What You Can Steal From Successful People About Making Lots of Money

When you hang out with losers, you become a loser. You never see how to become successful when you’re busy whining with the same friends that you always whine with. When you hang around successful people, you see what makes them different.

Over the years I’ve been lucky enough to be around all kinds of characters in different aspects of life. I attended community college, then went to university, started a blog, got involved with real estate, started training for pro wrestling and grappling, and have found myself in a bunch of different groups. I’ve met folks who made it to the top from the bottom. I have friends who are millionaires and I’ve gotten close with people I never would’ve met in a past life.

What can you steal from successful people about building wealth and making real money?

Choose a niche or field to attack.

You can’t be all over the place for your whole life. You have to attack a niche or a field or something very specific.

You can’t be jumping around from idea to idea looking to get rich without ever committing to anything.

Has jumping around hoping for the best ever worked for anyone? Not really. It’s okay to have a few projects on the go. Just don’t jump around between different ideas as you wonder why you can’t catch a break.

Here are some examples of finding a focus to help you build wealth:

Investing in real estate.
Playing poker.
Starting a blog.
Moving up in your job.
Becoming an entertainer.
Becoming an entrepreneur.
Becoming an expert on intermittent fasting (or any area of fitness).

I can go on but you get the point. You have to pick a niche/focus. The more you niche it down the better off you’ll be.

Don’t become a general person and don’t jump from idea to idea. I see this far too often. You can’t give up after two weeks. If you want to do something for the rest of your life, how dare you quit after two weeks. That just means you never wanted it in the first place. It also means that you barely even tried.

[Must read: the ultimate wealth building plan.]

Stop consuming so much!

I’m not here to lecture you or tell you how to spend your hard-earned money. You can do whatever you want. If you want to build wealth though, you need to stop consuming.

Do you ever see your rich friends on Facebook worrying about some new video game release?

Likely not.

The advice here is simple…

Lay off the video games and stop following every new series that you hear about.

Show as much passion for your money as you do for your favorite sporting team. I see friends getting into fights, spending money that they don’t have, and losing sleep over sports teams. This makes no sense to me.

Are you really going to worry about some millionaires that you’ve never met in your life? Are you going to spend your entire life consuming? Do you want to hang out on the beaches of Colombia or would you rather be stressing about some hockey game?

At some point you have to make a decision to get stuff done. You don’t want to look back and remember all of the shows that you kept up with. You want to remember your accomplishments. You want to be proud of the work that you put in.

You need to find mentors.

“My job is not to be easy on people. My job is to take these great people we have and to push them and make them even better.” — Steve Jobs

Stop hanging out with the same losers at the same coffee shop. Stop loitering around hoping for something to happen. A buddy of mine recently ran into his old friends. He was coming off a new promotion at work and a condo purchase. His friends were complaining about the same stuff from five years ago. He just nodded his head and stayed silent.

I have a feeling that you’ve heard the following at some point…

“That guy thinks he’s too good for us.”

This is what your loser friend says when you’re successful friend tries to politely walk away from a pathetic conversation. This has happened in every circle of friends. Don’t be the loser. Don’t be the guy that never moves on. If you don’t know who the loser is in the room, it’s you.

Get out there and meet interesting people. Stop hanging out with the same guys talking about the same crap. Find some mentors and friends that will actually inspire you to do better.

A mentor will help you get to the next level. It’s important to have mentors in every field (training, work, business, etc.). Without a mentor you’re going to plateau at a really early level.

Focus on your craft.

Stop promoting. Stop complaining. Stop debating the minor details. Stop arguing about politics.

Just shut up and do the work.

Focus on honing your skills. Focus on becoming better. Focus on becoming the best (in your little pocket of the world).

You have to focus on whatever it is that makes you money or will make you money one day. You have to become obsessed.

This includes the weekends too. This means that you might have to stay up late sometimes and miss out once in a while. You might have to miss a few of your favorite shows too. I have friends who made good money in poker and wrestling only because they became obsessed.

Stop wasting valuable time.

I have to repeat this again. Please stop wasting time. You don’t need to be on social media 24/7 complaining about politics. You don’t have to share every stupid video that you find to be remotely funny.

Nobody’s telling you that you have to work all of the time. You don’t have to be some productive robot. Just stop wasting your peak productive time on Facebook videos (I’m guilty of this too often).

Save up money to take on risks.

You have to save money if you want to build wealth. You can’t just go to the bank and tell them that you want to buy a franchise. You can’t keep on spending money. If you want real wealth you have to start saving up. You can then turn your savings into true wealth with the risks that you take.

How’s this possible?

Keep on saving over time.
Make some investments with the money that you’re saving.

The best part of saving money is making more money. I’ve risked money on real estate and business-related ventures (new design, coaching, conferences, etc.) many times. I was able to take on these risks by saving money. So stop spending every penny on trying to be cool.

Take risks.

“Please stop waiting for a map. We reward those who draw maps, not those who follow them.” — Seth Godin

This is useless advice. I know. It’s very vague to suggest that you take a risk. All I know is that at some point you have to try something. Nobody’s telling you to risk you future by borrowing more money than you could possibly afford to ever pay back. You just need to get into the habit of taking risks.

Take a risk on that business.
Take a risk on that course.
Take a risk on that property.
Take a risk on that lunch.
Take a risk on saying hello to that ultra-successful person.

Take risks. Don’t just post quotes about taking risks. Actually take those risks in real life.

Keep on investing your money.

You have to keep on investing your money and taking risks. You just have to keep on going. There are no shortcuts here. Keep on going until you get there and then keep on going some more.

It’s up to you now to start building wealth.

What are the tools to start building wealth?

Bluehost. Read up on how to start an online business with just a few bucks per month investment total.
Next Round’s On Me. This is my book that helps you figure out how to hit financial freedom in your 20s without missing out on the fun.
Betterment. See how you can start investing your money and use Betterment as a tool to get you there.

You know how to build wealth now. Don’t loiter. Go make it happen. Make lots of money. Enjoy the results. Spend the money on spoiling yourself. Go on that dream vacation finally.

“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.” — Stephen King