Introduction
Avoid These 5 Mistakes If You Want to Be Rich
5 Things To Avoid If You Want To Become Rich
If you don’t want to be like everyone else, then you have to make the sacrifices others aren’t willing to make. That’s what my mentor told me when I was in my early 20s, and it has stuck with me ever since. I started with no qualifications and no money, and a big part of that was down to avoiding the five things I’m going to be sharing with you today.
1. Chasing Paychecks Instead of Wealth
Imagine for a moment that you got a boring but well-paid job. You quickly start stacking some nice cash as your earnings grow. Your friends will think that you’re killing it, and your parents will probably be pretty proud, too. However, over time, your earning potential would start to plateau. This is path A.
Now, imagine that you get a challenging but lower-paid job instead. You might struggle for a couple of years as you improve and adapt. You may even struggle to pay the bills. Your friends will probably think you’re falling behind, and your parents may not agree with the path you’ve taken. However, over time, your earning potential will start going through the roof. This is path B.
So, what’s the difference between these two examples? Well, path A prioritizes money early on, whereas path B prioritizes two key things: skills and equity. Every self-made millionaire I know has followed path B, as it’s the only way to build that kind of wealth.
By learning a wide range of high-income skills, it makes it almost impossible for you to ever be broke again as you become your greatest asset. Nowadays, I’d recommend prioritizing online-based high-income skills such as copywriting, video editing, and coding, and I think the most important thing is still creating content.
The demand for these skills is only growing, and I can speak from experience that there is a huge skills shortage at the moment. Sure, there are lots of people doing those things; however, 99% of them are just not up to standard. Honestly, your competition isn’t that tough.
Now, let’s move on to the second thing: equity. This just means owning a percentage of a business so you can benefit from the profits. You can gain equity in a few different ways.
Lastly, you can purchase equity in certain businesses, although I wouldn’t recommend this unless you have the skills that help accelerate that business forward. My friend often goes around in public telling people to start their businesses or ask for equity from their boss. While I 100% agree with the sentiment, you need to have some self-awareness with this.
Firstly, it’s worthwhile working for someone to gain skills before starting a business of your own. Secondly, you need to be realistic. I didn’t think for a moment that I’d get equity in the carpentry business when I was an apprentice. So, when you ask, make sure you have a solid case for why you deserve it and how you can add value to the business instead of just taking from it. You need to first focus on becoming someone worthy of equity.
The main takeaway here is that too many people get blinded by money, forgetting the importance of skills and equity. This is the biggest trap. The more you obsess over earning just money, the less you’ll likely make in the long run.
What is the difference between income and wealth? The power of owning a business.
2. Spending to Impress, Not to Invest
Picture yourself cruising through Dubai’s sun-drenched streets in a bright yellow Lamborghini. You pull up to a swanky restaurant and order a $500 filet steak without batting an eyelid. How does imagining that lifestyle make you feel? Pretty successful, right?
Well, here’s the truth. Most people you see living this way are far from successful. The majority are paying for cars that they can’t afford, taking trips to Dubai on credit cards they’ll spend five months paying off, and ordering steaks at Salt Bae’s restaurant that leave them with a bill they can’t handle.
These people are living a lie, pretending to be rich while drowning in debt. It’s all smoke and mirrors, as it’s much easier to impress others on social media than to build real wealth. Seeing people live these luxury lifestyles might tempt you to start playing the flexing game too, as you feel like everyone is living a better life than you. However, this is far from the reality.
37% of Americans can’t afford unexpected expenses over $400, 39% worry they can’t pay their bills, and 60% of American households can’t afford to buy a new car.
Once you’ve made your millions, you can buy whatever you want. That’s the point of becoming wealthy. However, in the early days, you can’t live like a king and build wealth at the same time. Instead of buying depreciating items like flashy cars, designer clothes, and dining in expensive restaurants, invest in assets, such as stocks, shares, crypto, and real estate. These assets will increase in value and generate income that you can then use to do whatever you want.
3. Trying to Do It All Alone
The third thing to avoid is doing everything yourself. You might be great at what you do, but no matter how hard you try, you’ll never be able to outcompete a group of talented people working together.
