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CHAPTER 9: A Shortcut to Attracting Whatever You Want

Let me tell you a little secret.

You don’t need to practice the five steps in this book to manifest your desires or attract more wealth. Nope. There is an easier way. I’ll tell you what it is if you promise not to spread this secret around.

Deal?

Here’s the secret, what I call the shortcut to creating your life the way you want it: Be happy now.

That’s it. If you can be happy right now, in this moment, you will have achieved whatever you want. Why? Because underneath everything you say you want is the desire for happiness. In 1917 Ralph Parlette wrote in his book, The Big Business of Life,“Whatever we do, we are doing it to be happy, whether we realize it or not.” You want a new car so you will be happy.

You want more money so you will be happy.

You want better health so you will be happy.

You want that loving or lusty relationship so you will be happy.

Happiness is your goal.

And here’s another secret: You don’t need to have anything else in order to be happy right now. You can choose to be happy.

I know that’s a tough one to grasp. Just today, I received a call from a nurse caring for my best friend. The call was disturbing, to say the least. I was told my friend may need drug rehab. This news was causing me to go into a tailspin, right into unhappiness.

A few hours later, I went out for an acupuncture appointment. As I drove through the Texas country hills in the beautiful area where I now live, I realized that I could be happy anyway. My unhappiness wasn’t going to help me, or my friend, or my driving. I could choose to be happy.

Does that sound like a wild thought? We’re taught that outer circumstances dictate how we are to feel. What I’ve learned is that the outer is simply the illusion. Oh, it seems real enough. I agree. But what created that outer is your inner. And that’s where the Attractor Factor comes into play.

As Paul Ellsworth wrote in his 1924 classic book, The Mind Magnet: “Consciousness is cause.”

I’ll explain this further right after this exercise . . .

In the space below, write down some things you are grateful for. Gratitude is a wonderful tool to appreciate the moment and activate the Attractor Factor. The more you feel grateful, the more you attract new moments to be even more grateful. What are you grateful for in this moment?

CHAPTER 10: An Introduction to the Attractor Factor

A friend and I were having lunch in my hometown, Niles, Ohio, one day. I was there visiting my parents. My friend wanted to know the key secret to manifesting your own reality and attracting more wealth.

I thought for a moment and then said: “The hardest concept for most people to grasp is that they are the sole reason they are experiencing whatever they have in their lives. They are totally responsible.” I could see my friend’s head rear back.

“How is that possible!” he almost shouted. “I’m not responsible for a car accident I might get into, or for losing my job, or anything else that life deals my way.” I took a deep breath. This wasn’t going to be easy to explain, but I wanted to give it my best shot.

“Spirituality is all about taking full responsibility for whatever occurs in your life,” I said. “Good or bad, it has all come to you from you. Joseph Murphy used to say your life is an out-picturing of your inner pictures.” “I don’t sit around picturing car accidents,” my friend blurted out.

“Maybe not consciously,” I said. “But do you watch the news?”

“Yes.”

“Wouldn’t you say the news is all about negative stuff—from accidents to murders to crises in countries we never heard of?”

“Yes, but—”

“Your mind is soaking up that programming,” I explained. “And have you ever noticed how movies plant ideas in your mind?”

“What kinds of ideas?”

“Well, ever notice how big business is always the bad guy?”

“You mean like in movies like Wall Street?”

“Yes! Those movies teach you that money is bad, or that it corrupts, or that wealthy people are bad,” I went on. “The point is, all of this is programming your mind to attract the very things you’d prefer not to experience.” My friend was quiet a minute.

“I think what you’re saying,” he began, “is that we are all robots or maybe machines.”

“I gotta admit that’s a pretty accurate explanation. Until we wake up, we attract things into our life unconsciously and then declare we didn’t do it.” “I don’t know about this,” my friend mumbled. “I don’t know. That means I chose to be in AA and to make a mess of my life.”

“Well, it does mean that,” I said. “And you did it for your own unconscious reasons. Maybe you wanted the challenge to make you stronger. Maybe you wanted the experience to help you understand life in certain ways. I don’t know. You know, though, somewhere inside you.” “But what about all the people who come into my life and argue with me, or make our lives miserable?”

“My view is that everything in your life is an out-picturing of what is going on inside you.”

“Huh?”

I smiled, but I knew these were not easy concepts to explain. I often have to reread my own books, or much of the success literature out there, to grasp the concept of unconscious manifestation or blind attraction.

“Look,” I began. “I know a woman who has feminist sensibilities. Because she thinks men are out to rip her off, you can send her to any store by herself and if a man waits on her, she’ll experience him being a chauvinist pig.” “Maybe the guy is a pig.”

“He probably is, but send a woman without the belief that men are out to get her into the same store, and she’ll either not get waited on by the guy, won’t notice his personality, or will simply not experience what he might otherwise do.” “So you’re saying we’re creating it all—all of it?”

“It’s like this,” I began. “This very conversation is a cocreation. You wanted to hear someone explain the secrets of the universe. I wanted to articulate these secrets for my new book. We cocreated this.” My friend nodded but said, “I can see what you mean on something simple like this, but what if we were in an angry situation and we were fighting over these ideas?” What could I say? I knew what he was asking. You probably are asking the same thing: What does it mean when people confront you or you have a fight with your relative or spouse or neighbor? You created that, too?

“You created all of it,” I explained. “What you see is an out-picturing of what you believe inside yourself. I call it the Attractor Factor.” “I don’t get it.”

“Well, this very conversation is reflecting what I think about this spiritual approach to success.”

“You created me?”

“I created this moment and our conversation,” I said. “I needed it for my new book. I attracted you here so we could create this reality.” “Glad I could be of service to you,” he grumbled. “Well, what about where I disagree with you? You create that, too?”

“That’s a tough one to accept, but it’s true. Your disbelief reflects areas in me where I don’t believe everything I’m saying.”

