Hello, and welcome to Life Theory! We will digest essential life steps to have a better life in these episodes. And we will try to do it short, straightforward, and with no bullshit.
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With that said, let’s head to today’s episode. Rules of poverty!
• Poverty! It is a word as old as civilizations. It might have many definitions, but we will use the short and straightforward ones. “Poverty is a state or condition in which a person or community lacks the financial resources and essentials for a minimum standard of living.”
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Number 1! Causes of Poverty.
The causes of poverty might be many, and each person you ask will make a list of he is poor. The one thing they will not tell you is that the leading cause is themselves. And, yes! You might not be born in Western Europe, the United States, Canada, or Australia, but now what? You are wee given a bad hand! Now what? It is up to you to find a way to make your life better because no one else will make it easier for you, not even your close ones. They are all busy dealing with their own shit in life.
Whatever the cause might be! Your country is corrupt, it is underdeveloped, it’s poor, it’s not safe, it’s in a constant crossfire, the world has never been more open to starting at zero, and if you are poor, there is only counting up from that zero.
Number 2. Educated vs. non Educated.
Educated versus non-educated people. If we have to get real on the matter. Education is one of the leading indicators of a given country’s wellbeing and wealth. The higher the average number of people who graduated high school, the higher the country’s Gross Domestic Product. Education gives you a better shot at finding a better-paid job, but it’s also a key factor if you will be able to find that job in your country, or you would have to look beyond your country’s borders. What point is therein opportunities if you have never heard of SEO, Automation, NFTs, Blockchain, whatever it might be?
And that leads us to number 3 ! Poor Parents.
Poor Parents. Poor parents set the foundation for their children as early as they turn five years old. A lot of the parents in their fifties and sixties today have no idea how money works, and the only advice they give to their children is to go into debt, find a well-paying job, pay off their debt, get a new debt for a car, a house, a wedding, to work until pension, and then die. That is terrible advice. Not a Life Theory you would want to follow. It’s not that they don’t want their kids to be rich. The lack of understanding of money keeping them poor is the one thing they give to their kids. Listen to your parents for life advice, understand their struggles in their time, take something from it, and then do your own thing. Being born and raised poor was not your fault, but dying poor, that’s on you. We have to credit this one to Bill Gates, and he knows a thing or two about money. And speaking of people who influence your wellbeing, we move to number 4.
Number 4. Wanting help is a must-do, not a sign of weakness.
Your Circle. You should know that the five people you spend the most time with have the most significant influence on your own life, choices, and wellbeing. Keep your circle with intelligent, bright, and open-minded people, who aren’t poor, and you will be in that circle. Keep your circle with constant money struggling, never learning average Joes, and guess what? You will be the fifth Joe. Don’t get us wrong. No one is perfect in their teens and early twenties. But if you and your friends haven’t grown in your late twenties to early thirties, that’s a red flag on the poor scale, both monetary, mentally, and on your health wellbeing. If you are poor and your friends are poor, your health is probably not in a top-notch form. Money isn’t supposed to be for status. It’s supposed to bring something better in your life, those around you, and the human race as a whole. And speaking about helping others.
Number 5. Wanting help is a must-do, not a sign of weakness.
The lone wolf is an amazing story if you want to build that body in the gym or if you want a flying start in something, but remember this for as longest you are alive. There has never been a single rich person on that planet who become rich by doing it alone. Steve Jobs didn’t build Apple, Bill Gates didn’t code Microsoft Windows, and Richard Branson isn’t the manager of all of his companies. If you want to avoid being poor, you need other people. Like it, hate it, but that is a fact. Even if you build a successful online store alone, you still didn’t do it alone! You paid for hosting, card payments, products in your store, and shipments. That is not something that happens by itself. It is all done by other people. Even the people who won the lottery needed other people to give them their tickets. One of the biggest mistakes poor people make is thinking that if they ask for help, they will look weak or can’t handle the task themself. There is a reason why the company’s CEO doesn’t send those marketing campaigns! It’s not because they can’t, but because they need someone better than themself to do it so that they can focus on their strengths! That might be sales, corporate finance, expanding the business, or pushing the company forward. Something that poor people need to learn as quickly as possible is that spending money on people doesn’t cost you money. It actually generates you money! Let us say that one more time! Spending money on people, doesn’t cost you money. It generates you money.
