We try to do these once or twice a year and its a good time for an update. Noticing these types of things can help you save time, meet the right people and avoid arguments. During the pandemic, people are forced to communicate remotely and the word choices that people make will highlight how they feel about certain topics. Keep these items in the back of your mind and you’ll be “SHOCKED” at the results.
“Backs of Others”: Any time a person says, “So and so built his wealth off of the backs of others”, you can be certain that this person is not successful. Why? Well the assumption there is that it is extremely easy to hire the right people, pay them enough to be motivated and simultaneously generate a profit. If you want to burst their ego you can snap back with the following “I will give you $1M to hire anyone you want, the catch is if you lose money that’s on you, deal?”. This will deliver a crushing blow to their ego as they won’t be able to tell you who they would hire, for how much and what they would do.
This is a standard belief of unsuccessful people. If someone “makes it” they have to create some sort of excuse for them. They can’t be successful alone, because that would mean the person is better than they are. And. As a reminder, everyone believes they are the best – even if the facts say that is false. As a fun note, we’ve noticed that the people who say this phrase are typically overweight as well. Something like 80% of people who use this phrase are not even in good shape physically. That means they can’t even build their own physical backs, arms and legs. A bit of an embarrassment to say the least.
“Rich People are Unhappy”: This is another common one for unsuccessful people. If a person is unsuccessful they need to have “something” to protect their ego. So they assume rich people are unhappy or mean. The unhappy part makes little sense as no one would ever choose to be poor if given a choice. The “mean” part is due to direct communication. You’ll find that rich people tell you “reality” a lot faster than poor people. Most people do not enjoy hearing about reality because that requires an increase in personal responsibility.
As a fun note, how does anyone expect to get rich if they think it will make them “unhappy”. Not only are they hating on people who are better than they are, they create a mental barrier as well. In the back of their mind they think it will make them unhappy so it is best not to try. Unclear how anyone can live like this as it makes no sense at all. Anyone who has succeeded in life knows that winning is the best feeling in the world. Only a loser would prefer to sit on the beach drinking alcohol vs. winning at something incredibly competitive. The high you get from winning can’t be replicated by drugs and alcohol on the beach no matter what the DJs in the club tell you.
“You’re a Smart Guy (insert Opinion/Suggestion)”: If someone makes a comment about you being a smart guy then inserts his own belief/suggestion it really means he think he’s smarter than you. You’re just “smart enough” to understand that he’s right. This is what passive aggressive people do particularly when they are in the $200-300K income range. Since the majority of people think he’s the greatest success story in his town, everyone must believe that. In this situation you must resort to smile/nod/agree.
If someone actually believes you’re smart, they will ask you a specific question and then show you they took your advice. They will follow up with a text, email, photo proof etc. They won’t waste your time with a convincing story to change your view on XYZ. If they really believe you’re bright, they will try to use your intelligence to benefit them without wasting your valuable time. In this situation you should definitely help out, they are not wasting your time and they actually want to improve without hand holding. This is about as common as finding a $100 bill on the ground in Manhattan.
Announces Accomplishments Guy: If you meet someone for the first time and he/she immediately announces his/her accomplishments it means the person is mediocre to upper middle class at best. No one elite needs to “sell” how important they are. It makes no sense. If you’re elite and you go to an event related to your industry you don’t need to announce who you are. Everyone would know if you’re really successful. No need to “sell it”
Another example of this is trading/investing. If you’re actually good, you don’t need to post screen caps (easily edited) and you don’t need to validate the decision making process with attention. If someone is building a big position in anything it is important to say *when* to get in. Not post a screen cap of the results after the stock already moved. Unfortunately, the average person is not intelligent so the screen cap idea works.
Politics is Important Guy: Unless your job is to generate noise for a political party (you work for the Biden/Trump Campaign), you shouldn’t have a lot of emotions tied to politics. The reality is that you are just one person and while a large group of people can impact an election, a single guy trying to make millions by himself should have better things to do. Simply have your opinion, vote and move on.
You’ll notice, over time, that people who are most vocal about politics are always mediocre. The range is standard, lower middle to upper middle class. Instead of wasting your own valuable time arguing with these guys, you have to smile and nod yet again. There is no winning here. Even if they believe in crazy things like defunding the police in major cities that are homes to gangs/high crime. You won’t change their mind. Smile nod and agree. You’ll save a lot more time. This is important as you should have better things to do anyway.
Limited Information Provided: If you meet someone new at a house party and they don’t give a lot of details about their life, the chances that they are rich is high. Back in the day people used to “talk business” to strangers. “How’s the biz going these days”. In the new world environment, this is social suicide. So the people who are doing well hide their accomplishments (initially) with strangers. They recognize that there is little to be gained from the conversation in the first place.
Think about it like this, if things are going extremely well and you don’t need anything what is the point in talking about it? You will only get questions and beggars at your door step asking for handouts. If you needed something then you should steer the conversation into something you’re looking for. Otherwise best to keep quiet and talk about meaningless things like the latest baseball game or the latest world event that everyone can agree on “The wild fires in Australia were terrible, so glad they are fixing it!”.
“It’s Ok”: If you ask an expert an opinion on a specific item you purchased or created and the response is “It’s ok, it’s alright, it’s decent” that really means it was extremely good. Why? Well if the person believes he is an expert on it and cannot even provide a single tangible item to upgrade/change it means you’ve successfully reached the same standards. Remember. This only applies to experts. This is because experts have big egos and love to correct other people. Just think about how much college professors love to tell people they got something wrong.
As an extra point of emphasis, this does not work with strangers. Strangers have no idea if a product is good or not. How would they? This is especially important if the product is complex (say enterprise grade items) as they would have no specialized knowledge in the industry to provide feedback. They will simply think it is strange and say it is “ok” or “alright”.
“Lets Chat”: The guy who constantly wants to “catch up” with you thinks you’re going to somehow hire him. It took us a long time to figure this out. The strategy is to essentially talk to you all the time in hopes that you’ll eventually give him a job/career position. This makes zero sense as being a friend has nothing to do with skills. In fact, hiring a friend is a terrible idea as you assume they are competent at something when they are likely not competent at all.
If you find that someone is always looking to “catch up” with you and it results in a bunch of life ramblings you have to cut the person off as soon as possible. Delete the number, don’t respond and simply move on. The only way to get them to give up is by not responding at all. Don’t respond to a single email, text message or phone call. Slowly fade away and close the door.
