Ask any five friends where money comes from, and the answers you get may be about as enlightening as a four-year-old's explanation of conception. And if you ask folks in the financial services industry, their answers are about as helpful as the fascinating paper I did on meiosis and mitosis in sophomore biology.

In other words, a lot of your information about how money enters your life is very likely incorrect or complicated past the point of usefulness.

How Money Enters Your Life

Let's look at four channels through which money might flow into your life.

Gift. Money is given to you by in keeping with the intention of another party without requiring or expecting anything from you in return.

Accident. Similar to a gift, but without the specific intent of another party.

Exchange. Money you receive in exchange for actual or expected goods or services.

Investment. Money generated as earnings from an investment.

None of those channels is especially mysterious. So why is it that some people are so successful in building wealth and some people experience chronic lack of money?

There are conventional reasons, such as being born into poverty, abjuring the material realm for the realm of spirit, and garden-variety ignorance and mismanagement.

But do those really explain anything? After all, some men and women born to poverty become extremely successful in building wealth. Mother Theresa lived simply, yet she raised millions and millions of dollars for her work. And ignorance and mismanagement are eminently curable, especially for those of you who are reading this newsletter and want to explore the "money and you" issue.

Your success in building authentic wealth is a function of the relationship between money and you and the roles you play with respect to the money that enters your life. When you relate to money in a creative, free, authentic manner, Authentic Wealth is a natural result.

You may very well have spent a lifetime in the sincere pursuit of authenticity, creativity, and freedom. Why isn't it showing up in the relationship between money and you? For the answer, let's visit The Land of Oz.

Pay Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain

Do you know the scene in the Wizard of Oz where Dorothy and friends face the Great and Terrible Oz? When a breeze disturbs the curtain concealing the all-too-human being behind the myth, the impostor cries out, "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!"

You are the man behind the curtain, in your relationship with money, orchestrating every aspect of the drama (and quite possibly terrifying yourself in the process.)

Spend some time looking at the roles you play in your financial life. Here's just one example of what you might find.

When money enters your life as a gift, how do you receive it? Are you an open, grateful, and un-conflicted recipient? Are you a partner who has made an unambiguous request? Or do you respond to gifts as if you are now a debtor or as if receiving the gift establishes you as needy or weak?

Whenever you impose on money a story of lack or injustice or hardship, you are moving away from conscious relationship and into the territory of the man behind the curtain: twisting dials and stomping on pedals to terrorize yourself.

That's why the amount you have has nothing to do with whether or not you are at peace about money. Just as the Lion's courage, the Scarecrow's brains, and the Tin man's heart were established by means of a medal, a diploma, and a ticking clock, your ability to experience and build authentic wealth is all about how you see yourself.

Just for fun: The name of the fictional salesman who was carried to Oz in a great cyclone where he was made Wizard was Oscar Zoraster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs.