102 – April 12
“Great things are only possible with outrageous requests.”—Thea Alexander
That you are reading this book today is a testament to the vision, resilience, drive and determination of my wonderful agent, Lisa Hagan. Introduced through mutual friends, we took to each other immediately (My People!), signed a contract, and the search for the right publisher began. We emailed each other often along the way. There was interest, there were rejections, there were “yeah, buts.” Once we had a publisher who said yes, we cheered and celebrated…for four days. Then the deal fell through. We were crushed.
Lisa emailed me the next day:
“I want to share something very special with you. This week I was feeling a little blue about losing your sale and I went home one night and pulled the covers over my head and stayed there until the next morning. But I awoke in the middle of the night and I prayed and prayed for guidance. I walk to work each day one mile and I use that time to thank God for all my many blessings; sometimes I say affirmations, sometimes I pray for friends, family or someone I may have read about in the paper.
That day I used one of your affirmations: ‘Money comes to me from an unexpected source.’ Well, it happened that very day I sold a book that I had thought I would never sell but I just kept trying. When I was saying my prayers of gratitude that night, I said the same affirmation and a royalty check came in from a company that hadn’t been up to date in years. I thought, wow, well, I can’t very well say the same affirmation again, can I? So I just thanked God for all that He has given me, all the blessings and love that is in my life…Well, today in the mail three more checks came for clients that the publishing house was two years behind in paying. Three days in a row! Once again I am blessed and thankful.”
Change your attitude—change your experience. Turn it over to God. Works every time.
I was delighted with this story and yet couldn’t help but notice that after two big successes with the affirmation, she thought “Wow, well, I can’t very well say the same affirmation again, can I?” Isn’t that just how we human beings work? We ask God for help, He gives it, then we get scared that we actually got what we asked for. Our prayers are powerful. But abundance makes us nervous.
I immediately flashed her back, saying “Why not? It’s working! Always keep doing what’s working. You just got a little scared of your power. You are powerful—and it’s great. Keep it up!”
Lisa Lessons:
- When life gets gray, pray for guidance.
- When life gets great, pray your thanks.
- An attitude of gratitude creates abundance.
Today’s Affirmation:
“Money is rushing to me from expected and unexpected places!”
I’ve been reading all the research from the book “Women Don’t Ask” by Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever and it’s really mind-blowing.
In this book, Linda Babcock told a story about how, even though she made more money than her husband, she let him handle the finances when they went out, pay for dinners, etc. One day, her 3-year-old daughter and she went to a drugstore, and her daughter saw a stuffed toy she wanted and asked, “Do you have enough money to buy that for me, Mommy? Do girls have money, or is it just boys that have money?” Linda of course was horrified. Their family habits had communicated to their daughter that men had money but women didn’t.
It’s all so insidious, and it permeates our daily experience.
Even today, men control most of the economic and political environments in which women live and work. Only 10.9% of the members of the boards of directors of Fortune 1000 companies are women. Although women own about 40% of all businesses in the US, they only receive 2.3% of the available equity capital needed for growth. Joanna Rees Gallanter, a venture capitalist herself, observed, “Women are often not comfortable talking about what they’re worth. They’ll go in to pitch a project and naturally put a lower value on it than men do.”
As recently as 2001, 98% of child-care workers, 82% of elementary school teachers, 91% of nurses, 99% of secretaries, and 70% of social workers in the US were women. 87% of corporate officers of the 500 largest companies, 90% of all engineers, 98% of all construction workers, and 70% of all financial managers were men.
A 1999 study showed that the percentage of women used as experts in business and economic newscasts on the 3 major TV networks averaged 18%; only 31% of all business and economic news stories were filed by female correspondents, 11% of authors of business and economic news stories were women. Business Weekfinancial articles about influential individuals focused on me 92% of the time.
Even a child who is not interested in pursuing a profession in the financial world cannot avoid the none-too-subtle message that money is a man’s business.
