So how rich is "rich" exactly, in today's society?

[DeletedUser84644]

Like someone being in the so called "top one percent" doesn't really make enough money to actually live that stereotypical lavish rich people lifestyle... like you don't even have to make a million dollars to even be in that top income earning bracket. It's especially problematic when you don't take into account the differences between cost of living from area to area.
And also, which out of the two do you think more accurately measures your wealth, income or assets?

 

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[Ismail941]

Robert Kiyosaki Said: Rich is measured in Dollars AND Wealth is measured in Time
Demarco said: $10 Million is the New $1 Million.

It depends on context and number scenario.

 

[BizyDad]

Which country are we talking about? Top 1% in the US is $1.6 million/year

I've heard top 1% in the world is $30k USD.

Context matters.

Also, why are you wasting time on this instead of focusing on how to get there?

 

[DeletedUser84644]

Which country are we talking about? Top 1% in the US is $1.6 million/year

I've heard top 1% in the world is $30k USD.

Context matters.

Also, why are you wasting time on this instead of focusing on how to get there?

The U.S.
Because I am trying to lower my potentially exaggerated expectations (Like I might think that 12 million a year is actually rich, but in reality, 5 million a year might be the real benchmark of wealth).

 

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[BizyDad]

The U.S.
Because I am trying to lower my potentially exaggerated expectations (Like I might think that 12 million a year is actually rich, but in reality, 5 million a year might be the real benchmark of wealth).

Ok, well depending on where you live, I'd say once you are making $100k you should feel like you are doing pretty good. The technical definition of rich is twice the average salary in your town, so roughly $80k-$120k in most places, roughly. And like I said, $1.6 mil/yr is top 1%. You definitely have an exaggerated view.

Seriously, what would you do with $400,000 every single month?

Some people feel retired having enough to spin off $30k/yr and they travel the world and live pretty well. But there's a reason a lot of entrepreneurs stop growing when they get to $100k/yr. They get comfortable. They think additional stress isn't worth it.

I would suggest you stop worrying about how big a number you need. That thought seems to be paralyzing you.

Instead focus on giving yourself monthly raises. How can you sell more or make more this month than you did last month? Which is really just a factor of what problems can you solve that someone will pay you to solve? Keep growing that number and you'll feel rich before you know it.

For me $10k/mo was a long time goal. When I hit it, I coasted for a little while. I probably spent more than I should. It felt great. I was happy.

And then I got hungry again. It wasn't enough to accomplish the goals I have set for myself. I'm currently working towards doubling it. And the challenge of doing so and the ways I'm going to do it have me feeling fulfilled in a different way.

Find your path, enjoy your journey, stick to steady improvement, and stop worrying what the number at the end of the journey looks like. Because as you age, your goals will change.

Hope that helps.

 

[Ing]

Making more than 100k in a job makes you rich? No!
Maybe its a definition thing, but imo rich means anything else for everyone.
So I would feel rich, if I had 100k a month plus 30 free days a month.

 

[DeletedUser84644]

Ok, well depending on where you live, I'd say once you are making $100k you should feel like you are doing pretty good. The technical definition of rich is twice the average salary in your town, so roughly $80k-$120k in most places, roughly. And like I said, $1.6 mil/yr is top 1%. You definitely have an exaggerated view.

Seriously, what would you do with $400,000 every single month?

Some people feel retired having enough to spin off $30k/yr and they travel the world and live pretty well. But there's a reason a lot of entrepreneurs stop growing when they get to $100k/yr. They get comfortable. They think additional stress isn't worth it.

I would suggest you stop worrying about how big a number you need. That thought seems to be paralyzing you.

Instead focus on giving yourself monthly raises. How can you sell more or make more this month than you did last month? Which is really just a factor of what problems can you solve that someone will pay you to solve? Keep growing that number and you'll feel rich before you know it.

For me $10k/mo was a long time goal. When I hit it, I coasted for a little while. I probably spent more than I should. It felt great. I was happy.

And then I got hungry again. It wasn't enough to accomplish the goals I have set for myself. I'm currently working towards doubling it. And the challenge of doing so and the ways I'm going to do it have me feeling fulfilled in a different way.

