Most People Choose the Worst Way to Get Rich

Most people misunderstand how wealth is actually built. They see it as a highlight reel, not a real path. Some inherit it, some get lucky, some grind slowly for decades. And others take the hardest road, starting a business and surviving years of pain before anything actually works. But the truth is, every path has its own traps. Inheritance doesn't teach discipline. Luck fades. Slow investing takes patience most people don't have. And businesses will test you in ways no one talks about. So today we're going to break down the four real ways people get rich. And the good, the bad, and the reality behind each one. So let's get into it. The four real areas are, as I just mentioned, business market timing. Like you get lucky on a stock or crypto. Discipline, investing over time and then inheritance and marriage and bergs. We've seen all of these play out over our time in crypto and just like in life. And they're all very different.

Absolutely, mate. I know people in each of these categories, mate. Why don't we kick off with business, mate, something you know a lot about.

Yeah, the overnight success. It's brutal. And I bring the business one back to, you know, when I first, you know, started learning about money and you know, when I was younger, trying to not live the nine to five, like rat race. And I was like, how the hell can I get out of this? You know, back, back home with my parents, it was like, okay, I want to learn. And the thing that just made the most sense to me was the, the cash flow quadrant by the rich dad, rich dad, poor dad. And learning which side of the cash flow quadrant you want to be on. And owning assets or starting a business was the two ways that you could really get ahead and let money work for you. I didn't have any idea how brutal it would be actually trying to start a business though. And you know, I, you said that.

Or you're like, I want to get out of the nine to five. Now you're working nine till nine, 24 hours.

I wanted to get out of it and, and just work more. So yeah, my first business was a sportswear business. I was making like mid six figures at a fifth as a 15 year old making sports uniforms and no idea what I was doing. Made all the mistakes under the sun super hard, had a couple of employees. I then left school, started a, or started working for a, you know, a crypto business back then a YouTube influencer, then started collective shift and you know, for, for the last five and a bit years, like it's been so, so difficult like for four Years, it was absolute hell trying to build a product, trying to find who would buy the product, trying to find, you know, who and what even do I want to build and then have the money to do it. And then like all of the in ins and out of scrolling and scaling and like learning about all these sorts of things is so hard. But I think over time for me that the amazing thing that I've been very grateful to find is a combination of my passion and economic value. And I think about, I love crypto and I love helping people and I can do that through a business. So creating a crypto business that helps people, like, is the absolute perfect sweet spot for me. Um, and I can now do it at, at, at big scale and I have leverage and I can help more people. And with the money we make from helping people in crypto, I can buy more crypto and, you know, accumulate more wealth. And that's a beautiful thing about business.

Absolutely. And what are you talking about? There is like that Japanese ikigai, where it's like this Venn diagram of four things about what you love, what you're good at, what the world needs and what you can be paid for. And really with a business, what we're talking about is high leverage, and that's through labor, capital and code. So you've got people working for you with systems, you've got efficient code and automations running in the background. And you've got capital you're putting to work to reinvest in your business. And a business is at least minimum five years of hell to actually get it right, figure it out, iron out all your problems, then you still have problems, but five years at least make it sustainable, find product, market fit and have something that's regular to find your lifestyle and money balance that you want. And we tend to find that people that have businesses are very interesting. So I tend to see a couple of types of people. One is like the kind of wise sage. This is like a couple of mentors that we have. This would be like Ando my mentor, where he's been through hell. Took him a while to figure it out, but now he's figured it out and he's actually implemented the lifestyle and life that he wants and his business funds his lifestyle, which is just amazing. That's my favorite type of person of this. The other one is just they're nuts and they just keep going. It needs to be more, more, more and they need another business. They need more money, they have to do it all again. They have to run it Back there's just this disease of more. And then there's another person as well where maybe their business isn't going so well or their spending habits are absolutely crazy and they need their business to then fund that. And although these people are classified as, you know, in inverted commas, Rich, it's like, well, what life are you really? What's the end point and what goal are you trying to achieve with this?

