The other day I was speaking to a group of real estate professionals, and I asked how many of them had read Napoleon Hill’s classic book, Think and Grow Rich.

Nearly everyone raised their hand.

Then I asked, “Who can tell me what–according to this book–is the first step to riches?”

Much tittering laughter followed as it was clear that nobody knew.

“Hmmm. How’s that working for ya?” I asked, to even more laughter.

At this meeting, the team leader handed out a sheet listing over 20 activities that realtors needed to do to succeed. Things like, make your calls when you don’t feel like it; systematize your online lead follow-up to ensure “speed to lead”; learn the social media platforms and post specific content for each.

But none of these is the first step to riches.

It’s like if I were planning a cross-country road trip. And the things on my to-do list were: make a cool playlist; check the weather report for El Paso; make reservations for dinner at that great restaurant in St. Louis.

But none of those things would be the first step to a successful trip. The first step would be: make sure the car’s tank is filled with gas, right?

According to Napoleon Hill, the first step to riches is DESIRE. Actually, he goes on to say it’s BURNING DESIRE. (So maybe that’s the equivalent of being TUNED UP and filled with gas).

Just as most professionals don’t know how to tune up their own cars, most professionals don’t know that DESIRE, and tuning it up into BURNING DESIRE, is the first step to riches. Probably they haven’t given it much thought. Possibly they don’t know what desire is or how to increase it.

Most likely they aren’t on the road to riches.

We often use the words want and desire interchangeably, but they are very different energetically. Want is a feeling of lack we try to fill by obtaining something outside of us (I want more money!) whereas desire is a feeling of overflowing that arises from within us (I desire even greater prosperity!) This is the paradox of the power of attraction regarding money in that you must create the feeling of already having (desire) the thing of which you lack (want).

They say, “Fake it ’til you make it” but that doesn’t work because faking it isn’t the feeling of already having it. The real question is, “How do you be it ’til you see it?”

It’s not simple, and it’s not easy, because cultivating desire is as unique to each individual as cultivating the growth of orchids, or cactuses, or tangerines. And it’s impossible to do something that’s not simple, and not easy, and not clear, on your own.

The good news is, I’ve invested over 40 years as a creative (music, writing), 30 years in business and sales, 15 years as a sexuality and intimacy educator, and 10 years as NeuroTransformational coach studying desire and cultivating desire in myself and hundreds of clients.

Contact me when you’re ready to learn how to cultivate your unique expression of DESIRE and get yourself on the road to riches.

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