Editor’s note: This article was first published in June 2015; its remarks about the availability of Steve Siebold’s How Rich People Think and Thomas C. Corley’s book reflect that time and may have changed since.
It’s said that Steve Siebold‘s book How Rich People Think, together with Thomas C. Corley’s, is among the best books on wealth written in the last 15 years, although, unfortunately for Spanish-speaking readers, neither has been translated into Spanish yet.
Even so, I have been following Siebold’s and Corley’s writing and advice for a long time, because it is direct, motivating and clear.
(See: 6 things the middle class doesn’t quite understand about the rich, by S. Siebold)
This time, Steve Siebold tells how several hard-working men stopped him to ask how he could afford that big house and that nice car, when they, despite working very hard, earned not much more than the minimum wage.
Siebold says those men look at his life today as if it were easy, but what they don’t see is that at one point in his life he didn’t have a penny in his pocket. In fact, he had $50,000 in debts that he had no idea how he would pay off, or how he would get out of that dire financial situation.
Now that Siebold is a well-known figure, it isn’t the first time people have stopped him to ask for advice or for some motivation to pursue their dreams. He never hesitates to have a chat with them, often a very fruitful one for them, and he usually advises and motivates them with these 10 points, which, according to Siebold, are the points everyone should keep in mind when it comes to money, without letting anyone tell them otherwise:
1. In a free-market economy, anyone can make as much money as they want “and know how to”.
- Your family, your level of education or your IQ are completely irrelevant when it comes to making money.
3. The fastest way to make money is to solve a problem. The bigger the problem and the more people who suffer from it, the more money you will make if you solve it.
4. Don’t pay attention or listen to people who say that life is a constant struggle and that you should settle and be grateful for what you have. Grateful, yes; settling, never, if it isn’t the life you want to have.
(Read: The 4 biggest differences between how the rich and the middle class and poor think)
5. Always keep making more money in mind. You have to think big. 100,000, 500,000 or 1 million. As the saying goes, aim for the stars, and even if you fall short, you might land on the moon.
6. Set fear and scarcity aside when you think, and start seeing the good things about money: financial freedom, opportunity, possibility and abundance. “Money doesn’t buy happiness. Fine. But financial freedom does bring happiness. And plenty of it.”
7. Being rich isn’t a privilege; it’s a right. If you create enormous value for others, you have the right to be rich.
8. Don’t wait for a ship to come and rescue you. You won’t be discovered or made rich by some outside force. If you want to make a lot of money, build your own ship. Nobody is going to hand you their wealth.
9. Stop worrying about running out of money and start focusing on how to make more money. Worrying about money all the time is no way to live. Dreaming of reaching your goals and working towards them is a good way to live.
10. Don’t hold yourself back by saying that being rich is beyond your control. The truth is that becoming rich is an inside job. It starts with your own mindset, thinking and preparation. Having a lot of money is only beyond your control if you are unable to control yourself.
Siebold concludes by saying that your current situation doesn’t matter, because we all have the power to change our financial situation. Whether you are in debt or want to make more money, you can do it if you make the right decisions and put your mind to them.
Further reading
- How the rich made their fortunes is not smart for the average person
- Tony Robbins: the simple secret to wealth
Featured image: Andre Carrotflower, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