Find your path, enjoy your journey, stick to steady improvement, and stop worrying what the number at the end of the journey looks like. Because as you age, your goals will change.

Hope that helps.

Well like let's say for example that I want to be able to afford to drive a brand new Rollys Royce, which costs between $300,000-$500,000 in cash... be able to live in a 5 million dollar mansion, and have some decent amount of money to charter a private jet and / or a yacht occasionally and let's assume that I'm trying to afford all of that as a person who makes million dollars a year (Assuming no taxes for simplicity) from a 20 million dollar nest egg. Wouldn't that make me kind of shortchanged a little? Because I don't see how else I would be able to afford having the car, the mansion, and some left over discretionary income for occasional travel and such without buying the big-ticket items (the car, and the mansion) using debt. Because in my mind I'm thinking that if most people cannot afford to pay cash for their homes that easily, then shouldn't a genuinely rich person be able to do so without having to use some kind of debt? That's kind of what has my view on this exaggerated like that. Which is why I'm here looking to see how and what you can afford at different income levels so I can get a better picture of what making X amount can actually afford you in reality and not what I may fallaciously perceive what X amount of dollars can afford you. I remember reading a little bit about Felix Dennis's perspective on that in his wealth books where he said that you have to be worth between 150-200 million to be considered rich at the minimum, in his eyes in the 21st century, assuming you live in a western democracy with little to no debt. So, I personally kind of measure rich in terms of what you can buy easily and retroactively in comparison to the average person. Like if you can piss easily buy 10 mansions without a sweat over and over again without borrowing against your assets or whatever, then oh man you are most definitely filthy rich as F*ck. Like I personally wouldn't want to borrow money to have to buy anything (Isn't that like the point of all of this fastlane thing?) I would instead want to fund everything through what I make in income, and not derive the funds from selling assets and / or borrowing against them

 

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[Jobless]

What is the point of the question? Give some more context.

 

[DeletedUser84644]

What is the point of the question? Give some more context.

I already did, look at some of the replies I left in the thread

 

[Jobless]

I already did, look at some of the replies I left in the thread

Sorry, I missed that.

I agree with you income is a good measure. If you can afford your ideal lifestyle until you die, then you are wealthy.

Money, as in fiat currency (for example US dollars) is not debt. Currency used to be debt owed to you (in gold) by the issuer, but today it is a lot worse than that. It's a depreciating asset, a form of liability. It's issued by central banks and constantly decreases in value. When invested in assets such as real estate, your own business or stocks, you can beat inflation, however there are risks associated with this. For example, you are taxed every year on income and wealth. Taxed on already taxed money, ad infinitum, forcing you to keep producing income or take on debt. If the government dislikes you, or you fail to abide by all laws, or you get sued, or you invested in bad assets, you may lose everything.

If you find ways around persistent problems and risks that stem from central authorities, then you can secure your net worth against catastrophic loss. If you can also secure the income which supports your ideal lifestyle from catastrophic loss, then you are truly wealthy.

 

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[BizyDad]

Well like let's say for example that I want to be able to afford to drive a brand new Rollys Royce, which costs between $300,000-$500,000 in cash... be able to live in a 5 million dollar mansion, and have some decent amount of money to charter a private jet and / or a yacht occasionally and let's assume that I'm trying to afford all of that as a person who makes million dollars a year (Assuming no taxes for simplicity) from a 20 million dollar nest egg. Wouldn't that make me kind of shortchanged a little? Because I don't see how else I would be able to afford having the car, the mansion, and some left over discretionary income for occasional travel and such without buying the big-ticket items (the car, and the mansion) using debt. Because in my mind I'm thinking that if most people cannot afford to pay cash for their homes that easily, then shouldn't a genuinely rich person be able to do so without having to use some kind of debt? That's kind of what has my view on this exaggerated like that. Which is why I'm here looking to see how and what you can afford at different income levels so I can get a better picture of what making X amount can actually afford you in reality and not what I may fallaciously perceive what X amount of dollars can afford you. I remember reading a little bit about Felix Dennis's perspective on that in his wealth books where he said that you have to be worth between 150-200 million to be considered rich at the minimum, in his eyes in the 21st century, assuming you live in a western democracy with little to no debt. So, I personally kind of measure rich in terms of what you can buy easily and retroactively in comparison to the average person. Like if you can piss easily buy 10 mansions without a sweat over and over again without borrowing against your assets or whatever, then oh man you are most definitely filthy rich as f*ck. Like I personally wouldn't want to borrow money to have to buy anything (Isn't that like the point of all of this fastlane thing?) I would instead want to fund everything through what I make in income, and not derive the funds from selling assets and / or borrowing against them

