Many have searched for the pattern, or a model, to explain why the rich are rich. Thomas Stanley has made a living studying and writing about wealthy people. He found consistent behaviors among them and first wrote about it in the “Millionaire Next Door.”
In the classic book published in 1937, “Think and Grow Rich,” Napoleon Hill wrote about the “16 laws of success” after twenty years of studying wealthy people.
Certainly many things separate the rich from the poor. Contrary to what the poor want to believe, it’s not only luck or fate. Of the 2009 Forbes 400 richest, 274 (68%) are self-made, but… the poor prefer to believe the rich have some advantages they do not. This type of thinking enables the poor to remain in their situations without taking any responsibility.
Luck always plays its part in life, but lucky people do many proactive things to put themselves in positions to take advantage of luck when it strikes. In the book, “The Top 10 Distinctions between Millionaires and the Middle Class,” Keith Cameron Smith describes the difference that has had the greatest impact on my life and my net worth.
In Cameron’s book, he discusses how the very poor focus on survival and instant gratification. They do not think beyond the moment. However, the very rich think and plan very far into the future—five, ten, or twenty years.
When reading this section of the book, I picture a scale with the amount of wealth correlating to the distance future planning spans.
The very poor think about the moment—the next drug fix. The poor think about the paycheck at the end of the week. The middle class are hoping to make it through the month. The rich are planning a year to several into the future, and the billionaires are thinking a decade or two further.
You’ll be rewarded with a wealth of life changing information by reading all three of these books at least once a year. However, I’m convinced, there is no greater trait that will reward you more than stretching your thinking further into the further.
By the way, if you want more money and freedom, and haven’t read these books…why not? Why reinvent the wheel when the answers are there?
Chuck Rylant is a retired police officer and regular contributor to CopsAlive.com. He owns his own financial planning business. You can learn more about Chuck Rylant at http://www.chuckrylant.com
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John, … good talking with you in the online discussion group for Shift Work Disorder. I like your site. Be back to read more later.