Speaker 1: Now here's a highlight from coast to coast am on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: And welcome back George Nori here our birthday bast program.
Speaker 2: James Paris up next. Author of more than thirty books
Speaker 2: and the editor in chief of Christianmoney dot com. He
Speaker 2: regularly appears as a financial commentator on hundreds of radio
Speaker 2: and television shows nationwide. By the age of thirty, was
Speaker 2: a multimillionaire. By forty, he went bankrupt after becoming the
Speaker 2: victim of an amvestment scheme perpetrated by his accountant. Then
Speaker 2: still is his brother. Hey James, welcome back my friend.
Speaker 3: Hey George, happy birthday pal. Great to be back with you.
Speaker 2: Thank you have you been.
Speaker 3: I'm great. I'm still playing with the big band, the
Speaker 3: eighteen piece big band, which I know you love that music.
Speaker 3: Oh yes, I'm playing with a small jazz combo. I
Speaker 3: am back into the real estate business now for about
Speaker 3: a year and still you know, writing and doing a
Speaker 3: lot of writing for medium dot com. And I'm working
Speaker 3: on another book right now.
Speaker 2: Also super And you've rebounded from the tragedy that occurred
Speaker 2: to some time ago for you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, everything has turned around. And you know the
Speaker 3: last time I was on I talked about the death
Speaker 3: of my brother, Yeah, and how I forgave him, and
Speaker 3: not just forgave him, but we reconnected because he only
Speaker 3: had a few months to live, and you know, he
Speaker 3: did pass away last year. But I feel so good
Speaker 3: that we reconnected, and I feel that it was really
Speaker 3: the right thing to do, not just you know, because
Speaker 3: of my spiritual beliefs, but I also feel that it
Speaker 3: was the right thing to do in terms of not
Speaker 3: having any regrets, you know, because you can't go back
Speaker 3: when someone has already passed on. You can't go back
Speaker 3: and do that again. You don't have that chance again.
Speaker 3: So I feel great that we reconnected and we're able
Speaker 3: to let that all be. You know, Water under the
Speaker 3: Bridge Was.
Speaker 2: It an emotional reunion for you.
Speaker 3: James, Oh, it was. We were both my brother and
Speaker 3: I were both crying. It was. It was a really
Speaker 3: unusual moment. I mean, it didn't take away what he
Speaker 3: did to me and my family, but there was a
Speaker 3: healing there that's hard to explain. And forgiveness is very tough,
Speaker 3: but you know, I've heard stories of people that are
Speaker 3: forgiven the murderers of family members, I mean things like that,
Speaker 3: and they talk about the freedom and the release that
Speaker 3: it gives you spiritually, and that absolutely happened with me
Speaker 3: with my brother.
Speaker 2: What was the big moment where you realized what the heck.
Speaker 1: He did.
Speaker 3: Right? So what happened was every year my companies, I
Speaker 3: had a broker dealer and also an investment advisor. We
Speaker 3: were licensed across the country. We had multiple offices. So George,
Speaker 3: one morning I get this very odd phone call from
Speaker 3: my outside accounting firm. So every year we had to
Speaker 3: have a very detailed, very expensive audit done that we
Speaker 3: had give to all of the states that licensed us.
Speaker 2: By the Big eight firms.
Speaker 3: At the time, it wasn't a Big eight firm, but
Speaker 3: it was something large like that. You know this, They
Speaker 3: couldn't be anybody auditing me. It had to be someone
Speaker 3: with the special licensing to audit a financial firm. So
Speaker 3: I got this phone call and the accountant said to me,
Speaker 3: the outside accountant, he said, look, there's one hundred and
Speaker 3: thirty one thousand dollars missing from the you know bank
Speaker 3: from last year, you know, trying to reconcile the accounts.
Speaker 3: And I said to him, what do you mean missing?
Speaker 3: Like it's a mistake, there's you know, maybe some accounting
Speaker 3: that's behind internally that's not showing.
Speaker 2: That I didn't make as much as I thought, or
Speaker 2: something like.
Speaker 3: That, right right, you know, with tax deductions and this
Speaker 3: and that, you never know, you know, if it's funny
Speaker 3: money or real money. And he said to me that, no, no,
Speaker 3: it is absolutely missing. And I said, well, the only
Speaker 3: two people that have acted to the money are my
Speaker 3: brother and I. And he said to me something like,
Speaker 3: we'll think about what you just said. And he was
Speaker 3: clearly implying that it was my brother, but I wasn't
Speaker 3: really getting that, so I asked him again. I said,
Speaker 3: I'm not sure what you're saying, and he said, just
Speaker 3: think about what you just said. Well, that began an
Speaker 3: unraveling of an embezzlement scheme, and we stopped counting money
Speaker 3: when it hit two million.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 3: Because back then, in order to get your accounting records,
Speaker 3: you had to go and pay for them at the
Speaker 3: bank if you had lost them, and in this case,
Speaker 3: my brother, as part of his scheme, had destroyed all
Speaker 3: of our bank records once he was uncovered, so I
Speaker 3: had to go and spend thousands of dollars at banks
Speaker 3: here in Florida. And also in Texas where we had
Speaker 3: banking to like basically do a forensic accounting to reconstruct
Speaker 3: all of our banking records. And so my lawyer said,
Speaker 3: once we got a two million, he said, no point
Speaker 3: in going any further. It's, you know, you're wiped out.
