Garrett Gunderson: The Money Tree (2019) 📙

Meine Notizen

Introduction: The Greater Purpose

The Money Tree

Throughout this book, I’m going to be comparing prosperity to growing a tree: Human life value is the gardener that plants the tree; philosophy and paradigms are the seeds, soil, and water; either fear, doubt, and worry, or faith, hope, and love are the roots; principles are the trunk; and financial products and strategies are the branches and leaves. The fruits of our prosperity tree are the natural results of everything that comes before them.

Chapter 1: From Planting to Harvesting

You become productive and access your potential by utilizing your human life value in the service of others.

• Das ist die Grundaussage des Buches, in einem Satz zusammengefasst.

Chapter 2: The Necessary Elements

A person who understands sound financial philosophies and principles but who does not practically apply them is impotent and ineffectual. On the other hand, a person who bases their entire financial plan on products and techniques, without understanding the underlying philosophies and principles, is ungrounded, limited, and in many cases, actually destructive.

• Das gilt z.B. auch für Business-Starter-Coaches und BWL-Autoren.

Chapter 3: Two Determinant Paradigms (Philosophy)

Human beings choose from two different paradigms, scarcity and abundance, which determine how they view and interact with the world. Scarcity leads to all destructive human tendencies; abundance induces all productive traits. Abundance is a choice.

???? Contrast is actually one of the greatest gifts ever given to us by God. Why? Because it is precisely through contrast that we have the power to choose. There is no choice except in the presence of opposites to choose from. […] It’s through the contrast provided by opposition that we are able to learn and ultimately find context and meaning in existence.

• Kontrast als didaktisches Mittel: Das wirkt!
• Nach dem Motto: Du kannst es so haben, oder du kannst es so haben. Was ist dir lieber? Welches Problem willst du haben?
• Das ist auch stimmig mit der Idee: Theme = Was ist die Alternative?
• Vgl. Denken in Alternativen

Scarcity appears to be reasonable because it’s what’s normal and customary in the world. Many things in life seem to support the fallacy of scarcity. […] Although scarcity may appear to be reasonable, it’s totally irrational. Scientifically and intuitively, we know that nature regenerates and with proper stewardship, has the ability to reproduce.

In a world dominated by a paradigm of scarcity, living abundantly seems unreasonable. So much negativity in the world supports scarcity and prevents us from seeing the abundance that surrounds us. Abundance, however difficult to see, is completely rational. It is, in fact, the very nature of the universe.

???? The results are consistent and constantly plague us when we’re gripped by scarcity: Fear, doubt, and worry. We fearthat we will lose anything we have gained, we doubt that we have the ability to prosper or question if others will compensate us for our efforts, and we worry that there will never be enough money, food, time, etc.

• Fear, doubt und worry begleiten jede Gründung und jede Selbständigkeit. Und verhindern viele Gründungen und Selbständigkeiten.

Accepting abundance gives us faith in truth and principles, confidence that we can choose our destiny, and peace that everything we experience is for our good.

Living abundantly does not mean that you become naïve, far from it. One must be careful of the counterfeit to abundance, which is ignorance. The truth is just the opposite: abundance helps you to be wise and do true due diligence without being negative, and to be open and excited about life without letting yourself get taken advantage of.

In order to prosper, you must first start by developing your human life value. As your human life value increases, you become consciously aware of the choice between scarcity and abundance.

• Lese ich hier zum allerersten Mal eine „Anleitung“, wie man zu abundance thinking kommt?
• Alles beginnt also beim Human Life Value. Ohne Bewusstsein für den Human Life Value gibt es auch kein abundance thinking — so die Theorie.

Chapter 4: Principles & Their Application (As Determined By Our Paradigm)

The more value we create for others, the more value we receive in return. The prosperity in our lives is a direct reflection of the prosperity that we bring into the lives of others.

• Vgl. Gib, dann wird auch dir gegeben werden.

Simply put, consumers create less value in the world than they take, and producers create more value than they take.

Like consumers, they also have their own wants, or self-interest, but how they go about fulfilling those wants is fundamentally different than consumers. Producers understand that it is in their best interest to help others get what they want.

Producers choose to be heroes, regardless of external circumstances they face. They rise above challenges by taking responsibility for how they choose to deal with them.

• vgl. Dan Sullivan: Sei ein Held für deine Kunden!

Producers are more concerned with giving than with receiving. They know that the best way for them to be happy is to serve others.

Producers share their blessings with as many people as possible through responsible and sustainable means.

• Blessings. Alles, was ich habe, sind Gnaden und Segnungen von Gott. Nichts davon ist mein (alleiniges) Verdienst. Es geht nicht um entitlement, sondern um stewardship.
  • Vgl. die Geschichte mit den drei Talenten.
• Besonders wichtig erscheint mir hier auch „through responsible and sustainable means“.
  • ⇒ Ich darf ein bisserl schlau sein bei der Art und Weise, wie ich lehre und Human Life Value kreiere.

Chapter 5: Financial Strategies: Accumulation versus Utilization

Mikro vs. Makro

• A micro perspective of finances takes specific aspects of a person’s plan and views those aspects alone, without considering their relationship with or effect on any other part of the plan.
• A macro perspective, on the other hand, looks at a person’s plan in its entirety and aids them in making holistic decisions that take all factors into consideration.
• Auch Gründungsberatung gibt es auf einer Mikro- und einer Makroebene.
• Und ich taue mich zu sagen: Manche Gründungsberater fühlen sich eher auf der Mikroebene wohl und manche eher auf der Makroebene.
• Beides hat seinen Wert, beides hat seine Zeit. Achtung vor der Entweder-oder-Falle!

The utilization perspective teaches that a person should find the areas where they are unique, find the most enjoyment, and where they can offer the most value, and then synergize with others to do the things that are not a part of their Soul Purpose. With utilization, we learn that we can dramatically increase our production by focusing our time and efforts on where we can create the most value (leverage), and utilize the abilities of others in other areas of our life.

Too often, though, all we see is the price tag of an item, while failing to see the cost of us creating it ourselves.

• Vgl. Opportunitätskosten
• Vgl. Was kostet es jemanden, nicht bei mir die Gründungsberatung zu machen? Möglicherweise seine ganze Existenz!
• Wieder: Denken in Alternativen. Was ist die Alternative?

While reducing expenses can be an important part of a whole plan, ultimately a person’s macro plan should be based on spending time and effort figuring out how they can increase their production.

• Vgl. Investing Mindset: Mithilfe von schlauen Investitionen mehr produzieren — nicht mehr ansparen.
• Das ist Wachstum! Auch die Natur strebt nach Wachstum. Alles da draußen wächst — bis es ausgewachsen ist. Dann hört es auf zu wachsen. Aber nicht früher!
• vgl. Dave Ramsey: a bigger shovel

Chapter 6: End Results: Security versus Freedom

People who live in scarcity base their decisions off fear.

Chapter 7: Conclusion: The Big Picture

If you ever find yourself wondering what you should invest in, the question is always, without exception, to invest in yourself and to increase your human life value.

Chapter 8: Action: Where do we go from here?

Language is so powerful because we have the ability to speak things into existence.

• vgl. Im Anfang war das Wort…

Language allows us to define things to provide distinction, and people then become empowered through distinctions. In other words, the more clearly we can define things, the easier it is to understand them, and the easier it then becomes to take action on the basis of those definitions and distinctions. It’s also easier to communicate with others and to help them to take action.