Build Your Money Muscles evolved from techniques I devised to bring myself from financial dysfunction, characterized by underearning and compulsive debting, to financial comfort. During this transformation, I discovered that the only way to alter my financial condition was by going through corresponding internal changes. Consequently, I gradually altered my approach to life and refrained my concept of who I was and my place in the world. Unearthing a significant connection between emotions and money, I then developed methods for using it to improve my financial position. I began my quest because I wanted to understand why I had so much trouble functioning financially, while my two younger brothers could both manage money effectively. In 1983, one of my brothers, tired of having to rescue me financially, suggested I enroll in a Twelve-Step program. I soon discovered Debtors Anonymous (DA), where I was introduced to the concept that I was using debting as an emotional fix and that to understand the cause of my underearning and debting I had to examine the emotions behind my behaviors. The DA program worked well for me, and by 1984 I had started a wholesale, retail, and mail-order business that grossed over $325,000 in its fourth year.