Jade Jean Blog

WEALTH SECRET NO. 2. FACE YOUR FEAR. YOU ALWAYS
FIND THE BEST FISHING HOLES IN THE PLACES WHERE
THE AVERAGE FISHERMAN IS AFRAID TO GO.

“Why was the fishing good at Lineham?” I asked. “Because very few
ever dared to fish there. The masses are always afraid. This leaves more for the few who dare. We don’t have a shortage of opportunity in America. We have a shortage of courage. The lakes are teeming with fish. But you have to dare to climb the cliffs to get them. Where the risks are great the rewards are greater. Once you understand this concept, you’ll never lack for anything again. That is, if you’re able to overcome your fear.

“As in all fairy tales, if you want to marry the princess, you have to
slay the dragon. The greatest dragon you’ll ever face is your own fear. I am going to call on you to face your fear a hundred times in the next ninety days. If you can learn to live with the fear, the world is yours. “And the fourth point I will also elevate to the level of a wealth secret:

WEALTH SECRET NO. 3. WATCH THE CROWD. GO IN THE
OPPOSITE DIRECTION.
“Success does not come by following the crowd. Where there are many fishermen, the lakes get fished out fast. You must not be afraid to go against the grain—to go alone to unclaimed territory.

“Here, also, fear paralyzes. One of our deepest fears is the fear of
rejection. Aren’t we all soft and fuzzy on the inside? We seek acceptance by our peers. We want to be loved. We crave it. Unfortunately, this is not the route to success. To be successful you must learn to be different.

Taken From:The ROAD TO WEALTH

“For instance, I might say, ‘call fifty sellers a day on the phone.’ And you might wonder, ‘Fifty sellers! What do I say? How do I start? What if I look like a fool?’ Like a blue-vaser, you’ll just have to swallow your terror, put one foot in front of the other, make one call at a time, and continue until you reach the other side. Confidence comes with practice.

“I might say, ‘Assume the seller’s debt of fifty thousand dollars,’ which is nothing to me but might look like a fortune to you. Just let me guide you along the cliff. In the places where your hands are too weak to grab hold, I’ll make a handhold for you. Soon enough you will be fearless.

“Secondly, don’t look at the immensity of the goal. Don’t look down—at the penalty for failure. Just keep your eyes on the next step. I won’t let you make any fatal mistakes. That does not mean, however, that you won’t make mistakes. You will. It comes with the territory. You’ll slip and bruise yourself. Maybe even break a leg, figuratively. But you’ll heal, and if you maintain the proper attitude, you’ll emerge a stronger, more courageous and less fearful person. “The third point I wish to make is so important that I am going to call it a wealth secret:

Taken From:The ROAD TO WEALTH

“Funny things happen in times like these. From deep inside comes a
creative impulse suggesting a solution. I remember reasoning with
myself. ‘Logically, if you take one step at a time, slowly but surely, you must eventually reach the other side.’ The fear eased a notch. I
proceeded like this, one step at a time, one shoe in front of the other, not looking down or ahead, past the outcropping of rock, until I looked up and found myself on the other side.

“It was over! I was safe. “The boys had gone to find the dog at the base of the cliff, and, sure enough, it was dead … eyes glazed over, legs stiff as pegs. We walked silently toward the car, the boys carrying the dog between them for a proper family burial.

“It was an unfo rgettable experience. I had come face to face with my fear. And I had won. I learned four lessons from this experience, which are going to be essential to your success.

“First of all, the cliff was a piece of cake to the Gobles, but to me, a
beginner, it was terrifying. I can still see them walking along the ledge with no fear whatsoever while I groveled along on my hands and knees choking back the panic. I am going to ask you to do things in the next ninety days which, to me, seem normal and ordinary but which, to you, may seem out of your league.

Taken From:The ROAD TO WEALTH

“And what fishing! It was even better than my father had described.
Although the three-pounders eluded me, I found a small pond in the
stream between two of the lakes where I could see the fish swimming in schools. I caught a fish with almost every cast. In the lower lake, dozens of smaller fish would follow my hook in to the shore, their silver bodies gleaming in the sunlight. I have never had a better day of fishing before or since. Apart from us, there was only one other party of fishermen there on that glorious day.

“All went well for me until about four o’clock that afternoon when it
became clear that we would have to go back down the same way we had come up. I asked my guide to leave me there and send a helicopter back for me. He laughed and shook his head. As we started back down, I felt surer of myself. The father and the boys went on ahead. The dog and I brought up the rear. The dog trotted assuredly along the ledge in front of me, disappearing around a corner. I stopped to take a rest. “And then I heard a sickening sound.

“The dog yelped. Some loose rocks tumbled over the side. And then I
heard a distant thud coming from the base of the cliff. “‘What was that?’ I yelled. “‘The dog,’ someone yelled back. “I couldn’t believe it! The dog had slipped and fallen over the edge. Only seconds before—trotting along the ledge so surefooted, so nimble, so confident—now gone. That didn’t do a lot for my confidence. The
fear came back, only stronger. My heart pounded. My legs went weak. I crouched and waited. One of the boys came back for me.