Wow, if you feel short changed with $1mil/yr then you would be a terrible manager of money.

You really think people worth $200 million take the Dave Ramsey approach to finance? You don't think they have margin accounts at their brokerage or credit cards with points? You think they think that paying cash for mansions in a low interest rate world is the best use of their money?

To quote your words, "You don't see how". That's my entire point. You don't see how because you don't have the skills needed to make a $20 million nest egg. You'll never get there worrying about what life will look like when you're there.

You don't get it. If you're good enough to make a million a year, you're good enough to make $2 million a year. You don't stop growing until you're dead or you decide to stop growing.

Stop worrying about your number. You've heard the one about eating an elephant, right?

You've decided to eat an elephant. And you're sitting here saying, maybe I should eat a bigger elephant? Guys, how big an elephant do I need?

No one can answer that for you. We don't know what your appetite is like.

But it's obvious your stomach is nowhere near big enough to eat even a baby elephant, and you're talking about eating big bull elephants.

So I'm sitting here saying at some point in time you got to take that first bite. Stop wasting time worrying about how big an elephant you got to eat.

Someday you'll be able to define what rich means for you. Until then, get to work.

 

[DeletedUser84644]

Wow, if you feel short changed with $1mil/yr then you would be a terrible manager of money.

You really think people worth $200 million take the Dave Ramsey approach to finance? You don't think they have margin accounts at their brokerage or credit cards with points? You think they think that paying cash for mansions in a low interest rate world is the best use of their money?

To quote your words, "You don't see how". That's my entire point. You don't see how because you don't have the skills needed to make a $20 million nest egg. You'll never get there worrying about what life will look like when you're there.

You don't get it. If you're good enough to make a million a year, you're good enough to make $2 million a year. You don't stop growing until you're dead or you decide to stop growing.

Stop worrying about your number. You've heard the one about eating an elephant, right?

You've decided to eat an elephant. And you're sitting here saying, maybe I should eat a bigger elephant? Guys, how big an elephant do I need?

No one can answer that for you. We don't know what your appetite is like.

But it's obvious your stomach is nowhere near big enough to eat even a baby elephant, and you're talking about eating big bull elephants.

So I'm sitting here saying at some point in time you got to take that first bite. Stop wasting time worrying about how big an elephant you got to eat.

Someday you'll be able to define what rich means for you. Until then, get to work.

You're right, I shouldn't be thinking about all of those things when I have not even scratched the surface of being anywhere close to there to begin with, at all. Thank you for the very helpful insight.

 

[biophase]

There’s a difference between making $1 million per year and having a $20 million net worth. I think you are confused or just don’t quite understand the difference in what you are asking.

If you were making $1 million per year and this is your first year, your take home is going to be $600,000 and there’s no way you should buy a $250,000 car.

If you were making $1 million per year and you were on year five of your journey you would have made about $3 million after taxes.

At this point you could easily afford a brand new Rolls-Royce, you could easily afford to purchase a $5 million house.

After 10 years of making $1 million a year, you would’ve taken home $6 million. And assuming that you’ve invested it properly and didn’t blow it every single year your net worth should be much higher than that.

If your net worth was $20 million and you were investing that money to get $1m a year. Then that’s a totally different scenario because you could really spend the whole mil cash flow each year and not care.

Also your age does matter too, if you are worth $20 million and you are 25 years old I would say that you should keep working and making money. But if you are 60 years old, you probably don’t need to make any more money in your life.

