6 Harsh Truths that will make you a Better Person

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Depends on location. Chances are there are more 2nd+ generation millionaires in very wealthy neigbhourhoods, but where I live in the suburbs almost all of the millionaires I know are self made. It's not all that uncommon, really. I do think that, in general, opportunities are more universal here in Canada - especially Vancouver - than they are in much of the USA where there is a strong correlation between race and last name as to whether or not you get into good schools, get good jobs, or make a lot of money. Here, a non-English speaking non-white person can arrive broke and make their way to millionaire status just as fast as they can. We have many immigrant self made millionaires+ here.

Yeah, paycheque to paycheque living makes things very tough. I'm no millionaire, but I've managed to accumulate some money the old fashioned way - by living below my means. For a bit over a year I spent virtually nothing and saved everything, then invested it. I haven't saved much money at all over the last year due to living it up a little and then some unforeseen expenses.. but my investments have grown significantly, so I'm still getting ahead.

Most people here are not in a position to save much money, either. Most are paycheque to paycheque - even those earning $100K as their expenses and lifestyle tend to eat up what they earn w/ mortgage payments, cars, vacations, kids to clothe and feed etc it's all gone. But thanks to my autistic-level discipline & focus I've been able to accumulate some money and will continue to despite the fact that I earn less than half of that.

Two-full-job-working couples can accumulate money.

I agree that the article is about what we do with our lives. It's not all about money though, as the article points out some skills that aren't monetary, like giving a massage or playing an instrument. The article also points out that what we do makes us more interesting to others than who we are, because they can't directly see who we are. I definitely disagree with the part of the article that talks about how kindness doesn't matter if someone can get that elsewhere though. Being a good listener is a valuable skill. I'm not a huge fan of sarcastic humor either but I like the main message: do, create, share ideas, ETC.

people will pay money to others to listen to them, as long as they have a shingle.

I often wonder how, if you take two ordinary people, one will become a self-made millionaire and one will remain ordinary. Just what separates the two?

Great Scott!! That's it! You can accumulate money, unless you're single or in a single income couple.

Not if they have to spend all that money on bills, basic needs and enough entertainment/recreation not to die of boredom. Perhaps they could accumulate some....but not to the degree past generations could just save cash in their mattress and save up to become 'wealthy'.

That said though I am not in a situation like that I get disability income, but will be looking to start some limited hours of working so very part time. So yeah it will be a long while before a full time job becomes a possibility...I suppose me and my boyfriend would have a little more to pool together if I worked full time to but that is not the case. A lot of peoples pay is insufficient for the cost of living.

Typically, millionaires actually save money--they earn more than they spend. And, they learn how to do that an early age, so that one can take advantage of compounded returns. For example, if you had 100,00 saved up by age 30 and it doubled every 10 years. Even if you didn't save any more you would have 200,000 at age 40, 400,000 at age 50, and 800,000 at age 60! More importantly, with such a resources they are less likely to panic and make bad decisions.

1]lack of disabling mental addlements, 2]hyper-social intelligence, 3]entrepreneurial intelligence. ordinary people will not have all of those gifts in a neat little package. thus, they likely will always be ordinary.

Screw this 'anyone can be a millionaire' mentality BS.

There are so many factors and variables that influence whether or not you even have a chance.

If it were so easy everyone would do it once they know how to.

Even the vast majority of entrepreneurs will never be majorly successful.

It's not as simple as simply 'saving more than you spend', especially if what you receive each year after taxes, bills and money spent on toiletries and luxuries, are covered is an insignificant amount, say $500 saved per year ($5,000 in ten) but much more complicated than that.

Millionaires make investments, they startup businesses and create assets for themselves that generate further revenue, they build networks and connections with others.

This is all easier said than done. It's possible to know exactly how to do something theoretically and then still struggle to do it.

They say in the music industry it's less so what you know but who you know, when it comes to attaining wealth it is both.

It's hard enough to be successful in office/corporate culture and navigate the business world, being an actual entrepreneur or investor is the most extreme version of this.

Anyway, nah, being a millionaire is easy.

All you really need is some advice from good 'ol Tai Lopez! If he can do it, you can! /s

Well, too late for me. I'm not at an early age. I won't be saving $100,000 by the time I reach 30 because I turn 30 later this year.

It's not practical for me to save because my rent takes up most of my income. I love the place I'm living in but I'll never be a millionaire. Oh well

Great, I've read the Karate Kid article of his before.

