3 Things Poor People Do That Rich People Don’t

I'd like to ship you a free copy of my book Habits of High Performers. If you come and join the 2026 goal setting workshop, I will ship you one of these today. The link is in the notes. Please come and join me to set up the very best 2026 you could imagine. If you've set up goals in the past or New Year's resolutions and they haven't substantiated, I'm here to help you across all the key pillars of your life nail your goals. I'll see you there. Welcome to Lead On Purpose. I'm James Laughlin, former seven time world champion musician and now executive coach to global leaders and high performers. Each week I'll publish a solo cast where I'll share my top high performance habits and methodologies to supercharge your life and career. If you enjoy the show, please take a short moment to subscribe and leave a rating and review. I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks for taking the time to connect today and investing in yourself. Enjoy the show.

I'd like to thank NZ Mortgages for sponsoring the Lead On Purpose podcast. You can check them out at nzmortgages.co nz. Welcome back. Today we're diving into three habits that keep people stuck while the wealthy thrive. Being rich isn't just about money. Look, I think it's about relationships, fulfillment, and living a truly rich life. It's a way of thinking. It's a mindset. And I believe there is a poor mindset and a rich mindset. And you know, could you be holding yourself back without even realizing that you're doing it? Let's find out if you're unknowingly doing that. Let's dive in to make sure that you are supporting your own success. So we're going to talk about this. We're going to talk about curiosity and how a rich mindset versus a poor mindset. You know, a rich mindset, the person's always curious. And I want to get really, really clear. We're not talking about dollars and cents here. We're talking about a way of thinking. And whether you read those great classics like Think and Grow Rich or more recently, Start Thinking Rich, a friend of mine just released that. It all starts with a mindset. And so when I talk about poor people or rich people, I'm talking about a mindset. This is not finger pointing at people that have lots of money and people that don't have lots of money. Here's the first point that I want to make. This is the number one thing that separates Those rich people from the poor people, and that is that they're curious. You know, I've been really fortunate to sit down with people of all walks of life, all shapes, sizes, genders, ethnicities, wealth in terms of financial wealth, all different backgrounds. Now, the people that were truly rich across all areas of their life, they were deeply curious. These are people that have got their dream, you know, career, they've got this amazing LinkedIn profile that says they've worked at Disney and Apple and etc. These are the people that are financially free by the hundreds of millions, if not the billions. These are the people that have led countries and led the top sports teams of all times or won gold medals. And you'd think they don't need to be curious. They're already at the top of their game. Well, the one thing that connects this kind of rich mindset, these rich people, is that they're curious, that they always are asking questions, that they're somewhat nosy. And I really admire that. I love when someone who seems to have it all keeps asking questions, keeps leading with curiosity. And that's something I think we can all do no matter what area we're at, in terms of financial wealth, look at all parts of our life and all aspects of relationships. Fulfillment, contribution, health, mindset, career. There's all these different things. And I think truly rich people are curious across those key pillars in their life. Here's a little challenge I've got for you on this first point of being curious. When was the last time you learned something? If it's been a while, I want you to just sit down today and go, I'm going to take 10 minutes to read something or listen to something and actually write down what I've learned. And. And then I'm going to see where I can apply it to my life or share it with someone else. But that's the first challenge. I want to set you a huge thank you for listening to lead on purpose. One small favor to ask of you, and that is this. Please share this one episode with one friend, a family member, a colleague, someone who you think might enjoy this episode. I have no clue how algorithms work, but what I do know is that when a real human recommend something to another real human, it lands. So please do me that huge favor and share this one episode. I deeply appreciate it. Okay, let's look at the second point. Let's take a look at perspective. Poor people often see problems, while rich people see possibilities. Often, when I'm speaking from stage to teams, organizations, large corporates, I'M always talking about looking through the lens of what is possible. I want you to think about that. And again, you know the rich people. And again, let's remind ourselves this is rich thinking. This is not how many dollars have you got in your bank account. But often that does reflect your thinking too. They always are looking through what is possible. They don't see the problems, they see the possibilities. So when you focus on problems, guess what? You create more problems. When