Let’s talk about Money. We can’t talk about the tools of success without talking about it. Most everyone thinks they know what “Money” is.  And most everyone is wrong!

Some people say, “Money is the root of evil”.  It’s not.  The real quote is: “The love of money is the root of evil”, which is a very different thing.

In fact, until you do something with it, money has no value at all.  You can’t eat it; you can’t drink it; you can’t wear it (except perhaps as a silly costume), and it won’t keep you warm—unless you set it on fire, but that won’t keep you warm very long.

I recently visited the Federal Reserve in Los Angeles where they have a room about the size of a football field completely filled with US currency.  It is quite impressive and actually “smells like money.”  But as long as it sits in that room it is totally useless.

But when you do something with money, it can become an incredibly powerful tool.  And that is the way to think about it. It is a tool!  No more; no less.  It is a lot like those incredible Swiss Army Knives I grew up with that have blades for almost any task you can think of, whether cutting a steak or putting in a screw. It can be used for almost anything. 

Once you begin to think about money as a tool, like a hammer or a screwdriver or saw, but incredibly more versatile, you have taken the first step toward using that tool to change your life and the lives of those you love.

The really interesting thing about money is that is a tool that can be made to grow to any size you need it to be to accomplish what you want to do. If you need something small like a hamburger, money can make that available to you.  But if you need something bigger like a house or an education for yourself or your children, it can do that to.  And if you want to build a huge business to try to cure cancer, it can do that too.

And here is the amazing part—even if all you have at the moment is the money for the hamburger, you can make it grow to any size you need it to be. And I really mean YOU!  Not someone else, not some nameless corporation, and above all, not the government—but YOU or anyone who truly understands how the tool called money really works.

The bad news about that is that most people will never understand how to use the tool called money and will spend their lives envying those who do—and buying lottery tickets while waiting for their “luck” to change.

The good news is that if you are hearing or reading this, you are already on your way to becoming one of those people who understands how to use the tool called money to change your life.

It won’t happen without work, but if you truly want to succeed and are willing to spend the time and effort to understand what money is and how to make it work for you—as a tool, not your master or a goal in itself—you are already on the first step of the ladder that leads to the top of the pyramid.