In many ways, we are born with a disadvantage. Most of us are not given any kind of financial education. We go through our academic life learning about literature, history, science, math, etc. Yet I’m willing to bet that 99% of graduating high school students would not be able to read a financial statement let alone due to their own income taxes. And then there’s our education at home where money is usually a taboo topic and improper to bring up at the dinner table. It gets worst if you were born into a lower-income or middle-class neighborhood since there are fewer role models to learn from. The challenge to find a mentor that can teach you financial literacy can be quite an obstacle. Below are some jotted notes that can help give some insight of our inner workings of what makes us tick and what we can do about it.
- Life is not fair. It wasn’t designed to be so. Those who accept this are at an advantage over those who think it should be. Those who believe life should be fair tend to perceive themselves as victims of the system. This is a self-defeating mentality since nothing is guaranteed in life much less owed to us by rite. It’s a false hope to expect it and a lifetime can be wasted expecting justification. In simplest terms – not everyone wins. Nature/biology is ruthless and very competitive where there’s a winner and a loser. You gain control by making a choice on what aisle you plan to be on and what you’re going to do about it. If you incorporate this reality, you incorporate a type of fight or flight mental fear that can be used as a competitive edge to motivate you into taking action. This relates to the concept that we’re set to fail from the get-go. You have to take action against failure, swim against the current of failure or you’ll be part of the average stats: 50% divorce rate, 80% of small business fail, 30% of Americans are in some form of prescription meds, the average has $60,000 saved by the age of 60, the average attention span is 5 seconds, the average now has about $38,000 in personal debt not including home mortgages. Let’s make one thing clear here – failures such as temporary setbacks are expected and a good thing if and only if you continue to persevere towards that goal you have set on your horizon and you learn from the mistake from that failure. Failures (setbacks) are expected and are a sign that you are making progress in your life whether it be financially or spiritually. True failure is when you have given up. Do you now understand the distinction? Failure is your stepping stone to progress.
- Hexaco: Psychometric Personality Assessment Test (scientific)
is one of the most accurate test assessments.
Conscientiousness is one of the five personality traits which is the most correlated with business success. The four sub-facets of conscientiousness: are diligence (hard work), organization (efficiency, getting things done, executing), perfectionism (making the least amount of mistakes possible, checks and balances), and prudence (intelligence on how to reach success – making the right decisions. This is where most lack strength due to mental prewiring). The average millionaire takes 20 years to become a millionaire. This amount of time is usually due to a lack of the sub-facet of prudence. Those who have developed strong prudence along with the other 3 sub-facets get there sooner. Prudence is developed by reading books and having mentors. Find out what you don’t know by admitting you’re lost and seek what, how, when, where, and why. (Warren Buffet reads 8 hours a day – he used to read more, Elon Musk averaged 2 books per day, Bill Gates reads 50 books per year, average CEO read 5 books a month, Mark Zuckerberg started a book club reading a book a week)
3. After the age of 25, it’s hard for us to rewire our mental framework. After the age of 25, the way we can rewire our minds is through massive trauma. Adults 25 and older can relearn through trauma. Going through a traumatic experience will aid in the rewire of your mind. Most of us have wiring skewed for economic success. Use what affects you traumatically as a tool to influence you to take action and make commitments to change and realign your priorities and situation. This can have a life-changing effect.
4. The greatest advantage you have is that others have been there and done it! They have failed and succeeded before you. And many have laid down a path on how they did it. Most of them have read books on it all happened You’ll be at an advantage by learning from other people’s experiences including their failures and successes. Read and meet successful people. Most of them want to share and help you succeed if they believe you sincerely want it and are willing to work for it. Try working for a successful person in their business to see how they operate and what habits aid their success.