Look at anyone who’s made it big in sports or business. If you do some digging, you’ll see they all had help. Let’s take Elon Musk as an example. On the surface, it might appear like he’s a genius entrepreneur who’s achieved everything single-handedly. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth.
He was part of the group that launched PayPal. When eBay acquired PayPal for $1.5 billion in 2002, these newly wealthy tech experts spread across the industry like a virus.
Now, they’re known as the PayPal Mafia, as they’ve become such a powerful group. After leaving PayPal, they started many successful companies.
These include big names like YouTube, Yelp, LinkedIn, and SpaceX.
They often invest in each other’s projects and give advice. But what if you’re not aiming to launch the next billion-dollar company and instead just want to earn some extra money with a side hustle?
Well, a lot of older business owners are kind of lost when it comes to everything tech-based and using the internet for their companies.
I mean, a lot of them don’t even know there are online tools for literally everything, whether it’s managing your team, handling invoices, keeping track of projects, or even building a website.
I don’t blame them, as back in the day, we didn’t have any of these things, but now the younger generation has a real advantage.
So, if these older business owners don’t know how to do a lot of this online stuff and they understand they can’t do everything themselves, guess who they need? You.
You can help them bring their businesses into the 21st century and make a lot of money in the process.
4. Consuming Too Much, Acting Too Little
Do you ever feel like you’re being pulled in a million different directions?
This happens with everything in life, from side hustles to fitness training.
Everyone seems to have a different opinion on what you should be focusing on.
Many people are telling you what they think you should be focusing on.
For the sake of simplicity, let’s just call them inputs.
All these inputs create hundreds of paths you could follow, like becoming a doctor or, entrepreneur, joining a family business, getting a stable nine-to-five job, traveling, and having a family.
Let’s call these your potential paths.
The sheer number of these pathways can create something called cognitive overload, which is where your brain simply can’t cope with the overwhelming amount of information and choices.
So, what’s the solution?
Well, I’ve always started with my end destination in mind and worked backward. Of course, I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do in the future.
However, I had a decent idea. I then made sure to only listen to inputs that helped reach those targets.
The clearer your goal, the easier it becomes to select the right inputs to help you achieve it. So, limit the number of opinions you receive and prioritize quality over quantity.
Most people have too many opinions being thrown at them, but not from experts. Cut out general opinions and instead seek expert advice.
This could come from a mentor, someone successful in your field, or even educational videos from experts like myself.
By doing this, you’ll get more valuable, focused, and specific guidance for your end goal.
Remember, even when you work your way backward, you still don’t need to know everything at once.
Fully listen and implement what you learn from an input, and then when you’re facing another challenge, you can seek out more inputs that’ll help you overcome it.
If you don’t do this, then you’ll get mental fatigue, which can lead to decision paralysis where you find yourself unable to take action or move forward.
Some people might even mistake this for being lazy, but in reality, your brain just gets overwhelmed.
5. Letting Ego Block Your Growth.
The fifth thing to avoid is being ego-driven. Let me start by saying this: arrogant people won’t even finish this article.
They think they already know everything, so why bother sticking around?
But that’s exactly the problem.
Arrogance blinds you to the opportunities that could genuinely change your life. Ego-driven people are often too focused on the big picture, constantly dreaming of the end goal.
This might sound productive, but it’s a dangerous trap.
When you’re always looking too far ahead, you end up overlooking the small but crucial steps that lead to true success.
When you’re too egotistical, you start to believe that you don’t need advice from others, especially those who might know more than you.
You might dismiss the wisdom of people who have already walked the path that you’re trying to take.
But here’s the truth. True wealth isn’t just about being confident.
It’s about having the humility to keep learning, to understand that you don’t know it all, and that’s where the real growth happens.
The more you learn, the more you realize how much you don’t know.
This is called the iceberg principle. What you know is just the tip of the iceberg. The massive chunk of knowledge is underneath the surface.
That’s what truly matters, and arrogance makes you forget that it’s even there.
In short, arrogance is a silent wealth killer.
It convinces you that you’re too good to learn, too smart to listen, and too important to take the small steps that lead to greatness.