Financial Independence: Making Up Your Mind – 2

Your journey to financial independence starts when you make up your mind to take responsibility for your financial future. Nobody can do that for you. When you come to the point whereby you realize that your current financial situation is caused by the financial decisions you made in the past, not the size of your pay packet, then you are ready to roll.

We create most of our circumstances, and until we take responsibility for our current circumstances, we are not ready to take responsibility for moving from where we are to where we want to be. We continue blaming our circumstances and giving excuses year after year.

It took a painful event for me to decide enough is enough. I was with my family abroad when my employers recalled me back home three years earlier than planned. The full story is told in my book Practical Steps to Financial Freedom and Independence. I was mad but powerless. I knew that ranting like a toothless bulldog, lamenting to whoever cared to listen would not help one bit. The decision has been made and there was no room to appeal except I wanted to disgrace myself. I had no choice. So tail between legs, I headed back to Nigeria to resume my job in Lagos. If that had happened today, I would not only bark but bite with all pleasure. That would be a signal that my time was up. I would calmly head back to Lagos, put in my resignation letter, pay my one month’s salary in lieu of notice and rejoin my family. When your life depends on your employer, you have no choice. Your salary is the oxygen you breathe. You simply do as you are told, even if your family life is torn to pieces.

Esau in the Bible was a hunter and kept begging for food until he gave his birthright away. He did not realize what he had done until years later when it was time for his father Isaac to dispense his final blessings. Esau got the wrong end of the stick. Jacob his brother had stolen his blessing. Esau was mad. He also did something about it. Fast forward 21 years later, Jacob was coming home with his family after years in exile to escape the wrath of his brother.

However, 21 years was a long time. Esau had stopped hunting, started raising his herd of cattle, and had become great. Jacob fell with his face to the ground to greet his senior brother and offered herds of cattle as a gift. Esau told Jacob he had more than enough. He was not hunting anymore. He has stopped running from pillar to post looking for animals and has now reared his herds of cattle. Esau had made up his mind to do things differently.

You do not have to wait until something drastic happens before you make up your mind. You need to become restless and dissatisfied with where you are financially until you are motivated to do something about it on a sustainable basis. Are you sick and tired of being broke and not moving ahead financially? Get so mad that you resolve to change and handle your money differently. Get so mad that you start reading about personal finance and acquire financial education to help you manage your money better. Get so mad that you start attending seminars, buying and listening to tapes in your care, and gaining knowledge in whatever area you desire to grow. Get so mad that you commit an act and cause something to happen – a change in the way you handle money, take charge of your financial future, stop consuming and start producing, stop hunting and start rearing.