You Can’t Prescribe a Millionaire Mindset
Western vs Eastern medicine proves the point
Financial Independence. We all want it. We all think about it. We come up with great ideas on how to do it. We share with each other great stories about the newest millionaire or a famous billionaire and what they did or said.
Ever since I registered on Medium, articles about how to make money online or through blogging dominate my home screen. Like anyone else, if someone says there’s a clear path to becoming better off, then why not listen to them? I want to be a millionaire too.
And I’m sure all of those stories are true. I’m sure all of them work. But that’s not the issue.
Just like how Western medicine is, all of these articles and techniques about achieving financial independence are very prescriptive. They focus on fixing a problem, correcting something that is wrong, or telling you how to follow a 5 or 7 step formula.
Prescription medicine is great, and if you follow the directions, you will see results. But as those annoying commercials tell us on TV, medicine doesn’t work for everyone, and there can be some pretty bad side effects for a decent amount of people.
The other important point is, these medicines don’t fix the underlying problem. Many of them reduce side effects of our illness. Maybe it reduces our fever or clears congestion. But the medicine doesn’t actually help to get rid of your cold. Maybe the antibiotic helps to clear your body of an infection that started from a cut. If you don’t change your habits and take proper care of scrapes and scratches though, you’ll most likely get an infection again.
I see a very close similarity with this and the how-to-make-money guides. People are gobbling up the 5 step formulas that when applied make us feel better, like we are now doing the right thing. That formula though is only covering up your symptoms. Maybe there’s a “cure” that a billionaire shares; I’ve heard the “wealth takes a long time to accumulate, think long-term” countless times.
And of course, it’s good advice, it’s a cure. It will be the antibiotic for your financial bacteria. But then, as you go on with your life, maybe three or six months later you’d have forgotten about it, and are excited by the newest piece of advice that you got from an ever new article you just read. And history repeats itself.
So what distinguishes the people who succeed financially from those who don’t?
Well in order to start the journey of a million dollars, you first have to want to seriously become a millionaire. This is what I like to think of the “Millionaire Mindset”. And when we seriously consider something, that means we start thinking about that topic. A lot.
Most of us have no trouble ending up in the rank of Thinkers. That’s us reading Medium articles, reading Elon Musk or Warren Buffet quotes, and throwing business ideas around with friends.
I would still consider you a thinker if you are writing stories in your journal or creating spreadsheets with potential income and revenues.
It’s not until you actually go out into the world and test the waters, with a serious mindset, that you start the transition from a medication-ridden Thinker to a confident, financially independent Do-er.
That’s the stage most people reading this are in. So how do you complete the transition?
Well, you need to internalize the fact that you are capable of doing what you have started doing. This is different from telling yourself that you can accomplish your goal. This isn’t the same as learning how to “master” a technique. For 99% of people, these ways of thinking won’t stick.
The real problem comes from thinking that you, as a human being, are capable of reaching a certain goal. But you need to find a way to understand that the goal is a part of your being.
In the same way we compared articles on financial independence to Western medicine, it can help to think of this internalizing approach as Eastern medicine. As we said above, while Western medicine is prescriptive and focuses on fixing, Eastern medicine focuses on providing your body the tools to fix itself.
An easily relatable example is when you have headaches or pain in a limb, you may go for a trial of acupuncture. Those needles don’t actually cure your headache, they’re not injecting ibuprofen into your body. After several trips, you may feel the pain you originally felt is starting to bother you less. Your doctor may also “prescribe” you to change your daily habits. Exercise more, fix your posture, or don’t eat oily food until you feel better.
Eastern medicine generally provides long-term assistance to your body, rather than directly killing, removing, or attacking an ailment, or covering up pain. In the same you, you need to help yourself become part of your goal.
Now this is very philosophical and spiritual and hard to comprehend — but hey, if everyone could comprehend it, then there’d be no demand for financial independence blogs and quotes.
That’s why we’ll continue to see more “get rich” stories.
One way to think of financial independence, or the Millionaire Mindset, is as an identity. Whatever method you take to reach your financial goal, there has to be some active role that you are assuming. For example, if you are striving for your goal by saving up with your day job as a programmer, then instead of telling yourself “I want to achieve financial independence”, you should tell yourself “I am a great, growing, programmer”.
Achieving financial independence is just a wish. It may happen, it may not. There’s an objective, but there’s no path. Your conscience cannot make a mental roadmap, which means that your financial independence will be driven by forces that you don’t control.
On the other hand, if you tell yourself you are a great programmer, and that you are growing, then first of all, this is not a wish. This is internalization. You are subconsciously convincing yourself that you are good at what you do. That will give you confidence. You are also telling yourself you are growing, which means that you now know what path to take to achieve your goal. You can invest more time and energy into being a great programmer. Now you have a concrete way of achieving your original wish of becoming financially independent.
Many people may hate their day job, or find that it’s not enough, and end up writing on Medium (I happen to enjoy my job) or taking on other gigs. That’s fine — and in that case you should internalize that. Tell yourself that you are a great writer. You are a great freelancer. You are a great consultant etc…
The point is, wishing to be financially independent is not enough. Inspiration from others’ stories is not enough. Experimentation with prescriptions is not enough. You have to internalize your new self.
I’m not a millionaire, nor financially independent. But I have changed my life significantly to meet my own personal objectives. I believe the “Millionaire Mindset” doesn’t mean you have to have a million dollars. You just have to be satisfied with your standing a million times over. Though nurturing a new mindset can be extremely tough, once you know how to become your goal, then how materially big or small that goal is should not matter.
Just tap into the spiritual side of life.
