For Me HBBO Spells the Good Life

It was a hot summer day in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1977, and I was driving to an assigment across town from The Charlotte Observer, the local daily newspaper, where I worked as a staff writer. I listened to a cassette tape by Zip Ziglar, one of my favorite mentors. The following statement from Ziglar triggered a process of new thinking that gave me the key to the good life. Ziglar said: "You can have everything you need and want in life if you'll just help enough people have what they need and want!" Quickly, I reversed the tape and listened to that statement once more before cutting the player off to ponder what Ziglar had said.

"So," I thought aloud, "helping causes having, and needs precede wants."

Now, 30 years later--during a relatively mild summer in North Carolina--as I write this, I credit that shorthand version of Ziglar's assertion with being the key to the good life. Helping triggers having! Needs precede wants!

In this article, I will share with you the laws that define and govern the good life. I will also outline knowledge you need to live the good life. I will close with three questions to answer to determine if you're on the road to the good life.

I live the good life! Am I wealthy? Not yet, but during the past 30 years I've built a massive foundation to sustain wealth. Now I'm ready to build wealth.
But if I'm not wealthy, how can I describe my lifestyle as the "good life?" First of all, realize that wealth, however you define it, will not make your life good. Money and other resources don't change your life. They simply allow you to be more of whatever you are. For example, if you're broke and violent, with money you can afford to be more violent. You see, being precedes doing, and money finances doing. Money will not change being, or who you are.

So let me explain the definition I use for wealth and the relationship between wealth and work.