Rich Mind, Rich Life: Part One

What separates the rich from the poor?

Is it a magic elixir, or do the rich have an invisible ATM that follows them everywhere?

It's all in the mind!

The mind creates actions, and actions create wealth.

I know you might be thinking, "What about connection, Foluso?"

But even with connection, knowing how to nurture the right connections comes from the mind.

Now you might be wondering if I'm qualified to speak on this topic.

Nobody wants a socially awkward teenager telling them how to be the life of the party, right?

Let me ease your mind by saying I am financially successful by my own definition.

I guess you would have to take my word for it.

Just kidding.

Here's why I think I am financially successful.

I make more than I spend, I know where my next meal is coming from, I no longer live with my parents, and I have time to do most of these daily: spend 3 hours in social gatherings, talk to a close friend, exercise, make music, read a book, and write.

No, I am not a millionaire or billionaire in dollars.

But in my late 20s, I have achieved a life I believe many people aspire to live.

PS I hope to achieve more.

In this post, I wish to let you all know how I got here and the mindset I believe the top financially successful people have.

Why do you need to have the right mindset?

Because nothing appears from nothing.

Most of the people who got rich by building their wealth instead of receiving it through an inheritance or a lottery will still get rich again even if they suddenly became broke.

Why?

It's a mindset thing.

And the right, wealth-attracting mindset can be cultivated by anyone.

You could be in India or England.

You could be 17 or 71.

It doesn't matter.

Though being at the right place at the right time counts, what's in your mind and your viewpoint in life also play a crucial role.

Many of the richest people in the world today made it a habit to read and learn something new regularly.

Warren Buffet, the Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, said he spends about 5 to 6 hours a day reading.

Bill Gates, the former richest man in the world and former CEO of Microsoft, said that he read about 50 books a year, or about a book per week.

Mark Cuban, another billionaire, spends about 3 hours reading every day.

Foluso Falaye, CEO of FoluWrites who is on his way to becoming a billionaire reads a book per day, and he gets paid to do it as a book critique.

That said, if these three billionaires and the wannabe billionaire believe so much in reading, I think it's safe to say there's something special about reading and learning.

I believe reading enriches your mind and opens your mind to new opportunities.

As someone who has been reading a book per day on average for about three years, I want to share with you some of the most important insights and ideas I gleaned from what I've learned from these books and all my meditations from these years.

This newsletter will be beneficial to you if you wish to

1. Transform your life

2. Take advantage of more financial opportunities

3. Increase your net worth

4. Waste less time on unproductive activities

5. Embrace a lifestyle that leads to a more natural, less abrasive growth

6. Escape the uncertainty of living paycheck-to-paycheck

7. Create more time for healthy goals

Now let's get right into it!

If you wish to enrich your mind and pocket, you need to embrace these principles.

1. Care less about what others think.

Picture two people.

One buys everything everyone else is buying as soon as he has the money, including cars, the latest iPhones, and designer clothes.

The other buys only what's necessary and saves and invests the rest.

The first person is more of a consumer.

The second person uses the time he could have been using to buy stuff and maintain it to make more.

Even the money he saves can be invested for more rewards.

It takes a level of not caring about what others think to be like the second person.

Also, when you pay less attention to others' opinions, you can boldly risk failing in public.

Plus, you don't mind looking like you're trying hard.

You just do your thing regardless of how broke you look or how much you look like a loser.

You don't mind singing on the streets until you're known worldwide like Ed Sheeran.

You are more about being good than looking good.

You are okay with most of your work going unnoticed.

The problem with today's world is we're too eager to show our work and get praised for it.

This is why more people spend more time and energy showing off on social media than actually getting to work.

If you care less about what others think, you will have more time to put in the work instead of rushing to buy another expensive clothing and look rich.

As a person who is comfortable with not following the crowd, you don't mind saying no to people who invite you to parties.

You don't mind being called boring when you refuse to drink excessively because you know you have to work early tomorrow morning.

