If You Want To Become Rich In 2026, Stop Doing THIS Now | Vivian Tu

What's the difference between people who are actually rich and those who are acting like they're rich?

People who are actually rich like you rich and. Sorry, guys.

That's good, that's good.

They're not concerned about impressing you.

Interesting.

They are. I talk about this in my book. They are apex predators. They do not worry about what you think about them.

Wow.

That it is the guy that you see walking into a three Michelin star restaurant in, in a quiet, normal looking outfit, sweater vest situation, eats his meal, leaves a 50% tip because they can. That's true wealth. Then you've got the wannabe wealth that goes to that same restaurant dripped out in a designer label is, you know, making a scene. Why isn't this water sparkling? This is still. I don't like that. No, no, no. Like just, you know, really, really new to the experience. And then leaves at 10%.

Wow, that's interesting. So is there. What are the other soft skills that you can tell between someone who's actually rich and someone who's faking it or trying to be rich or maybe has some money, but they're trying to show it off too much?

So I would say that people who want to look rich brag about things. Look at my new bag, look at my new car. Really rich people, they don't brag. They talk about experiences that they have. So this is another experience and like one that I frankly couldn't really relate to when I first started in my career because I didn't come from that kind of money. But when it was around vacation season and people were talking about going to.

Italy and the yachts and the.

Not even the yachts, but everybody had a restaurant in Capri that you had to try. Everyone had their favorite place for gelato, you know, in Venice, whatever. Like whatever it was, you could tell that person had lived life in a way that someone who doesn't have that kind of access, who doesn't have that kind of money, doesn't have because they can't take the time off. They don't have the money to go to those places. And even if they did, they would be doing things on the path versus stuff off the beaten path that lets them live like a local.

What would you say are a few practical things? If people are like, you know, I'm just kind of. I don't have money for the next few months, I don't have an emergency fund, I don't have. I've got debts I'm still paying off. If someone is financially sick and unwell and their financial health is unstable. What are a few strategies they can do to either increase their income or get back to financial wholeness?

I would say something that people struggle with realizing is that these changes you'll have to make, they're not permanent. They're only temporary.

Yes.

And you are going to be uncomfortable. It's not going to be fun. And I am very anti. Cut out the avocado toast. Don't buy the coffee. Rah, rah. Okay. I am.

Yeah.

But if you are in a truly a dark, dark hole and there's no ladder to crawl out, cut it out. Like, you literally have to cut it out. You have to make some temporary changes that are very uncomfortable. And to your point, like, we focus so much on cutting out every single little discretionary cost. Do you know how hard it is to cut out $5,000 worth of expenses? Do you know how easy it is to ask for a $5,000 raise? A $5,000 raise happens every single day. Like that is par for the course. That's not anything special. Cutting out $5,000. You know how many coffees you have to cut out. You know how many meals you can't go out to. Do you know how many friends you might lose in that process. So again, I think it's really, really important to be asking for that raise. And I mean 10, 15% every single year. Are you gonna get it every year? Probably not. But you get 7%, great. You get 8%, great. You got to ask and you got to remind them pretty much for six months out of the year that you deserve that race and that you want money, that you are money motivated. Because if you ask in December when everybody else is asking for money, you're at the back of the list. Yeah.

Yeah.

You want to be on top of the pile. When your boss starts thinking about who's getting a race this year, what can.

Someone do, who's employee to be really smart and intentional about getting a raise? Yeah. How can they show their value, their work ethic, that they're getting the results that's going to increase revenue in the business, as opposed to just saying, give me a 20% raise or 10% raise because I deserve it.

Yeah.

How do they enroll through actual results, as opposed to I just want to raise.

Yeah.

Give it to me, otherwise I'm not happy. Yeah.

