There are several things you cannot control in life and most of them occur before you’re even born: 1) who your parents are, 2) your nationality, 3) your genetics and 4) the education you start with. Naturally, all four of these things have a large starting impact on your life. Being born with a billionaire parent vs. under the poverty line, dramatically changes your life. There are always ways to get out of these situations but there is no denying the truth. Being born with the “right” items out of the gate makes life significantly easier. There is good news however. Life is a rigged game so if you play the cards correctly and “hack the system” you’ll get out quite easily.
Since information is a commodity anyone can get rich even if they have bad results from the big “four”. You can still get access to the internet, read for free and get rich without stepping into a classroom. In fact, we have a clear outline for $1 million dollars in 10 years and this is written in less than 10 pages. In the past, information was not equal and it was possible to lie about the truth (the truth about how making money is done) and that is largely left to the foolish. In 2018, anyone who falls for get rich quick schemes is well below the bottom quartile of the intelligence spectrum. Even if someone falls into the bottom quartile, the logic and reasoning is publicly available to be seen and proven over and over again. Maybe the hot stove is touched once… But it is unlikely to continue unless there really is a sucker born every second (based on our experience, this is still true. A sucker is born every second, likely faster!). Jokes aside, the same sucker can learn from his mistakes if he really takes the time to read.
Money is the First Rigged Game
The first rigged game is certainly money and there is one big trap here. The trap? The personality destruction that comes with it. You’ll find that “most” rich people are boring as rocks. They are extremely conservative and simply worked hard all day long slaving away to make money. They are so conservative they don’t even think the 4% rule works and likely live at 35% of annual passive income “just in case”. These are the same people that exhibit large amounts of passive aggressive behavior, live with quiet desperation and just don’t see money as a tool (instead they view it as their actual worth).
If you avoid this trap, you can win the “money game” by simply feeding these individuals what they want to hear “that they are right”. If you have no talents at all, simply put yourself in a position to tell rich people they are smart. This will make you rich. If you do have talents, you can simply sell products that target insecurity. This is exactly why Ferrari’s and name brands exist. Since money is the *identity* of your typical rich person (he has little beyond this) selling to that identity will make you even richer than the most basic strategy of “telling them what they want to hear”. For those that are uninitiated: the typical answer for getting rich is to give people something they need. We just take it further. We already know the highest profitability lies with the rich and we also know they are insecure. So all you need to do is find a product that makes their life easier and make it seem prestigious. An obvious example would be Fiji Water. It is simply expensive water but is branded as prestigious. This is why you see them in all those high end hotels. Absolute non-sense, but a great business.
The difference between a want and a need is that the “need” part cannot be ignored. Frugal people have low “need” levels because they are laser focused on cutting costs. A rich person is the exact reverse. He doesn’t have to cut costs. This leaves you with only one option, which is targeting his or her *need* for approval. Rich people are just regular people on steroids. They believe they are better than everyone else (they believe this deeply) and simply hide the fact. There is no denying the truth though. They have an absolute *need* to be seen as better than other people. Sometimes it is materialism but for the most part it is attention.
Now that you know how the money game works we have given out the two most obvious ways to get rich: 1) You feed the need for attention or 2) you sell them a product that gives them more attention. That is really all there is to it. The second option takes a *LOT* more work and offers a *LOT* more financial gain. The first option is for people who really have minimal skills and just want to benefit off the hierarchy of life. Afterall, if the CEO of a multi-billion dollar company loves you, it is unlikely you’ll be fired within his firm even if you’re simply working in Human Resources handing out the paychecks.
Happiness is the Second Rigged Game
The second rigged game is being happy in general. From the first section you can see that there is a clear way to get rich without having any talents. Once you have this money, it does not guarantee you will be happy. Being happy is more inclusive: personal relationships, self-esteem etc. Fortunately, just like money there is a basic formula to being happy which is as follows: Don’t bother comparing yourself to anyone else and put all your effort into each day. That is really all there is.
You’d think the formula would be more complex but it isn’t. The problem is that most people can’t do either one. Comparing yourself to others is encouraged by practically everyone. You’ll get passive aggressive comments suggesting someone who is your age or younger is already more successful. You’ll get passive aggressive comments about being less important or “inferior” to older people as well. It is interesting because people who exhibit this behavior are not happy otherwise they wouldn’t waste their time with the comments in the first place! If someone is both happy and rich they don’t even bother, they are more interested in having a good day.
The second one is more psychological. Once you’re set financially, you may go through the classic drug and alcohol addiction cycle as becoming financially independent is the hardest hurdle to jump through in the game of life. After this you’ll find a balance in the stress spectrum. At the lowest end, if you do nothing, you’ll get bored. Flat out bored. On the other end, if you try to do too much, you’ll be stressed out again and defeat the purpose of beating the “money game” in the first place. We’ll leave it up to the reader on how to adjust when they get there, but we’ve found that working until “tired” and calling it a day is just enough. No more long nights, no more stress. The only time the far end of the stress spectrum is acceptable is when you know it is temporary in nature. Then you balance this out with an equal amount of time of relaxation. Remember, just because those digits go up doesn’t really mean much. Sure you may upgrade from a three bedroom to a four bedroom… but it’s definitely not going to compare to the original dopamine rush of being “done”.