Number 6! Hard Work versus Smart Work.
Work hard, and you will succeed! A tale as wrong as it can be. Yes! Fifty years or 100 years ago, it might have been confirmed that the harder you work, the more you earn, but that is not the case today. And we don’t mean that you have to sit on the couch and do nothing. Hard work is always required, but only if it is done smart. For example! Don’t spend 8 hours generating 800 random emails for your business. Pay a freelancer to generate them for you! Buy software that will do the repetitive tasks. If hard work were the measure of wealth, all the bricklayers, mine workers, factory workers, and underage child workers would be the wealthiest people on the planet. Work Smart, Work Hard, Work Ethically! Believe in your morals and ideas, and in 5 to 10 years, success and wealth will become your permanent life partner. No more needs to be said on this one. Just don’t use candles when there are light bows. Don’t use typing machines when they are computers.
Number 7! Life Status, Entertainment, and You!
Ok! This is a hard pillow to swallow. If you are watching this on your device, you are not poor! But you might be going there pretty fast. We know how different countries can be from one another. We are creating this video from one of the world’s happiest and wealthiest countries, but we are coming from one of the poorest, Bulgaria! And, for ten years, we were constantly complaining about how poor our country is, how poor we are, how bad the situation is. And, we were doing that in a restaurant, next to the beach, with a fantastic view, under blue skies, warm weather, and no civil or other types of war on our back. Then we would complain about how big the bill was. You see now? We spent our money on stuff, entertainment, and status. If we have only spent that time and money on educating ourselves, online courses, and early investments, no matter how small, now we would think that not having enough to buy a yacht was poor. Not that we need or want a boat. We are just making a point here. You will stay poor if you always say yes to entertainment and buy branded shit. We don’t mean to ignore a friend’s birthday or celebrate a justified occasion, but every day for a walk, a coffee, or a snack is only going to keep you away from escaping poverty. Keeping up with the Kardashians only helps the Kardashians,
or the Joneses, depending on how old you are.
Number 8. Modern Slavery!
What is modern slavery? By definition, “Modern slavery is the severe exploitation of other people for personal or commercial gain.”
It can be all around us, but often just out of sight. And, we are not going to focus on all the child sweatshops that make our clothes and phones or the Agencies that hire people from low developed countries to work in the west and give them no medical or any other insurance and pay them only a fraction of what the locals are getting paid.
No! We are talking once more about debt. The moment you take money from a bank, they own your time. That means they own you. That is something the poor failed to realize. Taking that enormous credit for the TV on sale, the new phone, the vacation, the car, the car repayments, the wedding! Those are all reliabilities that will never appreciate in value, and they lose up to 50 percent of their worth the moment you touch them. Not to mention the money you have to pay back, plus the interest. If you are going to be in debt for something, be sure that at the very least, it will never depreciate in value, and if the worse gets to you, at least you will be at zero and not a negative couple of thousands, or even more.
Casinos and other addictive entertainings are also seen among the poor. You see those rich folks playing in casinos. They play because they own the casinos. Don’t get blindsided by the glamour.
If you stay poor, you will never own your time, and someone will always hold it for you until you die! If you didn’t have the motivation not to get rich, now you do!
Number 9! Being Poor is not the same as being out of money now!
Here is something that the poor also failed to understand. Being poor is a mind game. It means you have given up. It means you have accepted your life the way it is. You tried, failed, or maybe didn’t try at all, but you are now numb to the pain and don’t even notice how poor you are.
On the other hand, being broke is a temporary situation you are in due to whatever the reason might be. Being broke doesn’t mean you are poor. It simply means that you have to live below your means for a more extended period until you can change your current situation. And with that mindset, we go to our final reason you are poor.
Number 10! Mindset!
Before you ask what mindset has to do with money, we will answer right now! Everything!
If you have a limited mindset, meaning that you stop learning after school, you believe you are entitled to things. You praise the secret or other voodoo wishful thinking; you are always, always, always going to be poor in every single way possible.
Suppose, however, you have a growth mindset, meaning you always keep on learning. If you are emotionally intelligent, don’t blame others, and take full responsibility for your actions, then you get a chance of not being poor.
It is up to your dedication, work ethic, belief system, and willingness to sacrifice that will determine whether or not you will be poor or remain poor.
