The Money Tree: The Roots & Fruits of Poverty & Prosperity

The Roots & Fruits of Poverty & Prosperity

Garrett B. Gunderson

• Publisher: G&D Media
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781722520960
• Topic: Persönliche Entwicklung
• Subtopic: Persönlicher Erfolg

This is not a book about money; it's about contribution, about human greatness, and about true prosperity beyond money. This book is for people who see a greater purpose in being wealthy than in personal comfort, status, prestige, and an irresponsible sense of freedom. This book will help you eliminate scarcity in your life through an increased awareness and will help you cultivate a paradigm of abundance. Gunderson uncovers the truth about retirement planning, he outlines the philosophies and principles that true wealth is based upon, and his ideas will help you to practically apply those fundamentals utilizing appropriate products and strategies.

Chapter 1

From Planting to Harvesting

A parable of gardeners and trees outlined. Each element of the parable represents ingredients that determine either poverty or prosperity results.

“It was planted in a good soil by great waters, that it might bring forth branches, and that it might bear fruit, that it might be a goodly vine … being planted, shall it prosper?”

—EZEKIEL 17:8 & 10

Let me begin with a parable. Two gardeners planted fruit trees in their gardens. The first gardener took care to select the best seeds. Furthermore, he carefully prepared the soil, picking the ideal location that would receive adequate water and sunlight, tilling it well, and providing fertilizer.

From those seeds sprung forth healthy, strong, and deep roots that gave the trees life and good health. The tree trunks grew straight and strong, and gave them the ability to withstand the strongest of winds. Healthy branches grew from the trees, profuse and strong enough to hold plentiful fruit. After a time, the trees produced the best, biggest, and most delicious fruit that the farmer had ever seen and tasted. It was the best harvest he had, and many came from miles around to buy his fruit and enjoy his harvest.

The second gardener, on the other hand, was careless about his selection of both his seeds and his soil. The soil he planted in was rocky and hard, had few nutrients, and was a poor location for water and sunlight. Most of his seeds never germinated and took root. The few that did had shallow, unhealthy roots. From those roots grew narrow, twisted, and flimsy trunks that were nonresistant to the elements. The branches were few and weak, and the trees produced wormy, small, and bitter fruit that nobody wanted.

How does this parable apply to your prosperity? Each of the images portrayed represent ingredients in the process of either a life of poverty or a life of prosperity.

The symbol of the gardener is you, or what I will call your human life value. Human life value is everything you are when all of your material resources are stripped away. It is your knowledge, your character and integrity, your ability to think creatively and uniquely, your relationships, your faith, your virtue—or the lack of each of these things. It is your knowledge and ability to shape materials and information in new ways that are valued and utilized by others and yourself. What do you bring to the world? What is your unique combination of talents, abilities, education and perspective? This is your human life value. You become productive and access your potential by utilizing your human life value in the service of others.

Insight

“I don’t remember exactly how old I was, but there was a time in my childhood when I would ask my Dad for things and he would tell me, “We need to wait for the money tree to bloom.” I believed him literally, and I remember sitting outside watching one tree in particular in our front yard, waiting for it to bloom. I would even check up on it periodically, thinking that as soon is it bloomed we would have money.

It’s a funny story, but it also carries a lot of meaning. I was so ready to see money that I didn’t even care what he said, and it led to unquestioned beliefs. I sat there waiting without taking proactive action.

So many people plant their “seeds” of prosperity in the wrong soil, they fail to cultivate and water them, then are disappointed when no money appears. They operate under faulty perceptions, which results in a failure to cultivate the right habits. They’re waiting for something to happen or someone to help them, rather than taking immediate and practical action to improve their lives.

Your money tree can bloom, but only if it’s planted correctly and cultivated carefully.

The seeds, soil, water, and sunlight represent your paradigm, or the way that you view the world that determines how you interact with the world and other people. Specifically, there are two determinant paradigms that people have to choose from: scarcity and abundance.

