One of the main items we preach here is getting rich and pretending to have nothing. We write the way we do because if we state something as “fact” it makes it a lot more likely that people will try it. In school most people are taught to be “open minded” as their liberal teachers force feed them horrible advice on how to succeed. So if we talk in reverse fashion, it only attracts people who were smart enough to realize they were being fed lies in school (“team spirit”, “team work”, “go the extra mile for someone else” and other such nonsense). The idea of getting rich and laying low is pretty important so we’ll give you a step by step on how to do it.
Two Rules Before You Get Rich…
#1 Remember to Avoid Fame: As we’ve said in the past, fame is just harassment from regular people. If you’re famous, people already know you have money. And. On top of that, the people you attract will be “angling” for something. If you’re simply a happy go lucky guy or a calm person, you’ll attract much less attention. This is a good thing since you will only display wealth on an “as needed” basis. This is extremely important. An as needed basis means that you choose to let people in on the secret (that you’re well off). In short, get rich first, then decide if you want to be famous.
… And #2 Avoid Personal Life Details: When people poke around for personal life details, stick with broad topics and tell people you are “80% as good as they are”. If they make $200K a year, you’ll make $160K. If they live in a 3 bedroom house, you live in a 2 bedroom condominium. So on and so forth. (As a side note, most people lie *up* so remember to adjust for the lie when giving your 80% number). If you follow these two simple rules you will be miles and miles ahead of your peers. You won’t have to answer hundreds of text messages asking for a “job” or “hey man we should work together”. No one will waste your valuable time as you scale since they won’t know you’re rich in the first place.
Get Richer While Remaining Under the Radar
For what it is worth, somewhere around $25 million and it becomes almost impossible to be under the radar (from what we’ve seen). The reason why? Well if you get to this level… around $2.5M (at least) will likely be attributed to your home. If your primary residence is worth nearly $3 million you’re likely well off so your cover is blown. Sure you could try and hide but as more and more people visit you, word will get out and you’re essentially a target (at least to people who are two handshakes away). The good news? If you stuck with the two rules above, the people who know you’re well off will be contained. Since $25 million is rich by practically any standard out there, you now know it is possible to scale without drawing a ton of attention.
Distributed Cash Flows: The easiest way to blow your cover is to concentrate all of your wealth into a single cash flow item. If you own all of the real estate in your neighborhood or you show up in company filings as owning 10% of a public company’s stock… you’re going to be well known in a hurry. The best way to avoid this is by having multiple streams of semi-passive and passive cash flows. If you build out multiple internet businesses that generate $120K a year, then build out a bunch of real estate assets that generate $120K a year… No one is going to think you’re rich. Why? Well you tell the real estate people that is your primary business and you tell the internet side that is your primary business. Now both sides of the fence think you’re only making $10K a month.
Now we realize on first glance that these numbers may seem low or high (depending on the age of the reader) but it is certainly possible to get two streams of cash flow to $10K a month and have no one think you’re rich. As a clear example, if you read Efficiency, once you sell your first business you could make ~$1M. With $1M and some leverage you can essentially own cash flowing properties and work online to get to $10K a month very rapidly ($10K for each line item).
Avoid a Car: Cars are clear giveaways for wealth. The more important item? When you’re driving, you can’t actually use your time for anything. You’re busy driving. If you work online, this is not a good set up since you could spend your time responding to emails, making small updates or researching in general. Making money while you’re in transit is a lot better than spending your time avoiding incompetent drivers on the road. We have no doubt there are special situations where people will need a car… that said… if you live in an urban city the chances you really need one are slim.
Never Give Financial Advice: Yep, that’s right… If you give financial advice to people who are new, there is a high chance that they put the pieces together. Don’t do it. If someone is in a network closer to you, then the rule loosens a bit to “don’t tell them how much you make or how you make it”. If you go through concepts such as leverage, cash on cash return, derivatives and outsourcing a workforce… they will figure it out quickly. Instead if you’re forced into some sort of financial conversation, stick with the boring advice of “save 20% a year and invest in stocks”. This alone will make you appear as cookie cutter as they come.
Don’t Talk About Scaling a Business: That’s right, when you start to scale your business or your investments… don’t talk about it to anyone. Most people are busy trying to cut costs to increase their savings rate. Practically none of them reach the realization that scale leads to a 1,000x higher return. While you’re busy scaling and earning more, they are busy trying to squeeze the margin line. When you’re in a normal social setting always have a few “cost saving tips” in the back of your head, this will make it seem like you’re in the same conversation as they are. This can be random facts such as “you can refinance your home for X% lower now!” to “XYZ came out with a cool promotion to lower your cell phone bill”, naturally the example you choose depends on who you’re talking to.
Complain About a “Boss”: This is the best way to blend in. Even if you don’t have a boss, just pretend you do and complain about it. This is probably the most common complaint after age 22 “yada yada boss sucks or someone else is a jerk”. The worst thing you can possibly do is complain about *customers* because then your cover is blown (and you’ve given away a key detail that you don’t have a real boss). Just replace all your actual problems with the word “boss”. You don’t have production issues, you have “a boss who can’t prioritize”. You don’t have a customer service issue, you have “a boss who can’t give directions”. So on and so forth.
Putting it All Together and a Why
For the first time we’ll actually explain why you want to do this. If you’ve read the paragraphs above, you’ll see the key items are: 1) lying down, 2) pretending to not be in charge of your own life, 3) avoiding dead giveaway expensive items such as a car, 4) avoiding leaks and 5) avoiding unsolicited advice.
Why? Well if you’re serious about getting rich what you’ll find is that people will try to prod into your life. Even if you get a measly promotion at some soul crushing job, people will poke around to see how much money you make. Think about this further… if you succeed with an actual business then people will beg for jobs. This is a guarantee. Now you have people emailing you with terrible ideas that don’t work and asking horrible questions that don’t make any sense. This eats into your time. If you’re not where you want to be financially (yet) don’t create more work for yourself. This is equivalent to running up a sand hill, when there is a hard dirt path five feet to the right. You’re already in a tough game, don’t make it tougher.
The other reason for this is filtering your own social circle. If you complain about a “boss” for example then you know the other person is not on the right path. Why? You’ll see it in their body language. The same applies to driving cars. If you see a guy with an expensive car he’s typically newly rich so you simply stroke his ego and eventually you’ll figure out if he’s worth adding to your network. The key is information and giving out the least while obtaining the most.
The last item for “why” is avoiding leaks. If you don’t have a distributed cash flow system and all of it is concentrated under one person, the chances he or she blabs to other people is quite high. If you’ve got $20 million in real estate alone, the chances that you’re under the radar is around zero percent. While this is a fantastic problem to have (later), it’s best to delay the problem so you can continue choosing who you meet with. In short, the reason for all of this is to choose your own network! Most people are busy trying to “angle and sneak into” someone else’s network. Instead you’re cherry picking people you keep in touch with by giving out the least amount of information.
