Kay:

Hey there Questers and welcome back. It’s Monday, March 22nd and this is episode 316. We have a quote from a personal mentor of ours, Mr. Paul Martinelli today, and he says, “The world needs you rich.”

Shi:

This was one of those speeches and quotes that hit us so profoundly when we first heard it. It was just a completely different take and presentation of the way the world needs you. To think of money or wealth or abundance in this way was just mind-blowing and really to hear Paul explain it. He talks about the idea that there are plenty of bad people in the world doing bad things with money. We need more good people in the world doing good things with money. And so, as a good person, we know you are the world truly does need you to be rich.

Kay:

I think that there is a stronghold of an ideal still deeply rooted (I know, at least in the two of us) that almost values the sense of not being the evil, rich person, that money equals evil or money turns everybody bad or money makes good people into bad people. These are all assumptions that I know were very deeply rooted within my own feelings and the way that I viewed the world. The first time that I heard this, it gave me permission to want to have monetary abundance in my life.

Shi:

And see that with that abundance it wasn’t about getting it for you, but getting it through you for others and how amazing that is. You never see a broke villain. So, we think about the way richness is portrayed in stories, and in the media. It can be easy to make that association that money equals bad, and the hero is usually poor.

Kay:

Yep.

Shi:

So sometimes I think there’s also this tendency to tie merit with being not wealthy, just kind of that super-rich equals bad. It’s definitely a primary message out there.

Kay:

Absolutely. I mean, when we think about, “the world needs you rich,” I think it’s best illustrated in actually a John Maxwell illustration where he kind of talks about the leadership ladder. If you climb the leadership ladder, it’s your job to turn around and help other people who are behind you come up onto the ladder. Now eventually it’s about helping those people behind you build their own ladder and then helping them onto that ladder. But that’s another story for another time, when we think about, “the world needs you rich,” so that you can climb that abundance ladder and turn around and give that abundance, or even the knowledge of how you gained that abundance to the people behind you on the ladder.

Shi:

Joseph McClendon III, as many of you know, is a new business partner of ours, a long-time mentor and voice in our ear, and someone we’re delighted to work with. He says that the best advice he ever got about money was from his dad who told him the best thing you can do for the poor is to not be one of them. It sounds kind of funny and ha-ha but it’s reflective of the principle that we have to be the change in the world, and we have to actually be the thing that we want to see. Abundance and wealth is something that most of us wish for other human beings and want to see suffering at the hands of poverty and, and the lack of resources end which means we have to be part of that tide of changing hence…the world needs you rich! Hence the best thing you can do for the poorest to not be one of them.

Kay:

With all of the businesses that Shila and I are involved in, a lot of money passes through our lives and we often talk about our desire to be a good steward of the investments that come through us. Think about yourself coming alongside a wealth of money. Not that this money comes and pours into your cup and now you own it and you have it, but find yourself maybe coming alongside a great mass of abundance and watching the way that yes, he will funnel some of that into your cup, but you’ll find ways to funnel it into the world and into the hands of the people who work with you, for you, around you and those you love.

Shi:

I love the imagery of the wealth shepherd, coming alongside that body of money and being its steward and its guide to make sure that it gets to those behind you on the ladder, behind you on the door, beside you in your family, right next to you in your neighborhood and your community and using it to do good because there are enough bad people out there doing bad stuff with the money. So, more of us being intentional about doing good stuff with money will help us achieve that vision that many of us see and that Paul Martinelli hints at here in our quote for today, which is, “The world needs you rich.”

Kay:

Alright Questers today’s a Money Monday Quest. Today we want you to tune into your money mindset through the lens of the mop bucket millionaire, Mr. Martinelli. Called that because he went from literal janitor to millionaire in his career. What beliefs do you currently carry surrounding money? What could it mean for you to adopt the realization that you may be best able to serve the world when you’re rich? Are you ready?

Kay & Shi:

Let’s quest!