Money Won’t Make You Rich!…A Truism We Must All Embrace

It was a Wednesday and the date was May 28, 2014. This date may hold nothing peculiar for you but for someone like me, it can perfectly be described as 'my precursor to financial emancipation'. On this day, I joined two of my distinguished colleagues in the motivational speaking business to inspire students of Mount Mary College of Education (MOMACO) at Somanya, in the Eastern region of Ghana.

Bright Elikplim Ayiboe and Courage Christson Tetteh are very distinguished international speakers who do it like none other with a style and flair comparable to none. Oh, how I adore these two guys. It is interesting to note that we are all TTOSANS (Old Students of Three Town Senior High School, Denu).

The 2014 SRC Week Celebrations of MOMACO was branded by the Assistant Principal as 'the best ever held' in the history of the institution. Among the reasons for that branding is the fact that the seminar on that faithful May 28 was something else. The students were inspired, challenged and encouraged on cultivating a good financial culture, showing forth the leader in them and creating the future they so desire. It was an electrifying atmosphere.

After the program, I decided to spend the night at Somanya to study the business and social dynamics of the town, as have become my habit, especially on my first visit to any village, town or city. Bright and Courage had to rush to catch the ferry at Senchi and get back to Ho the same day. We bid goodbye and I found rest in the comfort of the guest house I booked for the night.

I found myself in Accra the next day and rushed to a bookshop known as STEPS TO CHRIST at Pamplom, near the Kaneshie Bus Terminal. This bookshop was recommended to me by my Pastor friend, Gabriel Elikplim Ametorwo as the ideal place to get good Christian literature. On reaching the bookshop, the attendant was about closing and told me to come the next day. I intimated to her that I had to reach Agboville that same day and that I wasn't leaving Accra without buying books.

When she got to know that I was using my entire honorarium given me for speaking at MOMACO to buy books, she opened her mouth in astonishment and quickly re-booted her computer (here, book sales are software administered). I then proceeded to make my selections. My first pick of books were those authored by the late Archbishop Benson A. Idahosa. On my brief book hunting expedition, I chanced upon a book with a controversial title authored by Pastor Sunday Adelaja of the Embassy of God Church in Ukraine – a church known as the biggest in Europe. The book's title is 'MONEY WON'T MAKE YOU RICH', hence the title of this article.

What a title? I exclaimed! Most of us were of the view that when one had money, then one was rich. I couldn't wait to know the school of thought that this legendary pastor is coming from. An extraordinary journey into the freedom of my financial mind began on this particular day – A day I will cherish forever.

I can emphatically say today that indeed, money won't make you rich. It is the riches in you that attracts money to you. Your gifts, talents and abilities attract the money and therefore, one is already rich before money comes. Money comes just as the reward for being rich, and not what makes one rich. Money is nothing more than paper or electronic figures punched from the keys of some computer somewhere into an account.

It follows therefore that, with a keystroke, money can be wiped out. Fire could gut your paper notes or thieves could steal your cache of cash, wherever you stack them. Therefore, if to you, your riches or wealth lies in paper money or electronic one only, then you're not truly rich. True riches or wealth is what lies inside you that can make you attract loads of money when everything you once owned has been taken away from you.

My entrepreneur friend, Cletus Kingsley Yekplorwodo and I were discussing the other time that when one can bounce back big time after losing everything and only find himself in boxer shorts, one can truly describe himself as rich or wealthy. Therefore, the true riches or wealth lies in one's abilities, gifts and talents. Go steal Lionel Messi's entire cash pile: from his liquid cash to entire investments, and the guy will still make millions, because his riches doesn't lie in his money pile, but rather in his ability to skilfully play nice and scintillating football. I believe we are getting the true picture. Money won't make us rich. We must already be rich to attract money.

Comrades, it follows that we must work on being rich from the inside – developing our talents, skills and abilities; committing ourselves to learning new things and carving good character for ourselves. It is only then that we can describe ourselves as truly rich. I honestly believe that if my friends Cletus, Mawufemor, Elikplim, Eseenam, and Jeffrey find themselves even in the poorest part of Haiti with nothing and only in their underwear or probably naked, they will surely pick themselves up and build business empires and effect change. This is because they are rich from the inside and can use their inner riches to attract money on any day.

This is the ideology of Pastor Sunday Adelaja, a Nigerian born in a rural and poverty-stricken part of Nigeria who now pastors the largest church in Europe and made his first million dollars in a space of 9 months – not from offertory or tithes of congregants but from rather self- income generating avenues.

Rush and get a copy of MONEY WON'T MAKE YOU RICH and you will be on the way to financial emancipation.

It is a truism therefore that we must be truly rich inside before we attract money. If we count our paper and electronic money as our riches, then we are not truly rich.

Thank you, Pastor Sunday Adelaja for the edification.

Paul Edem Kuenyefu, is a Conference Speaker, Writer, Lay Preacher and Business Strategist. He is the author of 'TO THE ZENITH', a motivational piece.

Email: pedem99 [at]gmail[dot]com