The things I learned from the millionaires

Being rich is not quite what you think it is.

We all want to become rich and we all have different assumption on what it is like to be rich. Part of it is true, but lot of the things are wrong. Here is how rich people feel about their wealth and life.

Being rich is not as good as being poor is bad

It’s not the money that makes your life great, it’s the lack of it that makes your life miserable. By being rich you do not automatically become happy, but by being poor, it’s almost impossible to be one. Being rich is the mandatory requirement in order to be happy, but not the only one.

Money is important

Don’t believe the lies which say that money is not the most important thing in the world. It is. Sure your health, family and friends are also important, but without money the quality of them will be much lower. With money you can buy 99% of all things that exist. It is a universal currency, never forget that.

Only the ones that want it real bad, will become rich

Forget the the nonsense that says “do what you love and the money will follow”. It may be true for the 1% of the rich, but for the rest being rich meant sacrificing other aspects of live in order to become rich. You really need to set it as your high priority. If you set your priority to be something else, you will get that, but you won’t be rich. Decide for yourself what is important for you, but understand that after you are rich, it’s much easier to get all the other things you may want in life.

You simply don’t care

Most millionaires were born in middle class families. They got the basic covered but still struggled with finances. Most of them were poor for some period of time and only started to make reasonable money in their 30s or 40s. The road to becoming rich has been hard and dirty. They have seen it all from betrayal to simple human evilness, but still managed to come out as winners.

This is why they’re not gonna feel sorry for you, if you tell them how hard are you trying to achieve your goals and will not give you alms. No one helped them when they were in same situation, so they learned to do everything by themselves, and they are not gonna demand less from you then what they demand from themselves.

Being selfish is not a bad thing

Life is about struggling, and in struggle some people win and some people lose. The fact is that nice people are those who tend to lose. Rich people are not nice. They are often selfish, jerks or even assholes. This is what made them rich. But don’t get me wrong. It’s not the rich people who become selfish, it’s the selfish who become rich.

You start valuing yourself more

It is true that rich people are often viewed as more valuable members of society, but it’s not because people hate poor, it’s because rich people value their life, health and time more. And you cannot expect other people to value you, if you don’t do it yourself first. While poor people will risk their life and health to earn peanuts, a rich person will rather pay for it, than get his hands dirty.

It’s quite ironic that people who claim that money is not the most important thing to them, are the same ones who give away their time and health in order to get a little of piece of it. And the people who know that money is important actually value their life and freedom more than the money itself.

You may not want to buy the things you always dreamed of

Imagine you always want to buy a Ferrari. Finally you are rich and can easily afford one. But you don’t buy it. You are still driving your old car and are totally happy with it. Why?

The thing is that we do not always really want the things we think we want, but we rather want the feeling associated with owning those things. Owning Ferrari, Rolex or any other luxury item is quite often not about actually wanting it, but about wanting the life style associated with owning such item. So when you become rich you suddenly do want need those things anymore, because you already are rich, you don’t need those expensive things to prove it to yourself.

This is the reason why so many extremely wealthy people may dress up very modestly and generally do not stand out with their appearance. Or as the tip goes: If you want to find the richest person at the millionaire’s club go for the one who is the most poorly dressed.

Your purpose in life may be lost

In case you made your fortune in short period of time, e.g. by selling your company, you may feel lost, as you have now achieved your life long dream, and have given away your job at the same time. Starting a new business from scratch when you have enough money for the rest of your life does not feel encouraging, so you no longer know what to pursue in your life. And finding new goal may take some time.

You still don’t waste money as a lunatic

Rich people know the value of money. This is what got them rich. This means that even if the person is making $10k per day he will not pay you $100 for something that is worth only $20. And this is not greediness. It’s a common sense. Money has value even if you have a lot of is and paying for something more than it’s worth, is just stupid. Rich people may be many things, but they are not stupid.

There are two types of things you can spend your money on

The first stage is to spend money on making your life better. That is buying a car, a house, some other stuff and travelling. In other words enjoying your wealth. This is why most people want to get rich.

The second stage is much more deep and complicated. It’s about spending your money to change the world in the direction you want. It’s about sponsoring politicians, organizations and donating money to some cause. Most of rich people will never reach this stage. And this stage will require a lot more funds than the first stage. But the people who do this, truly understand what kind of power money possesses. Money is not about buying yachts and private planes, it’s about changing the course of history.

If you can solve a problem with money it’s already cheap

Money is a tool. They say that poor people use money to buy stuff and rich people use money to solve problems. Rich people will often rather spend more money to make their lives easier than to save some of it and waste their precious time.

Perspective is lost

When you are rich and dealing with high amount of assets you will eventually lose perceptive of the money. This will show of as you fighting over $100 overcharge in your bill, when at the same time you lost $100k that day due to the crash on the market. Ironically you will also care less about loosing the $100k than about the $100 someone is trying to scam from you.

Not wasting money is even harder than making it

A lot of people are smart and know how to generate big income, but only handful of those know how to maintain their wealth. This is why we see so many people that may earn millions, but are still broke. Lot of people that start earning well become blinded by the money and think that they will just make more and more of it, which leads into uncontrolled spending and eventually bankrupting them.

Some people are not meant to be rich

Being rich is a skill that requires correct mindset and it’s not for everyone. People with poor mindset can never become rich, until they change the way they think. Even if they happen to win in lottery they will eventually spend all their money and become poor again.