How to get Rich

Everyone wants to learn how to get rich.  Or almost everyone.

But it takes serious time and effort figure out how to get rich and actually do it.

Becoming rich is the goal, but it’s not easy to truly make it to the top 1% in your given country.

One of my best articles is How to build wealth in your 20’s.  It’s a guide for young men to build wealth and get a head start.  But the principles can be applied to men and people of all ages.

That being said, building wealth and living well is one thing.  You can build a computable net worth over time and get into the top 10% and 5% in your given location.  This is difficult to do if you’re not born with money, but it’s definitely possible.

But learning how to get rich is another animal.  This is the next level to just building wealth.

Joining the 1%

Becoming rich is where you’re in the top 1% in the country you reside.  If you’re doing well in America, like maxing six figures, you’re definitely top 1% in the world.  But wealth is relative.

If you truly want to be rich, then you’re going to need to rise to the absolute top.  You’re going to have to learn that activity drives results.  It’s going to take a ton of consistent effort over time before you see success.

You don’t need to be a billionaire.  But you’re going to need to get the the point where you can live well for the rest of your life without working and without being a minimalist to consider yourself rich.

Not that being a minimalist is bad.  I encourage it when you’re young.  But at some point, it’s nice to be rich and within reason, buy the fancy shit that you want to.

How to get rich vs how to build wealth

The difference between how to get rich and how to build wealth is in the details.

Learning how to get rich is simply building wealth but on steroids.

I value money, and my goal is to get rich.  I’ve built wealth and will continue to do so.  Financial independence is a high property in my life, along with my health, family + friends, relationships with women, and my hobbies.

But if you really want to get rich, is has to be your #1 priority, with everything else taking a backseat.  There’s nothing wrong with trying to become one of the richest people in your area.  If that’s you, you probably have an insanely competitive drive.  I’m a competitive man myself, but probably am not the most competitive where I have to be rich or die.

Where to draw the line

Financially independent or die?  Hell yes.  But rich or die?  Not necessarily.  As long as I have plenty of money in the bank I’m happy.

But for you, if you have to see if learning how to get rich is that important to you.  Because if it isn’t, then its not going to happen.  You need to put money as a #1 and fuck everything else.

For a man trying to build wealth, he may need to do this for a few years of hard grinding.  But for a man trying to become really rich, he’ll need to at least do this for a decade, if not 20 or 30 years.

There’s nothing wrong with whatever path you take, it’s just important you realize who you are.

For definitions sake, when I say rich I mean you can buy a lamgornini or a house worth a few million in cash.  You’re net worth is near or well over $10 million.

If you’ve built up 1-6 million USD by the time you’re 65 or 70, I’d consider that well off and wealthy, but not flat out rich.  By western standards at least.  That amount of money is a third world country can definitely make you rich.

How to get rich, Wealth on steroids

The basic formula for building wealth is

• Reduce spending and cost expenses
  • Can spend money on a decent apartment, rest of expenses should be cut
• Maximize the amount of money you make
  • Owning your own business
• Investing your money to build your wealth
• Avoid traps like marriage and debt

If you follow this formula, then you can definitely build wealth.  The majority of men can work more than they are now and pull this off.

But only the elite can really figure out how to get rich and execute that.

Getting rich involves a similar approach, but much more extreme.

The formula is

• Reduce spending and cost expenses
  • all expenses should be cut as low as possible
• Maximize the amount of money you make
  • Owning your own business, and doing a risky, product based business
• Investing your money to get richer
• Avoid traps like marriage and debt

Reduce spending and cost expenses

If you want to get rich, you need to reduce spending at all costs.  For guys building wealth, I still advise you to spend money on a decent apartment in a good part of a city.

But for guys trying to get rich, you need to say fuck that.  You need to be really willing to drastically cut your expenses.  And rent is usually the biggest expense.  That means living at home with parents, or living in a studio or 1 bedroom apartment with a lot of people.

You can’t get rich if you are spending all of your own money.  Every dime needs to be watched.

