At least, that is what happened to me yesterday.

To be honest, I feel the economic pressure.  Too many of my shortterm insurance clients lost the financial battle and I battle to replace the lost income.  I feel depressed for my clients and I feel very despondent about myself working very hard just to keep my position.  In fact, yesterday morning I felt very sorry for myself.  Not a good place to be.

And then I got an email that reminded me that Bill Gates and Warren Buffett and Richard Branson (the last two definitely on my hero list) did not start out with a lot of money.  In fact, almost no billionaire did.  So I did not really relate to those guys, they are too far removed from me.

But I can relate to a couple of other guys that I know.  In fact, I know one or two who had to start fresh on the wrong side of zero.  I am far from that.  But once again, I also had to start from scratch, or almost scratch, before, and look where I am now.  And I am working on it.  I am learning. Tomorrow I attend a wealth seminar.  There are positives!

And that is when I told myself I should not allow the negative news and negativity surrounding me get to me.  I must just keep on doing what I am doing.  I get impatient, because I have not achieved my goals for 2011.  But I am still doing a lot better than the clients who lost their businesses!  I feel depressed, because I will not be financially free when I planned to be.  But, what the hell, I enjoy what I am doing!  I enjoy servicing my shortterm insurance clients.  And they appreciate it.  I love teaching people about property investments (I hope they appreciate it, too).  Why would I get depressed if I have to wait a year or two longer to be able to say:  I have reached my goal!  Its not as if I planned to stop working!

And, although I will not expand my property portfolio this year, I still have it and it is still working.

And I share this with you, in the hope that, if you also feel despondent and like throwing in the towel, like I did yesterday morning, this post will have the same effect on you as the reminder:  almost all billionaires started with nothing.  And the road to the top is never level or downhill.

Focus on the big picture and the positives! Have a very good day.

The first instance stands out very vividly.  I already referred to Willie Esterhuyse who, in 1978 told us you cannot fight communism with guns and bombs.  You fight it by changing the environment and culture that feeds it.  In February 1990, when F W de Klerk announced the unconditional release of Mandela, I fully understood.

In 1994 I went to my lecturer and declared that I would like to do a doctorate on cashflow and share prices.  Why?  Because I think that is the all important factor.  It took me about a decade to fully understand what I said!

But I am not alone!  Suddenly people who openly doubted my story about the importance of cashflow in your personal finances come back to me and say:  the penny has dropped.  What if all my money is in shares when I retire and the same thing happens that happened in 2008?  Then I am screwed.  I will never be able to afford the retirement I want.

Part of the problem, I think, is that we are so caught up in our traditional way of thinking, that it is difficult to escape!  Until something happens that move our position and perspective.  You know how two people can look at the same thing and see different things?  One sees only 1 tree.  The other sees a row of trees.  Depends on where you stand what you see!  F W de Klerk moved my point of view.  Working for a commission and starting fresh every month moved my position to really value passive cashflow.  And the events since 2008 are moving us all to a different point of view.

But we have to be careful not to get so (emotionally) involved with the events itself, that we don’t see the changing picture with all its threats and opportunities!