Tai Lozpez is a bit of a scam.
His wealthy-mentor friend Mark Cuban's Cyber Dust idea will fail. Because Snapchat can be saved, any other app can be saved in some way.that wants to start.
aZHCgKHAwjQ -youtube video, didn't want to link, to promote him.

I think millionaires have a certain mentality where they can almost predict the market and also are able to see what the market is missing and what it needs. That and being crazy workaholics

There does need to be a certain amount of money for start up as well

Re: 2 ordinary people & one stays poor and the other becomes a millionaire - the difference is.. they're not 2 ordinary people. One of them is extraordinary.

And the primary difference of the extraordinary one? They have remarkably better executive brain functions than the ordinary one. That's it. Even if they're pretty anti-social all they have to be able to do is math and keep time accurately.

They can think ahead and plan for the future, control their impulses, be patient, save a set amount, stick to a budget etc etc - they're natural born extraordinary Ants vs. ordinary Grasshoppers.

The most extreme of these executives we call.. Executives - and they're typically very highly paid due to their value in a free capital market where they're quite the rare commodity. Extra extraordinary.

These two pieces of your post stuck out the most, especially the first bit. That was me. I graduated from business school when I was 19. I knew the textbook answers, but I couldn't execute them due to brain functions issues I was unaware of at the time - ie before I realized my diagnoses and then educated myself about them. So, I knew what I should be doing, but just couldn't manage to do it.

Then I figured out how to get my brain functioning significantly better, go healthier all around, went through personal bankruptcy, got back to work, saved, invested etc and now am well on my way to building some actual monetary wealth. I've been pretty terrible at saving much over the last 2 years (bad! but I did pay for quite a few things) but I saved quite a bit the year or so before that via the classic living below your means method. That money has since approx doubled in 2 years. Hypothetically, if I didn't add/remove any more money, if it doubled every 2 years (yeah right, but just go with it.) I would be a millionaire in a little over 8 years from now by age 42. (The answer to everything.) It's not very probable, but just going with my personal example and simplified math that's exactly how someone can become a millionaire. In reality I will likely get lower returns but also increase my income and add more money to the fund over time. I used to know these things through and through but not be able to do them.. until I got my executive brain functions working for me instead of against me. I'm not still not an "Executive," but I can keep myself functioning at a high enough level to pull this off and build enough personal wealth for a comfortable life - and maybe more, never know.

Which brings me to the other quote above.. entrepreneurship. That's part of what bankrupted me ~5 years ago. Business mistakes with partners, compounded by my brain not functioning ideally. Now that I'm doing much much better, when I have the capital and the market conditions are decent for my plan, I have entrepreneurial plans again. This time things could go extraordinarily well. I could end up making more money, faster. I figure I may as well give it a shot rather than always wonder if it would have worked.

I'm already an investor since I manage my own money in cash & stock trading accounts. That's how over a period of a couple years I've doubled my money. And I've only done "ok" at it IMO as if you had a crystal ball and all the answers it's possible to double your money a lot faster than every 2 years. But doing it in 2 years is still reasonably extraordinary compared to the returns people are typically making on investing in stocks right now, sooo for a joe schmoe armchair stock trader I'm doing alright so far.

Oh, and the word "millionaire" is almost lost on me these days. There are so many millionaires where I live it's ridiculous. Many of them are only millionaires in real estate assets because their property value has skyrocketed.. but if we have a bubble in Vancouver that crashes, well, a lot of people might lose their millionaire status. There are also a lot of true millionaires here. A lot. The average detached house in the city is now $1.5M, down from a high of $1.8M from a quick google search. One of the houses I've been working on is going to cost $40-60M to build. For one house. Anyways, I think being around millionaires allllllll around me, I think it's sort of diluted the prestige of the title but also made it so common and comfortable that eventually becoming a millionaire myself doesn't seem like such a far fetched idea - even as a working class labourer if I were to never launch and succeed with a business plan. Slowly but surely, bit by bit, I'll build wealth.

entrepreneurial skills can't be taught to people lacking proper executive functioning as well as social intelligence, you need both in spades for it to sink in and work.

False. I learned them in business school while my brain wasn't functioning so s**t hot. I've since improved my health and can now put those sorts of skills into action. You can have it sink it.. but you need your executive functioning especially, and to a lesser extent social intelligence, to make it work. IMO. YYMV.