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Ever wish you had a mentor to help you become who you were meant to be? Crystal Ware is redefining what it means to become your best self, in business, life, and love and sharing everything she she knows to get YOU there faster.
Are you stuck? Feel like you are meant for more but not sure how to breakthrough? Every week, we will explore all of your questions on building a path to true happiness, achieving success and creating our dream life. Brick by brick, we will work through the issues and mindsets that keep us stuck, dive into finding our passion and how to take ACTION. Clarity (vision) + Confidence (Owning your worth) + Courage (to live life on your own terms and become your own CEO) propels you to your destiny. And the good news it: its all within you!
Each week, host, Crystal Ware, will bring you all of the practical wisdom to grow every aspect of your career and life including mindset, vision, goal planning, social media management, financial acumen and so much more. You'll also meet top business leaders, entrepreneurs, mompreneurers and innovative thinkers who invested in themselves and found their way success and happiness by leading on their own terms.
You were made for more, so start living like it today. Join us as we take action, grow together, and get inspired to reach for your dreams.
Have you ever met a RICH person?
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Crystal Ware: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Get Clear with Crystal Ware podcast, the place where we get clear on our goals, own our worth, and learn to be the CEOs of our own lives. I'm your host, Crystal Ware, lawyer and former Fortune 500 corporate leader. Who found the confidence to say goodbye to a lucrative career and start my own business.
Now I'm opening up the playbook and sharing everything I've learned to get you there faster. It may not be easy, but it will always be worth it because you are made for more. So put on your big girl pants, jump on board and let's reach for the stars. Are you ready to get clear?
Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you are, whatever time it is welcome to get clear with crystal where I am so excited that you decided to join and listen in to this awesome episode entitled, have you ever met a rich person? And I think it's a funny title [00:01:00] to start a podcast with and a good question to ask.
Because this is going to be based around a really, really famous quote by somebody super, super famous. And for all intents and purposes, one of the most wealthy people in all of history. One time, years and years of years ago, John D. Rockefeller was asked by a reporter, how much money is enough? And he said, just a little bit more.
How much money Just a little bit more. How much time is enough? Just a little bit more. Do you need any more shoes? Just a few more pairs. You can get what, where I'm going with this. One of the richest people ever in American history,~ well,~ in the world, even said that what's enough money, just a little bit more.
So when we think about, have you ever met a [00:02:00] rich person? It's really a funny thing to think about because often you could meet somebody that has millions and millions of dollars and they're going to act like they don't have enough. You can meet, ~you know,~ somebody that has, hundreds of thousands of dollars and lives in a middle class area and by all means is also wealthy.
They won't think they're that wealthy. They'll be looking for more. And the reason that this is important is because we have an insatiable desire for wealth. That's partly human nature. That's why all of us experience it to some degrees. That's why the wealthiest of the wealthiest still want more. It's like this unquenchable drug, the desire for more.
Some people would argue that this desire for more is actually a good thing, that it's driving us to be more successful, to [00:03:00] work hard, to create, to innovate. And yes, those are all good things. And those are all good qualities to have. And we want to work hard and we want to achieve and we want to be successful.
But to what end, to what cost, when is more a detriment to us? And I would say it's a detriment to us. every single time we don't understand what enough is. This is a conversation that I talk about pretty frequently when I'm talking to women about ironing out what amount of money do they need? How much money do they need to make themselves at the end of the day?
How much retirement do they need to feel secure? And You know, at the end of the day, I, I look at it and it's ~like, ~what is enough to where you don't have to be beholden by anybody anymore, if you are in an uncomfortable situation at your job or your life circumstances change and you want to take a break, you want to step [00:04:00] back, you want to step down, you want to pause your career, or you never want to go back enough to work again, what's enough money to make that happen for you?
Okay. If you don't know what it is, You're never going to get there. If you get in your car and you just start driving around without an idea of where you're going, what can Google tell you for directions? You don't have directions because you don't have a destination. We have to start with the end in mind.
We have to understand where we're going. We have to know what is enough so that we can draw those boundaries on for ourselves. Otherwise it's just more, more, more, more power, more money. More desire, more clothes, more cars, more opportunities, more, more, more. And the problem is that more always exists. There is always more to be had.
You can always have room in your bank account for more money. You can often find~ time~ room for more [00:05:00] shoes. I knew of a girl that lived in London and kept shoes in her,~ um,~ underneath her couch at the top of her cupboard and in her closet. stove because she was never going to cook. So even if you run out of room in your closet, there's always room for more.