Speaker 3: We we lost the companies because basically we were required
Speaker 3: to have a certain amount of money in our business
Speaker 3: to stay in business, you know, if you're in that
Speaker 3: kind of you know, security industry. That's I lost the
Speaker 3: business and I lost all my money and lost everything.
Speaker 3: And when I tell people I lost everything, they think, oh, yeah,
Speaker 3: but you still had the you know, million dollars in
Speaker 3: a retirement account. No. No, I literally lost everything. My
Speaker 3: cars were repossessed, my house was foreclosed. We were scraping
Speaker 3: for money for groceries as a family. It was it
Speaker 3: was the worst scenario you could imagine, and it happened
Speaker 3: so fast. It was literally one day I'm being picked
Speaker 3: up in limousines at airports to be on TV shows,
Speaker 3: and then a few weeks later I'm out trying to
Speaker 3: get money to get groceries for my for my family.
Speaker 3: It was it was just surreal.
Speaker 2: Horrible, horrible, horrible horrible, and is it safe to assume
Speaker 2: that with all that money that was taken that your
Speaker 2: brother did not live high on the hard so you
Speaker 2: couldn't see it.
Speaker 3: Well, he did have a cover story, so anytime there
Speaker 3: was a major expenditure, like he had purchased you know
Speaker 3: what was clearly a very luxurious house, and I started wondering, like,
Speaker 3: how's he affording this? But he always had a story.
Speaker 3: So he had claimed to have had an inheritance from
Speaker 3: his wife's side of the family that paid for that.
Speaker 3: He had similar stories of land that he owned that
Speaker 3: got purchased by a utility company for twenty times what
Speaker 3: he paid for it, you know, stories to cover these
Speaker 3: extravagant expenses.
Speaker 2: And they were believable stories.
Speaker 3: Right, they were. Yeah, absolutely, And he was Honestly, he
Speaker 3: was a very good liar. And maybe part of it
Speaker 3: was because he was my brother. I just gave him
Speaker 3: the benefit of the doubt. Or maybe he was just
Speaker 3: a really good layer. I don't know, George, if you
Speaker 3: know any really good layers, but I've run across a
Speaker 3: few in my life that could convince me of just
Speaker 3: about anything, because they're just those kind of people. And
Speaker 3: he kept this going We think for at least a
Speaker 3: five year period he was embezzling, and we don't know
Speaker 3: exactly how much, but it was into the millions that
Speaker 3: he was taking.
Speaker 2: You were on with me in September of last year,
Speaker 2: and when you're on, I got to believe you get
Speaker 2: a lot of emails and things from our listeners.
Speaker 1: Don't you.
Speaker 3: I do. It's like nothing I've ever seen. I mean,
Speaker 3: I literally the next week I spend answering those emails
Speaker 3: and I'm still not caught up, you know, after a
Speaker 3: week because so many come in. Yeah, it's incredible.
Speaker 2: What do they want from you? What did they ask?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 3: It's it's interesting because there's a lot of different situations
Speaker 3: that people are in. They'll ask for prayer. But you know,
Speaker 3: one of the common themes that really breaks my heart
Speaker 3: is people who have lost hope. You know, as long
Speaker 3: as you have hope and faith, if you think that, hey,
Speaker 3: tomorrow is going to be better than today, the situation
Speaker 3: I'm in is going to pass and I'm going to
Speaker 3: you know, get into a better situation in the future.
Speaker 3: As long as you have that hope, you can get
Speaker 3: out of bed, you can move forward. But the people
Speaker 3: that contact me through the website with the emails. These
Speaker 3: are mostly people that have lost hope and it's heartbreaking
Speaker 3: and I feel so humbled that they're reaching out to
Speaker 3: me for that hope. And that's when I turn them
Speaker 3: to prayer. And what I learned in my book, which
Speaker 3: is that I'm not the guy that has the answers.
Speaker 3: It's God that has the answers. And I just have
Speaker 3: this belief that I developed through what I experienced that
Speaker 3: if people would simply take the time to pray and listen,
Speaker 3: that God will give them a plan that will give
Speaker 3: them hope. And with hope you can move forward. Without hope,
Speaker 3: you can't get out of bed in the morning. And
Speaker 3: I would say that is the main theme of these
Speaker 3: emails that come in. Everybody's got different stories and circumstances,
Speaker 3: but when you've lost hope for the future, that is
Speaker 3: the darkest point to be in in life.
