How To Become Financially Independent
The Value of Money
How to become financially independent – what an exciting
subject! Mr. Shoaff told me when I was 25 and first met him, “Mr.
Rohn, in my personal opinion financial independence is a worthy
goal.” He really said that for a reason. Because a lot of people are
having problems with financial independence. They have some
moral issues really confused in their minds about the value of
money, or the danger of money, or having too much money, or that
the true values of life are not wrapped up in money, so that money
doesn’t really matter that much. Some people have some big
problems in this area.
And I’ll admit I had some. When I first started making more
money in one month than my father made in one year, I was very
disturbed by that. And guess what, for a long time I wouldn’t even
tell my parents. I didn’t tell them. I said, “What are they going to
think? I make more money in one month than my father makes in
one year. How can I tell them?” And I was really confused about
that. I was really bothered by that, for quite a while. I think it was
several months.
Here’s when it ended. I finally worked up the courage to tell
them how I was doing. I was trying to figure out some way to put it,
to break the news to them so that it wouldn’t be too great a shock.
When I told them what I was doing, what was happening, what was
going on, they were just incredibly delighted. They were terribly
happy, terribly excited, and I discovered that I’d worried and been
bothered all those months for nothing. Because I had this in my
mind: ‘how am I going to justify it? How am I going to work this
whole thing out? How are they going to feel?’ And sure enough, I
had just conjured all this stuff up in my mind and it really was not
real. But some people really have some problems on financial
independence because they feel that the morality of earning lots of
money is a very valid question.
Every once in awhile, after my seminar, someone will say, “I
think you talk too much about money and success and that is not