People tend to stop reading anything after high school or college, which is the fundamental mistake almost all people make. They think that reading has no value. We say, if reading one book can save you decades, decades of errors, or if it can show you what works and what doesn’t, then buying a single book is one of the most significant investments one can make.
You can start small with “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” and move to the 4-hour workweek by Tim Ferris. Spoiler, it has almost nothing to do with working only 4 hours a week, trust us. If you start reading just one book per month, you would have read more books than 90 percent of the population by the end of the year.
Being poor is unjustified, not fair. Sometimes it’s not your fault at the beginning. But your mindset is of paramount importance. Change your mindset. Change your life. That was all from us today but in the words of Steve Jobs.
“There’s one more thing!”
Money is not even on the podium of essentials for a life well-lived. Money is just a made-up currency to ensure order in the chaos. Yes, it is essential, and we all want to have it, but remember. Humans are the only species on the planet that pay to live here. There will always be money, but as far as the theory of life goes. Just try to be living a good life. And with that said.
11. Work Every Day! Invest Time.
Last time we told you how crucial working smart is. Now we advise you that working consistently is the most important thing you can do in life to get yourself closer to whatever getting rich means for you. Let’s give you an example with Formula One. We love the sport very much, and it is the only sport we have ever watched. You don’t become Formula One World Champion by getting the most wins every now and then. You become a world champion by getting the most consistent podium positions. Just look at what the start of this 2022 season was George Russel and Mercedes have a middle-of-the-grid car, but they are now second in the drivers and constructors championship with consistent point finishes.
This rule applies to pretty much anything in life. Do something every single day, and in one year, you will achieve more than other people can complete in one decade. That’s it. As easy and as hard as it sounds.
In the beginning, you won’t be able to invest money in it, but you can invest your time, dedication, and pure will. It won’t be easy. It’s not supposed to be! If it were easy, everyone would have done it. The world economy would have collapsed due to people no longer working in factories, logistics, farmland, and other crucial industries.
You might get up one hour early each day or go to bed one hour later each day for the next five years, but do this consistently, do an average work that gets better every time, and you will outperform great work done every once in a while.
Something that scares people from even starting a side hustle is the fear that they can not produce a perfect outcome. To that, we say the average result, on a daily basis, will inevitably lead to success in the long run. It doesn’t have to be perfect. You just have to put in that extra hour each day. Here is a secret for you. Ninety percent of businesses do average work every day. If they tried to nail it down to perfection, they would have gone out of business before you could say it’s Friday, it’s Saturday, Sunday, what?
12. Have a Goal, and Don’t Chase Money.
You can build the biggest ship on the planet, but if you don’t know its purpose or where it is supposed to go, why did you invest the time, effort, and money in it?
It’s the same with your idea, dream, and desire. You must know what your goal is. Imagine you work on an idea. It’s a fantastic idea. You get it done at the end. What was the purpose of the idea? Can it be monetized, is it supposed to be sold to someone else, and does it solve a problem? What do you do with your finished product? If you don’t have an end game, you don’t have a plan. You have a second job that doesn’t even pay you.
And if you are here, chances are, you don’t even know the goal of the job you are currently doing for a living.
A plane can take you anywhere on Earth, but only if you know your end destination. If you don’t know that, then the plane becomes pretty much a waste of time, money, and pretty damn useless. It’s the same with the work you do.
If you work for someone else, what is your end game? Becoming a manager, becoming a CFO, Team Leader, Junior Partner, Senior Partner, CEO?
And here is something that keeps on blowing people’s minds. Chasing money will get you anything but money.
Do you know what 90 percent of the ordinary and poor people are chasing? Money!
Do you know what the top 10 percent of the population are chasing? Their dreams, desires, and vision for a better tomorrow. Do you know what they have? They have money!
And that’s just the by-product of their work.
Imagine that for a second. Imagine you have the house, the car, the family, the 2-week vacation, and a decent amount of money in the bank. Now imagine that in order to have all of that, it costs you 10 hours of work and commute to a place that you don’t even enjoy being in. Is that worth it? No! But this is how the majority of us are living. No wonder people stopped wanting the house, the cars, and even the family. The cost far outweighs the benefits.
The takeout from this was in the title. Have a goal, work consistently, produce an average outcome, and don’t chase money. Try this for one year, and see how it goes. Come back after one year, and tell us how it’s going.
