everyday as manufacturers and retailers juggle prices to maximize
their sales and profits in the face of changing demand for and sup-
ply of their products. What all of us in the West consider normal en-
trepreneurial activity was characterized as illegal and subversive
black marketing in the Soviet Union.
Need:A requirement, a thing necessary for lifeIf you carefully consider the things you really need to live, they are
quite limited. You can survive without air for five minutes or so,
without water for five days or so, and without food for five weeks or
so. Not that you would intentionally create any of these situations.
In terms of money, none of these needs is very expensive to meet.
Regarding money, if you give yourself only what you need, then
you won’t have very much. People who think that money is primar-
ily for survival are already as rich as that sort of thinking will ever
get them.
For most people, need has already created a “must” motivation.
To render more effective the internal motivation you already have
about need, increase the scope of the items you must have and the
things you must do. Hitherto unnoticed resources come to aware-
ness when you think or say “I must do this” or “I must have that.”
Tr y:To attempt, to make an effort to do somethingIn most grade schools, students are graded on effort. Although this
may serve to motivate some, trying really accomplishes nothing.
Right now, try to stand up. Try even harder. You’ll notice that you
accomplished nothing. Trying can never be enough. It is only a
start. At the emotional level, which is what really matters, “trying”
refers to failure with honor.
Parental Teaching about Money
Regardless of the particular information we absorbed about money
as children, it was most likely distorted by the fact that we learned
much more about spending from our parents than about earning.
Most of the time children observe their parents spending but do
not accompany them to work, where the earning occurs. This gives
spending an erroneous emphasis. Compare the number of times
you visited the mall or the supermarket with your parents to the
number of times you went with them to work. As an adult, earning
is far more important than spending.
Parental Teaching about Money 75