But again the question is really why does this matter until you’ve done something to get towards your goal. Because if you can’t get to 1,2,3 mil net worth it kind of doesn’t matter.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Threads and questions like these are why I stopped responding to you on the Unscripted Network. FYI, this is the guy who doesn't want to work (or start) at anything unless it yields minimally $10M, complete with a paint-by-numbers roadmap and a stamped guarantee.

You strike me as someone who wants to to win, but refuses to train.
You want the best selling book, but you don't want to write.
You want the homerun and a World Series ring, but you refuse to step to the plate.

In short, you won't do what is necessary unless you have a guaranteed payday, and not just any payday, but a BIG payday.

People who refuse to accept the unknowns and hustle to earn their first $100 rarely won't find themselves earning $5M a year, much less 80K/year.

You've continually asked these inane questions for months (not just here, but on the Unscripted Network) and I'm guessing in those months that have passed, you haven't made but a single solitary buck in entrepreneurship. In other words, you're no closer to a "Fastlane" than you were when you first joined.

That guy who actually made $50 last month? He's playing the game and closer to a Fastlane because he's not wasting his time trying to get guarantees and assurances that don't exist. He's not wasting my time texting me ridiculous statements about why you should even bother working if you can't earn X millions a year in X months.

In short, you refuse to jump into the pool but expect to know every single step on how win an Olympic Gold Medal.

You seem to have a high opinion of yourself and what your worth is, which prevents you from actually doing something.

Anything.

And if you refuse to work for minimum wage because you errantly think you deserve a penthouse with a penthouse salary, you'll also refuse to work for nothing-- which is how many entrepreneurs get started. And that my friend is why you struggle, and likely will continue to do so.

PS: This guy has a history of messaging me ridiculous questions and statements which I originally answered, but no longer do so.

PS to @FauxPas -- Of course I want you to succeed as do the other folks here, but you're focused on the wrong things.

It's like someone who needs to lose 200 lbs but they refuse to change their diet-- and as such, any effort on them is wasted. How many donuts can I eat for breakfast? What Little Debbie snack cakes are fat free? How many blocks of cheese can I eat and still lose weight? If I cut my soda consumption to 4 Mountain Dews a day instead of 8, can I lose weight?

I hope one day that whatever rolls around in your head changes... change your mind and only then, will you change your life. I wish you good luck, you're plenty young and have a lot of life ahead of you. You can be the change.

 

[Antifragile]

If you have to ask, you aren’t rich.
/ thread.

You are all welcome.

 

[Kak]

Once you get to what you thought was rich, you will feel exactly like the day before. Unless you win the lottery.

Wealth is a process. There’s never been a day where some artificial milestone was hit and I’m like “sweet, now I can have a Rolls Royce.” Even though my younger and dumber self figured I’d have one by the time I got to where I am now. I’m more interested in my wife driving a nice car than myself at this point. I’m currently looking at new Tundras, she has a nice Mercedes GLS.

My point is, mindsets change as the journey changes you.

I don’t feel rich… But by the typical definition of the word, I am. That said, I’d consider truly wealthy around $50m net worth… But I suppose when I get there, I’ll have yet another opinion on it.

 

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[Kevin88660]

Like someone being in the so called "top one percent" doesn't really make enough money to actually live that stereotypical lavish rich people lifestyle... like you don't even have to make a million dollars to even be in that top income earning bracket. It's especially problematic when you don't take into account the differences between cost of living from area to area.
And also, which out of the two do you think more accurately measures your wealth, income or assets?

Assets is a better measure. Because when you look at income, someone fresh out of law school can be rich despite having a huge student debt. that doesn’t make sense. Generally we use net asset (excluding the house that you live in)

Income can give you a good estimate of your potential living standard but you have to calculate from assets first.

A good guide is assuming a consistent yield of 3 percent. If you have a net asset of two million excluding the house you live in, that is 60k yield/income per year.

That is if you spent ONLY 60k every year, by the time you die, your capital is highly likely not even used up.

If you think 60k per year living standard is low, then you need more than 2 million net asset.

There is a lot mainstream articles on how much you need to retire without working.

