The garden

“Wealth is not how much money you have. Wealth is what you’re left with when you lose all your money.”

Growing wealth enables you to continuously attract money and opportunities in the same way that growing a garden enables you to continuously attract the birds and butterflies.

Using the analogy of money being as tricky and transient as butterflies is quite useful. It allows us to draw a clear distinction between the strategies of those who are busy trying to make money (The Net) compared to those who are building wealth (The Garden).

The Net

You want to catch b utterflies , so you decide to build a net. Surely, with a net you can catch them more easily!

You read books on the subject and you practice skills in butterfly catching . You find that you are making improvements. Your net gets bigger and smarter and gradually you do catch more butterflies, but there is something wrong. You find that after many years o f this strategy you still need to wake up every day and go out to catch more butterflies. You need to hold on to the butterflies you have caught, or they will fly away just as quickly. The more butterflies you have, the more difficult they are to hold on to. You are constantly in fear that the butterflies will disappear, or that someone with a bigger net will beat you at your own game.

When the butterflies do disappear, you’re left with nothing.

I know of many people who have become experts at sales, marketing, management, customer service and still struggle to make money. We all know of people who have learnt the strategies of successful stock market traders, property investors and serial entrepreneurs and are still left funding their losses. They carefully follow the strategies they learn, and then remain baffled as to why they do not attract the same opportunities, resources and sheer luck of their role models. These are people who are trying to make money without first building wealth.

They are trying to chase butterflies with a net.

The Garden

On the other hand, wealth creators don’t worry about building a net. Instead, they grow a garden. By focusing on creating an inspiring garden, they are growing something permanent around themselves. As the garden grows, the butterflies come. As time goes by, you find that the effort to manage the garden falls as the number of butterflies rise. In fact, the butterflies, birds and bees end up pollinating your garden for you. You don’t fear butterflies leaving, as there are always more coming.

If anyone takes your butterflies away, there will be more the next day.

Every successful wealth creator is focused entirely on building their wealth foundation ahead of their money making activities. They have built a reputation, a powerful network, a knowledge base, a resource base and a track record. This is their garden, and it has been built not around their expertise, but around their passion. Every day, they wake up to their passion – not an empty net.

In a recent speech to a group of students, Warren Buffett said:

“I may have more money than you, but money doesn’t make the difference. If there is any difference between you and me it may simply be that I get up every day and have a chance to do what I love to do, every day. If yo u learn anything from m e, this is the best advice I can give you.”

Attracting more by moving less

Warren Buffett attracts billion dollar butterflies because he is specific in what his investment company, Berkshire Hathaway, wants to invest in: He repeatedly says he is looking for businesses with consistent earning power, good return on equity, little debt, good management and that he understands… between $5 billion and $20 billion in size. He promises complete confidentiality and quick response. He doesn’t have to go chasing the business. They come to him. Consequently, he has described his acquisition strategy like this:

“It’s very scientific. Charlie (Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway) and I just sit around and wait for the phone to ring. Sometimes it’s a wrong number.”

Each wealth creator has stopped chasing opportunities and chosen to build a wealth foundation around their specific passions and talents. As the American industrialist, Andrew Carnegie said “The men who have succeeded are men who have chosen one line and stuck to it.”

As we’ll see, this doesn’t mean sticking to a particular profession, industry or even country. It does mean sticking to your wealth profile. As a result Buffett attracts the right deals that suit Berkshire Hathaway, Branson attracts the right businesses that suit Virgin and Jack Welch - as CEO of GE and one of America’s best known leaders - attracted the right people who suited his leadership team.

Each different profile has a different value that creates this attraction – a different garden they are tending to. Welch used this metaphor when talking about his role at GE: “My main job was developing talent. I was a gardener providing water and other nourishment to our top 750 people. Of course, I had to pull out some weeds, too.”