Brian Tracy presents a motivational talk on the single most powerful determinant of financial success: your beliefs about yourself and money (the "law of belief"). He argues that intensely held beliefs shape reality through actions and confirmation bias, and urges cultivating a "prosperity consciousness"—positive knowing rather than mere positive thinking. He emphasizes willpower (fueled by confidence, conviction, faith) and self-discipline developed through persistent action, learning from successful people, and controlling thoughts. Tracy gives specific statistics: only 1 in 100 people become wealthy and about 5% achieve financial independence (odds ~19 to 1), and he offers a 24-hour thought-control exercise to build self-mastery.
Questions this video answers
October 19, 2012
1 in 100 people
5% (about 1 in 20)
Chapters
Let's talk now about the determinant of your success. Perhaps the most powerful single factor in your financial success is your beliefs about yourself and money. We call this the law of belief. It says simply, whatever you believe with feeling, emotion, intensity becomes your reality. Whatever you intensely believe becomes your reality. Because you always act on your beliefs, we have a tendency to block out information coming into us that is inconsistent with our reality. This is called in psychology, confirmation bias. In other words, we only accept information that confirms what we have already decided to believe. And like with horse blinkers, we we block out information that is inconsistent with what we have already begun to believe. What we've discovered is that successful people absolutely believe that they have the ability to succeed. And they will not entertain or think about or talk about the possibilities that they will fail. They do not even consider the possibility of failure. This is a mark of leadership, and it's a mark of successful people. You always act in a manner consistent with your beliefs. The most important belief system you can build is what is called a prosperity consciousness, where you absolutely believe that you are going to achieve your financial goals, you are going to be prosperous, no matter what happens. In the short term, we call this positive knowing versus positive thinking. Positive thinking can sometimes be wishing or hoping. But positive knowing is when you absolutely know that no matter what, you will be successful as long as you don't quit. Another principle related to your beliefs is willpower. We know that willpower is essential to any success. Willpower is based on confidence. It's based on conviction, it's based on faith. It's based on your belief in your ability to triumph over all obstacles. And you can develop willpower by persistence, by working on your goals, by reading the biographies and stories of successful people, by listening to audio programs, and by reading books about people who have achieved great success in spite of all difficulties and adversity. The more information you take into your mind consistent with success, the more likely it is that you will develop the willpower to push you through the obstacles and difficulties that you will experience along the way. Remember that success is rare. Only one person in 100 becomes wealthy in the course of a lifetime. Only 5% achieve financial independence or where they have enough money so that they never have to worry about money again. This means that the odds against you are about 19 to 1 in terms of achieving financial success. The only way that you're going to achieve your financial goals is if you get really serious. To succeed, you must get serious about success. You must get busy, you must get active, you must get going and remember, everything counts. Self mastery, self control, self discipline are essential for anyone who wants to achieve greatly. And control over your thoughts is the hardest exercise in self mastery that you will ever engage in. See if you can talk about and think about only what you want and desire, and not talk or think about anything that you don't want for 24 hours. Then you'll see what you're really made of. It's a hard thing to do, but with practice you can reach the point where you are thinking about your goals and desires most of the time, and at that point your whole life will start to change for the better.
