The Ten Laws of Wealth & Abundance

As I’ve wanted to publish The Ten Laws of Wealth & Abundance now for twenty years; I’ve not until recently felt that I’ve grasped the true definition of wealth and abundance.

Without maturity, wisdom, and years of learning experience, and observing; my definition of wealth had to do with how much money or possessions we have.

But, then I began to study people, and I quickly discovered people who were effective at building wealth, yet were depressed, emotionally and spiritually destitute, and miserably unhappy.

I also saw people who didn’t have riches in material possessions, but were happy, contented, emotionally and spiritually grounded.

“What’s going on here?” I kept asking myself.

I Met A World Famous Man

In the late sixties and early seventies I worked with Dr. Maxwell Maltz, author of the then best seller Psycho-Cybernetics. He was world famous, having sold around thirty million books. As a plastic surgeon, he earned a very high income; not to speak of his speaking fees and book royalties. Yet, because of his childhood growing up in New York’s lower eastside, with immigrant Jewish parents, he had a strong inner fear of not being able to practice medicine and running out of money in his later years.

It was ludicrous. He could have never spent all his money. He thought little of giving away, only of hoarding and keeping.

Later I was privileged to work with W. Clement Stone, a Chicago insurance magnet, who had earned into the hundreds of millions. As much as being driven to earn money, he was just as concerned about giving back—having given away around three hundred million dollars to charities, churches, and educational institutions.

Mr. Stone lived to reach a goal—that of living until he was 100. He died happy, feeling that he had given the world more than he had taken from it.

Dr. Maltz died in a hospital, in a fit of panic, screaming when doctors were about to give him an injection for Hong Kong Flu, “Don’t let those butchers kill me!” A doctor himself, referring to the other doctors, his later life was anything but peaceful.

What is Wealth and Abundance?

So, what is wealth and abundance, anyway? But, not only what is it, how do we define the behavior of those who have it?

Although it’s really up to each of us to define our own values and life priorities, since you’re reading this I’ll tell you what I think and believe. You, of course, are free to make your own decisions.

I define wealth and abundance as: a state of being that’s characterized by:

• Peace of mind
• Freedom from financial and personal fear, worry, and anxiety
• Choosing to focus on plenty rather than scarcity
• Hope for a greater tomorrow
• A thankful spirit
• Desire to create value for others above what you get paid
• Seeking the highest good for others
• Clarity of goals
• Defiteness of purpose
• Economic security

How Would You Define It?

How would you define wealth and abundance should someone ask you? But, probably not too many people ask you this question.

The truth is we all define it each day in your conscious and unconscious choices and their corresponding behaviors.

Choose to practice the Ten Laws, and you’ll enjoy wealth and abundance regardless of your current life situation. I’d love to hear from you about how you’re practicing the Ten Laws.

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The money you have or don’t have is a measurement and manifestation of how you think and what you believe, much more than what you know.

All of us know that we should spend less than we earn. Yet, it’s estimated that around 65% of all people don’t necessarily practice what they know.

The truth is that our external financial behaviors are being driven by internal self-beliefs. Some of these unconscious beliefs that control our financial freedoms are:

• Who we think we are
• How capable we believe ourselves to be
• What’s possible, or impossible for us to enjoy, achieve, or become
• How worthy we feel we are to enjoy higher life rewards
• How valuable, competent, or able we think others think we are.

These mental, emotional, and spiritual beliefs have been recorded deeply within our unconscious belief systems; and whatever they are, they reign supreme in controlling our actions, feelings, behaviors, and abilities. We will always act out in our behaviors the lifescript that has been recorded deep within us.

This lifescript, or our inner belief recordings also dictates how we view money. Do we see it as what we must have to survive? Or, we view it as something we spend, save, invest, or put to work for us?

Do we unconsciously believe money is easy or difficult to get? Are we satisfied with just earning enough to cover our living expenses? Or, do we believe that there’s plenty of money out in the world just waiting for us to exchange value or service for it?

The Massive Amount of Money Floating Around

The moment we adopt the belief that there is a massive amount of money floating around in the world that is awaiting our exchanging value for it, we adopt a prosperity awareness, or abundance mentality.

We set our mental and emotional sails in the direction of wealth and abundance. We suddenly view the world, ourselves, and our ability to reach higher levels of financial freedom in elevated terms. We take on whole new financial horizons.

