Anyone has the chance to achieve wealth. Although some footpaths are smoother than others, opportunities are available for those who desire to take them— even to those who are walking in an unpaved rural country road.
Yet, despite the fact that anyone can achieve good wealth; most people probably won’t.
The pathway to prosperity doesn’t lie in where you grew up, and how affluent your parents are. Neither does it lie to your gender nor the color of your skin.
The image above shows 100 dots, which symbolizes the population of the world from a living standard perspective and quality of life. Rich people belong to the top 20% of the matrix, poor people belong to the bottom-most 20% of it, and those in-between are classified as the middle class (which can still be categorized into ‘upper-middle class’ and ‘lower middle class).
Most often, being “rich” is relative. The people that are deemed rich largely don’t actually belong to the real wealthy population. For instance, the upper-middle class is considered rich by the lower middle class, and the lower middle class is regarded as rich by the poor.
If we use the 20% rule to classify the rich, then 80% won’t probably be rich, since they will need to be 80% above the population to be qualified as rich. This also applies on both the macro-level and even to your local communities.
Nowadays, the quality of life and wealth gets judged by comparing life with others because the 20% rule is too strict of a percentage for people to get in.
Technically, compared to how people have lived their lives now from 100 years ago, it’s been quite noticeable that the life perspective we enjoy now is way, way higher. The current standard of living is better now, and more satisfactory than it is ten decades ago.
In fact, you are actually enjoying a higher quality of life than most of the ancient queens and kings — well, not unless you belong to the 0.001% of the bottom population.
Kings from the 1600s and earlier only have alcohol and witchcraft to depend on whenever they get sick. And obviously, you’re in a much better situation because they now have medically knowledgeable doctors, added to the fact that we have crazily advanced modern technology that will help us get through sickness.
Putting health aside, we have been living better than the previous kings and queens since we have electricity, cellphone, access to safe water, and different transportation modes for travel.
Nevertheless, if we compare ourselves to others in the present times, it’s definitely hard to have a place in a rich league.
But…why don’t most people make it to the top 20%?
On a macro scale, it all boils down to access to resources, information, religious culture, and infrastructure. This perhaps may be the reason why everyone in Switzerland is considered richer than people in South Sudan.
Sometimes, people become poor out of their control. It may be because the political government is corrupt, so rather than putting up various departments to support and better its people, they rather put the money in their own pockets, keeping everyone poor.
The local community also plays a role in poverty.
On a micro-scale, most people don’t even become locally wealthy because they don’t possess the willingness to learn and make sacrifices that are necessary to reach success.
It’s mostly the males who have the guts to take big risks for a small chance of success to break free from the general population. This can be seen in both rich and poor countries. There are individuals who come into greatness from nothing to begin with.
If one person can do it; others can. The problem with today’s society is that people tend to bypass sacrifices that need to be made in order to succeed. Most people want to have life easy.
What does it take to make the top 20%?
The approach to rising up to the top 20% is so straightforward.
If you are chained by geographical poverty, you need to resettle into a country (or a state) that will offer you more opportunities to thrive. Sure, it is hard to leave the place where you grew up, your comfort zone— 80% of the population are frightened to do so— but you’ll live an average life otherwise.
You should also determine your physical and mental limitations. Ask yourself, “How much time can I spare each day for work?”
Can you work 8 hours every day? 10? 11? 12? And will you be consistent in doing so for a long time even without an immediate outcome? To get into the top 20%, you need to learn delayed gratification.
According to Alux, money, success, and fame, are all long-term delayed gratification games. They all rely upon works that compound overtime until a particular goal gets achieved.
Are you willing to work until the break of dawn while others are peacefully sleeping? Are you willing to skip parties and focus on your craft? Are you willing to spare time to learn skills instead of binge-watching? Are you willing to be laughed at for all your hard work that doesn’t seem to pay off?
If you do, you’re a step closer to reaching the top 20%.
A lot of people won’t sacrifice their pleasures, and even if they do, a good portion will quit at a certain stage of the process. In the nerve-wracking game of delayed gratification, quitters don’t win. It takes discipline and consistency to stay on top of the game until the very end.
If you always abandon the process, you will be nothing but a failure. Prizes are always given to those who endure until the end.
Timing and a stroke of luck also play a role in getting wealthy.
The luck we’re talking about here doesn’t have to do with stars and constellations, though. If you don’t have any problems with your physical and mental health, have access to technology and to curated information, you have already hit the luck part.
A unique opportunity to build wealth is offered to every generation. And currently, the most sensible opportunity is the revolution of the internet.
The social media we know would probably evolve into something bigger, and your golden opportunity might lie in the gamification of the metaverse. This is also the reason why you need to comprehend timing as well.
You need to find the opportunities offered in your time and focus all your efforts there. Since experts are eyeing a big opportunity in the metaverse, you could try getting into the wave too!
If you join average people who don’t leverage the tools of the present, you won’t have a competitive edge to strive in this society. So, you need to equip yourself with specialized knowledge in a certain field where value is getting generated.
Here’s the truth: Money, wealth, and success aren’t too competitive in contrast to what others perceive them to be. You just need to learn the rules— assuming the asymmetric risk is one of them.
In your journey to wealth, it is important to know that your ability to triumph doesn’t have anything to do with other people. It all depends on the things you do now and the days forward. What others think, say, or do actually have little to no importance.
