This is the primary reason to avoid the mainstream media. The goal is to teach you to be poor. While most say they “wish they were rich” they harbor deep seeded negative beliefs about money. Call it Hocus Pocus if you wish. It is most certainly true.
Negative associations with money will make life a headache for you. You will “angle” to obtain money. You will make negative assumptions about those with money and you will make many excuses in your mind to avoid the effort to obtain it.
If you are not rich (yet) but want to be rich (a good thing) you will likely see yourself in a few of these negative beliefs. Lets toss them out the door. In order to obtain money, you must associate zero pain with the process. As usual, lets get started…
1) You Have to Work Too Hard: This is the primary excuse for the masses. The acquisition of wealth requires too much work. They believe this because they trade their time for money.
Make no mistake… you will work extremely hard. But. If you choose the right path, you’re going to find leverage. You will slowly gain momentum every single time you learn a new way to generate income and eventually you will believe that you deserve to be rich. Your income will rise.
By continuously chasing event driven income your hard work will become much more efficient. The time it took to generate say $1,000 in revenue will now take half as long… Slowly but surely you will generate $5,000 in revenue in the same time it used to take you to generate $1,000! If you keep working at it, the ball keeps rolling. Just remember, hard work is not to be vilified. If you know that you are doing the right things to improve, how can it possibly be “hard work”? It can’t.
2) You’re Taught That Rich People Are Greedy: You know the drill. Practically every single movie and TV show vilifies the rich. You learn this by watching old shows such as the Simpsons (Mr. Burns) to watching recent movies such as Horrible Bosses 2 (Greedy business man values $5M over his own son). Of course this is all a hoax. But it doesn’t stop there.
You learn this same idea in college! You see many charts and graphs that describe how the “1% generate $x more than average workers”. You learn that the 1% control X% of the total wealth. You learn that the minimum wage has been flat-lined on an inflation adjusted basis. You learn many fun facts built to… vilify money.
Unlearn these beliefs. The truth of the matter is that the amount of wealth one has is practically 100% related to the number of lives that have benefited from his or her products. Lets ignore the trust fund babies as the exceptions. If you look at Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and anyone else in the top 100 rich list you’ll find a material correlation between charity work and net worth. You will also find an extremely high correlation between how many men/women use their products (from the companies they own) and their net worth. What a coincidence? We think not.
Instead you should believe “greed” is good. Not in the way most think. Greed should be applied to your relationships. You should be greedy when it comes to meeting new elite people. Is it a coincidence that every single person reading this post would happily fly across the country to have dinner with Bill Gates? Of course not. You will become rich by being greedy with your contact list. The more people you help (that are not angling to burn you later), will send you even more money in the future. Assuming you’re not angling to burn them? You’ll be sending them more contacts (money) as well.
Rewire your brain and realize rich people are not angling to take from you. They are angling to find a way to help you. This way you’re a customer for life. Both parties can win.
3) The Negative Stigma of Being Rich: This is another funny one that the media tries to teach you. If you become rich you’re going to lose friends! So don’t become rich or else you will lose all of your close friends! Non-sense.
For anyone who has made money, they know that they can find out who their friends are based on their own success. If a reader writes in and says he made $10K, $10M, or $100M there is going to be nothing but applause on this side of the internet. This is rare. Most people will become jealous and you may lose a “friend”.
The term friend is in quotes for a reason. What type of “friend” is going to be unhappy when you succeed? That’s right no friend at all.
When the media gives you examples of people who became rich and lost friends they are trying to ingrain a negative association with money in your brain. Don’t let them! When your friends say that “you changed” when you made money, you’ll know exactly what to do. Throw two fingers in the air and delete them from your contact list. If they cheer for you and offer you a drink, you know that they are very good friends of yours indeed.
Finally? You’ll be shocked at who is happy for you and who flips the script on you.
4) You Have to Pay More Taxes: This is just a ridiculous one. Many people believe they should not work harder because they are going to have to pay a higher marginal tax rate. As usual this is just another excuse and a weak one at that. If you make $200K and are taxed at 30%, but then make $400K and are taxed at 35%… You still made a lot more money right? Right.
If the example above isn’t good enough, we have a clear answer for you. Start a Company. You can write off the vast majority of your expense line items.
