Nearly every modern business and finance book quotes the theory of Napoleon Hill. His most popular book is “Think and Grow Rich” and naturally, I had to snag the book to see Napoleon Hill’s wisdom for myself.

The most important thing illustrated so far is that money doesn’t make happiness. Money is only a piece of your happiness formula.

The 12 things which constitute happiness:

1. a positive mental attitude
2. sound physical health
3. harmony in human relationships
4. freedom from fear
5. the hope of future achievement
6. the capacity for applied faith
7. willingness to share one’s blessings with others
8. to be engaged in the labor of love
9. an open mind on all subjects toward all people
10. complete self discipline
11. wisdom with which to understand people
12. financial security

Take out a pen and paper and write this down:

I want to be wealthy so that I can ______________________.

To reach my goal, I am willing to sacrifice the following: _____________________.

Your thoughts establish the role of money in your life, and I’ve been thinking about this topic for a while. If you feel good about yourself and the efforts you are making, your positive ideas can cultivate more change and more satisfaction. Having money just to have money doesn’t provide much purpose, so it’s important to define why the heck we’re working so hard toward these goals.

Do you make/want to make money by creating value for other people or by competing and cheating other people?

Do you devote yourself to the highest good, not just for yourself, but for as many people as you can possibly touch?

Would you get satisfaction signing up for multiple rewards cards from companies who don’t catch your trickery because it means more money for you?

Do your methods of making money imply selfishness and greed in the eyes of others?

Does every dollar that you make equal a dollar that another person loses?

And finally, years from now, if you were to teach a thousand people how to become wealthy the way you did, would you have done these people and society a disservice?

I thought that this image was great:

Jeffrey Strain at TheStreet.com pretty much sums up the reason most people don’t have wealth: it’s not because we don’t make enough money; it’s because we don’t treat money on a day-to-day basis very well. Check out the ten poor habits he’s narrowed down as our reasons for low wealth:

1. You Care What Your Neighbors Think: If you’re competing against them and their material possessions, you’re wasting your hard-earned money on toys to impress them instead of building your wealth.

2. You Aren’t Patient: Until the era of credit cards, it was difficult to spend more than you had. That is not the case today. If you have credit card debt because you couldn’t wait until you had enough money to purchase something in cash, you are making others wealthy while keeping yourself in debt.

3. You Have Bad Habits: Whether it’s smoking, drinking, gambling or some other bad habit, the habit is using up a lot of money that could go toward building wealth. Most people don’t realize that the cost of their bad habits extends far beyond the immediate cost. Take smoking, for example: It costs a lot more than the pack of cigarettes purchased. It also negatively affects your wealth in the form of higher insurance rates and decreased value of your home.

(for descriptions of the following, check out his complete article)

4. You Have No Goals
5. You Haven’t Prepared
6. You Try to Make a Quick Buck
7. You Rely on Others to Take Care of Your Money
8. You Invest in Things You Don’t Understand
9. You’re Financially Afraid
10. You Ignore Your Finances

Experts are saying that the dollar is only going to get weaker.

My husband, a German, threatened to move back to Germany when Bush was elected. Maybe we should have! Anyone else been watching the euro grow against the dollar? We were in Germany exactly one year ago when the exchange was $1.20 per euro. Now it’s $1.45.

Just think if we had all decided to work in Europe then transferred our dollars to the United States. Minus taxes, think of the effortless gain you’d create.

Maybe we should have moved to Germany. Maybe it’s not too late. Check out what these experts are saying on currencytrading.net

Today we celebrate blog action day with 15,500 other blogs. The focus—our environment.

Many businesses say that they’d love to follow practices that are better for our environment and local community… but they say that those ideas simply cost too much. I doubt that. Most environmentally aware companies actually make MORE money through their efforts.

The immediate expenses would be higher during your implementation, sure. But in the long run? I bet your business would benefit even more. The same goes for any huge purchase like equipment and training courses. Bigger initial cost, better long-term results.

A lot of small town businesses aren’t going to make these changes on their own. You, the consumer, have to urge them. I have made it a habit to speak to managers and owners of local businesses. I tell them my concern and ask if it’s something that they’re addressing or planning on doing something about. Local produce? Locally-made foods? Recycling? Pesticide-free products? Programs that give back to the community’s development and sustainability?

Most employees just shrug me off. Mangers listen (or at least seem to pretend to!). If you keep going home miserable, complaining to yourself, nothing will change. If you start speaking out, things can start to change.

After years of Styrofoam at every function, my local church has quit purchasing Styrofoam. We spoke up. Today shouldn’t just be a day to post about the environment. Blog Action Day means we ought to be taking action, don’t you think?

The SBA (U.S. Government’s Small Business Association) even offers two environmental loan programs to (1) help engineer, manufacture, market, install, or service energy conservation measures or (2) allow the ability to plan, design, and install a pollution controlling facility. So what’s the excuse?

And how about all those local businesses that keep handing out Styrofoam…