This Builds Wealth Faster Than Anything Else

In today's video, I'm going to teach you how to accelerate your wealth creation. So this is actually chapter two of my book, The Book of Wealth, Ten Steps to Financial Freedom, which you can get on Amazon. I'm going to leave a link for you down below. Now, let's begin. So how do you expedite your journey towards becoming wealthy? So first, I want to tell you what people do wrong. So most people incorrectly focus on two things to becoming wealthy. And if you're guilty of these, I just want to let you know just right from the start that that's okay. Like I was guilty of both of these things. And I just want you to learn from my mistakes. You know, and this is coming from personal experience. So here's the first mistake. And this is like a way of me telling you like what not to do. Like, don't do what I did. Don't waste your time. Okay, so many people try to become wealthy by striking it rich on an investment. So it could be stocks, it could be crypto, it could be Pokemon cards, you name it. So in my 20s, you know, that was my brilliant strategy for becoming wealthy, strike it rich in the stock market. And I told myself that after I make a ton of money in the stock market with a few good stock picks, like hidden gems, I'm going to switch over to investing safely into more boring stock picks, like index funds. So listen, to make a long story short, it didn't work out. Like I write the details in my book, but it didn't work. But reflecting back, the reason why I looked at the stock market to strike it rich was because at the time, like I sincerely felt like that was my only hope of becoming wealthy. So my situation was I was making okay money at my job, but of course not as much as I wanted to. And facing reality, you know, with that moderate income, you know, I could do the math, anyone could do the math. I stood no chance of becoming wealthy. So essentially, I tried to shortcut my way to wealth with the stock markets, you know, find a few good stocks that would give me life-changing results. And that was my mentality back then. Now, I just want to tell you this, I'm speaking honestly here. Like if I traveled back in time, and if I told my younger self to stop trying to strike it rich in the stock markets, then the younger me would resist my advice and would brush me off. But I was thinking about, why would my younger self do that? So the reason is that back then, like under those circumstances, those stocks that I was looking for to make me rich, they weren't just an investment to me. To me, they represented hope. Hope that it would be my ticket out of the grind. And if I stopped trying to get rich in the stock market, then my hopes and dreams would die. And if you take away someone's hopes and dreams, of course that could be soul-crushing. So I'm just saying I understand why I was trying to do what I was trying to do. So listen, I just want you to know that if you're currently trying to strike it rich with a stock or crypto, I understand your situation. I was there. Like I get it. However, I want to give you a wake-up call. If you're trying to strike your rich with stocks or altcoins or whatever risky investments, I need you to realize that you're acting like someone that plays the lottery in hopes of getting wealthy. And if you say that people do get rich by finding a stock or crypto that 100Xs or even 1000Xs, then I'll tell you that, yeah, there are people that win the lottery also. But you never hear about the vast majority of people that don't win the lottery. And if you say that you're special, you do your research, it's going to happen, that's what they all say. That's what I said. So listen, all I'm trying to say is that playing the lottery to become wealthy is not a good wealth-building strategy. Neither is gambling in the stock market or with cryptocurrencies. But you know what? I'm not going to be that guy that says to a lottery player, like, oh, you know, if you take that dollar or two and instead of playing the lottery and you put it into an S&P 500 index fund, then in 30 years, you're going to have $100,000. Listen, I'm not saying that to you. But to be absolutely clear, I am telling you that you can have your fun with stock picking or crypto picks or even playing the lottery, and I hope you make a lot of money. But don't get obsessed and absorbed into believing that that is your only ticket out. If you do, then you're going to get stuck and you're going to get trapped in the grind. And I don't want that for you. What I'm simply saying is that if you are doing this as your strategy to build wealth, then you are misallocating your time and energy, and there's a better way to build wealth. So I'm going to cover the second mistake, and then after that, I'm going to tell you what you need to do. Now, here's the second big mistake. Many people believe that the key to building wealth is cutting expenses. Like, I'm sure you've heard that saying, it's not what you make, it's what you keep. Okay, but you know what? There are so many people that are watching this video that have already cut expenses to the bare bones, like to the necessities, and they're still not wealthy. There's only so much that you can cut. So you can maintain your wealth by living within your means, but it's not going to catapult you towards wealth. So cutting expenses is not the key to accelerating your wealth creation. So now, I want to tell you the key to accelerating your wealth creation. You must focus your time and your energy on increasing your income. So please hear me out. Of course, it's easier to become wealthy if your income is higher, right? And it's easier to stay wealthy if your income is higher, right? And I know what some people are going to say. Some people are going to say, haven't you heard the stories of those lottery