Alot of us say we want to be rich, but what you really want is WEALTH not money. A wise fellow once said - "......if you were in the middle of the Antartica, where there is nothing to buy, it wouldn't matter how much money you had. WEALTH is what you want, not money....."



What's WEALTH?

Money is a way of moving WEALTH. People often use both terms interchangeably but they are not the same thing. Talking about making money can make it hard to understand how to amass real WEALTH. Here's Allan Watts talking with some politicians who are absolutely convinced money is the real deal - "...the problem with you gentlemen is, you still think MONEY is real. It just ain't real at all. It's only an accounting of available energy, economic energy! It only represent WEALTH like words has to meaning, money is not WEALTH..."

You're right

THREE (3) PATHWAYS TO AMASS REAL WEALTH

1. SKILLS



One of the pathways to amass WEALTH is getting special skills, especially in rare combo. Special skills gives you an edge over the competition. You must differentiate yourself from the herd, desist from acquiring skills that requires no special ability to master. Not all skills are valued at the same price. It's basic economy, too much supply of anything makes it almost worthless. In Nigeria of today, we have enormous untapped labour pool but little demand. One of the underlying reasons for this is: too much undifferentiated skills.

Let's take a few lessons from the story of Dennis Rodman - He started his first job as a Janitor in an airport at age 18, janitors are really important and needed but there are lot of people who can do that job. So, why there's plenty of demand; there's also a lot of supply because the job doesn't require any specialised skill to do it. Rodman gave basketball a chance in college and in return basketball gave him a chance. While playing basketball in college, he developed a skill nobody else had - "REBOUNDING" at the extreme level.



He was the 'Ngolo Kante' of Basketball during that period, he won his team five (5) NBA Championships and ended up becoming a Hall of Fame basketball player. How did he achieve that?? He did something nobody else did, or even knew that they should do and that made him extremely valuable to his team.

Remember, if you can do things that nobody else can do, you'll have skills that are literally priceless. To be frank, this is one of the brutal facts of the modern economy - "You can either live above the API or below the API" API stands for Application Protocol Interface. It's how program talk to each other.

Programs now governs all aspects of how human transact business and operate with one another. For example: As a driver for Uber, you end up following the direction of the app; which means you have to work below the API. It's useful to society but because there alot of other people who can drive too, you ain't using special skills. If you create Uber and own it, you are above the API and you get to build and maintain the system that gives people what they want.

You must strive to acquire skills that nobody else has especially in COMBINATIONS that are RARE. If you can re-bound the ball and nobody else does it quite the way you can, you can be a Hall of Fame basketball player. That applies to all the things in your career and in life.


2. LEVERAGE



You have to transcend your constraints as a limited human being, meaning getting leverage on your TIME. You have a finite number of hours in a day and in life, that's why you need to use your special skills to create a wealth engine which provides you money and WEALTH. This is in contrast to a get-rich-quick scheme which gives you money but no way to get more. It's money without WEALTH, a one time thing. If you only engage in business transactions that's a one-time thing, that you can't repeat: that's money without WEALTH.

OP you are very right. Skills amass wealth. Just like the Bible says "show me a man who is delight in his ways, he shall stand before kings". The Bible didn't restrict it to whether its a Christian or pagan, or Muslim. Young ones should try and learn a skill along with whatever hustle they're into. Very important.

3. DEVELOP A "LATTICEWORK" MENTAL MODEL

In the book - "Poor Charlie Almanack" Billionaire and Philanthropist Charlie Munger gave this advice: "You must know the big ideas in the big disciplines and use them routinely - all of them, not just a few. Most people are trained in one model - economics, for example - and try to solve all problems in one way. You know the old saying, "To the man with a hammer, the world looks like a nail". This is a dumb way of handling problems...."



The "latticework" mental model (aka Multiple Mental Model) is learning the BIG IDEAS in these profound disciplines: HISTORY, PSYCHOLOGY, MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS, BIOLOGY, STATISTICS, ECONOMICS and CHEMISTRY. The play is, multiple ideas from a variety of disciplines, applied with fluency, are needed to understand any system. In his word: "I've long believed that a certain system - which almost any intelligent person can learn - works way better than the systems that most people use. What you need is a multiple mental models in your head. And, with that system, things gradually get to fit together in a way that enhances cognition".

Having this kind of model gives you enormous edge over others. You get to leverage your time and solve problems efficiently (that's a special skill). In his book, "From Zero to One", (try to read this book) Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal recognised the importance of the multiple mental model in helping the PayPal creators achieved what he called "vertical progress".

Add yours........

twiceTall:
Let's take a few lessons from the story of Dennis Rodman - He started his first job as a Janitor in an airport at age 18, janitors are really important and needed but there are lot of people who can do that job. So, why there's plenty of demand; there's also a lot of supply because the job doesn't require any specialised skill to do it. Rodman gave basketball a chance in college and in return basketball gave him a chance. While playing basketball in college, he developed a skill nobody else had - "REBOUNDING" at the extreme level.



He was the 'Ngolo Kante' of Basketball during that period, he won his team five (5) NBA Championships and ended up becoming a Hall of Fame basketball player. How did he achieve that?? He did something nobody else did, or even knew that they should do and that made him extremely valuable to his team.

you are making sense

All noted.

twiceTall:


THREE (3) PATHWAYS TO AMASS REAL WEALTH

1. SKILLS



One of the pathways to amass WEALTH is getting special skills, especially in rare combo. Special skills gives you an edge over the competition. You must differentiate yourself from the herd, desist from acquiring skills that requires no special ability to master. Not all skills are valued at the same price. It's basic economy, too much supply of anything makes it almost worthless. In Nigeria of today, we have enormous untapped labour pool but little demand. One of the underlying reasons for this is: too much undifferentiated skills.

twiceTall:
Let's take a few lessons from the story of Dennis Rodman - He started his first job as a Janitor in an airport at age 18, janitors are really important and needed but there are lot of people who can do that job. So, why there's plenty of demand; there's also a lot of supply because the job doesn't require any specialised skill to do it. Rodman gave basketball a chance in college and in return basketball gave him a chance. While playing basketball in college, he developed a skill nobody else had - "REBOUNDING" at the extreme level.



He was the 'Ngolo Kante' of Basketball during that period, he won his team five (5) NBA Championships and ended up becoming a Hall of Fame basketball player. How did he achieve that?? He did something nobody else did, or even knew that they should do and that made him extremely valuable to his team.

twiceTall:
You must strive to acquire skills that nobody else has especially in COMBINATIONS that are RARE. If you can re-bound the ball and nobody else does it quite the way you can, you can be a Hall of Fame basketball player. That applies to all the things in your career and in life.


2. LEVERAGE



You have to transcend your constraints as a limited human being, meaning getting leverage on your TIME. You have a finite number of hours in a day and in life, that's why you need to use your special skills to create a wealth engine which provides you money and WEALTH. This is in contrast to a get-rich-quick scheme which gives you money but no way to get more. It's money without WEALTH, a one time thing. If you only engage in business transactions that's a one-time thing, that you can't repeat: that's money without WEALTH.