027 10 Lessons from 6 Decades

Hey there, real quick, before we jump into the episode, listen, if your earnings treadmill hasn't set you free yet, running faster won't either. Listen, hustle without principles just going to burn you out. So here's what I want for you. I want you to join me for my money machine experience live. It is three free trainings. Deep dive into how to escape the treadmill and build a money machine that actually works for you. All right, grab your spot here by going to moneymachinelive.com and I'll see you in the free training. Hey, there. Welcome to this episode of the affluent entrepreneur show. And this episode's gonna be a bit of a different episode. Many of you have seen or probably saw on social media and stuff that my odometer switched categories. I went from the 50s to the 60s. I turned 60 just a little bit ago, and I started to reflect on this whole idea of, oh, my gosh, I'm in a new decade. I'm in a new decade of my life and a new chapter of my life. But what are the lessons that I've learned about living a fulfilled life, living that richer life that we talk about for affluent entrepreneurs? In this episode, I'm going to give you the 10 lessons from six decades with me. See you in the show.

This is the affluent entrepreneur show for entrepreneurs that want to operate at a high level and achieve financial liberation. I'm your host, Mel Abraham, and I'll be sharing with you what it takes to create success beyond wealth so you can have a richer, more fulfilling lifestyle. In this show, you'll learn how business and money intersect so you can scale your business, scale your money, and scale your life while creating a deeper impact and living with complete freedom, because that's what it really means to be an affluent entrepreneur.

Hey, there. Welcome to this episode of the affluent entrepreneur show. This one's going to be a cool one. I think it was an interesting one to put together, and it wasn't something that I actually intentionally set out, but someone had said, you know, what have you learned in the years of your life? So as I said, I. I turned 60 on September 2nd. And looking back and going, how. First off, first off, and maybe you. You feel this is that. How did six decades go so fast? That seems so fast. Had someone tell me once, he said, time is like. It's like the roll of toilet paper. As you get older, as you get closer to the center, it goes faster. So I don't know. But bottom line is this is that I've been blessed in the six decades I've had certainly had trauma, challenges, difficulties just in the last couple of years. And the question isn't really about the challenges. The question is what are the lessons that we get from the challenges? What are the lessons that have come from the challenges? And, and so in this episode, I want to talk a bit about what are the 10 lessons that came out of the six decades, you know, the six decades of my journey. What are the things that I think and what I have found that where the richness of life live. I know that we talk about money, we talk about business, we talk about entrepreneurship, but the reality is this. I don't believe that what we're looking for is wealthy. I think we're looking for richness. Wealth is a statistic. It's just a number. And we probably all know, I mean, you probably know people that have money, but they're miserable. They're miserable to be around. They're people that, they're struggling with their health, their relationships aren't working. And yeah, maybe they have a bank account, but it hasn't. You know, it's that old adage of money doesn't buy you happiness. Maybe you suffer in comfort, but you suffer nonetheless. And what I want for you is truly to live a rich life. And that richness is actually defined by you. The richness is defined by what you want. And if it happens to be in a tent or a Taj Mahal, it's up to you. And I think that's really where we need to consider things. Too often, too often, we're looking to the right or the left, we're looking at social media, we're seeing the media, we're seeing the stars and the big cars and the big homes and all of that stuff. And I gotta tell you, it doesn't matter. It doesn't really matter if you don't have relationships, if you don't have health, if you don't have those things that are truly, truly meaningful, it doesn't matter about the stuff. And I know that's easy for me to say. Some of you may be struggling just to get the bills paid. And I understand that once we get the bills paid and we can give you, we give you the tools to do that. And if you're in that position, you're trying to get a solid foundation underneath. You just make sure that you, you join. It's a seven. I have a seven day free money plan workshop, money plan challenge. And then if you go to themoney plan workshop.com, join it for seven days for free. And it's a seven day crash course to help baseline you. But I get that. But once we have the basics, the fundamentals covered, where does the richness of life come from? Now it's in the journey, but I think it's in these 10 lessons. So I'm going to jump to my iPad. For those of you that are watching, great. For those of you that aren't, we'll make sure that the graphics are in the show notes. Or you can check it out on YouTube and watch the video too. After you've listened to this, make sure you listen to this. And if you haven't