Tim Sanders - Today We Are Rich: Harnessing the Power of Total Confidence

Additional Praise for Tim Sanderss Books

Today We Are Rich

This is a book for the ages, a new classic, one that rewards anyone with the guts to read it. A page-turner that pays big dividends.

Seth Godin, author of Linchpin

Tim Sanders is a phenomenal communicator.... What Tim does so well is show people he really cares about them and wants them to succeed.

John C. Maxwell, author of Everyone Communicates, Few Connect

Love Is the Killer App

This clever, creative, yet immensely practical book beautifully illustrates Carl Rogerss profound insight, That which is most personal is most general.

Dr. Stephen Covey Sr., author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

This book teaches us the value of relationships in the workplace, and its rich with practical, effective strategies for enhancing and developing them.

Phillip C. McGraw, Ph.D., author of Life Strategies and Self Matters

Tim Sanderss message that compassion in leadership is the key to success couldnt have arrived at a better time in the history of American business. This is an invaluable book; every manager should read it, study it, and then pass it along to a colleague he cares about.

Ken Blanchard, author of The One Minute Manager

The Likeability Factor

This book will enrich your life and, more important, the lives of everyone you touch.

Anthony Robbins, author of Awaken the Giant Within and Unlimited Power

In this important and necessary book, Sanders tells us why our likeability is the foundation of our success, and shows us how we can increase our own.

Marcus Buckingham, author of First, Break All the Rules and Discover Your Strengths

The Likeability Factor should be a part of everyones success library. It is a fast-paced, readable book. Grab a copy to use on your success journey.

Peter Handal, CEO, Dale Carnegie & Associates, Inc.

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Today We Are Rich: Harnessing the Power of Total Confidence

Copyright 2011 by Tim Sanders. All rights reserved.

Cover photograph of water tower by Tim Sanders. All rights reserved.

Author photo copyright by Lesley Bohm/Bohm Photography. All rights reserved.

Photograph of author speaking by Laura Graves. Used with permission.

Image of cover of Love Is The Killer App used with permission of Crown Business. All rights reserved.

Designed by Ron Kaufmann

Edited by Susan Taylor

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible , New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the Holy Bible , King James Version.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Sanders, Tim, date.

Today we are rich : harnessing the power of total confidence / Tim Sanders.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-4143-3911-5 (hc)

1. Success. 2. Conduct of life. 3. Confidence. I. Title. II. Title: Harnessing the power of total confidence.

BJ1611.2.S235 2011

170.44dc22 2010054344

To Jacquelinemy muse, my rock, and a source of abundance in my life.

Table of Contents

Prologue

Billyes Lesson I Never Forgot

It was a typical sunny summer morning, and my grandmother and I were eating a breakfast of hot cereal, fresh biscuits, and Karo syrup. Through a freshly Spic-and-Spand window, I spotted a stranger trudging through our wheat field toward the house. He was walking slowly, deliberately, with his head down. With each lumbering step, he appeared larger and larger.

Soon my grandmother noticed him too. She grabbed my hand, and together we made our way toward the field. We stopped in the peach orchard, just on the other side of the electric fence that surrounded the wheat field.

Can I help you, sir? my grandmother called out.

The man looked at us with a shy smile and replied, I pray so, maam, I pray so. He took a long breath and continued: My name is Clarence, and I need a days work and a hot meal. Im at my wits end, maam, and I have no other options. But I am a good worker.

My grandmother sized him uphe was middle-aged and African American with salt-and-pepper hair and wore an ashy black suit with a yellowing white dress shirt underneath. He looked harmless, albeit shabby. She motioned for him to step over the fence and sit down with us on folding chairs around a card table in the orchard.

Im Billye, she said. This here is my grandson, Tim. Whats your story?

Ive been walking for days, coming from my hometown, Dripping Springs, Oklahoma. I lost everything I owned in a swindle. I have nothing left but my winning smile, whats in this here pillowcase, and a few relatives who are willing to help me start over in Arizona.

He wiped his brow and said, I just need some work, maam. I need someone to believe in me, if only for today.

Billye looked to the sky, as if seeking advice, looked back at him, and then said, Ill pay you ten dollars to work from right now till sundown. First, I need you to prune the tops of these peach trees. I cant reach them. Next, clean out the barn. And finally, if theres time left, youll need to climb a ladder and touch up the trim on top of it.

Clarence hung his jacket on the limb of a peach tree and got right to work. So did I, walking around behind him as his pseudoforeman, commenting on his progress, and peppering him with all kinds of questions. He answered most of them with grunts. He finished the pruning in less than an hour and then started to clean out the barn. It was a dusty and herculean task.

Billye came out periodically to check up on us. Later she explained that she was making sure he wasnt leaning on his brooma Southern phrase for goofing off on the job.

At high noon she served lunch in the orchard on paper plates. It was a bounty: sliced hot dogs with ranch-style beans, mustard potato salad, Texas toast, and sweet tea. Clarence dug into his meal like hed dug into his work that morning. His massive hands made his plastic fork look like a toothpick.

The more Clarence ate, the more conversational he became. He started to answer my questions more thoughtfully. He also started to dish me advice. He lowered his eyes and said, I want to tell you something about your grandmother. Shes special. She has faith! He stopped to take a swig of his sweet iced tea.

Miss Billye, he continued, is an angel that God put on this earth to have faith in a stranger who needed someone to trust him. People like her make the world go round, boy. You understand?

I nodded. I knew my grandmother was special. She had taken me into her home at a time when my own mother couldnt or wouldnt keep me. Billye loved me as if I were her own son, agreeing to raise me from the time I was four, even though she was getting on in years. She declared from the time I could walk that God had big plans for me. Thats the kind of person she wasa big giver and believer in people.

In the last few days Ive had guns waved at me and dogs sicced on me, Clarence said. I thought no one would give me a chance. But your grandmother did. He wiped his lips and summed up my lunch lesson: See how happy she is? You will be too if you follow her example. You learn from your grandmas faith in people. Inherit some of her sweetness.