This is an excerpt from my new book, The 4 Minute Millionaire*. If you enjoy it, you can buy a copy on Amazon for $4. Disclaimer: This is not financial advice.
If you hate rich people, you will never be rich.
This is a cliché but also a simple law of psychology: Whatever occupies your mind will subconsciously affect your behavior. You needn’t be greedy or want to show off your riches, but if you’re full of envy and mistrust towards millionaires, you’ll steer yourself away from becoming one without realizing it.
It’s a prerequisite to attracting it. When you stumble across rich people online and in life, you should engage with them, learn from them, and be curious about whatever lessons they have to teach.
If your mind immediately taints their character out of prejudice, it won’t remain open long enough to pick up any clues. As ancient philosopher Epictetus said:
You need a positive attitude towards wealth and money.
It’s a prerequisite to attracting it. When you stumble across rich people online and in life, you should engage with them, learn from them, and be curious about whatever lessons they have to teach.
If your mind immediately taints their character out of prejudice, it won’t remain open long enough to pick up any clues. As ancient philosopher Epictetus said:
“It is impossible to learn that which one thinks he already knows.”
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Epictetus
A common symptom of despising rich people is having thoughts like, “This person just got lucky,” “They probably made their money illegally,” or “I bet they are ripping off poor people.”
Another symptomatic behavior is projecting negative associations on a future, rich version of yourself, like, “Once I am rich, all of my friends will probably just want my money” or, “What if being rich will just make me lazy?” This is totally nuts! Deep down, we wish we had these problems, and even if we became rich, we might never have to face them. Don’t hate rich people. Don’t complain. Get inspired. Look at what you must do objectively, learn from every rich person you can find, and stay curious so you can pick the right allies on your way to wealth. Action Item: Identify one limiting belief you hold about money, then question if it’s actually true What is something your parents taught you about money that didn’t seem to hold up in the real world? Can you think of a time when you limited your financial potential based on an idea you believed in? Maybe, you thought stocks were the instruments of evil bankers and missed out on a good investment. Maybe, someone told you “cash is king,” but now you find it just sits in your bank account, getting weaker and weaker due to inflation. Pick one belief about money you suspect might hold you back, and then ask: “Why do I have this belief and what would the world look like without it?”
