, because the last thing I wanted was to seem disrespectful or offensive. I just kept my curiosity to myself. But those are the types of questions you ask mentors—people who have experiences in areas where you hope to be successful, individuals from whom you can learn about their successes and missteps.

What’s ironic is that the reasons I wanted to ask Mabel those questions are the same reasons I decided not to. She herself said it during the conversation: It’s considered impolite and crass to talk about money. And she was right. It’s just understood that you don’t ask people about their salaries or how much they pay for rent or that brand-new car or that big ole rock on a finger. People are supposed to volunteer information about these things, and even then, it’s a slippery slope. People who volunteer too much or the wrong type of financial information about themselves are regarded with suspicion. They are viewed as tacky, distasteful, or too showy.

Mabel said something else along the same lines that struck me. She mentioned that she had had a list of bills as long as her arm. She admitted to needing her salary in order to survive. These days, with so many people struggling financially, it’s not unusual to hear people talking about the difficulties they are having, but that admission is by and large always accompanied by guilt.

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