Last week we learned that Hollywood megastar Johnny Depp has problems. The kind of problems some might even wish to have. Rich people problems.
We found out that the actor that plays the charismatic, swashbuckling ¨Jack Sparrow¨ in the wildly successful Disney movie Franchise ¨Pirates of the Caribbean¨ spends 2 million a month on his lavish lifestyle and that his financial advisers (whom he is suing for mismanagement of funds) claim: “He has refused to live within his means, despite… repeated warnings about his financial condition.” Rumor has it that Johnny Depp spends $30,000 a month on wine alone.
Now for us people that are not multimillionaires, we might say to ourselves ¨well he’s Rich and he can always make it back¨. The truth is he may be financially successful to a point, but he is not Rich or wealthy and certainly not financially free.
Now bear with me here because this is a really important Idea to get across. Depp is successful because he has a talent that people will pay for. Handsomely. But he is not Rich because he has the mindset of a poor man.
A multimillionaire once told me something that stuck in my mind: “Rich people don´t spend money to feel rich, poor people do. Rich people make money and feel rich”.
His psychology is not dissimilar from most poor and middleclass people that get a “fix” from vapid consumption. The next gadget, the new pair of trainers right up to the Ferrari and “Bling”. It’s wired right into our biology. Hunters used to go out and expend energy then they would be forced to consume the animal as quickly as possible. I’m almost certain that the reward system of the brain would then fire off the pleasure centers and the behavior would then be repeated as much as possible. This is a wonderful short-term strategy to store up energy for long winters without food, and probably served our ancestors welllat some stage in our evolution
But then along comes the farmer who then can keep many animals, expending the least energy and now is able to have food all winter long. He learns to wait. He uses everything. He differs the pleasure to later and reaps the most rewards, eating his full but only when the work is done and thus gets to grow his wealth. His children can grow and prosper like this.
Depp is not rich because he is the hunter. Trading time for money and spending it crazy fast. He is a consumer. Now the executives that sign his checks…they are the farmers, and as long as they don’t spend their money at the expense of their future, they are truly financially free.
There is a reason for this. Depp has psychological issues around wealth. He obviously feels like the underdog who has scammed the system, the “pirate” who goes for the raid and then spends his booty at the first port o´call.
His issues are classic self-esteem issues and ironically his self worth doesn’t come from who he is, it comes from his thinking around money. Or rather that he was able to get money “for nothing and chicks for free” as the Dire Straight song goes.
The problem is that he feels he doesn’t deserve it. Look at any interview…when paid a compliment he squirms and deflects it. Just like he doesn’t really believe it. How do you think he will act when paid large sums of money?
In A Vanity Fair article he even states that he was overpaid for his role in Pirates of the Caribbean. 300 million dollars, which is no small sum of money, but seeing as he basically carried the whole franchise…you be the judge whether he deserves it or not.
Little surprise then that he wants to get rid of it a quickly possible.
This is non-conscious and comes from what I call the “inner blue print“…a subconscious plan for life. The part our selves that judges others and ourselves as either worthy or unworthy of any experience in life.
This is powerful. Out of a world of possibilities it can be the factor that can make or break our future and to know what work we need to do to change that part of ourselves is where the real magic happens.
In my previous blog ¨inner blue print¨ I spoke about how hypnotherapy works to change the blueprint at the level those beliefs are created and some of the practical things you can do today to stop leaking money unconsciously.
