Yesterday, on a long drive across town, I was stuck listening to Howard Stern interview Anderson Cooper (clearly, I wasn’t driving) and before I could even roll my eyes the interview began to just fascinate me.
Listening to Howard question Anderson about money, how much he made, his future inheritance (or lack of it) and growing up as Gloria Vanderbilt’s son was one of those awesome interviews where you get a rare glimpse into a celebrity’s money mindset and the beliefs they hold around money.
Gloria Vanderbilt always told Anderson that he wasn’t getting a dime when she died, and how at the age of 10 he went out and got his first job as a model in New York for Ralph Lauren making $75 an hour and saved it all because he was worried about a financial collapse and felt that the world was coming to an end. So out of fear, this young boy was driven to make money, even though he was very well taken care of.
Fascinating stuff!
Money Mindsets are just so interesting to me, because people’s view of money and beliefs around money are created from the stories we tell ourselves.
In this interview, I could really hear Anderson Cooper’s fear around money as a teenager, and how it drove him to make his own. He said he would not be where he is today, as a driven journalist, if he was given piles of money to live a cushy life. She paid for his college, then he was on his own. He believes that because he was told that all his life. Gloria Vanderbilt made her own fortune, and works hard still to this day and she is 91 now! Clearly, Anderson has done the same.
I could hear how Howard Stern (who himself is one of the most successful people in the entertainment industry, and a reported net worth over $550 Million), was fascinated by how Anderson Cooper got nothing after college and that there was no Vanderbilt fortune waiting for him when his mother dies. You could just tell that Howard would most likely be leaving his family money when he goes just by how he was so shocked by it.
Anderson mentioned more than once or twice during the interview that the worry line on his forehead was there since he was young from chronic worrying. Proof that having lots of money doesn’t stop you from worrying. In fact, you probably worry on a greater scale. Money has that tendency to magnify characteristics like that.
The stories in our head and the thoughts we tell ourselves shape how we see the world and how the world occurs to us.
The fear ‘story’ we tell ourselves is a huge motivator of course, and here’s the million dollar question: do you really want to live your life in fear and worry, like the 10-year-old Anderson? HECK NO!
BOTTOM LINE: If you want something different for your life, change the narrative in your head. Take the story out and replace it with the thoughts that will lead you to what you are trying to create. Worrying doesn’t add one second to your life, and if you are a chronic worrier or live from a place of fear, don’t think that when you finally have enough money that will change!