That's so good. And I think the tax benefits too of running a business is like unbelievable. Like to think, you know, if you're on your own, you know, and you don't have a company structure, you're essentially using post tax dollars for everything you do. That is wild to me. Like that is, you know, you're always running three steps behind because you know, you have no tax efficient way to, to be able to do things. Like, you know, it's, it's very like even as an example in Australia, like you can use a, the, the grant that they have, I'm not sure exactly what they call it, but for EV cars where essentially, you know, usually when you pay for a car through a business and use it for personal use, you have to pay tax on it, FBT fringe benefits tax. So you have to essentially pay with post tax dollars. Using a business, you can get a electric car under the luxury car tax threshold. So it's like $85,000 and you can drive it 100% for your own personal use and offset all the cost in terms of depreciation interest and you know, pay with post tax dollars. Like that is a no brainer as one of a million things that a company structure helps with.

Yeah, it's FBC exempt. And the reality of it is like for every $100 you spend, it's essentially got $110 worth of purchasing power because you get your GST back and if you're an employee, you lose up to 50% of it and then you lose another 10% GST when you spend. So you're at least 50% behind.

Yeah, a hundred percent. So yeah, the hardest, probably one of the hardest anyway to get going. But you know, huge benefits, it's the most difficult.

4% of businesses make it to a million dollars revenue and then 4% of that then make it on to $10 million revenue. So it is a very, very hard slog and you have to put a lot of effort behind it and really want it.

Yeah, yeah. We've been doing this now for what, yeah, five and a half years. We've got like I think 17 or 18 people, you know, on track for eight figures. Like it's. That's been five years of absolute just, you know, slogging it out to get there. You've got to. You've got to be able to put in the hard yards.

You're sprinting marathons uphill.

Yeah. Oh, God. And I ran a marathon that was hard enough. Now the next one, Market timing. So this is getting lucky on a stock or crypto or, you know, maybe, you know, you built a business and hit it big in the first year. So this is, you know, just around like, you know, more timing over anything.

Exactly right. And I know a few of these people and they were just incredibly lucky. They did the right thing at the right time. Good on them. So good. So, you know, this is like if you got into bitcoin early, or if you put a large sum in and you wrote it up a couple of hundred percent. Brilliant. Or if you, Ben, you did this with altcoins, where you put, I think, 15 grand into one altcoin and it became a large sum of cash, enough to actually buy this business and keep running it. Yeah, great. Good on you. And then other people that have started a business in the first year and they were in the right market at the right time and they hit it big, and that was fantastic. And, mate, kudos to these people. The problem is they don't actually realize that it's luck. They think it's skill, it's their success. And I've seen a lot of people go through and fail where they try and run it back, do it again, or they think they're a business God. Jamie Oliver is a classic example of this, where he started expanding his empire thinking he's a businessman, didn't know how to run an empire, had to close all of his restaurants. But because he had all that fame and people were working for him, everything was going on and he was just hot in that moment. He thought he was something he was not. And this is about self awareness, realizing what you are and realizing it won't last forever. And like you, for example, you realized it with the Altcoin. You then rolled it up into a business and you've been working on that business ever since. You're not like, I've been successful in this area. I'm going to be successful everywhere. You're like, shit, this is going to be hard work. I need to put the effort in. Yeah.

And I think what I see anyway, you know, more from unsophisticated individuals or people that are you know, really chasing the dream is that they chase this thing, they chase luck, they chase trying to pick the 100x, find the thing that's going to change in their life and they find themselves forever chasing the dream. That's why like, you know, that's gambling, that's like winning the lotto. That's like, you know, why casinos around? It's like that belief that you could do this thing, there's a chance, there's a likelihood of it happening. But you know, the math behind so many of these like super high risk, high reward plays is not in your favor. And that's where a lot I see a lot of people, you know, forever chase the dream and never actually work on something meaningful because they're trying to just get lucky.

Exactly. And market timing is the very few percent of people hit this. The majority of people want to get rich quickly and they don't have the skills, the stamina, the capital to actually get through. So there's way more failures than successes in this area.

Yeah, yeah, bang on. Now the third one is discipline investing over time. You know, you work a job, you grind it out and you invest 10% as an example over 30 years and you just grind it out, accumulate automate, build over time.

