To become a wealthy man or woman, you must come up with an original, creative idea for a product or service which you believe the public will want to buy from you. Then you must put in the hours to research and test this idea. If it looks no good, you must create another idea until you find a winner. 

The second way is to locate a hot, fresh idea which is working somewhere right now (say in another country) and then to recreate the idea in your own territory, obviously without plagiarizing somebody else's work. E.g. if you hear that a new premium rate telephone line on Irritable Bowel Syndrome is taking 19,000 calls a day in the USA, this is an idea you could immediately pick up and run with in the UK. In other words, you wait for someone else to find a winner, then jump quickly onto the bandwagon. 

When you have found a winner, then you must pursue your idea and dream with passion, and not some wimpish and feeble 'attempt.' This is called 'paying the price.' The price is action and sometimes a little money. If you are broke, then you must chose an idea which doesn't take a lot of money.

If you don't feel passionate about your idea, then it's not for you. How do you think you're going to succeed at something you feel lukewarm about? What will drag you out of bed on those cold winter mornings? What will give you the courage to face those waves of problems we discussed? What will keep you fighting on when all about you is turning to ashes and you are filled with hopeless despair? Your lukewarm desire to 'have a go'? I don't think so! 

An idea without action is almost worthless. So I would not try to go down the route of thinking up 'inventions' which you can sell to Black and Decker, etc. Only very rarely do such ideas get   taken up, and even then you would not make a fortune. Instead, your idea should be one that you can operate and reap the rewards from. The more original the better, otherwise you are just picking over the bones of somebody else's idea, and you will not become wealthy.

Even when you jump onto a new bandwagon, you still need creative energy to transform that idea into something which will work in your area. There is little money to be made when you are tenth out of fifty in the marketplace, with nothing to distinguish your product or service from that of your competitors.

When I tell people this stark truth during consultations, they often complain: "I don't have any ideas." "What can I do? I'm not really sure." "I've tried for ages to think of something, but I just come up with a blank." "Help me! Have you got any original ideas you don't want and which you can pass on to me?"

I know it's hard to be in this position - remember I was there too. Yes, it seems difficult; impossible sometimes, but this is what will mark you out as a winner if you can pass this initiation test.

Please let me be absolutely clear on this and give you the stark truth if you are also tempted to complain about not having any ideas. 

You're not creative? You've never had an original thought in your life? You've tried a couple of times to think of something new, but given up? Well I have some very bad news for you. You will never be wealthy unless you win the lottery or get lucky in some other way. You will always be poor, struggling along with the masses, scarcely able to pay your way and probably in debt until the day you die. At the very best you will eke-out survival in a paid job, or rake over the dead ashes of somebody else's dream, hoping to raise the Phoenix, but the bird will have long since flown away. 

I am sorry if I sound a little harsh, but I believe quite strongly that you would rather have the truth from me, bitter though it is, than to be fed more lies and distortions. Reminder: These comments only apply to getting rich. It's okay not to want to be rich - really, it is - in which case this doesn't apply. 

Wealth belongs to creative people alone. There is only one way to get honestly wealthy. Persuade lots and lots of people to give you their money. You can either do this at the point of a gun (dishonest), or you can offer them something which makes them give it to you voluntarily - to trade with you. 

Now if you cannot muster the energy to come up with your own idea, or you think that you are 'not creative,' then guess what? - you pick up somebody else's fifth-hand idea and try to run that. Guess what again? Only a few people hand you their money, the rest trade with the hundreds of others who are all trying to run the same idea and you don't get rich! You just about make a living. This is not what you want, I hope.

Now if you take action and create something original and new, suddenly you're the only supplier. Thousands or millions of people flock to willingly exchange their money for your product or service and you become wealthy. More importantly, you become guiltlessly wealthy - you earned it through your creative endeavors.

Copyright 2001. Stuart Goldsmith. All Rights Reserved.