“This sounds pretty strange, Joe,” he said. “If this is true, once you are clear about what you believe, then my own doubts will vanish?” “Either that, or you simply won’t air them to me.”

“I gotta think about all this,” he said.

“This is the Attractor Factor,” I explained. “It means you are the source of the experiences you see. You cocreated them unconsciously to have experiences for your own reasons. The world is a mirror of you.” “Seems like I’d create a prettier world.”

“Well, you can now,” I said. “Now that you are becoming aware of your own inner power, you can begin to consciously create circumstances. You may not do it overnight, or master it in this lifetime, but you can begin it now.” “How?”

Ah, the question I had been waiting for!

“It all begins with the five-step formula I developed,” I explained. “It’s pretty easy, and you can even shorten the steps once you master them. But the five steps are where it all begins.” “You gonna tell me the five steps, or do I have to buy your book?”

“I’m going to tell you the steps right now,” I replied, “and then you can go buy my book.”

CHAPTER 11: What’s Your Prosperity IQ?

Before you dive into the next chapters, pause a moment. Take this quick little quiz by prosperity expert Randy Gage and see if you have been infected with “lack” and limitation programming. This can reflect where your current Attractor Factor is at work. You might want to make copies of this quiz first, so that you can share this with your friends and loved ones.

1. Do you secretly fear that if you became wealthy your family and friends might not like you anymore?

2. When you grew up, were you ever told things like, “We may not be rich, but at least we’re honest!”?

3. Did your religious upbringing teach you that it is noble to sacrifice now, and that your reward will come in the afterlife?

4. Did you (or do you) feel guilty when you started to earn more than your parents did?

5. Were you raised to fit in and not do anything to stand out?

6. Did you grow up liking shows like Dallas, Dynasty, Gilligan’s Island, MASH, and The Beverly Hillbillies, where rich people were always presented as unscrupulous and conniving, or pretentious and bumbling?

7. Do you have chronic health challenges that doctors can’t seem to solve?

8. Did you ever get jealous of people with expensive clothes, cars, and houses—which may have led you to develop a subconscious “hate the rich” mentality?

9. On some level, do you think it is somehow noble, romantic, or spiritual to be poor?

10. Did you ever end a negative relationship—then immediately replace it with another one with a person just like the last one?

11. Have you sometimes used judgmental expressions like “poor as a church mouse,” “filthy rich,” or “obscenely wealthy”?

12. Have you ever made excuses for failure by saying things like “you have to have money to make money,” “you have to know someone,” or “you have to get in at the top”?

13. Do you relish being the underdog and fighting against the odds all the time?

14. Is it possible that you are experiencing health challenges, financial challenges, or business failures in order to evoke sympathy and attention from the people you are close to?

15. Are you in a stable relationship? Do you have enough money to meet your needs? Are you basically healthy? Despite all this, do you feel like life is passing you by?

How Did You Score?

Tally your results and enter the score below.

❏ Yes

❏ No

If you answered No to 13 to 15 questions: You have a very strong prosperity consciousness and can probably pass this quiz along to someone else.

If you answered Yes to three or more questions: You likely have some issues of worthiness on a subconscious level. You may be in a holding pattern, afraid to leave your comfort zone. You’re probably not radically unhappy, but there is no passion and excitement in your life.You know something is missing, but you may not know what.

If you answered Yes to five or more questions: You are quite likely in a stagnancy cycle. You make small advances, but also experience setbacks, so that you are not really breaking through to the real success and happiness you desire and deserve.

If you answered Yes to seven or more questions: You are headed toward, or already experiencing, a definite downward track toward serious emotional, physical, and financial challenges. This is the kind of “victim cycle” Randy Gage was on when he lost everything when he was 30, before transforming his life and becoming a multimillionaire. It is imperative that you take immediate action to break the pattern and stop the failure cycle. This will involve uncovering the limiting beliefs you possess on a subconscious level, and radically reprogramming yourself with positive ones.

©MMIV Randy Gage & Prosperity Power Institute. All Rights Reserved. Used here by permission.

Now if you fall into one of the last three categories, Randy Gage’s Prosperity Power Experience can definitely help you. Visit www.MyProsperitySecrets.com for help in prosperity thinking.

CHAPTER 12: Step One: The Springboard

Visit any bar and what will you hear? Gossip. Complaining. Bitterness. Negativity. Visit any lunchroom in any big company and what will you hear? Gossip. Complaining. Bitterness. Negativity.

Eavesdrop on any family gathering around dinnertime and what will you hear?

Gossip. Complaining. Bitterness. Negativity.

I could go on. The point is, the vast majority of humanity is stuck on this level of consciousness. It’s the level of the media. It’s the level of most conversations. It’s the level of low energy. And this very same level keeps people exactly where they are.

Do I need to explain this one?

Most people I talk to every day know what they don’t want:

“I don’t want this backache.”

“I don’t want this headache.”

“I don’t want these bills.”

“I don’t want to struggle in my business.”

You know the list. You have one of your own.

Unfortunately, that’s where most of us leave it. The nature of our conversations, our newspaper reporting, our radio and television shows, and our popular talk shows surround us with ideas of what we don’t want. It feels good to complain. We don’t feel so alone. We feel heard. We feel relieved. We even sometimes get answers that make our problems lighter.

What we don’t realize is we are activating the Attractor Factor in a negative way. When we say, “I don’t want these bills,” our focus is on—you guessed it—bills! The spirit of life will deliver whatever you focus on. So if you are talking about your bills, you’ll get more bills. You’ll attract it by spending energy on it.

Most people are on the level of fear. As Elinor Moody wrote in her 1923 book, You Can Receive Whatsoever You Desire,“Let us remember that fear is only wrongly directed faith. We are having faith in things we do NOT want, rather than in the things we desire.” Again, this is the level most people are on. It isn’t bad, it just isn’t very positive. And it probably isn’t getting you the health, wealth, or happiness you want.

