THERE ARE so many beliefs that people have in their minds surrounding money. 

One of those beliefs is that to earn big money, you have to migrate and go to another place. This is true to a certain extent because when you are in place where people do not know you, you can do anything for money, including the jobs that others under look. But then, many people who keep looking for ‘greener pastures’ far away end up missing the ‘pastures’ around them.

Have you ever wondered why in Africa polygamy is common among men and yet women don’t practice polyandry? I believe that it’s because men are more visually stimulated than women and so our minds keep deceiving us that there is something better elsewhere than what we are finding in our wives. Thus, many men get tempted to explore the ‘outside world’ for love, only to end in frustration.

The mindset of wanting to try the outside world is worse in the territory of work and the search for financial freedom. There are so many Africans who believe they cannot become rich in their countries, and so, for years, they’ve been struggling to leave for better jobs abroad. They have already made up their minds – they are going to die poor unless they leave the country.

"Bake, for the last 10 years I’ve been chasing a UK Visa in vain. I have prayed and fasted but God has forsaken me,” one of my friends lamented. Instead of asking God to give him wisdom to see and exploit opportunities around him, he was busy cursing Him for denying him the opportunity to travel to his dreamland. What a crippling mindset!

I’ve met many friends who have been denied visas to the Western countries walking as if the whole world has collapsed over their heads. Despite the existence of so many opportunities in their country, their eyes are so blurred by that wrong thinking that those opportunities keep passing them by, unnoticed. They have no time to focus on the resources they have within and around them that can be utilized to earn big money. 

But how many of the rich people in this country really got their money from abroad? Isn’t it funny how East Africans are struggling to leave their countries that foreigners are struggling to enter? While we dream of going to Asia to make money, hundreds of Indians are entering East Africa and are prospering. And how many Rwandese have returned from America or the UK without even enough dime for an air ticket back home? Some have even found themselves doing prostitution and other odd jobs that slash their dignity to pieces.

It’s sad that some of our people have postponed living and are languishing in self-created limbo, waiting to start enjoying life when their dream of going to other places with better opportunities comes true. Truth be told; a success-minded person will always succeed from anywhere. Someone with a prosperity mindset will create wealth from anywhere and any situation while one with a poverty mindset cannot make big money no matter where they go. 

I remember reading about a man who was once a millionaire in America. All his factories were destroyed during war and he fled to another country as a refugee. But within two years he was a millionaire again! His wealth was in his mind, not in a particular place. If you do the right thing, wherever you are, success will always find you there. I have no doubt that I am going to become a millionaire and a billionaire without leaving my country.

Bake is the MD WORLD OF INSPIRATION & Founder, AUTHORS’ FORUM – bakerobert@yahoo.com / +256-704666851.