What truly differentiate the rich from the poor?
Sometimes it is really easy for people to say that the only difference between rich and poor people is the amount of money they make. Perhaps they could only identify rich and poor people from their lifestyle, what they drive, how much they spent on an experience or how big or small their houses might be.
While technically this isn’t wrong, it only scratches what is visible from the outside. The truth is there is so much more important differences between the rich and the poor.
It’s their mindset.
More specifically, the affluent mindset.
A little disclaimer, we know that these cannot be applied to absolutely everyone as people’s circumstances are different. There are some factors affecting your income or wealth that are genuinely out of our control such as war and natural disaster.
However, most of these principles are applicable to the vast majority of people.
We also understand that there are some difference between the old money and new money. Some hedge fund kids these days might also have a different drive from their predecessors.
On the other side, there are also new money people who came from poor background who have made their way to success thanks to the affluent mindset.
Now, let us discuss a few differences between the affluent and poor mindset.
1. Limiting Beliefs
Sometimes out biggest limit is ourselves.
Poor people often limit themselves to their current circumstance.
They think they were never meant to be rich simply because they were not born rich.
They enjoy life in mediocrity thinking that only a select few individuals could actually become rich and this prevent them from exploring their full potentials and taking opportunities in their life.
On the other hand, rich people know that even if there is something they want to do that seem impossible, they will still be able to achieve it sooner or later. They find ways to make things work.
Having money does make a lot of things easier. However, for those who were not born rich and became successful, they could do it because they believed in themselves. It has been proven in the recent years that the number of new millionaires has boomed. We live in an era with an abundance of nouveaux riches like we have never seen before.
These people were not born into wealth, but they managed to create wealth in their lifetime. What do these people have in common? The affluent mindset. They were rich in mind even before it manifested into reality.
2. Sense of Responsibility
Poor people like to blame others for their circumstance.
They like to blame society, the government, their parents, and God for their misery.
Generally, they fail to examine and reflect on themselves. They hate admitting their faults and they would find ways to justify their lack of financial success.
While rich people take responsibilities for themselves, they know no one else is responsible for making it happen for them. Things are not simply given to them, they have to take it.
When they are already in a higher position in society, they know they hold more responsibilities, not only for themselves but also for others. How do they manage to do it, you might be wondering?
They are able to handle it for the most part because they have practiced it many times before. Most of them started small and worked their way up from there.
3. Ability to Take Risk
True story, we were sharing our ideas and future goal with one of our old friend a long time ago and she completely dismissed the idea, and her reason was basically “it is too risky”.
Guess what? That very same idea made us a great amount of profit in the recent year.
Poor people tend to be afraid of risks, so much so to the point they rather do nothing at all and be mediocre for the rest of their lives than actually doing something which might help them to level up in society.
On the other hand, wealthy people tend to have higher attitude toward risk, they see risk as another side of opportunity to grow. Though wealthy people hate losing money more than anyone else and not all of them have the same level of risk taking attitude, generally speaking, they are still willing to take risks.
They just spend extra time to minimize the risk before executing it.
4. Money Mindset & Misconception
There is often a misconception among poor people that all rich people must be evil or they must have accumulated their wealth through some shady business but that if far from the truth.
A lot of rich people have what is called financial intelligence.
They found out how money works and then they took actions to bring it into their life. Wealthy people tend to have a more positive attitude toward money. They know that money is a tool, nothing more, nothing less.
They use money to leverage themselves.
On the other hand poor people hate to even talk about money, despite the fact that they think about it all the time, because they lack it.They think money is the root of all evil. They think all rich people must be bad and corrupt. They hate the idea of capitalism and wish that everything is given to them because it’s their self-proclaimed ‘rights’
In reality, if we take a deep dive to it, poor people tend to hate the concept of money because they are not good at generating it. Being born in a family with this kind of mindset is also a motivating factor for this negative mindset. On the other hand, rich people educate themselves financially and get rewarded for it.
5. Hunger & Focus
Rich people tend to be disciplined, motivated, and focused.
They know in order to be wealthy, there really is no shortcut. If you want something, you have to work for it.
They have this hunger which drives them to desire more. They always want to learn, always want to improve, always seek for directions to grow.
Poor people on the other hand lack the ambitions to grow, they are settling for less and is willing to get paid less to remain in their comfort zone.
They consciously have no intention to become more in life and they suffer financially for it.
The problem with this is the fact that they have no desire to increase their social value through education and skill sets.
Most people are not content with their salary, but they settle for it because they have no other choices or they are too afraid to ask for a raise. They have no valuable skills which could be brought to the marketplace. So, they end up compromising their future instead.
These days, there are no more excuse.
As long as you have access to the internet, you have something to work on. The internet has narrowed the gap between the rich and poor. Free educations are everywhere these days. As long as you have the access to the internet, you can always increase your social value and skill set through the tools available on it.
Believe us, you would never see people with no ambitions in life making it big.
6. Problem Oriented VS Solution Oriented
This one should come to no surprise.
Poor people tend to be problem oriented, they could easily identify a problem in their life. Maybe they acknowledge it, but they refuse to take concrete actions to improve their circumstance.
Rich people on the other hand are solution oriented, after they have identified the problem in their life. They would seek ways on solving it. They find the solution for every problem they have, while poor people find a problem for every solution.
7. Network and Circle of Friends
Poor people hang out with fellow poor people while rich people hang out with other rich people and create a strong social network with each other.
While some people might argue that their environment just don’t cut it for them to meet affluent people, that is just another petty excuse.
Thanks to the internet we have access into the lives of plenty of millionaires and billionaires, we could easily learn from them and then tweak things here and there to fit into our current circumstance.
You know there is a saying by Jim Rohn, “you are the average of five people you spend the most time with?” guess what? He’s right.
In this life, you want to learn from people who are better than you so you’ll know that there is so much more to achieve beyond what you have been taught your entire life.
Remember, if you are the smartest person in the room, you are in the wrong room.
Conclusion
So we have covered on some differences between the poor and the rich. While there are cases of exceptions, generally the rich have a better financial intelligence, skill set, and attitude than poor people.
The good news is, no matter who you are now, if you can read this piece of writing on your phone or laptop, it means you have the basic access to the internet and the abundant amount of information it stores.
It means you have the opportunity to be successful and “rich” as well.
The key is to learn.
Learn from wealthy and successful people in your field. Study them, see what they have that had brought them to where they are and apply what you could in your life.
Today, you are going to do what you can to improve your circumstance and we believe in the future we would see you on the top.
