How Come I’m Not Rich Yet?

I mean, I follow all of the advice.
· I wake up early like Tim Cook, especially through the week when The Rolling Stones’ “Start Me Up” goes off at exactly 4:03 am. Why 4:03 am you ask? I like odd numbers and 3 is my favorite number, so that’s why it ends in 3 and getting up at 4:03 allows me to engage in my other “billionaire habits” before I start my day job at 7:00 am. The other two “billionaire habits” I do before work are…
· Meditate; the holy grail habit of “icons.” Everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Arnold Schwarzenegger to the Dalai Lama himself (big hitter, the Lama, long) touts the benefits of mediation. If it’s good enough for them, it’ll work for me as well, right? That’s the thinking, which is why I spend 13 (odd numbers ending in 3) minutes each morning meditating each morning. Which brings me to “billionaire habit” number 3 that I do before work, which is my favorite of them all…
· Work Out- Richard Branson wakes up at 5 a.m. to work out, but The Rock wakes up at 4 am. Since these two dudes are super successful and just scream “manly men,” it seems practical to do what they do, right? Either that or the fact that I have 4 kids and the only time I have to work out is if I get up early enough to do it before work when they are still asleep. Nope, it’s definitely because of Branson and the Brahma Bull! Either way, it’s working.

· I don’t just stop there either. Even after I’ve managed to get to work, I still engage in other “billionaire habits,” such as my gratitude journal, where I write down 3 things I’m grateful for each day. They can be quite complex such as “I’m glad my wife saved my daughter from drowning” to something as simple as “I’m glad the elevator I took from the 2nd floor to the 1st floor delivered me to my destination safely.” I really like this particular habit.
· And finally, like most billionaires, I’m also an avid reader, mostly of books on business or ways to improve myself. I’ve read all of the classics, such as “Think and Grow Rich,” “Man’s Search for Meaning,” “The 4 Hour Work Week,” “The Lean Start-Up,” “Zero to One” and “The Hard Thing About Hard Things.” (I couldn’t make it all the way through “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” so I surmise that I’m not a highly effective person). I always have a physical book I’m reading plus a book on my Kindle IPhone app so I’m never without reading material. Of all the things that technology has gifted us, the most overlooked aspect is that we are never without reading material when we now find ourselves inside a strange bathroom. This cannot be overstated.
These are habits that I do every day and apparently they work for the Richard Branson’s, Mark Zuckerberg’s, and Oprah Winfrey’s of the world, so how is it that I’m not a billionaire yet?
Well, maybe, just maybe, it doesn’t really have anything to do with any of these habits, in and of themselves.
Maybe I don’t have to wake up early to be successful.
Maybe I don’t have to be an avid reader, like Michael Jordan, to be successful either.[1]
Maybe I don’t have to express gratitude either.
I know there are plenty of successful people who don’t work out, like these celebrities, or Chris Christie (is he considered successful?).
Maybe I don’t even have to meditate. It’s clearly not for everyone, especially this guy!
Maybe, just maybe, these habits don’t really matter. Maybe it’s not even about working hard either. I mean, I could work harder than any person who has ever lived at the game of basketball and still not be better than LeBron James or Kevin Durant. I could practice rapping from now until the day I die and still wouldn’t be in the same league as Jay-Z or Eminem. I could sing my passionate heart out until I’m blue in the face (and I have) and I will never sound like my main man Eddie Vedder.
Maybe it’s not about “finding my passion.” You know what I’m passionate about? My kids and golf and pizza and music. Whenever I read one of those articles about “what would you do if you didn’t have to work” well, I would take my kids golfing, listen to music while doing it, and then finish the day eating a pizza until I couldn’t feel feelings. I don’t think that would ever get old to me, yet I’m highly skeptical that I could turn that into a billion dollar venture. The next Uber, it is not.
So maybe, just maybe, the key to getting rich is one of the following.
· I could create a product that people want, such as a computer, an IPhone, a piece of software (Microsoft Office, Oracle), or a platform (Facebook, Uber, Etsy) that allows people to connect in some form or fashion and sell that at mass, or
· I have some service or talent that people will pay me for, such as my ability to play football, act, sing, design, write, or even teach, in a way that impacts millions of people, or finally
· I’m able to somehow buy up assets such as stocks, shares, real estate, cryptocurrency, or something new that appreciates in value over the years and I can then sell at a profit.
Those are the 3 sure fire paths to riches, of which meditation and reading alone will not help you. Now, that’s not to say that they are not beneficial, far from the contrary. In fact, I’ve noticed a remarkable improvement in my energy levels, my attitude, my outlook on life, and my ability to handle stress ever since I began these daily habits. I look better, I feel better, I think better, I act better, and I treat people better.
In short, I’ve become a better human being because of these habits. I trust that this is the reason that these habits work for those who do them, including the billionaires. It’s not that these habits will make you a billionaire, it’s that they will allow you to be the best version of you that you can be.
That has certainly been the case in my experience. They may not have led to riches, but they have led me closer to my own personal fulfillment. That’s a win in my book, regardless of what Forbes says.
[1] In this article, Phil Jackson, then coach of the Chicago Bulls, made the remark that Michael and teammate Scottie Pippen were easy to book shop for because “they don’t read. It didn’t matter what I bought them.”
