Let’s talk about habits and money.
We all have spending habits and saving habits.
Policy makers talk a lot about them. They’re all over the news.
But neither of those make you richer.
Have you noticed?
Sure, you can spend less on clothes this year, but that’s not going to help you retire 10 years earlier.
Neither does saving those $500 you didn’t spend.
Saving money has been useless for the past 7 years.
Look at the United States Federal Reserve interest rate, an indicator for interest rates worldwide:
It’s been at its all time low since December 2008. The Fed just raised the rate last December, from 0% to 0.25% – so from nothing to almost nothing.
So you can’t save your way to wealth either.
Why don’t the news talk about earning habits for once? I’ve never even heard that term.
See, even Google doesn’t know it.
But it’s time we started talking about the habits we have, that determine how we earn money, not how much of it we spend or save.
Spending habits = what habits make you spend money?
Saving habits = what habits make you save money?
Earning habits = what habits make you earn money?
Earning habits are not the habits of everyday spenders and average savers. They’re the habits of the rich.
Simple, right?
Today’s blog post is about just that. Earning habits. In fact, it’s about the only earning habit I know.
I’ll show you the one habit, about which I’m 1000% sure, that if you do it every day, it will make you filthy, stinkin’ rich.
The best part is it’s super simple. Don’t get me wrong. It’s insanely, lose your mind over it kinda hard. But simple.
It consist of only 2 steps.
But first, let’s debunk something.
10, 6, 9, 7, 12, 10 – geez, how many habits do successful people have?
Since the news don’t talk about which habits make us rich and successful, the internet has gladly taken that job upon itself.
It does this so well in fact and loves it so much, that it’s gone a little overboard.
When you google “success habits” you get almost 300 million results.
Which one should you read?
Even worse, the top 10 don’t really seem to find a common denominator – they disagree a lot about which and how many earning habits you need.
I like to call BS when I see it and this smells so much like it I bet even your nose is wrinkling right now.
But I know what the problem is. The habits these posts describe aren’t earning habits.
They’re meta habits, the habits that will help you find the time and do the work to become successful.
Things like a morning routine, setting priorities, waking up early, and being productive.
But yet again, none of these things make you money – it’s what you do in that time that matters.
Earning habits are different. They’re the things that actually build wealth when you do them. And the more you do them, the more wealth you accumulate.
For example, Warren Buffett’s famous for saying he reads 5-6 hours a day, but you can read articles online and your Facebook feed in that time.
If Buffett was reading comics instead of newspapers and annual reports, he could read all he want, his investments would still go down the tube.
Then again, I’m not Warren Buffett.
I’m a 25-year old guy, who started his journey without having a clue 1.5 years ago, and is making peanuts money-wise.
But those peanuts taught me something.
It’s the only earning habit I know.
Luckily, this makes writing this post incredibly easy.
There are no habits of the rich – there’s just one
Alright, enough humdrum, here’s the one habit, that, if you do it every single day, will make you very, very wealthy:
Create something you want to see in the world, and release it to the public.
Simple right?
Simple, but not easy.
Because I’m young, care about the generations after myself, and this isn’t a newspaper you’re reading, I’ll make one slight adjustment.
Create something you want to see in the world, and release it online.
That’s all I know.
If you create something you really, really care about, and put it out there, every single day, you will make a lot of money.
Even better, thanks to social media you can pick whatever format you like.
You don’t even have to be artistically skilled, if you suck at video and photography, singing and dancing, you can still write and talk.
As long as you have the ability to assemble letters into words, you can make a fortune online – because everything else you need, you can learn.
You can learn to post funny tweets. You can learn to write great articles. You can learn to give great speeches.
Here’s how to get started, it only takes 2 steps.
Step #1 – Pick a platform you like
Seriously.
Don’t overthink this.
Just go with your gut.
You don’t even have to create your own website.
Want to write? Set up an account on Medium.
Love taking pictures? Create a profile on Instagram.
There’s just something about tweets that cracks you up? Sure, go with Twitter.
Here’s a list of platforms that allow you to unleash your inner creative genius, 100% free of charge. I’ve thrown in some ideas for you to get started as well:
- Facebook – text posts, videos, pictures – the sky’s the limit here.
- Instagram – pictures – inspiring quotes, fitness motivation, food pics, fashion, design, selfies, cars and a lot more is fair game.
- Twitter – short text messages – be funny or wise.
- Youtube – videos – dance, sing, prank people, make music, or just share your story and people will listen.
- LinkedIn – writing – give good advice on being better at business, how to network or be more productive.
- Snapchat – short videos and pictures – share what’s going on behind the scenes, take people to rare places and show them what makes you special.
- Pinterest – pictures – fashion, food, decorations, you don’t even have to create anything here, as long as you’re good at curating things.
- Vine – 6 second videos – be funny, trust me, the top 20 Viners are all comedians, so be funny.
- Medium – writing – write about life, design, habits, politics, or whatever crosses your mind.
- Quora – writing – answer whichever questions you can.
Which one do you like the most?
Pick it, and then stick with it.
That’s all I ask of you.
Commit to the platform.
You can make a million dollars from any one of these 10 platforms. And that’s just 10, there’s around 190 more social media platforms out there.
(Image source: The Conversation Prism)
Those 10 are proven.
Once you have one, all you need is to…
Step #2 – Post something every day
Really?
Really.
That’s it.
But how long?
However long it takes until you make money.
It could be every day for a year, or for 3 years, or for 10.
And then you do more.
Casey Neistat made a daily Vlog for a year, which took him from 200,000 subscribers to 2.2 million.
Foundr Magazine started an Instagram account at the end of 2014, and took it to 650,000 followers in a little over a year.
Me, I’ve posted on Four Minute Books for the past 79 days, and almost 30,000 people have been to the site so far (it took me 1.5 years to get to 50,000 people with this blog, so 30,000 in 2 months is pretty good).
I don’t know how long it will take.
But if you do create something every day, eventually people will start to listen.
People give a damn about people who give a damn. It’s always been that way, you just have to give a damn long enough for people to catch on.
Why does this work?
Because in the online world, the old rules don’t apply.
It used to be that only people who were an authority got to teach. If you didn’t have a diploma, a Ph.D. or had previously led a big company, nobody would listen to your talk.
But now the rules have flipped.
Whoever teaches becomes an authority.
That’s why you should teach everything you know.
I do.
I just taught you this.
The habits of the rich are really just the habits of creation
Sure, the more habits of successful people you pick up, the more you’ll be able to create, the faster you’ll grow and make money.
But that doesn’t make them a necessity.
Anyone can post a single picture on Instagram every day.
You can.
I can.
My mum can.
And if you fail, you just start again.
The question is, will you?
Or are you going to keep trying to save your way to wealth?
Which one is it going to be?
It only takes 2 steps.
Drop a comment below with the platform you’ll build your empire on and then get to work!