Things Rich People Do That Most of Us Don’t

Not all wealthy people are born with a silver spoon in their mouth, although life would be so much easier that way. Many of the famously rich are self-made millionaires and billionaires – thanks to their incredible willpower, self-discipline, and determination. They are living testimonies that you may be born poor, but you can live and die rich. These are what they are doing that most of us don’t even bother with:

Rich people spend time with other rich people, or positive thinkers

1. Rich people spend time with other rich people or positive thinkers.

Birds of the same feather flock together, right? Rich people know that our peers greatly influence our attitudes and behaviors. While most of us just hang out with whoever has the same interests or who like our company, they choose carefully whom to hang out with. They don’t want to end up with people complaining about the weather, bad-mouthing the government and speaking negatively of others because they are cautious that they might do the same things. They also don’t associate themselves with those who live their lives aimlessly.

Rich people tend to spend time with people that continuously talk about opportunities, success and the positive things in life. They associate themselves with those who see the world from an entirely different perspective. Stop spending so much time playing video games with your bros or going clubbing every night with your ladies if you are aiming to be a world-famous author or a super successful business owner.

Rich people know their value and promote themselves well

2. Rich people know their value and promote themselves well.

The rich aren’t hesitant to tell you what they’re great at. They might come as a bit boastful and arrogant for some, but most of the time, they’re not embellishing. It is simply true. While we may be great at many things, we always tend to downplay it into nothing because we are not confident in ourselves.

If you want to be rich and successful, know your abilities and develop them well. You must also learn how to become a salesperson of yourself. No one might believe in your capacities unless you do.

Rich people constantly learn and grow

3. Rich people constantly learn and grow.

While they might be mindful of what they know best, they admit they’re not one of those know-it-alls. The rich know that there is always something to learn and something to improve about themselves. They are constantly on the quest for knowledge because they know the more they learn, the more likely they are to succeed. The average millionaire reads one non-fiction book a month, such as self-improvement books, to help themselves grow into the person they want to be.

Successful investors, for instance, take time to study key financial concepts, keep track of the current trends, and learn the do’s and don’ts of the industry. They subscribe to The Wall Street Journal, watch CNBC, get a subscription to Fortune, TIME and Financial Times, and follow financial experts on Twitter. Rich people usually listen to audio books instead of music on their commute to work compared to most people.

Rich people think in terms of abundance, not scarcity

4. Rich people think in terms of abundance, not scarcity.

Most people think in limits and shortages, but self-made wealthy people don’t. They choose deals and make ways to pick “both,” not “either or.” When most people have a set amount of money, they think that they can either spend it on one thing or another, but not both. It sounds logical, but the rich think of ways how they can get both.

Say, for example, a rich person and an average person are both given $5 each. They both want an ice cream cone and a pack of mini chocolate bars. The rich, instead of just choosing one, will decide to go for both. To do this, they would not buy them initially, but might instead go for a 24-pack of water for $5. They would walk down the road and sell the water bottles to passersby for 50 cents and earn a total of $12. Now they can enjoy both and still have spare $2. They get over the idea that money is scarce but think of ways how to make it more abundant.

Rich people live beyond their means

5. Rich people live beyond their means.

Not all rich people do this, but those who make their wealth last over a lot of time generally do. The rich who keep themselves rich doesn’t massively upgrade their standard of living every time they get a raise. You might have met someone who is modest – driving an old car model, wearing just common clothes and working as many hours as you are – and then you were surprised to later learn that he is actually rolling in dough. The rich know that spending minimally will help you get a lot later. That also means never carrying credit card balances.

If only Mark Zuckerberg weren’t famous and you see him across the street, you may never think he is rich. He is famous for wearing a gray T-shirt, which he said he owns multiple versions of. He does this because he doesn’t want to spend any of his energy on things that are “silly or frivolous.” Indeed, less is more, and it helps you focus on the things that are more important than carefully choosing your OOTD.

Rich people set goals and stick with it

6. Rich people set goals and stick with it.

As stated above, rich people know how and what to focus on. Some of us don’t think much about our money as long as we have something to spend, and would only do something until our debit cards get declined. But rich people set financial goals to which they hold themselves accountable. They write down their income and expenses and keep track of their status and progress. The rich know that when goals are just fleeting thoughts, they lose meaning and influence over their decisions and behavior, which lead to bad financial habits.

If you want to be rich, it’s good to write down your goal. See to it that you save a certain amount or pay off a certain amount of debt on a specified period of time. It’s good to set long-term goals (like, “five to ten years from now, my income bracket must come to this; my savings should be this amount,” etc.), but this can be achieved if you set short-term goals on smaller amounts, like weekly or even daily goals.

Rich people aren’t afraid to take risks

7. Rich people aren’t afraid to take risks.

Coco Chanel once said, “Success is most often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable.” Self-made rich people are not likely to have given up after suffering from an early setback. They take risks and persevere in the face of failure, and often more than once. Steve Jobs was booted from his own company, Walt Disney was fired because he was told he lacked creativity, Bill Gates watched his first company crumble and Arianna Huffington got rejected by three dozen publications. Imagine what could have happened (and what we might have never enjoyed) if they just gave up trying.

The most impressive earners in the world are mostly college dropouts or those who skipped college to pursue their true passion. They borrowed more money than they could ever hope to pay back and worked odd jobs for the meantime in order to get to their goal. We are not suggesting you quit school and borrow money to start your own business – it’s their brave and determined spirit we’re talking about here.

Rich people focus on their passion

8. Rich people focus on their passion.

Most of us get distracted easily. We might have a dream, but sometimes, opportunities to make money come up then we grab and go, even if it’s too far from our heart’s desires. Sometimes we make a lot of excuses, then we find ourselves getting stuck with a job we are dispassionate about.

Self-made wealthy people have a clear vision when it comes to the career or pursuit they are going to partake, often to the point of obsession. They are not “jack of all trades, master of none.” They focus on one goal and it’s usually something they are greatly passionate about, which eventually makes them all of their money. They might have come from a family of nobodies, but because they have a good perspective, they make names for themselves later on due to the success and wealth their passion has brought them.

Rich people watch less TV

9. Rich people watch less TV.

According to Thomas Corley, author of Rich Habits: The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals, 67% of rich people say they watch TV less than an hour a day. Perhaps that’s because rich people don’t take time binge-watching inspirational documentaries but they are busy being inspirational themselves. With less TV, they get more job done on their to-do list.

Instead of Keeping Up with the Kardashians and envying their every outfit and stuff, be mindful that reality TV and being updated with the latest gossips won’t do them any good (although, most of us already know this well). Watching more TV could also tempt us to buy stuff we thought we need, tempting us to spend more and more money. Watching less is about productive use of time – it leaves us with plenty more time to do other things to broaden our financial horizons, like learning where it’s best to invest.

Rich people eat well and exercise

10. Rich people eat well and exercise.

If you feed yourself with too much Twinkies, Doritos, and Diet Coke, it would be hard to gear up your brain to think of effective ways to make money. And according to the Journal of the American Medical Association of Internal Medicine, the diets of high-income people are improving while those of low-income people are getting worse.

Plus, according to some studies, 76% of the rich do some form of cardio exercise a day. Since they have that goal-oriented, go-getter mindset, they work on improving their health to extend their lives to keep on reaching more.