But we seldom take this process to Level Two. It’s a rare person who will stop complaining, fighting, or fearing long enough to focus on the opposite of what they are experiencing. Yet Level Two begins to bring on the miracles and manifestations that we want. Knowing what you don’t want is the springboard to your miracles. Knowing what you don’t want is simply your current reality. And current reality can change.

Remove Negativity

One way to protect yourself from the negative influences of the world at large is to abstain from them. I remember reading how Mark Victor Hansen and Jack Canfield forbid any negativity in their offices. I love the idea. I don’t watch the news or read the papers. After a while you begin to see how you are fed one-sided, negative news. None of it is designed to help my well-being.

But you also have to watch your friends. The people around you will share their views of the world with you. Sometimes it’s not easy to separate their views from your view.

You want to step up from the world of outside cause and turn into the world of attraction based on energy. One way to do that is to remind yourself that the world in general is on the level of complaining.

You want to go up a level or two.

Beware the Five

Years ago I attended networking meetings. These were usually breakfast or lunch business meetings where people exchanged business cards and tried to help each other get new clients.

I spoke at many of these events. What I quickly noticed is that the same people seemed to be at the same meetings. One observant friend said, “It’s the same people—and they’re all starving!” That’s when I first learned about the concept of levels. That is, people tend to stay on the same level of business or social status. When they meet friends, it’s usually in their circle of activity, whether church, work, school, or some club. As a result, they rarely get out of the level they are on.

That’s not bad. You can stay on the level you are at and do well. But if you want more, or if you find yourself starving on the level you’re on, you’ll need to go up a level or two.

When I was speaking at these networking events, I was a notch above everyone in the room. This is not an ego thing. It’s a social perception. I was seen as being at a slightly higher level than the audience simply by nature of being the speaker. I was the authority figure. As the teacher, I was elevated a slight degree above their level.

But that’s not good enough. If you want to achieve big dreams in business, you need to step out of your circle or network of peers and associates. You need to go to a group with wider, stronger, richer connections.

You need to go up a level.

How do you do that?

In my case, my books brought me to the attention of other circles of people and higher levels of networks. For example, when I wrote The AMA Complete Guide to Small Business Advertising for the American Marketing Association back in 1995, I was immediately put on a new level. I was now the author of an important book for a prestigious organization.

This caused new people to contact me. All of these people had their own network of people. More often than not, these networks were at a higher level than anything I had ever touched before.

Here’s another example: When I wrote my book on P. T. Barnum called There’s A Customer Born Every Minute, for the American Management Association back in 1997, I managed to get the attention of famous tycoons like Donald Trump and Kenneth Feld. Clearly I had been introduced to a new level.

If you want to succeed in phenomenal ways today, you need to go up a level or two on the status scale of networks. The good news is e-mail makes this a snap to begin. Anyone alive can be reached through e-mail with some persistence and cleverness. That’s how I first reached marketing superstar Jay Conrad Levinson, direct mail legend Joe Sugarman, and even the late gonzo daredevil Evel Knievel. I did it all by e-mail.

People write me all the time for favors. I’m now perceived as an expert, an authority, and an Internet marketing pioneer. They want to associate their name or product with me. I love to help people, so I usually at least give people a chance. But I never endorse anything without seeing, using, and loving what they have. This is important for me to maintain my level.

And now people write me from higher levels, too. For example, Dr. Robert Anthony is a man I studied 20 years ago. Last year, he wrote me after reading my book, Spiritual Marketing. Today, we’re co-authors. I just produced and recorded his legendary audio-program, Beyond Positive Thinking. Two decades ago, I was way below his level. Today, we’re partners!

Keep in mind that going up a level is different from thinking out of the box. You can be creative and still stay on your current level. Brainstorming with your neighbor is most likely different from brainstorming with, say, Richard Branson, the flamboyant owner of Virgin Records.

The point is this: To achieve goals you’ve never achieved before, you may need to rise in levels and participate with new people on a new playing field.

So the lesson in this section is to consider your current level, consider your goals, and consider what people outside of your network can help you achieve them. You may have to step out of your level (and comfort zone) to do it, but the step is well worth taking.

To look at this another way, the people closest to you will hold you down or help you up. As Randy Gage points out, the five people closest to you will influence your success. They will be either focused on Step One—the “I don’t want this” stage—or they will be focused on Step Two—“What do you want?” The people around you will help you with your focus.

So, where do you want your focus to be?

Socrates’ Advice

I love this story, attributed to Socrates, on how to handle negative people.

One day, a man rushed up to Socrates, saying, “I have some news to tell you!”

Socrates put up his hand to stop the excited man.

“First let me ask you three questions,” Socrates said.

“Ah, er, okay,” said the man.

“Is the news you are about to tell me something you personally know to be true?”

“Well, no,” replied the man. “I heard it from a good source, though.”

“Then let’s go to the second question,” Socrates said. “Is the news you want to tell me about someone you know personally?”

“Well, no,” the man said. “But I think you know the person.”

“I see,” said Socrates. “Then let me ask you my final question. Is this news positive or negative?”

“Well, it’s negative.”

“Let me see,” said the wise Socrates. “You want to tell me some news that you don’t know personally to be true, about someone you don’t know at all, and that is negative.” “Well, it sounds bad when you put it like that.”

“I think I’ll pass,” Socrates said.

Where Are Your Thoughts?

Again, the Attractor Factor is always at work. It is spirit giving you what you focus on. Focus on lack, you get lack. Focus on your bad back, you get more of your bad back. So, for Step One, all you want to do is notice what you have been focusing on.

Where are your thoughts?

Where is your conversation?

Your answers will become the springboard to take you to the next step in this miracle making process.

