The Ten Commandments of Wealth Creation

Author’s Note

This book is about ‘Ten Commandments of Wealth Creation’ that reveals 10 fundamental truths or principles about how to create wealth.

Am I Moses to whom God has revealed the truth? The simple answer is a definite ‘No’. I am just an ordinary guy who rose from poverty and through my experience and experiments stumbled upon these truths in the process of creating wealth. The best part is that like many people I was oblivious of the fact that lack of financial security was the root cause of my misery.

I am fortunately blessed with a keen analytical mind that yearned to find fundamental truth about permanence happiness in life. I never let that spark die even when I was poor and struggling. My intense search led me to understand the fundamental principles of wealth that anyone can apply to his life to become wealthy.

The fact that you are reading this book is because you have that spark within to expand from your current situation and become greater than what you are today. You don’t want to suck up to your boss, live in a place that is dictated by your current financial circumstances, you have the strong desire to give financial security to your loved ones, travel to exotic places and meet exciting people.

To fructify your dreams you need money but don’t know how to go about it. You watch rich and the famous on TV or video clips and read about them in newspapers, books and magazines. Their stories are inspirational but how they got there is bit of a mystery to you. Only if we could be like them….

This book will teach you how to generate cash for investing, how to use leverage the right way to compound your wealth, create multiple streams of income for financial stability and also wealth protection strategies on how to keep wealth within your family for generations. If you have a sincere desire to improve your financial wellbeing and that of your loved ones, then this book will hopefully show you the path. It will save you from making mistakes and accelerate your path to a more fulfilling life.

This book will show you how simple it is to create wealth. All you need is an understanding of the principles and application of them in your daily life.

When you read a book about wealth creation, you must always inquire about the author. Is he genuine and does he have the experience?

I have read many books on wealth creation that talk about ‘No money down deals’ or ‘Leveraging.’ Reading about these concepts is very exciting for people who wish to become rich in no time, with little effort and no money of their own. However, most of these authors never explain the pitfalls of nothing-down deals and excessive leveraging - which make me believe that they lack the experience it takes to execute the same in real life.

I am blessed to be able to reside in New Zealand; one of the most beautiful countries in the world. However, my story began halfway around the globe, in a nondescript town in India. I was born to a family of veterans- who for generations served as soldiers in the armed forces- completely oblivious to the world of financial planning or wealth building.

Life in India, in the sixties, was tough with little or no prospects. And to make matters worse, I was abandoned by my father at the young age of 14 years. On my young shoulders, fell the responsibility of my mother who was just a high school graduate with no job prospects, an unmarried sister and a younger brother. I was ill-prepared and confused.

We found support and solace, in that tumultuous phase, in my grandfather’s presence. He was a man of limited means but of great heart and wisdom. He inspired us by saying Eat only half a slice of bread but never give up on your education or dreams.

I joined the Navy at the tender age of fifteen. The academy was a place where a roof over the head and free rations were guaranteed. My dreams were limited to survival in those days. I was a depressed and troubled soul…scrutinizing why life was so cruel to me. I contemplated suicide on several occasions but had too many responsibilities to give up on life. The intense physical routine at the National Defense Academy also helped me from getting into mischief. When you run ten miles every morning, go for horse riding and do drills under the hot, scorching Indian sun, there is very little energy left to tie yourself to a ceiling fan.

To address pain within, I turned to philosophy. I read every philosophical text I could lay my hands on Plato, Socrates, Spinoza, Voltaire, Kant, Schopenhauer, Spencer, Lau Tzu, Nietzsche, Freud, Carl Jung to name just a few. I was devouring books morning, evening, night and even on the shit-pot so as not waste time to get to the bottom of that deep sorrow that engulfed me. Although I got some insight into my problems, bouts of depression continued to haunt me.

To understand the cause of my suffering, I turned towards religion. My intense spiritual quest lasted for well over a decade. During this period, I neglected the material side of life in order to enlighten myself. In any case, I had no money because I was sending every rupee I earned back home to support my family.

One day my spirit would soar heavenward, but the next day I would be depressed again. Slowly through daily meditation and yoga, my mind became steady and the fluctuations reduced. Then one fine day it dawned on me that ‘life is’ and the spiritual and material world are closely interwoven. The spiritual side cannot exist without material well-being.

I decided to give up on my celibacy vows. I was honest enough to recognize that suppressed sexual thoughts were acting counter productively towards my spiritual growth. However, getting married is easier said than done.

Finding a suitable wife posed a huge problem for me. I was fairly good looking and had a good personality thanks to the countless hours of drills at the Academy. Girls would find me alluring as I could play the guitar and sing, in addition to being a good dancer. But when it came to committing, I could always sense a hesitation. In those days, I was very proud of my new-found spirituality and boastful of my non-materialistic approach to life. I was the quintessential ‘philosopher fool’ who knew much of the inner self but nothing about what motivates young girls of marriageable age.