already, do me a favor. This is going to be a shameless plug. If you haven't already, follow the show, the Affluent Entrepreneur show, and leave me a review. Leave me a review. Subscribe, download, listen, and leave me a review. And if you leave me a review, screenshot it, tag me in it. I'll read it on the show. And when I read it on the show, you get a one on one laser coaching session with me. We'll talk about business, we'll talk about money, we'll talk about wealth, we'll talk about life. Whatever it is you need, we'll do the coaching session. All right, so that's enough of the commercials. Let's get rocking and rolling. Let's make this happen. Let's talk about the 10 lessons that came out of a decade of living. And so here's why I think this is important. If we don't actually get this right, we find ourselves living in a state of disappointment. We sit in a place where we're constantly disappointed, things aren't going our way, things aren't the way we want. And we can't understand why. We can't find not just happiness, but even just contentment. We just, we don't have that contentment. We don't have the ability to, to be content. And the other thing that happens is that if we don't get this right is that we're struggling and we don't even know why. I mean, maybe for some of you, you're dealing with that right now is that you're sitting back saying, I don't know why I'm struggling. I don't know what it is that's caused me to feel like there's angst, there's stress, there's frustration, there's unhappiness. And I think that once we start to get some other things in place, then we can start to dissipate the struggle and help us navigate that the other thing is that your life feels like it's got no meaning. You're simply getting up. And I did this for a while, working for that consulting firm in downtown la. I would get up in the morning, early in the morning. I would get up at 4:30, I would go to the gym in the morning, and then I would drive. I would shower at the gym and I would drive an hour and a half through LA traffic to downtown Los Angeles. I was a lemming. I was existing. I was creating existence. I was making a paycheck, but I wasn't making a life. And then I would work all day and late in the day, and then I would drive an hour back home. And the only thing that happened is I missed the traffic because I was working so late every day. And so not only was I working and struggling and frustrated, I just. I didn't find any meaning in it. I didn't find any value in it in that sense. And I know that a lot of people will say, well, well, do what you love and the money will follow. Here's the thing. It's not about doing what you love and the money will follow. It's about loving what you do. When we love what we do, the struggles don't feel like struggles. They're just part of the journey. And it seems like a really minor distinction, but it's a monumental shift. So here's the thing. When we do get this right, things change. You actually walk through life with confidence. You have built up. You're stepping in, you're saying, I, I'm owning my life. I'm doing the things that I want to do the way I want to do them. When we live, congruent to what we are. Bronnie Ware has a book called I think the Seven Regrets of Dying. And we'll make sure that we hook that up in the show notes also the seven regrets of dying. And she says one of the greatest regrets is living a life.

Now. Bronnie Ware was a hospice nurse, so she was with people at the end of their lives. She was with them, having con with them. And. And one of the deepest regrets that most people had was not living the life that they wanted, a life that they would have chosen. Can you imagine that for a moment that you get to the end of your days and you have the realization that you didn't live your life? Man, that's a painful realization. And maybe some of you are feeling that right now, that you're feeling that you're on a path that isn't yours. That's what happened to me. And then, you know, when I was working that downtown law consulting firm late one night, late on a Friday night, I. It just like hit me like a. A ton of bricks. At 10 o' clock at night on a Friday night, looking out at the skyline and, and downtown Los Angeles and realizing that I'm living someone else's life. I'm living someone else's life. This isn't the life I want. And I, and I had taken a step. I actually walked in and quit that night. You know, I walked in and quit. Now I did it in a reckless way. We can talk about that on another episode. I wouldn't recommend doing it the way I did it. But the fact of the matter is, is that when we realize we're living someone else's life. Now let's be clear. I'm not saying that you actually have to be happy every minute of the day or you have to be happy in every part of your job. There are things that, that you aren't going to like, but it becomes a space and a place that you're living in most of the time. We need to examine that. We ought to examine that and just say to ourselves what happens, because then we can start walking confidently. And the other thing that happens when we get this right is that you have the resilience. You bounce back, you turn around and are able to do the things that you want to do the way you want to do them. And if you're in alignment, living a meaningful life, like I said, that journey just feels like the