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The Really Rich Journal

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I’ve spent the past few months trying to tease out the differences between the “Rich Guy” and the “Really Rich Guy” in purely economic terms, something like a wild-n-crazy textbook that lays down the foundation of my philosophy of humility predating outsize income and societal influence. Basically, how putting others first makes you the "big shot" without you trying to be one in the first place.

I’m creating a model that anyone could adopt (no matter how much cash you have in the bank) to rake in the wins of the Really Rich Guy (or Mr. Crown, if you prefer) over and over and over again, whether it's at the dry cleaners or in the boardroom.

It goes like this: live a life of value and get really rich.

The book makes a few presumptions. In a free society, value is rewarded with some form of a stored credit system. Without getting too deep in the weeds, value is anything that makes someone else’s day easier. Therefore, the underlying premise of a free society is that of putting other people first. Kindness is valuable.

Value was previously rewarded locally, so the rewards we’re right-sized. Now, and more so in the future, value is disseminated almost instantaneously around the globe via technology. Technological innovation is essentially a gift to everyone. Your gift to everyone also makes your life better too by increasing total productivity - that's the whole pie growing.

Cue "The Circle of Life" theme song from Lion King.

Opportunity is expanding

Once upon a time, that value you provided may have been rewarded with a preferential role in a tribe. A little bit later, we moved to metal and then paper currency. Same idea, but you can pull in a ton more of these stores of value as an individual as we move through time.

In the draft of my book, I use the example of a comedian. It’s a good example because it’s timeless, unlike a blacksmith or aerospace engineer, which faced obsolesce or didn't exist before the silicon revolution. Making people laugh is always valuable. However, the value you provide gets multiplied exponentially with technology and frictionless media (TikTok). Therefore, making someone laugh in your tribe (or castle) may get you a good seat at the table with extra food and drink, now you can pull in millions and design your own kingdom with a Noguchi coffee table.

Even your network becomes limitless with new, AI software that helps you meet people.

Economic freedom is critical to value transfer

Let’s take a step back to the “free society” section in the second paragraph. The freer the society the more velocity between “giving value” and “getting rewards”. Just look at economic phenomena like Dubai, which is quite literally a random place in the desert cum millionaires' paradise. You can buy a supercar like a Big Mac and open a business in 10 minutes. Needless to say, the economic prosperity of this region has superbloomed overnight due to the relative “freedom”. Taxes? Never heard of 'em. Therefore, if you can offer value from Dubai, you’ll watch your bank account pile up much faster than say, Paris (désolé monsieur).

Of course, I’m an American, and here in Old Glory, we’ve enjoyed a high level of freedom for far longer than in the Emirates. It’s not a perfect system by any means, and we’ve had a painful series of circus-like political candidates draw global gawks like a 1920s freak show. Nevertheless, we’ve been pretty good about keeping things predictable, relatively easy, and safe for a while now.

Perspective is a shortcut to wisdom

But, and this is a biggie, I only know how good I have it because of perspective. In my book, I’ve defined the main variables to financial success as value and time. However, perhaps I should add a special mention to perspective. It’s a kind of wisdom that requires an eyewitness account of something through another’s eyes. The easiest way to get this perspective is to travel a ton.

By amassing perspective, you begin to see patterns emerge. Patterns of what works, and what doesn’t. I’ve enjoyed yet again another perspective-rich experience, traveling to a place where purchasing power is continually eroded. When you can’t join the global experience (that’s the future, by the way) of transacting across borders because your currency is worthless, morale sags, innovation is depressed, and revolution looms.

The perspective gained from my trip reminded me of how critical it is to guard against hyperinflation right here on home soil and allowed me to model what it would look like. It ain't pretty.

Kindness is a result of perspective

So, maybe the Really Rich Guy isn’t kind for just any reason.

Maybe he’s seen what happens when you’re unkind. When you steal and lie and cheat. Maybe he’s seen poverty and the self-defeating rituals that keep people where they are without education (again, perspective). Maybe he’s aware of the injustice and unequal opportunity that goes on within his home turf and is doing his small part to change it for the better.

