These Four Mindsets Are Limiting Your Potential

0
321

No, it’s not about having multiple income streams.

Those of you who follow me know I got a pretty good job offer about two weeks ago. And those of you who have been following me for a long time know I got my dream job a few months ago, before getting laid off.

-Advertisement-

A few days ago, I had a distant family member come up to me and say, “Oh wow, you’re so lucky!”

I took offence to that.

-Advertisement-
Learn More
-Advertisement-

I wanted so badly to say: “Fuck you, Karen! I worked my fucking ass off for this! Fuck you and your luck!”

She should be glad I’m a patient person.

At first, I felt disrespected because I’d spent so much time building myself only to get belittled into “getting lucky”. That anger still lingers in my veins as I pen this essay. But after some pondering, I realised this is a much larger conversation to be had — why some people cannot seem to build wealth throughout their lives.

Read also: 16 hard truths that make us stronger (read this often)

Here are my thoughts.

Please feel welcome to poke holes in my arguments. I never want to live in a bubble as Karen did.

1/ We don’t live in a zero-sum world.

In fact, the world was never in a state of zero-sum and probably never will be.

Let’s take an item we know all too well — the iPhone, for example. When Steve Jobs first introduced this engineering feat to the public, it awestruck humankind. The number of features in this compact device even surprised engineers.

But in truth, the journey of the iPhone started decades, if not centuries ago, when inventors, scientists, and engineers found ways to leverage the potential of natural elements beyond their basic utility. With this knowledge, another set of inventors, scientists, and engineers came up with the concept of lithium-ion batteries, circuit boards, miniature cameras, and a touch-sensitive screen. Yet another group of engineers then took these technologies and put them all together to forge the iPhone.

Years and thousands of iterations later, the iPhone we have today is almost capable of handling our entire livelihood. From being the item that wakes us up in the morning to an income generation product (if you’re good enough).

This is only possible because the world (companies and individuals) were allowed to build upon this technology.

Imagine if all the governments in the world said no to developing phones. We wouldn’t have this luxury today. No matter if you were the king or the peasant, you would have to travel miles just to deliver a message and we would never have had the pleasure of watching a YouTube video on a six-inches glass slab.

Positive-sum world

This is a perfect instance of how the world is a positive-sum world and not a zero-sum world.

In a zero-sum world, the iPhone would never have existed. Humanity would have never grown as a species. We’d be like ants and cockroaches, who have never had any innovation and never will. And we’d still be throwing sticks and stones and they will never become anything more than sticks and stones.

Comparing our current state of affairs with a few hundred years ago, we have indisputably better livelihoods. The lower class today is wealthier than the upper class a few centuries ago.

Once you understand the above, you’ll realise how interconnected humans really are and how we’re all feeding each other’s reality/outcome. It’s impossible to build a life of wealth on our own.

If you want to build a life of wealth, lift as many people up as you can.

Because in the end, our life is a pie that we’re all baking together and we’re all trying to make it as big as possible.

Read also: The art of doing hard things (Rare wisdom)

2/ Luck can be engineered.

Okay, now let’s address dear Karen. She’s not entirely wrong about having luck on my side when I got my job. I did get lucky.

I got lucky when this company (in my preferred industry and one that I highly respect) had an opening just as I needed a job. I was lucky because I already had prior experiences that perfectly aligns with what they were looking for. I was also lucky because there was good chemistry between myself and the team.

That’s what luck did for me this time.

The concept of influencing luck was first brought to my attention by Naval Ravikant, the man behind my favourite job board, AngelList, so I owe this point to him. He describes four types of luck:

Blind luck — Where a positive event that is completely out of your control happened.
Luck from quantity — This type of luck comes from persistence, hard work, and repetition. For example, someone like , who (I’m guessing) has probably written over 10,000+ articles now also has a few viral hits online. Compare that to someone like me (who only has about 100+ published articles), Tim certainly has more chances of getting a viral article because of his sheer volume. has written a brilliant article about the math behind virality.
Luck from experience — This is when you get so familiar with your field that you can spot a golden opportunity coming your way and you pounce on it before anyone could. It’s like muscle memory.
Luck from rarity — Say, you’re the #1 watchmaker in the world. What happens when an ultra-rich dude wants to own the most expensive watch in the world and does not care what it costs? He comes to you.
Out of these four types of luck, only blind luck is out of our control. Whereas the other three boil down to being at the right place, having the tools (skill set), and a shitload of patience to wait for the right time.

When you have all three of these, you can repeat the process over 1,000 times and you’ll succeed in 999 of them. And the one time you’re not successful, it’s because of blind luck, where you got struck with unexpected misfortune.

