Why You Are Not Rich
How You Spend $1 Is How You Spend $1,000,000
“I want to be rich.” “I want to be famous.” “I want to have the nice cars.” “I want the mansion.” “I want the expensive clothing and accessories.” If this is you, you need to change how you look at being “rich”. You have it all wrong.
In my new book, Entrepreneursh*t, I talk about this very thing. What is the difference between the people who want to be rich and the people who actually are?
Let me give you a story I heard at an event I went to…
Three people walk into a Starbucks to order coffee. The first of the three had a poverty mindset. He asks himself ,“Do I want a $5 coffee?” Then he asks himself “How can I buy this coffee? Do I borrow the $5, or do I steal it?”
The second of the three had a middle-class mindset. He asks himself, “Do I want a $5 coffee?”. Then he asks himself “Do I have $5?” and he checks his bank account.
The third man has a millionaire mindset. He too asked himself “Do I want a $5 coffee?”. He then asks himself “Is this $5 coffee worth $50 for me?” The man with the millionaire mindset understood that his $5 could get him his luxurious coffee, or he could invest it and make $50 from it.
Rich people stay rich by living like they are broke. Broke people stay broke by living like they are rich. Money management is very similar to time management; what is tracked and measured can be improved. You can only see success if you know to use money. Money is a tool.
If anyone has ever told you “money can’t buy you happiness” they lied to you. They didn’t know what they didn’t know. If used as a tool, money can help you to build empires and change people’s lives.
“The median annual income of a luxury car owner in the United States, for example, is $99,364, while a Mercedes C-Class sedan, the carmaker’s entry-level vehicle and its most popular model, starts at around $40,000.”
It is not a smart move to buy a car that is worth half as much as you make in one year. People spend too much time trying to LOOK rich than BUILDING wealth. What is interesting is you may actually know a few millionaires, they go to your coffee spot, maybe were in the check out line with you at Wal-Mart, or live next door in your apartment building.
“Think about a brick for a second. In the hands of the right person, a brick can be used to skillfully build a home for a family. But it the wrong hands, a brick can be used to break your car window and steal your wallet. It’s all about whose hands it’s in.”
If you want to really be rich, stop worrying so much about what other people think. Make money to use it as a tool to impact nations. Do not use it to impress people. Statistically only 100 people will show up at your funeral, and of that only 10% will cry. Stop spending your time focusing on the 90% who will not cry and the people who won’t even show up, and focus on the 10% who’s lives you can change.