Elon musk would sleep out of the office when he was building up PayPal, and he’d shower at YMCA.  I don’t recommend this because this isn’t ideal to other fun aspects of life.  Such as getting women, going out, and having a decent lifestyle.

However, if learning how to get rich is really your goal, you have to sacrifice the other areas of your life.  You need to save as much as possible, even when you start to make money.  You can’r spend the money you get until you have already gotten a lot of it.

Maximize the amount of money you make

It shouldn’t take you long to realize that in order to figure out how to get rich, you need to own a business.  I recommend business ownership for every man, even those jot as extreme.  Building a solid service based business, and expanding into products at some point, is the best option for most men.

But if you’re trying to get rich, then you’re going to need to go for a riskier product based business from the get go.  It’s true there are companies hat are serviced based and large.

Start a business

Nevertheless, even though it’s easier to build and maintain a service based business, it’s hard to become a rich man off of one.  It takes a product based business to make a rich man in most cases.  Or at least mega rich.  You can become rich with a service based business.  But it takes time, and amazing service to your clients.  However, a service based business has a much higher success rate than a product based business.

Product based business vs Service based business

Product based businesses require more upfront investment, and are more likely ro fail.  But the upside is that you’re not trading your time for money.  You can scale much easier since you don’t have to service clients in the same way.

Again, it’s not the right move for most men.  That being said, if you’re understanding how to get rich, then you’re not the average man.

You’re trying to be the top dog in town.  And that involves a lot of drive, a ton of risk, good connections, and the right business.

But you can always start a service based business and then add on products.  This hybrid model allows you to start off the the stability of a service baed business, but allows you to expand and make passive income as you create products.

Either way, you have to make the mindset shift from an employee to an entrepreneur.  Not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur.  But then again, not everybody can be rich.  If you want to learn how to get rich, your best bet is to become an entrepreneur and start a business.

Investing your money to get richer

It’s not just enough learn how to get rich and quit.  You have to stay rich.

And you do that by first, saving your money and not buying dumb shit.

Then you start investing your money.  Real estate, mutual funds, and things of this nature.

Inflation goes up around 3% each year.  Holding onto your money is better than spending it on stupid things.  But it will lose value over time.  That 3% adds up to be a lot of lost value in 10 years and 2o years.

There’s no perfect investment.  But mutual funds that follow the S&P 500 tend to go up about 8% a year.  Doesn’t sound like a lot.  But 8% of 1 million USD is still $80,000.  Over 10 and 20 years, that’s a lot of money.  Compound interest can make your rich in the long run.  And if you’re already rich, it will make you even richer.

I’m usually telling you guys to avoid buying houses.  But that’s only when there’s a fat mortgage.  If you have 5 million in the bank, then spending 1 million on a house/property as investment can be a good use of money.  Whether you’re using it to live or making money using a property as rental income.

Don’t buy assets that depreciate

Your real estate may lower in value if a natural disaster happens or the economy tanks.  But more than likely, it will steadily go up over time.  Your mutual fund investments are even more likely to still rise over time.

But one of the worst things you can do to lose your wealth is buy assets that depreciate, especially at a fast rate.

Like that exotic sports car you can barely afford.

You can buy one bmw or porsche or lambo, but buying more than you need is just a waste of money.  Or buying jewelry you barely wear that costs $20,000 a piece.  If you’re truly rich, you can some of this stuff.  But make sure you budget for throw-away money and don’t go crazy.

Most of your money should be investments or at least saved.  Buying assets that depreciate will cause you to lose a lot of money over time.  Some rich people lose it all because they gamble or just can’t control their spending habits.  Rich people who stay rich constantly think about long-term and the investment.

Avoid traps like marriage and debt

It’s not enough to learn how to get rich.  You also have to stay rich by avoiding traps.  The two biggest being marriage and debt.

Marriage

Marriage can make a rich man less rich and wipe out more than half of his net worth. As a business man, marriage simply isn’t an option.