Taken From:The ROAD TO WEALTH

“Will it be dangerous?” I asked. “‘I’ll bring along my two young sons and the dog.’ He pointed to a small brown-and-white mutt with a short, pointed tail and said, ‘If the dog can make it, you can make it.’ I was amazed to learn that the thirteen-year-old dog had traversed the cliff dozens of times.

“Not to be outdone by a couple of kids and a dog, I decided to go.
“The day arrived for the expedition. We started off in the early
morning and followed the trail as it switch backed up the mountain to the point where the trail abruptly stopped and the ledge of the cliff lay before us. The Gobles, father and sons, walked right out onto the cliff as if it had been level ground. The dog trotted along behind without a care. I took one look at the ledge and the three-hundred- foot drop and froze in my tracks. I had expected the ledge to be flat and smooth, almost carved out of rock. Instead it was slightly sloping and covered with loose shale. My knees felt weak. I walked out onto the ledge. My fear of looking foolish to my gracious guides temporarily overcame my fear of the height. But after only a few dozen feet my legs turned to butter, and I dropped to my hands and knees. The fear swelled up inside me in thick knots. My mouth went dry. I couldn’t decide whether to continue or to turn back. I was paralyzed. (There had been only one other time in my life when I had felt a comparable fear—a memorable evening some eight years earlier when I signed the agreement to buy my first piece of property.) There, paralyzed on the cliff, I remember saying to myself
over and over again, ‘Please, God, help me face my fear.’ I continued to crawl along the ledge, inch by inch. Mr. Goble came back to check on me. With his encouragement I raised myself into a crouch and proceeded to the halfway point along the cliff. The boys and the dog had already gone on ahead.

“At this spot on the cliff a large outcropping of rock obliterated the
ledge. Below me, the cliff fell to the boulders far below. I was told that I would have to find a firm handhold on my side of the outcropping and then, swinging my left leg out over the abyss, I was to reach around the jutting rock with my free hand, find a firm handhold and pull myself to the other ledge. He demonstrated what I had to do and waited for me on the other side. I took one look down and seriously considered staying there in that spot on the cliff for the rest of my life. Mr. Goble offered me more encouragement and reached his hand around to guide me. I offered him my left hand, which had no strength in it to even grab for a handhold. He held my hand to the mountain, giving me the strength that I could not muster. Somehow, I swung my leg out over the edge, and he pulled me around. We continued along the ledge until we came to a ravine where we climbed straight up using trees and roots as leverage. Finally we emerged into the basin where the three lakes awaited.

Taken From:The ROAD TO WEALTH

“Sounds like that happened to you,” I said. “Yes, it did,” she said softly. “Can’t forget it. Wonderin’ if the teacher just didn’ t like me or maybe I just didn’t have what it takes.” “We’ve all had experiences like that. It’s hard to overcome the programming. You might wonder, with only a few days to spend together, why I haven’t jumped right into teaching you about real estate. But real estate is the easy part. The hard part is overcoming the fear. Once you overcome the fear, success is just around the corner.

I felt it was time to tell them the cliff story. “When I was a young boy my father took me fishing in Waterton Lakes Nationa l Park in Alberta, Canada. One day, when I was in my early teens, we hiked for about two miles up a mountain trail to the base of a cliff. ‘Bobby,’ he said, pointing to the precipice, ‘in the basin above that cliff is a set of three lakes called the Lineha m Lakes. The only way to get into those lakes is to traverse the cliff along a narrow ledge. I’ve only been to those lakes one time in my life,’ he said. ‘Crossing that cliff on that narrow ledge was the most frightening experience of my life.’ He told me that in some places the ledge was only two feet wide and there were few handholds. In other spots, the ledge was only a few inches wide, and you had to hang on to an upper ledge with your fingers as your feet dangled over a three-hundred- foot drop. But once you got across that cliff, the fishing was fantastic. Big ones. Three-pound rainbow trout. And lots of them. After seeing the cliff, we walked back down the trail and went fishing at another, safer lake where the fish were smaller and less frequent.”

“But I never forgot that day at the cliff. In the back of my mind I
made a pledge to go there one day. And that day came in 1982, more
than twenty years later. By then, I was a successful investor and author coming back to my roots with my young family. We bought a small summer cabin in the park. One day I bumped into Mr. Goble, a man who had been to Lineham many times. He offered to take me into Lineham.

Taken From:The ROAD TO WEALTH

“When will he learn that what he thinks is security is just the illusion
of security? It’s a myth. He’s building his house on the sand of false
assumptions. Ten years ago he made the assumption that the union
would guarantee him job security. He bought into that myth—bought it
hook, line and sinker. And ended up the sucker. What if, instead, he had
acted on a different assumption—that he wasn’t secure—that there was no such thing as job security—that sooner or later he was going to be out on the streets unless he took financial matters into his own hands? What if, as a solution, he had gone out and bought just two pieces of real estate on the side for each of those ten years? He’d be a millionaire today. And then, if he lost his job, he wouldn’t blame his boss. Instead, he’d say, ‘Thanks, boss, I’ve been looking for an excuse to retire anyway.’”

