How do you get rich fast? Wealth coach, founder of the millionaire mindset club, author and self-made multi millionaire, Pat Mesiti believes you get rich slowly.
Mesiti has helped over 400 young drug addicted men into recovery and has raised more than $500,000 for charity. A highly sought after motivational speaker in Australia and overseas, he has inspired many to prosperity – and not just financially.
Dynamic Business recently spoke with the financial guru about building wealth, giving to charities and organisations and getting advice on overcoming challenges.
Where did the millionaire mindset club come from?
One of the greatest things I can give people was access to great minds. And that is what the millionaire mindset is. Access to great minds, great information.
Some people have taken 20 years to learn something. Why would we have to go through 20 years of experience, when we could learn it in a 30 minutes interview or just a short reading of a book. Which would you prefer? I prefer to read the book.
That’s where the millionaire mindset came from. It was a desire to help people to really prosper.
Who have you worked with?
Well I’ve worked with many people from different walks of life. At times I’ve worked with some celebrities but my greatest joy isn’t working with celebrities. I think people get a little star gazed when it comes to that.
I’ve worked with average everyday people who are trying to build an extraordinary life. It’s always a process, it’s always a journey. I don’t believe success means you’ve arrived. Success means you constantly work at it, you’re constantly achieving.
There’s been some great times, there’s been some tough times. I would like to say that everybody I’ve worked with is successful, but the sad fact is not everybody is. I’ve discovered that those who are successful are those who apply what we teach and apply principles to their lives.
What prompted you to help young drug addicted men to recovery?
It was a need. At that time I was a minister and my denomination had an organisaiton that was going bankrupt. Losing $27,000 a month with four boys in the program, with $276,000 of debt, they were going to shut the program down and I thought… I don’t think that’s the right thing to do.
I thought to myself maybe if we can just have a go and put together a good team of people and get it out of debt. Rescue the center and keep it alive and sure enough today, it’s a thriving organisation, it’s now called ONE80TC.
Hundreds of young men are finding help and recovery. I’ve never had a background in drugs and as a matter of fact I’ve only taken one puff out of the cigarette in my whole life. I’ve also never been drunk in my life. It was just a need and if you find a need, you got to fill it, and that will really help you prosper in life.
How do you plan to create 10,000 millionaires through your work?
My plan is to train them through the mindset millionaire club. I’m not talking about millionaires just in money, we’re talking about millionaires in mindset. And my thought behind it was, what an amazing thing it would be if we had 10,000 people thinking the same, working the same, giving the same, with the same values, the same ethics, the same passions in life.
I think it would be a formidable force on the planet to really help people and especially helping people in need. I’m a big believer that we should support people who cannot work, but we should never ever support people who will not work. There’s a huge difference.
Why do you give to charities?
It is who I am. I believe ten percent of our income doesn’t belong to us. And it’s not just about donating to charities, I give to my church, I give to other organisations, I give to people. We give because it’s a part of who we are and we don’t’ give to every charity. Some charities shouldn’t be given to because they run poorly, they run unsuccessfully because that’s their mentality.
And I know that may seem very harsh, but I’ve been to charities that really stay in that mindset of a charity rather than running it as a business and as an enterprise by using great marketing skills and great leadership skills.
It’s almost like they seem to just want to pull on heartstrings without putting in proper structures to run a viable charitable organisation. So I give it to organisations that are doing it and doing it properly.
If you want to be a millionaire, why does it start from the inside out?
It starts from the inside out because really money is an inside job. We’ve all read of people who’ve won millions of dollars on lotto or some game show. All the finance, six months, a year, two years later, they’ve totally depleted all their earnings and all their assets.
Money is an inside job because if all there is to money is working, saving and investing, we’d all have pretty much a pot of gold. But money is more than that. Money tells us a story. People kill for money, they divorce for money, they fight over money, they envy over money, they resent over money. So money is more than just about money.
And if we can just get a grip of what the story that money is telling you in your life. If money is putting fear and anxiety and stress and panic in your life, it’s obviously having a negative effect. Money should be a great servant, it should never be a master in your life. And that’s why we got to work on the inside.
I often quote the story of Mike Tyson, who lost $400 million dollars, and there’s story after story of people who have won great fortunes and lost them seemingly overnight. Do they have money? Yes. But their money shrunk to the level of their thinking. I believe you can’t have a million dollar income with a $5 mentality. And that’s why it is important to work on the inside out.
For example, I can give two people the same amount of money and one would deplete it and the other would cause it to grow.
It is the mindset that affects the money. It isn’t the amount of money. So I can give two different people two different amounts of money and according to their mindset, they’ll either increase it by investing it, or the other guy will blow it or waste it and blame me for giving it to him. That’s the difference between them.
What challenges have you come across?
Well I’ve come across many challenges in my life. I’ve had emotional challenges, family challenges. I’ve had some failures in my life. I’ve gone through a painful divorce, I’ve had some health challenges. But the way I’ve overcome them is to simply take them a step at a time. And you solve them by getting good advice.
When it comes to getting advice, go up, don’t go down in life. Don’t consult down, consult someone who has already been there and done that. If you want to build a good relationship, go to someone who has built one or is building one. When it comes to raising three awesome children, I always get good advice from people and look at people who have raised great children to get my advice and insight from. But I solve problems a bit at a time. My strategy:
- Consult wise people.
- Apply what a wise person tells you.
- Don’t think that the problem is really the problem. Look at what is really behind the problem. What’s really behind your relationship breakdown or your money breakdown. It’s not the money, it’s how you think. It’s not the relationship. It’s how you maybe treat the other person.
What advice would you have for people, start-ups looking to make it big?
My advice is to start very slow. Someone asked me the other day, how do I get rich fast? And I said you get rich slowly. You don’t get rich fast. I think when it comes to creating wealth, you start at the bottom and you work up.
If you want to start at the top, there’s only one way to go and that’s down. So basically, get good marketing advice. When it comes to start-up companies, invest your money wisely. Invest your profits, don’t spend your profits. The next thing is go to seminars, read books, get mentors in your life that can speak into your life, to help you increase your life.
What is next?
Well I think more of the same. I do what I love and I love what I do. I have no intention of doing anything different but motivating and encouraging people, helping them create their wealth and their abundance. I do what I love and I love what I do. I think once you find a niche, once you find what you love to do, spend the rest of your life enjoying it. I wouldn’t change one thing about my life.
The only thing I would wish for is to have more people to speak to. I would like to reach a wider and broader range of people. Our events are I believe the best in Australia and we tend to draw some of the best crowds and some of the most hungriest and exciting people, and that’s what’s next for me.