journey. It doesn't feel like a slog and pushing a boulder uphill. And in the end, what ends up happening is that you're actually creating. Creating a meaningful life. Creating a meaningful life. Something that's meaningful to you, something that has an impact on those that you want to serve. Something that. Think about this for a moment. That you spend your day doing the things that you love to do. You make a living. I feel blessed. I get a chance to, to make a living doing the things that I absolutely love doing. Serving the people that I want to serve you, my community, my audience. To be able to have conversations, to see the light of your dreams come to light and to grow. That just excites me. That's what draws me, that's my place of joy to do that and go, they want to pay me for this. This is a wonderful place for you to be and that you get a chance to live a life of meaning. So here's some things to know and then let's talk about my 10 lessons from the six decades as we go through that. And I think the first thing to understand is this, is that comparisons disappoint. We live in a world of comparisons. People say it's comparison. You know, it's like you're constantly looking at what does the neighbor have, what is so and so. And we started early on, think about it as kids in high school when, when someone got the new fad tennis shoes. I remember when, when the Air Jordans came out and they were, you know, over a hundred dollars and everything. It's like I remember my parents going, we're not spending that kind of money on tennis shoes. But they're Air Jordans, dad. Because we, we're comparing ourselves to what others have. Here's the thing we know about comparisons is that it always creates disappointment because we'll always find someone that has more. There's a guy that lives up the street. I live in a wonderful, wonderful community right on the beach here in Laguna Beach. Beautiful. We live in a beautiful home overlooking, right on the water. And I take a little Buddha for a walk. And there's a guy up the street here. Literally. I walk by his house. He's got a Porsche, he's got a Land Cruiser, he's got one of those Mercedes G wagons. He had a black Aston Martin, which is my dream car, but I wouldn't. I just, I can't make it make financial sense. It's too crazy. But he had a black Aston Martin in the driveway. And then the next day, when I'm walking Budo, all those cars were there, but now the black Aston Martin, in addition, that is a silver Aston Martin. And I like going, wow. Now I could have sat back and go, envy, jealousy, comparison. Oh, look at what they've got. But you know what? I have something more. I don't know what his life's like. I don't even know who he is, who they are. I don't know if they're a family. I don't know. Don't know them. But my point is that when we are comparing to what others have have, you're always going to find someone that's bigger, better, has more, has, you know, but we don't see the inside. We don't see what's underneath it all. And Lord knows when we compare ourselves to what we see on social media. Come on, they're parading their best dressed on social media as if they have a perfect life. I get it. But at the same time, we all got Dirt under our fingernails. I do. Yeah. I am not too proud to say that it's been a struggle the last two years. I've been blessed. Like I say, I'm a blessed life. But between the cancer, between my mom having medical issues, all those things start to wear on you. It was tough. It was hard. The pandemic, seeing the vitriol in the community, in our society, that's tough stuff. And so it's important that we find within ourselves comfort and not try to define what our success is and what it looks like from the outside. The second principle to understand is that worth is in the beholder. Too often, too often we're sitting back trying to figure out and look for validation outside of ourselves. Now granted, it feels good. Okay, it feels good. But validation outside ourselves, to define what our worth is inside ourselves, that's got to come from inside. Your value is in the beholder. It's, it's, it's in, it's in you. It's got to come from within and not from without. Because if we place our value, our, our self worth outside of ourselves, when things shift, things change, then so does, so, so does our view of ourselves. We don't want that. We don't want that. And then the third principle that I think is important here is this possibility always, always exists. This is, this is probably one of the key themes of my life, is that that I believe that possibility always exists. I get it. There may be some in my audience that are just trying to get by. They're trying to get out of debt because they, they found themselves in credit card debt or student loan debt or something like that. There are those that maybe have no debt. There are those in between. There's those that are just starting a business. There are those that are thriving in business. There's those that have found their financial independence already. They built the money machine like we talk about in the affluence blueprint. They're all over the place. They're all over the place. But I promise you that it doesn't matter the age or stage possibilities in your future. Possibility is in your hands. The only thing that's holding us back from that possibility is either knowledge.

Skills.