This is why Daddy Naval is so confident when he said,

“If you took away all my money and material possessions, I’m positive I can become wealthy again in five years.”

So, Karen, when you blame your lack of wealth on bad luck (something you can influence), you’re only blaming it on the things you didn’t do.

3/ Scalability is exponential growth.

I consider myself a fortunate adult because I came across the concept of scalability before I even started my career.

At 18, I was introduced to the stock markets. And if you ask me, this is the single most scalable career in the entire world.

To illustrate, I only placed $500 bets when I first started trading. This was partly because I was a broke college student (lol), and partly because I needed to build a profitable strategy first. And eventually, I did! I turned that $500 into a little over $1,000 over a year using my specific strategy.

In the following year, I raised that bet to roughly $700 per trade. And that turned into about $1,800. It wasn’t much, but it was more than what I made the year prior without any additional effort.

If I intend to make even more money, I have three options available:

Option 1: If the stock markets don’t change too drastically (in terms of technical details), I can potentially place bets in $1,000 units, then $5,000, then $50,000, then $100,000. This will give me about the same percentage returns, but a much larger gross profit amount.

Option 2: I can use a robot to run this system completely on its own and go build another strategy. In this case, I would be making the same $1,800 (if I continue betting $700), plus whatever I can make with the new strategy.

Option 3: Or I can do option 1 and option 2 at the same time!

This is scalability. A scalable career is one where you can put in the same amount of effort but get an exponential return.

Permit me to be a little morbid because the reality is, life is fleeting. We’re all only getting older, and our energy is a finite resource. We can’t afford to be working the same hour and getting the same result year after year. If we do that, we have no chance of being wealthy even if we were given a million years because governments would just print more money and dilute the buying power.

What good is it if the cost of a chicken is 10% of your income for a million years?

To build wealth, you need to be in a position where your inputs don’t match your outputs. Everything you do, whether it’s relationships, money, or a career, needs to be compoundable. Because that’s where exponential growth happens.

4/ The path to wealth is a way of life.

I’ve never told anyone how much I lost in the stock markets because, honestly, it’s embarrassing.

A few years ago, when I was actively day trading, I would spend so much time watching those green and red numbers flicker on the screen. As soon as I got home from classes, it was screen time on top of screen time until I physically couldn’t anymore. I now realise it’s not healthy. But at that time, I convinced myself it was a symptom of grit and that this practice would eventually lead me to be a master stock trader who would make thousands of dollars every day on an exotic island.

Yeah, I was an idiot.

Did I become a master stock trader?
Obviously not.

Did those hours I put in help me make more money later?
Yeah, somewhat. But marginally.

Was it worth it?
No! I became slightly depressed because I had no life outside of this. I would’ve been a lot happier if I’d just hung out with my friends after classes.

I tell you this because there is one more thing I am confessing — all of the above was my plan to get rich quick.

I got into trading stocks (day trading penny stocks) because a dude posted a photo of himself and his blue Lamborghini in Miami. And I wanted that for myself. I thought if I could follow everything this guy does, I’d be rich real quick and I’ll afford that flashy sports car.

Read also: The 12 habits if the most productive people I know

This mindset was my kryptonite.

Wanting to get rich quick led me to take some stupid risks. It took me about 3 more years to finally say, “Okay, I am done messing around.”

There is no secret strategy to create wealth, just like there is no secret pill to lose weight.

Everyone in the world wants wealth — your neighbour, your ex-classmate, your colleagues, your cousins, and your partner, and we’re all fighting to the death for it. If you’re not optimising the heck outta yourself with habits that are conducive to wealth, someone else will.

Stop watching porn or endlessly scrolling on TikTok;
Stop wasting your precious time on bullshit get-rich-quick courses (these gurus profit off you, the buyers);
Figure out how to expedite your learning curve;
Go out and meet new people, even if you’re an introvert;
Learn about crypto;
Learn negotiations, then apply for a new job or ask for a raise;
Open an investment account.
It’s dead simple. Just by having the right habits and mindsets, you’re already setting yourself up for success. You are where you are because of what you’ve been doing for the past three to five years. And in three to five years, you will be the result of your habits today.

This is an uncapped habit/mindset that will compound itself over the long term and it will change your life. Permanently.

Wealth isn’t money. It has always been and will always be the culmination of all your habits.

CONTRIBUTED BY Marcus Chan

For more information and updates join our WhatsApp group HERE

Join our group on Telegram HERE

Like our page on Facebook HERE

-Advertisement-

We do everything possible to supply quality information for readers day in, day out and we are committed to keep doing this. Your kind donation will help our continuous research efforts.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here