The 5 Real Secrets of the Insanely Wealthy
It’s not what you think
How do the rich and powerful become the rich and powerful? If you lurk on Medium long enough, or go browsing the endless caches of online articles purporting to grant insights or “proven steps” to achieving personal wealth, you’ll find a veritable library of listicles and guides ready to promise you the answers. But the truth is very different from reality.
Those articles and “guides” are not revealing any secrets. There are no hidden paths to some illusive backdoor that allows you to succeed. There’s no magic ladder made of invisible rungs conjured from the power of the human will. Those articles are the journalistic equivalent of junk food. They’re word salad click bait guru porn with all the intellectual nourishment of a Big Mac that’s had its burger patties replaced with smashed up Skittles.
Reading things like that and thinking it worth your time would be like drinking a gallon of vodka before trying to run a marathon. Sure, you may feel good about it, but it’s not going to have any real impact on a positive outcome. You’re more likely to end up passed out in the ditch. It’s a good thing I am here to clue you in on these things.
Rich people do exist, and yes, they are powerful. The odds of becoming a member of their ranks, however? Rare. Here’s why:
Luck
Imagine winning the lottery. What a thrill to be the owner of the winning ticket, right? Beating those astronomical odds and suddenly knowing your days of worrying about money are over? Priceless. Now, imagine winning the lottery before you are even born. This is the real secret of most wealthy people. They didn’t do anything special to achieve that wealth, other than being lucky enough to be born into it.
Many to most wealthy families have been around for generations. This is called having “old money,” or being part of a wealth dynasty. A majority of this wealth was made during the industrial revolution, or even earlier, during the pioneering days of settlement and colonization, the heyday of slavery and reckless entrepreneurship, the birthdays of big oil and transportation kings, the railroad and the light bulb, etc, etc.
The opportunities for this type of rampant growth have grown fewer, for many reasons. For one thing, it’s easier to fill needs for business when you’re starting from nothing. For another, it’s easier to find those needs when they’re not being bought up faster than you can see them germinating. Which brings me to the next point:
Wealth Creates Opportunity for Wealth
The saying goes: spend money to make money. This old adage can seem like a bit of an oxymoron, but upon thought it holds more truth than you may want to grant it credit for. After all, it’s hard to make investments for the future if you lack the capital to make those investments. It’s hard to seize financial opportunities when you’re living paycheck to paycheck. This is why those who are born into money are automatically imbued with an advantage.
Being born into wealth means you’re more likely to be granted some starter money to take and invest. It also means that you will eventually be granted an inheritance, and then be afforded even more opportunity to grow, whereas those without this luxury have to find ways to innovate or luck their way into success somehow, generally by making themselves marketable rather than finding a new invention or lightning in a bottle niche to market instead.
Being born into wealth also makes it much easier to gain the things that make one appear successful out of the gate. When a person has the best of everything, the perception is they must have had the skill to achieve it. Be that their physical appearance, their accommodations, their education, etc, when you look the part, people are more apt to believe it and find merit in a person’s value, and therefore seek it out. This also makes it easier to cheat.
Cheat to Win
Money is power, and with that power comes the option to solve nearly every problem by simply paying for it to go away. The mega-wealthy understand this and they definitely use it to their advantage. And they take care of their own.
Can’t get into a good school? Buy your way in. Commit a crime? Buy the best lawyer to find some archaic legal loopholes, or put the case on indefinite continuance and appeal it to infinity. People investigating your family? Just buy the media company and shut it down. The government putting pressure on your revenue stream? Simply buy some lobbyists or even some Congressmen.
The examples are limitless. It’s almost impossible really to quantify the extreme level of advantage that wealth grants to the wealthy. This is why in today’s world, many are focused on the unfair balance of wealth distribution, as this unfair balance creates a system of inequality that favors few.
Profit Off the Work of Others
Slavery may have been mostly abolished throughout the world, but in reality it has just morphed into a kind of indentured servitude. Since governments have failed to meet the pressures of inflation, keeping wages mostly stagnant instead of raising them to accommodate the cost of living, the capitalist system has created a workforce dependent upon their corporate masters to survive.
This kind of parasitic ecosystem has self-perpetuated an environment that favors the wealthy, in that they can use it for personal gains by taking advantage of the disadvantaged. It’s really just another version of slavery.
The mega-wealthy like to pretend they earned their money through grit and hard work, but in reality they built their monetary empire on the backs of countless destitute workers, whom they exploit while holding carrots of false promises before their outstretched fingers. These workers often devote their entire lives to an empire that they never gain any real benefit from, just happy to live a comfortable life of bare minimal convenience.
Don’t Share the Wealth
The real key to becoming insanely wealthy is being insanely selfish. Jeff Bezos just became the first person on Earth to make over 200 billion dollars. This, while Amazon is only one of few companies valued at over a trillion. You can’t reach these monetary milestones by sharing your earnings with others. You have to hoard your wealth. You have to be a veritable Scrooge McDuck, taking a dive and a swim in your endless vault full of currencies.
Sure, some billionaires are humanitarians to a certain degree. Bill Gates has given lots of money to charity, and done much for promoting scientific research and advancement of medical accomplishments in third world countries. But much of this charitable work is done solely for the tax benefits it provides, which is a way of hoarding wealth while granting the appearance of sharing it. No mega-rich person is giving their wealth to such a degree that it makes them lose their status permanently. It just doesn’t happen.
There are always exceptions to the rule. There are still those who find ways to become wealthy without the benefits that old money provides. It’s just extremely rare. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it’s impossible by any means. You should just always be aware that the system is definitely not built for your success.
To get there without the golden road that wealth provides, you’ll have to fight the entire way, watching while the cheaters take the express lane past you over and over again. This will make it all the sweeter when you join them, knowing you got there by skill and talent alone, while they were handed a trophy they didn’t earn.