Relationships is the Third Rigged Game
Eventually, you learn human psychology. If the general framework is learned, you’ll never have a problem with relationships. Well… Never is a strong word, but you can reduce the probability by a large amount (probably 90%). Relationships are no longer a topic of this blog, it hasn’t been for a couple of years since it should be figured out by late 20s (at minimum). Continuing to talk about “strategies” to meet people becomes ridiculous since you’ll end up attracting the people who like your personality if you move up the value chain enough. We haven’t met a single rich and lonely person who didn’t have some sort of personality disorder. Learning how to strategize is essentially a Bandaid on a gun shot wound. It will bleed out eventually so don’t bother.
How to win this rigged game? Quite simple. Never enter into a single relationship that you don’t think will last a lifetime. That is right. As soon as you see a single character flaw you have to leave. You’re essentially front-running the inevitable (which would be a parting of ways). It may take one day to figure this out or it may take three years. It does not matter. Once you realize the relationship isn’t going to work you should leave. We’re using the word relationship broadly because you can apply it to anything: people you hire, people you date, people you are friends with etc. This makes your real relationships extremely clear cut and dry when compared to your “acquaintances”.
How to manage acquaintances? Yet again change the expectations here. If you have an acquaintance for swimming, don’t expect them to be interested in your businesses or other hobbies if they are completely unrelated to his field of work. Generally, an acquaintance is someone who you have a single item in common with. There is no reason to expect more out of someone who only have one overlapping interest. This also allows acquaintances to come and go throughout your life without doing any sort of damage to your personal life. Yes it is terrible when your golf buddy leaves and you’re forced to find someone else but it’s not the end of the world. Sure beats hiring the same guy to your company for a role he wouldn’t succeed in and leaving on a negative note.
The last item: believe in incentives. No matter what, people are animals. If they are incentivized to do something and it increases over time… Don’t be surprised when it happens. This means you should not be surprised to see your closest relationships (not acquaintances) turn sour if they are put into a situation where they are incentivized to act poorly. People are capable of accomplishing practically anything. That said, it would be wise to incentivize them to align with your interests. Before asking for something, make sure everything is aligned otherwise you’ll be sorely disappointed long-term. This is naturally more of an art than science since everyone does favors here and there. The “tit-for-tat” is mentally noted no matter how close the person is.
Momentum is the Fourth Rigged Game
Physics applies to everything: Objects in motion stay in motion. Once you’ve established yourself, the key is simply moving in the “right direction”. We constantly laugh when people believe they will “officially retire”. Anyone who makes it to a few million dollars early in life, is ideally smart enough to realize he will get bored doing nothing. The key is simply maintaining “momentum”. This is a massively rigged game. If you have $5 million dollars, with just 4% return you’re looking at $200,000. This means your “money momentum” only requires you to spend under $200,000. Many people assume this means you should spend $200,000… That couldn’t be more wrong.
What this means is that your CASH FLOW is what determines what you spend in a year. We’ve said this many times but it continues to get mis-interpreted. Cash flow is more important than net worth because it determines your long-term net worth. Your net worth is going to go up and down a ton every single day. Anyone who is actually rich knows this and does not worry about the fluctuating digits in the air. If you have $5M and the portfolio tanks 10%… There is practically no way to offset this since that is a $500,000 decline in a single day. Instead you should look at your quarterly cash flows and decide if it was net positive or net negative. That is all that matters. If your cash flow coming in is always well above your cash spend you’re not going to go broke. Once this capital machine is up and running you’ll realize why rich people don’t “know” what they are worth. But they certainly know exactly how much cash flow came in last month or last quarter. If the passive income drops to say $100,000 for a year… It still isn’t a big deal. You simply hold onto those investments, spend under the total annual income for the year. No change. (Total annual income would be $100K + cash flow from your business). It bears repeating. Once the nest egg is made, the momentum game is yours to screw up! Practically impossible for any intelligent individual.
Importance is the Fifth Rigged Game
The final rigged game is this desire to be seen as important. Once we realize we’re just a spec on the earth and no one cares if we stay or leave, the ego takes a big step back. Attention is natural as humans do want interactions. That said, keep this level as low as possible. Much better to let people believe they are smarter than you and better than you unless there is a clear reason to show your cards. We’ve seen nothing but negative ramifications from being an attention monkey. Attention is certainly a way to make money… that said you don’t need the money anyway… so why bother? Just an ego stroke. Once basic way to avoid this pitfall is by avoiding brand names for as long as humanly possible. Since it is all but guaranteed you purchase a few fancy items in the future, limiting these items is key. There is a line between “doing this for me” and “doing this to impress others”. The second item in quotes always ends in tears.
Conclusion: These are the five rigged games. We’ve been blogging for about 6 years and yet we still get mis-interpretations of all of them. This is likely because there is too much marketing out there. While this is a publicly available article… We’re still going to invest heavily in brands (targeting insecurity), fast food (terrible for health) and insurances (related to fear, similar to those stock market going to zero articles). While we don’t believe in them ourselves, it doesn’t mean that they will fail. In fact, it means they will succeed since 99% won’t get through the first step! This is all good news for anyone reading this, they know exactly how to play the game… They know that people won’t change and therefore… they know how to take advantage of this rigged game.
