Interview with Prosperity Guru Randy Gage

*The following article is as it appeared in the HealthyWealthynWise October 2003 issue.

For more than 15 years, Randy Gage has been helping people transform self-limiting beliefs into self-fulfilling breakthroughs to achieve their dreams. Randy’s story of rising from a jail-cell, as a teen, to a self-made millionaire, has inspired millions around the world.

This compelling journey of triumph over fear, self-doubt, and addiction, uniquely qualifies him as an undisputed expert in the arena of peak performance and extraordinary human achievement. His story and the way he shares it, demonstrate the true power of the mind over outside circumstances.

Randy Gage is a modern-day explorer in the field of body-mind development and personal growth. He is the author of many best-selling albums including, Dynamic Development and Prosperity and is the director of www.BreakthroughU.com.

People from around the world interact and receive personal coaching from Randy through “Breakthrough U,” his online coaching and success program. As Dean of BreakthroughU.com, Randy provides insight into how to overcome fear, doubt and self-sabotage to reach success and achieve the highest level of human potential.

This month we have the opportunity to delve into Randy Gage the man, and discover what motivated him to unbelievable success as well as the demons he fought to get there.

Liz: Randy, Let’s get right down to “brass tacks.” If you had to pick just one person, the single biggest influence in your life, the person who has most affected the person you are today, who would it be?

Randy: I’d have to say that would have to be Ayn Rand. I base my life upon the values of reason, purpose and self-esteem. I live by the philosophy of objectivism, which she founded, so I would have to say that she indirectly has an effect on me every day of my life.

Randy: Objectivism holds that there is no greater moral goal than achieving happiness. But one cannot achieve happiness by wish or whim. Fundamentally, it requires rational respect for the facts of reality, including the facts about our human nature and needs. Happiness requires that one live by objective principles, including moral integrity and respect for the rights of others.

Liz: That makes sense. So how does a balance between health, wealth, and spirituality play a role in that, if at all?

Randy: I live a very prosperous life. And that means a combination of health, happiness, good relationships, wealth and a spiritual grounding. True prosperity encompasses all of those things. If you’re missing even one element, you don’t have true prosperity in your life.

I hear things like, “ I may not have manifested a lot of money, but I have my health and I feel prosperous no matter where I am.” Great. I’m glad that a person is happy. But I believe if you have to worry about paying the rent, wonder if you car will break down, or feel that you won’t have enough to send your kid to college—you are not experiencing true prosperity.

Developing a prosperous mind and accepting my true abundance, meant changing my mindset and how I live my life. I believe that spiritual laws govern prosperity. And these laws operate in very rational logical ways, just as the law of gravity does. I do not think that it serves God, serves you or serves anyone to live life broke and unhealthy. In fact, I think it is a deviation of Divine nature to settle for lack or limitation in any area of life.

Has my life always been this way? No. I grew up poor. I dropped out of high school. I did drugs as a teenager. I did time in jail. I even got shot at and ended up in the hospital.

For more than 30 years, my life sucked. Real bad. I was sick, unhappy, broke and miserable. Everything I touched turned to camel dung. If anyone could snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, that would have been me.

I didn’t want to be in jail at 15, but I was there as a result of the actions I took. I didn’t want to be sick, broke and stupid, but I was, because of the thoughts I gave precedence to. I didn’t want to have my business seized by the tax authorities, but that was a direct result of my actions. And I certainly did not want to get shot, but even that was a direct result of some decisions I made, and the mindset I had at the time.

I do believe that I manifested ALL those things by the thoughts of lack, limitation and unworthiness that I gave precedence to.

I was in the ultimate victim pattern for more than 30 years. And I was continually manifesting proof on a daily basis that I was an unlucky, unfortunate guy who just couldn’t catch a break. Of course that was all bull.

I was riddled with guilt, low self-esteem and feelings of unworthiness, and I kept manifesting drama to satiate my need for feeling worthy by way of being the simple, poor, but spiritual guy, who was fighting the forces of evil and oppression.

Randy: The single most important thing—more important that anything else I have ever learned was this: I came to the belief that I was responsible for everything that happened in my life, both the good, and the unspeakably horrible. Which was a very frightening thought indeed . . .

Because it meant I could not blame my dysfunctional relationships on my partners anymore, I couldn’t blame all my business failures on my sponsor, crooked partners and the economy, and I couldn’t blame my poor health and other tragedies on God, the universe, destiny and circumstance.

And while that was quite a frightening thought at first . . . it became the thought that set me free.

Because if all that was true about those bad things, then logic dictated that it must be true for the good things. Which meant I could manifest being happy, getting rich, becoming successful and attracting quality people into my life!

Liz: You said the concept was frightening at first… what part has fear played in helping you achieve your goals, or holding you back?