Guidance or action. Knowledge, skills, guidance or action. Now I'm not saying that if you're deep in debt that it's. That it's going to be easy, there's going to be work involved. But is it complex? No, it's simple. Give you the principles to make that happen. I'm not saying that to build wealth to build a money machine is easy. There's work involved, there's discipline involved, there's a process, there's a prescription, there's principles. That's why we teach in the affluence blueprint. But it's simple. And so what I want you to always hold on to is this idea that possibility exists every step of the way. Because when we have that open thinking about possibility, to be able to say that anything is possible, everything's. Think about it. A decade ago, we didn't have cars that fly. We have cars that fly. We have cars that self drive. Okay? Those are things that were just an idea in someone's mind at some point. But now it's reality, it's here.

So possibility is at your fingertips. It's at my fingertips. Whatever we can perceive, whatever we can imagine. It's about approach, it's about time, it's about resources, and it's about action. Let's get it done. So let's get to the 10 lessons. All right? These are things that when I looked at, look back on life and look back on my six decades on this earth, what are the lessons I've learned? And this comes from, look, I've been a single full time dad. I've had many, many failed relationships. I am blessed to be in a wonderful marriage with an amazing, beautiful soul, bright, intelligent, smart, articulate. I won the lottery with Stephanie. I did. I did. You know, I certainly got the better end of that deal. I have had partnerships go bad. I've had investments go bad.

I'm a dad. I'm now a granddad. You know, so this is all coming from those things, the things that I've experienced over time. And hopefully they, they help you. Hopefully they give you some perspective of how to live your life, how to step forward to bring the richness out in your life. And so the first one, and, and this, those of you that are watching the video, you can see that this is actually. I am an identical twin. I don't know if many know know that, but I am an identical twin. I've got an identical twin brother. My, my wife and his wife think that we actually share the same brain. It's a matter of who uses the brain on that day. And we are close as close can be. And so the image that you see is us when we're young kids. For some reason my mom thought that, hey, they're twins, let's dress them alike. And there we are in our sailor outfits. All right? But the first lesson is this is a life of Value is built on values. Here's something. I didn't know Stephanie's dad for very long. He passed away shortly after we were married, so I didn't know him for very long. But there was one thing I did know about him. He had a set of values, just like my dad. He had a set of values that were clearly, clearly defined. And those things drove every decision that he made in life. And not only did it drive his decisions, it drove his relationships. It drove how he related to people. And those people understood this is Tom's values, and they respected those values. It's the same thing with my dad. Same thing with my dad. My question is that, is that too often we don't take the time to actually detail out and say, what do I truly value? And if you question it here, we can say, you know, I value. I value my health. And I see this all the time. I value my health. Yet they're eating, like three Snicker bars a day. Well, clearly you don't value your health if you're doing that the way I start to look at and say, all right, let's figure out what your values are, what you say your values are, and then let's compare them to the actions you're taking. See, if I truly want to understand someone's values, I don't watch their lips. I watch their feet. I watch their hands. I watch their actions. It's not a matter of what you say. It's a matter of what you do because you're doing based on the actual, true values, your priorities in life. When people say, I want to build financial independence, but they're overspending and they're running up bills, they're living beyond their means, they're balancing checks. That's a habit. That's a behavior. And as much as they want financial independence, that behavior completely conflicts with that. And they say, that's what I value, it's not what they value. And that may be a hard pill for some people to swallow. It may be a hard pill. I've been there, too, where I said, no, I want. I want this. I want this. But I didn't put the time in. I wanted to learn a musical instrument, but I didn't put the timing. So clearly it wasn't high on the priority list. So I think that we look at things and start to ask ourselves, let's build a life of value built on values. Take the time to be really clear about what your values are and live in alignment with those values, talk about those values, define those Values. Let the people around you know these are my values. Because it becomes easier to make the decisions in life when you sit back and say, here's my core values. And if I'm making this decision, does it violate one of my core values? And if it violates it, then we know that we're not going to do it. We do everything in alignment with values, and everyone wins because those around you understand your values. They understand what to expect, and they respect it. The second lesson, I think, is this. Share openly. Even though judgment or failure may come. Share openly. Look, of all times, especially now, we live in a. What they call, I guess a cancel culture and everything. And for some reason, we seem to have lost the ability to have a decent dialogue, a conversation, and respect people's differences. We need to share openly with people. We need to put it out there and be okay with it and know that, hey, judgment may come. I might fail, I might not be liked. But to know that your core, you're coming from your values, you're coming from your values in a way that these are your values. We shouldn't be embarrassed by them. We shouldn't be shrinking by them. We should be growing by them. And to know that we can. We can provide and we can be there and say, let me share openly. I'm going to be me, but I'm going to do it with respect. I'm doing it with decency, I'm doing it with integrity. I'm doing it with kindness, and I'm doing it with love. Okay.