13. Don’t Spend Money You Don’t Have!
You get your paycheck and pay your bills—rent, electricity, water, food, internet, phone bill, and whatever subscriptions you have. You put some money aside for food for the end of the month and let’s say you have 30 percent of your paycheck left. What do you do? A movie night on Friday, a quick trip on Saturday, a drink with Caren, because you haven’t seen each other for two weeks. A 50 percent discount sweater or shoes, a Starbucks, a takeout, a dinner at a restaurant, some small purchases online.
After all, you still have money left, right? Wrong!
This is where people get it all wrong. Assume that you don’t have anything on a credit card and have money left. This is not money you can afford to spend. Remember this!
Just because you have the money for it doesn’t mean that you can afford it.
And. Please don’t put it under the mattress also. Inflation will eat it before you say, “where’s my money.”
Invest that money. Get an online course, put some in the crypto world, pay for a seminar, and pay for a training internship. Pay to work to learn and increase your income in the long run.
If you have a business and have just started to see some sales and money coming, this is where you must have this even as a mantra.Don’t Spend Money You Don’t Have! And when you have it. Reinvest it.
14. New Skills Equals More Earnings.
Not all of us can have a business, nor should everyone be a business owner. The pressure that comes with owning a business can be soul-crushing. This is why some people are exceptional at working but want to have someone else having the pressure of finding a way to make the next payroll.
But, there is one thing that those people miss from that life choice. Just because you are good now doesn’t mean you will be good in 1 year, two years, or five years. With the pace of today’s world, we must reinvent and reeducate ourselves every 2 to 4 years if we want to be relevant in the market.
Just consider this for a second. A 99 dollars online course of six months, Can increase your salary by 20 percent after 12 months. To put that in perspective. If you earn 12 dollars an hour, that’s 2 dollars and 40 cents an hour more. That’s close to 20 dollars per day. That’s 400 dollars more per month! That is close to 5000 dollars per year! Imagine how your life could change with 5000 dollars more each year. Now imagine that you don’t spend that money but reinvest it. This is how people get richer. Two dollars at a time, and the compound effect will take care of the rest.
15. Plant The Seeds. Lay Down The Foundations.
The feeling of getting the production from the land is a satisfying feeling. The thing is that the collection is a by-product of the planted seeds period that is backbreaking and a damn hard and demanding job to do.
A lot of people want to get rich fast. To sell the product without creating the store, without thinking of the shipping process, or the marketing process. With the new Instagram life that we all dream of, we often forget how building and producing value actually works. And building value for others is what get’s you rich in the first place.
The skyscrapers are pretty, but they would have never been realized without solid planning and building the laying grounds underneath.
Money doesn’t grow on trees!. Oh, wait! It actually does. Those apple trees, those walnut trees, that furniture we have in our home. They have all come from a seed that was planted by the mother earth and by us a long time ago so that we can now generate fruits and build homes from it.
And yet, we tend to forget about the foundations of life. Food doesn’t come from Walmart! It is all coming from the land, and land generates value, and value generates money.
The lesson, no matter your industry or profession. Plant seeds, generate value and get richer.
16. Spend Less and Live Bellow You Means.
Yes! We know we mention that in the number three, but hear us out here. We have a couple of more things to say.
We used not to be able to afford heat in the winter, so we had to learn to survive and live below our means if we wanted to afford a little warmth when outside was 0 degrees Celcius.
This is what we did to manage that. We saw what the most excellent promotion from the supermarkets was that current week, and went with our bike and backpack to save some 20 dollars. We had the cheapest mobile plan, the cheapest internet, no subscription feels for TV, we didn’t even have a TV, we don’t have one now. It turned out you don’t need it in your life as much as you think. This one is hard to do, but we didn’t both present for our closed once. We didn’t celebrate the majority of our birthdays.
And, why are we telling you this? Well, all those things, we still do them. We are not rich in the terms o what rich is in 2022, but we are no longer poor either. And, ok, we do know to get something small for our friends, and the only subscription we have adopted for personal use is for monthly credit of audiobooks.
Takeout. When you start to earn more, this is when you should keep on living below your means more than ever. Because when you can get a TV, a faster laptop, and even a car without the need for credit. This is where discipline in the long-term goal, which is freedom in our case, is of paramount importance.
