In this 4th installment of the "Health, Wealth & Knowledge of Self" series, M.D. Alexander continues the conversation of how to address your financial issues & overcome them. He explains the concept of Passive Income, and the truth behind the desire for wealth.

View blog:
http://thewellnesswarlord.blogspot.com/2013/08/chapter-8-self-improvement-financial.html

PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT:

We are preparing to discuss passive income and how to the begin process towards self-sufficiency. I will go in depth about self-sufficiency and what that actually means instead of just tossing the word around. I want to clear up any misunderstandings about the concept as much as possible.
Before I move into the breakdown about what passive income is, I would like to share with you an inspirational story that I heard. I love going through YouTube, finding a lot of inspirational and motivational videos. I found one and in the background of the video, there was a speaker telling a story. I’m pretty sure few have heard this, if I'm not giving correct paraphrase to the actual story, the way he told it, you will have to excuse me, but I am going to give you the gist of what he said. It may not be word for word, but it’s going to be the concept.
He told the story about a young man who heard of a wise man who was healthy and he wanted this wise man to be his mentor to teach him all that he knew about success. When he approached the man, and he put in his bid in to be taught by him, the man basically told him “If you would like for me to teach you about success, meet me tomorrow at the beach.” The young man looked at him and was responded, “Tomorrow at the beach? I’m ready now." The wise man said, again, “Meet me tomorrow at the beach."
The next day, when the young man showed up to the beach, he was dressed up in a suit. Why he dressed up in a suit, I don’t know, because if someone asked me to come to the beach, I would come prepared for the fact that we might have to get in this water. The wise man walked off to the water and he jumped in. He called back to the young man and said, “Come, get in the water."
At first, the young man was hesitant by the way he was dressed. He was thinking, "I don’t think I’m ready to get in this water", but he went ahead and started to walk towards the water. The wise man said, "Go ahead and walk in to your ankles." The young man slightly hesitated, but he went ahead and walked in and let the water come up to his ankles. After that, the wise man said, "Keep walking in until it's pass your knees." The young man hesitated. After a while, he walked in until it passed his knees.
They went through this until they got to the point where the wise man said, “Now, I'm going to have you put your head under water." The young man, at this point, was kind of lost with the process. He went ahead and ducked his head under water, but when he did so, the wise man held him under water. The young man struggled, tried to get loose, and the wise man held him some more.
Eventually, the young man struggled enough to push the wise man off him, then he gasped for air. He looked at the wise man and said, “Are you crazy? You almost drowned me!" The wise man looked at the young man and responded, "In order to succeed, you’re going to want or need success the same way you needed air when you were under water."
The wise man goes on further to explain everything, but when I heard it, I thought it was powerful. The wise man was telling this young man that if he wanted to succeed in life, he was going to want or need success the same way that he desired air! That’s exactly the truth.

Have you ever heard of the stories about great military leaders who go off into situation to conquer an area, and as they and their soldiers come to the land, the boats behind them would be burned. There’s a couple of stories I've heard with the same back drop. The soldiers look bewildered, shouting, "Why would you burn the ships?! How are we going to get home?" That was the point that the general was making - you either go back and try to swim home, but you’re going die on the way home anyway, or you have no choice but to move forward and win the conquering war. You have to conquer; that’s what you have to do in life.