You Are Why You’re Poor

by Roland Hulme

Today gave me a beautiful illustration of what’s wrong with modern America.

As I emerged from Penn Station this morning, a group of people in red t-shirts were eagerly handing out dollar bills – all part of something called Fortune 500 Day (which I’d never heard of before.)

Some people, like myself, eagerly took the free money and then carried on to work.

Most people, however, stepped out of the path of the people handing out the cash, or raised their hand to dismiss them, or simply uttered a short, sharp bark of “No!”

And that, my friends, is about as perfect a metaphor for American life as you could possibly ask for.

What I’ve come to realize and love about this incredible country is that it really is “the land of opportunity” – and that there’s as much wealth and as many riches as you could possibly want, depending on how hard you’re willing to work to get them (or what you’re willing to sacrifice.)

I’m new to this attitude towards life, but it’s paid very rich dividends in the short amount of time  I've been living by it.

But a vast number of people don’t realize that this is how America works, and they’re miserable and bitter as a result. They see other people in this country with riches, wealth, comfort and security and then blame anybody but themselves for this inequality.

It’s a mentality best summed up by the Occupy movement – which lacks a clearly defined manifesto, but certainly seems to be based around the mindset of “you have more than me, so give me some.”

But that’s the conceit, and what people with the Occupy mindset don’t get: America is giving you “some.” In fact, it’s giving you as much as you’d fancy taking. Everything you want from this country – wealth, property, prosperity, fame and fortune – is waiting for you like ripe, juicy fruit ready to be picked.

But you still have to pick it.

That ripe fruit doesn’t get picked for you. You don’t have people taking your hands gently, turning them palm-upward and then placing the fruit in them for you. You actually have to reach, and stretch, and grip and pull and then pluck that reward from where it hangs.

Everything you want from America is being offered to you; but most people don’t bother taking it. And then they complain about other people having more than they do.

They blame anybody else for it – social injustice, economic privation, capitalism or socialism or whatever flawed economic model they believe America runs under – but they never take responsibility for it themselves – and they should.

Because in truth, the people represented by the Occupy movement are often like the people outside Penn Station today – the ones who turned their nose up at the free money being waved in their faces.

They live in the most incredible country in the world – where more people have more chances to become wealthy than in any other place on earth – and yet they still starve themselves in the midst of all this abundance.

It's time to stop making excuses for why you haven't got what you want out of life, and start taking action. The opportunities are there - you just need to seize them.

Need proof of how this works? Just look at the figures. In Occupy Wall Street language, 80% of the 1% started life as the 99% - and became this nation's richest none the less.

There's nothing - literally nothing - standing between you and those same incredible results.

Except yourself.