winners or the celebrities or the athletes that make a ton of money and they go broke? And I would respond, of course I've heard those stories, who hasn't, right? However, those are the minority of high income earners. So I guarantee you that it's easier to go broke on a low income than on a high income. It's not rocket science, it's pretty straightforward. So listen, if your income is low, then it's challenging to keep your money because all the money is going out the door. That's the truth and I'm not afraid to say it. So what you make is very important. I'm not saying that from a judgmental perspective, I'm saying that from a mathematical perspective, I'm saying that from a common sense perspective. So if you want to accelerate your journey towards wealth, then you need to prioritize how you're going to increase your income. So my advice is don't try to get rich by winning the lottery or with a stock or a crypto or by cutting expenses. So listen, I'm not saying that you have to stop those things. I'm saying that you need to focus on increasing your income. That is your priority. Because I know so many people are wasting a lot of time and energy researching and obsessing over individual stocks or crypto like I did. And I know that people wait in line for 30 minutes to get a free burrito. So you must stop misallocating your time and your energy, which are valuable resources. Okay, so how do you increase your income? Now if you think about it, there are only three ways to do it. So one is to work more hours. You can do overtime, get an additional job, a side hustle. Two is to get a higher paying job. And one of the ways is to switch professions. And three is to get paid more for what you do. Okay, so of these three, which one sounds the most appealing to you? Like I don't know about you, but I'm just going to tell you how I feel. Like I don't want to work more hours. Like if you ask me, I want to work less hours. So I'm not going to go with option number one. Like I'm not trying to be lazy. I'm just trying to be more efficient. Okay, now when I look at option number two, get a higher paying job by switching professions. I mean that just sounds like such a pain. I'm just speaking honestly, to switch to a new field and just start from the bottom or like go back to school. Okay, so I mean if you had to ask me, like my choice of these three options would be option number three, to get paid more for what I do. Okay, but how do you get paid more for what you do? The answer is that you must become an expert in your field. So I want you to think about it. It's the people at the top that make the most money. Okay, now let me ask you this. How much does the average accountant make? Okay, so if you don't know, it's about $80,000 a year. And that's, you know, that's good. But that's not like mind blowing. It's not like phenomenal. But how much of the top tier accountants make and I'm not even talking about the very best. I'm not talking about like the best of the elites, the best of the best. A partner at the big accounting firms, they make $700,000 a year. And there are thousands of partners at a big accounting firm, thousands. Now let me ask you this, how much does the average chef make? About $60,000 a year. But how much does a celebrity chef make? Millions. And I'm sure that there are many chefs that make hundreds of thousands a year. And let me ask you this, how much does the average pastor at a church make? Let's just call it 50 grand a year. Okay, but how much does Joel Osteen make? Tens of millions of dollars a year. I'm not judging, you know, good for him. And I'm sure that there are many pastors that are making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Now I want to tell you this, did you know that when I started my career at a big corporation, the executive secretaries were making $150,000 a year. And that was 15 years ago. How much does the average secretary make right now? Of course, it's going to be much less than that. So the takeaway is that the people at the top of their field are the ones that are making a lot of money. And in some fields, there may be a small pay gap between the top people and average people. Let's just say, for example, a cashier. Okay, so in that type of situation, it may be in your best interest to find a different occupation. However, in most cases, becoming an expert in your field will significantly boost your income. And that is just so important because in the early stages of your wealth building process, it's going to be your income that's going to be the primary driver of your wealth creation, not your investments. Because if you have no money and make little money, even if you're an awesome investor, you're going to be handicapped with a small amount of money to invest. So investing is important, but there's a sequence to building wealth. Initially, it's going to be your income that's going to fuel your wealth creation. And then as you have more disposable income from your higher income, your investments are going to play a bigger role in building your wealth, simply because you're going to have more money to invest. Okay, so how do you become an expert at what you do to increase your income? If you think about it, it's very straightforward. You become an expert at anything with time and effort. So that's why it's so important to just stick to one field and then master it. So listen, I want to tell you a story, and this is a true story. So one of my friends graduated at the same time as me, and he started off as an accountant, just like me, and we were both making $50,000 a year. So he was smart, he had people skills, he's a very good guy. And after a few years, he was making about $65,000 a year in accounting. You know, that's good, but again, that's not high income. So he thought that he could make more money in real