On the flipside, maybe he knows that kindness is the social grease that makes the entire wheel turn faster. A happy you is a more productive you. That's not a bad way to turbo boost output.

Perhaps Mr. Crown simply has a wider range of perspectives than Rob Weaver.

Perspective > Education

And if you’re sitting here scratching your head because you haven’t yet left X country to see “how the Romans do”, I urge you to invest in a trip. I don't care how many Master's degrees you have.

It’s not a vacation and you won’t be staying in the Ritz. If you absolutely can’t leave, then take a virtual “trip” to internet forums outside your normal social circle. Or just DM someone who you want to learn from (AI makes this easier).

Perspective is the best education that you can give yourself on how to organize your chips, where to grow your business or intellect, or if you need to jump ship and head somewhere else to be the person you need to be.

Perspective breeds kindness as you start to see similarities, rather than differences emerge.

If perspective is wisdom, and wisdom is getting in touch with reality, then perspective will make you rich. If you’re into that kinda thing.

If I ever end up having children (perhaps a topic for another time), I’m handing them a one-way ticket to Amsterdam, a country checklist, and just enough money to be lightly fed on hostel family meals, instead of a depreciating Ivy League education.

This week, I’m taking meetings in Miami.

Global Markets: Light at the end of the tunnel?

Crypto (in its short history relative to other asset classes) has acted as an even riskier, leveraged bet on stocks (the OG risk assets). Essentially, a crypto crash should predate and be far deeper than a crash in stocks - which has already happened, of course, with several coins losing more than 90% of their value. Now, what’s interesting about the recent pop in ETH, is that it coincides with a numerical end a bunch of bear markets.

In other words, bear markets only last so long before the price action turns course - something like 388 days or so.

Even highly-risky stocks, like Tesla (due to it’s enormous multiple) are perking up as of late. The fundamentals really haven’t changed but price action is showing some promise. Or as we used to call it on the trading floor, firmness.

This isn’t a call to buy crypto, but rather a call to keep an eye on it as a sign for a rebound in other asset classes.

*This isn't investment advice.

Mindset: "Cheap" always costs too much

A few readers may remember my skit involving Rob Weaver (The "Rich Guy") consuming enough at the casino buffet to become physically ill. Just because it’s cheap (or free), doesn’t mean you have to consume it in excess (or at all).

Weaver got his wires crossed on the relationship between value and price. Pull price down far enough and value seems inflated even though it hasn't moved in overall terms. It's a parlor trick.

One on my favorite books is The Magic of Thinking Big. It’s an early precursor to mindset books that I don’t like, such as “The Secret” around manifestation. Basically, “thinking big”, as the author calls his technique, is a form of open-mindedness and supercreativity.

When we’re in a creative state and given no option but to innovate, we can solve anything.

Several people have broken out of freaking Alcatraz and you can’t get your product line off the ground?

Anyway.

The author, David J. Schwartz, has a passage that explains why you can’t afford anything less than the very best.

Schwartz says it’s better to buy one high-quality suit than three [cheap-ass] ones for its durability and added effect. If you're wearing an unflattering, cheap-looking suit, you may as well not be wearing one at all.

I’ve been a follower of this principle for quite some time despite its relative difficulty to get right. Basically, It’s tempting to forget the difference between frugality and inferiority. It's not easy to remember when to spend and when to count pennies.

Buying cheaper, inferior products, services, or personnel (through contracting their personal services) will actually cost you money in the long run far beyond the immediate cost savings due to their lower overall value. In addition, they deteriorate, underperform, or don't achieve the desired effect.

The cut-rate marketing agency will blow up your product and put you out of business. Outsourcing to that “new country” without training, SOPs, and quality hires will destroy the integrity of your startup faster than you can say, "Mark Cuban".

Take an extra moment between the rush of "a deal" and the swiping of the 'ol Amex.

When you start to really understand and audit this price-to-quality relationship in your life, huge opportunities emerge.

And don’t listen to the herd. They’re busy eating too much at the buffet.

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