Yeah. And you're doing an average thing for an above average period of time. I actually know a lot of these people. And think about most people in Australia, you rely on your superannuation for retirement. That's 12% employer contributions over the 40 years that you work. And at the end you've got a nice tidy sum. Well, why don't you have your own super. In addition to that, take 10% of what you earn, pay yourself first and invest that in an index fund, in crypto, in whatever you want, real estate. And then over the 40 years that you're working, you will have significant amount of capital. And I know a lot of these people. And the issue with this is that it takes a long time. So you need to be patient, you need the discipline, you need automation. But at the same time, after it's time to harvest and start to live your amazing rich life, you don't flick that switch from 40 years of saving and being frugal and investing to great, I can just go and spend now. It is a hard journey. We see this all the time in the fire community, the financially independent. Retire early, where it's essentially a frugal life for a period, period of time, build up a capital sum, invest it and that gives you enough money to actually live on through Investing every year. But they're like, I've got all this money, and I'm still doing stupid, like, going on three flights to save 80 instead of going directly there. So just be aware of that. This is definitely a tried and true way to get rich. There's formulas for it, and it's easy to implement, hard to do over the long period of time, but just manage your psychology along the way.

This actually reminds me of you a little bit Burgs that, you know, you've made, you know, a lot of money, you know, not just from investing over time, but, like, you know, business and, you know, all the things you've been able to do over time. You, you know, you've done really well from my perspective. And to see the psychological change that you have to. And the way you grew up of, like, actually spending the money now. And, like, I can see the pain in your eyes, having to, like, spend money on stuff. I'm like, mate, you. Like, you don't need to be so frugal anymore. You've done all the hard work. You can buy that flight, you can take that trip, you can, you know, go out for dinner. Like, that's.

Yeah, it's fascinating. And, like, you've helped me so much with this, and the more you do, the more. The easier it becomes. It's just like building a muscle. Right. But it's just doing it in the first instance. And what you have to undo is like, I never thought I'd have a good amount of money in my life. Like, you grow up, you see what your parents have. You think that's kind of normal. You see what the people in your street have, your neighborhood, people that go to your school, you see all their money habits. You adopt those money habits. You think in a certain way and to first of all, unlearn that and start investing. Huge step. But then when you actually have the money and starting to spend the money and feeling okay with it and getting rid of that scarcity mindset, huge hurdle to overcome.

Yeah. Yeah. And I think maybe a lot of people listening to this podcast that, you know, have accumulated wealth over time, you know, and. And then, you know, trying to understand where to spend that and. And. And where to be frugal, where not to. You know, it. It can. It can be difficult. I think a lot of people, you know, haven't had a lot of money for a long time, and when they do have money, it sound like, oh, now, you know, I don't. I don't want to let go of it. And that Is a, you know, I don't know if it's like lifestyle creep necessarily. It's more like that foundation, that security that you have, and it can never feel like enough. So you kind of, you know, you never want to wear down on the war chest. But also it's like, well, at some point, you know, you want to actually.

Do something, change your life. Yeah. You have that constant fear of being poor again.

Yes.

And we have this, actually. You have. You've had this in the company.

Yeah.

Where you don't want to go back to the very, very difficult times because you know how bad they are. So you overcompens the other way or you make scenarios where it's all or nothing. Like, if I don't do this, I'm going to go broke. And it's like. And in the company, it's like, no, the company will endure. Like, we've set things up, it will be fine. But you still have that inside you where you're like, if I don't do this, the bad thing will happen.

Yeah, yeah. It's a different mindset. Shift. And I think you have to shift, you know, who you are as an individual. And, you know, I've had to do a lot of this this year, like, really shifting who I am as a person and, you know, the way I go about things and what I am able to do versus what I'm not able to do. And, you know, that. That, you know, in a way it pisses a lot of people off because they don't, like, you know, to see people, especially in Australia, the Tall Poppy syndrome, and like, you shifting your mindset around certain things and like, you know, even some of your, you know, friends as well, burgs. Like, when you start to grow in terms of your wealth levels, you start to disassociate a little bit with other people. And not because it's, you know, you're even purposely doing it. It's just that you start to do different things. You start to, you know, experience other. Other opportunities. You know, it's. It's hard. It's a hard one to balance.

Yeah. You start to do things they can't and you're changing as a person and they're potentially not. And it's very difficult. Like, even if I want to go out and pay for a dinner, like, a lot of the time I'll just tell my mates, oh, don't worry, work's paying. When I'm just paying for it, like.

