These 8 Habits Are Keeping You Poor

Welcome to the growth stacking podcast. This is dan martell. What makes someone financially successful? Why are some people so wealthy while others literally struggle from paycheck to paycheck? While I was writing my book, I had to ask myself this question and I realized the only difference between the rich and the poor are habits. And I was able to distill all the bad ones into these eight habits that are keeping you. The first habit is the status chaser. This is the person that literally lives way above their means to impress people. I mean, it's the folks that get out of university or get the first job and go and buy their life on credit. You know, they get the furniture, the apartment, the BMW, lease all these things to impress other folks. And the crazy part is they're buying things they can't afford to impress people they don't even like. It's the Joneses that they talk crap about. That person will always cause themselves to stay poor because they never get ahead. They're okay being in a death deficit. They got the credit card when they were 12 years old. They've learned that consumer debt, it's okay, it's not that bad, I'm building my credit. Yet they don't realize that they're stuck in the rat race. They're stuck in the hamster wheel of consumer debt that is designed to keep them poor. It's their habits and their choices around that status chasing will always keep you poor. The second habit is the staller. This is the person has opportunities that are presented to them on their doorstep. It's right there. But yet their lack of action, their dragging of their feet cost them the opportunity. I talk about this in my book, but I once emailed one of my clients in my program, SaaS Academy to ask them if they wanted to be a partner, had an opportunity, it was very exclusive for them. Their customers were literally my clients. And I emailed them and I said, hey, here's what I'm thinking of doing. Would you be interested in learning more in that email? Said stayed in their inbox for 20 some days until they decided to reply. I had already moved on. I within like three days, I think I sent that email to three or four people and I chose the person moved forward and that person made hundreds of thousands of dollars working with me. Most people don't realize the habit that keeps them poor is the decision to not respond out of fear, out of concern. What if I'm not good enough? Well, I don't have my ducks in a row. I got to get everything Ready. And the delay is costing them their future. The third habit is the speed demon. This is the person that moves way too quick, way too fast, under the assumption that they've got to be quick to take action and quick to make decisions. And it's almost like the opposite. I had a CEO once. His name was Charles, and he was the CEO of a company that I acquired. And it was funny to watch him execute because he needed a cmo. So he hired his cousin. His cousin came in, didn't do the work, and then he fired him, only to hire his other friend, Darwin. And it was fascinating to watch. Here's Charles that actually knows better. And just because he. He's trying to move quickly, he keeps hiring people just because they have a pulse, just because they could fog a mirror, just because they were available. Instead of asking themselves what would be true around a great cmo, what would be true about a great hire? And do the work to find that person. Don't go slow, be impatient with action, but at the end of the day, make the list of what would be a great person to bring onto your team as an example and move quickly. Speed demon can keep you poor by that habit of just being too quick to jump the gun to. To saying yes. Speed demons hurt their success because instead of going and sticking through something, they're always moving on to the next opportunity. To the next opportunity. To the next opportunity. It's the lack of focus and going deep, learning how to say no, being okay with fomo. Some speed demons, they're so concerned they're going to miss out on these opportunities that they're always saying yes, that they're essentially saying no to their future. Because a no is a yes and a yes is a no. The fourth habit is the supervisor. The this is the person that hires folks and ends up doing their job for them. I mean, when we hire people to work on our teams or bring people into our lives, it's because we need to buy back our time. We need to get more space. I remember I had a friend of mine, Darrell. He owned a bike shop. And I love Darrel, and I wanted to see him succeed. But I'll tell you, every time I bought a bike from him, I brought my stuff in to get tuned up. It was always delayed, there was always issues. And he had the belief that he had to meet me at the front door, shake my hand, acknowledge me, because that's what made me decide to buy from Darrell's bike shop. Here's the deal. I cared more that my bike got delivered on time, that the work got done on time than if Darrell met me at the door. The supervisor believes that they are special because of their supervision. I actually think it's more harmful than helpful. What we all wanted was Darrell to go in his office and run his company so that our work had done on time. Most people don't realize when you're overly supervising people, you're essentially telling them that you don't trust them, you're doing their work. So