Below, write down some of the things you typically complain about. These are your “don’t wants” and they’ll come in handy in the next step:

CHAPTER 13: Step Two: Dare Something Worthy

Pull up a chair, and let me tell you a story or two. This will set the stage for Step Two in this miraculous formula for making your dreams come true.

Exceed You

When I was a teenager one of my heroes was the late Floyd Patterson. Floyd was Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the world—twice. He was also the youngest man in history to win the title.

He was a nice guy in an often bad business. He wrote his autobiography and titled it something intriguing, Victory Over Myself. I love the title because of the ideal it conveys. Instead of trying to beat the world, just try to improve yourself. Runners call it “exceeding your personal best.” In other words, if you aren’t happy with yourself, find a way to be victorious over yourself.

There is no competition. There is no enemy. There is only the desire to improve yourself. As you improve, the world improves.

Floyd Patterson knew this. And he became one of the most famous and lovable boxing champions of the world.

I met Floyd when I was maybe 16 years old. It was right after a bout in Cleveland, Ohio. I managed to crawl over bleachers, jump a rail, and stand in the path where Floyd would be headed back to his training room. He looked at me with this gentle, kind smile. I reached up and patted his massive shoulder as I congratulated him on his win that night.

I never forgot it. Floyd was in boxing because that was the job that took him out of poverty. But he knew the only real opponents in the world were the things in himself he didn’t like. He worked to have victory over himself. Floyd succeeded.

Ask yourself, “What do you want to improve in yourself?”

Write it here:

Peace Pilgrim

Peace Pilgrim may have been the Mother Teresa or the Gandhi of the United States of America. This kind woman spent 28 years of her life walking for peace. She dropped her real name. She owned nothing but the clothes on her back. She only ate or slept whenever someone along her path gave her food or shelter.

She walked over 25,000 miles for peace. She walked in total trust that what she was doing was making a profound impact on the world. She was interviewed by the media, seen on television, heard on radio, and read about in the newspapers.

Yet she was simply following her own calling. She dared to do something worthy.

She wrote, “The most important part of prayer is what we feel, not what we say. We spend a great deal of time telling God what we think should be done, and not enough time waiting in the stillness for God to tell us what to do.” Peace Pilgrim died in 1981. But her spirit lives on. Her life and words can be found online at www.peacepilgrim.net/pphome.htm.

She was and continues to be an inspiration to millions of people.

Now I’ll ask you to ask yourself, “How does Peace Pilgrim inspire me?”

Or “What is the nudge within you urging you to do?”

Write it here:

Be a Trillionaire

As you’ll see in this chapter, knowing what you want—knowing your calling, your goal, your ideal, your challenge, your dream—is the next step to attracting your desires.

Most people have no idea what they want. Or if they do, they think small. I want you to think bigger than you’ve ever thought before. I want you to Aude aliquid dignum, or Dare something worthy.

For example, why not become a trillionaire? According to my friend Brad Hager, CEO of Millionaire magazine, there are 22 trillion dollars of personal wealth floating around in the world. Yet there are—so far—no trillionaires.

Why not choose to be the world’s first trillionaire? (Actually, that’s my goal. But you can pursue it, too.)

One thing you’ll learn in this book is that your mind can be directed to find answers for you. When you ask questions—such as “How can I become the world’s first trillionaire?”—your mind begins a search-and-find mission. Your question directs it to find a solution.

Step Two in our Attractor Factor process involves choosing what you want, and doing it in such a way that you activate your mind to complete the job for you.

Let me explain.

What Do You Want?

If you realize you can have anything, be anything, or do anything, then the question becomes: What do you want?

Here’s the secret: The trick is in turning every one of your complaints around to something you DO want. Start focusing on where you want to go, not on where you were or where you are.

“I don’t want this headache” becomes “I want a clear head.”

“I don’t want this backache” becomes “I want a strong back.”

“I don’t want these bills” becomes “I want more than enough money for everything I desire.”

“I don’t want to struggle in my business” becomes “I want business to come to me easily and effortlessly.”

There’s an art to rewriting what you don’t want into what you do want. All I do is write the opposite of my complaint. Turn the sentence around 180 degrees. If I say, “I’m tired of being interrupted when I write,” the opposite would be, “I want to write in a place that is safe, quiet, and without interruptions.” You’re probably wondering what this has to do with anything. Why write these sentences if they won’t help you pay the bills or heal your problems or anything else?

Good question. The answer: Refocusing on what you do want will take you in the direction of what you want.

As Deepak Chopra wrote in his book, The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire,“All we really need is clarity of intent. Then if we can get the ego out of the way, the intentions fulfill themselves.” Take the complaints you wrote in the last chapter and turn them into statements of intent:

The Magic of Intention

My friend Kent Cummins, master magician, great speaker, and co-author of The Magic of Change, knows about the power of intention in business.

He ran a sandwich shop business (the SamWitch shops) in Austin, Texas, for 15 years. One day, he decided to run a radio ad offering free beans with any Po-Boy (encouraging customers to purchase the larger-size sandwich). Don’t ask him why he thought beans would be a draw. All he remembers is that the business had found a source for some very tasty beans.

They stocked up on beans. They placed an ad with a popular local radio station. And the next day when the SamWitch shop opened for business, there were so many customers he had to turn some away. Business exploded. He couldn’t keep up with the orders.

But here’s the odd thing. When Kent called the radio station to thank them for running his ad, he was shocked to hear, “We were going to call you and apologize. We never ran the ad.” How did Kent get so much business from an ad that never ran?

“It’s all in your intention,” he told me over dinner. “I intended for new business, and that was the signal that attracted people. Apparently, the intention was more important than the actual ad!” That’s not the only time Kent has experienced the power of knowing what you want in business. Recently, he decided to implement a publicity campaign for his summer camp, “The Kent Cummins Magic Camp.” He read books. Attended a seminar. Drafted a plan. His intent was to get publicity. But he got busy with operational details and never actually implemented the plan. He forgot to do it.