estate. So he became a broker, he became a real estate agent. So after a few years in real estate, he was making about $70,000 a year. And I would say that's great, considering that he started from scratch with no clients. And keep in mind that this is about a decade ago. But the money wasn't fast enough for him, so he thought he could make more money in marketing. So he went to a big marketing firm, and he started at the very bottom. And after a few years, he was making about $80,000. And then he decided to switch industries again, because he said it's not quick enough. But listen, all these years have passed by, like time flies, like you know that. If he just stuck with being an accountant, like he would be making right now, or very soon, about $700,000 a year. But he never stayed in one field long enough to become an expert. He ended up mediocre in several disciplines, which is why his compensation has stayed mediocre. So I want you to consider this. Real estate is lucrative. Marketing is lucrative. Accounting is lucrative. All these fields can be lucrative if you become an expert in that field. And one of the main ingredients of becoming an expert is the amount of time that you spend in that field. Because with more time comes more experience. So listen, this is my warning to you, that you should be very careful of switching careers, because it is a setback, because of the time wasted. But if you're miserable at your job, or if it's a dead-end job, then I get it. The setback may be worth it in the long run. So I just want you to be aware of the consequences of switching careers, and for you to make a thoughtful decision. And that's why it's so important for you, and even your children, to choose a field early on that they're not going to resent. Because if you're unhappy, you're going to be motivated to leave that field, and that's going to be a setback. So if you, or again even your children, have the mentality like, I don't know what I want to do, you really have to solve that problem. That is a big problem. Don't underestimate it. Otherwise you're setting yourself up to be in a very tough spot in the future. And the second ingredient to becoming an expert in your field is your effort. So I want to tell you this crazy story. Like I've never seen anything like this before. So my first private office, so after my home office, was at a Regus. So Regus is a big company. They rent out an entire floor of an office building, and they rent out individual rooms to small businesses. So they're basically in the business of subleasing. Okay, so my first private office, I mean it was tiny. It was 120 square feet. It was dinky, but I was still very proud of it. And on this Regus floor, I would say there was about 100 other small businesses renting out private offices just like me. So all these businesses on the floor, they chip in money for three secretaries that we share, like it's part of the monthly rents. And it made my one-man operation, my small business, it seemed like it made it seem like a much bigger operation, which is good for the clients. So I had an office on Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago. I had a secretary that answered in my company's name, like it sounded much fancier than it was. Anyways, over the years, like I saw the secretaries come and go, like I'm sure that they were making about $12 an hour at the time. Yeah, they did their job, but you could tell, like you could easily sense it, like they just wanted to do their job, clock in, clock out, and just like they didn't want to be there. But then this one year, this new secretary comes and you could tell that she was putting in the efforts. Like in her downtime, she was organizing the common areas. She was asking people if there's a specific way to best answer the phone calls. Like you could tell she was going above and beyond. And then corporate noticed. So she got promoted to office manager within one year, like that's like unheard of. And then she crushed it as office manager, and then she got promoted to regional manager very quickly. And then she promoted again to run an international region in Central America. So she started off as a secretary and ended up overseeing operations in multiple countries. Like that is not normal, but she was not normal. Like she put in the extra effort and it paid off. Okay, so let's recap and then build a little bit further. So what's the best way to accelerate your wealth creation? You have to focus on increasing your income. And how do you do that? By becoming an expert in your field. And how do you become an expert in your field? Well, I would say pick a field that you're not going to resent, stay in your field, and put in the effort to learn and improve. Okay, now what's the end goal here, financially speaking? And I'd say it's straightforward. So the financial goal is to accumulate enough money where your investment returns are meaningful, right? So that way you can work less, you can retire early, you can do whatever you want. And you would have a lot of money, which means financial security and less stress. But if your income is low to begin with, then it's going to be much more challenging for you to get to critical mass, you know, with your investments. And even if you're a good investor, and you're making 10%, 15% returns on a small amount of money, then it's going to be slow and it's not going to be meaningful. Like we all know this. Therefore, simply the fastest way to get to your end goal is to increase your income so that you have more money to invest. So this is what I cover in chapter two of my book. If you like this content, or you know someone that can benefit from this content, please check out my book on Amazon. Again, the link is down below. Thank you so much. Please subscribe and wish you a very nice day. Take care