Wealth Can't Wait

1. Choose Wealth, Embrace Freedom

Every decision you make takes you one step closer to being wealthy … or one step further away.

Conscious Choice. Building wealth starts with a conscious decision. It's about waking up and actively choosing a path that leads to financial freedom, rather than sleepwalking through a "programmed life" dictated by societal expectations or others' desires. This choice involves questioning whether your current lifestyle aligns with the future you truly want.

Wealth Redefined. Wealth isn't just about material possessions; it's about freedom – the power to choose and create. It encompasses health, strong relationships, and the ability to control your time and make decisions aligned with your values. Money is simply a tool to amplify what's already within you, whether positive or negative.

Saying Yes to Yourself. Building wealth is a way of saying "yes" to yourself and the things that matter most. It's about aligning with your passions and inspirations, leading to a life of heightened calm, satisfaction, and genuine security. This journey requires a commitment to continuous learning and the development of skills that empower you to create the life you desire.

2. Commitment Fuels the Wealth-Building Engine

Knowledge without action is wasted potential.

Steadfast Dedication. Building wealth requires a deep, unwavering commitment to winning the game of wealth. This commitment permeates your being, influencing every decision and action you take. It's a willingness to do whatever it takes, even when it feels uncomfortable or requires you to step outside your comfort zone.

Five Pillars of Commitment. To build wealth effectively, commit to:

• Saving capital to invest, regardless of your income level.
• Making saving a daily habit and revisiting your financial goals monthly.
• Continuously learning about wealth and investing.
• Actively seeking out investment opportunities.
• Taking consistent action, even with incomplete knowledge.

Resilience and Growth. Failure is an inevitable part of the wealth-building process. The key is to learn from setbacks, dust yourself off, and start again. The only true failure is quitting. Commitment has a massive upside, improving all areas of your life and making it easier to achieve amazing goals.

3. Dodge the Wealth Traps

Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never … have enough.

Self-Awareness is Key. Building wealth requires actively cultivating a can-do, make-it-happen mindset. This involves recognizing and avoiding the common wealth traps that can derail your progress. The biggest obstacle to wealth is often ourselves.

Seven Common Traps. These include:

• The stable or cushy job: Settling for comfort over opportunity.
• Risk avoidance: Fear of failure paralyzing action.
• Viewing wealth negatively: Associating money with greed or corruption.
• Not staying the course: Quitting too early in the face of setbacks.
• The victim and negativity trap: Dwelling on past misfortunes.
• The know-it-all trap: Closing yourself off to new learning.
• Lack of focus: Spreading yourself too thin across multiple ventures.

Cultivate Abundance. By actively avoiding these traps and cultivating a mindset of abundance, you can significantly increase your chances of reaching your wealth goals. Remember, opportunities come every day; it's your willingness to see and seize them that determines your success.

4. Vision and Planning: Your Wealth-Building Compass

It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.

The Power of a Plan. People who build wealth tend to have a clear plan, a focused vision for the future. This plan serves as a roadmap, guiding your actions and shaping your decisions. Even a bad plan is better than no plan, as it provides a framework for progress and allows for adjustments along the way.

The PATH to Wealth:

• Plan for wealth: Develop a clear strategy with defined outcomes, methods, and models.
• Take Action: Break down your plan into actionable steps that move you forward.
• Work with a Team: Surround yourself with talented people who can leverage your efforts.
• Hold yourself Accountable: Own your circumstances and outcomes, using feedback to improve.

Accountability is Key. Accountability isn't about blame; it's about owning your results and creating the possibility for change. By embracing accountability, you can push your life to amazing levels of success.

5. ME, Inc.: Run Your Life Like a Business

If you think of yourself as a corporation, you will naturally build greater wealth.

Corporate Mindset. Adopting a corporate mindset is a powerful way to build wealth. This involves treating your life as a business, measuring income, expenses, and growth, and setting goals with clear expectations. Even if you're an hourly wage earner, your household generates income and incurs expenses, making this approach relevant to everyone.

Three Steps to Corporate Thinking:

• Learn how to create a profit-and-loss statement.
• Track your expenses each month.
• Create a personal financial statement.

Measure and Grow. "What you watch will grow. What you measure, you can impact." By tracking your finances and treating your life like a business, you can significantly impact your wealth-building potential. The goal is to create a living, breathing entity that generates jobs and cash flow for you, your family, and your team.

6. Balance Ground Game and Air Game

There are some people who live in a dream world, and there are some who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other.

The Way of Wealth. Building wealth requires a balanced attack, combining a strong "ground game" with a well-defined "air game." The ground game involves hard work, grinding away, and getting things done. The air game encompasses your plan, strategy, and tactics.

Ground Game vs. Air Game.

