A friend of the people at Canterbury was driving though Redland Bay recently and excitedly pointed out a house he almost bought years earlier for $68,000 – and it is now worth $690,000. The conversation then went like this:
Canterbury: “Why didn’t you buy it”? Answer: “Someone told me I might be paying too much and frightened me away”.
Canterbury: “Did they have any basis for saying that to you”? Answer: “No, they were just watching out for me, in case I made a mistake”.
The reality is that the peanut gallery (often well-meaning friends with no wealth) feel safer to “advise” us we are wrong, rather than to advise us we are right. They don’t want our mistake on their lap. That makes them happy and able to undermine our confidence.
They also feel more comfortable if they see us remain poor with them.
However to get anywhere or to find financial success, we need to associate with people who guide us in “things to do – “not things not to do”. Progress can never be found in avoiding everything, just in case.
Successful people hear the peanut gallery as distant peripheral noise, not something to be guided by or to take seriously. Here are some of the things they say (so watch out)
“You are already paying off one loan, why would you take on another”?
“You’ll be 65 before you pay that off”!
“You don’t know what you are doing”.
“Isn’t it time you spent more money on yourself”?
“Having a lot of assets just causes fights between the kids when they get the inheritance”.
“Surely you don’t want the worry of tenants”?
How many times have well meaning friends put you off something you now know was right for you? Perhaps they have general doubt merely because the waters are unfamiliar to them.
This reminds us of the poem by Ruchita Sharma, as follows.
With me, by my side,
you were walkin as I thought,
But guess it was shadow,
playing the part you ought.
The man mentioned above who “nearly” bought a house for $68,000 (that is now worth $690,000) has still never bought a house. In allowing himself to be frightened off course on day one, he has lost all of the inevitable life-long benefits.
Canterbury is here to help you fly high without the distracting baggage.
Remember the average person retires on an average income of $27,000/year. One way not to become one of them is not to listen to them.
Don’t let your own dream become stolen.