How rich and poor people think Have you ever wondered what distinguishes a rich person from a poor person? Maybe it's an expensive watch on your wrist or a sports car, a business or the ability to invest money? All this is true, but the main difference is the way rich people think. Mindset is paramount in this chain. Therefore, it should be considered in more detail.
It has long been noticed that if you take a rich man who has achieved everything himself and take away all his money, after a certain time it will return to him again. It is the way of thinking that determines whether a person is rich or not. The popular American speaker Steve Sebold wrote a book that bears exactly this title - “How Rich People Think.” You can download it on the Internet to read in your free time. It contains a huge amount of wisdom, which gives an understanding of why all people on Earth are different - why there are many poor and so few rich.
In this article we will present the main ideas of this book, which allow us to understand its main essence.
How do the rich think differently from the poor? 15 basic postulates
Absorb the information below, draw conclusions from it and achieve success with us. You can be poor, think like a poor person, but everyone wants a better life, so you need to radically change your thinking. So, let's go!
Thoughts about the future
Rich people always see their future in front of them, they dream, transform dreams into goals, break them down into specific actions and carry them out day after day. The poor, on the contrary, are fixated on their past - they constantly remember how good it was before, what they had 10-15-25 years ago, and so on. Many had parents who grew up in the Soviet Union and were always instilled with the mentality of the poor. They often remember the old days, sausages at 2.20, equality and other relics. Rich people don't think like that; they set goals, plan and achieve them.
You think you're not smart enough to be rich
Remember how the teachers said - if you study poorly, you will become a janitor. However, the history of many people refutes this fact. F and C students often become successful much faster. They spend energy on achievements, do not think, but immediately do it, relying on intuition, fashion trends, and the opportunity that has arisen. Intelligence is important, but it is not always the decisive factor in the ability to earn a lot.
Reasonable selfishness
The poor think completely differently - they are always in their thoughts trying to do good for other people. This is expressed in the inability to ask for a fair payment for their services or goods; they would rather do something to their detriment, but for the benefit of others. Moreover, such categories include not only close relatives, but also friends, acquaintances and even neighbors. The secret of the rich is that they always care about their personal well-being first, and only then think about others. Many may say that this is pure selfishness - no, this is reasonable selfishness that must be present without fail. It is not for nothing that the rich engage in charity and through it give this world everything they have to offer.
I don't deserve to be rich
This attitude often prevents you from achieving success. Low self-esteem and criticism from loved ones lead to the fact that a person considers himself unworthy of big money. Again, this attitude often comes from childhood, but it can and should be fought. Everyone, regardless of status or origin, deserves to live a successful and prosperous life.
Narina Osiyan, business consultant, author of individual personal growth programs and the book “The Magic of the Word or the Secrets of the Russian Language,” comments: “Our brain was programmed from the moment of conception for certain letters and sounds. Every part of our body is programmed for a certain type of activity, which is controlled by our brain. If you “download” strange conditions into your head, don’t be surprised by the strange consequences. Money always requires a lot of attention. Because here it is important to preserve and increase. The language itself suggests: to get rich, you need to live wisely. “LIVE SMARTLY.” The keys to wealth are the words we either use or create problems for ourselves.”
Practical knowledge and skills
The rich think like this: “It is important to obtain knowledge that can be used to your advantage in the future. And it doesn’t matter what source they will come from – university, media, Internet, etc.” The poor, on the other hand, are fixated on obtaining a higher education - a qualification without which they cannot see further advancement. And it doesn’t matter at all that it cannot be used in business or for making money or investing. For this reason, among large entrepreneurs and businessmen there are many who have not received higher education.
Private matter
For more than seventy years, the country has been persistently taught that private business is suspicious, private property is definitely bad, and there are no places in the bright future for “speculators,” “farmers,” or, God forgive me, “underground shop workers.” The milestones have changed completely, but the attitude towards the institution of private property in Russia is ambiguous. In 2005, the majority of respondents (52.4%) spoke positively about it or remained neutral (23.9%). Now only 40.7% have a positive assessment, a third (36.3%) are neutral. There are fewer opponents of private property, but mainly due to those who simply now find it difficult to answer. People who still remember socialist times, but now live poorly, do not like “private traders”.
