Do you constantly tell yourself? “I don’t have enough money” “I don’t have enough time” “I don’t know what my passion is”? Forget telling yourself “I don’t know” - Discover how to find your passion and unlock the secrets to living your dream life. If you are powered by passion… all things are possible... According to the usual script, Stacey should be living on the streets, in jail, on drugs or dead. She ticks all the boxes when it comes to risk factors, having experienced no mum throughout her life, bought up in housing commission, was sexually abused at the age of nine, living in a shed aged fourteen, fell pregnant at fifteen, was homeless with two babies at nineteen…had three children and was living in a violent relationship at twenty one… but somehow managed to pursue and achieve her dreams and goals. This remarkable thirty two year old woman has managed to defy the odds in a spectacular way, through following her passion. She worked on her mindset and took action on her dreams, and now has five beautiful children and lives in her dream home by the beach with her fiancé. Through the very techniques described in this book, Stacey grew a small business from $100 of sales per month to a whopping $100,000 per month, was nominated for the 2011 Telstra Business Women’s Awards and is now a motivational speaker. She is also the ambassador of the Lighthouse Foundation and Brave Hearts Foundation both protecting vulnerable children. If you have dreamed of success in your life but can’t seem to pinpoint exactly what your passion or burning desire is, this book is for you. Are you ready to take on board Stacey’s proven steps to create the mindset that millionaires share? Are you ready to put aside your fears and excuses and reap the rewards? The Rich Get Richer, The Poor Can Too is jam packed with practical, easy to do techniques that will shift your thinking from “it’s too hard” to ”how can I make it happen” which will transform your life into the life you dream of. • uncover your passion • create a clear vision of your dream life • move through excuses and fears • discover practical step by step strategies to achieve your goals THE POWER TO TRANSFORM YOUR LIFE IS INSIDE YOU RIGHT NOW AND STACEY CURRIE WILL SHOW YOU THE WAY. ”Congratulations! You are obviously a remarkable woman!” “This wonderful, inspiring book gives you the tools & motivation to achieve all your goals—including getting rich!” Brian Tracy—Author—“The Way to Wealth” For additional resources please visit http://www.staceycurrie.com

The rich get richer, the poor can too!

BALBOA PRESS

Contents

How My Dream Began.........................................................16Childhood..................................................................21The Little Runt............................................................26Assaulted..................................................................28Girl on a Mission..........................................................32Fifteen, Pregnant and No Idea..............................................35My First Baby Arrives......................................................37This is Not the Life I Had Planned.........................................39Wow, I am Living my Dream Life.............................................45The Day I Discovered my Passion............................................49Discover Your Passion......................................................54What are Your Values?......................................................62Create a Vision Board......................................................70Goal Setting and Action Taking.............................................73Commit and Persist for Success.............................................81Surround Yourself with Positive People.....................................85Dealing with Loneliness....................................................88Fitting it All in..........................................................94You are the Most Amazing Person............................................99Dealing with Fear..........................................................104Thinking Outside the Square................................................111Become the Person You Would Put on a Pedestal..............................113Women Wearing Masks........................................................115Life Without Mother........................................................118Creating Healthy Relationships.............................................121Tackling the Green Eyed Monster............................................126Mentors....................................................................130Instead of Following, Lead and Show Others the Way.........................141Healthy Lifestyle–Make it a Habit....................................145Characteristics and Traits of Highly Successful People.....................149Make this Book the Beginning of Your Learning Journey......................154Everything You Desire Will Come to You.....................................157Change Your Life, One Step at a Time.......................................160Stacey Speaks..............................................................161Passion Quotes.............................................................162Lighthouse Foundation......................................................164Resources to Share.........................................................166

Chapter One

My dream started when I was twenty one years old and living in a violent relationship. I was lost. I had no real friends, I was angry, I was lonely and my children were suffering. My self esteem was gone and I had really hit the bottom of the black hole. I also had three children aged five, two, and four months old to care for.

One night after yet another violent argument with my partner, I found myself at the Royal Children's Hospital. My son had been admitted after being physically hurt. It was 2am and there I was, crammed into a little room with my three children, officers from the Department of Human Services, some Federal Police and a few staff from the hospital.

