Nerd confession time:
When we were in 4th grade, my friends and I got into Star Wars cards. Really into Star Wars cards.
We spent our recesses orchestrating trades complicated enough to make Roger Goodell blush.
One day, my friend pulled off the steal of the century:
R2-D2 . . . for a measly little X-Wing!
Is the sweat on your brow really your best asset?
That’s what your college career counselor wants you to think.
And if you use this “asset” the way they expect – if you ride out a desk job for 40 or 50 years and apply the advice of mainstream financial gurus – you’ll be rich enjoy a comfortable retirement hopefully have enough cash left over to support yourself in the end.
Adhering to conventional wisdom means tucking away 10% of your income into a retirement account, building a balanced stock portfolio, and resisting that Corvette while in the throes of your midlife crisis.
Most people make these sacrifices with hardly a second thought. Sounds like a reasonable trade, they think. Not a lot to ask for a comfortable retirement.
Or is it?
Proclivity for greatness is your birthright.
Don’t believe me? Just spend a day hanging out with your niece or little cousins.
Pay attention to the way they interact with one other and the outside world. Whether they’re speaking uncomfortable truths or tugging at your shirtsleeve asking you “why,” their universes are entirely devoid of filters.
Children are born with a fine-tuned entrepreneurial mindset. They’re naturally curious, self-confident, and eager to solve the world’s problems. Limitations – especially arbitrary ones foisted on them by authority figures – are their worse than the monster hiding under the bed.
Ever break the law?
You’ll have to, if you ever want to taste financial greatness.
The “Law of Financial Gravity” exerts its pull on slackers and hard-drivers alike.
It plucks you from Mom and Dad’s basement, the Sigma Chi frat house, or wherever else you may be found.
The Law funnels you into a “cozy” corporate environment. It decrees that a modest salary, two weeks’ paid vacation, and a 401(k) is a reasonable exchange for the value you provide to society.
If you follow it to the letter, you can rest easy at night from your three-bedroom (bank-owned) home in the suburbs.
And I thought the days of snake oil salesmen and traveling hucksters were over.
I used to be blissfully ignorant about such things before I got interested in business.
Sure, I thought, there are a few shady characters out there, but most people are straight up and the FTC takes care of the rest.
Ah, simpler times . . .
Ignorance is bliss, right?
But it didn’t last forever. The moment I got a little interested in making money, all sorts of modern-day charlatans started beckoning to me from their spots in the world’s collective alley.