How to Leave the Rat Race and Earn More: The Psychology of Money

AVAlexander Volchek

A great many things influence a person in life. There are karmic reasons: whether a person is supposed to be rich or not. "If I benefit the world, I will have money too. Do good deeds, and you will have lots of money." But we all understand perfectly well that money and goodness are very relative things. Joining a club of wealthy people in that space does not mean your energy of money has changed. Properly understanding the different circumstances behind money gives you an incredible strength of calm. You will very much need it when interacting with other people. Look, this is something that allows you personally to grow enormously in earning your own money. Enormously. As I speak in today's session, observe the thoughts that arise about your own money. This is very interesting. Some people here will be constantly going over it: "Will I have money or not? Or not? Or not? Or not?" Some will worry: "I will never earn any more. I will not." Others will think, "I will earn money. I need even more." And some people will not have those thoughts at all right now. They are simply listening to this information as content that teaches them and helps them develop.

Watch this. Keep observing what arises alongside what you are hearing. Our subject today is money. On one hand, I always say that not everyone will have money. There are people who will not earn money in their lifetime, whatever they do. On the other hand, I do everything I can to provide material and teach so that everyone can live at their maximum level, avoid missing opportunities, and not feel bad when something does not work out. The foundation I will begin with matters a great deal for a person's perception. If you truly take it in, your fear goes away. This is one of the most important things: fear and inner doubts go away. The first thing to understand very clearly and calmly is that money comes into a person's life for different reasons. Different reasons. I can tell you that, for the most part, people do not control those reasons. They do not control them. We can study as many examples as we like and will not find control over them as such. We will keep encountering this. The more we study, the further we will spread out across all sorts of different parameters, with very small probabilities remaining.

Yesterday I was studying some things after another series of medical tests. Two days ago, I was laughing because they had set out twelve tubes for a blood draw. I said, "That seems a bit excessive, Polina." She said, "They should have given you a piece of candy or something for that." I had the tests, and absolutely everything is fine. One indicator, or one or two indicators related to cholesterol, is always high. My cholesterol is always high, and it has become even higher. Really much higher. I went in late in the evening, with the children running around nearby, and ran all the tests through ChatGPT, doing extensive analysis of the solutions available in different countries. It told me what I should do and described the standard medical approach: statins and other things that clearly have a very negative effect on a person's life. It kept telling me that, and I kept trying to get it to answer: what is the probability that I will have a problem? Every time, every time I narrowed it down, I told it: I do not smoke or drink, I lead a healthy lifestyle, and my diet is ideal.

It is exceptionally well organized. It kept lowering the probability, lowering it and lowering it. Eventually, it reached a probability of 0.6 percent per year. 0.6 percent. It had started with a probability of 2.6 or 2.8, and it got down to 0.6. At moments like that, I always remember my business partner Andrey Rogachev, who created Pyaterochka. He used to say, "Conversion is 97 percent. A conversion rate of three or four percent on the internet is not conversion. It is a chance occurrence." Why am I telling you about 0.6 percent? To show that there are different reasons for a person having or not having money, and that the more broadly we study these people in terms of different causes, the more we will see the probability decrease. This is very important. The probability decreases. The more different parameters we add, the more we will see the probability decrease. When we talk about the causes of money, I will single out two again. A great many things influence a person in life, many different factors. One of the most important influences is their karmic characteristics. There are karmic reasons.

Whether a person is supposed to be rich or not. One of the biggest mistakes about the karmic cause of a person's wealth—one of the biggest mistakes—is when someone suddenly earns a great deal of money, associates that with their good karma, and says, "Look how good I am. I have earned so much money." They say, "I know how to benefit the world. If I benefit the world, I will have money too." There is a term, "karmic management." As it is presented, karmic management implies: do good deeds, and you will have lots of money. Look, in karma itself, if we are going to discuss karma in terms of "do good things and you will have lots of money," it will always end very badly. It will always end badly, because karma is not built to be manipulated. Although many people do that. Where is the error in thinking when someone says, "I do good deeds, and I have money"? The point is that they may have karmic money not because they are good, but because that is what their destiny requires now, if I use the word "destiny." That is what they need. It does not mean they are good.