what do you do? You teach people how to treat you. So if you're jumping into your support email, if you're jumping in to respond to things for people, if you're taking over because somebody's out at the bathroom break, you're telling them that if they do that in the future, you'll do that. So indirectly you're going to get to a place where you're not getting any more time back. You're not empowering anybody because you're teaching them how to treat you by always showing up and, and taking care of things when they're not around. The fifth habit is the subscriber. This is somebody that is always buying that. Next thing, they get off by the dopamine hit of a subscription. Hey, I need to watch the football game. Boom, got a subscription. I need a new tool. Boom, got a new subscription. It's the same person that goes on these like, self help journeys where they go to seminars and they buy courses and books. And I literally, I call them shelf help because all they do is they acquire these things, they collect them, they put them on the shelf and they never investigate or what they could do actually to improve their lives. They're always trying to buy their way to happiness, and in doing so, they are death by a thousand subscriptions. Think about it. 51% of Americans say they have unwanted subscriptions. The biggest way we can overcome that is by clearing out all the payments that we're getting bought. So the subscriber is the person that is buried, you know, by expenses. They don't even realize they creep up. They're the $8 subscription here, the $4 subscription there, the $20 subscription there. And they think, well, I need these things for my life to work. You got to make a list of them, grab, clean them up, get them out. Stop being the person that keeps running to buying stuff, to thinking that that next thing is going to be the savior to your life. I think most people don't realize that in purchasing things, the subscription, you don't realize that there is anxiety of just having Objects. Most people create a lot of pain in their lives trying to move things around their life. My dad, when I was younger, he literally had these bins where he collected stuff. And I watched him several times a year move pins from one shed to another shed, from the basement to to the attic. Like he could not throw stuff away. He could not cancel a subscription because he felt like he would miss out on something. But he spent more time and more frustration just managing and packaging and moving these bins than of ever using and getting value from the things inside the bin. The sixth habit is the saver. And it's the opposite of the subscriber. Because the subscriber is always buying stuff to try to fix problems in their business, but not ever having the time to actually use the thing they're buying. The the saver refuses to spend money to fix core problems unless they can 100% correlate a 10x ROI. See, the reason why rich get richer is because they look for opportunities to invest. Poor people stay poor because they look for things to buy. Oftentimes the saver doesn't realize that their desire to save money is essentially creating a habit where they're making decisions to not spend money, so they're not investing in themselves or their business to grow. I remember one time I had a buddy reach out because he had heard that we built one of the most successful coaching organizations in in the world and wanted to know, how do we do it? At the time, I think they were doing about 2 million in revenue. They had a mastermind and he was gonna shut it down because he couldn't figure out a way to do it where it was fun. So I recommended a person. This is the guy that I hired that taught me the framework to show me how to do this. And I talk about it in my book because I thought it was crazy. Cause I said, hey, here's the guy. Do you want an intro? And he asked me, well, how much does he cost? I don't know. Honestly, I don't remember. I know it wasn't that much cause it wasn't that jarring. But you have a 2 million a year business and this is the guy that's got the answer. Just hire him. He's like, well, is it like 5k or 10k? I said, it's probably around like a 10k thing, but it will solve your problem. It'll never be an issue. And his response was, does he have a book? I don't know if he has a book, but a $20 book is not your Answer. You need to invest in the solution so that you don't shut down this thing that was probably doing 600,000 a year in profit form. He was literally going to shut down a $2 million a year business. 600,000 in profit, because he wasn't willing to spend $10,000. The saver doesn't realize that those decisions are the things that are keeping them from growing and not being poor. The seventh habit is the self medicator. And I got to be honest, this story I'm about to share with you, I'm ashamed of. Back in the day, it was 2005. I was doing some work for Yale University. And back then, I was a drinker. You know, anytime I wanted to celebrate or let loose, I would go and I'd have some drinks. And while I was working on site, I decided to go have this beautiful meal at a sushi restaurant. You know, I'm consulting, I've got an expense account, and I go and I enjoy myself to the nth degree. You know, sake bomb. Things start flowing. I make some friends. All of a sudden, we go right till the restaurant shuts down. The next morning, I was so hungover, I