WE often look to esoteric teachings for insights to succeed in life. But what if the keys we seek are simply lessons we learnt as children? Broke and resentful gamblers often blurt out ruder variations of this complaint against operators of casinos from Las Vegas to Marina Bay Sands, and from Macau to Genting:
"The cards are stacked against us."
Of course, they are. How else can beleaguered billionaire owners of listed gaming companies grow consistently wealthier at the expense of weak-willed fools?
Can you tell by my restrained subtle prose that I have zero sympathy and even less patience for the irresponsible morons who risk their families' financial futures, perhaps even their children's tertiary education funds, for the thrill of a bet or more likely an endless string of bets?
However, you'll find me more compassionate when dealing with regular non-gamblers, who have lost their way in the confusing maze of our world's financial system, and thus end up mired in densely populated metaphoric valleys packed with other economic losers.
From their scattered, decidedly low vantage points these crowds snatch glimpses of life's big winners living it up, shall we say, in alpine splendour.
Hold that image in your mind as I ask you two questions:
1. Why do so many people on Earth lose out on securing a fair share of our planet's incalculable wealth even though they aren't daredevil gamblers barrelling toward oblivion as they ignore the dire warnings of probability and statistics?
2. In contrast, what do life's economic winners know and what do they do that propel them up the superhighway of compounding wealth?
There's no one-size-fits-all solution for anyone who aspires to emigrate from a low-lying Valley of Losers to a lofty Mountain of Winners. Yet while that's true, here are three common attributes shared by most economic successes:
1. Self-discipline;
2. Sacrifice; and
3. Solvency.
SELF-DISCIPLINE
Our world is crammed with distractions. It takes an uncommon capacity for concentrated toil to consistently work on what's important and not merely on what's shiny and urgent.
Life's winners control their capacity for attentiveness better than losers do. It's why they get more career-advancing, wealth-building work done during generally longer-than-basic 40-hour workweeks.
In his book, FOCUS — The Hidden Driver of Excellence, former science journalist, psychologist and bestselling author Daniel Goleman explains:
"… focus in the midst of din indicates selective attention, the neural capacity to beam in on just one target while ignoring a staggering sea of incoming stimuli, each one a potential focus in itself."
If we're to succeed in life and if we specifically aim to grow wealthy, then our internal stores of focused self-discipline must be nurtured and grown.
SACRIFICE
Those who succeed in life possess long time perspectives while those who fail tend to have very short time perspectives. Another way of looking at this is to ask yourself whether you're more comfortable mingling with the majority of humanity with low reserves of patience; an inability to make a plan and stick to it; and which almost always opts for immediate gratification when faced with an inferior option that can be enjoyed now and a superior one that takes effort and time to attain.
The innate ability to sacrifice a small present pleasure for a large future payoff — such as opting, say, NOT to spend some saved or borrowed capital on a flashy car that depreciates and instead, using that money to fund a second degree or to start a business — is the mark of life's relative winners.
Those we consider overnight successes rarely reached their rarefied heights of accomplishment without long-term sacrifice. As 19th century American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote:
"The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night."
SOLVENCY
Opportunities for us to grow financially successful may be relatively rare but they do exist. According to Brian Tracy's Corridor Principle, we need to keep moving along the Corridor of Life by staying curious and observant to the opportunities life occasionally presents to us.
It is only as we move along the Corridor that we get to see new doors on either side of us. Some will be closed, others ajar. We can easily enter the open doorways but with the closed doors we have to turn their knobs to see if they are locked or not.
As we think about the options we face to improve our lot in life, we'll learn that solvency — having some savings of our own — will permit us to go through doors, which are impassable to those with no savings.
So, in preparation for your impending big break, perhaps in your career or a business you might start, choose today to harness the power of personal sacrifice to cultivate the fruits of delayed gratification to improve your long-term financial solvency.
How? Just spend less than you earn, save and invest the difference, and do it for a long time.
So, will you exercise your self-discipline to harness the economic power of sacrifice to steadily raise your financial solvency? If you do, then my suggested trifecta of success can fuel your journey from valley-low to mountaintop.
© 2021 Rajen Devadason
Rajen Devadason, CFP, is a Licensed Financial Planner, professional speaker and author. Read his free articles at www.FreeCoolArticles.com; he may be connected with on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/rajendevadason, or via [email protected]. You may also follow him on Twitter @Rajen Devadason and on Clubhouse (Rajen Devadason).