The next lesson is this. Find meaning in all you do. Find meaning in all you do. I remember having a conversation with a doctor early on in my cancer journey. And he said. I said, I got to get stress out of my life. He says, there's where one of the mistakes are. I said, what do you mean? He says, there's a study. And he said there was a study where they took two petri dishes and one petri dish, they put toxins. The other petri dish, they put nutrients, and they put cells in both those petri dishes to see what would happen over time. Over time, the cells in the petri dish with the toxins stayed apart, shriveled, and died. The petri dish that had the cells and the nutrients in it came together, flourished, and grew. He says the problem is that we too often think, I've got to get stress out of my life. He says, but stress is a spectrum. If we say high stress, we take stress out of our life, we get to the zero point. But the Zero point doesn't allow you to grow. The zero point just gets stress out of your life. It stops you from shrinking and it stops the decline, but it doesn't allow you to grow. He says what gets you past the zero point to get you to grow is to make sure that you have joy, love and gratitude in your life. He said it's not about eliminating the stress that matters. It's about finding the joy in all you do that matters, the meaning in all you do that matters. And so when you do that, I think that that starts to build the richness in, in, in life. The number four is money is an emotional game as, as much as it's a learned skill set. I learned this not, not really the hard way, but as I started to consult and work with people to help them build their wealth, to help them build their financial independence, to help than become affluent entrepreneurs. What I found myself, I thought all I was going to do is give them tactical, here's what you need to do. Save here, do this, move this money here, invest here, do all those things. And mechanically they could build wealth. But it wasn't going to work until I got in their head, until we, we dealt with the emotions around money. And so don't be concerned to be able to think that, well, wait a second, I'm going to be ashamed of the emotions I have about money. We all have money stories. Be okay with it. Go back to some of the episodes that we talked about. How do you conquer those money stories? How do you redefine those money stories and know that emotions exist? Emotions exist with money. It's not just an innate thing. Yes, it's a tool. It's agnostic. It's neither negative or positive. The negative or positive comes from the emotions we put on it, the stories we put around it. And we understand that now. When we understand that there's emotions that drive things, we can then have the ability to control, be aware and adjust those emotions. Lesson number five, set your destination, but allow the journey to unfold daily. This really came true to me. So for those of you that don't know about my cancer journey I went through, I had three tumors removed in two surgeries. I went through a bunch of treatments. And In December of 2020, they said I was. In December of 2019, they said I was clear. So I was feeling good and everything. And I went through, I would go through preventative treatments and when I went through preventative treatments, then I would go through another scope. Well, April 24th of 2020, I went in for another scope. And they found another tumor. And it just deflated me. It spiraled me out of control again. It put me in a dark place until I realized. I said, what if. What if I knew that my destination was assured? What if I knew what the outcome was? And that outcome was, I'm going to beat the cancer. The outcome was, I'm going to conquer this. Then I know that I would do whatever it took to make that happen. But the other thing I knew is this because friends said, how are you doing? How are you doing? I said, I'm doing all right. I said, once I came out of that darkness, I was able to say, I know what my outcome is. Do you know what your outcome is? I know what my outcome is. I said, here's the thing. What I don't know is what the journey is. The journey will unfold each and every day. And that journey will take form as we get more information and as I need to do things. Do I need to go through more treatments? Do I need to go through more surgeries? But that's part of the journey to get me to the outcome. But think about life in general. This is what allowed me to just start to think about this completely differently. And I actually go back in for treatments in a week. And these are preventative treatments. Not because they see anything. We're just kind of keeping it away and preventing. And then I'll do another scope in November. But here's the thing. I said, it's not a whole lot different than life. We define what we want as our life. So we say what we want as our life. But do we know every day of the journey what it's going to be like? No. That journey unfolds each and every day. And so if we are allow. If we allow ourselves the luxury to say, that is my outcome, and embrace the journey each day as it unfolds, to make new decisions, to move you closer to the outcome. That's where I think the beauty is that leads me to number six. Number six. Relationships are built