The point is, do you need more? It's more superfluous to your life. In some cases is more hindering you. ~You know,~ I read a book about simplifying your life. Some years ago, shout out to my girl, Jesse for recommended that to you, to me. She's always in the back of my mind when I'm thinking about. How I want to live my life because we have houses full of stuff, thousands and thousands and thousands of items, more clothes in our closets than any of our ancestors have ever dreamed about having.
And for what we have to have more room for those things. We have to [00:06:00] clean more often. We have to do more laundry. We have to keep up with more stuff in some ways that can be a hindrance to living our actual life. The less you have, the less you have to care for. So think about that next time you go to the store and you think, Oh, I want to get this.
I want to get that. It's about having the right things not having about more things. Anyway, that's not what today's podcast is about. You can get a lot of books on that subject,~ um,~ on how to cultivate a more simpler lifestyle with less things and the positive aspects that that can bring to your mental life.
And I do truly in my heart, believe in that. I haven't got around to that, although I do, I'm a less is more person in general. ~Um, ~You might not look around and think that, but really I am like clutter is my nemesis. So less is more,~ uh,~ more is not more, less is more. But at the end of the day, the problem that we have of this, of wanting more of always wanting more, [00:07:00] needing more, this insatiable appetite that we have is that we are not satisfied when we crave more.
We are not satisfied with what we have and to find true, true happiness and contentment, we have to be satisfied with what we have. We have to know what enough is. And I think that's all of our goals in life, right? You're not just here listening, me talking, you're here because you want something. And I think that what most people are really craving, what they really are looking for Is satisfaction is contentment and ultimately is happiness.
And I'm here trying to give you the tools and the thoughts and the inspiration to find that satisfaction, to find that contentment and to reach that ultimate level of happiness. That is our goal. [00:08:00] Money will do that to some degree, right? If we're at a lack, if we came from a place where we didn't always have enough to like.
Participate in sports, or we didn't always have enough to go out to eat, or we didn't always have enough to drive out of town to visit somebody because we didn't have enough money for gas. Then to some degree, the basics of having money do make a difference in our lives, And income, depending on where you live, of course, I have to give a caveat. The lawyer in me wants to make sure that ~like, ~yes, it's not all apples to apples everywhere, but 70, 000 to a hundred thousand, you should be able to have a nice life, a comfortable life on that, where you're not always looking to the future, worried about how to get to the next [00:09:00] level, worried that you need it more money to do more things.
The problem that we have with this. ~Um, ~more this culture of more that we've experienced in the last 40 years is that our homes have gotten bigger, filled with more things, with more expensive cars. So more is required to maintain our lives. If we strip that down and strip that away, if we were okay, having a 2000 square foot house in four bedrooms or very roomy 2000 square feet with just three bedrooms.
I mean, that is comfortable. Listen, folks, I grew up in a house that was a thousand square feet with three bedrooms and one bathroom, not a big bathroom, a small bathroom for four people. People loved coming to my house because it was a home and it was filled with love and it was filled with happiness and joy and hanging out and fun.
And my parents were always around. Why were my parents always around? Because they were hard workers, but they weren't looking for more, more, more, more, more. They did want to achieve and they [00:10:00] wanted to get a raise and they, but it wasn't the same Culture and lifestyle that we experience now. And I never felt really a sense of lack.
~Um, ~certainly I knew that we could not go out. I could not go to the grocery store and just ~like ~load up the shopping cart. Okay. I just knew that that was not who we were and that was okay. I can attribute that to me wanting to work hard. And be successful that I could take the next step. But in doing that, it's ~like, well, ~what is, is the next step?
Okay. Do I need three more steps? Do I need 20 million to ~like ~be successful and feel happy and content? No. So you got to get that number down in paper. You need to understand what is enough. If I make X.
Can I live the lifestyle that I want to lead to feel satisfied and happy and successful? How much money do I need to have in the bank or a plan to get there realistically [00:11:00] so that I can live the lifestyle that I want to live? If I want to be able to travel across America for a month over the summer, I can do that.
If I want to retire at 50, Or work part time. I mean, listen, folks, I think it would be pretty awesome. Have enough money to live on, but like you just aren't withdrawing yet. You can work at a Starbucks, get your benefits. I think they even do 401k matching and stuff like that for part time workers. Like you can live outside of whatever you dreamed was possible.
If you know what is enough for you and you get to the point of enough, but if you don't know what enough is, then you're just going to need a few dollars more and you're going to go to your grave wanting a few dollars more. And I don't want that for you. I don't want that for you. I don't want that for your children.
I don't want that for your parents. I don't want that for your aunt and uncle or your neighbors. [00:12:00] I want you to go to the grave thinking,~ um,~ I did it all. I saw it all. I'm content. I am happy. I spent as much time as I humanly possible with my family and friends and those people that I cared about the most.
