Great Wealth: the How vs the Why Question?
As per Credit Suisse, a leading Swiss Bank, in their Global Wealth Report 2019 stated that the richest 10% of the world owns 82% of the global wealth; even more pronounced is the fact that the richest 1% of people own more than 45% of the world’s wealth!
Almost everyone wants to become rich. Everyone has myriad dreams and wishes to fulfill that require money – a whole lot of it. And it is not surprising that people look forward to ways and avenues to earn great wealth. They want to know ‘how-to-get-rich’ formula. But before going any further, it is important to know that ‘how to become rich’ is a meaningless venture unless you define as to why you want to earn such great wealth. And it’s not going to help if your answer is vague, like I want to get rich as I want to buy a second house in a different country or buy a luxury car. Although there is nothing wrong with those kind of ambitions but when the going will get tough, (because eventually it will get tough on the journey to great wealth) the tendency to abandon the path could become greater than to continue. Hence, your answer must be clear, definite and measurable (your Why might be outright crazy but that’s okay as long as your ‘Why’ has these three qualities).
Why having a clear idea is important? It is because our minds are like a ship, sailing on an ocean. Unless we know/determine which harbor to reach, no number of lighthouses or star constellations would help us in navigation. A mind without a clear idea is like a ship set sail to reach a beautiful and prosperous harbor; however, problem with such a wish is that nobody knows where such a harbor exists!
Coming back to having a clear, definitive and measurable dream, let’s assume how a ‘Why’ can be answered. Personally, I want to start a Space Exploration Company going forward. Other than the highly skilled human resources, such a venture will need millions of dollars worth of investments. This is the reason why I want to become rich. Elon Musk (one of the co-founders of Paypal) started his Space Venture, SpaceX in 2002 with his share of money – $165 million – he got after selling Paypal to eBay in 2002 (for a total valuation of $1.5 billion). He put $100 million into SpaceX. So this gives me a fair idea why I want to become rich and what would be the trigger point for me to feel really rich.
So, once I know my ‘why-I-want-to-become-rich’ then I can proceed to find ‘how-to-become-rich’. The reason I have put emphasis on the ‘Why’ is because getting rich is not everyone’s cup to tea. To become rich, we have to risk failure, betrayals, heartbreaks, solitude, ridicules from peer, etc. During such distressful experiences, it becomes very easy to give up. And during such time, it is your ‘Why’ that keeps you going. Your ‘Why’ simply won’t let you to give up.
If getting rich is easy, then everybody would have been rich by now. But that is not what I see. Rich are far and few, scattered throughout the world. As per Credit Suisse, a leading Swiss Bank, in their Global Wealth Report 2019 stated that the richest 10% of the world owns 82% of the global wealth; even more pronounced is the fact that the richest 1% of people own more than 45% of the world’s wealth!
So before you proceed any further, it is my request to you to write down your ‘Why’ on a piece of paper (preferably a notepad/diary). It is very important not to skip this step because getting rich is all about being discipline, especially if your preferred route is through stock market.
I’ll keep you posted for the next step.