I interviewed 361 rich and poor people over a five year period to learn why they were rich or poor. After peeling back that onion, I came to the realization that most people really did not want to become rich.
Becoming rich requires an enormous amount of work and sacrifice. The sacrifice is the investment in time away from family and friends that is required. It is also, oftentimes, a financial investment, which means taking a risk with your money or leveraging all of the assets you accumulated during your life. This investment and sacrifice is made by almost every self-made millionaire with a zero guarantee that success will occur and wealth will result.
Many who make the sacrifice fail. Some, pick themselves up and try again. And again, and again, and again. Failure is the common denominator in the lives of self-made millionaires.
For most, the work and sacrifice, along with initial failures, is too much to ask. After getting burned by failure and the lack of any return on their investment, most individuals put their tail between their legs and find safe, steady employment, working for those who refuse to quit.
If you were to study this process, as I have, you would come to the conclusion, as I have, that being poor or stuck in the middle-class is a choice. It’s a choice in that the work and the sacrifice, for most, is just not worth it.
The cold hard truth is that those who become self-made millionaires are really very special. They are willing to do the work, make the sacrifices, fail and never quit. If you want a secret to success it is this:
Work, sacrifice, fail and keep working, sacrificing and failing until you succeed
About Thomas C. Corley
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