The first person ever to be recognized as a billionaire was John D. Rockefeller.
His wealth was beyond what people could possibly imagine.
He amassed as much as $400 billion in today's money, which is more than Elon Musk and Jeff
Bezos combined, the two wealthiest people in America.
Rockefeller didn't do anything revolutionary, especially when compared to today's billionaires
like Elon Musk, who is trying to send people to Mars.
Rockefeller got involved early in the oil business.
He made a series of investments in oil refineries, which was a popular business back then.
Instead of spending the profits on himself, he used the money to buy more oil refineries.
Long story short, he repeated the same process over and over until he had a full monopoly
over the oil refinery industry.
90% of the oil refinery industry was in the hands of one person.
He made so much money that he could eliminate any competition by driving them into bankruptcy.
Rockefeller didn't have any superior advantage compared to his peers.
He came from a poor family, just like everyone else back then.
However, he understood early on that by avoiding some fundamental mistakes that most people
make with money, he would be able to achieve better financial results.
Once he had more money than them, he would acquire more assets that would generate even
more money, and so on.
This led him to become the richest person ever in American history.
So, if you want to become rich or at least financially independent, here are the five
fundamental mistakes that you should avoid at all costs.
If you're ready, give this video a thumbs up, and let's start with the first one.
you are not fixing your dopamine
More than 20%** of gamblers end up filing for , and the reason for that is that when
you gamble, your brain gets a dopamine boost and when it consistently experiencing these
dopamine boosts, it can lead to an increase in your dopamine baseline.
Let's say it was 100, but now it's at 150 or 200.
This means that any activity that doesn't boost your dopamine level by more than 200
won't motivate you.
Graph
So, you get back to gambling to feel that dopamine boost again, to the point where nothing
motivates you except gambling until you end up filing for bankruptcy.
You might not be a gambler, but we live in an age where we are constantly distracted.
The average human attention span has decreased by 25 percent since 2000.
It's just around 8 seconds now.
Can you believe that?
And guess what the reason behind it?
Exactly!
Social media!
We are always on our phones.
Every time we get a notification, we pull out our phone and get distracted.
1 Dopamine is responsible for your brain's reward system, and when dopamine levels are
dysregulated or imbalanced, it can lead to impulsive behavior, excessive spending, making
poor financial choices, and prioritizing short-term gratification over long-term financial stability.
So no matter how much money you are making, you will just drain it somewhere, and at the
end of the day, you find yourself living paycheck to paycheck.
The only way to financial freedom is to have a disciplined life, and the first step to
being disciplined is to fix your dopamine level.
stop trying to look rich
How would your life look if you had $10 billion?
A billion dollars is the kind of money that not only gives you a luxurious life but also
enables you to buy entire countries.
Most people imagine themselves buying a yacht, a private jet, a huge mansion, and enjoying
all the luxuries life has to offer.
[But here is Jeff Bezos with a net worth of $10 billion driving a Honda that costs less
than $30K
and this is how his office looks That's not because he is stingy but rather
because he knew it's more important to be rich and not just look rich.
Instead of wasting that money, he focused on investing it to grow his company[.
Next year, when the dot com bubble burst, and more than 90 percent of tech companies
filed for bankruptcy , Amazon survived.
For the next 20 years, he focused on growing the company instead of living a luxurious
life, and that's how he became the world's richest person.
That's an extreme example, but it's an example to follow in your life.
Keeping up with trying to look rich will always push you to spend money to maintain appearances,
even when it's time to stop spending and start saving because business isn't going well.
When you have enough assets that keep making you so much money that you don't have to work
another day in your life, go ahead and look as rich as you want.
But when you're in a position where you can afford anything you want, you won't be as
excited as you are now.
Because Part of the reason you're excited is that it's something you can't have now,
even if you wanted it.
You want to be rich not because you want some validation from others but because money is
going to give the opportunity to persue your goals and that should be your priority and
not trying to impress people who dont care about you.
not having emergency fund
Think about it, [over 62% of students in the U.S. take on student loan debt to finance
their education.
Then, after graduating, if you are lucky, you will find a job that barely pays your
bills.
However, you also have to take a [car loan to be able to get to your job
and a credit card to pay your expenses.
The total credit card debt in the U.S. is almost a trillion dollars
I wouldn't be surprised if it crosses the trillion-dollar mark by the time this video
is out.
And guess what the average credit card interest rate is?
It's over 20 percent.
No matter how much money you make, you will end up paying the interest on your credit
card, car loan, and student loan.
Remember the example of Rockefeller.
He lived below his means and saved everything he could.
Then he used that money to buy assets that would generate more money for him.
He kept on saving and buying more assets, and so on.
That's basically how people often get rich.
Getting into this debt cycle is a guaranteed formula to stay broke forever.
And even if you don't have student debt or a car loan.
If you don't have an emergency fund, and God forbid, something happens like an emergency,
you will have to borrow money at a high interest rate and spend the next few years paying it
off.
NOT SEEING THE BIG PICTURE
When I was a 19-year-old college student, I used to tell my friends that we should start
investing.
However, they told me to focus on our upcoming finals instead of worrying about what would
happen 10 years from now.
Fast forward to today, I am financially independent while they are working in jobs they hate and
living paycheck to paycheck.
And guess what?
No one cares about the finals.
It's important to live in the present and enjoy it, but great accomplishments don't
happen overnight.
If you focus on building a great body today and work out for 12 hours, you won't see any
difference.
You go to the gym because you know that if you work out for 2 hours a day, 3 times a
week, for the next 12 months, you will be in much better shape than you are today.
And in 3 years, you will have a fantastic body.
So, the best way to save money, or stay disciplined, is by looking at the big picture.
I am going to start investing, not because I will get rich tomorrow, but because I will
achieve financial independence 5 years from now or 10 years from now.
Not investing in yourself
Around 84% of Americans make impulsive purchases
buying things they don't need. of people with gym memberships never use the
membership in the first place.
The average American spends approximately $237 per month on subscription services.
Americans paid over $11 billion in credit card late fees in 2020.
At this point, it seems like people are ready to throw money at anything but not themselves.
People throw thousands of dollars in[to a cryptocurrency, coins that they know nothin
about but hesitate to buy a course that will teach them a skill that's going to make them
more money or at least improve their lives.
Most people stop growing after college.
But in this ever-changing world, you have to adapt, you have to constantly learn and
pump up your skills.
Instead of wasting that money on credit card interest or another gadget that you won't
use, spend it on yourself, invest in yourself.
Remember, the best investment you will ever make is an investment in yourself.
And because people don't invest in themselves, once they hit 30, they will find themselves
really struggling to find any meaningful job or start a business or anything that would
make them rich.
If you have enjoyed this video, give it a thumbs up and I will see you in the next one.