But there are also visible changes. 15 years have passed, and respondents more often began to say that private property helps to revive people’s “sense of ownership” (44.2% instead of 30.4% in 2005), helps to get out of the economic crisis (24.4% and 13. 4%) and overcome the shortage of goods (32.7% and 24.7%). Among the negative consequences, less noted is that private property causes the stratification of society into the poor and the rich (45.7% instead of 53.8%). However, respondents, speaking about private property, began to mention the associated “exploitation of man by man” much more often (25%, and not 15.9%, as at the dawn of the 2000s).
Infographics "RG" / Alexander Chistov / Anna Chetverikova
Just an important point. Citizens debate a lot and passionately about whether the state should give free rein to private owners or let it manage the economy itself. About a third (36.8%) are now in favor of centralized regulation, 7.6% are in favor of minimal government intervention, and 25.1% are in favor of ensuring that the leader bears full responsibility for what is happening in the country, and let it be any type of economy. find it difficult to answer - 13.7%. The majority believes that the state should lead in key areas (extractive industries, electricity, metallurgy) and in the fields of education, medicine, and pensions. Private traders are ready to be allowed into banks, museums, theaters, partly into clinics, housing and communal services and transport, and the media. At the same time, the majority of citizens are clearly against foreigners acquiring private property on the territory of our country.
But all this is when we are talking about something “general”, on a nationwide scale. Citizens are categorically against the state violating the right not just to private property, but to their personal property. No one agrees that an apartment would be given to him after long requests, and then could easily be taken away. Or they limited the ability to sell and buy a dacha, a car, a garage, rent out living space, or make major transactions. Mine is mine. Let “ours” be something on a larger scale: mines, railways, nuclear power plants, factories... Everyone is unanimous in this opinion - both the poor and the rich. It’s a pity, it still doesn’t match the “national idea”.
Help "RG"
A nationwide representative sociological study on the topic “On the pressing problems of our lives and the interaction of regulators, business and citizens” was conducted by the Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences in collaboration with the Association of Russian Banks in June 2021 in 22 constituent entities of the Russian Federation (112 settlements), 2000 respondents were interviewed using personal interviews subject to sampling quota parameters. Materials from other all-Russian studies of the Institute of Sociology (now FNISC) of the Russian Academy of Sciences were also used.
Commentary by Mikhail Gorshkov, Director of the Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Action Thinking
They always make plans that lead to achieving a specific result. The secret of the success of rich people is that they take responsibility for themselves and do not shift it to other people or circumstances - the government, boss, parents, economic situation, spouse, etc. The poor also often count on a successful combination of circumstances when playing in various lotteries, investing money in HYIPs, financial pyramids. Rich people don’t do this - they don’t know that only solid calculation can lead to financial independence.
Lack of a clear goal
The ability to plan is a useful ability. But they practically don’t teach it at school and don’t set an example in the family. A person rushes from one thing to another, tries to get different jobs, find himself, but he does not have a clear plan, vision of what he wants, how to achieve it and in what time frame. As a result, there is no goal, which means there is nothing to strive for. The right goal and plan answer the question of why some are rich and others are poor.
Dmitry Kibkalo, founder of the international network of board games Mosigra, says: “In management, one of the classic approaches to managed changes is this: you determine where you are now, where you want to go, steps and methods of monitoring. Often everything stops at “where are you now.” Sometimes it can be difficult to admit that the situation is bad now, and no one is to blame but you. Everything that happens in life is not the machinations of competitors, not the inefficiency of the government, not a coincidence - it is all the result of your own actions.”