When all attempts at organic love fail—family relations come in handy, in India, in the form of an arranged marriage. They found me a beautiful girl who was equally non-materialistic and clueless about money matters. We were a match made in heaven. Our bank balance was zero, but this did not trouble either my wife or me.

Our motto in the Navy was ‘Either you can be an officer and a gentleman or be rich.’ I proudly chose to be an officer and a gentleman. Fortunately, I kept away from liquor which was another requirement to prove my competence as a non-caring, happy-go-lucky officer who was ready to die for his country at the drop of a hat.

Both I and my wife lived in our blissful non-materialistic state, till a reality check arrived in the form of our two beautiful children. At this point, even impractical philosophers like me are forced to become practical. When you look into those innocent eyes and feel the touch of those little hands holding your fingers, your heart melts. I love my children deeply and did not wish them to suffer the same fate that I did.

My financial security was my job in the Navy, and I tried to excel so that I could get promotions and plum postings. Hard work pays off and all bosses are not bad. I was lucky to get an overseas posting to Mauritius which opened my eyes to the world of finance for the first time in my life. I met with people who were making huge sums of money through currency transactions, and by being the middlemen in the trade with South Africa (trading with India was banned due to Apartheid.)

Lest I was left behind, I purchased 20 volumes of Business Management books and read them several times to fill in the gaps in my knowledge. Although I had a grasp of economics, personnel and financial management, I was still clueless as to how I may use this knowledge in real life to make money.

I got into real estate investing perchance. When I returned back to India from my overseas sojourn to my horror, I found that my sister’s marriage was in trouble. She asked me to help her out and invest in a boutique shop in Delhi from where she could run her garments business. With my wife’s consent, we put our entire savings from the 3 years overseas tenure and purchased a small retail shop. My legs were shaking when I closed the deal. Family and friends told me I was a fool and that I had paid too much for the property. Funnily, my critics had never purchased an investment property.

In the next five years, the price of the property we purchased went up by five times. Such ridiculous price increases happen only in India. We were luckily caught in a vertex of an upward property cycle. From being ridiculed to becoming an investment genius—my friends and family were now seeking investment advice from me. I was equally clueless. The only thing I had done was to act, despite my fear, motivated by my desire to help my sister.

This little deal was an eye-opener. I understood the power of real estate investing and whenever I found little money, I started buying real estate. In those days there were no books or seminars on real estate investing in India. I was a street-smart investor aided by a competent broker who gave me one advice that I have not forgotten to date. He said You should only buy cows that give milk. There is no point in buying a calf that you have to nurture for years before it gives milk. This one advice has kept me out of trouble in turbulent financial times.

I applied for a premature retirement from the Navy in the mid-nineties. By that time, my real estate income had sufficiently replaced the stipend I received from the Navy... I thought to myself, If I could do this well as a part-time investor then I will be able to accelerate my growth by removing those shackles of the Navy where making money was looked down upon.

I was in for a rude surprise soon after I left the Navy. Real estate market, after a bull run since I started investing, went into a nosedive when the Indian Government, in all its wisdom, decided to carry out a nuclear test. Economic sanctions were imposed by most countries and businesses around the country started going bust. My properties became vacant, and cash flow dried up.

Having been a master of good times, I was clueless about what could be done. In panic, I sold a large number of my properties at a loss. To generate cash, I founded a security agency that was partially successful, but I found it to be very stressful to run. I quit that business as I was not happy doing it. The failure was due to the fact that I did not have the mindset for business, although I did not realize it at the time. I went back to sea stationed as a Captain in Merchant Navy. The good old sense of job security takes over when there is panic; my dreams of being an entrepreneur lay in shambles.

Stressful financial conditions forced me to start looking for answers. I was struggling with my real estate business when a friend of mine recommended ‘Real Estate Riches’ by Dolf De Roos—this book was an eye-opener! It was the first book I read on investing. I became an avid reader and read everything I could lay my hands on. Entrepreneurial spirit, once again, rose within me. It was like the good old days when I was devouring those books on philosophy.

During this period, we migrated to New Zealand. I was excited because Dolf De Roos belonged to that country and had written that it was a haven for property investing with no capital gain tax, stamp duty or estate taxes.My true education in business and investing kick-started after my arrival in New Zealand. I had very little capital to start with;the value of money shrinks dramatically when you convert rupees 50 to a dollar.

Only a migrant can understand how tough it is to start all over in a new country, especially when you are on the wrong side of fifty. Being a submarine captain is perhaps one of the most difficult jobs in the world—it made me resilient but I had no real-world skills for a job, apart from some experience in real estate investing. I decided to become a commercial real estate consultant as that would give me the opportunity to learn in an area where I wanted to start my business.