It didn’t matter. One of the former camper parents turned out to be a writer for the Austin American-Statesman newspaper. He called Kent and asked for permission to write an op-ed piece for the editorial page. A stunning story about their counselor training program ran within weeks of the idea. One of the local TV stations called and asked Kent to appear on its morning show to promote the camp as an interesting idea for viewers. Kent appeared, demonstrated some magic, and answered questions about the camp.

Kent then discovered that The Magic Camp had been nominated for recognition by BIG Austin, a city-sponsored nonprofit organization for small business. To his surprise, he won the Most Creative Small Business in Austin for 2004, recognition that included some $4,000 worth of prizes.

The Business Success Center had already asked him to speak on entrepreneurship. He would speak at the Lakeway Breakfast Club about the camp. Austin Family magazine notified him that The Magic Camp had been designated in a readers’ poll as the Best Specialty Camp in Austin.

Finally, Kent discovered that one of his counselors had sent in a magic trick from the camp to The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and they used the piece and paid the camper $100.

Not bad results for a publicity campaign that was never implemented!

Kent calls it “the magic of intention.”

As you’ll see throughout this book, the clearer you are about what you want, the easier it is to simply attract it into your life.

For example . . .

How I Raised $22,500 in One Day

One day, I pulled up beside a truck delivering new cars. One of the cars on the flatbed made my heart leap and my blood dance. I had never had a piece of machinery turn me on before. This one did. I fell in love.

It was a BMW Z3. A roadster. A luxury sports car. One of the sexiest cars ever known to man and made by gods. Okay, maybe I’m overplaying it. But the point is, this car spoke to me. I wanted it. And wanted it bad.

I also knew BMWs are pricey. So the first thing I did was try to win one. I entered two contests where Z3s were the big prizes. I knew I would win. I was destined to have that car. But I didn’t win. Alas. So much for the laws of chance. It was time to create my future by attracting it.

So I decided I would just buy the car and that I would pay cash for it. I had just completed an e-book on how to create miracles, called Spiritual Marketing, and I figured I would prove to myself that I could create a Z3. I used my own five-step method to get the sexiest car of my hottest dreams.

I began by setting an intention for getting that car. Oprah once said, “Intention rules the Earth.” I know it. My car’s license plate holder says, “I am the power of intention.” Once you declare that something will be so, you send a signal into the universe that begins to move that something to you, and you to it. Call it Real Magic. Call it the Attractor Factor. I call it one of the most powerful steps in the manifestation process. From that step alone, miracles can happen.

After I set my intention to have that car, I then acted on the hunches that bubbled up within me and the opportunities that came my way. To be more exact, here’s what happened.

One day, it occurred to me to offer a seminar on the subject of my new book. I could rent a hotel. Write a sales letter. Invite everyone I knew on my online and off-line list to it. I could make a killing in a weekend. That’s the ticket!

But then it occurred to me that I don’t like to market seminars, that I didn’t know if it would sell, that postage and printing to promote it would cost a fortune, and that I’m not such a big fan of speaking in public, anyway.

And here’s where the shift occurred:

I began to play with the idea that I could hold the seminar online. I would simply announce an e-class to my e-mail list. It would cost me zip. If no one signed up, so what?

But—BUT!—if they did sign up, I could teach the entire class by e-mail. Every week, I would send out a lesson. I would give assignments. They would complete them and e-mail them back. I would then comment on their homework. It would all be nice and neat, easy and convenient. Sounded good to me.

I decided to teach five weeks of classes, mainly because there were five chapters in the original book. I would send out one chapter a week as a lesson. I would add assignments to each one to make it more of a legit course.

Then I wondered, “What do I charge?”

I spent a lot of time on this question. Most people give away their e-classes, if they teach them at all. A few charge low fees. But I wanted a BMW Z3. They cost $30,000 to $40,000 each.

Yikes!

Well, I decided I wanted 15 people in my class. That was an arbitrary number. I just figured if 15 people actually did their homework over a five-week period, I would have my hands full reviewing it. So, like everything else in the developing of this first e-class, I simply made up the class size.

I then divided 15 by how much I wanted to raise for my Z3. If 15 people paid me $2,000 each, I’d have enough to pay for the car in cash. But two grand a person seemed a bit high. So I settled for $1,500 a person.

I then issued a sales pitch/invitation to sign up for the class to my e-mail list. I had about 800 good names on my list at that time. I had no idea if anyone would bite. I even feared I would be flamed to death. But I decided to take the risk. I decided I could survive whatever occurred. Besides, what if this crazy idea actually worked? I sent the letter to my list.

What happened?

Sixteen of them immediately signed up for the class.

Talk about easy money! I made $24,000 in one day.

The class was easy to do, too. The students loved the lessons, my assignments, and my feedback. Only one person immediately asked to bow out, saying the e-class wasn’t for him. So I ended up with 15 people after all. I made $22,500. I was happy.

But I didn’t stop there. A few weeks later, I announced another e-class. This one on how to write, publish, and promote your own e-book. I just followed the same model that already worked: I issued an invite to my e-mail list, I went after 15 people, I charged $1,500 per person for a five-week class. I got 12 paying customers. I made $18,000.

At this point I had been thinking about writing a sequel to my best-selling e-book, Hypnotic Writing. But I didn’t want to write it and just hope it would sell. I wanted to be paid to write it.

So I created yet another e-class. This one would be on Advanced Hypnotic Writing. It would be three weeks long, rather than five, because I wanted to take it easy this time around. (I was getting lazy.) I still charged $1,500 and I still went after 15 people. I then announced the class to my e-mail list.

Here’s where something wild happened:

Almost 18 people immediately signed up for the class. But when I asked them to pay the $1,500 fee, every single one of them said they thought the class was free! I was stunned. I reread my invite. It clearly said there was a hefty fee. All I can figure is that people skimmed the letter, got excited, and just shot back e-mails to enroll in the class. Or maybe they read the word “fee” as “free.” Go figure.