It depends on what level of comfort you are seeking. There are people who just want to fire their boss and okay with a frugal way of life.

There are also people arguing for extreme high amount of asset for retirement. I don’t think that fear mongering is necessary. If you are the in the business community over the years you are much better than figuring out what cost are necessary and worthwhile and what expenditure are not, as compared to an average person who feel like spending more when they have more money/higher pay and vice versa. There is no reason to believe that a slowlaner can do it with 1-2 million net asset but a fastlaner NEED 5-10 million.

Definitely cost of living is one factor. Living in Long Island would be different than living in Thailand.

You can always set gradual goals.

Accumulate enough business income to fire your boss first.

Accumulate enough assets to live frugally in your city without working/ living decently with additional minimal freelancing.

Accumulate enough assets to live assets to live decently in your city without working.

Swap the word decent with comfortable.

Swap the word comfortable with lavish.

Swap your city with “anywhere in the world”…

 

[DeletedUser84644]

Threads and questions like these are why I stopped responding to you on the Unscripted Network. FYI, this is the guy who doesn't want to work (or start) at anything unless it yields minimally $10M, complete with a paint-by-numbers roadmap and a stamped guarantee.

You strike me as someone who wants to to win, but refuses to train.
You want the best selling book, but you don't want to write.
You want the homerun and a World Series ring, but you refuse to step to the plate.

In short, you won't do what is necessary unless you have a guaranteed payday, and not just any payday, but a BIG payday.

People who refuse to accept the unknowns and hustle to earn their first $100 rarely won't find themselves earning $5M a year, much less 80K/year.

You've continually asked these inane questions for months (not just here, but on the Unscripted Network) and I'm guessing in those months that have passed, you haven't made but a single solitary buck in entrepreneurship. In other words, you're no closer to a "Fastlane" than you were when you first joined.

That guy who actually made $50 last month? He's playing the game and closer to a Fastlane because he's not wasting his time trying to get guarantees and assurances that don't exist. He's not wasting my time texting me ridiculous statements about why you should even bother working if you can't earn X millions a year in X months.

In short, you refuse to jump into the pool but expect to know every single step on how win an Olympic Gold Medal.

You seem to have a high opinion of yourself and what your worth is, which prevents you from actually doing something.

Anything.

And if you refuse to work for minimum wage because you errantly think you deserve a penthouse with a penthouse salary, you'll also refuse to work for nothing-- which is how many entrepreneurs get started. And that my friend is why you struggle, and likely will continue to do so.

PS: This guy has a history of messaging me ridiculous questions and statements which I originally answered, but no longer do so.

PS to @FauxPas -- Of course I want you to succeed as do the other folks here, but you're focused on the wrong things.

It's like someone who needs to lose 200 lbs but they refuse to change their diet-- and as such, any effort on them is wasted. How many donuts can I eat for breakfast? What Little Debbie snack cakes are fat free? How many blocks of cheese can I eat and still lose weight? If I cut my soda consumption to 4 Mountain Dews a day instead of 8, can I lose weight?

I hope one day that whatever rolls around in your head changes... change your mind and only then, will you change your life. I wish you good luck, you're plenty young and have a lot of life ahead of you. You can be the change.

I understand. I'll refrain from sending you texts from now on to give you more respect to your time so that you can have more time to help the ones who are actually moving the needle for themselves and less for people like me who haven't developed enough courage yet to do much of anything. It goes against my nature to jump into things that I don't have a decent understanding of how it works detail-by-detail before I commit to doing X thing (Especially with me having a young mind not helping me out much as well). I will do the same thing with respect to creating threads and such (I have and have been wasting other people's time here as well...). I genuinely feel embarrassed about that being revealed publicly on the forum, but I understand that it has to be done in order for me to realize just how insensitive I have been (which is not easy for me to say as someone who's very introverted and hyper-insecure). So, in attempt to give the time respect that I should have been giving to you and your forum's community, starting today, I will stop making any threads, comments, responses / replies, questions, etc until / if I manage to reach the fastlane (otherwise, I'm just being an annoying useless nuance that's making everyone want to gauge their eyes out.) We'll see where life takes me within the next 10-15 years, but until then, I shall bid this forum farewell. Thank you all for the responses and time you gave to me.