For you to grow as an individual, you just have to have a stable structure that's not easily shaken by opinions.

It's not easily susceptible to what the crowd thinks or the destructive forces that get camouflaged as fun and happiness.

I view myself as a frugal and conservative spender.

This is probably because I studied economics at the university.

Or did I study economics because I'm frugal? Hmmm...

Anyway, let me show you how my lifestyle aligns with not caring about what others think.

I've been using the same Samsung that I bought in 2021 as my major phone.

I only buy new clothes when my old clothes are worn out.

I have very little furniture.

I eat mostly at home.

I cut my hair with my clipper at home.

I drink water at home by filtering the water.

I don't pay for a gym but play basketball and dance salsa for free.

Also, I chose a nontraditional work instead of working with a degree and getting a respected job.

I chose to be a solopreneur, which would allow me to choose my work hours and scale easily.

I know nobody is strong enough to withstand the pull of materialism, except the hard-core monks, of course.

Every frugal billionaire, like Warren Buffet and John Caldwell, has some ways they spend money and live flashy.

However, the important thing to note is that most of these people are busier making money than living flashy.

So the scale is tilted towards actual work instead of showing off.

I recently bought a big speaker and mic for karaoke and music shows that I use once a week.

So it's okay to slip sometimes and spoil yourself a bit.

However, getting carried away with being flashy and showing that you're living the life you can't afford is where the problem lies.

Caring less about prestigious job titles, as well as choosing profitable and practical careers is also another way to become richer.

I mean, we have people studying adult education and owing student loans.

And we have electricians making good money within the same period it takes most students to go to school and accumulate debt.

People get carried away with the prestige of owning degrees and working for companies with big names.

But being rich and having fancy job titles are two different things.

You can have the two, and you can have just one.

If I had to choose one, I would choose the former.

It's important to not get carried away with the latter and remember that your goal is to be financially free as you work in a career that aligns with your core values, of course.

Remember that nobody alive today will be alive in 200 years.

So caring about what others think about you can be a waste.

2. Be passionate about growth.

When it comes to income flow,

If it's not growing, it's probably dying.

I know people become millionaires by working at the same job and saving up.

However, most of them usually invest in the right assets.

Consequently, the money they earn keeps increasing and working for them.

Many CEOs are passionate about growth.

Mark Zuckerberg is a good example.

Though he already had Facebook, he still went after Instagram and WhatsApp, which gave him an even larger customer base.

And since most capitalist countries experience inflation regularly, it makes sense to strive towards increasing your income.

Even if you are working as an employee, it's advisable to keep seeking better job opportunities, learning new things, and improving your skills.

Your boss might be disappointed, but they will get over it.

Besides, if the tables turned, and they could earn more money by firing you, you bet your rear they would.

Choose work that gives you enough time to seek better opportunities and learn about what you need to grow.

I grew my X account to 1200 followers from September to December 2023.

And I was getting thousands of views and hundreds of likes on my posts daily.

Unfortunately, my X account got suspended permanently a few days ago.

I have no idea what I did wrong.

But I will see how I can get it back or create a new account and come back even stronger.

This time, I have to focus more on gaining email subscribers (now at 53) than growing my social media account because the latter is quite unpredictable.

But for readers who wish to know how I achieved a similar rate of growth on X, here's how I did it:

1. I followed people consistently.

At the beginning (100 to 1000 followers), I followed about 30 people daily—6 people per hour for five hours.

2. I posted engaging content daily, like short questions and short sentences that resonated with people and were mostly linked to my major topics.

3. I posted long-form content five times a week.

4. I subscribed to premium.

I don't even know if this helped much. But I think the blue tick made my profile look more legit.

5. I replied to as many comments as I could.

When I get back on X, I will make sure I focus more on posts that encourage people to subscribe to my newsletter.

Also, I will not subscribe to premium because I feel it's a waste of money.

Since X can suspend my account anytime, I think it's wise not to dedicate too much energy to looking big on it.

3. Focus on being tough and producing more.

There's a level of strength you need to have to rise to the top.