Steven Spielberg had to pay his ex wife $148 million dollars.  That’s insane.  He lost an incredible amount of money in that divorce.  But even then, he’s so rich that he’s still a multi-millionaire many times over after the divorce rape.

But the average man can’t afford a divorce rape.  If you’re building your net worth, you can’t afford divorce courts to award your ex wife with half of your net worth, + child support + alimony.

Let’s take an example of a hard working man in his late 20’s or 30’s.  And let’s say that man is you.  You worked a job, saved up, then started your own business.  If you’re net worth is $200,000, meaning you have that much in the bank, and half of it gets taken, that’s $100,000 less dollars you have to invest in your business or other ventures.  And $200,000 is a lot of money to have in the bank.  You’ve definitely built some wealth at that stage.  To have it cut down in half is crazy.  You can still build back up your wealth, but you’re not on track to become rich anymore.

Debt

Debt of all kinds is usually bad.  The only time it’s good to take on debt, like on a house or a car, is when you have the money to pay it in full, but decide not to.  Maybe the tax deductions save you more money than the interest, or maybe you want to have a healthy amount of money in the bank for a rainy day.

In those situations, taking on debt is okay because you can pay it off if you had to.

But for the vast majority of situations, taking on personal debt is a bad move.  Debt means you owe money to someone or something else.  Usually a bank.  And the only reason they’re allowing you to be in debt is because they make money long term from the interest.  Which means you’re losing money.

Don’t buy houses you can’t afford.  Definitely don’t buy sports cars you can’t afford.  And stop taking girls out on expensive dates you can’t afford.  It won’t get you laid and you’re just losing money.

Credit cards

Having credit cards and building credit is a great way to have a last line of defense.  You never want to have to use credit cards to pay medical bills or some big payment.  But if it comes down to that, it’s better that than die.

There are plenty of credit cards where you can earn points on flying as well.  Paying off your credit card each month and racking up free trips to use for travel is a great way to save yourself money.

What I would do

If I was trying to learn how to get rich, like become a millionaire, here’s what I would do.

I would go to business school.  Yes, this goes against going into debt.  But it’s about building a powerful team.  And most billionaires I’ve seen who started out from humble beginning formed a team in business school.

Then I’d network with hard working, smart guys.  After graduation, or even during business school, I’d try to start a business with them and get investors to give us money.

Ideally, you’re in the Bay area or getting money from bay area investors.  I worked in sales, selling consulting services to bay area tech companies.  And some of these companies would get 10, 20, 50, and even 100 million dollars from investors.

You’re going to need a ton of investor money in order to get a tech business really off the ground. And of course the rate of failure is high.

But it’s one of the best ways to truly become rich if you’re able to put the work in.

Step by step

1. Business school to get an MBA
2. Form a team within the school
3. Start a business, tech field
4. begin to get investors, a seed round from angel investors
5. move to bay area, or new york, austin, boston, toronto, any tech hub
6. get name brand clients, raise more money
7. higher a few really good programmers and tons sales people
8. sell a lot, then fire bottom 80% of sales people
9. get another round of funding
10. hire again
11. and repeat until you IPO or sell your business

Building a tech company

It’s ruthless, but that’s essentially the formula to building a successful tech company.  And starting a tech company is one of the “easiest” (not easy at all, but somewhat realistic) methods for figuring out how to get rich.

Your company doesn’t have to be the next Facebook or google.  There are tons of companies that IPO and get acquired for $50 million to a few hundred million USD that you’ve never heard of (recent acquisitions from crunchbase).

You won’t be famous after your company gets bought, but you’ll be rich.

I haven’t done this myself.  When I was in sales, I sold to tech companies.  Basically, I was trying to sell them my companies advisory services.  We also did marketing like webinars, and lots of research.  Essentially advise and content.

So even though I wasn’t technically in tech, I was meeting tech CEO’s, CMO’s, CFO’s, all different types of VP’s, etc. every week.

