The wealth of this world has always been controlled by a small group of people, and what most of us want to know is how those individuals acquired their enormous fortunes.
In reality, certain unwritten rules circulate within the circle of the wealthy. These rules are not openly discussed by wealthy individuals, but they are secretly followed.
Why is it like this?
It’s because these principles go completely against the values held by the majority of people, and they even contradict them. If these principles were revealed, most people would not only fail to appreciate wealthy individuals but would also criticize and attack them.
Over time, wealthy individuals become unwilling to disclose these rules and might even resort to using grandiose words to placate others. So, what exactly are these unwritten rules? What are the things that the rich can only do but cannot openly speak about?
If you are someone who can view things from different perspectives, then you absolutely must read this article till the end! Because these seven unwritten rules are harsh but real. Once you grasp them, they will greatly assist you in accumulating wealth along your journey.
To become wealthy, you must learn the behavioral patterns of the rich. Even if you are busy, you can keep up with the footsteps of wealthy people, ensuring that you won’t fall behind others.
1. Wealthy People Only Do What They Are Good At
Wealthy people tend to outsource tasks that they are not good at. That’s why wealthy individuals hire nannies, drivers, and assistants to take care of household chores, cooking, transportation, and other trivial tasks. It’s because wealthy people are not skilled in doing these things, and doing them would waste their time that could be spent on making money.
The pursuit of wealth varies across different dimensions and levels. Making money can be categorized into four dimensions:
- Selling labor, which means physical trading effort for money, and 80% of people fall into this dimension.
- Selling skills, which means having specific expertise and being able to earn money through that skill. However, even in this dimension, people are still selling their time.
- Selling people, which involves organizing and utilizing skilled individuals to work for oneself, such as being a business owner or a team leader.
- Selling resources, where money is no longer earned incrementally but through a single endeavor that can bring in wealth several hundred times over.
Wealthy people understand that if they try to do everything themselves, they are limiting their earning potential to a lower dimension. Therefore, they never do everything themselves but focus on doing what they are good at and strive for excellence in that particular area.
For example, if your monthly salary is $10,000, would you dare to spend $5,000 to hire someone? Don’t do tasks that can be done by the person you hire. Instead, focus only on what you are good at, something that others cannot replicate.
By doing so, you will become increasingly wealthy. You can start by hiring an assistant, then a driver, gradually building up to having five employees, ten employees, and eventually reaching 50 or even 100 employees.
2. Commanding Others Leads to Wealth
Yes, you read it correctly. It’s about commanding people. Why do wealthy individuals earn money so effortlessly? It’s because they know how to command others, to have others work tirelessly for them, and to have others make money for them. Everyone’s abilities are limited.
Even Elon Musk or Warren Buffett, only have 24 hours in a day and can only do so much. If they were to do everything themselves, earning money incrementally, they would never become wealthy.
Only by utilizing other people’s time to create value will you gain more value. This may sound a bit complicated, but let me explain it differently so that you understand. Generally speaking, when an employee creates $10 worth of value, they receive a $1 return, which is paid to them in the form of a salary.
Now you may ask, where does the remaining $9 worth of value go? The answer is that it goes to the boss. This is the surplus value that capitalists pursue. The boss doesn’t directly earn money from the customers; instead, they earn the surplus value from the employees.
For example, if you own a shoe store, you hire a shoemaker to produce shoes, employees to operate the machinery, and people to handle marketing. Let’s say you sell a pair of shoes for $800.
After deducting $200 for wages and $300 for fixed costs, you are left with $300 in profit. The $800 represents the value created collectively, $200 is taken from the total value to pay the employees’ wages, $300 is your investment, and the remaining $300 is your profit. It’s not because you have personally created value in the production process, but rather it’s the surplus value created by everyone.
Simply put, you invest money to command people to generate value for you, give them a portion of the money, and the rest belongs to you. This is capital. If you want to pursue surplus value and earn money effortlessly like a capitalist, then you must learn to command people, and learn to hire others to create surplus value for you.
3. Time Cost Outweighs Everything
The wealthy understand the cost of their time. Some things may appear free, but in the eyes of the wealthy, they are the most expensive. For example, playing games may seem like it doesn’t cost anything, and you may think you’re not losing anything by playing them.
However, in the eyes of the wealthy, it consumes their time cost. For instance, if you can earn $1000 per hour, then the cost of playing games for you is $1000. If you play games for 12 hours, the price you pay is $12,000. If you play for 20 hours, it’s $20,000.
Once you understand what time cost means, would you still play those free games? Would you participate in meaningless social activities? You wouldn’t because you know the price you will pay. Games may be free, but your time isn’t.
When you stop doing things that consume your time, it proves that you are becoming valuable.
