My family and I watched Survivor Season 40: Winners at War. It was the season where all the players were previous winners who have won a million dollars and were now playing to win the $2 Million prize. While watching the show, the Cowboy, Ben Driebergen, says to another player something along the lines of, “A million dollars doesn’t last very long.” Now, I don’t know what Ben did with his million dollars or if he has any left, but it made me think of a pretty appropriate quote from my mentor Jim Rohn…
“Whether you win or whether you earn a million dollars, best you quickly learn how to be a millionaire, or you will lose it.”
This quote speaks volume to the ear ready to hear it. If you were to ask someone, if they want a million dollars right now or a chance to earn a million dollars over the next year, most would say they want the money now. But this is a bad choice and a very poor way of thinking. You see, if you’re given a million dollars and haven’t learned how to be a millionaire, you’ll most likely lose the money. We shouldn’t want the money right away. We should all want the chance to earn a million dollars. But why??? Well, another quote from Jim Rohn comes to mind…
“Become a millionaire not for the million dollars, but for what it will make of you to achieve it.”
You want to be the kind of person who can make a million dollars. If you are simply given a million dollars and lose the money, you won’t know how to get it back. But if you work and make changes to earn that million dollars, then the million dollars is really not important any more. You could simply give it away. Since you’re the kind of person who knows how to earn a million dollars, you could earn another million dollars.
The Takeaway
So, when Ben from Survivor said that a million dollars doesn’t last very long, he was right…if the money is in the hands of someone who hasn’t had to change to win the million dollars. I’m not saying that the people on Survivor don’t work hard those 38 days to win the million dollars, but rarely are the skills they achieve, or the people they become give them the millionaire mindset in such a short time. It’s when we have to push, fight, change, and earn that million dollars that develops that millionaire mindset. You have to make something of yourself to achieve it. And it is that experience, that hard work, that dedication that will make a million dollars last a lifetime. Because you became a different person to earn it and now that person can grow it. That million dollars can become millions of dollars to the person who learns to earn the million rather than win it.
So, Ben was kind of right. A million dollars doesn’t last a long time, unless it’s in the hands of a person who knows what it takes to achieve it.