Money certainly didn’t grow on any trees in my childhood.  I had very little money and I didn’t have any trees at all. I lived in a housing project that was all stucco and sidewalks. Everyone I knew was poor. I thought my high school friends who lived in actual houses were rich. It was not an auspicious beginning for a prosperity teacher.

My grandmother used to tell me that my face was my fortune and she meant that I was pretty enough to “marry up”. My mother, said, “It’s just as easy to love a rich man as a poor man.” That wasn’t statistically true but I tried. At age 18, I dropped out of college to marry the richest boy in my poor town.

That didn’t work out well for me financially but eventually, I my world grew wider. As time went on, I met people with inherited wealth and I noticed that they took their riches for granted. Instead of being obsessed by lack and limitation, they simply expected the money to be there. Although I had achieved some financial success, I was usually broke because I carried my poor girl mentality with me. Expecting money to be there was an amazing and exotic mindset to me.

Over the years, I also met people who created a lot of money through their work. The ones who were able to hold on to it seemed to be both cautious and grateful for what they had. Although I’d mastered the art of creating wealth through money, I hadn’t mastered the art of caution or gratitude. Like many people, I was beset by old limiting ideas that made me fearful and erratic. Ambition was a good beginning but it wasn’t enough to create a happy ending.