The belief is that if you work hard and save, over time you’ll earn your way to wealth and great riches, but that philosophy is all wrong.
While the standard definition of wealth refers to riches and material possessions, the term really has more value to it. Wealth is a lifestyle that cannot really be measured. It is a result of achieving your goals and living your dream - whether you have millions of dollars or not.
Maybe wealth to you means being able to spend more time with your family. Maybe it means living comfortably in a small town with a small fishing boat and not a worry in the world. Maybe wealth means having luxurious items and having a high powered corporate position. You define wealth, and nobody but you can identify whether or not you have achieved that status.
Assuming that wealth has a specific dollar value to you, the greatest myth in the world is that it takes hard work to make a lot of money. This is middle class thinking and is so far from the truth that I would venture to say that the opposite is actually true.
I’ve met numerous people in my life who are extremely rich and hardly lift a finger. Granted they may have had some upfront work that allowed them to produce their income without their intervention, but that doesn’t have to be the case.
Working hard is not a prerequisite to making money because:
- You can outsource your entire life, including the job of outsourcing
- You can build businesses that are completely automated
- You can choose to be in a line of work that produces income, but does not require your time
- Other people can make money faster for you then you can make yourself
By choosing to be in a business that makes you work hard in order to earn money is slavery. You are doing yourself a disservice and wasting the most valuable asset you own. Time.
Those who are truly wealthy have figured this out. By using the laws that allow you to produce income without your investment of time - or allowing you to focus on your strengths - gives you the freedom to live the life that you deserve. Identify your values, define what wealth means to you, and discover how to get their quickly while enjoying the gift of time.
11:29 am on September 19th, 2008 1
Great point(s)!
I think this is another aspect of what makes free market capitalism so great - hard work is not enough, but if you work smart, and make good money management decisions, you can become wealthy “without lifting a finger”. The opportunity is there for those of us clever enough to seize it!
9:24 pm on October 1st, 2008 2
I totally agree with your post. Look at the poor kids that work 16 hour shifts in factories in India versus the average American.
I’m totally sure that the Indian children work a lot harder but they only get paid a fraction what an American makes