Get Angry & Get Rich!
By Kevin A. Lehmann on in Entrepreneurship
Contrary to popular opinion, pain and anger are the driving forces that effect real and everlasting change. I’m all for a positive attitude and positive expectations; I used to maintain a perpetual positive attitude the entire time that I was poor. In fact, the more I listened to my motivational mentors: Napoleon Hill, Norman Vincent Peale, Jim Rohn, Dennis Waitley, Wayne Dyer, Tony Robbins, and Earl Nightingale to name a few, the more positive I got, and the poorer I became. So poor in fact that, it wasn’t until I got pissed off at being so positive while I was so poor that things began to turn around . . . in a Big Way!
Are anger and rage really the deadly poison they’re cracked up to be? Are those two emotions so destructive and so detrimental to our psyche and our nervous system that they should be avoided at all costs—as so many life coaches and motivational speakers suggest?
If so, why would God endow us with such self-defeating, destructive, and negative emotions? Are the emotions in and of themselves destructive and counterproductive? Think . . . —The answer is no, not in the least. It’s man’s mind and his thoughts that give rise to, and dictate in what manner those powerful emotions will be put to use. Our moral compass (or lack thereof), our underlying values and principles, our ideals, our priorities, and our motives determine the use of what so many life coaches ignorantly point to as negative attitudes, poor posturing, and self-defeating behavior. I beg to differ.
Were the greatest game changers in the history of the world happy and positive? Were they waking up every day saying, “I like me . . . I love me . . . I love everyone and everything . . . life is blissful . . . ” — Hell No!
Was Martin Luther a happy and positive man when he posted his 95 theses on the castle door in Wittenberg, Germany, the genesis of the Reformation Age and subsequent freedom from the tyranny of the Holy Roman Empire and its bogus papal bulls, paid indulgences, and Ex Cathedra doctrine?
Was Martin Luther King Jr, the civil rights activist and icon, driven by joy and justice? Was he driven by positive feelings? Hardly. He was driven by anger and rage . . . anger and rage over what he viewed as an injustice in the U.S.—racial prejudice.
Abraham Lincoln was motivated by his anger and rage to right what he saw as a wrong, resulting in the Emancipation Proclamation.
Art Williams . . . Glenn Beck . . . Norma Rae . . . John Walsh . . . MADD (Mothers against Drunk Driving) . . . are people who used the “negative” emotions of anger and rage to effect “positive” change. Did you get that?
Let me spell it out for you . . . Negative Emotions Produce Positive Results.
“Oh, but that can’t be,” you say. Really? Look at the people who make up the Tea Party. Are they happy and positive all of the time, or are they angry and enraged at the direction the Obama administration is steering this country? Do they stand in the streets singing Kumbaya? Are they depending on their “Positive Attitudes,” and the “Law of Intention,” and the “Law of Attraction,” to bring about change? Hardly.
Anger that’s harnessed, transmuted, and channeled properly can be very effective at creating the change we seek, and not just politically, socially, or theologically, but . . . personally as well.
Anger is what drove me to overcome the physical and sexual abuse I endured as a child.
Anger is what drove me to find creative solutions to go from rags to riches as a struggling entrepreneur.
Anger is what drove me to study the doctrine of Jehovah’s Witnesses and other pseudo-Christian cults, and religions.
Anger is what drove me to learn how to market.
Anger is what drove me to learn how to write.
Anger is what drove me to study scripture.
And anger is what drives me to educate and push myself harder, higher, faster, and further than anyone or any other emotion—other than sex transmutation—could ever achieve.
If you really want to Get Rich . . . Get Angry!
Kevin A. Lehmann
www.catchkevin.com
3 Comment(s)
By Josh L on Apr 12, 2010 | Reply
This is awesome Popps! It is so true… so many people are caught in the be happy all the time,24/7 mode that they lose their drive and motivation. It’s all about how you channel those raw emotions… thats what determines who you are as a person. Really great article.
By Dmitriy on Apr 20, 2010 | Reply
It is important to note that while leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. were motivated by negative circumstances, their revolutionary change was the result of a positive vision and a positive outlook of the world’s possibilities. The challenge is that many people channel negative emotions into negative visions and negative opinions of the world … and thus create negative results. Use anger and disgust as catalysts for motivation towards a positive vision.
By Kevin A. Lehmann on Apr 20, 2010 | Reply
Exactly. Well said Dmitriy.