But that’s not the only odd thing that happened with this class: I had trouble filling it from my own e-list. So I went and asked a person with a giant e-mail list if he would promote my class to his people. He would—for 50 percent of the pie. Yowsa! That was a lot, but I wanted to get paid to write my sequel to Hypnotic Writing, and I’d still end up with good money, anyway. So I agreed.

Well, 20 people signed up. And the really odd thing is that no one—no one!—did their assignments. So I got their money (half of it, anyway: $15,000), I got paid to write my Advanced Hypnotic Writing e-book, and I had no homework to review or grade.

What a cool business!

Most recently, I announced yet another e-class. I was about to buy a large country estate and wanted more money fast. This new class is on my new proprietary marketing formula, called Guaranteed Outcome Marketing. I raised the price on this five-week e-class to signal its value. I asked for $2,500 a person. Since I normally charge $50,000 to create a Guaranteed Outcome Marketing strategy for someone, asking for only $2,500 to teach someone how to do it seemed very fair.

I lowered the class size because I wanted to be sure to give each student personal attention. I promoted this class to only my own e-mail list. I got five students. Which meant I raised $12,500. Not bad for a month’s work. And yes, I bought the country estate. I’m writing this section from it.

I went on and taught my method for teaching classes by e-mail to several people. Copywriter and Internet marketer Yanik Silver has made over $90,000 following my method. Executive coach Paul Lemberg has made over $100,000. And Tom Pauley, author of I’m Rich Beyond My Wildest Dreams, I Am, I Am, I Am, has made over $250,000—so far. And in each case, I made as much as 50 percent of what they made for helping them promote their e-classes online.

And all of this began because I implemented Step Two in the Attractor Factor method!

The moral here? There are several:

1. Intention rules. You can float with the circumstances life brings you, or you can create your own direction and your own circumstances. It begins with a decision. What do you want? Decide. Choose. Declare. My motto is “Dare something worthy.” This is the power of Step Two in the Attractor Factor formula.

2. Break the model. Just because others are selling their services for a song doesn’t mean you have to, as well. Respect yourself. What are you worth? Most people devalue themselves and their skills. Obviously you need to offer true value, but you don’t have to give it away. If you are clear about money being a tool for good, you should be able to charge whatever the market will bear.

3. Go for something other than money. Wanting my Z3 caused my mind to stretch in new ways to raise the money needed to get the car. If I were just going after money for money’s sake, I might not think so boldly in my ideas or my pricing. What do you really want? Keep in mind, too, that the wealthier you are, the more people you can help. Money helps solve problems. If you want to make a difference in the world, get rich.

4. You can do this, too. Just look at what you know that others would pay you to learn. Then turn it into an e-class, complete with lessons and assignments. After the class is over, you might even compile the material into a book. Or a CD. Or? Think big! What would you teach if you had no fears? You can attract wealth when you are fearless. Your wealth may be hiding right behind the very thing you are reluctant to do.

5. The spiritual is not separate from the material. Since I’ve focused on money in this example, it may be easy to declare my focus was only on the dollar. Not so. I used spiritual principles—as will be explained in this very book—to attract wealth. Once you realize that the spiritual and material are two sides of the same coin, you are free to have happiness as well as cash. As it says on the dollar bill in your pocket, “In God we trust.” Do you trust?

Finally, yes, I attracted my BMW Z3 into my garage. I bought it off the showroom floor. It’s a 1999 Montreal Blue stunning piece of rolling beauty. Since BMW no longer makes that model, it’s a collectible, too. I’ve had it for years now. I’ve never had so much fun in my life driving. In fact, I think I’ll aim it up and down some Texas country roads right now.

The Number One Thing People Do Wrong

I admit it. I’m frustrated. I’m tired of getting e-mails from people who write, “I can’t do what you did because—” or “I can’t attract wealth into my life because—” Just fill in the blank with whatever excuse you can think of. People say they can’t write as many books as I have because they don’t have the time, or they’re too old, or too young, or too married, or too single. People say they can’t make their book a best seller as I did because their book is different, or they’re different, or the timing is different. People say they can’t ask celebrities for endorsements as I did because they feel insignificant, or insulting, or imposing.

The list of excuses is endless. Here are actual ones I’ve received:

“You’re more famous than me. I could never write people and ask for their help, as they wouldn’t give me the time of day.”

I started asking people for help, advice, input, suggestions and direction when I was a teenager. I have letters from FBI king J. Edgar Hoover, boxing legend Jack Dempsey, and master magician John Mulholland. I was certainly unknown then. Yet people always helped me. I’ve managed to connect with Evel Kneivel, Donald Trump, Jimmy Carter, best-selling authors, and more—and I did it before anyone knew my name. I simply asked for their help. They were kind and replied.

“You have a large network of people to ask for things.”

Yes, I do. Now. But I didn’t when I first started. I developed my network by building relationships. I reached out to people, helped them, they helped me, and trust was formed. Because I’ve nurtured my relationships online for almost 10 years now, a bond is set. When I announce that I want contributions for a new book, my network responds. When they want something, I respond. I was able to compile all the information for one of my marketing books, The E-Code: 47 Surprising Secrets for Making Money Online Almost Instantly, in less than seven days—all because I asked my network for help.

“You have a big mailing list so you can sell things faster.”

I went online with no mailing list. None. I didn’t even recognize the importance of having my own list until the day I offered my first e-class to my then tiny list and made $22,500 in one day. Then I woke up. I’ve been working on building my e-mail list ever since. Anyone can do it. And while you’re waiting to do it, you can always partner with people who already have mailing lists. How? Just ask. One day, some person in Norway wrote me. He wanted to know if I would help him sell his new software. I liked his program and agreed. He didn’t have a list. I did. He had software. I liked it. I did a mailing and split the profits with him. It was a win-win.

