If you have been “waiting for your ship to come in,” as the old saying goes, prepare to keep waiting. And don’t hold your breath because if you’re not taking action, you’re not going to improve your situation.
We often hear news in the media about people who got rich or had some kind of amazing opportunity fall in their lap, but for most of us, that will never happen.
And by most of us, I mean one in a million is the chance of it happening to you. Consider that you went to party with a thousand people. How many of those people would you interact with? Maybe 50 if you’re lucky. Now imagine you went to a thousand parties like this… or 3 years of partying every day, with 1000 people. ONE of those people would have a one-in-a-million opportunity fall in their lap.
Also, only about 1 in 10 of those folks will be “well off” financially. But how many of them are self-made? How many of them took action, went out and made their future happen?
Here are 6 ways people think they will strike it rich but are not going to happen.
Winning the Lottery: In the USA there are dozens of lottery winners each year who win more than a million dollars. But when you do the math, subtract taxes, and other factors, it boils down to 0.00000925% of people winning the lottery and making enough to be considered a millionaire.
Inheritance: Are your parents or a long-lost-relative secretly hiding away millions to leave you? Probably not. Only 3% of millionaires inherited more than a million dollars. But of those 3%, 8 out of 10 were already millionaires before they inherited that money. So, 20% of 3%… or 0.6% of millionaires became millionaires because of inheritance. That also doesn’t account for the fact that many of those people were well-off to begin with, just not millionaires. Often the success of the children can improve the wealth of the family in general, providing more opportunity for inheritance.
Unicorn Investment: If you are not an accredited investor, you probably aren’t investing in a “unicorn” anytime soon. A “unicorn” is a startup who passes $1 Billion in valuation. Most accredited investors earn a minimum of $200k per year for more than 2 years and most minimum investments are in the tens of thousands. A certified investor, also known as an accredited investor, is an individual or other entity that is legally permitted by the Securities and Exchange Commission to invest in hedge funds, venture capital funds, private equity offerings, and other private placements. If you are unaware of these regulations, you aren’t getting rich by investing in a single company one time through an app on your phone.
If you can, you SHOULD invest your money. But you shouldn’t think if you drop a few hundred bucks on a stock, it’s going to grow to 10,000x your money.
Finding Gold: Good luck. If you think you’re going to dig up some gold in your backyard or unearth a coffee can of pirate doubloons, it probably is about as likely as finding a living Dodo bird. For starters, you’d need to own property, and a lot more property than a residential house. On top of that, in most countries in the world, you don’t own the mineral rights to your own property, which is crap, but that’s the way it is.
MLMs: Unless you started the multi-level marketing company, or you are the manufacturer, you likely are never going to get rich. They are touted as not being pyramid schemes, but 99% of people don’t make any money and a handful of people at the top, usually the company’s inner-circle, make all the money. I’m not saying people can’t make money doing this, but you are way more likely to make money if you start your own business, not “start your own business” through an MLM.
Getting “Discovered”: You know that 1 music artist who was discovered at a karaoke bar and a music executive gave them a record deal? Well, it probably didn’t happen like that in the first place, because artists and labels sell fictional stories about how their artists came to be popular all the time. From acting, to singing, to whatever else, the chance of someone “discovering” your hidden talents is so unlikely I can’t even find a statistic for this article. If you aren’t getting your talent out in front of people, and doing the hard work of self-promoting, as it was a full-time job itself, you aren’t getting “discovered” anytime soon.
Work Smart and Hard
Chances are, the only way you’re going to become wealthy is by understanding money and finances. It’s by putting in the work and the making the hard choices. It’s by doing things that are both scary and difficult. The life you want is out there, you just have to make it.
No one is coming to save you, princess, so get out there and do what needs to be done. Study. Learn. Read. Try new things. Make tough decisions. Say Yes to difficult things. Say No to things that don’t serve your goals. Have goals and document them. Get out there and make yourself the awesome person you know that you are on the inside!
