We’ve been blogging for a long time (over 5 years is certainly a long time to us). Our beliefs in life have evolved quite a bit so it is probably a good idea to update all of our readers on our latest philosophies. The good news? A lot of the big items remain the same: 1) putting “hard work” up front, 2) avoiding trading time for money, 3) focusing on learning how to navigate relationships and of course 4) the art of getting rich without killing your personality. Those items remain unchanged so lets jump in.
“Hard Work” First: We have to put this phrase in quotes because Hard Work is overrated. People believe this means “long hours”. To us hard work means solving a difficult problem. This is real work because hard work can include digging a ditch with a spoon. Just because it is hard to do does not mean it is an efficient use of your time. That said our original belief remains unchanged. At age 12-24 or so, your life should be full of hard *problem solving* work. This focuses all of your energy on something that will result in the highest ROI.
This day and age we stick with our standard recommendation since we do not know how smart the reader is. If you want the lowest risk highest probability to become a multi-millionaire, going to a top college and getting a Career is the easiest stepping stone. So nothing has changed from everything outlined in Efficiency. The vast majority of our readers are in their 20s and should follow that path to a T. If someone completes the book and doesn’t have a second source of income within 3-4 years… something has gone horribly wrong. By the time they are in their 30s they will already have a business running and won’t be interested in their Career anymore. Maybe they keep it maybe they don’t but it really won’t be interesting anymore.
Feed Egos and Erase Your Own: At the end of the day, there is no way to convince someone that they are wrong. Time and time again we see the same strategy pay off which is: Smile, Nod and Agree. There is no point in fighting people since they won’t like you after that. Once they don’t like you, they won’t take anything you say very seriously. It is a lose, lose situation. The one good thing about this is we can at least practice forgetting our own Egos. If someone has a Ferrari or makes $10M a year while you’re making $2M a year and drive a Honda Civic… Does it really matter? Of course not.
Funny enough, once you make it (whatever that means for you financially), you’ll become less “intense” and ego driven. People who need their Egos to be fed typically compare themselves to the next richest guy in the room or city. It just doesn’t make sense to us at all. But. This is how the world operates. We’ve also concluded that this is another “status signal”. In a rare case we’re going to use dating as an example. Generally, women don’t like talking to the “intense guy” who is all about work. This is because someone who has made it already… doesn’t care about work! It took us a long time to finally make this connection but it all clicks once you see it. A rich man is a man who has free time and a high income. If someone is constantly working how “rich” can they be? This is a pretty big switch since we always assumed there was no “stepping off the gas”. But. You can absolutely step off the gas if you are able to outsource menial tasks. The numbers go higher even though you’re working less. You’re just more focused on the 2-3 things that matter.
Spending on Health and Time Never Goes Wrong: Okay, never is a strong statement but we rarely see a negative ROI on either. People ask us what they should spend on when they get rich and the answer is always the same “whatever you like”. That said… We’d argue that your best spending will focus on 1) experiences, 2) time and 3) health. All three of these things rarely lead to buyers remorse.
Experiences include anything and everything you wanted to do that does not require a material purchase. This includes everything from travel to learning how to play a musical instrument to extreme sports. Enter anything that is not a recurring cost. The world is an enormous place and you’ll find a million things to do that don’t require you to buy a fancy Rolex or Ferrari. While people in their 20s will assume this means hitting the clubs in every single foreign country on the planet (which is fun for sure), it can also include things like African Safari’s and Hiking up Mount Everest.
Time is probably the most underrated. Time means services. We’d argue that you’re better off hiring someone to clean your house/apartment, do the laundry and potentially cook as well before “upgrading your home”. If you upgrade your home and are forced to use your own time to clean and organize… You’ve actually *lost time*. While you can afford the bigger place, you’ve lost a ton of money in terms of opportunity cost and quality of life. For some reason, Western Cultures focus more on buying more and more space and shun the idea of buying services. When you get rich (no doubt you will) try the services route first and let us know how it goes! Ironically, the people who jump into high-end cars and big homes typically end up more stressed than they were just a few years ago.
Health is significantly more important than money. If you can spend on your health, this is going to give you the best long-term ROI. Invest in the following: Food, Drinks, massage therapy, blood work and routine doctor appointments. All of these things will elongate your life and improve the quality of your life as well. Quality of life is key since being rich and in a wheelchair defeats the purpose of getting rich in the first place. So there you have it… Our three main areas to spend at will are experiences, time and health. It pays off rapidly and the rewards stay with you for a lifetime versus a few years like a nice car or watch.
Long-term Relationships: For some reason, we’ve found that successful people are able to sustain long-term relationships for 10+ years. This means we are now recommending that people avoid individuals with “short-term” friends. If they were not able to keep a handful of friends over the course of 30-50 years… There is usually a big problem. Having 3-5 long-term friends/relationships shows that the individual was able to correctly pick out the future success stories within his peer group. If you have access to the internet there is a 100% chance that you can find a future successful person who is currently 20-40 years old. We are using big ranges because it erases the excuses from the equation. If you find an older person who does not have a few close relationships of 10+ years… start the Smile, Nod and Agree process.
More Inequality: For better or worse we wouldn’t be surprised to see more inequality in the future. This is in the life philosophy post because it should immediately trigger the “no excuse button”. With the internet, the playing field to get rich is essentially leveling out. Yes it is still significantly harder in third world countries. But. If you’re in a first world nation you have all the tools needed to be on the “winning side” of widening inequality. We don’t really have a big philosophy on inequality since “value” is how money is generated in the first place. The one thing we are excited to see is the growing level of competition. As hierarchies come down (being rich by being born with the right parents), we should see less and less nepotism which is probably a positive. If you end up on the right side of this inequality equation be sure to wake up with a huge smile on your face every single morning.
No Change to Legal Marriage: Our views on *legal* marriage has not changed at all. We’ve never been against people having families or having a significant other. We remain 100% against a legal contract that simply increases your taxes and puts you in a losing legal proposition. People continue to say we should “man up” on this topic but the facts have not changed. If you need to sign a piece of paper to get the girl to marry you, she didn’t love you in the first place. No one really likes this topic since it is not possible to poke holes in it from a logic perspective. Instead the result is more complaints and “emotion”.
Need to Change the Name of the Blog: It has been a long journey and we really should change the name of the blog. If anyone gets a good idea let us know. The only reason we haven’t changed it is because it makes us laugh every single day. We started a website for the laughs. It ended up growing. We have a pretty large audience and have not ruined our privacy (thank you affiliate marketing for teaching us all the tricks!).
Human Psychology Doesn’t Change: We still get complaints that we should give all our books away for free and delete all ads. We just laugh because human psychology doesn’t work that way. If we gave something away for free it wouldn’t even be read. This was proven way back when we gave away free copies of Mike Cernovich’s book. We make very little relative to our actual income and the cost of a drink at the club is more than reasonable. It forces us to engage with people who will actually do something with their lives! If we gave away our time entirely for free along with the products, the impact would be *lower*.
Getting Rich and Actually Living: This is probably the main point of the blog. For those that actually spent some time on Wall Street (the real kind), you know that the vast majority of them are insecure, boring dorks (complete with overbearing wives). We have been told this is also true in the corporate law environment. If you’re going to get rich and give up your life doing it… Was it really worth it? Probably not. We could all get hit by a bus tomorrow so there is a balance that needs to take place. This website is more of a warning for people who stay on the treadmill as the clock reaches 38, 44, 48 …. years of age. The clock doesn’t stop.
