I’ve had the opportunity to meet some rather wealthy people, at least financially speaking. My definition of that is someone who doesn’t have to ever work again, and doesn’t even need to think about money or how they spend it. I’ve always wondered if there was anything unique about these types of people who get to this level of monetary wealth that many will only dream of rather than putting the work in. It turns out, there is some common features amongst them all, and they are distinctly different from the average person. In many cases, it is the exact opposite of the average person. I detail to you my thoughts and impressions from meeting rich people in person.
They all have high energy; one person I met for lunch in a Chinese restaurant in Vancouver was a retired CEO in his 60s. It was bizarre to me that he his overall person appeared to have more energy than most young people in their 20s. They seem to have endless heaps of energy to them, where might the average person would have lost it in physical energy, emotion, sheer willpower. Tired, drained, lifeless is how I might describe the average 9-5er who has been in the workforce for more than a couple years. Whereas the wealthy who want to blaze a trail of their own, had extreme amounts of energy.
They are all extremely calm and relaxed. This is in direct contrast from the average person when you go outside running, walking, sitting by the river or in a park. The average person, particularly when alone, is extremely anxious and seems frustrated, mired in despair, hopelessness, desperation even. It seemed as though they reached a level of self-actualization to the point that nothing could phase them in life, even if everything was taken away from them.
They are all low key; they did not try to be the centre of attention or try to virtue signal how amazing they are. Instead, they did the opposite in conversation. They were like this even with the other aspects of life. One person who ran a successful restaurant ended up bringing the whole street more business. The city government actually offered the opportunity to re-name the street after the restaurant. This would have offered even more free advertising and more business. Amazingly, the restaurant owner actually declined this invitation. How many ordinary people would deny that kind of opportunity for free attention, publicity, increased perceived social status?
They are all hard-working people. I’ve not met a single lazy rich person; the only people that applies to is the ones who grew up with rich parents that working for money became an option rather than a necessity. Interestingly, all the 2nd generation rich kids I met were all lazy and for some reason quite depressed. Otherwise, everyone who became rich on their own accord were all hard working. They were the type who were so hard working that it longer was a special point anymore; it became the norm. It was customary to put in 60+ hours of work each week.
Prior to getting rich, all were particularly devoted to one craft and using that one skillset to become rich. After becoming rich, they still enjoyed that skillset but then diversified the money to multiple categories of investments in order to preserve wealth. They concentrated on a high value skill to build wealth, then diversified to preserve wealth. They also made the majority of the money working on their own craft, rather than working for someone else.
They were all different from other people when they were young; they often stood out and were viewed as the weirdo, the eccentric person, the one that could never fit in. I guess that’s true in adulthood as they probably were one of the few that ended up being rich, and continue to not fit in with the majority.
The viewpoints they had were not the same as others. They often had naturally contrarian views that also happened to be right. With the unusual confidence to also follow their own intuition, even if it led them off the well-worn path.
They all understood the value of time; they used money to buy time, as opposed to the average person using time to get money. For example, they would outsource any task that ended up taking up so much time that they could make more money from working rather than doing said task. Essentially, if they could make $50/hour, if a task cost them more time than that sum in doing, they would end up outsourcing it. I never saw any of them wait for hours and hours on end during lineups for gas to save a few dollars in the end, when the same time involved could have been used to make much more money than those few dollars.
They were all intentional, purposeful and passionate people; they did not do things on a whim, and had present actions guided by a greater longer-term vision. This gave them the strength and energy to continue living life on a high energy basis, rather than feebly passively taking it. In a generation of weaker, more passive, purposeless, dopamine addicted, lifeless, soulless spirits, having purpose and passion can really make one feel more alive.
Life happens by them instead of happening to them; they are proactive instead of reactive. They already seemed to have everything planned out for expected life events, rather than suddenly being shocked.
They all look at people differently; they seem to view people in a different light than other people.
They all have a great relationship with wealth; they are not controlled by wealth. Instead, they are in control of wealth. Rather than being a slave to greed and money, they harnessed that energy and became a master of their own human nature and instincts.
They do not flaunt their money and success to others. They don’t need to, as they have already succeeded. Some of them if you meet them or see them in the streets, they look as if they are very poor. As the millionaire next door would say, they are no hat, all cattle. Whereas the average person tends to be all hat, no cattle.
They are very closeminded and openminded at the same time. They have both tail end traits of openminded and stubbornness. They were openminded if they thought new ideas would help enhance their existing position, whereas they would be stubborn on the vision.
They have failed more times than the average person has even tried. The chess player who has played 10 games and won 8, draw 1, loss 1, is worse than the chess player who has played 1000 games who had won 100 games, draw 100, and lost 800 times. A popular saying goes that one must put in 10,000 hours into a specific activity in order to have become a master of it. That’s about 5-6 years of full-time work. If that’s the case, many are beginners and these rich people I met were masters.
More money did not make them a better person; it just made them more of who they are already are. The ones that I met who were kind became more kind as they got older; they had the resources to do more of what they were already doing. The ones who were selfish became even more selfish. The ones who were greedy became even more greedy. The ones who liked vacations went on even more vacations. The ones who were arrogant were even more arrogant. Money is simply a tool that gives you the opportunity to do more of what you want to do. Once people have more money, they seem to lose the social pressures of society and do not care how others judge them, and become even more comfortable in behaving in a manner that is most comfortable and natural to them. A way to see what a person is truly like is to give them immense power and status, where they don’t suffer any consequences for their actions.
They do not view death as an equalizer amongst people; they don’t just sit around thinking that everyone is born and then dies, and thus that a human life is the same. Instead, they try to live their lives rather than just exist. They actually care about life and do not possess a nihilistic point of view towards life.
They choose uncertainty over known unhappiness; they will venture into different things and experiment, rather than doing the same unhappy activities over and over again. It’s been said the average person lives the same life 90% over, effectively functioning as a NPC. Clearly, the wealthy like to experiment and mix things up.
They are disciplined. They easily tune out distractions. They aren’t spending time on video games, social media, and other digital time wasters.
They have many people around them, few for the relationship as the end goal itself. It has been said that beautiful women and rich people do not know who their true friends are.
Money bought them comfort, but it didn’t buy them more meaningful relationships. In fact, it made it more difficult to have better relationships. It is then harder to tell if someone is around for the relationship or for the money.
They had unique qualities that made me marvel and admire them. Unlike the average person, where there doesn’t seem to be anything redeeming. As Marc Andreessen would say strong strengths. Some were exceptional at discernment; they could read anyone like a book. Others had extreme work ethic. Others had extremely good health. One home developer I knew had not been sick in more than 40 years. One other lady who retired in her 30s had not been late to anything anytime in more than 30 years. Contrast this to the average person who isn’t punctual, and is constantly late.
Disclaimer
This is not Financial Advice. This article is meant only for educational and perhaps entertainment purposes.