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An important key to gaining control of your life is whether you have control over money or whether money has control over you.
Nowhere in high school, college, dental school, or even business school were any of us taught how to actually control money in our lives. In one of the most significant books on money ever written, “The Richest Man in Babylon,” are some of the best statements ever written about money. The author outlined three key elements about money every person must understand:
- You have to learn how to EARN MONEY!
- You have to learn how to KEEP MONEY!
- You have to learn where to PUT MONEY SO YOU DON'T LOSE IT!
The majority of people stop at “earning money” but never learn how to control it, and of course never learn how to keep it.
Allow me to summarize how life works: What I think determines what I feel (emotions) which determines what I see (learn, know, understand) which impacts what I choose which determines what I do (actions) which determines what I have.
Or we can look at the same concept in reverse: Whatever I have has been determined by what I’ve done which was determined by what I chose, which could only have come from what I was able to see which was influenced by what I felt which was determined by what I thought.
Money isn’t everything. But whether you control it or whether it controls you determines how you live and practice. In the ladder of human development, unless you gain control of money in your life, you will become a slave to it.
In other words, do you work for money or does money work for you? And why is this so important? Unless you gain control of money by deciding how much is enough and actually learn how to control the flow of money in your life, one thing I can bet the bank on is this: You will be chasing money all your life and never have enough money or enough time.
Stop and ask yourself why you work so hard and so many days and weeks and hours. If you are falling into this cycle, it’s because you don’t have control over money. Money has control over you.
Remember this. Whatever you are not free of you are a slave to. Most people don’t want to read statements like this because it is too close to the truth.
I recently asked a dentist who was working 240 clinical days a year, “Why are you working so much and so hard?” (Anyone who works so many days doesn’t have adequate rest and recreation and is destined for a heart attack!) His answer was, “I’m afraid. I’m afraid that if I don’t work this much, I won’t be able to pay my bills.”
How sad is this? And how unnecessary! By taking charge of money, you create a domino effect that impacts every area of your life and practice. Gaining control over money always gives you the opportunity to gain greater control of your time, which leads to spending more time in relationships with the people that matter the most in your life.
One of my greatest mentors was Ron Price, who called himself a financial minister. He said, “You show me a person with a money problem (someone who doesn’t have control over money) and I’ll show you someone with a spiritual problem.”
I am sure you have noticed that many who chase after money and can’t have enough material possessions are the same people who lack much relationship or spiritual depth in their lives. It isn’t that money isn’t important; it is obviously important. But only those who have taken money seriously, get beyond it.
Guiding thousands of graduates to achieve wealth and freedom, The Schuster Center is the first business school created exclusively for dentists, founded in 1978. A practicing dentist, Dr. Michael Schuster is a cadre and former director at The Pankey Institute, adjunct faculty at The Dawson Center, OBI, and LSU Cosmetic Continuum. High profitability and practice management training, dental case presentation, continuing education seminars, hygiene as a profit center, and business plans for the new practice are a few of the accredited offerings at The Schuster Center. Visit www.SchusterCenter.com or call toll free (800) 288-9393.