4. The Effort Required to Earn $10,000 is the Same as Earning $1 Million
The reason many people can’t escape poverty is because they focus their efforts in the wrong direction. It’s like two people wanting to climb to the mountaintop. Mr. A chooses a less popular route that doesn’t have many scenic spots to take photos or vendors selling things. He can only rely on the water and bread he brought to sustain himself.
On the other hand, Ms. B chooses a more prosperous route with many popular checkpoints. Along the way, there are vendors selling food, allowing her to eat while walking and take photos at the same time.
Both individuals need to take ten thousand steps to reach the summit, but the rewards Mr. A gets from his ten thousand steps are minimal compared to what Ms. B gains.
Before undertaking any task, direction is crucial. When it comes to making money, you can choose to sell cars, houses, or toilet paper. The sales processes are similar for everyone, involving finding customers, closing deals, and providing customer service. However, the profit margins can be vastly different. There is a group of people who also serve customers and engage in sales, but they apply the same sales process to selling stocks on Wall Street and earn monthly incomes of $100,000, $200,000, or $300,000.
Throughout our lives, we face numerous choices. If you are a hardworking person willing to make sacrifices, why would you choose a path that demands great effort but offers minimal returns? Why not direct your efforts in a better direction? By investing your time and energy in the right direction, you can achieve more with less effort. Choosing the right path is far more important than simply working hard.
5. Rich People Never Learn Aimlessly
There is a type of poor person who always enjoys learning, but you will notice a strange phenomenon: no matter how they learn, they never achieve any results. Why is that? It’s because learning, in their eyes, is the best excuse to escape reality. It may sound impressive like we love learning and put in a lot of effort to learn, but it’s similar to the idea that the harder you work, the poorer you become.
Both are self-deception. They don’t know why they are learning or what they are striving for. They simply find solace in the illusion of effort and convince themselves that they are making progress.
You should know that wealth is not generated through input but through output. A person can earn money not by what they have learned, but by what they have done. If learning could make money, then top students who excel in school would all be millionaires, but in reality, that’s not the case. I’m not saying not to learn; please don’t misunderstand me.
What I mean is, don’t learn just for the sake of learning, but learn with a purpose. If you want to become a public speaker, learn communication skills. If you want to establish passive income, learn about investing. If you want to improve your health, learn about nutrition. If you want to enhance your financial literacy, subscribe to this channel. Don’t learn aimlessly; instead, find something you can do and focus your learning around it.
6. Where There Are People, There is Wealth
Throughout history, how have people accumulated wealth? In ancient times, before the existence of currency, we used barter, trading goods for goods. Why did we engage in the exchange of goods? It’s because I need what you have, and at the same time, you need what I have. So we make an exchange.
But a problem arises: the value of your goods may not be equal to the value of mine. Your goods may be worth $100, while mine may be worth $200. I may think you need to give me two chickens for my sheep, but you may think my sheep is not worth that much money. This situation keeps happening. How can it be resolved?
This is where currency comes into play. Currency was created to measure the specific value of each commodity and serve as a medium of exchange. If you possess $200 of currency, it means you can come and exchange it for my sheep. So, if I want to accumulate more wealth, I need to find a way to acquire more sheep and then sell them to you. That is the only way to accumulate wealth.
The same principle applies: if you want to make money, you need to go where there are many people because it allows you to engage in more transactions. You can sell your sheep to more people, and your wealth will grow faster. Therefore, where there are people, there is wealth.
In this era, however, the flow of people has changed due to the development of the Internet. Each person is no longer confined to a specific geographic location. Everyone can connect with every person in the world through a mobile phone. The internet has become the largest gathering place for people.
In other words, if you learn to gather and attract this online traffic, you can acquire countless sheep and sell them repeatedly. This is the money-making secret of this era. Only when people are attracted to you and come to you then you will make money faster and easier.
7. Earning $10,000 is Much Easier than Saving $10,000
This statement was made by the world’s richest person, Elon Musk, and I strongly agree with it. Saving money can help us prepare for an uncertain future, but it won’t make us wealthy. I have seen people spend hours obtaining a few coupons just to save a few dollars.
You see, saving money has its limits. No matter how much you try to cut back, you won’t save a significant amount. It’s like having only one pot of water; no matter how frugal you are, you won’t magically have an extra pot of water. However, human creativity is limitless. If you can’t save an extra pot of water, then create additional water sources for yourself. Explore and develop multiple streams, two, or three sources of water.
This is the concept of generating more rather than merely conserving. If you’re still spending an hour comparing prices at different stores just to save a few dollars, it’s better to invest that time in figuring out how to create income. Earning $10,000 is much easier than saving $10,000. The sooner you realize this, the faster your life will change!
These are the seven unspoken rules that wealthy people follow but don’t often discuss. If you found today’s video helpful, remember to like and share it with others, sharing this value with the people around you so that they can also grow together with you.
Alright, that concludes today’s video. Thank you for watching!