5) You Have to Take Advantage of People: Since the media portrays the rich as evil people who angle to squeeze money out of everyone, most assume that this is the way to get rich! The only way to get rich is by cheating people out of their money and finding a way to sell snake oil. This is completely and utterly false!
For anyone who has worked in sales or started a company you know that the number one thing you need to believe in… is… the product! If you wouldn’t even use the product yourself it becomes significantly harder to sell it. In fact, if you don’t like the product yourself then you shouldn’t sell it at all!!! What is the point in selling a product you wouldn’t use yourself?! All you are saying is that the product isn’t good enough for you. If it isn’t good enough for you it shouldn’t be good enough for your customer because the customer won’t come back.
So there you have it, another belief destroyed. If you are taking advantage of people, you’re going to lose a recurring customer. This is a terrible idea. Instead sell a product you would use yourself. This will increase the chances of the customer returning and also increase the chances of the customer buying another product! As they say, the vast majority of your income will come from your current client base.
Now do you see why the rich get richer?
6) You Won’t Have A Life Outside of Work: There is no non-sense advice here. The effort required to earn money is significantly higher than any other activity. However. Having no life is a myth once you get rolling.
After years of hard work, it could take a year it could take 10+, you will eventually hit your stride. When you do… your work becomes part of your life. This is an enormous and unexamined positive of becoming rich. Forget about what money can buy you and think about how free you become! This is a foreign concept to most but is certainly true. If you can earn money doing something you enjoy… what exactly is your life and what exactly is work? You’re already doing what you want to do.
7) It is Against Your Religion: Here is a touchy subject. People assume that in order to become rich you must become part of the 7 deadly sins which goes against your faith. We are not here to discuss religion, however we can certainly offer a solution to this negative belief. By proving that you can be both rich and spiritual/religious.
If you sell a product, generate revenue and grow a company that helps people… None of the deadly sins are triggered.
– You can avoid lust by getting married (we disagree on getting married, but to each his own)
– You can avoid gluttony by staying in shape which is unrelated to revenue generation
– You can avoid greed by building a business/career that helps people
– You will factually avoid laziness assuming you are not a trust fund baby
– You won’t suffer from wrath or anger since your finances will make you stable on an emotional basis
– Envy will be avoided, instead you will cheer when others make it financially
– Pride will be taken down immediately, for anyone with a lot of experience you know that there is always always always someone doing better than you
So there you have it, you may become rich without triggering any guilt associated with your religious beliefs.
8) Strangers Will Judge You: This is true. Strangers will judge you. Strangers will also judge you by your physical attractiveness. They will judge you by what you wear, how you speak, how you walk, how you smell and the color of your clothing. How is this any different? Ask yourself if you would rather be rich or poor and then ask yourself… How are they going to know?!
So long as you avoid becoming famous, how exactly are people going to know how how much you are worth? They won’t. This myth is already debunked.
In addition, even if you’re the type who likes flashier items (cars, watches, etc.). Then you probably want to be surrounded by people who also enjoy the same tastes as you. It’s a filtering process in itself.
9) You Will Die Alone: This one is beyond laughable. Look at any of the Forbes rich lists and see if they have families. The majority of them do. If rich people have families how exactly are they going to “die alone”? It doesn’t add up.
No where are we saying that you need to have a family to become rich, instead we are pointing out the flaws in what you are being taught. Secondly, if you look at the reasons for divorce in the USA (surprise, surprise) finances are a major reason for the split! If there is any lean in the argument… it is that making you rich will make it less likely that you die alone. You’ll be a high valued person that other people will want to keep around.
10) You Will Get Bored: The final frontier. There is an assumption that you will get bored once you make all this money! Again this is false. The only people who are bored when they become rich are boring people. In addition, if you build all of the necessary skills to become rich how exactly are you going to be bored?! You’re going to be learning, growing and meeting new people constantly! If you are afraid of becoming rich due to boredom… here is a quick list of things you can do:
– Buy your dream car (or any dream item for that matter)
– Start a boys and girls club for children in need of resources
– Start a charity
– Start your own school
– Travel the world and learn multiple languages
– Learn to dance, sing, play a musical instrument or become proficient in a new sport (you have all the time in the world!)
As you can see, the list will be as long as your imagination.
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Now what is stopping you from becoming rich?
Do you see yourself in any of these negative beliefs?
Get rid of them. The media is psychologically stunting your growth. You’re being taught a lie.