Hot Smart Rich creator says real wealth is having the freedom to walk away

Fortune
41 followers
Nov 5, 2026
I watched so many people, specifically women in my life,
be controlled by money, not be
able to leave situations that they
were no longer respected in, have to stay in rooms
that they shouldn't have stayed in.
So to me, I knew it was extremely important
to always have my own money and to always
be making my own money.
And to me, that was a very rich life,
rich to be able to choose what I wanted to do,
rich to have freedom.
So I think a lot of the time people hear
these very polarizing big words, right?
And in this world that we live in,
it's very much the attention economy.
How are you going to get someone's attention?
But it's really not about looking the hottest
that you can be or being the richest in the
room.
To me, rich is really about the freedom to leave,
the freedom to choose, the freedom
to do whatever I want.
I think for so long, you know,
people have said the way that you speak or the way that
you love fashion or the way that you want
to be perceived is such a difference to being
how intellectual you are.
And to me, I always question, like,
why is it this backhanded compliment?
Why do people after I earn their credibility or I earn their trust?
why is it not just given to women
and so I thought of the three most polarizing
things that I could say put it together
and I think like I said in the attention
economy you have to create attention
so even if people misunderstand it at the
beginning once they dig in and see
the mission that I'm on they usually are
pretty bought into it