Speaker 2: Tell me your thoughts about prayer, James, What do you
Speaker 2: think it is and why do you think it works?
Speaker 3: Right? So I learned a very valuable lesson. I grew
Speaker 3: up as a spiritual person. We used to pray before
Speaker 3: we ate, you know, traditional things like that, and you
Speaker 3: know we learned in church, you know, about praying and
Speaker 3: asking God to help us, those kinds of things. But
Speaker 3: I always thought of it like I'm broadcasting something out
Speaker 3: to God. I'm you know, saying words, I'm asking for something.
Speaker 3: But I really learned when I went through all of this,
Speaker 3: when I got to the point that I planned out
Speaker 3: my own suicide on three occasions. I got to that
Speaker 3: low of a point that I started. I would go
Speaker 3: out to parks and sit on a park bench. I
Speaker 3: would go to the beach and sit and I would
Speaker 3: not I started listening, and I started bringing a yellowpad
Speaker 3: with me, and I was filling up pages and pages
Speaker 3: of this yellow pad with information that I knew was
Speaker 3: coming from somewhere else, because these were ideas that I
Speaker 3: did not have myself, that were coming from somewhere. And
Speaker 3: this is where my journey of listening to God began.
Speaker 3: And one of those times, I was sitting on a
Speaker 3: park bench. And I ride by that bench every day
Speaker 3: on my bicycle when I ride eighteen miles every morning.
Speaker 3: That's the bench I was sitting on. I always see it.
Speaker 3: That's the bench where I was sitting. And God said,
Speaker 3: write a letter to George Norri about your book on prayer,
Speaker 3: and I didn't know you, and I'm sure you get
Speaker 3: lots of letters and books and things like that. And
Speaker 3: I wrote the letter and it was just a matter
Speaker 3: of days that I heard from Tommy and I was
Speaker 3: on my first appearance. I don't know how many years
Speaker 3: ago that was. But you know, I never would have
Speaker 3: thought to do that because I just you know, I
Speaker 3: was a listener, but I just didn't know if this
Speaker 3: topic would really fit in the show. And that was
Speaker 3: just something that God put on my heart. And I
Speaker 3: could tell you dozens and dozens of stories like that
Speaker 3: where in those times of sitting sometimes for an hour,
Speaker 3: sometimes for two hours, that God would communicate this information
Speaker 3: to me and it was absolutely life changing.
Speaker 2: And now you're celebrating my birthday with us.
Speaker 3: I am absolutely fantastic.
Speaker 2: When we talk about prayer, some people want to question,
Speaker 2: so you're praying for money, what are you praying for?
Speaker 2: How do you answer that?
Speaker 3: Right? So in my book, I talk about this idea
Speaker 3: of the bag of money prayer, which is probably the
Speaker 3: most common way if someone's having a financial problem, they'll
Speaker 3: pray for the money. So my rent is do Friday,
Speaker 3: I need one thousand dollars, or my utility bill is
Speaker 3: due in a week, I need three hundred dollars, so
Speaker 3: they're looking for that money. And there's nothing wrong with
Speaker 3: that prayer. But I also think a better prayer is
Speaker 3: to ask God for wisdom and for his plan to
Speaker 3: put you in a situation where you're able to be
Speaker 3: self sufficient and make those bills, you know, going forward,
Speaker 3: without being in those crisis situations. And so what it
Speaker 3: really comes down to in my own case was I
Speaker 3: had this plan that I was praying for God for
Speaker 3: God to give me everything back that I lost. But
Speaker 3: God had a better plan for me, and I went
Speaker 3: into different kinds of businesses. I became more of a solopreneur,
Speaker 3: smaller operation that I could keep greater control over. I
Speaker 3: had more peace in my life, spending more time writing,
Speaker 3: doing speaking engagements, and not in that financial world in
Speaker 3: that way. And so one of the mistakes is we
Speaker 3: don't pray for wisdom, because wisdom is something that if
Speaker 3: God gives you wisdom, it's something for the future too.
Speaker 3: It's not just a solution on Friday for the money
Speaker 3: you need, and also praying for his plan. And I
Speaker 3: can't tell you how many times I have thought that
Speaker 3: I was so glad certain prayers were not answered because
Speaker 3: what we want is not always what's best for us.
Speaker 3: And I believe if we pray in a way where
Speaker 3: we say, God, this is what I think I want,
Speaker 3: but I'm open to your better plan, if you have
Speaker 3: something better in mind for me, as we call it
Speaker 3: God's will for us. And being willing to accept that
Speaker 3: alternative plan is part of prayer. Being open to something
Speaker 3: different might mean changing jobs, might mean moving you know
Speaker 3: these are there are opportunities out there, maybe to go
Speaker 3: back to school and get retrained in a different field.