I fed into my church or to my charity of choice or whatever it is that your purpose and passion, those are the things that you want to go to the grave with. You're not going to get in a casket full of money. You're not going to get a casket full of your clothes. Nobody's going to bury you with all of your shoes.
Okay, so what is enough for you? It's important the only thing worth chasing in life, and this is what I want to really leave us with it's not money It's not cars and clothes. It's not success the only thing worth chasing in life is purpose. Purpose gives us a sense of direction, meaning, and fulfillment in our life.
Purpose leads to a meaningful and complete [00:13:00] life. Everything else is just noise. So pursue your passion and you'll find your dreams. And if your passion is your children and your children's sports, Then go to work and work your nine to five, know what your enough is and shut it off. That's what my parents did.
My parents enjoyed their job well enough. They made the money that they eventually made the money that they wanted to make and they didn't go around searching for more. Then they pursued their passion, which was pouring into me and my sister and our family to spending time in our country and our families, ~you know, a~ property that they've owned for hundreds of years.
That was their purpose and their passion. That is what they cared more about than anything is raising us, raising us to be good humans, being good people. That was their purpose and passion. And that. drove them to make the decisions that they [00:14:00] made. My dad was able to retire at a fairly early age. My mom quit working when I graduated college because they didn't need more.
It wasn't worth the stress and the headache of having the job that she had to for more, they had enough. Enough is enough. And that's what you need to think about for yourself. Do not get in the trap of wanting more things, more money. Don't look around at other people and say, Oh, they have that. I mean, social media, it's literally there to sell you everything.
Sell you everything and anything you could possibly need. When I talk to people about what I use, which is like a minimum of things. I mean, I, and I do guys, this is like a therapy session for myself because I do talk to myself about, do I really need this? I hem and haw over stuff and I probably spend too much time sometimes thinking about, should I buy this?
Should I not buy this? It's like a 25 item.~ Um, ~But it's because I don't like to just collect things. I don't like to just [00:15:00] buy stuff. When I talk about the handfuls of things, which is like vitamins and protein powders, and ~like, ~you know, certain, you know, deodorants or soaps or stuff like that, it's like basic crap that I love talking about and sharing with people because I don't care about stuff that much and what I do care about.
I buy it over and over again. I love it. I find what I really like. I find what really works and I love to share it with everybody. Because also I'm kind of frugal and it's usually like the best thing for the best price, but recognizing what is more is enough and not searching around and knowing and being eyes wide open.
I tell this to my kids already. They're like, when you're on the internet, when you're watching TV and they have commercials, they are marketing to you. Don't buy into it. You need to ask yourself, do I need this? Is this going to make a difference in my life? Is this something that I really want to spend my money on or do I want to take my money and save it and create the life that I really want with the time that I really want and [00:16:00] love everything and cultivate?
And I'll say it one more time because I think it is so the visualization of it is so important. I went from a person who thought, Oh my gosh, as a Christian growing up, you know, you guys, many people know cross. Many people are buried,~ um,~ not cremated. And I thought when I was younger, I thought it was so crazy that people would get cremated.
I just thought like you're burning up your body. That's so crazy. ~Um, ~and I do understand from the Bible why people felt that way to some degree. ~Um, ~some language in the Bible kind of ~like ~intimated, that's the way that it should be done. ~Um, ~now I'm like, don't waste your money. Don't buy this useless casket to put me in and bury me in the ground.
Just cremate me because I'm not, my body is not going to be here. The things that are on my body, my jewelry, my shoes, Surround yourself today with a few things that are going to give you maximum pleasure. And just remember the money, the items, the clothing, all the other [00:17:00] things, your cars, you're not going to be buried in it or with it.
Let it go. What you can take with you is your memories and all the time that you spent doing things that you loved with people you love. So don't keep going for one more dollar. Make sure that whatever you're rich in, that you know it, that you own it, and that you are a rich person. Because have you ever met a rich person?
John D. Rockefeller obviously wanted more. He might have said he wasn't rich enough. Okay. Don't be that person. Be the person that recognizes, has gratitude and feels success and fulfillment because they know, they know in their heart that what they have is enough and they are rich in time. They are rich in love.
They are rich in satisfaction. They are rich in purpose in what they're doing at their job or outside of their job or whatever it is. Be a rich person. Create a life you love. I know it's within you. I know it's what you're looking for. Have some questions. Want to know how to do that? Give me a shout out.
This is what I live for. This is what I love talking to people about. I love [00:18:00] my life and I know you can love yours too. Until next time, keep enjoying, keep reading, keep improving and keep living. That's the most simple and beautiful thing we can do today.