builderall

Why Don?t the Wealthy Teach the Rest of Us How to be Wealthy?


This is a question that I saw on a financial forum the other day, and I was curious as to what people thought so I read through the answers. I doubt many of the responses would surprise anyone who has read the comment section on anything to do with the wealthy. 


?They?re greedy!? ?They want to keep us down!? ?Why should they share their secrets?? ?They don?t have time to teach us!? 


Really the responses went on and on like that. Some were more thought out, but no one seemed to find the truth. That truth is that the wealthy often do share their secrets. 


This information generally comes in three forms. 


Mentorship


Mentorship is the act of teaching someone the step by step process to duplicate the success of another person. This happens in a lot of fields. I mentor the employees under me because I feel it is my responsibility to help them avoid some of the mistakes I made. The wealthy do too. 


Bill Gates was mentored by Warren Buffet in terms of time management and prioritizing people. Steve Jobs mentored Zuckerberg, and the list goes on and on.


The problem is that most of us can?t be mentored directly by Warren Buffet. There is no way he could begin to have the kind of time it would take to mentor more than a few people one on one. Generally if you want this kind of access to someone you have to be in their circle or pay them well for their time. 


Mentorship is often the fastest way to gain this kind of knowledge, and even then it could take years to see real results. These opportunities do exist with wealthy people, but they aren?t all that common. Those that do exist are typically very niche as well. 


For example you might be able to find a very successful trader to take you under his/her wings if you can show you have the mindset for it. A doctor might take an interest in a young student and help them develop into a doctor as well. I find though that it mostly still boils down to getting access and demonstrating the correct mindset. 


Strategy Specific Knowledge


I feel like this is what most people are looking for when they ask this kind of question, but either they don?t have a strategy in mind, or they don?t have the base knowledge to make the information useful. 


In my day job, we often write work instructions to help people get their jobs done. They come in two varieties most of the time. The first is for the layperson. It is typically extremely detailed and a step by step process with pictures to exactly duplicate something. Something like adding a new user to an application would be something we might write.


The second type is built for professionals like myself who already have the basic knowledge to read between the lines so to speak. These instructions might include ?Add a User? as nothing more than that followed by ?Assign Permissions? and so on. 


The first type is pretty rare from the wealthy. They won?t often give detailed step by step instructions on how to be wealthy, or even about a specific strategy of getting wealthy because those exact steps probably won?t perfectly reproduce the wealthy person?s success. Their businesses, trades, and opportunities will be different from your opportunities. 


Instead they are more likely to give you information about the strategy and rely on your experience to fill in the specifics. That means they expect you to have a baseline level of knowledge. So if you want to gain real insight from Warren Buffet on trade strategies, learn to trade. Then read everything you can on how he executes his strategies. There are plenty of books, authorized and otherwise, about the man and his techniques. Then listen to his interviews. The man drops a wealth of knowledge in his interviews.   


General Knowledge


General knowledge is the third way that the wealthy teach us. General knowledge is more about mindset, habits, and practices than specific strategies. It also seems to be one of the most common ways they impart great teachings to us. 


For instance most of the truly wealthy people out there who do mentor people and give specific strategy advice also have written or had someone write a book about the importance of mindset, habits, and best practices for managing money or time. 


Why is this? 


The answer is simple. Our mindset is most often what sets people apart. It is what keeps us down or propels us into something bigger. If you have the right mindset, build the right habits, and follow good practices you will be ready when the right opportunity arises. 


What do I do now? 


That?s the real question isn?t it? My response is pretty much the same as so many wealthy people. Start with yourself. Adjust your mindset, attitude, and relationship with money. Learn to see it as a tool rather than a target. From there fix your finances. Learn to budget and get that budget to where you have disposable income. Then pick a topic to learn that will move you to greater income. Maybe you want to learn to invest in stocks or crypto. Maybe you want to learn affiliate marketing, or real estate. Maybe you want to take a beloved hobby and turn it into a business. 


Find something, and learn about that subject. Pick up books or courses in trading. Follow people who are already doing what you want to accomplish. Read their material, and understand that they likely struggled to get where they are. Understand that you will too. Then stick with it. Don?t change strategies until you have learned the one you are working. 


That?s what I?ve done. You can read my bio for the full story, but after getting rid of 10s of thousands in consumer debt I decided that I didn?t just want a good life, I want a great one. So I hired a millionaire mentor to show me the ropes of Affiliate Marketing. I have to admit that even with a degree in E-Commerce, he and his staff have opened my eyes. 


Enough about me though. If you are trying to get your finances under control, check out some of my other blogs with a tag of Budgeting. 


Resources: