Posted on Apr 12, 2015 in Articles, Financial Freedom by Gerald Tay
I have followed pretty much 90% of the wealth experts that have been popular on the seminar circles and books for the past 10-15 years. The common denominator is that they all want you to drink their Kool-Aid. They are extremely stubborn and rarely open to change. Seeing a popular wealth guru admit a mistake is extremely rare.
Back in the day I was going from guru to guru, looking for the answer to success in this wealth game. I was able to learn a lot from my research, but there is one thing that not a single guru talks about – the hard-work needed. This is why for the first 5 or so years of my business career I was one of those guys who believe that miracles can happen, even if you are a regular novice. For example, I believed you can be rich quickly despite the fact that there is obvious evidence that such thinking would require taking on plenty of high risks and speculation for fast overnight success. And we know short-term profits are never sustainable financial goals in the long run.
It’s funny how all of those gurus are talking about “financial freedom”, but you rarely see this happening with their followers and even themselves. Dare anyone of those gurus to drop their core business or whatever business selling garbage to the ignorant and ask if they can still sustain their lifestyle on the meagre investments they boasted so much about. Why? Because investments form only a little part of their overall net-worth.
The before and after person’s testimonials are either fake, non-existent or reveal obvious speculation. In other words, it’s the classic sandwich of truths and lies. They give you some truth so that you get hooked and join their tribe of blind followers. Then they stab you and leave you like a fish on dry land. “You should have known better.” {they say}
On that occasion I have a created a short list which reveals the basic characteristics of someone who has joined the sect of a popular wealth guru.
1. You are blindly repeating the words of your favourite “coach”.
One of the most annoying things in the world is arguing with disciples of a certain wealth guru. The sicker they are, the more they behave like a brick wall. Those poor souls would usually just repeat and repeat and repeat what their brain owner has installed in their little heads. A good example are, of course, the novices who just want to “get rich” without really knowing why. Those people have serious mental issues because at the end of the day, they are just lazy and ignorant in the type pf investments they are most suitable in. They copy what others do blindly.
Every grandmother wants to invest in property because they see their friends, relatives, guru and media talk about how it can be easy road to riches since prices will always “go up” in the long term. The garbage in your bin “smells” a lot nicer than this rubbish statement.
You can be lucky investing in one or two successful retail investments, but you are never going to become rich by being a “comfortable” retail investor whose precarious position is at bottom of the food chain.
So think hard with your head and not your bottom, the investment offered to you on a silver platter with 8% guaranteed return per annum. If it’s too good to be true, it is.
If there are such easy ways for the regular investor to grow money while sitting in front of the TV drinking beer and eating chips, there’ll be no property developers and no successful people who dares takes on hard work with many high risks and uncertainty to be where they are today. Our society will collapse with an entitlement mentality.
2. You refuse to change your wealth approach because your leader says everything else is inferior.
As I have said already, the most annoying thing about wealth gurus is that they love to work with absolutes. They have the “you either do it my way or you are a complete low life piece of crap” mentality. Very, very few wealth seminars gurus will openly tell their audiences that building wealth is all about “Getting Rich the HARD way”. Most of them advice “Anytime – buy & sell”, rather than the real wealth building approach of “Wait – buy & hold”.
Why? Because they know seminar audiences loves instant gratification and free things that drop from the sky. Their targeted audience are those who eagerly wants it yesterday with no hard work needed. The idea that you need to make some sacrifices and wait to see your wealth materialise (if it does happen) will never sell.
The goals of many people suffer because they fail to see the point when they are simply limiting themselves by trying to satisfy the sick aspirations of some brain limited greedy businessman.
3. You forgive the mistakes too fast.
This one is a classic and resembles some sort of a love sickness. There are people who just can’t get away from their former loved ones and keep on going back to the same person while expecting different results. The whole thing sounds like a boring Hollywood movie.
I am not against forgiveness, but it’s only deserved when the person has truly changed. Forgiveness should be earned not derived from ill understood love and speculations.
4. You fail to see the marketing strategies.
“The World’s Number One Business Coach”. Great title. So how come we have never heard of you or such titles even existed? I’ve certainly heard of “The World’s Number One Richest Man” or “The World’s Number One Golf Player.”
Did Harvard Business School or other similar world-class institutions hire this “coach” to teach their business classes? Or at least recognised him with an honorary doctorate degree? I doubt so.
Unfortunately, the target audience of novices will fall for such marketing gimmicks.
Everybody has to make money somehow. Nobody’s money is truly “pure”. However, that does not mean that you should always fall for every wild claim such as “follow my program and become financially rich” or “use my investment recommendation and make 15% ROI per annum”. Unfortunately or not, it takes a lot of experience to actually learn what’s real or not.
5. You believe that there is only one way to reach your goals.
There are different ways to reach the same destination. You can take different approaches, but in the end of the day who cares, if you still get where you want to go. Still, it takes experience to break the rules properly, but it’s worth it.
Note: This site is not perfect.
I dare to say that my website has helped many in a difficult spot when it comes to property and wealth. It’s not perfect by any means, but I know very well that back in my day, I would have loved to have access to similar information. This does not mean that you should subscribe to my site blindly. You should always think about the presented information through your own perspective. Not everything that I present will be your way of doing things. To be honest, that has never been my intention. Don’t treat me as a wealth/property guru because I am not one.
Source: http://www.crei-academy.com/5-signs-you-have-become-a-slave-to-the-wealth-gurus/
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