It was a steep learning curve. Fortunately, my job made me interact with multi-millionaires who were buying hotels, commercial buildings, shopping malls, warehouses and businesses. I would discuss investment and business strategies with them for hours and learn the basis of their decisions. To my surprise, I found that these millionaires were always willing to talk about their stories on how they built their wealth.

To expand my knowledge, I started attending paid seminars not only in property investing, but business building and internet marketing. I spent thousands of dollars which paid me rich dividends when I started my own investment company.

I multiplied and grew my investments…then came the big financial crash of 2008. Businesses were collapsing and there were mortgagee sales all around the country. I was better prepared this time because of my experience in market crash in India at the turn of the century.

A large number of my clients went bankrupt because of cash flow problems. On the other hand, few smart ones multiplied their wealth ten times over. I realized that great wealth is created in downturns. I also realized the difference in being rich and wealthy for the first time. Wealthy people don’t work for money. Instead, they make their money work for them in diverse ways. Many rich people, on the other hand, make huge sums but their money and lifestyle can vanish because they do not understand the fundamental principles of wealth creation and protection. You can read numerous stories on sports, lottery winners, music and movie stars who go bankrupt despite earning millions of dollars.

This book is based on my journey from having a ‘job safety’ mentality to being self-employed, and eventually transiting to owning my own business. I took a decision a couple of years back to change my active income to passive income. I decided to work on projects that need my effort once but pay me repeated income for the rest of my life. It was the best decision I ever made.

We diversified our income sources to include digital publishing and affiliate marketing alongside our real estate business.

Today both me and my wife are retired and enjoy the fruits of our labor and continue to grow our passive income. We may not be rich by some standards as money is just a relative figure. We consider ourselves wealthy with multiple streams of passive income that support our lifestyle, whether we work or not.

Poverty and poor mindset are the greatest evils on the planet that force people do mean and evil things in spite of their best intentions. The good news is that with knowledge and little effort, anyone can become wealthy. I am a living example and proof that it can be done. My net worth today would have been at least fifty times more, had I possessed the knowledge that I have now. I don’t want my readers to make the same mistakes I did in my younger days that set me decades back.

It is inspiring to read biographies of Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and other remarkable billionaire wealth creators. There is no harm in trying to achieve those lofty heights. However, most ordinary folks find taking those first few steps towards wealth creation overwhelming when starting out. Hopefully, simple principles that I enunciate in this book will help them get started on the journey.

There are people who question me, why should I learn about investing when I don’t have any money to invest? I tell them, You don’t have that money because you have not invested any time and effort in getting financially educated. Money is never the issue. It is a faulty mindset that holds people back.

I would like to thank multitudes of mentors in my life who have helped and influenced me directly or indirectly by expanding my mind-state. These include: Purshotam, Dhir, Kewal Ahuja, Robert Kiyosaki, Robert G Allen, Brad Sugars, Raman Sarin, Phil Jones, Tom Hua and Anik Singal, to name a few amongst many.

I would also like to thank my wife, Rachita, and my two children, Nandita and Prashant, who have been my inspiration and rock, by my side, through thick and thin. I promised them light at the end of the tunnel when we were working hard as a family to build our wealth—they joked about the tunnel but never lost faith in me, and I am ever grateful for their support. Wealth building process at times feels like being inside a dark tunnel as it takes a bit of hard work and time at the beginning, but once you exit the tunnel, you will be greeted with the brightest of sunlight—take the first step, and you will never regret it!

Preface

Have you ever wondered what separates school dropouts, wealth creators like Bill Gates and Thomas Edison, from the highly educated professionals who rent their brains to the highest bidder?

Specialized knowledge is amongst the most plentiful and cheapest form of service which may be harnessed! If you doubt this, refer the payroll of any university.

Knowledge one needs to create wealth is totally different and must never be confused with the formal education offered in schools and colleges. Thomas A Edison had only 3 months of schooling during his entire life; he did not lack education, nor did he die poor. The same is true for Henry Ford and Dhiru Bhai Ambani (a grass root Indian entrepreneur,) whose son Mukesh Ambani, may soon be challenging Bill Gates for the title of the richest man.

Why is it that we have such a limited number of wealth creators? What holds us back? The problem lies in our educational systems, society and family beliefs that were created during the industrial age. In those days, wealth remained in the hands of powerful governments or a very few rich people.

The education system in the industrial age was designed to cater to industries working towards mass production. People aspired to work for the government or in a corporation. In the industrial age, the concept of professional education to find jobs became popular. The idea of ‘job security’ or ‘one job for life’ took root. You worked your way up the corporate ladder and once you retired, the company or the government took care of your needs. The standard of living went up for most people. Remember the Sixties…we lived in a dream world…then, man stepped on the moon and everything seemed possible. Unfortunately, the party did not last for long.