Randy: I think fear held me hostage for years. I thought it was a fear of failure. In actuality, it was a fear of success. I had much underlying programming, telling me I wasn’t worthy, and didn’t deserve success. So I think that fear kept me from attempting many things that I was capable of.

Like many people, I suffered from the “lack programming” foisted upon us by the data-sphere (beliefs that money is bad, rich people are evil, and it’s spiritual to be poor.) So I had this voice in my subconscious mind (that I didn’t know was there), telling me that I better stop trying to succeed, and sabotage myself right now—or I would end up as one of the mean, nasty rich people.

Randy: My system is to first become aware of the fear and acknowledge it. Then I question whether the fear has merit, or is something I’m making up. If I find it’s real, then I evaluate what the rewards are for attempting the action I’m contemplating, and what the worst-case scenario is.

Then if I see the risk is too steep for the possible reward, I forget about doing the project. Most of the time it is the opposite. I see that the reward is great, and the fear is not as justified as I may have thought. Even the worst-case scenario isn’t that bad, so I steel myself and move forward.

Liz: So what attracted you to your current vocation? How did you get started down this path?

Randy: I did a lot of training in direct selling and network marketing. I found that I could teach many people the “how to” aspects of business pretty readily, yet many weren’t able to apply it. I came to realize that they were suffering from so much self-doubt, negative and “lack’’ programming that they couldn’t apply things. I began to gravitate towards teaching more self-development stuff.

This paralleled my own work on myself. Eventually I moved completely away from the marketing material and began to focus exclusively on working with the power of the mind, overcoming limiting beliefs, and developing prosperity consciousness.

Liz: Wonderful! You know, Charlie “Tremendous” Jones said, “You are the same today as you'll be in five years except for two things, the people you meet and the books you read.”

What are some of the books that helped you in that work on yourself and developing your teachings?

Randy: Well I mentioned Ayn Rand and her books. Without a doubt, her book “Atlas Shrugged” has meant the most to me, and also her books “The Fountainhead,” and “The Virtue of Selfishness.” Two more that have shaped me deeply are “Science of Mind” by Ernest Holmes and “As a Man Thinketh” by James Allen.

It says, “Thought and character are one; and as character can only manifest and discover itself through environment and circumstance, the outer conditions of a person’s life will always be found to be harmoniously related to his inner state.”

I believe it sums up the real essence of what everyone needs to know about success.

Liz: That’s so true! I’m glad you mentioned James Allen. "As a Man Thinketh" is one of the books we give to each of our members. It is such an important work.

Randy, what do you feel has been your greatest accomplishment in life so far, and what kinds of setbacks have you dealt with along the way?

Randy: I believe the greatest thing I have done so far is writing my five book series on prosperity. I think the message they contain is so needed by so many right now. I can tell from the letters we receive that these books really are making a difference to those that read them. They just keep selling faster and faster, so I know the message is spreading.

As far as setbacks, you would need a whole book for them. I’ve been shot in a robbery, has my business seized by the IRS, I’ve overcome alcohol and drug abuse, and a number of business failures, to name a few!

Yet if I had the opportunity to live over, I wouldn’t change anything! Not a single thing. I believe that every challenge, failure and difficulty I’ve experienced contributed to making me the person I am today. Each of those challenges were stepping stones to help me develop the skills, character, and mindset that eventually brought me wonderful success. I have truly been blessed. And having those challenges along the way were an important part of that blessing.

Randy, we believe strongly in intention, to manifest outcomes. What is your most important project, and what intention would you like us here at Healthy Wealthy nWise, as well as our readers, to hold for you?

Randy: I would love it if you held the intention that we will sell millions of copies of “Prosperity Mind,” “The 7 Spiritual Laws of Prosperity,” “37 Secrets About Prosperity,” “101 Keys to Prosperity,” and “Accept Your Abundance.”

As I said, I feel these books are the most important work I have done, and I have a vision about them reaching out to the millions of people who need to overcome lack circumstances and manifest prosperity in their life.

Tell me, what are the 3 main things you know now that you wish you’d known earlier in life?

Randy: Well first would be “The connection between thought and circumstance.”

James Allen tells us that our minds are like a garden, which can be intelligently cultivated, or allowed to run wild. In either event, it will bring forth.

Just as a gardener must tend his or her plot, keeping out the weeds, you must tend the garden of your mind, weeding out the thoughts of lack, limitation and negativity. You must nurture and tend the thoughts of happiness, success and purpose.

If you practice gardening of this kind, you will soon discover that you are the master gardener of your soul. You will come to the profound revelation that you are not the victim of your circumstance — but the architect of it. Your most prevalent thoughts will shape your character, create your circumstances, and determine your ultimate destiny.

