There are a lot of financial planners talking about get-rich-quick schemes, invest in this and 10x your money. But the truth is, most of it is me. Yes. It’s rare to achieve wealth overnight and it’s exactly this get-rich, quick mindset that will make you get poor quickly. I’m lucky if you can be a millionaire overnight, but not many of them can keep their wealth. I bet you didn’t know 70% of pro-NFL athletes who all of a sudden start making 10s of millions of dollars were filed for bankruptcy. It’s because they’re missing this one foundational thing that’s required to build and maintain wealth and without it will make all this very challenging. So let’s talk about what it is and how to get it so you can start tasting the sweet nectar of financial freedom.
Poor Money mindset mentality taught from a young age
One big reason that you’ll never be wealthy is that you and most people, you know, we’re all programmed to be poor from the moment that we were born, and every waking day sits. Now I don’t mean poor as living in extreme poverty. If you’re living in Singapore, you’re objectively not poor compared to the rest of the world. But I’m talking about your way of thinking, the poverty mindset where your thoughts and feelings are aligned with poverty, which makes it more challenging to attain and maintain.
Well, the poverty mindset is a fear that you will never have enough. It convinces you that your circumstances will never improve and therefore it traps you in this endless cycle. Again, it’s not necessarily that you don’t have money, but it’s rather how you perceive your financial reality. Think back to when you were a kid. How many times have you heard your parents say, we can’t, we can’t afford it? We can’t do that. We can’t do this. Sometimes it’s reasonable, but oftentimes, it’s too easy words that we default to because it makes it so you don’t have to think about the issue anymore. Because you said to yourself, there’s no alternative path.
Consequences of this poor mentality
The consequence of this is that you subconsciously submit to defeat and you also adopt this language from your parents beyond just your parental upbringing. Also think back about our education system, which is modeled off these things called schools, which were first created during the Industrial Revolution to produce compliant, literate, and timely workers who did exactly what they were told.
If you don’t believe me. We’re still using the same exact factory school model. over 200 years later, and the outcome is the same to produce the same types of people, workers straight from school who are taught to play the game of life by thinking inside the box to avoid mistakes and failures to put their heads down, join the rat race and try to climb the corporate ladder. This is the reality that many of us were programmed with this poverty mindset.
How you can break out of the Cycle
But there is a way out. Here are some actionable steps to take that will make a really big difference. How many of us can actually say that we’ve learned about personal finances? So that means that most of us learn about investing. We all know that it’s important, but is it the right time to learn our financial habits from our parents? If they weren’t good with money, then chances are you aren’t either. And this brings us back to the language that affords this.
We can’t afford that language that shuts off your mind. But here’s the trick to unlock it again. And it’s simply by adding a single word instead of saying I can’t afford it, asking how can I afford it? It’s a very subtle difference in wording, but asking that question opens up the brain and forces you to search for creative answers and opportunities.
Now the point of this wording changes to necessarily achieve the goal now or tomorrow. The point is to change your usual mental response from doubt, to belief so that you can try to think of ways to solve the problem.
I will become XXX
Now I want you to think back to when you were younger, how did you come up with your career choice or decide how you’ll earn money in the future? It was probably thinking along the lines of what is something that you can do really, really well that people will pay for now that’s generally how we all come up with our series of typical professions that our parents want us to be. If you’re good at science. You’d be good at engineering, and a good English lawyer. Society taught us to pick some skills that we’re good at and master, and then people will pay us for it.
To be clear. It’s not a wrong way of thinking. That’s generally how 90% of the world functions it’s what these factories, schools, whatever. But this way of thinking also limits us by creating a ceiling where two things live. First, since you’re the one performing the skills, you’re limited by the number of hours that you can work 24 hours a day, assuming you don’t need to sleep or eat. Second, there is a limit to how much someone will pay for your skills. If you’re a super-specialized neurosurgeon, sure you might be able to make, let’s say $3,000 an hour, but eventually, you hit a ceiling because the market won’t pay a higher price.
What you can do to increase your income
Generally, this is fine for most people, but here’s a trick to actually speed up your path to be rich. Instead of thinking inside the box. Try changing your mindset to be more innovative and entrepreneurial. Instead of thinking about what is something that you can do really well that many people will pay for start thinking, What is something that many people need, and what can you create? What value can you provide that will fulfill that need?