Yeah.

Because otherwise it's weird where they're like, oh, work, work. They're dogs. Anyway, I hate my boss. That kind of thing. So it's very easy. Right. And I just pay on my card.

Yeah.

So, you know, it avoids that whole conversation or acting like the rich friend. And it's not. I just want us all to have a good time.

Yeah.

And you're right. It is. It is very hard when, like, even when, you know, you doing certain things and I'll see the things that you do in your life, and I'll apply that to my life. And that's not the way to do things. I'm like, well, he's doing this because his life is crazy. He does all this stuff, and this is what makes sense to his life. Any behavior makes sense with enough information. Right. And when people hear about you and I doing things, they apply that to their lives and how they live in the context of their life. And they're like, what the fuck? That doesn't make sense. Yes. And of course it doesn't, because it's not your life and not living and having all these experiences and potentially constraints that that person does.

Correct. Yeah. And people perceive it in different ways. And that's where, you know, friendships become more difficult. And, you know, you like to do certain things, and it's kind of hard, duh, to find people that are in that. In that similar circle. I find this a lot. Like, if I want to go to a music festival, I don't want to go in, like, in the. In the general ticket. I want to get vip. Like, I want to have a nice toilet, and I want to, like, have a nice, you know, experience.

So this just happened. So this happened with my mates who actually do have money, but they're still in a certain mindset because they've just upgraded their house, spent a lot of money, and we're going to a festival. We're all in our 40s. All in our 40s. And a normal ticket is 130 bucks. VIP is $200, $70 every day. And they're like, oh, I'm not sure if it's worth it. I'm like, get. It's on the beach. It's going to be hot. I want my own area, I want my own line. And I don't want to go wait 10 hours to go to a bloody toilet. Yeah. And I want all of these things. And it's 70 bucks. Like, what are you talking about? Like, this is the time.

Yeah. But then, like, you know, that extra 70 bucks if they go to, you know, I don't know. Go shopping or maybe they like, you know, there's certain, those certain expenses that, you know, you drop 70 bucks without even thinking about it and it's like.

Well, these same people will spend 300 on a bottle of wine at dinner.

Yeah, there you go. That's like, what are we even talking about? You know, so that's exactly right.

Oh, it's so fascinating, isn't it?

I'm with you. I'm with you. Now. The fourth one burgs inheritance or endor marriage. This is the final one and we see this a lot. Especially, you know, even recently we have a lot of clients that sign up that get inherited a large amount of money from their parents and now they're like, what do I do?

Let's do inheritance first. So this is a very difficult one. I'm living my life, everything's absolutely fine. Parents are getting older, eventually they, they pass away or they give them the inheritance before they pass away, which I do recommend you do for your kids. So you can actually see them, you know, spend it and enjoy it if you have the means. And then all of a sudden, shit, I've got all this money in the bank. What do I do? Like, I haven't had enough money to invest. I'm not really into it. I've suddenly got all this cash. Like, shit, this is really huge. So this actually happened to me recently. My mum passed away four months ago and it wasn't a large sum of money or anything like that, but it's like I've got this money and for me it was. I literally just took the time off. Like I've done nothing with it. It's just kind of sat there and I'm deciding what to do with it. For me, it's obviously just going to be investing and give it to my daughter because I'm financially stable in other areas, but other people might be like, fuck, I've been through hell. I've actually seen two other friends that have their inheritances that were very significant compared to mine and they blew a lot of it on holidays. Instantly they're like, I've been through this, I blew a holiday. Another one bought a Land Cruiser and they started doing up their houses and just spending the money and having their similar money habits that they had a month ago. Not thinking, hey, this can really accelerate and set me up for life and I won't have to work as much. I can have different income streams and I can spend for a longer period of time.

Yeah, because it's not, you're not money minded Right. You're not sure how to preserve. Well, if you haven't even looked into it, like a lot of this stuff is just down to education and knowledge. And I think, you know, I've been on this rapid knowledge journey over the last two or three years about learning about not only how to make money, but then more importantly how to then preserve it. And if you don't have those skills and you're kind of gifted, can be difficult to then manage and know what to do. And I went to a Bond University course on this actually around like multi generational family businesses. And what happens when you hand down huge businesses and huge amounts of money to, you know, your, your son and daughter? And the impact that can have if you don't set them up right is that you just give them all this money and they just go blow it on, you know, crazy shit and they destroy the business. It's a huge, huge thing.