“There is no security in this life. Only varying degrees of risk. And yet millions unquestioningly sacrifice their lives on the altar of security. Like lemmings, they march into the abyss solely because that’s what everyone else is doing. It’s not that they die, but that the y die like heep. They’ve been taught by generations of example to love security and to be afraid of anything that isn’t secure. What are they afraid of, Philip?”

“Failure,” he answered with conviction, as if it were his own fear.
“What’s so bad about failure?” “Its humiliating,” responded Mary. “Did any of you ever take piano lessons?” I asked. “A woman in Atlanta recently told me that her fear of failure began as the result of taking piano lessons. Her teacher made her feel guilty every time she played a wrong note. She didn’t like that feeling. Slowly she became aperfectionist, avoiding anything where there was a chance of failure.”

Karen added, “I can relate to that. In school, some people are great students. They can come to the class a couple of times, take the test and come out on top. Others study and study and study and still flunk. Now, that’s hard on a person.”

Taken From:The ROAD TO WEALTH

“Fear,” responded Nora without hesitation. “Fear,” I repeated, pausing to let it sink in. “That’s a biggie, isn’t it? The biggest of all the biggies. Whenever I speak to a large group, I always ask them to write down the major roadblock to their success. Over half of the people in every audience have a problem with fear. It’s paralyzing them. They want to act, but they just don’t dare. How do we get so much fear in us?”

“Its inbred from the day you are born,” Nora responded. “Who
teaches you to be afraid?” “Your parents. Society.” “How do they do that?” Mary responded. “They teach you to be careful, to not take risks. Just be secure. Get a job. Have a steady income, and that’s what there is to life. To seek security.”

“And,” I added, “Slowly we begin to feel that it’s not OK to climb
mountains. Better to stay secure in the valley. Everywhere we see the word security. What are the words wit ten over the door of the
unemployment office where we found you, Nora?” “The Missouri Division of Employment Security.” “Did that make you feel secure?”

“No!” “Having a job doesn’t guarantee you security. A few years ago, when Braniff Airlines filed for bankruptcy, I talked to some ex-Braniff employees. Some had twenty or thirty years’ seniority. But a few bad management decisions put them on the street. Talk to them about job security. Just last Monday, at an Employment Security Office right here in St. Louis, I talked to a fellow who had worked for ten years on a local automobile assembly line. All those years he thought he was secure. Then, two years ago, he got a pink slip. He’s been waiting ever since to be called back. I guess he just can’t wait to be secure again.

Taken From:The ROAD TO WEALTH

“People.”
“What do you mean by that, Nora?”
“Their attitudes. They look at you like you’re crazy. They haven’t
been able to do it. Why should you?” “Have you ever been told that you couldn’t do it?” “Lots of times,” she said. “Just this morning I was talking to someone about the Challenge. He looked at me and said, ‘You don’t have it in you.’ And I said, ‘You watch me.’

Steve entered the conversation. “When I hear a story like that it just
almost overwhelms me. That someone would be that negative and crass.” “You’d be surprised how many people are like that,” I explained. “And what’s worse, a lot of them profess to love you. They don’t want you to get hurt. To fail. But all too often, by discouraging you from risking, they keep you from realizing your full potential. The only way to grow is to risk. Life is risk. Successful people rarely tell you you can’t do it. Only unsuccessful people tell you that. And they’re usually wrong. Unless, of course, you believe them. In which case, they’re right. It’s up to you. What other challenges are you going to face in climbing the money mountain, Karen?”

“Our poor finances,” she answered. Others joined in. “Management of the property. Upkeep. Building a system to keep it. Learning the problem-solving tools.”

“OK,” I interrupted. “But before you face any of these challenges,
you first have to overcome the biggest obstacle of all. What is the
greatest stumbling block in reaching the top of the money mountain?”

Taken From:The ROAD TO WEALTH

“Good,” I said. “Would you read a book on mountain climbing and
they start climbing the very next day?” All of them responded in unison. “No.” “We would need training, practice,” said Karen. “You start out on hills, then small mountains.

Until you’re ready to tackle big mountains like that.” “Well,” I summarized, “you may not have inherited a bundle from an eccentric uncle, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have a million dollars waiting for you. You won’t have to climb Mount McKinley to get it. But it’ll be just as scary. Starting, as you are, with little experience in climbing the mone y mountain, you will need to make a quantum leap to reach financial independence. In fact, many Americans think it’s
impossible to improve their financial situation

They’re afraid they’ ll lose what they already have. Afraid to fail.
Afraid to even try. Perhaps you used to be like this.“But I’ve been to the top before. I’ll be your guide. Before we tackle the big mountains we’ll practice on some small hills. You’ll get used to heights. With practice, your fear will diminish. I’ll show you where the
money is. Believe me, it’s a lot less scary when you know where to look. And you won’t have to look further then a ten- mile radius of where you live.

“When you’ve climbed the mountain once, it’s much easier the
second time. If I lost everything I owned today, I could start over again right here. In a few hours, I’d have found my first property. In a few days, I’d have bought it. In a few weeks, I’d be on to my second and third. What are some major obstacles you’ll face in climbing the money mountain?”

Taken From:The ROAD TO WEALTH