The Industrial age systems took a couple of centuries to formulate. The information age has crept up unsuspectingly and has taken hold of our lives. It started with the advent of personal computers—and the internet has created a virtual world where thoughts, ideas and information fly across the globe with the ease of a click.

Exchange of ideas that ushered the industrial age due to the advent of the print media is now happening at over a billion times faster pace due to the internet. The new information age has completely changed the rules of the game; one that lasted for centuries. Knowledge knows no international boundaries, nor does capital. It flows to wherever the economic environment is more favorable and there is possibility for money to be made.

Corporations of the past are downsizing, reducing their workforce and hiring consultants/ temporary workers to cut down on costs. Workforce has become very mobile and long-term relationships between employers and employees are a thing of the past. As a result, more and more people are being forced to take responsibility for their financial futures and security. This is causing an unbearable amount of stress on people not adapting to the change.

The gulf between the rich and the poor is widening; the middle-class-which grew as a result of the industrial age-is rapidly vanishing and slipping into the abyss of poverty. They cannot make their ends meet and are confused.

The ever-increasing pace of technology is reducing product life cycles. Robots are replacing humans; jobs are becoming redundant. To survive in this rapidly changing world, there is a need to continually reinvent oneself.

With advancements in medicine, health standards improved. Infantile death rates went down, epidemics were controlled and lifespan increased. This had a dramatic effect on the ratio of the retired population to working population that paid taxes to support the social security system. The governments and corporations no longer have the money for the social security system that they created.

The choice before us is either to learn and adapt or perish in this new world.

The good news is that we live in one of the most exciting times in our history. With the dawn of the information age, old rules have given way to the new. It no longer takes ‘money to make money.’ In this new world, ‘money is just an idea.’ Ideas can be converted to money, very much like Einstein’s famous equation wherein matter can be converted into energy.

It takes ‘value addition’ to create wealth. The cost of material in a plastic micro-chip is only 0.1% of the selling price. This is true for any high-tech product or service. It is knowledge that gives value addition.

People who have grasped this essential change are the new wealth creators. Bill Gates, a boy from a middle-class family and a college dropout, was one of the first to understand this paradigm shift and act on it – no wonder he became the richest man in the world! A generation of billionaires and millionaires followed suit.

In the new world a millionaire is being created every 60 seconds. There are hundreds of self-made billionaires who are in their twenties and thirties. This pace will only hasten as it is just the beginning of the new age.

The next 50 years will give rise to a new generation of wealth creators who will overtake the giants of today. Are you the next millionaire or the next billionaire? It has never been simpler.

Information age makes it possible to start a new business or convert an idea into money with relative ease. But unfortunately, most of us are still saddled with the old mindset. It is the age of new thoughts, ideas and wealth creators. Those who do not grasp this new knowledge will be left behind.

This book is about adjusting to a paradigmatic shift. It is designed to draw you out and develop you from within. It is about removing chaff from the wheat and going right into the heart and fundamentals of wealth creation as a process which will help you become an enlightened millionaire whether you are in business or an investor or aspire to be one.

The book is organized in ten chapters. Each chapter explains a fundamental truth; these are the Ten Commandments of Wealth Creation. The first three commandments relate to internal principles of wealth creation. The balance seven commandments deal with external principles of wealth creation. Without understanding and incorporating the inner principles, it is not possible to apply the external principles of wealth creation in a sustainable way. Once you understand the Ten Commandments, there is nothing stopping you from achieving your destiny.

There is no greater creativity or nobler cause than becoming an enlightened millionaire. The good news is that anyone can do it without exception, even if you don’t have a dime in your pocket. By creating wealth, you change not only your future but that of those you love and the ones who come in contact with you. Statistics show that one millionaire creates 10 jobs directly or indirectly, and a billionaire 10,000 jobs. There is no greater charity or worthier cause than trying to become an enlightened wealth creator.

Once you understand the principles and acquire the right mindset of a wealth creator, you will be like a magnet attracting riches. Money will come to you so quickly and in such abundance that you will wonder as to where it had been hiding during the lean years. So, start now—take one step at a time. A long march of thousand miles starts with the first step.

As you read this book, engrave ‘The Ten Commandments of Wealth Creation’ not on any stone–but in your heart and mind.

The First Commandment

Thou Shall Sow the Seed of Wealth in Your Mind

If you want to change the fruits, you will first have to change the roots. If you want to change the visible, you must first change the invisible

– T. Harv Eker

The first commandment is perhaps the most important; without comprehending this in full measure, the other commandments won’t work.

Every beautiful