 

[biophase]

It goes against my nature to jump into things that I don't have a decent understanding of how it works detail-by-detail before I commit to doing X thing…

This will be your biggest obstacle. You have to get over this one or you will never be successful in business.

 

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[Kevin88660]

It goes against my nature to jump into things that I don't have a decent understanding of how it works detail-by-detail before I commit to doing X thing (Especially with me having a young mind not helping me out much as well).

Methodologies are not step by step work process.

There are thousands of articles and books written about it.

There are people who take start-up methodologies seriously. Others dismiss it. For those believe in it, most are derived, edited and extension of the concepts highlighted in the book lean start-up.

Broadly business is can be separated into coming up with new service/new product versus improving existing services and existing products.

I will focus on the 2nd approach, improving existing service and business because this is what most people are doing, and you skip the step of having the need to prove that the market exists.

You want to identify a niche that is big enough to make a living and small enough to differentiate your unique skill set and focus.

Big is measured by how many people making money in the trade and how much do the top performers/business earn.

1) This is the first step to prove that something is worth trying.

Ideally in this niche you immediately see things could be improved on that match your resource and skill sets.

2) Develop a minimum viable product/service and test market response. Change and pivot accordingly.

In a big market there are many needs/sub needs, you can always change and pivot accordingly. You are trying to find the best need you can serve. A good need/demand can ignite a fire with a mediocre prototype, a bad need/demand can barely be saved by an excellent product/service.

It is an art then a science. You have to use your own judgement to find the “this is it”. Then you invest even more time and money to improve and scale quickly.

3) if you cannot find good feedback in that market despite your best effort, set a stop loss limit to your time and capital investment. Rest and observe for the next opportunity in a different market. If you want succeed in the 10th attempt in less than 5-7 years, you cannot afford to bankrupt 9 times and spending three years in each project.

 

[ZCP]

..... It goes against my nature to jump into things that I don't have a decent understanding of how it works detail-by-detail before I commit to doing X thing .....

agree with @biophase , this means entrepreneurship may not be for you. maybe work for one and learn the path.

 

[BizyDad]

This will be your biggest obstacle. You have to get over this one or you will never be successful in business.

agree with @biophase , this means entrepreneurship may not be for you. maybe work for one and learn the path.

I don't know guys. I agree it is an obstacle, I mean I did write this thread about MJ teaching me this lesson, but as someone who also has this trait, there are parts of it that I still feel help me in my journey.

Of course you are both more successful than I, so I'm not saying you are wrong. My point is simply that one can achieve success with this trait, it just maybe takes a little longer.

Personally, even knowing what I know now, I wouldn't trade that part of me for anything.

Now whether @FauxPas gets to success is a whole other matter. No one said you have to stop posting for a decade. Don't be so dramatic. The point was more start posting about the steps you are taking towards success, or ask questions that help you take concrete actions...

agree with @biophase , this means entrepreneurship may not be for you. maybe work for one and learn the path.

The advice of watching an entrepreneur do it is solid. Talking to enough entrepreneurs certainly helped me figure out my path. @FauxPas read those 2 links I shared, and maybe they'll help you a bit. Good luck.

 

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[ZCP]

@BizyDad it is a wake up call. if this path is for him, it hopefully helps him to get over the issue and get some shit done.

we all push each other to raise our level / standards / value / production. best thing about this community!

 

[MJ DeMarco]

So, in attempt to give the time respect that I should have been giving to you and your forum's community, starting today, I will stop making any threads, comments, responses / replies, questions, etc until / if I manage to reach the fastlane (otherwise, I'm just being an annoying useless nuance that's making everyone want to gauge their eyes out.)

I'm not suggesting you stop posting, you're welcome to post, before, during, or after a "Fastlane" - there is VALUE in everyone's process. However the quality of your posts/questions are the issue -- your posts are not about the process, but mostly day-dreaming and action faking.

Your posts show no research, no learning, no getting muddy in the trenches. They are all EVENT oriented ... how fast until I earn X millions? When can I afford a Ferrari? How quick this or that?

