Chapter 6. How to End Financial Sabotage and Instantly Turn Your Life Around

If you're committed to achieving the results you're seeking in your life, the single most important thing you must do is take personal responsibility for all that you create.

So many people try to shift responsibility for their circumstances to some outside source. It might be their job, the economy, their spouse, or dozens of other possibilities. But entrepreneurs who create extraordinary results—the super-wealthy and super-successful—take complete responsibility for all aspects of their lives.

Warren Buffett is a great example of this. In 1987, just before the Black Monday stock market crash, Buffett acquired a 12 percent stake in the Salomon Brothers brokerage house—only to find that the federal government was investigating a trading scandal within the company. The banks were going to call in $146 billion of loans, the doors would be shut, and 8,000 employees' jobs were on the line. Because of Buffett's reputation for integrity, Salomon Brothers was told that they would be given the chance to turn things around only if Warren Buffett himself were put in charge. Buffett became interim chairman despite the fact that this wasn't his typical role as an investor.

This heroic move of taking the personal responsibility saved not only Buffett's stake in the company but the jobs of everyone involved. It was possible only because of Buffett's reputation. Buffett's sense of responsibility is also demonstrated in his ...

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