The really big news today here on California’s central coast is The Boat.

It anchored Tuesday just outside the Morro Bay breakwater, because if it had nosed into the harbor, it couldn’t have turned around to get out.

This ain’t your average boat.

It’s a 390-foot-long. 62-foot-wide super yacht, with a draft of 17 feet, a steel hull, an aluminum superstructure, and decks covered in teak. It has an owner’s suite and six cabins, a crew of 37 and a staff of five, and it carries almost 25,000 gallons of water for its hot tubs, pools, and spas.

Price tag — $350 million.

Hell, it costs around 600,000 fungolas just to fuel the sucker.

You’d expect this yacht’s owner to be Ernst Stavro Blofeld. But no, it’s Russian multibillionaire Andrey Melnichenko.

Ever heard of him?

Me neither.

At the age of 38, it seems Melnichenko is No. 189 on the Forbes list of wealthiest people in the world.

And he’s made most of his fortune with Eurochem, Russia’s largest mineral-fertilizer producer.

You heard me right.

Melnichenko’s in the friggin’ fertilizer business.

Anyway, Andrey and his supermodel wife Aleksandra were in town yesterday to take a private tour of Hearst Castle. The story made headlines around here.

And Andrey’s made for some interesting conversation.

“I’ll bet he’s linked to the Russian mob.”

“I wonder how many Russian peasants he’s exploited.”

“Why does anybody need a yacht that big?”

“What’s with the trophy wife?”

I confess. If I didn’t exactly verbalize stuff like that this morning, I sure thought it for awhile.

Shame on me.

I started to fall back on my old anti-prosperity beliefs. The ones that used to constantly whisper in my ear that money is the root of evil and the more money one person has, the less somebody else has.

That’s the kinda thinking that holds you back from your goals. puts the kibosh on your creativity, and keeps you mired in a lifestyle you don’t want.

As Earl Nightingale used to say, “You become what you think about.” Think positively about money and the people who have a lot of it and you’ll more easily attract money to yourself. Think negatively and, well, you know…

Andrey Melnichenko did me a favor when he pulled into Morro Bay this week.

He kept me on my game.