Again, going back to our weight loss example, you need to lose 200lbs but refuse to change your diet. Instead you'd rather talk about the new wardrobe you'll have to buy once you lost the 200lbs. Or, you want to discuss diet pills that will help you lose the weight, while keeping everything the same.

So the next time you get caught up in these mindtraps, remind yourself you have 200 lbs to lose and the only way to do that is the hard work of massive dietary change and exercise (the process). Everything else is a circle-jerking action fake.

 

[LiveEntrepreneur]

This will be your biggest obstacle. You have to get over this one or you will never be successful in business.

@FauxPas This is a huge one in my personal experience especially when I first started out. Wanting to have everything layed out and have the 'right' strategy off the get-go so I can avoid common mistakes, and make smart decisions. But this just leads to way too much procrastination. I think the best way to look at it is, fail and fail fast.

Problem with this is that beginners don't have the experience to make 'smart decisions', which makes sense. Smart decisions come from making dumb decisions a lot of the time. It's like working smart. You can't work smart until you work hard because working smart comes from working hard. You realize the mistakes you made and things that you could have done better, then from there you start to work smart. Wish I realized this years ago.

 

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[Johnny boy]

Rich is just a word that means "having a great deal of money".

It's relative.

I'm not "rich" by most people's strict definition, but I live in a nice lakefront home, don't really have to work, spend as much time as I want enjoying hobbies, and I'm 25. I feel rich as hell.

What is the point of defining "rich"? Why not define a more important thing like your own personal specific goals?

 

[LiveEntrepreneur]

I understand. I'll refrain from sending you texts from now on to give you more respect to your time so that you can have more time to help the ones who are actually moving the needle for themselves and less for people like me who haven't developed enough courage yet to do much of anything. It goes against my nature to jump into things that I don't have a decent understanding of how it works detail-by-detail before I commit to doing X thing (Especially with me having a young mind not helping me out much as well). I will do the same thing with respect to creating threads and such (I have and have been wasting other people's time here as well...). I genuinely feel embarrassed about that being revealed publicly on the forum, but I understand that it has to be done in order for me to realize just how insensitive I have been (which is not easy for me to say as someone who's very introverted and hyper-insecure). So, in attempt to give the time respect that I should have been giving to you and your forum's community, starting today, I will stop making any threads, comments, responses / replies, questions, etc until / if I manage to reach the fastlane (otherwise, I'm just being an annoying useless nuance that's making everyone want to gauge their eyes out.) We'll see where life takes me within the next 10-15 years, but until then, I shall bid this forum farewell. Thank you all for the responses and time you gave to me.

Hey man just wanted to say I completely understand where you're coming from, and I've been in the exact same position as you so I want to help you fix this issue. In regards to wanting everything layed out before executing.

You have good intentions and I understand you want to be cautious and have a proper plan in place before doing anything, and this does sound logical but unfortunately it's actually doing you a massive disservice.

The problem is that unless you are with a mentor who has been there and done that and can guide you every step of the way, you have no choice but to figure it out. Unfortunately there are no plans, or step by step guides on how business and when you think about it, it makes sense. Every single business is different and the situation within that business.

Businesses have a lot of moving parts, and yes there are general steps to take like for example you have an idea then you validate it, etc. But ultimately every business is different and you won't be able to approach things with the same blueprint if that makes sense. If I could click my fingers and give you a step by step guide how to grow a certain business, I could probably guarantee you that, that step by step plan won't work for another business, because like I said there are a lot of moving parts but also so many different variables. Like the product, different customers who have a different mindset, different type of marketing, etc.

So now for the solution. It's actually quite simple but will take some practice and I learned it some time ago, and it's this:

Critical / dynamic thinking - I'm quite confident that this is what you're missing. Anything you are trying to learn on your own or even just general things in life, this is what you need to do. I had a job once where I was given instructions to do a task and if there was a minor change to my step by step process to do that task, I'd be completely screwed and have no idea how finish the task. This is why you need to be self reliant and be a critical / dynamic thinker, so when you don't have that step by step guide you are able to figure it out on your own. It's like always asking your manager to help you with a task and always asking for help in general without attempting it yourself, and when they are not there, you are F*cked because you didn't learn how to do it on your own.

