How to Become Wealthy with the American Dream

Is the American Dream still alive and achievable?
Defining the Dream
The immensely popular 19th-century author Horatio Alger is largely credited with defining the American Dream as well as the means to achieve it. Through him we can learn how to become wealthy. His books told the rags-to-riches stories of people who succeeded because of the opportunities they had in the Greatest Nation on earth. It didn't matter who they were. No matter how hopeless their situations seemed, his characters found wealth and success through determination and hard work-and of course, because they believed in the American Dream.
The Dream Today
We believe the American Dream is alive and well. The 21st century continues to offer incredible opportunities. Escalating wealth is mostly a matter of finding the right opportunities and having the determination and guts to follow them through.The materials and methods for accumulation of wealth have changed, but the opportunities are greater today than at any other time. One simply needs to learn about the new materials and methods!
So Many Things Have Changed:Dealing With Fear and Uncertainty
The events of September 11, 2001, permanently changed our country and its citizens. Our assumptions that we are safe in our own land faded to fear and uneasiness. Maybe you used to enjoy travel, but now airports make you nervous. Perhaps you dwell on the possibilities of another terrorist attack. We're all dogged by an unstable job market where mass layoffs and outsourcing threaten our livelihoods. The future is fraught with uncertainty about whether we're making wise investments, whether the CEO will abscond with the pension funds, and whether Social Security will be there for us. Even weather patterns are unstable, taking lives with devastating hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, heat waves, and blizzards. Fear can make you want to simply maintain the status quo and not take any chances-yet that is exactly what you must do to avoid becoming a victim of fear, because fear is the only thing that can prevent you from taking advantage of all the possibilities that are open to you. FDR's famous statement still applies: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." But think about this: All kinds of fears have always held people back from trying to improve their lives. We've used fear as a convenient excuse not to get on with the lives we'd like to live. It's so much easier to stay where we are, complaining that we'll never get ahead.The opportunity is there for the taking, but you must be prepared to leave your comfort zone, summon up your strength and determination, and set a course towards wealth accumulation. While money isn't everything, it can certainly do a lot to alleviate uncertainty and to enrich your life and the lives of those you care most about.Worrying about the future doesn't change it. Worrying about the future will not help you to become wealthy. No one has ever been able to predict what will happen, or when, or why. You only have today and the lessons you have learned from your past. You can take charge of today's reality and make it sing with tomorrow's dreams.