on how you make others feel. Okay, we're talking about relationships, relational capital, not transactional capital. I want to have a relationship with each one of you. I want to have a relationship with you. I want to know you. I want to know what pains you, what aches you, what brings you joy. I want to. I want to know that about you. I'm curious. Not for a transaction, but for a relation. That's what creates the wealth. That's what creates the richness in life. I remember having A conversation with a dear, dear friend of mine because I was having a struggle with a gal that I was dating before I met my wife. And he told me a story about when he was in college. And he said. He said, I was having a problem with this with my girlfriend when I was in college, and I was talking to her best friend, and her best friend said, you don't get it, do you? He says, what are you talking about? He says, I don't understand why we're not getting along. She knows I love her. And her. Her best friend says, you don't understand, do you? She goes, you don't understand what it. What it takes. And I go. He goes, I don't know what you're talking about. He said, it's not a matter of whether she knows she's loved or not. It's a matter of whether she feels loved or not. Boom. He said that to me. And now I look at things and I say, when I'm doing things, when I'm doing a show or when I'm in a heated debate, when I'm sitting there with my wife and we're having a conversation or on a difficult topic, the thing that goes through my mind is, what am I doing right now that makes sure that she feels loved, even if there's a disagreement? What are you doing with the people you love, the people you serve, to make sure they feel loved? Because that's where the relationship comes from, is when they feel loved. That leads me to number seven. Number seven is our habits create our existence. Like it or not, we. Where we are today. Where you are today is a result of the decisions, the habits and the behaviors that you did in the past. If you're overweight, you made decision. Now, there may be some medical issues there. So. But if you're overeating, if you're overweight because you're overeating and. And this. That. Are you eating badly, your health, your condition, it's because of decisions you made in the past. If we don't have cash in the bank, if we don't have the wealth, if we don't have. It's because of the decisions we made in the past. Here's the beautiful thing. Now, I don't mean to judge. This may be hard for people to understand. I had to go through it. There was a time where my weight was close to 200 pounds. Okay? There was a time where I had debt. There was a time, and you've heard about it, where I got caught in a pond scheme, wiped out 1/3 of my net worth. Here's the thing. I made all those decisions. They were a result of behaviors, they're a result of habits. So if I want a different existence, I gotta change that. The beautiful thing is that means I have control of it. And that's what I know, okay? And then we look at the next one. And that is, time is a better measure of richness than money. Here's the thing. Too often we'll have the conversation, someone come in and say, I want a million dollars, I want 10 million, I want 100 million, I want to do a million dollar revenue. And my question is always, why? Why does it matter? It's just a number. It's arbitrary. What does that give you? See, I'd rather us measure our richness, our wealth, in time. How much control of my time? How much of my time do I have? Because money is an unlimited resource. It may not flow, feel that way in the moment, but it truly is. There's a reason they call it cash flow because it's constantly in. Flow comes in, goes out, comes in, goes out. But time, time is truly finite. I quickly learned this one. I was smacked with the possibility of mortality when I started to look at it and say, gosh, how much time do I have left? I don't know how much time any of us have left, including myself. But I do know that there's a end to it, at least here on earth. And if that's the case, the question then is how are we spending our time? Because the richness comes from the way we use our time and not the dollars. All of my decisions run through a lifestyle filter. How's it going to affect my life? How's it going to affect my wife's life? How's it going to affect my kids life? How's it going to affect my, my beautiful granddaughter's life? And understanding that, understanding that, and that leads me to number nine. Give more value than you take. I think we have. We owe it to the world to leave the world better than when we were here, than when we got it. I believe that we owe it to people to leave them better after our moment of interaction. And so when we think about this, even in transactions, even in business, even in your business, we need to provide more value than we ask in return. That's the only way transactions work. We live in a value exchange economy. How much value are you bringing to your relationship? How much value are you bringing to your life? How much value are you bringing to your customers? How much value are you bringing to Your audience, to your market, to your people, to your team. And if you aren't bringing more value than you're asking from them, either in price or time or