It’s a very nuanced difference where instead of you directly trading your individual person, your time in exchange for money, you start thinking about scalability, how can you easily create one thing that’ll provide more value to more people this next one is going to completely blow your mind because it goes against everything you’ve ever been taught. And it simply stops working hard.
Getting out of the worker’s mindset
When you work hard for the sake of working hard. You’re not necessarily accomplishing more. For the most part. You’re just doing busy work. You’re still a cog in the machine, just a busy cog. Now, it shows that you’re dedicated to your employer shirt but doesn’t really show your worth a cog does all the work that’s needed. To keep the machine running. But here’s the painful truth, you can always be replaced by another cog.
So instead of trying to be a cog that runs well be the machine itself. Work hard and break the mold of people with a poverty mindset. They always follow the rules. They join the rat race put their head down, do the required work, minimize mistakes, and hope one day they’ll be paid fairly for how hard they work, but this fair exchange rarely ever happens.
Let me ask you. Do you believe that your earnings or income is related to how hard you work? Do you really think that CEOs who are earning 351 times more than the typical worker really work 351 times harder if you want to escape this poverty mindset and achieve success?
Take Necessary Risk
Take what you want. Break the rules, and do something that makes you replaceable, in very, very valuable to your employer. If you have a brilliant business idea, make it happen. Ignore anyone that says that that’s a silly goal because chances are they’re still a cog in the machine. When you’re trying to be the machine we were born into an unfair world where we all start with different advantages and disadvantages in life.
In order for you to escape the rat race, you need to be able to stomach the risk and take the necessary hardship in order to reach true wealth.
Founder’s Story
I wasn’t raised in poverty. We were a middle-class family living in an executive apartment. But what was interesting was that my parents might think it programmed in the way that many of us fall victim to despite them coming from poverty. My parents were more concerned about the long-term, their children’s legacy over themselves. They didn’t try to impress anyone with jewelry, fancy cars, or clothes. They wear the same clothes for years, and my mom still has clothes from 20 to 30 years ago. I remember that my mom would intentionally buy me clothes that were way too big for me. Like if I was a size small, she would give me a medium because she says that I’ll grow into it.
And of course, I was embarrassed when I walked into class with my oversized clothes and I saw all my classmates with bookbags and new shoes, but as I got older, I realized what my parents did for me. They taught me a really strong foundation that prevented this specific type of programming that so many people succumb to but to be clear, my parents didn’t teach me everything I need to know about personal finance. So I had to learn it by myself.
Building my slow success
That’s why I read books, and watch videos and articles that reveal this phenomenon. I’m going to share with you that most finance influencers do not talk about society brainwashing us into thinking that becoming wealthy is only about taking action and that if you take enough risk by the next crazy hyped-up stock then you’ll be a millionaire. But that’s just wrong. Having the right mindset is equally as important as taking action.
Buddha once said that the mind is everything that you think you become. But that’s bullcrap. Yes, mindset is important, but remember, so is action. I’m not here to tell you that just because if you think about something, it’s automatically going to happen. You also need to take the appropriate steps to achieve your goal which I’ll talk more about later.
Invest in me first, then in others
Thankfully for me, I spend the time back in those days to focus on investing in myself. Though it was a hard thing to do especially since everyone was making money everywhere in the stock market(this was 2020 and 2021). I was able to create HustleVentureSG and invest in myself to create a business. While I did make over $100,000 networth at 24, I create for myself a platform where I was not dependent on the stock market.
The problem with what I see in most recent Youtube videos and article is people learning to invest. Most of these investors are simply blindly investing in stocks or crypto that people recommend within any due diligence. This is why there were so many investors affected by the Luna crash. Most people took too many shortcuts when it comes to investing, riding the hype wave without understanding the risk they took.
This is why most people should have spent their hard-earned money on self-improvement, whether it is reading books or courses. The problem with our current digital age is that it is so easy now to invest in businesses, but not really in oneself. Yes, I’m not saying investing is bad, but people need to understand that in order to make a good amount of money in the stock market, you have to first be able to invest a good lump sum of cash. Therefore, finding a way to increase your income and skill should be your number 1 priority.
The best thing you can Do
The best thing that you can do now improves your own circumstances, gain knowledge change your mindset, and pass it on to the next generation. So they can start off with a better chance now I’m not pretending like I’m perfect were cracked a secret code too well, and I’m far from it. But remember, it goes beyond just a belief mindset, your actions need to back it up if they don’t, then nothing will change. You need to actively rewire your subconscious understanding of money, and personal finance.