• Ground Game: Making calls, closing sales, doing the job, hiring subs.
• Air Game: Planning, strategizing, evaluating progress.

Balanced Attack. Success requires both. A good air game without a ground game leads to endless planning without execution. A strong ground game without an air game results in tireless effort without strategic direction. You have to have both.

7. Asset-Based Living: The Wealthy's Secret

It’s easy to come up with new ideas; the hard part is letting go of what worked for you two years ago, but will soon be out of date.

Beyond Cash Flow. Building wealth requires asset-based living, focusing on acquiring assets that generate income, rather than simply living off your paycheck. This involves living below your means and investing the excess cash wisely. The sooner you save cash to invest, the sooner you learn how to invest it.

Wealth Comes in Waves. Markets rise and fall, so accumulate well-positioned assets with positive cash flow that can be kept through downturns. Buy smart assets purchased below market value or needing modest improvements, using smart debt or no debt.

Horizontal vs. Vertical Income. Shift your thinking from working for money (vertical income) to working for wealth (horizontal income). Horizontal income comes from investment sources, creating multiple passive-income streams that fund your lifestyle.

8. Think Big, Break Limits

Think BIG. There are unseen forces ready to support your dreams.

The 10X Factor. One of the biggest hurdles to building wealth is the mindset that too much sacrifice would be required to have what we truly want. The 10× factor is a tool to break through your limiting beliefs. The 10× factor is thinking ten times higher than you currently do.

Challenge Your Beliefs. Write down your income and net worth goals for the next three and five years. Then, multiply those goals by ten. What feelings does this bring up? What things do you imagine to be standing in your way?

Commit with Ease. The single most-cited impediment to hitting the 10× factor is that it would require too much sacrifice. When you state your goals and affirmations, add “with ease.” This frees you from the barrier of burden and sacrifice.

9. Positive Thinking: Your Wealth-Building Ally

It’s not the situation, but whether we react (negative) or respond (positive) to the situation that’s important.

Control Your Response. Building wealth requires managing your emotional reaction to setbacks. Remember the formula: Event + Response = Outcome. You control your response, which affects the outcome.

Reframe Setbacks. Are you willing to win under any circumstance? Face adversity and ask: “What about this event could benefit me? What happened that could be to my advantage?” There is something positive for you, something to your advantage, inside any negative event.

Positive Self-Talk. Nothing will stop your progress like the brick wall of negative self-talk. Replace negative thoughts with positive affirmations. Use "I am" statements to shape your reality.

10. The Seven Habits That Build Wealth

Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day; while failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day. It is the accumulative weight of our disciplines and our judgments that leads us to either fortune or failure.

Master a Few Disciplines. You don’t need to be a disciplined person; you just need to master a few disciplines. Adopt these seven powerful habits to transform your life:

• Live Life by Design: Create a vision for your life and make purposeful choices.
• Make Business Decisions Based on Solid Fundamentals: Avoid speculation and focus on value.
• Stick with What You Know and Drill Deep: Become an expert in your area of competence.
• Earn More by Learning More: Continuously develop your skills and knowledge.
• Chunk Down Big Goals and Add Accountability: Break down large tasks into manageable steps.
• Spend Less Than You Earn and Invest the Rest: Save and invest wisely to build assets.
• Let Go of the Small Stuff: Delegate or eliminate tasks that don't contribute to your goals.

Small Disciplines, Big Results. Success is the result of a few simple disciplines practiced every day. Focus on mastering these habits to build lasting wealth.

11. Client Acquisition: The Heart of Business

To me, job titles don’t matter. Everyone is in sales. It’s the only way we stay in business.

Client is King. She who controls the client, controls the business. Client acquisition is the most important skill for building a successful business. It doesn't matter how great you are at what you do if you can't attract and retain clients.

Focus on Acquisition. Don't confuse being great at your craft with being successful in business. The business of acquiring clients is not the same as doing a good job on your clients’ work. Without clients, everybody starves.

Rainmakers Rule. If you want a profitable business, prioritize client acquisition. Develop skills in marketing, networking, and sales to attract new clients and build lasting relationships.

12. Leverage: Amplify Your Power

Leverage is the reason some people become rich and others do not become rich.

Multiply Your Efforts. Leverage is the key to scaling your business and building wealth. It allows you to magnify your effectiveness and power, achieving more with less effort.

Three Types of Leverage:

• Systems Leverage: Defining and following standards to streamline operations.
• People Leverage: Building a talented team to delegate tasks and expand your reach.
• Financial Leverage: Using debt wisely to control more assets and increase returns.

Build a Scalable Business. The best business is one that can run without you. Use leverage to create systems, build a team, and manage your finances effectively, allowing you to focus on strategic growth.

Last updated: February 23, 2025