effort or dedication or loyalty, that transaction will be momentary. It will not be long lasting. But when we always put more value into the world than we ask back, it will come back to us in spades. So I'm always seeking to look at it and say, how do I put more value? How do I give more value than I am asking in return? And then the last point, and this one really hit me at the day that my granddaughter was born. The moments matter. The moments matter. Here's what I mean. The day that my daughter in law and my son were in the hospital with little Emily being born, she was going through, they got there at 2am and she wasn't born until 5pm so it was a long, long day. That was also the same day that my mom, she has got health challenges and she's been on dialysis for a number of years. She went into the hospital and we weren't sure she was going to make it. So I had my mom on one end of the valley in one hospital, I had my son and his wife, my daughter in law on the other end of the valley ready to give birth. So on one side I felt like for a moment I stood at a connection point of the whole circle of life to look at it and say, man, hope mom comes out of it, but I don't know if she will. And she did, she has, she's great, she's doing well. And on the other side I have this new life that's coming to life. Little Emily being born in one moment. We had all the circle of life right there in our hands, staring at both sides of it, both sides of the equation. See, I truly believe that the moments are the things that matter. We're always worried about the future and we live in the future and we have anxiety in the past, we have guilt and resentment of the past. But that means we're not living in the moment. That means we're not living in that now that is so, so important. And the only time we can have presence, joy, and the real meaning, the fulfillment, is when we live in the moment. That's why I think moments matter. And it's the accumulation of those moments over time that give you the richness that you want in life. Those are my 10 lessons from six decades. It's the way I look at things now. It's the way I kind of live things. It's what I believe gives me the richness, the feeling of richness in my life. And I think it can you. I hope that you found this helpful. I hope you found. I know this is a little different episode, but I think this is important. Remember we talked about this. This whole show is about being an affluent entrepreneur. And affluence is not about opulence, it's about richness. It's about living a life of meaning, a life that is at peace, a life that, that is fruitful. It's truly the way we look. The whole show is about the intersection of your business, your money and your life. And I hope this episode serves you, that you get a chance to step in, step into a new vision for your life and that these lessons, or at least some of these lessons, help you look. I've had six decades to figure it out and I totally botched it. I've screwed it up left and right and I'm not too shy, too embarrassed. Maybe I was at one time, but. And I'm not too shy and too embarrassed to even say it to talk about it. So I'm totally game to talk about it. Because if it serves you, if it moves you to live bigger, to live better, to have that affluent entrepreneur lifestyle, then I did what I was meant to do because I feel I've called to do this. So I hope that you found this helpful. If you have questions, if you have any challenges or these things come up, please, please, please reach out to me. Send me a dm, send me a message, reach out to me. Let's bring it on the show. Let's have the conversations. Let's help you change your financial destiny, but not just for the finances, but for the life of it. And if you haven't done so already, make sure that you follow, follow the show, download it, subscribe to it, leave us a review. Let's have a one on one laser coaching session. If we read the review on air and join the rest of the group at the Affluent Entrepreneur Facebook group, we'll put all the links in the show notes. I hope you have a blessed, blessed day. And, and I hope you found this helpful, valuable and it starts to shift things for you because it took me six decades to figure this stuff out. It shouldn't take that for you. All right. And remember this, always, always, always live a life that outlives you. See you soon. Cheers. Bye. Thank you for listening to the Affluent Entrepreneur show with me, your host, Mel Abraham. If you want to achieve financial liberation to create an affluent lifestyle, join me in the Affluent Entrepreneur Facebook group now by going to melabraham.com group and I'll see you there.

And that's it for this episode of Building youg Money Machine, where we help you learn how to master your money, eliminate financial stress, and live a life of choice. If you found this valuable or helpful to you, here's what I'd love for you to do. If you do me a favor, go to Apple, Apple Podcast, or wherever you're listening to this podcast and rate and review the show. It helps us tremendously to keep us at the top of the list so we can continue to get this information and this message out to people. Because I truly believe that financial freedom is your birthright, and I want to help each and every one of you claim it. Thanks so much.