Undoubtedly, youve come across these wealth-building expressions:

Nobody ever got rich working for a living.

Nobody ever got rich working for somebody else.

Id rather work smarter than harder!

If you were to build these notions into book titles, you just might come up with a monster best-seller like THINK & GROW RICH or THE LAZY MANS WAY TO RICHES.

But are these notions true? Is striking out on your own the best way to get rich or to strike out?

Look at the career of Mr. Eisner, Chairman of The Walt Disney Company. Years ago, he cut a deal for some hefty stock options instead of a large, set salary.

And by doing so, one year, he earned over $40 million, which even after taxes, qualified him as rich.

He worked for a living, and worked for somebody else, too, but that didnt stop him from amassing wealth.

Lots of other CEOs are also members of the working rich.

I dont know where hacks get the idea that you can just dream your way to success; that lofty goals and self-affirmations will, by themselves, take you from rags to riches.

There is a beautiful film that you can check out on video, Local Hero, about a corporate climber who is sent to Scotland to negotiate oil development rights. He encounters a beachcomber who lives in a shack so small that to enter, you have to climb through a window.

This gent, Mr. Knox, actually OWNS the stretch of beach on which his shack sets, and that beach is worth a ton to the interested oil company.

But Mr. Knox doesnt want to sell because, as he puts it, This beach is my living; I work it. Everyone has to work!

Technically, hes rich, and if hell just say yes to the oil man's offer, he wont have to work. He can be idle.

But Knox's wealth isnt the value of his beach, but is found in his attitude, that work is good, proper, and really inescapable.

So, if you want an affirmation, perhaps you should choose this one:

The harder I work, the luckier I get.

In the meantime, don't be surprised if the next book I write is titled: WORK & GROW RICH!