They questioned me for a very long time about the relationship I was living in, and how my son was hurt. I was grilled about why I was staying in this abusive relationship and why I was putting my children through it all.

After a couple of hours of this I was asked to leave the room. I sat out in the waiting room until eventually they called me back in. I was told that I had to get myself and my children out of the situation I was in. All the authorities who were represented in that room had discussed my situation and as of today I had two choices.

My first choice was that I could stay in the relationship and have my three children placed into foster care. I remember dropping to my knees begging them not to take my children from me. Then they offered the second choice.

If I took the second choice I could keep my children but I must change my life. The conditions were that, beginning immediately, I would be court ordered to not have anything to do with my violent partner for twelve weeks. In those twelve weeks, I would have to attend a domestic violence counsellor. I wanted desperately to keep my children but couldn't see how I could possibly change my life.

That night I was forced to make the best choice of my whole life. That night the dream began.

I went along to the domestic violence group, thinking that I really did not belong as I was not bruised and battered. As it was court ordered though, I had to attend. For some reason I remember exactly what I was wearing the first time I went along – a little pair of blue denim shorts and a red singlet top. I was trying to hide my legs because I felt so fat and disgusting. I was a size eight. I remember telling my counsellor Donna that I felt very ugly.

Although I started with a negative attitude, after a while I started to realise that the group was really helping to build up my self esteem. The sessions were every Tuesday and Saturday and I attended them without fail. They even had a childcare facility where my children could be safely minded. The Tuesday sessions always finished at 3pm and I would head straight to the school afterwards to pick up Josh. Every Tuesday after the session I would stride into school as confident as the Queen. I was on cloud nine, so excited about what was happening.

However even with all the help of the group, it was extremely hard for me to just walk away from my partner. I really thought I loved him. One day I was feeling really depressed and was sorely tempted to slip back into the relationship. I knew that if I was caught I would lose my children and felt like I must be the worst Mum alive. I asked for guidance from my counsellor Donna. She said `Stacey, go and hire a book from the library'. I looked at her blankly and replied `Is that all you can recommend? I really hate books'.

By that point I had gained a tremendous amount of respect for Donna. I was finding that everything she told me was true, so I had a lot of trust in her. After that session I went to my local library and hired a book on sexual abuse. It was BRILLIANT! For the past two years I had been told every day that I was a psycho, insecure, a scum bag, a slut. Now, for the first time in my life I started to feel normal. All the emotions I was experiencing were totally normal. My favourite part of the book was the exercises to help turn all that negativity around, get over my issues and create a successful life for myself and my children. I took action on all the learnings and watched in amazement as my life soon started to transform. My self esteem reached an all time high. I felt great, I truly loved who I was becoming and felt like the best Mum to my children. I even felt attractive for the first time in my life.

After this I became addicted to reading and self development. In the ten years since then, I have read a book every week. The topics vary depending on the issues I am facing at the time. I have read books on self esteem, parenting and anger. I have read business books, books on marketing, I have read the stories of entrepreneurs, successful women, successful business owners and many many more.

As I read, I started to realise that all successful people have some things in common. We all read books, we all have a strong commitment, we are all motivated, we all face our fears and we all have strong values.

I remember reading one day on the internet about a woman who was only thirty years old and had built a very successful business. I read everything I could about this lady; how she began, the obstacles and hurdles she had faced, everything I could find. I'd had a dream since I was eight years old of owning my own business. After reading this lady's story, I knew I could make my dream a reality.

I wanted to know more about successful women. Why were they so confident and successful when I wasn't? What was their secret? I wanted to be able to network with them without feeling intimidated or thinking they were better than me. I became obsessed with learning everything I could about successful women. With each learning, I realised more and more that I was just as good as these women, even though they were all older than me. I could become just as successful as they were if I wanted to. I had no more excuses. It was up to me.

My next goal was to surround myself with friends who had a positive outlook. I started to look for positive young Mums. I attended a young Mums' group but it just was not for me. They spent their time talking about drinking, partying, smoking; all the things I did not want to be involved in. I struggled to find the people I wanted to be around, so I googled successful young Mums and positive young Mums. I looked at the library for books on young Mums. I could not believe that there was nothing positive to be found relating to young Mums.

