How To "Get Rich Quick."
I constantly meet people that are striving to achieve success and significance in today's world. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. As a mentor and coach to faith and business leaders, and especially young emerging leaders, I often see their desire to make it to “the top” quickly.
While it’s understandable for many to aim towards achieving success at a fast pace, the reality is, that this is not the norm. Yes, we have the exception of a few examples of young billionaires that made their riches while still in their 20’s. Although, realistically, many of us won’t fall under that category.
However, there are some traits, characteristics, and habits that we can implement to accelerate the journey.
Everyone wants to improve. We are all looking to earn more, do more, serve more, improve, expand, grow, and succeed. Right?
We’ll it’s a simple fact that if you want different results, you are simply going to have to do something different. It was Albert Einstein who said, “If you want different results, do not do the same things.”
So, let’s take a moment to reevaluate and adjust.
For five years, financial planner and CPA, Tom Corley, studied the routines of the rich and the poor, tracking more than 200 activities of 233 wealthy people and 128 people living in poverty. This research became the basis of his bestselling book, Rich Habits: The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals. I’m going to take the liberty of exchanging the word wealthy with successful and the word poor with unsuccessful.
As a result of this case study, Tom Corley made a revolutionary discovery:
“WEALTH and POVERTY had NOTHING to do with
random luck or the circumstances of your life…
and has EVERYTHING to do with your daily habits.”
The wealthy had vastly different daily habits, than those living in poverty. To put it in simpler terms: Daily habits are the CAUSE and your wealth or poverty is the EFFECT.
So, what do the “successful” do every day that the “unsuccessful” don’t do?
I took just a few of the “rich habits” in Tom Corley’s study and tried to categorize them.
HEALTH
70% of wealthy eat less than 300 junk food calories per day. 97% of poor people eat more than 300 junk food calories per day.
76% of wealthy exercise aerobically four days a week. 23% of poor do this. 50% of the wealthy track their calories. 71% avoid fast food restaurants. 69% poor admitted to eating at fast food restaurants more than 3 times a week.
89% slept 7 hours or more each night
FINANCES
23% of wealthy gamble. 52% of poor people gamble.
94% saved 20% or more of their income
GOALS & ORGANIZATION
80% of wealthy are focused on accomplishing some single goal. Only 12% of the poor do this.
81% of wealthy maintain a to-do list vs. 19% of poor.
67% of wealthy write down their goals vs. 17% of poor.
SELF IMPROVEMENT – PERSONAL EDUCATION
63% of wealthy listen to audio books during commute to work vs. 5% of poor people.
63% of wealthy parents make their children read two or more non-fiction books a month vs. 3% of poor.
88% of wealthy read 30 minutes or more each day for education or career reasons vs. 2% of poor.
86% of wealthy believe in lifelong educational self-improvement vs. 5% of poor.
86% of wealthy love to read vs. 26% of poor.
SERVING OTHERS
70% of wealthy parents make their children volunteer 10 hours or more a month vs. 3% of poor.
80% of wealthy make Happy Birthday calls vs. 11% of poor.
NETWORKING
79% of wealthy network five hours or more each month vs. 16% of poor.
SOCIAL SKILLS
6% of wealthy say what’s on their mind vs. 69% of poor.
67% of wealthy watch one hour or less of TV every day vs. 23% of poor.
6% of wealthy watch reality TV vs. 78% of poor.
44% of wealthy wake up three hours before work starts vs. 3% of poor.
74% of wealthy teach good daily success habits to their children vs. 1% of poor.
84% of wealthy believe good habits create opportunity luck vs. 4% of poor.
76% of wealthy believe bad habits create detrimental luck vs. 9% of poor.
Let me conclude with saying that after reading this post, you may feel like you just got through “drinking water out of a fire hose.”
Take a moment to copy and paste this article and consume it “one small bite at a time.”
My challenge to you is that you start practicing “rich habits” and if you discover that you are practicing “poor habits,” decide today to change.
Let me know your thoughts and comments.
Eddie Rivero
PS: Sorry. I don't have the answer to getting rich quick... but I do think that you can improve your odds at becoming successful.