MANILA, Philippines — Money matters. A lot. What you do with the money that you make is key to your life. But on its own, money can’t do anything. It’s just a tool.
“Eventually, it’s how we value ourselves, what we choose to do with our lives and our time that determines our net worth,” stressed Suze Orman. “Self worth determines net worth.”
She should know. She transformed herself from a waitress living in her car and earning $400 per month at age 30 to a “seriously wealthy” personal finance sage and one of the world’s top motivational speakers by the time she’s 61.
Suze was born impoverished, with a speech impediment, in the dangerous “Hood” of Chicago. Each day at school, she had to go through a metal detector with guards patting her down to make sure she doesn’t carry a fan knife or a gun.
She didn’t do well as a student. “At university, I never got a grade above a C. They told me I’ll never amount to anything. But there’s plan for everyone. To be more and to have more. Faith in God and faith in yourself allows you to pick yourself up.”
Because her parents can’t hire a speech coach, Suze straightened out her tongue by herself by observing others. “I listened hard. People are still my teachers to this day. What I know I learned from them. And I thank God for that.”
“I grew up with faith,” she disclosed, along with a sense of gratitude. “Your thoughts create your words, which create your actions. Actions create habits and habits create destiny. If you think, act and feel you never can, you never ever will.”
Always, she had a gung-ho attitude towards life. No wonder, clients she served at the restaurant called her “Sunshine”.
They saw her glum just once – after she asked her parents for $20,000 to set up her own restaurant and they turned her down. Pitying her, clients pitched in and came up with $50,000. It was still a loan, however, sans interest and on a pay-when-able terms.
While raising more capital to set up her business, Suze parked the cash at Merril Lynch. The broker assigned to her said she could make $100 a week and convinced her to sign a blank form and put her money on speculative stock options.
Within 3 months, Suze lost everything. “But if I haven’t lost that money, if one door didn’t close, another wouldn’t have opened. You need to have faith everything happens for the best.”
Then Suze did the unthinkable. She applied to the brokerage which lost her money. Merril Lynch didn’t have female brokers at the time and the branch manager told her, “Women belonged barefoot and pregnant.” He bet she’d be gone in half a year and offered her $1,500 a month.
She took the job. As she learned the ropes, she realized that the one who invested her money in speculative stocks broke the rules. She sued Merril Lynch but went on working for them. Because she was under their employ at the time of the suit, they can’t fire her.
In the next two years before the case came to court, Suze became the company’s number 6 broker. They decided to return her $50,000 plus 18 per cent interest. “I was able to pay back everyone.”
Best of all, one thing led to another. She became a multi-awarded television host and best-selling author. Americans paid her $90,000 for a 24-minute speaking engagement. USA Today called her a “one-woman financial advice powerhouse” and Forbes Magazine ranked her among “The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women”.
“The money I made, I invested so I make more and more. I kept on working. I still work 7 days a week, 15 hours a day because I love it. That’s how I became the wealthy woman that I am today.”
Nonetheless, she lived by what she preached: “Spend only for what you can afford and use cash, not credit cards.”
Her gold earrings are the same ones she has worn for 30 years. Her shoes are almost 20 years old though she had to retire her purse after 12 years – with much regret. “Even now, if I see a penny in a gutter in New York City, I pick it up. Every penny has to be respected.”
She still hungers to learn from others, especially from the poor and wants to visit “Smoky Mountain ”. “Everyone has a story.”
Yet she has accepted that for some, poverty is a choice. Once, she tried to help a homeless man. He was a professor who lost his wife and kids in a car accident. “I thought I can save him just by giving him a hotel room and a job.” Next thing she knew, he was gone.
Interestingly, Suze has a soft spot for Filipinos. She employs many in her household and 20 in her service center here.
She delivered her inspirational talks in Manila for free, as part of the Bank of the Philippine Island (BPI)’s advocacy on financial wellness. She lectured before over a thousand BPI clients and guests at the NBC Tent, Fort Bonifacio and to a jampacked audience at BPI’s Makati headquarters.
“I’m not turning my back on money,” she explained. Now, “I’m more interested in making a true difference because I can, without being paid to do so. I’d love to return to the Philippines to share what I’ve learned for 30 years, to create a free financial education program.”
“I’m very careful with the gift God gave me. When I leave this world, I wish to leave more to others than what was here when I came. I don’t have kids, I don’t have people to leave this money to, but I can help the world.”
After all, “Money can’t fill our hearts up. Only love, self worth and faith can fill us up.”
source: mb.com.ph
