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The place where future billionaires come to get inspired.
Hello Aluxers, get comfy because we have an epic video for you today.
Nobody picks when and where they are born.
That first hand your being dealt is out of your control but despite that, some people manage to outgrow their initial position.
By the end of this video we plan on shining a light on some of the incredibly valuable lessons you learn while growing up poor
and how to leverage these experiences for personal gain.
It’s only after you escape the state of poverty you realize that in a screwed up way it is because of the hardships you had to endure
that you build some skills that differentiate you from everyone else.
With that said, let’s dive into that, shall we?
Growing up in poverty accelerates your maturation process.
Inevitably you take on more responsibility, understand adult problems and are even part of the solution.
When you grow up poor, you know that good thing don’t just happen and you have to work hard for them to happen.
Your parents are struggling, you’re struggling and unless everybody is pulling their weight this frail of a life stands to come crumbling down.
You probably went to bed hungry more than once.
You didn’t get your dream toy for Christmas and you celebrated your birthday at home if you celebrated it at all.
You wore passed down clothes, rode the bus or walked… you probably heard your parents fighting about the problems your family was facing.
The thing is, when you’re growing up poor, you don’t really realize it, you grow up thinking just how things are.
It takes a while for your mind to understand that other people have more or have it better.
That’s when things get a bit more complicated.
If you grew up poor you know damn well that MONEY DOES BUY HAPPINESS and everyone is just spreading bullshit.
Of course, you don’t buy it in a store KAREN, but you know what you can buy…
the food you put on the table for Christmas so that you and your parents can enjoy a quiet meal together.
You know what else it buys, the electricity and cable to watch your favorite cartoon when you get home from school.
In life there are two types of problems:
Money problems & Internal Problems:
If you’re poor, everything about your life is a “money problem”.
If you’re struggling to put food on the table you don’t have time to think about your meaning in life or your impact on the world as a whole.
You just have to eat.
People growing up without money appreciate it a lot more when they escape poverty, compared to those who take it for granted.
Growing up poor you learn that as long as you get it done it doesn’t matter that much how you fix a problem.
How many times did you patch something? How many times you had to repair things?
How many free trial emails do you have? You know what we’re talking about…
bootlegging, torrents, buying clothes or gadgets of an unclear source, no questions asked...
Simply because they got the job done.
When you’re poor you don’t care how you fix the hole in the roof as long as it stops raining in the house.
While everyone else is busy discussing how a problem should be solved, you learn how to become a person of action.
We found that people want to be and do good and they will once they can afford it.
How many of you used to rip songs from youtube but now actually pay for Spotify or some other kind of service?!
Here’s how we think about how much value we attribute to things.
You might have heard of the law of diminishing returns before, so we will apply it to this specific situation with a twist.
To put it as simply as possible in the context of appreciating the things you have:
Growing up without having much has made you appreciate everything you had.
That one favorite toy, that good paid of jeans or shoes.
Whenever something good came into your life, it wasn’t just “business as usual” it actually had a drastic impact on the way you live.
This doesn’t stop with material possessions.
If someone offered you a real opportunity to move up in society and you’re the type of person who wants more from life, you’re more likely to give it your all.
You definitely know what we’re talking about… you’ve been feeling it inside of you almost since you can remember…
this feeling… this need to prove yourself…. To escape, to grow, to be more.
This hunger is probably the most valuable thing you have in you.
Hunger is more powerful than intellect or connections. Why?
Because it keeps you moving when other people would quit.
If you need to eat… you’re gonna put in the work.
There’s an old saying that some of you might be familiar with, maybe with small adjustments in different cultures,
because everyone has their own version of the same concept:
You’ll find this spread out throughout history.
You’ll find it in the bible, under Paul the apostle, you’ll find it in Lenin’s socialism as well as the core values of the founding fathers of every nation.
Every successful person we’ve ever met has this fire in their eyes.
Hungry recognized hungry.
You see it in the work ethic, you see it in how people go the extra mile, how they make the most out of each opportunity…
This is something people growing up wealthy never get…
it’s almost like an unfair advantage the universe gave to those starting with an unfair disadvantage just to make up for things.
Every single day, a person who grew up poor is outperforming one who grew up rich!
Run the experiment for long enough and you’re bound to see a clear winner.
But for this to hunger to serve you well, you must be willing to put in the work.
If you open a new tab and go to alux.com/action, you’ll find a playlist of all our most actionable video put together.
Do yourself a favor and watch those after this one ends.
A while back at a business event where we were attending, someone asked us to define exactly what creativity is,
in the reality of a successful life and we’re gonna share that made-up definition because it still holds up.
