During the 1990s, one of my great pleasures was teaching people about money. I had the privilege of pulling a lot of people out of poverty during those years, but it wasn't the kind of poverty that draws government assistance. It wasn't the type of poverty that survived on food stamps and welfare checks. It was the poverty of thought.
Many of my students couldn't grasp the concept of being financially free. It really was foreign to them. No one in their family had ever been financially independent and they were on a course to follow the family path. The reality is that most millionaires in the US are first generation millionaires. That means that someone who did not grow up in a wealthy family created enough wealth to become financially independent.
Many of my students went on to start their own businesses, buy multiple homes as investments and invest in stocks at a high level. My sons are two of those stock investors today. I taught my 
boys about economics and stock trading between the ages of 10-16 and they are both traders today. They regularly tell me of their successes. They, like me through the 90s and 2000s, have very few stock trading defeats, but they also know that you only have to be right 10% of the time to be a successful trader. They are well beyond that.
The failure of many businesses, and many investors, is that simple principle of poverty of thought. It takes an out of the box thinker to become a great investor, inventor, trader, business creator, change maker and financially independent success story. I haven't taught the financial classes for a number of years, but I decided to do something even bolder.
I plucked someone out of a good job and encouraged her to come work with me. I wanted someone I could mentor into financial independence. I wanted someone I could raise up to become a business owner who would have the highest level of business ethics, integrity, wit, wisdom and finesse. And, I wanted someone I could make financially independent.
I'm in that process right now. She is paid very well and has become my strong right hand. We're into our second year of working together, and now it's time to start the intense part of the money train. She is also risk averse. No problem. She has been around me long enough now to see that with great success comes some level of risk and boldness to get to the next level. She also trusts me. Right now, I am training her to take my place one day. With that, comes more education, more mind-set changing and more responsibility, accountability and authority.
She knows that in order to keep the business running like it runs under my leadership, she will have to change her way of thinking. She also knows that I will be her safety net as long as she needs me. When I'm done, I trust that she will have exceeded anything she could ever have fathomed in her life. Why take on a perfect stranger and change her life? Why not? That's what fairy-tails are made of.
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