How To Be Rich – A Millionaire Friend’s Template
This is a pretty long one – so get a cup of hot chocolate and read carefully, because it may change your life (if you want)
So,
Very few people realise the time it takes to build wealth and the effort it requires. ”I will be rich”, they say – yet they don’t know the following:
- What rich really means. Have you ever asked yourself: This “rich thing” – What does it even mean? How much is it? What net worth is considered “rich”? What assets do I need to own? How many of them do I need to own?
- Then when they have the NUMBER they have NO IDEA how to get there, this is the really crazy part. Zero plans. Just vibes and ”I know it will happen someday”. No equity in anything of value.
- Then let’s say they are actively building a business,but, lo and behold, they are doing it the wrong way, blowing money as fast as it comes. Not building anything that will grow exponentially. It is just “Hail Mary, I know I am destined for big things”.
I admit I can get like this sometimes. The truth is, NONE OF US really knows what will and won’t work, if we will be fine, or if we are even on the right track.
But here is the fact:
The only way to be rich is to OWN THINGS. it is not cash flow; it is OWNERSHIP. The cash flow comes from ownership or from using it to build OWNERSHIP.
Your uncle used to be rich but isn’t now because he didn’t build ownership with it when he was making money. He will do business, get cash flow, and blow it.
Most people live like this: Acquire cash flow, then blow it and start over again.
Also, people assume that the best investments are lands and houses, but the truth is that real estate can bleed you if you do not structure it well.
It can just be a store of wealth, nothing more – give it to a silly child, and he sells it all off in a day (You know this already if you read everything I share here)
My friend, real wealth is OWNERSHIP, which provides cash flow; this is the template. What you own must produce positive cash flow now or in the future, and you must own many in very large sizes.
That, my friend, is what RICH IS. That right there is the template.
I also realized that most of us want to make money, but most people won’t get enough of it because they have no reference point.
So they don’t fully understand what it is they want. Of course, I would explain –
Wealth means different things to different people, and this meaning is usually influenced by our past & present experiences – so what we want is in between.
If your parents never built a house, and you build one – they would say you have achieved a lot.
Yes, you have (building a house is not easy in this economy), but based on their reference point, they’d wonder why you still work hard and what else you want out of life.
This is where they say – “Relax, you have achieved more than most people.”
Reference points cause this reaction; you, on the other hand, have seen more affluent people – so you tell them: “No, Mummy, I still need to push.”
Do you feel my drift?
The higher your reference point, the bigger your appetite, and the bigger your appetite, the bigger the opportunity you’d chase.
This is why you go on to make 10x what your parents made.
Here is where the problem is – your reference point is small compared to another person’s reference point.
This morning, I got a terrible hit to my reference point after I went through Temi Otedola’s TikTok: @temiotedola
I watched her life and compared it to where I am now (which honestly isn’t a bad reference point for my 5 years ago self), and I felt completely far behind.
I saw how different my life is from what she has.
There is a life so full of ease and luxury it is absolutely mind-blowing. And I don’t have it now, and I want it.
Then I imagined what her reference point would be and shuddered. Mr. Eazi is a hard-working and great guy, but he left music and became part owner of a billion-dollar business after he started hanging out with the Otedola kids. My guess is his reference point changed.
A reference point controls the kind of business you do, the level of wealth you chase, and, ultimately, the level of wealth you get. I just realized that a few hours ago, and it has sent cold shivers down my spine.
I was recently watching a series called: “House of Usher” –
It is a horror story about a billionaire. When any of his kids come of age they would come to pitch a business to him and if he likes it he funds it.
His last son comes to him and pitches a nightclub: his idea is grand, but the man waves it off.
Then said (paraphrasing) – “an Usher builds something that changes the world, not a business that marks up Glenfiddich” –
It is a movie, but it just hit me: most of the time, our reference point is so small that all we do is buy and sell.
Then, others with even bigger points of reference build Paystack, Flutterwave, MoniePoint, Piggyvest, Andela, etc.
This is why my goal at Stakecut is to fix poverty in Africa – the moment this became my goal, my reference point SWITCHED.
It is insane.
A big real estate tycoon once advised me to move to Lekki Phase 1. He said that was what he did that made him rich. Waking up and seeing rich people do rich people things.
Now I fully get it; it increases your point of reference. It somehow stops you from playing too small.
If you stay around people where the biggest achievement is a nice car and a nice house that would be all you would ever want.
Point of reference is something else and boy! Teni Otedola’s tiktok is a whole lot of point of reference – in one video she did a walk through of her father’s house and that video made me really visualise exactly what I wanted when I fantasized about being rich.
When you have not been near real wealth before, you know you want it but somehow you still don’t know what it is you want, until you see it on a TikTok account like I did today and you know – clearly – what it is you want, and how frigging beautiful it is.
