The First Law of Money

Do it! Money will come when you are doing the right thing.

Don't Let the Money Hold You Back

Set Up Your Business Like You Don't Need Money

“Banks love to lend money to those who don’t need it. Record labels love to sign musicians who don’t need their help. People fall in love with people who won’t give them the time of day. It’s a strange law of human behavior. It’s pretty universal. If you set up your business like you don’t need the money, people are happier to pay you. When someone’s doing something for the money, people can sense it, like a desperate lover. It’s a turnoff. When someone’s doing something for love, being generous instead of stingy, trusting instead of fearful, it triggers this law: We want to give to those who give. It’s another Tao of business: Set up your business like you don’t need the money, and it’ll likely come your way.”

Anything You Want (pp. 32-33),
by Derek Sivers,
original creator of CD Baby.

Go Ahead and Do What You Want to Do.

“The First Law is the hardest for most people to accept and is the source of most distress.

“The clearest translation of this in terms of personal advice is ‘go ahead and do what you want to do.’ Worry about your ability to do it and your competence to do it but certainly do not worry about the money.

“. . . get started; go forward; get something done.

“Try to separate the issue of the project you’re working on from your own problem of survival.

“If you’re going to predicate the project’s survival on your own need to be comfortable . . . you have already doomed the project.

“Figure out how you’re personally going to survive and then, separately, how important the project is to you. You’re going to have to continue to support yourself anyway, and when you’re working on the project that’s an added burden. But the project per se, the success of the project per se, will be seriously jeopardized if you integrate your own need to make a living with the needs of the project.”

Strategy Secret—Front Money Will Be Blown

“Having enough advance financing for your money machine is about the worst possible thing you can do and is almost certain to scuttle the whole machine.

“A glib but accurate reason is that if you have the money, you are only going to spend it. And spend it on things that are totally unnecessary and in ways that will commit you down the road to even higher future costs.

“For your money machine to work, you have to start out scared, lean, and hungry. Such frivolities as food, clothing, and shelter should be totally forgotten in getting your money machine started (but, no matter what, don’t let anything interfere with your next hang gliding or caving trip).”

the incredible secret money machine (pp. 19-20),
by Don Lancaster.