If you work just for money, you'll never make it, but if you love what you're doing and you always put the customer first, success will be yours.

—Ray Kroc

Arnold Patent wrote in his little book, Money: “The sole purpose of money is to express appreciation.”

Appreciation. Gratitude.

Simple ideas that we shouldn't reserve just for national holidays. What if appreciation wasn't just soul-nourishing? What if it was an integral tool for the Awakened Millionaire?

We must have gratitude for everything. We must appreciate the many blessings we hold dear to us, whether they be our family, our friends, our time, our passions, our communities, our homes, and our ability to feed and clothe ourselves. We know this, even if we don't practice this appreciation in our everyday lives.

Oddly enough, money has been blamed as an appreciation killer.

At times, we've struggled so hard to bring money in. But then we see it float right out through the slew of bills we must pay, the debts we owe, the mortgage, the utilities, the cost of food—it is as if money were a callous jokester toying with our happiness.

Money…a jokester?

Money…with a personality?

We, as Awakened Millionaires, know this isn't real. Yet this outpouring of money to fund our basic survival seems to be one of the greatest sources of our frustrations. But what if a twist is waiting for us to notice it?

What if the monthly bills held a secret to making even more money? “The sole purpose of money is to express appreciation.” What does that mean? That we gratefully kiss each bill we receive in the mail? That we write “Thank you!” on every check we send? We send flowers to the government for taxing us?

These are absurd notions to most, but they are a hidden tool for prosperity to the Awakened Millionaire.

When we send money to the gas company, the phone company, or the mortgage company, we are in fact expressing appreciation for what bounty we live with daily. We have a roof over our heads. Be grateful. We have a phone to keep close with our friends and family. Be grateful. We have a car to take us wherever we want to go, at any moment. Be grateful. We have a college education that transformed us. Be grateful. The sole purpose of money is to express appreciation, and every check we send off to pay a bill is an opportunity to express appreciation for what we have.

But this isn't just a glass-half-empty versus glass-half-full perspective. That doesn't even begin to touch on the power lurking in the positivity of appreciation. This is the difference between a scarcity mindset and an abundant mindset. This is the difference between the poverty mindset and the prosperity mindset. This is the difference between the victim mindset and the awakened mindset. It's only when we leave the scarcity, poverty, and victim mindsets behind that we see a startling truth.

Wrapped in these mindsets, we've been radiating out clear signals that we don't appreciate money, don't respect money, and don't understand money. Money goes elsewhere. Whether it's radiating out into the Universe or simply into our own subconscious minds, the vibration of scarcity, poverty, and victim mindsets is enough to squelch any possibility of awakening abundance.

As long as we unconsciously or consciously think money is bad, evil, or scarce, we will attract into our awareness proof of our belief. A person believes in conspiracy theories, and one day their computer has a virus that demands a ransom to be removed. A person believes no one can be trusted, and one day their employer lets them go. A person believes that money corrupts, and one day their partner steals their clients.

Gratitude and appreciation naturally wipe away these maligned vibrations within us. When we express gratitude, we open ourselves up to receive more, earn more, make more, and do more. We are telling every aspect of ourselves, and everything we encounter, that we are ready. We are ready to receive because we appreciate what we receive.

And not only that we are ready receive, but also that we are ready to give. This is key.

Receiving is just as important as giving; how else will the money come to you? Without acknowledging your self-worth, or the service you provided, money will not come to you. And when it does come, you must appreciate it for it to stay.

This is the cyclical flow of money.

Money is flowing around us all the time. There is no shortage of opportunity to tap into this flow. At any given time in the United States alone, there is over a trillion dollars flowing between us all. A trillion dollars in paper and coin, money we could put in our pocket, and we must know that it is coming to us if we remain open to it.

Do we really live in a world where money only goes to those who are clever enough to siphon off a share for themselves? Is it really only about knowing how to play the game and get ahead? Of course not. That is an antiquated way of looking at our economy.

A simple example is a restaurant we love to frequent. While there are plenty of restaurants in the neighborhood, we always end up coming back to this one. Why? Part of it is the delicious food (Italian, of course). Part of it is the price.

But it is often the intangibles that make us loyal customers, that make us want to come and offer part of our trillion-dollar share to this restaurant.

That intangible is often some form of appreciation we feel radiating out from the server or the owner. We feel appreciated walking in there. We feel it in the way they talk to us, the way they interact with us, the way they treat us like loyal customers or even friends. We sense the attention to detail. The flowers on the table, the lit candle, the little mint that comes with the check. It's all saying, thank you. The pull of this appreciation is undeniable. We come back for more.

It is a sign of a new economy that has emerged since our calamitous recessions and the struggles we've experienced as a society since the turn of the millennium. Amidst all the struggles and hardships, we see new trends in how people want to interact with businesses. We see a rise in independent businesses here in the United States. The combination of these—a shift in interaction and a rise of independent entrepreneurs—is prime groundwork for the Awakened Millionaire.

As if the struggle of the economic hardships only strengthened their resolve, these new entrepreneurs are in tune to the opportunities they see everywhere, opportunities sitting, waiting to be championed. These are the entrepreneurs who have built businesses when everyone warned them against it. These are the entrepreneurs that thrived on a conviction that self-reliance and communal engagement was the path to prosperity.

Take the bookstore. For the majority of the twentieth century, independent bookstores and libraries were the predominant form of literacy sharing. There were no megastores yet. There were no Internet giants.

But they came. Mom-and-pop stores that existed for generations were run out of business by Barnes & Noble. Barnes & Noble…the unbeatable giant. But then Amazon came along and forced many Barnes & Noble stores out of business. Admittedly, it's so much easier to just order online.

Then this new economy of self-starting, self-relying entrepreneurs began to emerge. Now, you find an independent bookshop opening up in your neighborhood. Not only that, they have a coffee shop inside as well. They make a great cappuccino.

Suddenly, it feels like a novelty to step inside and spend half an hour sipping a coffee, running your fingers down the pages of a book you've been curious about, and chatting with a stranger about it.

In an age of convenience, as we see with the Internet, we are seeing movements to bring back the real-life experience into our communities. The human touch. The warmth of reality. This is the prime economy for the Awakened Millionaire.

This is the time when opportunity, support, and resources for self-starting entrepreneurs have never been better. This is the time where we as a global community are gradually expressing and supporting a desire to connect more. Our world is ever changing, ever evolving. Change in inevitable—and the Awakened Millionaire adapts.

We cannot become fatalistic about a diminishing world with diminishing opportunity. We cannot engage a conversation about humanity losing its soul. We cannot succumb to an apocalyptic mentality about the big, evil corporations owning us for good. We must not be victims of the times or circumstances.

We must see beyond these distractions to focus in on the here and now. We must express our gratitude for what we do have, and let it guide us to the opportunities sitting right in front of us. As Awakened Millionaires, we must bring solutions to the world. We must bring opportunity to the world. To do that, we must channel our own self-reliance to seize the opportunity already waiting for us.