Building wealth is easy. It’s difficult in the sense that it takes a lot of work and dedication, but it’s easy compared to the Sisyphean task it’s usually described as. Take this post as a gift, a way for you to save hundreds of dollars on personal finance books. The 'vast' knowledge in most of them can be compressed into a few proverbs. If many of you find this post helpful, let me know and I will begin to incorporate more of the Emerald Arts here.
Before proceeding, note two things. First, saying "building wealth is easy" is a bold statement, but that’s precisely the point. Only by embodying the mentality that it’s easy, and that it can be done, can you turn it into a palpable reality. As you think, you shall become.
And second, building wealth can be tough, but in a different way than you think. Think about game, and how betas approach it. They don’t act desperate, clingy, or overprotective thinking: "let me bore the shit out of this girl till she wants to dump me." They think: "by acting desperate, I can get her to like me more." So ironically, the harder they try, the harder they fail.
To solve their girl problems, they don’t need to try harder as much as they need a paradigm shift. It’s not about changing the amount of effort they put into their relationships, it’s about changing the fundamental assumptions their relationships are built upon. Now while the latter task isn’t easy, it does make a difference. The problems most people have pertaining to money are similar.
People who are commonly infatuated with the pleasures of money are obsessed with its ability to feed their habits of consumption. As a result, they spend most of the money they earn without ever investing it. They might become entrepreneurs, taste success, but then they stagnate their progress because after they’ve hit stability, they sell out on their real dreams. Buffett’s frugal lifestyle is a prime example of someone with an obscene amount of wealth, but who doesn’t lavishly consume luxury. Wealth comes to those who either have indirectly achieved it through other ambitions (movie stars, creative geniuses) or to those who patiently build it without the impulse to waste it.
Now there are a lot of contradictions to this concept, and it’d be impossible to exhaust all of their explanations, but I will try and elaborate a bit.
So, don’t you need to be motivated in materialistic ways to make yourself want to be rich? Yes, but indirectly. Doesn’t 50 cent have 15 Lamborghini’s? Yes, but his assets far exceed his liabilities. You don’t need to forgo your desires to be materialistic, but they must be mitigated enough so that when you get your paycheck for $1,000; you’re not thinking: "Now I can buy that Movado!" You’re thinking: "I have to save this and find a way to use it to make more money".
At the point where your assets exceed your liabilities. Limit your desire to spend money you have worked for, instead, spend money you did not work for. Money you got from rent, capital gains, etc. So if you’re young and working, don’t aim for that new car, your own apartment, etc. Aim for your first piece of property, your own business, something that can generate income, not eat it through maintenance.
Ramen noodles and the same clothes everyday if you need to. Do what other people WON’T DO for a couple of years or months, and you’ll able to do what they CAN’T DO for the rest of your life.
The most common question I get from people I know personally who are struggling is: "how do you find a good idea?"
You don’t have to look for one. Take this as a rule of thumb: every person reading this has a good 5 opportunities within their reach right now. No research is needed, the opportunities are right in front of their eyes.
Now what you need to realize, is the definition of opportunity. It’s only a chance. What’s the most important trait to have to succeed in business? Persistence. How come no one can find these opportunities around them? Alas, they do. The problem is, they only stick with them for a temporary amount of time or let failure bog them down. They blame their failure on the idea itself, not their lack of persistence. For practical reasons it’s important to differentiate between good and bad ideas, but for the most part, failures can be attributed more to the lack of audacity you approach your work with.
I could write another 4 pages on the importance of motivation, but why? I’m not going to write 20 pages of selfmedicating cliché bullshit for no reason. Most of the finance gurus you buy books from do exactly that - so stop your intellectual masturbation and start working.
Your idea does not need to be unique or new. That myth has become the accepted dogma of entrepreneurship because the media only covers the 0.1% of people who made it overnight with a sensational idea. There’s no excitement in the story of the guy that built an empire by aggressively buying local delis. You don’t even need to innovate. Just find things that other people do, and do them too. It’s unethical to copy someone else’s idea? Who gives a shit? Why is Thomas Edison infinitely more famous than Nikola Tesla?
My creator (I have no parents, I was conceptualized in a lab as the perfect specimen) always used to tell me: "To be good in business, you need to be both smart and lucky". So how does one become lucky?
I can’t offer you an explanation for this. I require a blind leap of faith. Just trust me, the universe aligns itself to those who are confident, courageous, irrational, impulsive, aggressive, and megalomaniacal. Qualities like patience, practicality, and a sense of amused mastery, must be combined with these (albeit in a paradoxical mixture) to refine your raw determination and point your energies in the right direction (so you don’t end up like Enron or Napoleon).
@theshark