Things do not change; we change.
Henry David Thoreau

Permanently poor people blame their poverty on everything else but themselves.

And it’s so easy to do that.

Because a billion different things affect our money.

If you wanted to, you could blame your poverty on suicide bombers from Afghanistan, the thinning of the ozone layer, or the fact that the King of Saudi Arabia fought with his wife the day before an OPEC meeting—which skewed up the oil prices.

You could blame your poverty on your alcoholic father, your overprotective grandmother, or the childhood trauma of listening to Frank Sinatra music over and over again because it was your mother’s favorite music.

You could blame practically anything.

But if you keep on blaming your financial condition on things outside yourself, you’ll never become rich. Why? Because within every problem is the solution. So if you believe that the problem is outside you, then you don’t control the solution.

Only when you say, “I’m the problem,” can you say, “I’m the solution.”

If you say, “These greedy capitalists keep me poor!” then the solution is in their hands, not in yours. In effect, you’re saying that when these capitalists stop becoming greedy, then you’ll start becoming rich.

Blame robs you of your power to determine your life.

Remember, the quality of your finances is determined by your choices in life. And unless you stop blaming others and start taking responsibility for your poverty, you’ll always remain poor.

And for comic relief—but also to show you our tendency to blame—let me quote some real-life, actual statements found on insurance forms . . .

“I collided with a stationary truck coming the other way.”

“A pedestrian hit me and went under the car.”

“The guy was all over the road. I had to swerve a number of times before I hit him.”

“I pulled away from the side of the road, glanced at my mother-in-law, and headed over the embankment.” (Gee, was she that ugly?)

“As I approached the intersection, a sign suddenly appeared in a place where no stop sign had ever appeared before. I was unable to stop in time to avoid the accident.” (Wow! Magic! What a miracle!)

“An invisible car came out of nowhere, struck my car, and vanished.” (Mmm. I’ve heard of ghost ships. But a ghost car?)

“My car was legally parked as it backed into the other vehicle.”

“The pedestrian had no idea which direction to run, so I ran over him.” (Yes, undecided people are a pest. Kill them all.)

That’s human nature. Always looking for someone to blame.

But unless you stop doing that, you’ll always be poor.

Stop the blame.