Proverbs 6
Warnings Against Folly?
1 My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, if you have struck hands in pledge for another,
2 if you have been trapped by what you said, ensnared by the words of your mouth,
3 then do this, my son, to free yourself, since you have fallen into your neighbor’s hands:? Go and humble yourself;? press your plea with your neighbor!
4 Allow no sleep to your eyes, no slumber to your eyelids.
5 Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler.
This is the passage from Proverbs that the term “Gazelle Intensity” originates. The exact phrase I will actually credit to Dave Ramsey, but I think you get the point. If for some reason you don’t get the point, look at the photo above. The small antelope looking creature is the gazelle. The large hungry cat chasing him is the cheetah. The cheetah is of course the fastest mammal on the face of the earth, and can easily outrun the gazelle. But contrary to what is shown on National Geographic, the cheetah can only catch a gazelle in one of nineteen chases (slightly over 5% of the time).
If the gazelle lacks the speed to escape, how is it able to survive so many of these encounters? Intensity, it darts side to side, and keeps going well after the cheetah has tired. It is focused on its mission, survival. There is nothing more important at that moment than getting out of the grasp of the cheetah.
If you are going to really get out of debt, if I am really going to get out of debt, that focus is required. I started crawling to get out of debt on December 27th, but on February 12th I got gazelle intensity, and I have not lost it since then. That night after sitting through week one of Financial Peace University, I realized I needed gazelle intensity, and I got it. That week I went and got an evening job working as a server at Texas Roadhouse. If I own it and you will give me enough cash, it is yours; I will sell you almost anything. There is absolutely nothing more important to me right now than getting out of debt (absent the big three, which is why I am doing this). Everyone I meet knows this.
I am sometimes discouraged that others don’t share this same intensity.? Without it, I really believe that you can never totally conquer debt. You will always have a car payment, a mortgage, or a credit card that you use just for “emergencies.” These seemingly small things like a car payment or a mortgage will keep you from growing real wealth. I know everyone has a car payment, and definitely everyone has a mortgage. That is why the banks have the beautiful tall buildings in all the major cities. They win, not you.
I will never borrow money again, period. If I can’t pay cash for it then I can’t have it. It doesn’t matter what I think my status is or should be, I will humble myself, and with gazelle intensity, do everything I can to break the chains of debt, forever! There is no compromise and no middle ground. There is only freedom, and there will be no rest until that freedom arrives!
Joel,
Well, we started this a year ago. We didn’t have anything to sell except for the house but at the time there were 5 of us and 2 dogs… so we didn’t do that. But I love the program. We have paid off $14,000 in a year along with Nicci totaling her vehicle and buying her another one with cash. More importantly we have not used a charge card and we have kept a healthy emergency fund plus paid for a lot of big things with cash due to Nicci graduating this year (along with the car). I want to sell the house now that it is getting quite empty but we will have to wait and see if a good idea.
Anyway, I am happy you jumped on board with the plan. Susan and Scott inspired us to start it with their testimony of how well it worked. Dave Ramsey is a great motivator. Keep up the good work! We miss you guys!
Comment by Myra — March 20, 2006 @ 1:33 pm
Preach it! You have inspired me.
I wish I had the talent of writing like you and Amy have.
Comment by Susan — March 20, 2006 @ 5:20 pm
Thanks Susan and Myra.
Myra, if only I would have listened instead of simply heard you when you told me to read Dave Ramsey’s book. For some reason I thought you were talking about Dave Roever, and I heard him speak in person once, so I thought I didn’t need to read the book. (Dave Roever is an injured Vietnam Vet that is an awesome motivational speaker, but not the financial motivator that Dave Ramsey is.) That was about a $500,000 miscommunication. (All my fault, not yours! You tried.)
We must have made it really difficult for you to pay all that debt off since we asked you to go out to lunch with us every Sunday? Sorry about that, but that is awesome that you are debt free except the house and have moved beyond step 2!
Comment by Joel — March 20, 2006 @ 11:10 pm
[…] Overall, this is a great way to save money.? If I were not trying to get out of debt, I would give up a few.? Now that I have tried them, there are several that I will never give up, even when I am out of debt.? This one habit change is worth $1,000 per year, if you are serious.? Time to get Gazelle Intense! […]
Pingback by joelmaxwell.com » Buying Generics — May 29, 2006 @ 11:17 pm
This is definitely applicable in alot of areas in life. Thanks for renewing my attitude on alot of things Joel!
Comment by Andre — May 30, 2006 @ 9:50 pm
Joel - you obviously don’t understand the term “happy medium”. I stumbled upon your blog from a finance article on another site. Just as you can’t take on debt for everything, debt is sometimes your friend. You just have to know how to use it. It takes money (sometimes other people’s money) to make money. It’s not your debt you should be so concerned about, but rather your net worth. If your net worth is negative, as yours apparently is far into the red, then it’s a bad thing. But if you owe $500,000 and have assets worth $600,000 then the debt is not necessarily a bad thing. You’re not going to get too far ahead in life paying cash for everything, just like you won’t get ahead in life plunging yourself into insurmountable debt.
Comment by Mike — July 7, 2006 @ 12:28 am
Thanks Mike for taking time to comment.
I tried the “happy medium” thing back when my business was open. On paper I had $100,000 of net worth, and $550,000 of risk.
Debt equals risk, and if you are using debt to make money, first off the bank is making far more than you, and you bring a huge amount of risk that then causes bad or at least pressured decisions to be made at times that may not be best for a business. If there is no debt, then the risk is dramatically less.
Walgreen’s and Harley Davidson seem to do just fine using only their money with absolutely no debt in their business. It just takes patience, something that someone who will build up an insane amount of debt and then go file bankruptcy only to repeat the process obviously doesn’t have.
I appreciate your comments!
Comment by Joel — July 7, 2006 @ 1:02 am
Stumbled on your blog and wanted to give you a quick kudos for standing strong on living debt free! My wife and I were in $50,000 worth of debt after a bad business deal and 3 years later we are $6,000 away from being debt free and we pay cash for everything!! The Dave Ramsey principles have been a great foundation to base our financial decisions on and we sleep very well at night.
Blessings to you and your family!
Comment by Travis Gates — July 20, 2006 @ 4:02 pm
You are an inspiration to me and others out there.
Thank you for your example.
A Quote from the Movie “300″ , when faced with an army called the IMMORTALS.
King Leonidas runs towards them in battle saying “If they are IMMORTALS, then lets put their names to TEST”.
All these challenges that we face are like the IMMORTALS. I have been running towards and saying this to every challenge I face since I saw that movie “THEN LETS PUT THEIR NAMES TO TEST”.
INTENSITY IS EVERYTHING.
Comment by Biju Joy — August 28, 2007 @ 12:08 pm
For some random reason I decided to google Gazelle Intensity today and your blog came up. I too am Gazelle Intense. I was one of the few that actually “got it” in my FPU class. Interestingly enough, my second job is waiting tables at Texas Roadhouse, and it was such a conincidence that I had to comment. I know this post is old and I’m sure you’re walking in Financial Peace by now, but it gives me extra motivation to see those who have succeeded before me.
Comment by Amy — November 19, 2008 @ 1:59 pm