“You are more talented as a copywriter so you can sell better than me.”

I learned to be a copywriter by investing time, money, and effort into studying the greats and getting out there and doing it. My first sales letters were garbage. I still write and rewrite to make my letters as hypnotic as I can. I wasn’t born writing, reading, or even walking. I learned it all. Can’t you?

“I don’t have anything to offer free to get people to buy what I am selling.”

There are a million things for free online. You can find thousands—thousands! —of free e-books online. Just grab a few and offer them as your incentives to get people to buy your product or service. Anyone can do this. Just look around online. The fruit is there for the picking. I’ve seen people take classics of literature—now in the public domain and available as e-books—and offer them as incentives for prospects to buy their product. It works. How do you find them? Search.

“I can’t teach an e-class like you because I have no credentials.”

Your credentials are you. They are your life experiences more than anything else. Few today care about whether you have a degree or any other credential. They care if you can deliver on whatever you promise. My life mate, Nerissa, is about to teach an online video editing class. Anything you can teach off-line can be taught online. With video, audio, graphics, text, and chat rooms, you can have a virtual classroom on anything you can imagine. Why not?

“I can’t make money selling my stuff on the Internet.”

Look around. The Internet is so big and vast, and even incomprehensible, that truly anything can be sold online. I’ve seen people sell tumble weeds and buggy whips, greeting cards and computer-generated art. Anything sold off-line can be sold online. Go look at eBay. People sell cars, used clothes, dirt, used wedding dresses, and even snow there. I once sold an “Elvis Mermaid” on eBay. (You can see a picture of it at www.mrfire.com) Are there really any limits to what can be sold online?

“I missed the right time to sell my idea.”

Really? Just look at the title of one of my books: There’s a Customer Born Every Minute. A new crowd of prospects appears every single day. You can sell virtually anything at virtually any time if you think of what people want and cater to them. Sometimes you have to think of other uses for the same product, or other audiences than what you originally had in mind. But the best time to sell what you have is now. What are you waiting for?

“You live in America, and I live in Mexico, and selling doesn’t work here.”

Give me a break. Friends of mine always go to Mexico (and other countries said to be behind us), and they come home with truck loads of things they bought. Besides that, with the Internet, where you live is almost meaningless. Take your product and go online. Then, you’re not selling to just your neighbors, but to the entire planet. Think big.

The list goes on and on.

To me, excuses are the number one thing people do wrong—online and off. While all of these excuses seem legit to the person saying them, they are virtually all hogwash.

Excuses are beliefs. If you buy into them, you’re stuck. If you believe instead that there’s always a way around whatever the excuse is, then you’ll move forward. My philosophy is “There is always a way.” So let me try to help you here.

First, what are your excuses?

When I began this section by asking you to answer the question, “I can’t do what you did because—”, what did you say? How did you complete the sentence? Those are some of your excuses. Write them here:

Second, ask yourself if there’s any way on earth to get around your excuses. In other words, are the excuses you stated real or imagined? Have you tried to get past any of them? Has anyone else, ever, gotten past the same excuses? Write your answers here:

Finally, what would you do if you had no excuses? Write your answer here:

Whatever your answer, that’s a clue to your biggest goal.

Leave your excuses behind, and you will begin to attract wealth.

Leave your excuses behind, and you can achieve success, too.

Leave your excuses behind, and your life will begin to soar.

If you don’t act now, why not?

Whatever your answer, that’s an excuse.

Are you going to let it stop you?

Who Directs Your Life?

You see, we seem to create our lives out of our perceptions. If we focus on lack, we get more lack. If we focus on riches, we get more riches. If we focus on excuses, we attract more blocks. Our perception becomes a magnet that pulls us in the direction of where we want to go.

If you don’t consciously select where you want to go, you go where your unconscious wants you to go. To paraphrase the famous Swiss psychologist Carl Jung, “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life, and you will call it fate.” In that regard, most of us are on autopilot. We simply haven’t realized that we can take the controls. Knowing what you want helps you aim your life in the direction you want to take it.

But there is a little more to it . . .

For What Purpose?

I just had lunch with a delightful friend of mine. She had a session with Jonathan Jacobs last week, and she was still glowing. Her eyes were large and alive, full of passion for life. She reminded me that even though you may think you know what you want, you may have to probe deeper to discover what you really want.

She had gone to see Jonathan with the intention of creating a successful business for herself. Jonathan asked, “For what purpose?” After dodging the question for a while, she realized that she wanted a successful business “to prove I am a worthwhile person.” I remember saying I wanted to write books that were colossal best sellers. Jonathan asked me that same famous question, “For what purpose?” At first, I squirmed and said things like “I deserve it,” or “I want the money,” or “My books are good enough for it.” But the real reason, the underlying motivating factor, was that I wanted bestselling books “so people would love and admire me.” When I said it, I felt a shift within myself. I knew I had reached the real thing I wanted. My goal, my intention, was to feel love.

Most people live their entire lives being driven by an unconscious, unacknowledged need for something. The politician may have been a child who never got enough attention. The business woman may have been a youngster who didn’t feel equal to her peers. The best-selling author may still be trying to prove he’s smart, or lovable, or admirable.

Freedom and power come from knowing what you want without being a prisoner to what you want.

But there’s another reason for knowing and stating your intention. When you declare it, you begin to discover all the things standing in the way of its happening. You may say you want to pay off your house so you are free of those big payments, but suddenly here come all of the objections: “I don’t make enough money to pay off my house!” or “No one ever does that!” to “What will my parents think?” You know what I mean. It’s easy to come up with objections. The trick is to dissolve those objections until you are clear inside. When you are clear, manifesting whatever you want will be easier.

Let me explain . . .