Earning money from a hobby
Poor people for the most part go to unloved jobs, which they hate with every fiber of their soul. Rich people have many hobbies and always try to make money from them. Experience shows that the richest people in the world have made their billions from activities in which they are sincerely passionate. In this approach lies the difference - in the case of a job you love, motivation is beyond the limits, in the case of a job you don’t like, it is completely absent.
Minding your own business
Every person is endowed with talents. Some people already know what to do from school. Parents forcibly send other children to study at a hated institute in an unloved specialty. The result is loss of interest and disappointment. There seems to be work, but there is no incentive to achieve. A salesman who dreamed of becoming a trainer, an accountant who dreamed of having an art education - they are all doing something that is not their job, losing potential and incentive for development.
Live more modestly than you can afford
It may look strange at first, but in reality it is true. The rich will never flaunt their money, buy expensive things and luxury items without special need (if they are really rich and not thieving officials). Their standard of living is very high, but not exorbitant. The poor do exactly the opposite - they get into debt and loans, buy the latest models of phones, drive cars for which they cannot pay for repairs, and so on. The rich do not spend more than they receive, and invest all available funds in financial instruments.
Boasting
I once came across an interesting phrase: “If you see a businessman dressed to the nines, it means things aren’t going well for him.” Truly rich people dress simply and discreetly.
Remember Steve Jobs and his permanent black turtleneck. He claimed that such asceticism in clothing helps him not to be distracted from work, and his colleagues from being distracted from him.
If you are not a star of the pop scene and you don’t need to figure out how to shock and attract the public every time, then flashy clothes will only speak of an ostentatious demonstration of imaginary wealth, i.e. about showing off.
It is poor people who take out loans to buy an iPhone, a car, branded clothing, i.e. everything that they cannot afford, but so want to show to society.
Successful environment
This postulate refers to the comfort zone that people with low incomes are afraid to leave. They surround themselves with the same people, and consider the rich to be something unattainable - from another galaxy. The rich have completely different thinking and behavior. They try to surround themselves with people whose standard of living and development is an order of magnitude higher than theirs. They know that they can learn a lot and adopt habits from their social circle.
Rich people are bad people
If you have such an attitude, then you can’t expect prosperity. Nobody wants to be bad. You will have to analyze where you got the idea that wealthy people have negative qualities. Most likely, this was instilled in you by your poor relatives or friends who themselves did not succeed in life. Whether a person is good or bad depends not only on how much money he has, but on his relationships with other people and the actions he performs.
What to do to become rich
By identifying the reasons why you are not rich, you can change the current state of affairs.
• Take action. • Increase confidence. • Communicate with the rich and successful. • See failures as experiences and opportunities to change. • Understand that money is a tool, it cannot be bad, good, or bring evil. • Make a plan, clearly define your goals. • Constantly learn and develop. • Remember that movement is either forward or backward.
Many people are not rich because they are resigned to the current situation. They have adapted to poverty so much that they can no longer force themselves to work a little more. Financial independence is, first of all, thinking, the purity of which largely determines why some are rich and others are poor.
Read: 5 common misconceptions about wealth and making money
Focus on profit
The rich constantly think about safe investments to generate additional income, which in most cases is passive. The poor save money to spend it at some point. This determines the final results of these categories of people.
Let's summarize. To become rich, you need to think like a rich person, increase your level of financial literacy and increase your passive income. Only he can make a person truly free and independent of money.
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Capital increase
Surely some of you have heard the saying: “If you give a rich man 100 rubles, he will make a thousand out of them. And if you give a poor person a thousand rubles, he will spend it all down to the last penny.”
I would also add on my own behalf: “and he will also get into debt.”
A rich person does not have money lying under his pillow waiting for inflation to eat it up or a “rainy day” to set in, but is constantly working to bring in new money.
A poor person's pockets begin to “burn” as soon as they have money in them. There are so many temptations and temptations around, it’s so difficult to resist.
Why invest, invest somewhere, study something, take risks when there is another “dream thing” on display.
