That’s pretty blunt, I know.
But that’s the non-p.c. conclusion of multimillionaire entrepreneur T. Harv Eker, whom I managed to snag for this Thursday’s episode of the Tom Woods Show.
In preparation for that episode I’ve been reading Eker’s #1 New York Times bestseller Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. I’m also reading Eker’s new eBook, which he’s giving away free, called SpeedWealth: How to Stop Earning a Living and Start Creating Wealth.
Naturally what follows are generalizations, and Eker realizes that not every single person in each category thinks a particular way. (Reread that sentence before posting your blistering denunciation.) His point is that there is a mindset that is more likely to make you rich, and a mindset that is more likely to keep you poor.
A lot (though not all) of what it boils down to is this: rich people don’t hold leftist views about wealth. Some rich people may utter them, sure, but actions speak louder than words.
(1) Rich people admire and seek to learn from other rich and successful people. Poor people resent rich and successful people.
(2) Rich people believe, “I create my life.” Poor people believe, “Life happens to me.”
Or, as I prefer to put it, rich people make things happen. Poor people wait for things to happen to them.
I personally know someone of limited means whose plan for financial success consists of trying to win the lottery.
(3) Rich people don’t adopt a victim mentality. Victimhood is a poor man’s game.
(4) Poor people rationalize their situations by saying, “Money isn’t important.” Or “Family (or spirituality, or whatever) is more important than money.”
Sure it is. But the way Eker sees it is this: you can have a family and be broke and under constant stress wondering where your next meal is coming from, or you can have a family and be rich and not have to worry about those things.
It’s not either/or. It’s both/and. And being rich doesn’t have to mean you work 12 hours a day, at least not forever. And incidentally, don’t plenty of poor people work 12 hours a day?
(5) From Eker: “Rich people understand the importance of money and the place it has in our society. On the other hand, poor people validate their financial ineptitude by using irrelevant comparisons. They’ll argue, ‘Well, money isn’t as important as love.’ Now is that comparison dumb or what? What’s more important, your arm or your leg? Maybe they’re both important.
“Money is extremely important in the areas in which it works, and extremely unimportant in the areas in which it doesn’t. And although love may make the world go round, it sure doesn’t pay for the building of any hospitals, churches, or homes. It also doesn’t feed anybody.”
If entrepreneurs prosper by helping people solve their problems — and that is indeed what they do — then the more people’s problems they solve, the richer they’ll be. This is all to the good, for all concerned.
People think small, Eker says, out of fear or misplaced humility. Knock it off. Think big. “It’s time to start sharing your gifts instead of hoarding them or pretending they don’t exist.”
(6) Rich people are willing to promote themselves and what they offer. Poor people resent promotion.
Watch what happens on webinars, for example, when after an hour-long presentation full of actionable content, the presenter makes an offer. Success-oriented people are glad to consider the offer. Poor people resent that they aren’t getting still more free stuff and actually become angry at the presenter, evidently surprised that webinars are not run by registered charities.
“If you believe in your value,” writes Eker, “how could it possibly be appropriate to hide it from people who need it? Suppose you had a cure for arthritis, and you met someone who was suffering and in pain with the disease. Would you hide it from him or her? Would you wait for that person to read your mind or guess that you have a product that could help? What would you think of someone who didn’t offer suffering people their opportunity because they were too shy, too afraid, or too cool to promote?”
(7) Some poor people “actually believe they are better people because they are poor. Somehow they believe they’re more pious or spiritual or good. Baloney! The only thing poor people are, is poor.”
When a poor man at one of Eker’s seminars said he couldn’t bring himself to accept the idea of becoming rich when so many people had so little, Eker replied: “What good do you do for poor people by being one of them? Whom do you help by being broke? Aren’t you just another mouth to feed? Wouldn’t it be more effective for you to create wealth for yourself and then be able to really help others from a place of strength instead of weakness?
“Get really rich and then help people who didn’t have the opportunity you did. That makes a lot more sense to me than being broke and helping no one.”
(8) Rich people are not content with the middle-class goal of being “comfortable.”
“Living in the name of comfort has killed more ideas, more opportunities, more actions, and more growth than everything else combined. Comfort kills! If your goal in life is to be comfortable, I guarantee two things. First, you will never be rich. Second, you will never be happy. Happiness doesn’t come from living a lukewarm life, always wondering what could have been. Happiness comes as a result of being in our natural state of growth and living up to our fullest potential.”
(9) “Rich people get started. They trust that once they get in the game, they can make intelligent decisions in the present moment, make corrections, and adjust their sails along the way.
“Poor people don’t trust in themselves or their abilities, so they believe they have to know everything in advance, which is virtually impossible. Meanwhile, they don’t do squat!”
Cheering? Outraged? Uncertain? You’ll want to listen to Thursday’s episode.
Meanwhile, in advance of the episode Harv wanted me to point you to his free eBook that explains his strategies for breaking out of conventional patterns of “earning a living” into finally building real wealth. Shortcut:
