Transcription
I used to think rich people had some secret formula that I didn't know about. Turns out, after studying their habits and implementing them myself, the secret isn't actually a secret at all. It's not about waking up at 4:00 a.m. or taking ice baths. It's about simple, consistent habits that compound over time.
So, in this video, I'm revealing five habits that wealthy people practice daily. Habits that I've personally adopted that have completely transformed my relationship with money and success. They aren't the typical save more, spend less advice you've heard a million times. These are the psychological and behavioral shifts that I truly believe separate rich people from everyone else.
Number one, they act anyway. When I first started my YouTube channel, my inner voice was brutal. "You're not qualified enough. There are people out there who have more years of experience than you. You're not a good talker. Who are you to give advice?" That voice kept me from starting for months. And then the same thing happened very recently. I was invited to a big event to speak and the inner critic that comes back regularly came back again. "You're probably going to embarrass yourself. You're going to mix up your words and make a fool out of yourself and go blank again. There are people who are in the world who can do it better than you."
But every wealthy person I've seen, spoken to, studied, they all have this ability to act despite their inner critics screaming at them. They have this ability to go ahead and do the thing and tell themselves that they deserve it. The difference isn't that they don't have an inner critic. It's that they've learned to recognize it as just noise. And just knowing that, knowing that everyone has this inner critic, but the difference is how you respond to it has changed everything. And now every time my inner critic starts talking, I literally think to myself, "Thanks for sharing." And then I do the thing anyway. Not because I feel confident, but because I've learned that confidence comes after doing the thing, not before. Your inner critic wants to keep you safe, but safe rarely builds wealth. The next time you have an idea for a side business or you want to invest in something new or you want to try a new idea, notice that voice inside you that's telling you all the reasons why it won't work and why you shouldn't start. And once it comes, thank it and move forward anyway.
Number two, they realize the importance of obsession. In August 2022, I'd been working on my channel for about 7 months, and it was getting some views, maybe a few hundred, some comments here and there, but nothing really life-changing. And then it was around September 2022 when I became utterly obsessed. And I mean, it was the only thing I thought about in the mornings before work, during my lunch breaks, when I got home in the evenings, on Friday nights when there was a birthday or something else or a social plan, I'd always leave early so I could get a good night's sleep before waking up at 6:00 a.m. on Saturday to work on the channel all weekend. And those few months were probably the loneliest in my life, not in terms of physical proximity, but in terms of people knowing what I was going through and actually understanding it. Well-meaning people in my life who wanted the best for me, told me I needed balance, that I was going to regret working so hard, that I needed to remember to have fun and enjoy my life, and they meant it because they cared for me.
But you can't have anything big or different by doing the same thing you've always done or without being completely obsessed with the thing that you want to do. To get from zero to one, there needs to be obsession. There's just no other way. To get from one to 10, yeah, sure you can find the balance. You can bring in other parts of your life, but it's just not possible when you're going from zero to one. You have to take a lot of sacrifices that only a few people are willing to do. Every person I know who's done something extraordinary has had a period where they've become completely obsessed with one thing. Not balanced, not well-rounded, just obsessed. So have seasons of your life where you go all in on building something meaningful. That's where true wealth lies. It's the intersection of something you actually enjoy, something that has the potential to generate significant income, and aligns with your natural strengths. Once you find that sweet spot, go all in.
Next, we have they question everything they've been taught about money. Why do we think it's normal to work for 40 years and then retire? Why do we accept that only certain people can build businesses? Why do we think that investing is risky, but having one income source isn't? Most people never question the money beliefs they grew up with. A lot of my beliefs included things like you shouldn't talk about your finances with other people. You have to work in a job that you don't enjoy if you want to make money and live a good life eventually. And things like money doesn't grow on trees and it's hard to make money. These beliefs keep you in a certain way of living even if it's not the life that you want.
