In this article, I will teach you the one secret to never being poor (as a business owner or entrepreneur), and it’s not what you might think.
There’s a big difference between being broke and being poor.
Being broke is a temporary position you’re in, but being poor is a mindset, a mentality, a way of being; and for many people; it lasts forever.
While most of the middle class scoff and judge people for the amount of dollars you have in your bank account now, the income you do or don’t have now in this very moment, true successful entrepreneurs know that you’re on the right path to becoming one of them.
Check out this video by Adrian Clark, Founder & CEO of AC Sports Management:
Adrian’s Book is Available Here on Amazon
A few months back, I was introduced to this a business owner named Jeff. While living in Colorado, we formed this thing called a Mountain Mastermind. Four of us business owners went hiking together every couple of weeks to discuss business, and bullshit about life.
While meeting Jeff, he talked about how he went through four years of his life surviving off of a ramen noodle and whiskey diet. His girlfriend at the time, now wife, paid the bills through her day job; and stuck with him through all the hardships and struggles along the way. They’ve been together since high school. Most women won’t stick around through all that; but she did. So if you’re with someone who fully supports you, believes in you, and understands that you’re going through the struggle, and that they see you will get to where you want to be on the other side; keep that person around because they are a keeper.
- If you’re broke, the right people will stick around.
- If you’re poor, they’ll see that in you (It’s about who you are).
After those four years, he sold the business he was working on to a large international conglomerate and got a very nice payday. Him and his wife spent six months together semi-retired and traveling the world.
Two businesses later, he just purchased a multi-million-dollar house in cash, and is looking to buy another one the same way. While he was getting kicked out of his apartment (while his newly-purchased house is still going under renovations), he forked up the cash no problem to get another temporary sublet, because he has the money to do so. He rakes in around $2.5 million per year, and is literally set for life. He can never work again a day in his life, and still live an upper-class lifestyle.
Sure as hell beats not knowing where you’re going to eat or sleep next if you don’t get this one lucky break. It’s a position that he was once in and worked his way out of, just like you.
During that time rising up, he was broke, but he wasn’t poor.
Do you know why he is not poor?
Even with where he is at now, he is still growing, still contributing, still going out there solving problems, building a new business in a rapidly growing market; because this non-stop contribution and grind is what makes him who he is.
- When his girlfriend was paying the bills while he lived off ramen noodles; he was face down in growth mode.
- When he made well over the six-figures this past month, he is still face down in growth mode.
- When the project manager for one of his companies is on maternity leave, he jumped in full time…still face down in growth mode.
That’s the difference between being broke and being poor.
Because on your journey to building a successful business, becoming a best-selling author, famous singer, performer, athlete, or whatever it is; you’ll go through these temporary struggles that may leave you broke.
But being broke is just a temporary number in your bank account.
And while most people (from the middle class) won’t support you, will look down at you, will judge you; the right people will see you for who you really are.
You’re an entrepreneur.
I’ve been in your position many times before in the past.
I Was a Poor Man:
- In 2009, I graduated college. I couldn’t get a job, I moved back in with my parents. The took care of me, paid for the roof above my head, put food on the table for me. I didn’t put my head down and keep grinding away and pushing forward. I was in a negative state of mind, I was down on life, blaming the external things around me (this job didn’t hire me, I’m not getting enough hours, I got laid off), this external locus of control being placed outside of me at the time was what made me poor.
I Was a Broke Man
- Through my entrepreneurship journey, months and years after I quit my job and went on my own, my bank account hit the red many times. I had to pause and take a break from the business I was building to work various freelance and contract jobs to make ends way. In these instances, I realized that if I was going to go anywhere in this life, I was the one who was going to have to pave my own, I was the one who had to grind, hustle, and put whatever skills (or lack-there-of) to the test, and do whatever it takes to navigate through this temporary struggle to reach the success that is waiting on the other side.
I’ve done a LOT of self-hypnosis and psychology on myself over the past four years to re-program my mind for success. A lot of people say I have a very different and interesting way to look at life, but this is how I see things for you now. It helps me through these hard times.
Through my study of spirituality, they say that everything happens for a reason and there is some higher force or power of the universe that is guiding us and protecting us along the way. What you just went through is the universe’s ways of shutting old doors that have been convenient to walk through in the past. While they would have allowed you to remain comfortable where you are, and no matter how hard you may try to pry them open, you know that in the long run, they won’t get you to where you want to be.
In this moment, one door is open in front of you, and it’s the scariest leap of faith you might have to take.
According to this belief system, they say that when you take the leap of faith, burn the boats, and jump through that door; things will line up on the other side when you get there.
According to my belief system, one of two things will happen.
- If you’re poor, you don’t commit to the business lifestyle, the sales, the marketing, the hustle, the grind, learning new skills such as marketing and sales. If you get down on yourself, depressed, blame things outside of you; you might wind up homeless. You might not be able to make rent, get kicked out of your apartment, your significant other will leave you, you can’t put food on the table, and it’s all about the actions you take, which often stem from the person you are. This is not someone you want to be, and you can choose…
- If you’re broke, you’re an entrepreneur, you realize that your outside circumstances and limitations don’t dictate what is about to come next. You hustle, you grind, and one day what you see on the outside will catch up to what you do, and who you are on the inside, and you’ll reach that place you always wanted to be.
While you’ve been conditioned to believe that this is a bad thing that happened to you, with all of your doors closing…I see this as an opportunity. I see this as an opportunity to realize that you’ve been stuck in a pattern of a life that wasn’t working out for you, and the pain you feel is the necessary element to push you off course and into a new direction. This pain, this struggle, will quickly go away when you make the behavioral adjustments and choose to change.
It doesn’t matter right now if you know exactly what you should or shouldn’t do. Not knowing what to do next is simply a sign that you’re about to enter uncharted territory, and start living a life that is going to be better for you. And perhaps in the near future some person, some thing, or some opportunity will come your way, which will open a door that might seem scary and out of your comfort zone at first, but deep down, it may be your one option that you can take; and what if when you walk through that door, things will line up for you and take you to where you want to be on the other side?
Because as entrepreneurs with the right positive mindset, work ethic, and drive; we may be broke, we may be struggling, we may be barely getting buy. But just like Jeff, and the hundreds of thousands of others like him and I who are walking this journey with you; you’ll never be middle class.
And as long as you realize what you’re going through is temporary, and you choose not to be poor; the only way to go is up from here.
It’s not going to be easy, it’ll test you, it’ll push you, and test your limits, but I have faith you can do it.
I have a private Facebook group with others who have been through what you’ve been through before to help guide and support you. And as Adrian Clark (From the video at the top of this page) said to me a time ago was it doesn’t make you any less of a man or woman to open up about where you are honestly at right now and ask for help, because that’s the only way you’re going to get the help you need…from those who have climbed out of this and up before you.
-Andrew Alexander, Founder & CEO of Limitless Academy.
“Whatever it is you are going through right now, there is another side. Only you can take the action to walk there right now.”
