The cold hard truth about cold hard cash

How do people get documented facts and quotes wrong today?

I mean, you don’t even have to type your question or know how to spell and research is brought to your fingertips regardless of whether you’re at 30,000 feet in the air doing 600 mph, stuck in traffic doing 0 mph, or lying in bed.

SIDEBAR: Is it “laying in bed” or “lying in bed”? Do you trust / assume I used it correctly above? Question everything.

Since I’ve been giving public speeches and conducting training sessions I’ve asked my attendees to complete the sentence

Invariably only about 60-70% will know the quote and 9 out of 10 of those will say “evil” as in “Money is the root of all evil.”

Of those maybe half will “know” the quote comes from the Bible. (Maybe 1 out of 1,000 can name chapter and verse.)

But there are always a few—10% to maybe 20%—who will shake their head and correct the audience and me and stress “The love of money is the root of all evils…”

Ahhh, what an important word, love.

The entire quote from 1 Timothy 6:10 reads,

So rooms full of adults I have personally met from all walks of life, from all parts of the nation, from every socioeconomic status, every race, political affiliation, and education level for the last decade think that money is not only evil but the root of all evil. As in money feeds evil.

And since our parents taught us to not be evil, is it any wonder we have issues with money?

And since we begin with faulty assumptions and expectations, is it any wonder those issues lead to even bigger problems like missed quotas, accounts receivable / cashflow issues, and even marital strife?

Jeffrey Dew conducted a study in 2009 at Utah State University and found that one of the best indicators of marital discord is what he terms “financial disagreements.”

Out of all the usual suspects that lead to arguments in a marriage—chores, sex, extended family including in-laws, spending time together, and money—”money disputes were the best harbinger of divorce.”

No wonder. We’re taught that something soft, warm, and pretty—gold coins and $100 bills go well with anything in your closet!—is cold, hard, and ugly.

So we feel bad about having and wanting more of something that everyone tells us is evil so we sabotage ourselves and literally throw money by offering discounts, extended payment terms, or write-offs to deadbeats and/or the money we do manage to cobble together we waste on trinkets and toys that bog us down and are thrown away when next year’s model is released.

Money is neither good nor evil.

It is simply a convenient medium of exchange and your bank account is a reflection of the good or bad choices you have made to this point.

If you’ve made a series of bad choices then choose now to get educated about money, get motivated about your goals, and get committed to making better choices about reaching them.

You can create stability in an unstable world.You can have good friends instead of just acquaintances.You can have a home instead of just a house.You can sleep well at night, every night.You can have a life of experiences instead of just existing. 

You can have that all and more as soon as you learn to ask better questions. Surround yourself with more optimistic, driven people. And take massive action towards clearly defined goals.

Where can you find a place like that?