It does not mean they bring good into the world. This is very important. Money and goodness—we all understand perfectly well that money and goodness are very relative things. Turn on the television and look at what is happening in the world. They are especially relative when it comes to people who made lots of money and then give it all to charity. Look at what they were like before, how they behaved, how they treated people, what they did, how they treated their employees. Read books about them. Really look at what they did, what they said and where, and when charity entered the picture for them. I am not talking about everyone. I am talking about different circumstances. By no means everyone. There are very good people. Very good. So there is a karmic cause of money. There are lives in which money comes through karma. Usually, large amounts of money—large in terms of the space where you live—are a matter of destiny, not experience accumulated in this lifetime or your work now. I want to qualify the word "large" so that you understand. Large amounts of money must always be compared within the space you occupy. First, the place and region where you are.

The place and region are very important. They matter. The energy of where you are, the space where you live. There is a big difference between living in Minsk, Moscow, New York, Smolensk, or Borisov. A big difference. Or Paris. There is a big difference in terms of earning money. This is an important point; there are many such points today. I want you to really register that space here does not mean your circle of people. It is not your social circle, but a whole set of many factors relating to the country and city. Many different parameters overlap. The economy as a whole has a strong influence. Joining a club of wealthy people in that space does not mean your energy of money has changed. In a system like that, you can strengthen your perception of money, or you can fall into severe stress. Any imbalance brings very strong consequences. Any imbalance. Intensifying your sense of big money is also an imbalance. Always recognize this: if you are in a space where people earn little, and you find yourself somewhere with lots of money and money is pouring in for you, that is an imbalance. Every imbalance has compensation and consequences.

When you enter—

A particular space—for example, you are somewhere where five hundred dollars is good, or three hundred dollars is good, and you enter a club of people who have, say, a hundred thousand dollars a month—you can get a scar on your heart that you will never repair. It will be a lifelong trauma. So, in terms of karma, if you see big surges in people's fortunes, that is karmic, relative to the space you are in. The second thing I often identify and discuss is money from work. A person puts in effort, works hard, and money comes. That is how the material, social world is organized. Work is a cause. It is considered—and this is entirely reasonable—that being able to generate money through work is a blessing. It is very good, a good system. Unfortunately, society, bloggers, the current social environment—at least in the areas where you are, among others, because of course some regions are different—wants money to arrive suddenly and in large amounts, without work. Suddenly and in large amounts. Everyone shows changes, not stability: changes. I am not against changes or sudden developments.

That is why I say to move along the edge of your maximum, if those developments are needed and possible in your life and do not bring other circumstances with them. Those other circumstances can have a different nature. Do you understand? What would you choose: a billion dollars together with an impulse of stress for the rest of your life, or no stress and no billion dollars? Some people would choose a billion dollars even with that impulse of stress. You need to know that. I am not saying a billion dollars always comes with stress. No, by no means. I am saying there are consequences. Many things have consequences, so sometimes you do not need those surges. The stability that comes from work, though, matters a great deal. From work. You may feel you dislike how much you earn, dislike the amount of money you have, and constantly be unhappy with something. But it is stable. It is there. That matters. Some people have experienced enormous problems in their lives: severe poverty, a sudden collapse in their finances, such a lack of money that everything is finished. Others earned little but never had a moment when they had nowhere to live. Some people have experienced having nowhere to live. They cannot pay for housing, they are six months behind on their apartment rent, and they owe everyone a lot of money.