Number 2 would be that “Prosperity is our natural state.” When we are unhealthy, unhappy or poor, it is because we strayed from our path, and lost contact with our true nature.

Your natural state is health. It is only when you are out of sync, out of balance, that disease enters your body. You came into this realm as a happy person. Unhappiness is a conscious choice, requiring you to make that decision. Unhappiness is not natural, and it is not healthy.

Likewise, you were born to be rich. Struggling for existence is not noble, not natural, and not necessary. When you live your life by the universal laws of prosperity, wealth comes to you as naturally as rain waters the flowers.

And the third thing I wish I had known earlier is that, “Our mind is an instrument for poverty or prosperity.”

This is either the scariest thing you will ever hear, or the most liberating insight you will ever learn. Make it the latter, and you are well on your way to abundance. No two people ever view the same event in the same way. Where one may see a threat, the other sees opportunity. How you will react to it is determined almost entirely by your mindset. What you expect in life. Of all the tools you can use to manifest your prosperity, your mind is the most powerful.

If you could give our readers one piece of advice on how to move toward balanced abundance in their lives today, what would it be?

This is the first fundamental secret of prosperity, and one that so many people miss. They approach prosperity as a “give me” thing, and never tune into the real energy that surrounds it.

Everything in the universe is based on the principle of trading value for value. But it is an unbalanced scale. What you send out comes back to you in multiples. Usually tenfold. So when you sow seeds of good, much more good will come back to you.

This holds true for the money you tithe, the love you give, and the good you do. As hard as you may try, you can’t out give the universe.

So go out and commit random acts of kindness, sow a seed to someone in need, and be extra nice to that clerk in the checkout line. Much more prosperity is coming your way!

Liz: Great. What is the single most important piece of advice you would like to leave our readers with that we haven’t discussed yet?

Yes you may read about the occasional person who inherits great wealth or wins a bundle at the horse track. But true wealth—the kind that stays with you—comes as a result of a very deliberate process. It doesn’t happen “to” you.

You happen to it. You become a wealthy person in your mind; then you manifest it on the physical plane, by becoming the kind of person that attracts prosperity to you.

Liz: So how can someone hold himself or herself back from achieving wealth and prosperity then?

Randy: They can make excuses to validate their lack of progress. They justify living in lack.

At a dinner party a while back, a friend of mine kept saying things like, “If you saw how far I’ve come already,” and “compared to where I was a few years ago….”

Validation. Golden handcuffs. Because we are not starving in the street, we sometimes can get complacent with our circumstances. You may want more out of life, but if you are moderately comfortable with your current state, you might not be motivated enough to really dig in and attempt something bold, daring and challenging.

Now a lot of people will simply say: “So What? What’s wrong with that? If you’ve reached a certain level of success, why not take some time/smell the roses/be grateful for what you have/be satisfied with what the Lord has given you/blah, blah, blah?”

Because I believe that is a crime against nature. Your nature—your nature as a human to grow, develop and unfold into your greatest good.

There is nothing sadder and more tragic—than untapped human potential. For untapped potential—no matter what level you are at—is an acceptance of mediocrity, and a denial of your greatness.

Randy: I believe that once you discover your assignment, prosperity will discover you. Once you begin doing the work you are truly meant to do, the universe will reward you with good. This is the way universal laws work, with no exception.

When you do your assignment, you attack it with passion, zeal and dedication. And because you come with that mindset, you perform at an extraordinary level, attracting extraordinary results.

All people are subconsciously searching for their “jihad.” A cause, movement or vision that is greater than they are. When you are on your assignment, people sense this power and want to be a part of it. You attract powerful people who share their prosperity with you.

This is one of those things that the uninitiated have a hard time understanding, and especially believing. But at its ultimate level, EVERYTHING in the universe can be distilled down to an energy vibration. And energy vibrations can certainly be aware of, and respond to, other energy vibrations.

So yes, you really can attract prosperity to you, just as you can manifest a parking space, an elevator coming, or a hotel room available.

When you have a compelling dream and a strong belief in that dream, you attract partners, manifest resources, impact markets and create an entire roller coaster of reactions to your vision. So be bold, daring and imaginative, and accept what you’ve got coming to you!

Liz: Awesome Randy. Thanks so much for sharing your time and wisdom with us. Now I know you have a very busy year coming up, so can you tell our readers how to get hold of you, and what they can do to take the next step?

Randy: Well if they are ready to unlock their abundance and live the life they were born to live, they should come to the Prosperity Power Experience.

We’ll be teaching how the spiritual laws are at work in your world, and how you can utilize them to manifest wealth, happiness, better relationships, and health in your life.

*Liz Thompson is the co-founder and managing editor of HealthyWealthynWise and Mentors Press. She can be reached at healthywealthynwise.com