By now I had become involved in our current business, Signs `n' Banners, so I started to attend business women's functions. I found I was extremely intimidated by the older women there. It had nothing to do with the women themselves; it was my own lack of self esteem getting in the way. I had come so far, and yet I could see that my self esteem still had a long way to go.

Then something amazing happened. Successful women who were older than me started to call asking for my advice. Women running million dollar companies were calling me! We talked about everything from managing a work/life balance to business marketing and beyond. It finally occurred to me that I had become the business woman I dreamt of being. I got over my feelings of intimidation and actually started enjoying being around these women. I no longer felt different to them, in fact some of them were actually inspired by me. What an eye opener.

With all this great feedback I was feeling on top of the world. I decided it was time that other young Mums had someone who cared about them, to teach them what I had learned. Then they too could experience a happy, colourful, successful life.

I created www.EmpoweringYoungMums.com.au and started running workshops with young Mums. The workshops were free, as I was simply sharing my passion. I couldn't believe it when journalists began to call, asking me to do stories for their magazines, newspapers and TV shows. I was simply sharing what was in my heart and people wanted to interview me about it.

I began to realise that I could help transform so many more women's lives by empowering them to take action. I knew the time had come to get this information out to young Mums everywhere, so I started writing.

I wrote my story from the beginning; my early days as a child, having my babies so young, having nowhere to live, being in a violent relationship. Then I wrote how I turned it around and I kept on writing, describing how I live now. My incredible new life, full of laughter, happiness, noise and peace. A life where I am making my dreams happen and most importantly, a life where my children and I are happy.

Soon some themes emerged, topics based around how I overcame obstacles to be the successful woman I am today. Now I can share my learnings with you and others in the hope you will find some ideas to help you take action just as I did and transform your life into the life of your dreams.

Chapter Two

I am so grateful that my childhood was not violent. Chaotic yes, but not violent. I do remember wishing I had a Mum though. I don't have any memories of living with my Mum, I was so young when my parents split up and I went to live with Dad.

Growing up in a housing commission area we were surrounded by poor families. We were just another of the poor families in our neighbourhood. However we were one of those families people tell their kids not to hang out with because we were `trouble'. My Dad and stepmum were not alcoholics, drug addicts or gamblers; they just had no idea how to bring up kids. We had absolutely no discipline whatsoever, which had its down side but could also be a lot of fun.

As a seven year old I was often left at home to look after my newborn brother Michael. One particular day I had been alone for hours with the screaming baby. I had tried to change his nappy and accidentally pricked his penis with the nappy pin. Eventually I realised I couldn't manage the nappy on my own and ran next door with him to ask our neighbours to help me. Once this was done I raced back home as I was also looking after my two year old sister. As they were both crying, I decided to take them for a walk. I put them both in the pram and off we went. As a seven year old I thought it would be pretty cool to make it more exciting and so I ran, jumping over hills and bumps with the pram. Of course it never occurred to me to strap the babies into the pram. After going over a great hill, the pram flew forward with a jolt. My sister hit the pavement and cut her lip, while the newborn baby tumbled out onto the path without being hurt. I scrambled to put them both back into the pram and get home to fix my sister's lip, terrified of getting into trouble. Most people wouldn't leave a seven year old in charge of such small children, but this was our family and that was the way we were.

I will always remember how much my Dad loved my brothers, sisters and I, and all the great times we had. Life was not all gloom and doom. We lived close to the beach and Dad would take us there most days after school and on weekends. We would have the whole neighbourhood crowded into our van for a trip to the beach.

Sometimes we would jump into the van and go to the bush with other families to play hide and seek in our cars. We would cover the cars with bushes and the other family had to find us. Then we would swap and the other family would hide and we had to find them. Dad would even use his van to go four wheel driving. Dad was just like a great big kid, I can't even begin to explain how fun it was to be bought up by him. I am just thankful I survived.

At one point my stepmum was in hospital for around nine months, after complications with a hysterectomy. Dad was working fulltime and so during the school holidays my three brothers, my sister and myself, all under the age of ten, were at home alone. We were really bored on this particular day and thought it would be a great idea to knock down the lounge room wall. We phoned Dad at work and asked if we could knock down the wall. Dad was thinking we would be knocking down a garden wall out in the backyard so he agreed. When he arrived home he got the shock of his life – the whole lounge room wall had been knocked down. We still crack up laughing at that to this day.

Another vivid memory is the waterbed incident. We kids were always looking for an adventure, so we decided to inflate an old waterbed mattress with the vacuum cleaner and bounce each other. One person would sit on the end of the mattress while the other person ran and jumped on the other end, bouncing the person sitting on it into the air. We were having a great time when Dad came home from work. Well Dad was a big man and a kid himself, so he wanted to play. Being the tomboy, I jumped at the chance to sit on the end and have him bounce me. I was waiting all excited and then `whoosh' I went flying up into the air. I went past the house roof and then came back down and landed on the ground, right on my arm. I was screaming in agony and Dad kept saying `Shut up, the neighbours will hear'. He was too embarrassed to try to explain to them what had happened. Eventually we went to the hospital to have my broken arm set. This would be one of six broken arms I have had through my life.

We had some great times around the house. Out the back was a huge tree which we would use as our cubby house. The tree was at least twenty feet tall and we had climbed right to the top and nailed boards to each branch to make seats for each of us. We would play in that tree for hours. We even had a rope with a crate attached to it that would bring our dinner up, so we could sit in the top of the tree to eat our meal.

One very windy day we had a friend over to play. We had found a large outdoor umbrella on the side of the road and took it home, knowing we could make some use of it. We were up in the tree house when a great idea popped into one of our heads. I yelled out to my brothers to bring up the umbrella so we could fly out of the tree like Mary Poppins. I was first to go and used the umbrella to parachute neatly to the ground. Then it was our friend's turn, however he was very underweight. As he jumped with the umbrella, the wind caught him and off he went, sailing right over the fence and eventually landing in our neighbour's yard. We were all laughing so hard we could not even go and help the poor scared kid. He came from a very strict family and he could never imagine doing something like this. Luckily his parents never found out. Now I understand why we always had the neighbourhood kids sneaking over to play at our house – we always had so much fun. With no parents watching, we could do whatever we wanted.

Dad worked for a water purification company and would bring home large empty barrels. Being the adventurous kids we were, we knew we could come up with a great idea. `Hey guys, why don't we put each other in the barrel and roll it around the yard?' I yelled. We were all excited by our new game and took it in turns in rolling each other around with the lid off. You know how it is, you do something for a while and it all seems fun. Then after you have done it for an hour, you want to go to the next level. Well I was ready for the next level. We told our brother to get into the barrel with the lid on this time, to go down the stairs. In he jumped and we tightened up the lid. That barrel rolled down the stairs and then kept going all the way down our street. As the barrel finally rolled to a stop in the middle of the road, the poor kid got out looking like he had seen a ghost. We were crying with laughter and couldn't wait to all have a turn.

Dad always made sure Christmas was amazing for us. I think he would use three months worth of wages to fund Christmas, and we would regularly be in arrears with the rent around that time of year. On Christmas night we kids would all sleep together in one room. We were so excited no one got much sleep though. Dad would wake us up about 4.30am to tell us Santa had been. Into the lounge room we would go to find hundreds of presents. When I say hundreds it was no exaggeration. By about 5.30am we would all be out in the street playing with our new toys. Dad was just a great big kid who allowed us to have so much fun.

My childhood taught me that just because you are a parent does not mean you can't have fun with your children. I was always encouraged to try new things, and have bought this into my own parenting. I have also learnt however that parenting can't be all fun. Children need boundaries, rules and discipline. Because I hadn't experienced these myself I struggled to understand how soft or strict these rules and boundaries should be.

I once rode my son's Pee Wee 80 motorbike to a birthday party to pick him up, thinking it would be a great surprise. I couldn't comprehend why everyone was so shocked when I arrived. It didn't occur to me that it was illegal and dangerous to ride this tiny bike on the road, let alone with no helmet.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from The rich get richer, the poor can too!by Stacey Currie Copyright © 2012 by Stacey Currie. Excerpted by permission of BALBOA PRESS. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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