For us:
Take a moment to think about this for a second and how creative you’ve had to be growing up.
Because of the circumstances, you were forced to find alternatives, ways around certain roadblocks and make due with what you had.
Everyone who was poor growing up went through more or less the same thing, only with different ingredients.
Maybe you didn’t have your toy airplane, or a dollhouse, or the costume you wanted, so you got creative and used your imagination.
The more access to resources you have, the less creative you have to be.
You see, this ability to paint outside the lines, to think outside the box ONLY comes from restrictions,
and for the likes of us, playing it safe wasn’t an option.
In a very messed up way, growing up poor has a freeing twist to it. Why?
Because you’re already pretty miserable and at more or less rock bottom.
Everything you do is a new step on the ladder out of here.
You didn’t have it easy, so you take a vow to use the hunger you have in yourself to make a better life for your children.
You always looked at those growing up with more with a bit of envy and resentment, because they didn’t have to go through what you went through.
But you see, that’s the paradox of being self-made:
If you grow up poor, you resent kids who are born wealthy with more opportunities.
But if you succeed in life and provide financial stability for your kids, then your kids become the kids you resented when you were a child
because their poor peers probably think they were born wealthy.
This has been a massive wake-up call for us and now is one of the golden rules we use in business:
This is such a powerful statement and also a state of mind to be in, here’s why:
The moment you understand that Reality is negotiable, you start seeing doors where you only saw walls before.
Many NOs turned out to be very lucrative opportunities when the follow-up was: what will it take to make this happen?
It’s because you’re now working together towards finding a solution.
From the obvious price discounts to job opportunities, to big deals we never thought possible.
Even if you don’t get what you want, the impact of putting yourself out there in one direction can have side benefits you never realized in the beginning.
Ask for what you want!
Go after that raise, that client, that dream, that project! And then figure out how to deliver on the deal!
Speaking of negotiating with other people:
They don’t teach you how to read a room in business school.
They have a term for it called: situational awareness, but they have no idea how to quantify it.
Growing up poor you learned to read the subtle signs of society, like how to tell from a mile away someone is going to get punched.
By the virtue of being brought up in a more harsh environment, you’re not easy prey.
You quickly learn that your personal space is more important than someone else’s feelings.
There’s this quote we really love that goes like this:
And it stuck around with us!
You also learn how to push someone’s buttons for personal benefit if you have to.
These skills give you a real advantage when it comes to real-world negotiations;
it’s like playing poker but you have a pretty good idea of what cards your opponent is holding.
It doesn’t matter how much you wish to believe it ain’t so, reality has proven to you the opposite.
From the clothes, you wear to the amount of respect people assume they should give you based on the preset profile they have assigned you.
From a material perspective:
You don’t have the latest, state of the art laptop, or smartphone, or the newest and coolest shit… it’s just one of the facts you have to deal with.
This is especially impactful in a society where social media has driven all of us to be instant-judges of someone
based on the way they present themselves.
You decide in just a couple of seconds if you’re gonna like a pic, or swipe left or right.
If you’re not focused on your long term goals, it’s easy to fall in the whirlwind of playing social charades.
That’s why you see people who are not doing well, wear expensive clothing.
That’s why you upgrade to the latest iPhone while still sleeping on an air mattress.
The true value lies in your ability to understand that people will judge you by the cover,
but your success is determined by what’s inside the book!
Looking successful and being successful are completely different things and people get it twisted all the time.
Our advice is first to make sure you have a great book and then spend as much time as you want designing the cover!
Speaking of great books, on the topic of growing up in poverty we strongly recommend you pick up THE POWER of BROKE by Daymond John.
If you’re struggling financially and need that extra push to focus all your hunger, this book will probably be a great first stepping stone.
Even better, go to alux.com/freebook and sign up to Audible.
If this is your first time, you can get the audiobook version of the power of broke for free thanks to the partnership we have with them.
You’re very welcome Aluxers!
It’s easy to lose ourselves in the idea that only big things can have an impact.
When you’re growing up poor, you find value in even the smallest acts of kindness.
It doesn’t matter how proud you are if a helping hand reached out and you knew you needed the help is really revived your trust in humanity.
And it’s the little things, someone being kind to you, someone treating you like an actual human,
giving you an opportunity or telling you that they believe in you.
This is a special shoutout to all the moms or dads that despite struggling financially,
managed to find a way to instill confidence and dignity into their children.
Having someone in your corner who believes in you and has your back is such a powerful thing that has a domino effect on your life.
