T. Harv Eker recounts a pivotal moment after his first year of college when he told his parents he would take time off school to enter the "real world." His parents reacted angrily, accusing him of becoming a "bum," which led him to make an internal decision to prove himself. That resolve — "I'll show you" — became his primary motivation to become wealthy quickly; he later demonstrated success by presenting his parents with a million-dollar check.
Chapters
Do you want to know my major motivation for becoming rich when I was not rich? Would you like to know? Oh, I guess you didn't. Okay, I'll tell you. I remember coming home one day, coming to my parents house for dinner actually. And I was leaving school and I went to them and during, during dinner I said, I have some news. It was after the first year of college and I said, you know what? I'm going to take some time off of school. I'm going to leave school if I want to, I'll go back after. But I'm going to go into the real world and get started. My parents, when they heard that flip the frick out, they went berserk. I never actually saw them go this crazy before.
They both stood up from the dinner table. What's the matter with you? Are you crazy? You're going to be a bum. You're never going to amount to anything. My father's nose was right beside my nose. He's like spitting in my face, talking. I never talked to you again. You're gonna be a bum. What happened? We tried to give you everything and you're gonna disappoint us.
I went, oh my God, like I never expected anything. All I wanted to do was be a good son like many other people, right? And so I'm thinking to myself, oh my God, like what happened here? And I made a decision in that moment. And here's what my decision was. I don't, I don't remember saying it out loud, but inside it was like blaring. And I said this. I'll show you. I'll show you. I'll show you. I'll prove to you that I am a success, that I'm a good boy, that I can make it. I'll prove it to you. And in that moment, I made the decision of my life. And from that moment on, all I could think about was becoming wealthy as quickly as possible so that I could show. Which I did my million dollar check to my parents. So my motivation at the time was proving myself.
