Lack of money is the root of all evil.

—George Bernard Shaw

Passion, purpose, and mission are the powerful forces of the Awakened Millionaire.

Most of us have no awareness of how deep our reservoir of passion truly is, and most of us have no understanding of what we can do with our passion.

Passion is a creative force. It can be harnessed and channeled in endless ways. It is the power behind every action the Awakened Millionaire takes, because it provides the direction, the focus, the purpose, and ultimately the mission for what we create in this world, what impact we have.

Ask anybody with a mission what they absolutely need to make their vision become reality, and they will all tell you the same thing.

1. A woman sets out to write a collection of short stories.
2. A man sets out to create new opportunities for affordable housing.
3. A woman sets out to build a girls' school in Afghanistan.
4. A man sets out to breed a rare type of orchid.

What do they all need to make their mission happen?

They need money. They need money for all the things they will need. They need money for supplies. They need money for offices. They need money for the infrastructure. They need money for promotion. They need money for building. They need money for employees. They need money, as a builder needs a brick, to bring their mission to fruition. Without it they can't, and they need money to live.

In reality, they need creativity, not money. They just think they need money. Since most people do, let's continue that thought.

Embarking on a mission is an investment of your time, your energy, your whole self. Many people begin a mission while they work a day job, or make money in a way that has nothing to do with their mission, but this is difficult to manage.

Many of us struggle with the idea that we don't deserve to be paid for doing what we love. This is a fantasy. Another falsehood planted in our minds.

We all deserve to be paid for doing what we love. We all deserve to be paid for bringing something positive into the world. After all, you have bills to pay; so do I. You should rightly charge for your work, so you can pay your needs. I should charge for mine, so I can pay for my needs. It's a fair exchange of energy, being paid out of mutual respect—and it's a lot easier than trading goats for shoes.

You'll notice a lot of mental confusion here, too. On one level, when you are struggling, all you think about is the desire for money. But when you finally have money, you worry about what others think, do you have too much, and are you corrupted.

Few recognize the tug of war in their mind: money is sought when they don't have it because they need it; money is shunned when they do have it because it triggers thoughts of it being evil. No wonder so many lottery winners end up broke after a short time. Their unconscious negative beliefs about money won out.

As Awakened Millionaires, we know better.

And here, in this light, we see money's true nature. It's simply a mirror. It reflects what you believe. In and of itself, money is meaningless—we project meaning onto money.

If we shift our relationship with money, transform our understanding of money, see money's true nature, dissolve our fears and hard feelings about money…then suddenly we can pick it up, hold it in our hands, and understand the simple truth: Money is neutral…until we give it meaning.

Money is a vessel to direct, elevate, and bring to fruition our mission, but we must dive deeper. It's one thing to reframe money in our conscious minds. We may taste the excitement of reimagining the possibilities when we wield the spiritual power of money. We may imagine the myriad ways we can fill this empty vessel with our own intentions. We may embrace this new relationship with money as we ascend towards a greater awakening, but that's only the beginning.