The Poverty Process

Have you ever considered the possibility that poor people are actually successful? I used to view poor people as individuals who were failing in life. I no longer do. I’ve come to the conclusion that wealth and poverty are simply the result of following different processes. One process results in wealth and the other poverty. You see, whether you’re rich or poor, you are succeeding in the sense that your process is working. It is making you rich or making you poor.

The Poverty Process

The process that results in poverty, like the process that results in wealth, is complicated. You actually need to intentionally do things every day that drag you down in life. It takes a lot of effort to be poor. What are some of the things you need to do in order to become poor?

• Take no responsibility for your life circumstances. Blame everyone but yourself.
• Do not read to learn or for self-improvement.
• Do not do anything that requires thinking, concentration or focus.
• Do not help anyone who is trying to better their life. In fact, criticize them.
• Give in to your doubts and fears.
• Avoid being mentored.
• Stay completely within your comfort zone.
• Have little to no willpower or self-control.
• Spend everything you make and if your income isn’t enough, use credit cards.
• Waste your time watching TV, on the Internet, playing video games, going to bars, going to the movies, reading recreational material (i.e. fiction), etc.
• Associate with toxic people.
• Avoid pursuing anything you are passionate about.
• Avoid pursuing goals and dreams.
• If you do pursue dreams or goals, quit when you confront any obstacles and then immediately move on to something new and different.
• Gamble.
• Express every emotion you have the minute you have it.
• Say whatever comes to mind immediately.
• Be mean and nasty to people.
• Be negative, pessimistic and cynical about everything.
• Trust no one.
• Talk behind everyone’s back.
• Intentionally hurt people with your words and deeds.
• Cheat on your spouse or significant other.
• Eat in excess.
• Drink and party often.
• Don’t exercise.
• Buy whatever you feel like buying immediately and without thinking about the consequences.
• Live for today and never plan for your future.
• Take up bad habits that result in some addiction (drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, etc.).
• Forge a reputation as unreliable and untrustworthy.
• Lie, cheat and steal. Ignore laws.

Now, if you don’t want to be poor, it’s really not that complicated. You just need to change the process you have been following. I won’t bother listing the process that creating wealth requires. Why? Because if you want to be wealthy, just do the opposite of everything I just listed. The wealth process is simply the opposite of the poverty process.

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