was so sick that I called in and I said that I got food poisoning. Now, everybody knew because I was telling everybody the day before that I was going to this sushi place. And unfortunately, everybody thought that restaurant made me sick. And the truth was, is I was hungover. I was still drunk. You know, I've been sober now for almost 13 years, but I share that story to let people know that oftentimes the thing that's holding us back is our vices, right? It's the drinking, it's the screen time, it's the food, it's the news. They're addictions that compromise our time and get us focused on negativity. See, a lot of people ask me, dan, what have you done to become successful? And what I often tell them, it's what I don't do. I don't go to buffets, I don't drink, I don't do drugs. I don't gamble, I don't watch porn. I don't do all these things that I consider vices holding you back from becoming the best version of yourself. A vice will stop you from winning because it's gonna dull your senses. It's gonna pull you back from being in the moment. It's gonna stop you from having these creative moments where you go on a walk or a run or after you go to the gym, and you have these Ideas for expansion. And the other thing is that you know you shouldn't be doing these. So what happens, you slowly create chip away at your confidence. See, confidence is built by keeping commitments that you make to yourself in private. And if you know you got a drinking problem and you can't keep it under control, it's going to be really tough for you to build that self confidence, build that courage to make those big moves to grow your future. The eighth habit is the swindler. This is the person that you know. They're kind of the shyster. You may know people like this in your life where you just don't trust them. They're always looking for an edge. They're always taking advantage of people. And if you're participating in nefarious activities, you're setting yourself up for failure. Here's an example. I had a friend once, and he sold a couch for his roommate. After the deal was done, he decided to pocket 30% and give his roommate the rest of it. Now, he didn't ask for that. He didn't negotiate that upfront. He just decided to keep it. No big deal from him. He's like, hey, I did this work and I just kept this money. It's the essence of who you are. I mean, it sounds subtle, but, for example, I have friends that choose to continually park in spots. They know they're going to get a ticket and get the ticket and just say, I'm never going to pay this. See, it's the energy. If you think about what a swindler mentality is, you're bringing negativity into your life. You're taking advantage of other people. And what happens is you then get taken advantage of. From a time point of view, that takes up a lot of headspace where you're always dealing and worrying. And essentially the energy you put out to the world comes back at you, right? The frequency that you have is what you will frequently see in other situations. So people that act like swindlers essentially see swindles in everything they do, and it makes them move slow. I was in Miami the other day and I ran into a new person that I'd known of, but I had already heard from other people that he had, you know, a checkered past and wasn't a good person to deal with. And even though in the moment I met them, they were super kind and cordial. I immediately. Once he gave me his cell number, I never entered it in my phone. I didn't follow up. I trust the feedback that other people give to me. And Swindlers have no place in my life. If you have a bad reputation, it's hard to do business. The problem is, is you'll never know. So your reputation is what people say when you're not around. And if they're saying, hey, man, there's something odd about this guy, he's a little cuckoo, he's a little crazy, he's a little, I don't know, a little shady here. Shady McShade, sir, don't be upset if nobody invites you to the good deals because they just don't trust you. At the end of the day, you want to have a good reputation for being the kind of person that does what they say they're going to do and is always above board. If you're somebody who does shady things or you know, people, the world we live in today, it's very easy to back channel. So if I'm interacting with somebody on social media and I see who follows them, I'm just going to message them and say, hey, do you know this person? And at the end of the day I usually ask, hey, what do you think of this person? Feel free to call me if need be. And if they go, hey, let's set up a call, I just reply and say, enough said. I can read into it what I want. We don't need a phone call. And I keep my space. People that do shady things have no idea how much it hurts them because they never hear about it, but it's always going on. Those are the eight habits that are keeping you poor. And if you want to learn the only 4 skills you need to build a billion dollar company, click the link and I'll see you on the other side. If you like this week's episode, be sure to visit itunes, leave a review that'll help us get in front of other founders just like you. And if you're looking for more resources and video trainings, be sure to check out dan martell2lsdmartel.com to subscribe. Keep up the hustle, keep stacking your growth and I'll see you in next Monday's episode. Peace. Grow Peace. Bye bye.