Key Takeaways - Getting Rich Your Own Way

There are 5 characteristics found consistently with the rich:

1. Persistent - They picked a field and stuck with it for a long time.

2. Patient - They seemed like there were willing to wait forever for wealth to come their way.

3. Humility - They were willing to handle both the nobler and the pettier aspects of the job. They didn't think anything about their work was "beneath" them.

4. Noncompetitive - The more time passed, the less competitive they were towards people and whom they worked.

5. Time - Investment activities consumed a minimum of their time and attention. In fact, the wealthy felt guilty about it. Their time was spent on their work which is where their wealth was created.

Buying your own home is one of the surest ways to build wealth.

The reason why is because you aren’t trying to time the exit. People tend to stay in their homes longer than investments and they are rewarded for their patience with higher profits.

"Don't set compensation as a goal. Find work you like, and the compensation will follow." -Harding Lawrence

Getting rich comes in two stages. In Stage One, people invested in themselves. They were absorbed in their work and focused on their expertise for a long time. Essentially, they found what they loved to do and did it for a long time. They became excellent in a specific area of expertise. In Stage Two, people became investors. They finally reached the point where they were making so much money that they had to find another purpose for it. The reluctantly did this because they didn't want to spend time on it.

We all should make it a priority to find something that we love doing. Ultimately, it could be the single most important accomplishment for becoming rich.

"Mellowing - Why Growing Older Made it Easier to Become Rich."

Research shows that what holds back some of the most talented minds in business is the individual's resentment of having to do the "meaningless" details of their job. These folks considered the small parts of their job petty and annoying. Because they wanted to rise above this part of their job, they gave more effort to becoming rich. "The more annoyed they were, the harder they tried. And the harder they tried, the more annoyed they became." Their "focus on making a fortune made them not just resent, but despise the details of their work." The problem with that is 95% of work is details and the more you are successful, the more details there are to deal with. Folks that have a mellow approach to their work thrive and almost don't notice the details. Because they love what they do, they are delighted to do ALL of the work and are rewarded financially for it.

We must find something that we love to do so we are happy to do the details. We will enjoy our work and those we do it with more.

"To put it bluntly, if you only have $100,000 or less to invest, there is no place you can reasonably invest it. Except in yourself."

"No matter how uncomfortable the thought makes you, the fact remains that you are your most important asset... What the evidence clearly shows is that with, say, $5,000, $30,000, or $80,000 to invest, you are unlikely to become rich as a Stage Two investor. As a Stage One investor, you very well might." Stage One calls us to love what we do so much that we pour everything we have into it. When we give our "job" all of our best effort we will be rewarded financially. It's only when we have exhausted our investment in ourselves that we move to Stage Two and invest in other things.

Be careful how you define success financially. Being a Stage Two investor doesn't make you successful. It just means you are investing in other opportunities. Be sure to invest in yourself first and foremost.

"Price and performance mattered, and friendship alone was simply not enough."

Socializing will never make you rich. "Socializing is, at best, piecework and temporary employment. And without the accidental persistence produced by absorption in work you enjoy, the chances of becoming rich turned out to be nil."

Doing a good job is what people want. In fact, they'd rather work with a reputable stranger than someone less qualified that they know well. Socializing is also very expensive and the "slow-growth" route to building a business and becoming rich. It's hard for anyone in the long run to show a true financial return on the "investment."

Focus on doing your job well and hanging out with people who you enjoy. Socializing to become rich, well known, or climbing the corporate ladder is not a good use of your time.

"Any investment that helps detach you from work you enjoy and makes you anxious about the future better produce a million-dollar profit, because it is costing you the best chance you have, by far, of making a fortune."

One chapter was focused on those people who made a million, then lost it all. All of the people who accomplished the feat, then lost it was individuals who preyed on their customer's insecurities. These people were so motivated to become rich that they were willing to hurt others to achieve it. For all, it worked initially, but their desire to continue to benefit more and more off of others became their demise. The lack of character and behavior control ultimately created a destructive situation for them. Additionally, these people started to believe their own stories and lost money the same way their customers did when investing with them.

Again, the book points its reader to finding something you love to do professionally. A bonus would be to do it with people you love to be around. When you have this "work" setup, control your spending, and allow time to work in your favor becoming rich is inevitable.

The majority of competitive people will never surpass middle management and could be destructive to your company for three reasons:

1) Competitive people generate a great deal of divisiveness. It’s harder for them to compete two vs one so they create silos within the company.

2) Competitiveness is small-minded. When you are focused on beating others around you, it’s too local of a focus to make a big impact within the business.

3) Competitiveness created a stop-and-go operation style. When there is no one around to compete with, competitive people lose interest and work less.

A competitive spirit is usually celebrated in our culture. Let’s all just make sure that we are not allowing the above to happen. Channel that competitive nature on improving yourself daily.