Speaker 3: You've got to be open to what God might lead
Speaker 3: you to do and not be just limiting him to
Speaker 3: your plan. And that's what I did for years. I
Speaker 3: got stuck in this idea of I want the financial
Speaker 3: business back, but God gave me something better.
Speaker 2: In your book How to Pray for a Financial Miracle,
Speaker 2: you discuss the power of group prayer. Tell me your
Speaker 2: thoughts on that.
Speaker 3: Right. So in the Bible, in the Book of Matthew,
Speaker 3: it talks about the idea of where two are three
Speaker 3: are gathered together. I am in their midst and I
Speaker 3: believe that God is calling us to gather together to pray,
Speaker 3: and this is something that is sort of a mystery.
Speaker 3: I've asked a lot of spiritual leaders about this idea
Speaker 3: of group prayer, and they all conceide that in every case,
Speaker 3: group prayer seems much more effective than individual prayer. Someday
Speaker 3: that's something I want to ask God, you know why
Speaker 3: that is. It doesn't mean we shouldn't pray individually, but
Speaker 3: I think there's something powerful that happens when groups of
Speaker 3: people get together and pray. And it's something I think
Speaker 3: maybe sometimes you don't want to give the details to
Speaker 3: a friend to pray for you. Maybe it's something personal.
Speaker 3: You could just say it's private and it's personal, but
Speaker 3: I need your prayer right now. I just believe, just
Speaker 3: like what you do on the show, when groups of
Speaker 3: people get together and pray, it seems to be more
Speaker 3: effective than an individual prayer. And I don't really know why,
Speaker 3: but it absolutely seems to be the case.
Speaker 2: Interesting take on that, then the one is worth more
Speaker 2: than the many, or the many is worth more than
Speaker 2: the one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's an interesting concept to think about. But I
Speaker 3: think part of it too is I think when you're
Speaker 3: asking others for prayer, they might also be the answer
Speaker 3: to your prayer, which is kind of interesting because sometimes
Speaker 3: if you're telling someone, hey, i'm praying for groceries for
Speaker 3: my family, maybe that person is going to go buy
Speaker 3: the groceries and bring them to you. So I think
Speaker 3: part of it is sharing with others your needs and
Speaker 3: not being prideful and keeping that private. That's something I
Speaker 3: struggle with as well. Understanding that there's a blessing to
Speaker 3: people that give, and I call it the givers glow.
Speaker 3: And you'll see it happen. You'll be walking down the
Speaker 3: street and you'll see someone that bought a meal for
Speaker 3: a homeless person and they'll give that to the homeless person,
Speaker 3: and you'll see that gratefulness of the homeless person. But
Speaker 3: then as that person walks away, you can see that
Speaker 3: blessing in that person that they received by helping that person.
Speaker 3: I call it the giver's glow, and it's a blessing.
Speaker 3: I think that's greater to the person that's giving the
Speaker 3: charity than even the person and receiving it.
Speaker 2: You're absolutely right, and I've got to tell you, James,
Speaker 2: I cannot walk past a homeless person without helping them.
Speaker 2: It doesn't have to be a lot, but I just
Speaker 2: can't walk past them. Many times I've said, let me
Speaker 2: do my shopping and i'll get you when I come out,
Speaker 2: and they're still there waiting and I deliver. You know,
Speaker 2: I'm not lying to them, and they're very happy and grateful.
Speaker 2: But I got to tell you, it's weird, and I
Speaker 2: don't do it for karma purposes. What goes around comes around,
Speaker 2: which we're going to be talking about this week on
Speaker 2: the show. But for some reason, the more I help people,
Speaker 2: the more something wonderful happens to me. It's hard to explain,
Speaker 2: but it's magical. I mean, there was one silly time
Speaker 2: I gave a homeless guy twenty dollars, okay, twenty dollars.
Speaker 2: I went to my post office box I had a
Speaker 2: unexpected check from my insurance company for one thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: How does that happen?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's amazing, and I have to tell you
Speaker 3: it happens to me as well. And some people would
Speaker 3: say karma. Some people would say it's the universe. I
Speaker 3: think there's a blessing. I think God blesses people that
Speaker 3: are givers that are helping other people. I just think
Speaker 3: it is kind of one of the rules of how
Speaker 3: we're wired up in this existence that we're living in.
Speaker 3: That you know that we give to others and we
Speaker 3: also are blessed. And even if the blessing was George,
Speaker 3: that you didn't get that thousand dollars check.
Speaker 2: Just I didn't expect that. I didn't give the twenty
Speaker 2: with the understanding that something wonderful is going to happen
Speaker 2: to it. But it just happens.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's it's it's absolutely incredible.
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