Others live in their own apartment and worry about earning little, but have never experienced that. These are different energies. Experiencing the energy of having nowhere to live is one thing; experiencing the energy of worry is another. Different energies. One situation is stable, the other unstable. Simply the stability of earning a small amount. But it is stability. At least money is being earned. Some people in the world cannot earn money. It does not come to them under any circumstances. Whatever they do, they cannot earn money. Perhaps they do not know how to work either. They have no money. Simply none. They may even think they made that choice, but they did not. That is how things happened. You can teach a person, they can get a higher education—fifteen degrees, superb mentors, anything you like—but if it is not supposed to happen for them, it will not happen. We all know an enormous number of people—an enormous number—who are educated, intelligent, capable, and knowledgeable about everything, but whose lives turned out a little differently. Someone started drinking alcohol, for example, and everything went to hell.

Another cause came along and introduced instability into earning money. But what matters about work? Through work, a person can earn money throughout their entire life. Their entire life. With karma, that cannot last a whole lifetime. You cannot have extraordinary growth forever, endlessly, endlessly: all ninety years of a person's life, for example, from beginning to end, an unceasing torrent overflowing beyond all bounds. Long periods are possible, of course. There are different destinies, different details. Anything is possible. But there are cases where it will not happen. When I spoke today about the quality of money and the imbalance in the place where you are, there is a possibility of reaching a state where, regardless of amounts or who you are—whether you have no money in a society or country with lots of money, or lots of money where there is none—you feel neutral. That state is definitely attainable and possible. It is when you can make very sensible decisions, the right decisions. You need to remember and be very careful: if there are any patterns of disorientation around money, fear about money, greed, a desire for power through money, or manipulation around money, always remember that if these are present within you, you are making mistakes in your actions.

That does not mean you need to rush off and worry about it. This is not about worrying, but about knowing. You simply need to recognize immediately that you are making a mistake. With these outside things that happen, the only thing you can do is pay attention to them and try not to lose sight of them in your reasoning. Because, as I said, the process still has to unfold for you. Do you understand? If you are karmically supposed to receive a billion-dollar windfall, it will come, but you certainly do not know what you need to do for it. You certainly do not know what to do for it. And if you are supposed to fall into a pit, lose money, go into debt for the rest of your life, and spend money on, say, an apartment under construction that will never be built, without getting your money back—believe me, you will lose it anyway. Whatever you do, however and wherever you check, whatever you go through. What is the important thing to hear when we talk about these two main causes and directions of money: karma and your own work?

That these energies may or may not arise in the world. There are people who will not have money either from karma or from work. They will not, they never have, and they never will. Again, there is a certain difficulty with conclusions like these. Imagine you decide to visit an astrologer. "Let us go to an astrologer." You arrive, and the astrologer says, "You have no money. You are going to be destitute." You say, "But I have money now. I earn quite well." They say, "You earn it now, but soon it will all be over." What does a person always want to do with that? What do they usually want to do? Argue with it. They want to argue, to disagree. But they have already absorbed the fear. It has been planted, a stamp placed on you, like a knife cutting your heart. Now you have a trauma, an imprint, even if the astrologer was wrong. Right or wrong does not matter at all. So here is a very important point. Very important: understand that karma and work do not necessarily bring money. This foundation, again, again: properly understanding the different circumstances behind money gives you an incredible strength of calm.

You will very much need it when interacting with other people. There is also a whole spectrum of causes that are generally difficult to grasp. The space you are in, the country, the place where you were born, your family, the people around you—all have an influence. Your husband, wife, children. The birth of new children makes substantial adjustments. Since freedom exists in life, there are enormous numbers of chance possibilities, entirely different events that occur. Of course, various compensations overlap: something may happen earlier, not happen, or happen later. People like to read a horoscope that says, for example, "You will have lots of money." You may have none now and lots a little later; it may be pushed a hundred years into the future. Or it may say there will be none, and it could arrive earlier, a hundred years ahead of schedule. But let us focus, simply to help you take this in—again, for the hundredth or two hundredth time—on the idea that money comes from karmic characteristics, from a person's destiny, or from work. Let us leave it at that for now. Although, again, even something quite ordinary can make major adjustments to money—

Something ordinary. There is a man and a woman in a family, for example. The man earns money, and the wife complains. That can bring the amount down tenfold. I once told someone, "If you related differently within your family, there would be about twenty times as much money, and you would not have the problems you are always describing." It has a very strong effect. Why am I emphasizing this? Even when you start talking about karmic management, in a certain area it is not a bad way of thinking: "If I do good things, I..." As I said, I am aiming for the maximum in a good sense. But that is a very dangerous transition zone. Dangerous, very dangerous. Very. You need to be extremely careful. Overall, though, one thing worth looking at for absolutely everyone is whether you help other people in your life with money. I want to say: even look at it in terms of manipulation. If you have partners or employees, do you help and support them, or do you put pressure on them? You can support, or you can pressure. I try to support. Yesterday, I was driving with my business partner.