It's not for the weak.

The richest people are usually very tough and competitive.

I recently saw a video about how Kobe used to train.

I heard he trained with Navy SEALs and was even waterboarded by them in what seems to be a test of Mamba Mentality.

Even Michael Jordan was known to be highly competitive.

I used to believe that being competitive and tough was stressful.

Now I know it is quite energizing.

And the fact that it can make me richer is a great addition.

I don't think you can get to millionaire or billionaire status without being tough and hungry for success.

The world is currently pushing a narrative about caring about your mental health and your well-being.

But I think anything done excessively is dangerous.

I once cared so much about my mental health; that I became a wimp.

I was so soft and loved peace so much; I allowed myself to descend into complaining and wanting the world to be better instead of working on myself.

Also, I had a lot of time on my hands and indulged in comfort, especially with Netflix, pornography, and doom scrolling.

But I wasn't satisfied.

Now I'm quite different.

I am too busy to get distracted with comfort.

Even though I care about my mental health

I don't seek sanity and good health by being idle or drowning in comfort.

I seek it by doing more and being tougher.

Instead of stopping my book reviews to focus on my newsletter business, I choose to work more efficiently and reduce the time I spend scrolling on social media.

No, I'm not only working.

I focus on being healthy and living a balanced life.

And I stopped waiting for the world to change.

I toughened up and accepted it as it was but focused more on changing myself and enduring the imperfections of the world.

I am tougher now.

I am ready to do the hard things that will increase my wealth.

And I promise myself to love the journey.

It's all about your perspective.

While there are kids in Africa who will be happy if they get to eat more than once a day,

We have children in affluent countries complaining about not getting the Christmas gifts they want.

Check out this statement I just came up with.

The weaker you are, the more little things faze you. The stronger you are, the less big challenges faze you.

Fire quote right?

So when you can do less, do more.

But make sure it's more of the right things.

Always strive to work smarter.

It's crazy that we are told the opposite with movies and social media.

Most of the producers that sell pleasure-centric lifestyles know that's what sells.

They tell you life is about being happy and choosing the easy route.

What they don't tell you is that there's no easy route.

I still suffered when I chose the easy life.

But I suffered for silly reasons, like wishing I had more friends or that the world was more friendly.

Now that I am tougher, I am no longer fantasizing about things I have little control over.

I can't make everyone stop chasing money.

I can't magically create a safe world, where the good, peaceful people don't get invaded by aggressive ones.

I probably can, but then I would become authoritarian and evil myself.

If there's another way, let me know.

Since I'm not forcing everyone to be peaceful, social, and minimalistic, I have to take what I can and do what I can with it.

I have to spend more time getting things done and producing than consuming.

Producing is more about what you can control.

Consuming depends on what's outside of you to make you happy.

You're more likely to experience healthy emotions by focusing on what you can control than what you can't.

A culture that focuses more on consuming is likely to have more people who are addicted, insatiable, negative, depressed, weak, and dependent.

Does that remind you of any country?

Knowing this, I have embraced the idea of being alone.

I know that suffering is mostly in your mind.

I know that no life is perfect, so I feel less sad that I am alone.

And I don't even think much about that because the passion and energy I'm getting from being tough are keeping my mind busy.

PS I am not completely alone.

I have a girlfriend and join a social activity every evening.

However, I believed it wasn't enough and wished I had more people like me to spend time with.

I wished for more deep conversations with others instead of just dancing.

Now I appreciate the fact that I even have a girlfriend and can go to a social gathering every evening.

And even my business on X helped me connect to like-minded people, and I've had several profound conversations with them.

In conclusion, the key to financial success, as seen in this newsletter, lies in embracing a growth mindset, caring less about others' opinions, and being tough and productive.

As we move forward, let's focus on what we can control, work smarter, and embrace the challenges that lead to a more fulfilling and prosperous life.

Stay tuned for more insights about enriching your mindset in the next newsletter: Part 2.

Happy New Year!