From the seeds of scarcity come roots of fear, doubt, and worry. From the seeds of abundance come roots of faith, hope, and love. The tree trunks represent principles: the timeless, unchanging, universal natural laws of the universe that, when applied appropriately, provide stability, strength and direction in a person’s life.

The tree branches represent strategies, techniques, tools, and resources. The strategies I use and how I use them are determined by our human life value, our paradigm, and our understanding and application of principles. And finally, the fruits of the trees represent the results I experience from the combination of my human life value, my paradigm, principles, and strategies.

Consider the following chart for a moment:

I’ve learned that the starting place to grow your money trees is with your soil and your seeds. Seeds are the principles that you’re aligned with and the soil is who you currently are.

Note quadrant III: If you attempt to plant a seed of abundance in scarce soil, the result will be no growth and death of the seed. Why? Because when you’re in scarcity you will reject seeds of abundance, they cannot take root because you are not the kind of soil conducive to prosperous growth.

Similarly, if you have abundant soil, or in other words, if you are full of hope, faith, love, and abundance, but you then plant a seed of scarcity, whether through friends, family, the media, or society, your soil will reject that seed and it cannot grow (Quadrant II).

In quadrant IV we find both scarce soil and scarce seeds—resulting, of course, in scarcity and poverty in every area of one’s life.

On the other hand, in quadrant I we find ourselves in a position where our soil is abundant, and the seeds (or principles) planted within that soil are abundant, we will experience favorable conditions for productive growth and the seed will grow.

Remember: You have the power to control and change your soil, and to nurture and cultivate it. In the end I have the power and the control to change my soil, to nurture it and to cultivate it.

This parable describes a model that I have created called The Money Tree. The Money Tree looks like the illustration on the following page:

Chapter 2

The Necessary Elements

Both theory and application are necessary for financial success. Prosperity is a predictable formula: Human Life Value + Sound Philosophy + Correct Principles + Wise Application = Results. Soul Purpose elevates our motivation to prosper and to realize our full potential. Two paradigms, scarcity and abundance, determine the quality and longevity of financial results.

In order for a tree to grow and flourish, it begins with the proper soil. The next elements are a seed, then roots, a trunk, branches, and leaves, all of which determine the fruit. Prosperity also requires that every necessary element in the process be present.

Have you ever read a book about personal finance that got you excited about the idea, or the philosophy of prosperity, and then left you hanging wondering, “Okay, now what do I do?” Or, have you read other books that tried to convince you to buy into specific products and strategies without explaining the principles behind them, leaving you skeptical and unfulfilled? It seems that too often people are either left without clear direction on how to practically apply theory, or pressured into buying products without understanding their relevance or context in our life. But what if you could have the best of both worlds? What would happen in your financial life if you understood the correct philosophies, paradigms and principles governing prosperity and you had the knowledge and ability to practically apply them, using products and strategies?

Prosperity is a predictable formula: proper philosophies + paradigms + correct principles + products/strategies = results. 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. In other words, it’s essential that both theory and application be present for a person to achieve true financial success.

Also, it’s critically important to realize that who you are as an individual is far more important than any other ingredient in the recipe of prosperity. The utilization of your human life value is the single biggest determinant of your financial success, or lack thereof. It is through your human life value that you are even able to comprehend philosophy and everything that follows.

Any time anyone asks me what I think they should invest in, my answer is always the same: “Invest in yourself until you know and even when you know, never stop investing in yourself.” Once a person’s Human Life Value gets to a certain point through discipline, education, and practice, they have no need to ask such a question. Human Life Value is always, without exception, the best and most important place to start the pursuit of prosperity.

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.

Most of the financial advice you read and hear comes from one of two camps: those who talk about nothing but the root and trunk of prosperity, or those who talk about nothing but the branches and leaves. These views are not so much wrong as they are incomplete. My purpose is to bridge the gap between these two camps and provide a more holistic view of finances that is simultaneously idealistic and practical.

Having said this, however, it must be stressed that, although these two views are equally important, there is a definite order in which they...