you focus on more problems, you create more walls, roadblocks, obstacles. There's no way to get around a problem if all you're doing is focusing on the problem. The best thing that people who are abundant in their thinking, the best thing they do is go whammo. W a M O, what are my options? The next time you see a problem, I want you to go whammo, what are my options? And explore every possible option. I'm running an incredible 22 day Rewire program right now. It's the first ever live cohort and it's a high performance rewire looking at key habits that help high performers thrive. And the one thing I'm always challenging the people in there to do, and particularly this week I've been doing that, is what are all of the things at your disposal? What are all the opportunities that you can do to pursue things that you see a problem? How can you get around it? Whammo. Every time that makes such a difference. So the next time you face a problem, I want you to take action, to look for one positive thing and one possible thing. What's positive here I and what's possible here, and then take action accordingly. Off the back of that, the last habit, and perhaps the most powerful one, is gratitude. Now, before I get to that, I've got one thing to ask you for and that's a favor. And I'm grateful if you will do it. Please just share this episode or the podcast with one friend. If you do that. I'm deeply appreciative. That's how the podcast grows. It's word of mouth, real humans letting other real humans know about it. So gratitude. Poor people often focus on what they don't have what they want, whereas wealthy people focus on what they do have. They're grateful for it. So I often have a poor people mindset. I would like that, I'd like to move towards that or I'd really love that. And the thing is, all of us have poor mindsets somewhere in our lives and it's going okay, which area of my life needs the focus? Maybe it's wealth, maybe it's health, maybe it's relationship. You get to decide, right? But rich people, in terms of a mindset, they focus on what they have and they go, wow, I'm so grateful and deeply grateful. They show and express that gratitude for their house, for their car, for their family member, for the bed they slept in, for the access to clean water, access to abundant food sources. And they write about it. They write about their gratitude. They take time in their meditations in the morning to close their eyes and focus on what they're grateful for. So I want you to think about whether you're focusing more on what you want and what you don't have right now, or are you focused on what you're so grateful for. How many times do you share with a friend or a loved one? I'm really grateful for the fence that surrounds our property. I'm really grateful for paying tax because it means that road I'm driving on is not a hot mess. I'm really grateful for that doctor or nurse who helped me. And they were supposed to have gone home 90 minutes, but they're staying here because they're under resourced. I'm so grateful for them. So I want you to think about this attitude of gratitude and practicing it as a skill, as a muscle. I interviewed an NCIS special agent very recently and she was sharing how important gratitude is in building grit and resilience. This is something that she has done for years. Today's the day to start it. It's not when the thing happens and hits you. If you're already in an ambush of life right now, get started, of course, but if you're in a pretty good space, get started right now because when the thing comes and arrives, you'll start. I've started to develop that muscle. So important. Here's a little challenge that pertains to this. Start your day or finish your day with three things you're grateful for. Neuroscience backs this up. This is not my wise idea. This is stuff that I have adopted because neuroscientists know that it helps build resilience at a psychological level. And let's face it, we all need to be more resilient. We all have things coming up that we don't know are going to face us, whether that be adversity, sickness, loss. We're human. We experience these ugly things. We've got to face the facts and stay in reality, accept it. To do that, we've got to build that muscle. So that's the one thing I'd love to challenge you to do is physically write down three things you're grateful for. Speak about them, share them with someone that's close to you. I just want to say you're one of the rich people. Why? Because you're here working on yourself. I have no idea what's in your bank balance. It's none of my business. And that's not what this is about. It's all about how you're thinking. The fact that you listen to this to the end and you maybe even shared this with a friend would show me that one, you're curious and two, that you care. I really love that. So to recap that, embrace the curiosity, look for possibilities, and last but not least, focus on gratitude. Please. For now, get out there and lead your life on purpose. I'd like to thank NZ Mortgages for sponsoring the Lead on Purpose podcast. You can check them out@nzmortgages.co.nz. thanks for tuning in today and investing in your own personal leadership. Please hit that subscribe button and I'd love if you'd leave me a rating and review. Got some amazing guests lined up for you in the coming weeks and leaders, it's that time to get out there and lead your life on purpose.