And it's quite simple, just start asking yourself questions out loud (because in your head there is too much noise) and let's say you are stuck where you are. Here is a script below of how your thought process could look like if you keep asking yourself questions:

First Message: "Ok so I don't know where to start because I don't have any experience in this area, so where would be the most logical place that I can go to get myself started?"

Second Message: "I could go on Google or get a cheap Udemy course from someone who is an expert in this field to get me started, and I could start to implement what I've learned."

Third Message: "But what do I do after the course? The instructor hasn't given me a plan or step by step instructions and now I feel stuck on what the next step is."

Fourth Message: "Even though I haven't got a step by step guide, I can use the information that I have currently to make my next step based on what I believe is logical and if I don't have the information I need then I can go to other sources to find out that information and start to implementing what I need to do."

And this thought process can go on forever, which is good because you are thinking and taking action. Of course you will keep asking yourself loads of questions like "What if I get it wrong?", "What if I do this but turns out to be a big waste of time?", "What if I'm not doing the right or best process to reach my goal?" and this could go on forever and I will refer you back to what I said which is critical thinking.

In the earlier days I had these action-stopping questions really slow down my progress but here is how I could have dealt with it a while back if I was a critical / dynamic thinker and how you can think to.

"What if I get it wrong?" - It doesn't matter because I will learn from this experience and will not make the mistake again. I understand if I get nothing wrong, I haven't made any progress because it's impossible to progress without getting things wrong. Additionally, if I fail fast instead of worrying constantly about getting it wrong, I will find out earlier and be able to avoid these mistakes in the future.

"What if I do this but turns out to be a big waste of time?" - Same as the above but if I'm really worried that I'm taking the wrong actions, I could do some research and check to see if this is an industry standard practice and if other people have done it in the past and have had success with it. If not, I will fail as fast as possible so I can move onto my next challenge.

"What if I'm not doing the right or best process to reach my goal" - While it's true there probably is a better way to go about the process than how I am going right now, I could hire experts on UpWork to get them to review my plan to make sure that I am following the process then take action from there and even every few months get my freelancer to review my progress to help me make adjustments along the way.


The other most important thing with critical / dynamic thinking is confidence because you will always second guess yourself. When you ask yourself questions and you feel like what you believe is the right way to go about it, don't start second guessing yourself and wondering if you're wrong. Make the choice. Stick with it. Get results. Analyze the results. And make decisions from there. And don't be discouraged if you get it wrong because you will be guaranteed to get it wrong even a lot of the time. Especially if haven't got much experience in what you're doing.


Sorry this is long winded but I wanted you to feel like there are some actions you could take to help you with the challenge you're facing. So in a summary:

1) Keep thinking critically / dynamically

2) Be confident in the decisions you make while thinking critically / dynamically.


Hope this helped man! It's a tough state of mind that you're in currently and might take a while to break but do the above, and I'm confident you will see big progress. Let me know if you have any questions!

 

[biophase]

I don't know guys. I agree it is an obstacle, I mean I did write this thread about MJ teaching me this lesson, but as someone who also has this trait, there are parts of it that I still feel help me in my journey.

Of course you are both more successful than I, so I'm not saying you are wrong. My point is simply that one can achieve success with this trait, it just maybe takes a little longer.

I don't think you have the same trait. For example, let's say you want to start an ecommerce store, but you don't know if you should use Shopify or Wix. Do your research and then pick one and go with it.

Then pick out a website template. Go with it. Then create a logo. Go with it.

The step by step guy would, decide he wants Shopify, decide on a template, pick a logo. However he wouldn't actually sign up for an account, buy a template or hire a logo designer. He would go to step 4 like choose MailCheat(Chimp) vs Klaviyo. If he can't choose between the 2, he gets stuck. Even though he's stuck on step 4, he never even started step 1. He won't start step 1 until step 100 in figured out.

 

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[Deleted70138]

Rich is one who earns more than his brother-in-law.