To be considered among the top 1% of earners in South Carolina you need to bring in $463,976 a year and that number nearly doubles in states like Connecticut where top earners bring in over $896,490. With earnings like that, it’s no wonder countless Americans aim to emulate the same investment and business strategies of this exclusive tax bracket, but that will only get you so far. To truly kick your earnings into overdrive and achieve what others haven’t, you need to change your mindset — and I’m about to share with you how the 1% does just that.
They Focus on their ‘Why’: Without taking much notice of it, many of us live our lives on autopilot. Growing up we were told time and time again that the surest road to success was to study hard, get into college, earn a degree (or two), and land a good job to support our families. Sounds familiar, right? Now, decades after graduating, most Americans continue to make important decisions based on this status quo and that’s exactly what keeps them in the 99%. What the 1% realizes is that in order to arrive at a different destination, they must take a different route. The thing is, traversing the road less traveled requires even more hard work than sticking to the status quo, so you’ll need a profound belief in your why to get there.
Take Elon Musk. It’s well known that he works 100 hours a week even though he’s already a billionaire with more money than he could spend in his lifetime. So why does he continue to do it? Well, he knows that between human consumption and global warming we’ll eventually exhaust the natural resources we rely on. Without these resources, humankind will perish on this planet, so we need another option. Enter Mars. Despite all his money, he can’t pack up his family and move to Mars just yet. Until he can, he’ll put in colossal hours because he has a colossal why— he wants to save humanity. It’s these massive, seemingly unattainable whys that allow people to achieve extraordinary things. So, if you don’t already have a why, I have some homework for you. Ask yourself why. Why do you have the job that you have? Why do you live in the city you live in? Why did you get married or have kids? If you can’t come up with a solid answer to these questions, you’ve been living your life on autopilot and it’s time for you to take the wheel.
They Spend Their Money to Maximize Their Time: If there’s one thing on earth we can’t buy, it’s time. Regardless of how wealthy you are, each day will only ever have twenty-four hours in it. The 1% recognize that while their time is finite, how they utilize it isn’t, so they hire people to do the things that don’t bring them closer to their goals. From the outside, having a personal assistant or chef can seem frivolous, but outsourcing these tasks is what allows the 1% to maximize their time. Just imagine how much more time you could spend becoming the best in your field if you didn’t have to worry about menial household tasks or setting your schedule for the week. Of course, it’s unrealistic to assume everyone can afford an entire staff but imagine if you hired just one. With the simple addition of a personal assistant (or intern), you’ll free up time to focus on your unique abilities and hone your skills while they take care of the rest.
They Surround Themselves with the Right People: You’ve probably heard the saying, “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know” and the 1% understands this better than most. They know that to be in the top 1%, they have to surround themselves with people that will help them get there. Now, this can seem a bit elusive, so let’s dive into it. Think about something in your personal life that once seemed impossible but now seems simple. For me, that was buying real estate. Before I had ever invested in real estate, I was a newlywed fresh out of college that had just moved to a new city and was barely making any money. At the time, investing in real estate seemed like an impossible dream. How could I even fathom putting a down payment on a property I wasn’t going to live in? Even though it seemed out of reach, I knew there had to be a way. So, I immersed myself in the industry, surrounded myself with like-minded people, and absorbed every piece of information I could. As I watched others do what I wanted to do, I gained the confidence I needed to do it myself, and before long I bought my first investment property. Now decades later, something that once seemed impossible is an ordinary part of my life.
It will always feel impossible to achieve things that you consider extraordinary. The key is to shift your mindset into thinking that those extraordinary things are ordinary and the only way to do that is to surround yourself with people who do it every day. Once you do, you’ll find that you acquire not only the knowledge but also the opportunity to achieve (extra)ordinary things alongside them.
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