So you remember those two guys on Wall Street? You've got the executioners and then you got the knife and fork guys. So on the execution side, make yourself a brag book. So it's a Literal folder, a brag book, a brag book, razor seats, promo pitch, whatever you want to call it, just make one. It's a folder in your email and every time something good happens to you, every time you get a pat on the back from another team member from your company, put it, forward it to that folder. A client says, wow, you know, you did such a great job, whatever, put it in that folder. Anything that good, good that happens to you, put in that folder. Because that way when you go and you have to write those really annoying self assessments, you can go back and literally look through those emails and be like, oh, remember that time I did that one thing and that thing and that thing and now you have quantifiable results that you can point to. The second piece is the knife and fork piece. There's a study and it shows that the smartest person is not the one that gets paid the most.

Right?

They're like second most paid. Second or third most paid. Yeah. Being smart and being the best employee gets you to a certain point. But the person that is paid the most is the person that is essentially Mr. Or Mrs. Congeniality. You need to be liked. You need, and not so much like you have to be agreeable and likable. But like people have to think of you.

Like you gotta be top of mind.

You gotta be top of mind. And you have to be unfortunately popular around the office. So that happens by not skipping the company happy hour. That happens by joining your stupid wreck pickleball league with your bot. Like, you know what I mean? Like you have to do those things if you really want that. And I know people listening to this might think like, well, I have kids, I can't do the pickleball league, I can't go to the happy hour, okay, Ask your boss to go to lunch once every three weeks. Make that time, force that time, do the water cooler thing. Cuz it might cause you 15 minutes, it might cost you 15 minutes of your day and it might cost you that 15 minutes of productivity. I guarantee you nobody is going to miss that 15 minutes of your work product. But they'll remember when you told that funny joke, they'll remember that story you told about, you know, the one, you know, funny thing that happened that weekend. Because that is how people remember you. It's not about like, oh, do you remember who closed the, that amazing deal last quarter? Nobody says that.

Right? You know what I think about is like, who is able to show up with just consistent good attitude, energy and effort consistently. Who creates the least amount of stress.

Yes.

You know that I don't want to think about the challenges and the stress that is being brought to the team or to myself, but that you're just consistent. Not that you can't have a challenging day or bad stuff happens, but just overall, you got pretty good attitude.

Yeah.

Pretty good energy. You're willing to show up and work hard consistently. It's like, all right, cool. You're going to get rewarded.

Yeah.

But go ahead.

No, I was going to say it's also like doing an elevator test or airport test. When you're looking at a resume, how many times has someone asked you about your past job experience in detail? Frankly, not that many times. You know what everybody beelines to on my resume?

What's that?

They look at the very bottom and they're like, interests, activities. And they're like, oh, that's weird. I see you were at literally, that's weird. You were a cheerleader in college. And I'm like, yes. And they're like, really? And I'm like, yeah, why don't I seem so fun and bubbly and like, you know, it's the same day that I'm wearing all black and I look so, like, depressed. Or they'll look at the bottom of my resume and they're like, interest mob movies. What's your favorite one? And I'm like, goodfellas, obviously. And then we get into a 20 minute debate and I waste 20 minutes on our interview. But you only now have 10 minutes to ask me technical questions. And if I aced those 10 minutes of questions instead of 30 minutes, I now look like a genius. Cause every question you asked me, I got right. And then even better, like the fact that you and I now have something in common. Because you know that Goodfellas is my favorite movie. I know that the Godfather's your favorite movie. So now we're friends.

Yeah. You're more likable.

Yeah.

It sounds like people hire or they give raises or opportunities to people they like more. Is that what I'm hearing you say? What was the study from? Do you remember this likability study?

Can't exactly remember.

We'll have to look it up.

But it'll literally be like the first Google search. Literally, just be like, you know, smartest person doesn't get paid the most. Right. It's been shown time and time again.

It's not about being the smartest or the most technical. It's about you want to have technical skills and be smart, you got to.

Be a B plus student with an A plus personality. And that'll get you farther than being an A student with a B personality.

Interesting.

People who are actually rich, like be rich. They're not concerned about impressing you.

Interesting.

They do not worry about what you think about them.

How can we be prepared for what's to come financially? What can we do today to start being better prepared so that we are not as affected as we could be?

I think diversification is really important.