Attitude of a rich person

And what all of these people had in common?  Some were friendly, others were standoffish.

But all of them thought they had the next big thing.  They drank their own koolaid.  Everytime we’d meet they’d tell me about how well they’re doing and how much they’re customers loved them.  Part of this was because they wanted my company to write good things about them.

However, it was also just part of their attitude.

Extreme confidence 

They really thought their tech company was going to blow up and be huge.  And if they didn’t, they faked the perception very well.  Because even some of the companies who went out of business were talking about how well they were ding until the day they closed down.

You’re going to have to have an attitude that’s very different from the normal person.

When you’re figuring out how to get rich, it’s not all about the specific idea or business plan.  Of course that’s important.  But it’s also about your attitude and your ability to visualize your success.  It’s ridiculously hard to build a successful tech company.  Or any product based business where you’re hiring employees.  In order to do so, you have to have an unshakable attitude.  If you’re the type of person where other people’s opinions can bother you, then this path isn’t for you.

Connections, your network is your net worth

A big part of understanding how to get rich isn’t just the business your building.  But it’s your network.  They say your network is your net worth.  Meaning the connections you have with others determines how much money you’ll make.

That’s why I recommended going to business school to get an MBA in my plan.  Even though that goes against the debt principle I brought up earlier, it’s one of the best ways to network.  Some of the most successful millionaires and billionaires I’ve seen met their core team in business school.

Mastermind group

Forming a mastermind group is an essential part of getting to real riches.  Getting into a top tier business school and forming a team is one of the best ways to do this.

Even outside of that, who you know will help you get more business.  Even in my experience as a corporate sales guy, the more my network grew, the more credibility I had.  When I met a CEO and then I knew his golfing buddy, then this really helped me form rapport.  Versus just being a sales guy he wanted to shake off.  It’s not like I knew everybody.  But the connections that are built in business can make your break your success.  Especially at the top levels when you’re trying to figure out how to get rich and not just build some wealth.

Persistence

You have to be persistent as fuck.  Not only do you have to work more than everyone else.  But you have to do this over time.

Success is simply consistent effort until the goal is achieved.

In order to get rich, you need to be persistent.  Which means your dedicated to your business and it’s growth.

This applies to men who are just trying to build wealth as well.  It’s not easy building a six figure business.  It’s definitely possible, especially if you’re doing a service based business.  But it takes a ton of persistence.

And when you’re learning how to get rich, it’s going to take even more persistence.  You’ll likely fail a few times before you get your feet off the ground and find a successful business.  This is why I tell guys to start with a serviced based business first, and then use extra money to create a product based business.  Or add products to your current business model.

That being said, if you’re really aiming for true riches, you’re going to need to start a product based business.  It’s more risky.  But it’s more scalable and likely to make you filthy rich.

Smart enough?  

Another crucial thing to keep in mind when you’re figuring out how to get rich is deciding if you’re smart enough.

Sure, there are plenty of dumb people who are rich.  But they didn’t need to be smart IQ wise in order to make it to the top.  Maybe they were really good looking, tried for years, were persistent, and finally got that acting role in a big movie.  Or maybe they’re a genetically gifted athlete who put years of training and also got lucky.

But the most practical way to learn how to get rich is to start a business.  And in order to become rich through business, you usually have to be very smart.  Not necessarily a genius.  But you have to be incredibly bright from a logical/techincal perspective, and also an emotional/extroverted perspective.  It’s not enough to know technology or to know people.  You have to be good with both.  The stuff behind your business and the people behind it.

Hiring the right people, manage, and fire

This is one of the reasons I chose to build wealth instead of outright become rich.  Becoming rich is still the goal.  But building enough wealth while enjoying my life is the path I chose over flat out millions.

And one of the reasons is because I don’t like to hire and manage people.  I don’t mind hiring contractors to do work for me.  In that case I’m they’re client.

But as a business owner who’s understanding how to get rich, you’ll realize you can’t do it alone.  Whether it’s a tech company or another kind of product based business that’s expanding.  You’ll have to hire the right people.

