Almost 50 years ago I began my study of rich and successful people.
Of course, not all rich people are successful.
But I remember trying to understand why some people were rich while others kept struggling financially.
Over the years I attended many seminars, paid mentors, and read as many books as I could on the topic of success.
I modeled successful people and eventually grew successful myself.
It wasn’t easy, I’ve had my challenges in life (mostly self-inflicted) and I’ve hit rock-bottom, but I got up again, learned from my mistakes, and moved forward.
Over the years, I grew a very substantial property portfolio, built a national business this has won multiple awards as Australia’s leading property consultant and has been involved in over $4 billion worth of property transactions, and currently manages over $2 billion worth of assets for our clients.
As you can imagine I have learned a few things about wealth and success along the way.
And a byproduct of this is my top-selling book – Rich Habits Poor Habits — that I co-authored with Tom Corley and which has become an international bestseller and translated into a number of foreign languages including.
In our book, we explain that being rich has little to do with the money itself. Instead, it has a lot to do with how you think about money.
So, if you want to become rich, one of the first steps is to know how the wealthy think about money differently than you do and to start thinking like them.
The next step is to take action and to let the action become natural by thinking the way wealthy people think.
Unfortunately, we live in a society that teaches us that money equals success.
Like many other things, money is a tool. It’s certainly not a bad thing but, ultimately, it’s just another resource. Regrettably, too many people worship it.
Now, I didn’t understand this when I began my study of rich and successful people more almost 50 years ago.
Over the years I have learned that…
Being rich has little to do with the money itself.
Instead, it has a lot to do with how you think about money.
This means that if you want to become rich, one of your first steps is to know how the wealthy think about money differently than you do and to start thinking like them.
The next step is to take action and to let the action become natural by thinking the way wealthy people do and developing what we call Rich Habits.
In the last month’s Rich Habits Poor Habits podcast, Tom and I discussed some of the Rich Habits that are common among successful people, and in today’s show, we are going to continue this discussion, so welcome to today’s show.
Rich Habits of Successful People
If you’ve been reading my blogs or those of Tom Corley, or if you be listening to our monthly Rich Habits Poor Habits podcasts or you’ve read or RHPH book you will know that rich people share similar habits just the way poor people share similar habits.
Now before you get too offended…
We’re not making a judgment when we say rich people or poor people – they are terms we’re going to use to help clarify the different ways of thinking that 1% of people exhibit from the majority of the population.
So, let’s learn more about these habits,
Maybe we should clarify what habits really are:
Habits represent unconscious behavior, thinking, choices and emotions. A habit is formed when neurons (brain cells) talk to one another repetitively. Habits have a purpose.
More Rich Habits of Successful People
- Rich and successful people align themselves with like-minded people. They understand the importance of being part of a team. They create win-win relationships.
- The poor believe money will make them happier, while the rich know that money has little to do with happiness, but it does make your life easier and more enjoyable.
- The rich don’t blame (what’s the point?) They take responsibility for their actions and outcomes (or lack thereof). They know there is no such thing as a rich victim.
- The poor believe it’s wrong for a small group of people (the 1%) to possess most of the money. The rich welcomes the masses (the 99%) to join them.
- Successful people are not necessarily more talented than the majority, yet they always find a way to maximize their potential. They get more out of themselves. They use what they have more effectively.
- The poor believe that in order to gain something, you must sacrifice something else. You must choose between great family life and being poor, or love and being poor, but you can’t have both. The rich know they can have it all if they have an abundant mindset.
- Successful people are solution-focused, rather than looking for problems or obstacles.
- Successful people are fearful like everyone else, but they are not controlled or limited by fear. They use it to empower themselves.
- The rich get up early. They know there’s no shortcut so they work hard until they’ve accumulated a big enough asset base so they don’t have to work hard anymore.
- The rich ask the right questions – ones that put them in a productive, creative mindset and a positive emotional state. They understand that the better the questions they ask, the better the answers they get, and the better the results they will achieve.
- The rich have clarity and certainty about what they want (and don’t want) for their life. They actually visualize and plan their future while others are merely spectators of life.
- While the poor believe rich people are lucky, the rich know luck has nothing to do with their success. While the poor wait for their lotto numbers to come up, the rich don’t expect Lady Luck to pay them a visit; instead, they aggressively pursue their dreams.
- While the middle class believes the road to riches is through formal education like a college degree or a master’s, you’ll find many of the rich never completed high school. They favor specific knowledge in their industry over formal education. They’ve learned to become more valuable by becoming an expert in their job.
- The rich are voracious life-long learners. They constantly work at educating themselves, sometimes formally and academically; but more often informally by asking, watching, reading, or listening and also experimentally by doing, trying, failing, and trying again. By the way… I’m not talking about formal education.
Of course, it’s worth realising that…
We all have some of these Rich Habits and we all exhibit some disempowering Poor Habits. The big differentiator in the see-saw of life is: do you have more of the Rich Habits or more of the disempowering Poor Habits?
The good news is that as you’re learning about these concepts in our book the choice is yours. You can choose whether you will be a have or a have not.
Links and Resources:
Tom Corley - Rich Habits
Michael Yardney - Metropole
Get your own copy of our international bestseller Rich Habits Poor Habits
Get the team at Metropole to help build your personal Strategic Property Plan Click here and have a chat with us
Some of our favourite quotes from the show:
“I think one of the comments we’ve both made over the time is that any problem that money can solve isn’t really a problem.” – Michael Yardney
“I think we both realise that if you do the hard things early in your life, the rest of your life’s going to be easy.” – Michael Yardney
“You can get random good luck. And you can get random bad luck. But the successful people don’t count on that.” – Michael Yardney
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