“Over a period of time, the people I’ve seen be successful just concentrated on doing a good job, were modestly proud of what they were doing, and accepted compliments, when offered, but didn’t press for recognition. I myself try to evaluate people on a basis of what they do, not say. I’m favorably impressed by people who do a good job in a quiet manner, without stepping on somebody else.” -Archie McCardell

The research that competitive people in leadership roles fail is persuasive. The driver is they will do anything to succeed personally even at the expense of the company’s success. We must look for people that have a desire to succeed, but want to bring people with them. The right competitive spirit is the one that motivates someone to make themselves better. The competition is against who they were the day prior. It’s an internal drive, not focused on others.

Rushing your way to becoming rich is a dangerous game to play.

It is about mindset and how a person's sense of urgency to become rich would most likely be the reason why they wouldn't achieve and maintain the goal. The core of the problem goes back to the basics the book has been teaching in that we all should grow to becoming rich in two stages: 1) a stage one focus on investing in ourselves so we can achieve high income in our profession then 2) a stage two focus in alternative investments only with the money that is leftover after investing in yourself.

A person's sense of urgency drives them to skip the full potential of stage one and "invest" (spend) their money into opportunities that they think are investments. The problem is in the approach: People think they can spend their way to becoming rich. Most people become rich by saving, not spending. The problem lies in our inability to make a successful investment with everything we buy. We trick ourselves, or allow others to, into thinking something is more scarce than it really is which ultimately means we overpay. We only find out that we overpaid later when we go to sell the investment and no one wants it.

Don't spend your way to becoming rich. Stay focused on investing in yourself and earn/save your way to being rich.

There are three ingredients to an "investment craze." [a situation where people rush into poor investments]

1) Scarcity attached to a common product.

2) Confusion about consumption vs. investment.

3) Rushing to become rich by investing in other items before yourself.

When people "invest" they never set out to make poor decisions. Smart people make poor investments when their approach is not fully thought out. Slow yourself down and make sure that you aren't opting into an "investment craze" that will leave you with a poor return on your investment.

Enjoying what you do for work is the key to success. Below are the first 5 of 15 recommended questions to assess where you are today.

1) How much do you like your work? Seemingly easy question to answer, but most people lie (love and hate).

2) How can I tell if I like my work? To determine this consider these three thoughts - a) how would you feel if you were prevented from doing it, b) would you continue to do it if you knew you'd be dead in five years, and c) do the pettier aspects of the job annoy you?

3) What if the work I enjoy doesn't pay well? Remember, the bulk of what people have in "investments" came from cash earned elsewhere.

4) When and if the world comes knocking at my door, what will it be buying? The rarest commodity of all is authenticity.

5) If doing what I enjoy earns me less, won't the total amount I lose over the years be substantial? An answer to this is not necessary. Most start slower, but after a decade or two the income goes through the roof.

Did your answers to these questions surprise you? Was it tough to be authentic in answering? We are in control of what we do for a living. Let's make sure we enjoy it and let that be a good thing. For your wealth creation, it certainly will pay off.

"Finding the right partner [marriage] won't help you significantly to become wealthy. And conversely, tying up with the wrong one isn't likely to significantly harm your chances, either."

The research proves that your partner is irrelevant in building wealth. It goes on to say that your happiness is extremely affected. The research also says that marriages where the couple are full-time business partners are two and a half times more likely to get divorced. These are all very sobering points.

The takeaway on the research above isn't that you should disregard how much effort you put into choosing your partner. The takeaway is focus on your career. Everything points back to loving what you do for a living to the point that you stick with it over time. Keep your wealth-building journey simple by focusing on investing in yourself.

"Win some, lose some."

The author did a nice job of making this saying really meaningful. He used a boxing match as a metaphor for life/work. Instead of thinking of life as a boxing match where you must win every round, think of life as 150 rounds and you'll win some and lose some. That's how you prevent 1 "round" in your life lasting the same amount of time as 30 rounds. If you "lose," quickly learn from the loss, refine your approach, and start a new round. The more "rounds" you have in life's boxing match the more refine skills you'll have. In fact, you'll become so good at life that people will forget about trying to beat you in the match and help you win. They'll admire the skills that you have accumulated and join you on your journey.

No one wants to lose - that's not how any of us were raised. Our losses don't have to be catastrophic though. Use your losses, learn from them, and allow them to make you a better version of yourself. Continual improvement is the goal!

"It is extremely helpful, however, to 'shape' your work, not only by being more selective about the people with whom you have regular contact but also by paring away the parts you find unpleasant. Often, a minor revision in both the people and parts made a major difference."

This is a great course of action to take from the lessons learned. The main takeaway is you must focus on your work and your continuous improvement in that work to be wealthy. High income as a result of your work takes time and focus. Alternative investments, those investments that are not in yourself, should be set aside until you are making so much money that you can't invest in yourself anymore - there's money left over. Don't ever forget what funds the cash you have to make alternative investments. That cash (from your work) must continue to come in if you want financial wealth.

Go work on things that you are passionate about and do them with people you enjoy. When this happens, you'll whistle your way to being wealthy!

Every day I spend time in the early morning reading books to grow my knowledge in business, wealth, religion and more. I share the key takeaways from my week of reading with in?Exclusive Weekly Leader Note?to a group of motivated business professionals – if you would like to join the group, you can sign up?here.

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