If you are so smart why aren’t you rich?

January 12, 2024

American novelist and philosopher Mark Twain noted one day that a person can lie with the numbers but the numbers don’t lie.

“The rich have most of the money. That’s why they are called “the rich.”

So why is this super class of people rich? Most importantly, how do they really think and act differently from the great majority of people with identical levels of education and smarts?

Having spent a lifetime working with the “super rich” I thought I’d share with you some thoughts which I believe you’ll find in a few instances surprising.

So here’s the basics:

1. An equity position is Key to get wealthy. 90% of the super-successful say this is true, versus fewer than half of the masses. More importantly, 80 percent of such people say they already have an equity stake in their work. Just 10 percent of the middle-class have an equity position of any kind, and the vast majority (70 percent) say they’re not even trying to get one.

2. Nothing to do with Passion. Conventional wisdom suggests that “if you do what you love, the money will follow.” Not the case for the “super-rich” who always look for the opportunity in business…whether they like it or not.

3. Nothing to do with Saving Money. The middle-class believes you can “cut back on little luxuries” to create wealth, even while middle-class incomes continue dropping. The “Super Rich” suggest that earning more, not saving more, leads to true wealth.

4. Nothing to do with being a First Mover but by imitating. In the beginning of the PC revolution, Seattle was the land of innovation and Kildall was its king. As the creator of the first computer operating system, he was the one IBM called when they decided to enter the PC market. Bill Gates offered IBM a paltry, second-rate product. Gates got the gig and Kildall got forgotten by history.

5. It is all in the “execution” not the idea. There is a dime a dozen ideas out there but only a few people who can execute ruthlessly and flawlessly on their ideas. Getting wealthy usually means you’ve taken an ordinary idea and executed it exceptionally well. That’s what 9 in 10 of the “super rich” believe. Most other people, though, think that wealth requires a big, new idea. Unfortunately for them, big ideas are rare and risky.

6. Know how and when to say NO if the deal is not right. The “super rich” know that bad deals, like bad marriages, can be painful–and costly. So if the deal on the table isn’t right, 71% say they have no problem cutting bait and moving on. Only about 22% of the middle-class say the same.

7. The “super rich” have, on average, more failures than members of the middle-class. But they use those failures to help them succeed on the next attempt. Just 17% of the middle-class say they learn from their failures.

Now that you know the basics….go make a killing and never turn back.

#rich #smart #middleclass #equity #success #failure #FinancialPolicyCouncil

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