And it's only when I started questioning everything that I knew that I was then able to attach a different definition of money. One that fitted the life that I wanted to create and what ultimately made me happy. And it was one that led to me quitting my investment banking job, starting this channel where I openly talk about money and my financial situation and found ways to make money online, which when I was working in a traditional job, thought making money online is just a lie. And that anyone who was saying that they're making money online is just lying because I wasn't open-minded enough to realize that there are other ways to create wealth that didn't require you following the traditional path. The money rules you grew up with probably don't fit your current life and you have every right to question them. What if the opposite was true? What if there were different ways to think about money that you've never even considered? The start of a new life for yourself starts with a new mindset.
And they make money while they sleep. This one took me the longest time to understand, but it's probably the most important. There is a fundamental difference between how most people think about earning money and how people who have a lot of wealth and have a lot of money think about it. Most of us are taught that earning money requires our time and it requires our physical presence. You show up, you do the work, you get paid. But the people on the other side have figured out something completely different. They've learned how to decouple their time from their income. They find ways to make money even when they're not actively working. When they're sleeping, when they're on holiday, when they're spending time with family.
When I was working in banking, every dollar I earned required me to show up, to work for it, to ask for it, to negotiate it. And if I didn't work, I didn't get paid. That's a really limiting way to build wealth because you can never stop. You're essentially trapped in a cycle where your income has a ceiling and there are only so many hours in a day you can work. There are only so many weeks in a year that you can work. There are only so many years you can work for. The richest people build systems, create products or invest their money that generate income without their constant involvement. For me, this involved creating content that could be watched millions of times after I made it once. It meant building products that can be sold automatically online. You have to be finding ways to make money work for you. Whether that's through starting a business or investing, they both have different levels of risk, but both of them supplement your income and ultimately can lead to a way of you making money without you trading your time for it.
By the way, if you are interested in creating a path to reach financial freedom, I have a boot camp coming up which will take you through everything you need to know to create that path in six weeks. Even if you feel intimidated by jargon, if you have never invested before and you have no idea where to start, the waitlist is currently open and you can join through the link in the description below.
And they treat failure as data. I used to be terrified of failing at anything. If a presentation didn't go the way I wanted, I'll think about it and take it personally for weeks. When I failed at different businesses that I tried, I thought, "I'm just made for the corporate life through and through. I'm not an entrepreneur." Like most people, I wanted to avoid failure, like it it was going to kill me. But the richest people and the wealthiest people I know, they collect failures like they're collecting data points. Every wealthy person I've studied has failed at multiple things before they succeeded. The difference is how they processed those failures. Instead of saying, "I'm just terrible at this," they think, "What can I learn from this? What can I learn from this?" And then take with me into the next thing that I'm going to try. Instead of thinking I should give up, they think, "What would I do differently next time?"
And I'm starting to do this more and more now. Every time I want to create something and I'm scared about it not working, I just do it. I just like pluck up the courage and I just say, "It's fine. I'm going to work it out. I'll figure out how to do it. And if it doesn't work, I'll learn the lessons for next time." This simple practice has completely changed just how I view setbacks. Failure isn't the opposite of success. It is part of the success. You want to understand this at a deep level. And this mindset of treating everything as learning data is exactly why I'm super excited to talk about today's sponsor, Brilliant. Brilliant is an amazing online learning platform that makes learning fun and effective. Brilliant makes complex topics simple because you learn by doing with thousands of interactive lessons on offer ranging from maths and data analysis to programming and AI. What I love about Brilliant is how it helps you develop a powerful learning habit in as little as 10 minutes a day. Plus, it makes it easy to learn whilst you're on the move. So whether you're doing a deep dive into a new topic or having a short practice session, you can learn on your phone right where you are. Brilliant recently launched a ton of new data science content, all which uses real data to train you to see trends and to make better informed decisions. Knowing how to read and understand data is one of the most important skills you can have in almost any industry. And what I love about the content on Brilliant is that you're learning the skill by working with real data sets from sources like Airbnb, Spotify, Starbucks, and more. So whether you're a student, a professional, or just someone who loves to learn, Brilliant has something on offer for you. And if you're ready to 10x your learning journey, you can try Brilliant completely for free for a full 30 days at brilliant.org/nisha also linked in the description or by scanning the QR code on the screen right now. You can go through all of the content completely for free and if you love it and you want to continue, you can also get 20% off of your annual subscription using the same link. Thank you so much, Brilliant, for sponsoring today's video.