Perhaps he is here listening in the group too; we will see. I was driving with my partner in one of our American businesses. We have a real estate business here. We were also giving my daughter a ride. I said, "Listen, we could reach this figure. We could get to a million dollars a month." He said, "No, I do not think we will get to a million." I asked, "What could we get to?" He said, "I do not know, three hundred thousand or four hundred." I said, "Great. Three hundred to four hundred thousand." Look, this is not going along with whatever someone says. It is support. Not acquiescence: support. I have enough strength and sense—look, enough strength and sense—to say something good to a person at the right moment. Perhaps not in every situation, but yesterday, at least, I certainly did. I could have started protesting internally. Did I receive support for a million a month? No. But he did receive support. He did. Unfortunately, we often live by keeping score: you for me, me for you. "You did not support me. Then I will tell you that you will not succeed either."

But he directly affects the business. He manages it, runs it, is involved in it, does everything. The whole business depends on him. I know my support matters. That is all. I give him more support. So what do we, as people, communicate about money to others? How do we support them? What do we pay attention to? This is something that allows you personally to grow enormously in earning your own money. Enormously. Why? Because through this, you will increasingly see yourself through your own money in relation to other people. How you relate to other people around money is not only about those close to you. It is also what you feel when you see or read about another wealthy person. What arises in you? What energy? Envy, fear, unease—or, conversely, stability, confidence, support for that person? What arises? Each of you, absolutely everyone, has the possibility of growing your money enormously, just as you have the possibility of a very large fall. There is another interesting aspect: freedom. You can reach a level where there is freedom of choice, and you can fall a very long way in a good sense.

It will not be bad for you. Just as you can grow enormously. There is one more point I want to discuss with you. If you worry about money, you need to work on the causes of the worry, rather than struggle to earn lots of money. Remember this rule forever. Remember it forever. What matters is not the amount of money, but the distress. You will always earn much more without distress than with it. If you earn a lot while distressed, there are consequences. Hear this: there are always consequences to that arrangement. You work and make mistakes. You work while distressed—not just at the beginning, but in general. You know you need to resolve the distress, not the money. This may seem absurd, strange, whatever you like, but you need to resolve it. Often people see problems with money but do not understand that a solution exists. I will explain a very simple arrangement, like that of my grandmother and grandfather. They could have had more money for only one reason: if they had supported the people around them who earned money, their children and grandchildren. Given their life circumstances and karma, they were no longer going to earn money. They lived on their pensions.

Where could the extra money my grandmother worried so much about have come from? Only from their children and grandchildren. For money to come from children and grandchildren—even in terms of manipulation in the social world—what do you need to do? Support them, understand money. If they had not worried or said there was too little money and it needed to be saved, hidden away, or something else, but had supported those people around money, constantly and strongly, then those other people, their loved ones, would have had even more money. Moreover, if they had supported them around money, more would have come to my grandparents. They would have been given more. They would have had more. So they needed to work on fear. Fear ate away at a great deal. It ate away at a large part of our relationships. Very seriously. One person's own fear generated hatred in others. Other people began hating other people, no longer in connection with my grandmother, but among themselves. Other people hated other people. Hear that. Your fear gives rise to an enormous number of other consequences.

If you are destined to grow and earn more money at your maximum, you will definitely do more of that without fear. Even if you are not destined to, at least you will live without fear. That is why I am telling you to direct your attention toward working with different kinds of distress, distress of any kind.