A generational things. It takes one generation to make it, one to grow it, one to blow it. Because the first ones grew up with not much money. The second generation, or the first generation did. Second generation saw their parents work for it. Third generation saw rich parents. And that's what they're used to.

Yeah.

And this, this is a very, very important thing. And this also happens with business owners. So you have a business, you fix it up or whatever you do in five years, time yourself for $5 million, great, everything stops. You don't go to work, you don't have your personal assistant there, you don't have run the company. But now you've got a $5 million problem, you're not an investor, you don't know what to do. You know how to run a company. It takes five years to become a really proficient investor. Right. And if you still got that, that mindset and what most business owners will do, these idiots, they will go and buy the big fucking house that costs them three to four million dollars, go on massive holidays, buy cars, and only have a small amount of money left.

Yeah.

And they're like, shit, what do I do now? They try and buy back their business, but by that point the market has changed. They're no longer proficient at what they used to do and they lose it all. So it's just, it is crazy. So with inheritances or things like this, big sums of money or even winning lotto, that's a similar thing. The majority of lotto owners are broke within five years, they're back to where they were, take the money, take time off and learn how to invest the Second one is marriage. I actually know a few people like this, a lot of them that have gone into it. So this is a legit strategy. You could marry a rich person and you can become rich. That's fine. That's okay. First of all, don't marry just for the money, because you will earn every single dollar. It is not worth it. Marry because you like the person and love the person. Please do that.

Please.

And then I've also got ones where our mates, they've got tons of businesses, they've got lots and lots of money, but if you saw them on the street, you would not know the majority of them are married or some of them even had arranged marriages. And, yeah, the wives are just similar families, lower or similar wealth levels. They slot right in, and they just love doing things to the community, building things out. And this is really. Choose your own adventure where if you want to marry rich because you want the rich lifestyle, you want to spend a lot or you want to grow with that person, with businesses, or you want to just accumulate your wealth, do philanthropy. I've seen it go every single way.

Yeah. And I'm not married, but, you know, even with. With my girlfriend, like, sitting down, go through the budget, looking at how we're, you know, investing money, looking at, like, you know, what we want to do, where we're going. Like, it's. It's a partnership. It's a. It's a business partnership, Especially once you're married, you know, it's a. It's a. It's an actual binding agreement. So coming together and using that as a team is kind of a cool way to look at it as, well, you know, outside of, you know, if you're wanting to just marry, marry someone that's rich, a little bit different story.

Yeah, mate, if you want to leapfrog, go for it. Just. Just recognize what you're getting yourself into.

Crazy. Crazy. So, look, I think that the key takeaway here is there's no perfect path to wealth. Everyone comes with its own. You know, every path comes with its own challenges. Some get money, some get lucky, some stay consistent, and some build through years of struggle. But the real lesson is wealth isn't about the path. It's about the behavior. And the discipline lasts far longer than luck. Structure beats emotion, and the best path is usually the one that you can stick to. So choose your path, commit to it, and that's really how wealth is built.

That's spot on, man. And honestly, just looking at this, like, I've actually had all four of these so I've got a business now. Like I'm an owner in collective shift and help build that out. Market timing. I did get lucky early on. JB hi Fi shares rolled that up for a deposit on this house and some crypto investments as well. Disciplined investors investing over time. I've been an investor constantly since I was 20 years old. I'm now 42 and I've received a small inheritance as well. And yeah, so that's how I know, like, how all of these things can kind of affect you. Is it quite fascinating looking at that list?

Yeah, no, it's good. And you know, like, to your point, folks, it can be a mix of these. It can be one or the other. But, you know, at the end of the day, this is really the fastest four ways or the four core ways you can, you know, grow your wealth over time.

So 100%. Choose your own adventure. Get after it.

Thank you so much, folks. Hopefully you enjoy the episode. If you do enjoy it, we'd love for you to share it around with a friend or family member. It's how we grow the podcast each and every week. Subscribe if you're on YouTube. Follow us on your favorite podcasting app and we'll see you on the next episode.

Thanks so much, champions.