STEVE PAVLINA INTERVIEWS JOHN ASSARAF

January 5, 2008

First some background on these people and why you should care about them. I told you about Steve in this article . His website is included in the Sites To Know category.

John Assaraf

John is a speaker, author, entrepreneur, and one of the speakers in the movie The Secret. He has built 4 multimillion dollar companies. His present coaching venture is to help small business owners grow their income to achieve financial freedom. He speaks to audiences about strategies in business and in life that will be meaningful and help them achieve their life’s goal. You can learn about him at his website.

The interview

Steve’s article on the interview was published on his site on September 20, 2007. He asked 12 questions. The discussion is centered on how John attracted his dream home into his reality, but covers the aspects of his past that guided him to his present success, and the beliefs with which he guides his life.

John sums up his learnings and practices in this sentence :
“ We become, have, and attract what we think about and act upon correctly the most.”

My favorite part is from the answer to Question 10, What prevents people from achieving the success they desire?. He says “… [we] get stuck in a world of now and forget that the past in a school…”, maybe because I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately.

The acquisition of money

I can not put The Secret or its ‘teachers’, and the spin-offs from it, like The Science of Getting Rich , into a perspective that meshes with my feeling that we are not put here to amass all the material wealth we can for ourselves.

I realize that we all want more money. I do too. In fact, money is probably the thing most people would have more of if they could ask for anything. The problem for me is that it comes up too often in anything related to The Secret.

Although John does describe himself as a philanthropist, and that he is most fulfilled by helping his fellow humans be guided to an extraordinary and happy life, somehow it gets drowned out by the dollar signs.

It’s so aggressive that it exhausts me just to think about it. Allowing things to just come to you easily and peacefully is much more sustainable in the long term, and its gentleness feels so much more natural.

The house John manifested

John Assaraf’s house

Now, what is your reaction to this palace? This is the home of a family of four.

No question, this is an example of undeniable ability to attract wealth. The others ‘teachers’ from The Secret have done the same. Although I’m glad these people are there as examples of the fact that this system works, they are beginning to lose some credibility in my eyes.

I bet there are more folks out there who are like me than like those who have manifested astronomical wealth. These displays of money are looking more like the exception than the rule.

This is not jealousy

Now, I envy them nothing. I know there’s plenty of money to go around for everybody twice over. How much money they have has no relevance to how much there is left over for me. And I absolutely agree with all these teachings, that you create what you think about.

John might tell me that I will never be rich. I don’t need to be as rich as he is. When I do achieve financial freedom, I hope to focus more on what I do to support, inspire, teach, and enthuse the people who know me. Where I live, what I drive, what I wear … I just don’t care, and I don’t see those things as important in anyone else.

Am I just too Canadian?

Do I just have a natural aversion to anything that could be construed as showing off?
It doesn’t seem consistent with the spirit of giving to the planet we share that a family of 4 needs to live in these monstrous palaces. Is living a little more modestly, with the intention of nurturing and sustaining a planet for all human beings, a denial of abundance or an expression of scarcity? I hope not.

Focus away from what YOU have/need/want

I wondered if a little humility might be a good thing. I asked Steve, and as always, his reply was entirely insightful – that humility is the other face of pride, that it focuses on YOURself and being modest about YOUR accomplishments.

If you only focus outwardly, on giving more and creating more, your reaction to your own accomplishments becomes a non-issue. As usual, Steve is absolutely correct.

Posted by Christine Scaman | Filed Under Happiness