Only once you make it, you can trace it back to the little things that made it all possible.
Growing up poor, you’re part kid, part parent, part supporting member of the family.
You do things because someone has to and everyone else is busy doing their share.
You might not excel in any of them, but at least you’re learning how to balance between urgent matters.
You grew up juggling a bunch of balls and now you’re that you’re an adult you find that you still have to juggle things,
but at least you have some experience.
Imagine not having to worry about any of the things you had to growing up and then suddenly all come crashing down on you because of an external force.
You’d probably drown in all of it.
It’s funny to think about it and although it might sound really cliche, looking back on it all, it did make you stronger didn’t it?
And if you really need it, you have to work your butt off to get it.
Growing up poor forces you to make certain choices, because you simply can’t afford to get everything you want.
It teaches you to make due without the off-the-shelf solution.
Although it’s a very humbling experience, in time you learn that you can move past certain situations despite your obvious lack of resources.
Take this mindset and apply it to other parts of your life and you’ll start to see how this is useful.
Most people don’t start a business because they don’t have everything they think they need for a smooth sailing so they never start at all.
Yes, today here at Alux we have super expensive equipment, but 10 years ago,
we started on an old Toshiba laptop that froze the second we tried opening any editing software.
You don’t need a fancy laptop to write your book, you don’t need the best of the best to get started.
Instead, do what you can with what you have and work your way into it.
All you have to do is look at the people around you, people of all ages.
They all had dreams, plans, they were in the exact spot you find yourself in.
Some of them are still in the same stop they grew up in and that probably scares you.
Growing up poor you understand that there’s a real probability of you never escaping that place and the life that comes with it.
It messes up with your mind and you’re looking for the quickest way out and that’s why most people never make it.
There’s a distinction to be made between building your own staircase out
and the hope that somehow you get lucky enough to get pulled out.
If that’s you… don’t wait for the big break. Don’t wait to win the lotto.
Don’t wait for some miracle that hands you everything you’re missing, because that’s what the rest have been waiting for as well and look at them now.
You have a real decision to make: Are you ok with being stuck here for the rest of your life?
If no, then you better slap some sense into yourself and get busy.
Time is ticking and you’re still in the same place you were 5 years ago.
Your kids might not see it, others might not see it as well…
but you know, you know how far you’ve come and what you had to go through in order to get to the fortunate position you might find yourself in.
This might not be the dream destination you were shooting for, but the journey is still not over.
Looking back on your past you can see how certain decisions have influenced your life,
how your choices have literally made you the person you are right now.
If this works so well looking back, maybe you should look ahead this time.
What choices do you have to make to end up where you want to be?
Make those choices and one day you’ll think back of this specific moment in time,
you consuming this piece of content as the moment when something clicked inside of you and you were better off because of it.
No matter where in your journey you find yourself in, we want you to know that we’re proud of you for taking a few minutes to watch this
and maybe take some notes or even evaluate some of the things you’re doing with your life.
Maybe it helped you understand just how much control you have over what’s ahead of you life, despite what lies behind you and for that we congratulate you!
We know some of you have incredible stories about what it was like growing up with less than you have now,
so it would be really valuable if you shared your insights with the community:
We’ll be in the comments reading your stories and replying to those that catch our eye!
And, of course, for watching this Sunday motivational video until the end, you get your well-deserved bonus:
Since you’re one of the true Aluxers getting to experience this,
we’re going to keep it 100 with you and we’ll give you a special gold nugget that could potentially change your life:
Pay close attention:
Best case scenario: you get everything you’ve ever wanted.
Worst case scenario: you’re back to living the miserable life you’re already living.
The moment your mind understand this, you will never be the same.
You already got to where you are right now on your own, this is your new baseline.
Things might fluctuate, but you can always get back to here if you had to… so do it. Do it big!
Go after it with everything you’ve got! And see what happens.
Statistically, all you have to do is try and you’re still going to be better of than you are right now.
Match that try with some effort and discipline, combined with the skills you’ve learned on your way to this point and you’ve got a great chance at making it.
Look what you’ve managed to do with the effort you’ve put so far, with the things you’ve had to overcome,
with the mindset, you had to change, with the tools you had to acquire…
Don’t miss it… don’t take this opportunity you have for granted… GO BIG!
If what we’re saying resonates with you, if you feel that there’s still fire and a hunger somewhere within you,
please write GO BIG in the comments.
Let’s see how many of you are gonna go after it!
Thank you for spending some time with us Aluxers.
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Thanks again and we can't wait to have you back tomorrow.