Most people equate wealth with money, investments, and material possessions.
The more you possess, the wealthier you are, right?
My entire career has been about changing this paradigm about money and wealth.
There is a prevailing assumption that “It takes money to make money.”
But most people are money-challenged — their financial resources are limited.
Since they believe that they lack the qualifications to build wealth — cash, cash flow, credit, and collateral —they don’t even try. This is unfortunate. Life is a banquet of incredible opportunity available to all.
To prove that anyone can succeed financially, I made the bold claim:
"Send me to any city. Take away my wallet. Give me $100 for living expenses, and in 72 hours I’ll buy an excellent piece of real estate using none of my own money."
The Los Angeles Times accepted my challenge and flew me with an LA Times reporter to San Francisco. There, in the SF Airport, the reporter took away my wallet and gave me five $20 bills. It took about 24 hours for me to buy my first property. I bought 6 more properties in the next 2 days and I gave the reporter $20 back in change.
I wanted to prove that wealth is not just money or external material possessions.