How You Create Reality

A woman went to see Jonathan because she was going to have a cancer operation on Monday. She saw him on Friday. She was terrified of the operation and wanted to get rid of her fears. Jonathan helped her release all of her fears, and two hours later, when she sat up on his table, she felt healed. But she still went through the operation. On Monday, when the doctors opened her up, they could not find any cancer. It was gone.

What happened?

Again, our beliefs are powerful. The woman believed she could remove the beliefs that were causing her fear, and she did. But she didn’t know that the fear was what created the cancer. When she removed the fear, the cancer left. It no longer had a home in her body. She had taken conscious control of her life by choosing to see Jonathan and take care of her negative beliefs. She knew her life could be another way.

Beliefs are how we create reality. I’m not sure how to explain this to you in a way that makes sense. You’ve probably noticed that people seem to have recurring problems. Did you ever wonder why it was the same problem for each person? The person with money problems always has money problems. The person with relationship problems always has relationship problems. It’s as though each person specializes in a disorder.

Beliefs, unconscious or not, are creating those events. Until the beliefs that create the events are released, the events will continue to reoccur. I know a man who has been married seven times. He hasn’t gotten it right yet. He will continue to marry and divorce and marry until he removes the underlying beliefs that cause the events to happen. And while he continues to marry and divorce, he will blame other people for his problems, and maybe even blame fate, or God. But as you read earlier, “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” What Are Your Beliefs?

Look at your life. What you have are the direct results of your beliefs. Not happy? In debt? Poor marriage? Not successful? Bad health? There are beliefs that are creating those experiences for you. In a very real sense, some part of you wants what you have—problems and all.

I remember motivational guru Tony Robbins talking about a schizophrenic woman who had diabetes when she was one personality and was healthy when she was another personality. Beliefs make up personality. The woman with diabetes had beliefs that created the diabetes. It’s obvious that if you change the beliefs, you change the situation.

How do you change the beliefs? It starts with selecting what you want for your life. As soon as you select what you want to be, do, or have, you’ll discover beliefs in the way of it. They’ll surface. They’ll be your excuses. That swings back to what I was talking about earlier, that you can then restate your complaints so that they become goals or intentions for you.

So, what do you want?

What would make your heart sing?

What would make you dance in the streets?

What would make you smile right now thinking about it?

What would you do if you knew you could not fail?

What would you want—if you could have anything?

Write your answers here:

Ask and You Shall Receive

I picked up Ask and You Shall Receive, a book by physicist Pierre Morency. It’s a quick read but a stimulating one. Pierre says you must ask for what you want. Asking gives you focus and directs the energy of the universe to help manifest it with you. The cover of the book asks, “What did you ask for when you got up this morning?” I love the question and am now asking it every morning when I awaken. It’s now my breakfast. Another question in the book can help you find your passion. Morency asks: “What would you do if you possessed all the money in the world? What would you do if you could make money appear by simply snapping your fingers? What would you do once you owned 12 houses, made 14 exotic trips, and bought 28 luxury cars?” That’s the kind of question my mentors ask in my Miracles Coaching program.

How would you answer it?

Your answer is a major clue to your calling. Write it down here:

Can You Really Have Everything?

What are the limits to our desires?

I’m not sure there are any. You could argue for physical or scientific limitations, but I think those are limits based on current research. At one point it was understood that no human could run the four-minute mile. Now many can do it. At one point, we knew lead would sink in water. Now we build ships out of it. At one point, no one believed we could get to the moon. Been there, done that. At one point, people assumed the disabled could not participate in sports. Now we have the Special Olympics.

The list goes on. Again, I’m not sure anything is impossible. I’m not sure you can’t have it all. Certainly, the goals, intentions, and wishes of the average person reading this book are within reach. You may not know how to achieve something, but you know the dream is attainable, somehow, some way.

As I write this, Hollywood actors, actresses, directors, and investors want me to have my own weekly television show. It would be called Expect Miracles. The idea is that when you expect miracles, you attract miracles. Each week I will find someone who did the impossible or cured the incurable. As you view these real stories, you begin to realize that nothing is impossible. You literally can have, do, or be whatever you can imagine.

The only thing you need to be aware of is what the Buddhists call “hungry ghosts.” These are desires that run you, rather than you running them. A desire for new shoes when you have many pair and don’t need more might be a hungry ghost. A desire for more property when you have plenty might be a hungry ghost. Desire for more food when you just ate might be a hungry ghost, too.

“The hungry ghosts are driven by intense neurotic craving,” writes Dominic Houlder in Mindfulness and Money.“Neurotic, because the craving they experience is often the displaced desire for something else—something they are not consciously aware of.” I am not trying to stop you from desiring anything. Desire is good. It is what motivates you to get up, to live, to work, to grow, to love. It’s built into your human system. You can use desire to transcend desire. But you also have to watch the mind. It can be like a wild monkey, telling you to get this and now that and never letting you have any peace.

You want to watch the hungry ghosts. You want to honor the desires welling up from deep within you, the wishes that are from your core. When you come from that place, nothing is impossible, and you can have anything you can imagine. At that point, you are aligned with the universe itself. In many ways, the universe’s desires will be your desires.

The point is, you can attract virtually anything you want. But the question remains, do you want your goals like a spoiled child in a candy store or a wild monkey drunk on power, or do your desires come from the essence of who you are?

I know a woman who used the five steps in this book to win money in Las Vegas. The rush was wonderful. The accomplishment was wonderful. But she then misused the money and ended up in Gambler’s Anonymous. She now pays attention to the hungry ghosts inside her and only uses the five-step Attractor Formula to do good in the world.

I once used the Attractor Formula to win money in the Texas lotto. I found it took a lot of energy to win a little money and that the accomplishment was empty. Now, I focus on joyfully creating books, courses, and audio recordings that bring me residual income while helping people. I also have a Miracles coaching program and an executive mentoring program. I make a great deal of money and feel wonderful about it. I’m following my calling. I’m making a difference. And I’m attracting wealth.

What good do you want to do for yourself and others?