17. Networking and Your Partner in Life Matters.
Networking! The foundation of success. Connections in life matter. And if you are one of those who think that only evil people with the proper connection get to win, you are wrong. Yes, they are some of those, but they will always be, and trust us, they don’t sleep with peace of mind under the pillow.
Connections, or as it is called in the business world, networking is the result of you helping others, and in time you can reach out to them to help you as well.
Networking mainly happens between trustworthy and hardworking individuals. That is why they trust their business partners to get things done when they need a favor.
Be kind to people, and help them on your way up. If they outpace you, they will remember you, and when an opportunity shows itself, you might be the first person they contact. And that might be the difference between your success and your failure. Just choose the people carefully, and always be sure where their morals stand.
Now, on to your soulmate in life. Your life partner can have a significant effect on your life. One thing that a rich person will always choose is a partner that is as motivated, reliable, and hardworking as they are. Your partner could drain your energy and money or could recharge your batteries and help you make the right decision for your mutual success.
Does your partner nag you to go out every night to a fancy dinner, a fancy new place, or are they ok with a dinner cooked at home and a good conversation and occasional move night?
Those small first glimpse choices can sometimes make or break your success.
The second most important decision in life is who you choose to spend your life with. For the most important one, we will prepare a video in the near future. Just be sure to subscribe not to miss it.
18. Outsource, Analise, Invest.
Do it yourself, and you will go fast. Do it together, and you will go far. One thing that is clear when you see poor and rich people in their work habits is that the rich person worked on one or two things at a time. The poor person is doing everything by themselves.
Outsourcing tasks that can be done by pretty much anyone with an internet connection and a laptop should be a thing you have to do once doing it alone is starting to slow you down. Yes, in the beginning, you have to do everything by yourself, and to be fair, you don’t even know what is that should be done for the day. But once the weel gets rolling, it’s all about outsourcing.
You must not handle all the emails. You must not handle the leads, and you must not do all the paperwork. If you want to be rich, you have to do less of what is least important and more of what is of growing your business important.
Before you do that, however, there is one crucial step. It is a step that never ends. Analyze, analyze and adjust.
Doing something without a clear measure of what it brings is like going to a place with a half-full tank of gas, wondering if it will be enough.
Just remember that you can not improve what you can not measure!
Once you have done that, make sure that you are on the right track. Invest, reinvest, and keep on investing until you no longer need to care about money. And then invest more.
19. Grow Bigger, Get Investors or Sell
Ok! Let’s talk about real money now. You have your goal, do the hard work, have your network, have people working for you, and are in your 5th year of business.
But you can only go so far on your own finance, and the biggest question in your business journey is now on your doorstep!
Do you want to grow more prominent on your own?
Do you want to get investors to take some of the money and work pressure? After all, you never slept for five years, and the business is now on a steady line and needs fresh blood.
Do you sell? You prove to yourself and everyone else that you did it. Do you want to sell and do it all over again, or just take a couple of years of well-deserved vacation or a lifetime vacation?
You might think that those are questions everyone would want in life, but once you get to taste the other side of life, it’s hard to go back to being ordinary.
This is where you have to aline your vision for your life, what brings you happiness, what does your future look like if you stay? What does it look like if you sell? In both cases, you are measuring the pros versus the cons once again and are trying to make the best financial decision.
20. Don’t Change Because of Money. Change Because You Have Grown
You did it! You have the money, the house, the car. Now it’s time to look yourself in the mirror and ask the following question?
Have I changed? If the answer is no, then you wasted years of your life. But, if the answer is yes! You should ask yourself. Did I change because of my growth and struggles, and because of that, I am better today than I was five years ago? Or did the money change you?
If the money changed you, then you are not wordy of it. It doesn’t matter how fat your bank account is if it costs you everything else on the way, including your soul.
Never let money change you! Change because of the struggles that you overcome, and never forget that it can all be gone tomorrow.
That was for today. Well, almost. There’s one more thing for staying until the end.
BONUS: It Makes You Unhappy, It’s Not Worth It.
Here is a real Life Theory for everyone. You could have all the money in the world, but if you are not happy by yourself when you are by yourself. It doesn’t matter. Life is short, and if one zero more in the bank account will make your life miserable. It’s not worth it.
Just listen to what Jim Carrey has to say about that.
“I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer.“
And until next time,
“Keep on Rising.”
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