Tangible Wealth
Knowing what wealth really is should allow you to put your priorities in the right order. Money is subordinate to your personal health, the quality of your relationships, and your engagement in meaningful work in the world. Truly knowing this enables you to live with greater authenticity, greater fulfillment, and protects you from the degrading task of “chasing money.” It also puts you in the best position to actually acquiring it.
The income you earn usually revolves around two factors: the quality of the work you provide and how well you work with others.
Quality Work
At the end of the day, money is simply “a measure of value [1].” So, the amount of wealth you earn is determined by one thing and one thing only: your value to those you serve. Put another way, it’s determined by how replaceable you are. If the quality of work you produce cannot be easily recreated, you will be compensated for it. So, your focus should always be on how to produce the best quality work to help raise the quality of a person’s life in the most meaningful way possible. When you sincerely work from this core philosophy, money will naturally follow as a byproduct. Greater impact always equals greater opportunity for compensation.
Working With Others
Producing quality work is only a portion of the equation, however. As all exchanges of goods and services require interactions with other people, your ability to work harmoniously with others is essential. In addition to making you more valuable to others, it also has a great impact on your overall professional satisfaction. It has been found that those who work well with others also tend to have higher job satisfaction [2].
There is a balance that needs to be held however. It has been found that those who are overly agreeable do not have the necessary initiative to attain success. They are less likely to accept the discomfort of others to do what is necessary for their growth. Conversely, those that are disagreeable are more likely to lose their employment and to have less job satisfaction [3].
Wealthy Habits & Values
A healthy income alone will not guarantee financial freedom, however. As the authors of the Millionaire Next Door documented, many doctors who earn over $200,000 a year never acquire financial freedom. Their downfall is in their lifestyle choices.
Those who are UAW’s (under accumulators of wealth) live just within or outside of their means. Those who are PAW’s (prodigious accumulators of wealth) live below their means and apply their surplus wages to savings or investments [4].
Succinctly put, there are 3 behaviors you MUST exhibit to acquire personal wealth:
- keep your expenses below your income
- save your excess wages
- invest your savings in things that appreciate in value
At the foundation of these behaviors are 3 virtues that you must have:
- self control (not to be confused with self suppression)
- patience
- wisdom (knowing what’s important)
Accelerating Wealth
If you follow the instructions on how to make a good income and adopt a modest lifestyle, you can acquire wealth slowly and steadily. There are ways to exponentially increase your ability to acquire wealth however. It begins with becoming your own business owner. It was found that around half of millionaires are.
Business 101
There is much that you can learn about business practices and strategies. The purpose of this website, however, is to simplify and shed light on the fundamentals. The whole nature of business can be understood in the follow simple formula:
product/service + distribution channel + person who values your product or service more than their money = sale
In the middle ages, merchants traveled the Silk Road in southern Europe to sell silk garments to foreigners that had no access to such luxurious clothing otherwise. Today, a musical group may sell their music on a website. The products/services, distribution channels, and interested people may be completely different, but each of those three components is all that is really necessary to find success in business.
With that basic understanding and to go into greater detail about business development, the author MJ Demarco describes 5 commandments that a business owner must live by to ensure and accelerate their success in his book The Millionaire Fastlane:
- Need
Again, at it’s very foundation, the exchange of money for goods and services is the exchange of value. People only purchase things that they find value in. So if you want to start a business, find a way to give people what they truly want. - Entry
The easier it is for someone to start a business doing what you’re doing, the less likely you’re going to do well. Starting your business shouldn’t consist of filling out some forms or ordering a distributors kit. If it does, there’s guaranteed to be hundreds or thousands of other “businesses” out there that look just like yours. Try to fill a need in a niche market that will enable you to become the go-to expert in your industry. Or, start a business that is difficult to duplicate.
- Control
If you really want to accelerate your accumulation of wealth, you need to have complete control over your business. If you’re in the affiliate sales business you don’t have control. Your affiliate could change or end the program at any time. If you’re making money off search traffic clicking on your advertisements you’re not in control. One quick change to Google’s search algorithm and your income is gone. If you’re running a franchise you’re not in control. Your brand, methods, and entire business are subject to the franchisers business. If you want control, become the franchiser. Create your own business system from the ground up. - Scale
The speed at which you accelerate your business success is dependent on how large you can scale your business. So, to maximize your success, start a business that allows you to expand exponentially. - Time
If you’re trading your time for money you are not leveraging your resources wisely. If you’re a coach and you only get paid for working with clients you are not taking advantage of the rest of the hours in the day or the technological tools that can enable you to help multiple people at once. If you’re an independent contractor you’re literally billing your hours worked. Think about it – earning money independent of your time. What could you do? Where would you go? So to wisely leverage your time, use technology and human systems to automate your work to whatever degree maintain the integrity of your impact. This may be software or employee delegation.
The Law of Effection
When the commandment of Need and Scale are combined or the commandment of Need and Entry are combined, you are able to really leverage the power of wealth acceleration. Demarco calls this fulfilling the law of effection. The only real way to accumulate wealth fast is to either effect a lot of people in a small way (need & scale) or fewer people in a substantial way (need & entry).
As an example, if you are able to provide a minor solution to millions of people, you can accumulate wealth quickly. Likewise, if you are able to provide a substantial solution to fewer people, you can do the same. Remember, it’s all about the amount of value that you can provide.
Referring back to the Work section of the site, the best way that you can be valuable is to leverage your god given natural abilities and the unique skill-set that you have acquired in life.
exceptional ability X expertise = great value
Key Insights
- do quality work
- work well with others
- keep your expenses below your income and save/invest the surplus wages
- accelerate your wealth by starting a valuable business to leverage control, scalability, and your most valuable resource – time.