Then you’ll have to manage them.  And then eventually, you’ll likely have to fire a lot of them.

After all, your company is just a group of people who operate the business.  When it’s just you, you only have to worry about yourself.  But once you start that business with the intention off truly getting rich, you’ll need to hire other people.

The right industry and the right time

So you have the attitude, connections, persistence, smarts, and ability to manage people?  You’ve gotten most of the pieces of the puzzle together.

However, you still can fuck up.  Because you must choose the right industry at the right time.

If sell a product too early, buyers won’t buy and a new competitor will come in later when the market is more mature.  If you sell a product too late, then you’ll already have too much competition and you’ll be fighting for scraps.

You need to get in on an industry that’s still relatively small.  But one that has the potential to grow.  It’s impossible to know if a specific space is going blow up and get bigger or not go anywhere.  This takes assessment on your end to make an educated guess and essential gamble on the market.

1-man service based business vs multi-person product based business

I tell men trying to start their own business to go into a service selling something with a clear demand.  Like personal training.  There are tons of personal trainers, yet if you live in a city, there are still more than enough potential clients.

However, the risk in becoming a personal trainer and failing is small.  If you start out in Kansas, and can’t get any clients, then you can move to New York or LA and start over.

If you start your tech company and nobody buys, you’ll have to make a new product that will sell or you’ll go out of business.  And this is much harder to do then with a service based business.  It’s still possible, but very difficult.  When you’re figuring out how to get rich, it’s best to pick the right industry at the right time from the beginning.

Other ways to get rich

The best way to figure out how to get rich is starting your own business in the gift industry, growing it, and continue to expand it.

However, you can potentially get rich from other ways.  Mainly being lawsuits and marrying rich.

Lawsuits

If someone does something bad against you, you can potentially sue them for a lot of money.  I think that many lawsuits are overblown.  And this is not a real strategy to learn how to get rich.

But it’s certainly possible to become rich this way if certain situations happen in your life.

Marrying rich

The other option is to marry rich.  Most of you know I say not to get married.  You can get a girlfriend, have kids, style loyal.  But legal marriage is a bad move.

That being said, that’s assuming your potential wife makes the same or less than you do.  If your soon to be wife makes a lot more than you, than you can always marry her and become rich that way.

She may come from money or she may have worked hard and built up a solid net worth.  Either way, marrying rich is always an option.  This strategy is usually used by women.  However, men have also done this to lesser degrees.

Being rich may or may not be possible

The goal is to learn how to get rich and do it.  However, even if you don’t become really rich, you can still build wealth.  If you have to work until your 60’s, but you love what you do and make good money, then you’re still a winner in my book.

And if you’re smart about how you spend your money, then you can still retire in your 50’s or even 40’s with a solid amount of wealth.

I love what I do.  I created a purpose in helping men and will continue to follow this path.  Retirement isn’t something I think about because I’m enjoying everyday.

You want to find something you love and create a purpose out of it.  Basically, you make a business helping other people using the skills you have.  This is the best way to build wealth or even become rich and yet enjoy your life.

You may or may not become ultra wealthy to the point where you’re one of the truly rich people.  But as long as you have enough money to live well, you can get rid of most of the stress life will throw at you.

Money is freedom

If you’re not rich, or you don’t even have 10k in your savings, then you need to start working own this.  Learning how to get rich isn’t everything.  But money is freedom.  It will allow you to do what you want, when you want, and will free you from a boss.

That’s why you need to make financial independence your #1 priority until you finally achieve it.  Make the shift from a consumer to a producer.

So you have to build up your wealth to the point of at least being free.  And then you can decide how much further you want to go.  Money isn’t the devil, and it isn’t a savior.  It’s simply access to resources.  Whether it’s a lot of resources or shit ton, more money will improve your life and the lives of those around you.  Start a business, do something you enjoy, and make that money.  You’ll thank yourself for it.

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