We didn't all grow up affluent. I know for a fact that several of my students, in fact, are literally rags to riches stories. Through single-minded perseverance, intention, education, hard work, and maybe a little luck, they have created financial universes for themselves that are quite enviable and outstanding.



What obstacles did these people need to overcome internally to attain an unselfconscious relationship with affluence and their super affluent clientle? These internal journeys are very individualized. Many people who grow up in poverty can attain a degree of financial comfort, but not let go of the feeling of scarcity that once plagued them. The father of a student of mine grew up during the depression and became an orphan at age thirteen.

This was something that stayed with this student of mine. . . his father's guilt at losing his mother, being accustomed to having very little, feeling the shame of charity and despite later becoming a successful business owner and property owner in the very advantageous real estate market of San Francisco in the late 80's and 90's, there was always this remnant from his youth.

My student grew up in a beautiful house with all of life's necessities, had his hobbies indulged and an excellent education, but his father's tightness with money which always seemed to be plentiful, created an obstacle and a conflict in him in relation to money. For a while, when he'd deal with his affluent clientle, he had a social and class self-consciousness despite having grown up around money.

Unfortunately, this social self-consciousness thwarts a fluid relationship with affluence and the affluent and it definitely needs to be overcome.

Step one in overcoming this is the realization that there's no shame in abundance. There is no scarcity. There is absolutely enough for everybody. Think about it. If we are, as I believe, here on this planet to learn and thrive, we need to redirect any shame we have into a new pathway.

Once we get right with ourselves, our social confidence, no matter what income level, will skyrocket and we will be able to very naturally enter into any social or business interaction with ease.