Just go back twenty years ago and look at the list of Forbes Magazine’s billionaires. Compare them with this year’s list. Notice the industries that made them financially wealthy. But, especially notice how many were not on the list twenty years ago.

As you do this, ask yourself “Why?” “Why, are there so many more now than twenty years ago?” And, “What did the new ones do to gain their wealth?”

I can pretty much guess what your answer will be. Aside from those who inherited their wealth, most of the others provided some value that caused people to exchange their money for what these people offered.

Whether it was trading your money for Windows software, a ticket to the Dallas Cowboys football game, or purchasing products at lower prices at a Wal-Mart; the same thing happened. People discovered that there were massive amounts of money floating around, looking for a home with someone who provided them with value greater than the money they swapped for it.

This Law of Compensation cannot be violated for long.

What Will You Swap For Other People’s Money?

This is the supreme question of people who are truly aiming at wealth and abundance. Most of the world’s population violates this law. But it’s an unnerving law of prosperity and abundance that we violate at our own expense.

Break this law at your expense. Believe it, observe it, and keep it, and you have planted the seeds for your future success.

What will you begin now doing that will create greater value for people, so you can form a vacuum for greater measures of prosperity and abundance to flow into your life?

Let me hear from you about how you’re doing this.

I was fortunate to grow up in a low income family, and had to earn money since I was nine years old.

In the fourth grade, I set pins in a bowling alley after school. I earned a nickel a line. Around six o’clock I’d draw 15¢ from my earnings, go next door and have a hamburger, a hot dog, and a red Nehi soda pop—all 5¢ each.

At an early age, I noticed my family, relatives, and people in our neighborhood all lived on much lower economic levels than other more affluent people did. I wondered why.

I worked my way through college. I remember one semester when I couldn’t find a job, living on nothing but crackers and milk. A friend worked at a dairy and gave me all the milk I wanted.

I learned basic survival skills and never thought a moment about quitting school. What I learned academically has mostly vanished from my consciousness, but what I learned from these experiences remain with me to this day.

A Starting Observation

Later, when I started my training and development business I experienced a situation that got me thinking. One day a young man who worked in our shipping room told me that he had just bought a new Oldsmobile and paid cash for it. The same week a man who was our senior vice-president, and who earned the most money of any of our employees, came to me and wanted an advance in his next paycheck to make a down payment on a new Cadillac.

What’s going on here?” I asked myself. Why can one person with much lower earnings pay cash for a new car, and the other who earned four or five times as much needed an advance for just a down payment?”

Since then, I’ve observed many similar paradoxical financial behaviors.

I know of a friend who recently earned well over one million dollars in one year, and at the end of the year couldn’t pay close to $250,000 in income tax. Were he not able to liquidate some other assets, he would have been bankrupt.

I first began to write the The Ten Laws of Wealth & Abundance twenty years ago. It never seemed the right time to publish it. I just wasn’t sure I’d earned the right to do so—until now.

Years ago, I began a training and development business with no money, but a lot of dreams. I know what it means to not have two nickels to rub together. Three times during these forty-three years, because of economic down turns, I’ve been financially gutted. I was always able to stave off creditors and eventually pay them in full. Now, I have a net worth of several million dollars.

But more than material assets, close to two million people have graduated from my courses in eighty nations. I feel like I am achieving a major prosperity goal—I believe I have given the world much more than I’ve taken from it. At least this has been my goal.

One way that I’ve attempted to give back has been to make one of my courses available to people who can’t afford it. Any of our certified facilitators who will donate their time to conduct our goal achievement course, we will provide the materials free.

Just this week I got notes from people who were in a half-way house, being just released from prison. Here’s what one wrote:

Mr. Willingham,

This class helped me in so many ways. I am a single mother of five children, and have struggled with a crack cocaine addiction for nearly 20 years. And today my life has meaning. I know what it takes to have the life I have always wanted.

Thank you so very much for the means and providing a way for me to have been able to take this class. I know I can do my heart’s desire. I am so very thankful once again. God Bless you.

The joy of touching a person’s life like this transcends all the money in the world.

Tell Me of Your Dreams, Struggles, and Successes

I hope that reading and practicing The Ten Laws of Wealth & Abundance you’ll be able to enjoy your dreams, and leave the world in better shape than you found it. It would be a pleasure to hear from you about lessons you’ve learned in the crucible of your life’s struggles.