What Creating Wealth Costs

 

Nothing is free. Everything costs something at the end of the day and creating wealth costs a lot. Many times we want the money, wealth, prestige, influence, success, material lifestyle of somebody else without truly appreciating the price they had to pay for it. We make the mistake of thinking we can keep doing the same thing but somehow achieve great results. Most people are not willing to pay the true price of creating wealth. I once attended a talk given on the “billionaire mindset”. The Guest Speaker, who is a billionaire, said that to make a billion you have to assume the responsibility of managing a billion, thinking in billions (Click to Tweet this thought), dealing with billion shilling problems, borrowing in billions, negotiating in billions, losing billions and having sleepless nights over billions. In essence, billion shilling level problems. If today, you cannot manage your hundred thousand shilling or million Shilling problem, you will not be able to handle a billion. That level of responsibility is what it costs to create wealth. So what’s the price wealth creators have paid?

Time

The billionaire I mentioned above and you have the same twenty-four-hour day. Picture yourself managing a multi-million or billion shilling empire? What do you think you would spend time on? Do you think the wealthy are busy on social media or forwarding irrelevant messages to each other? Maybe they read one or two but I really don’t think they have time to open and comment on all of them. Wealth will cost you time. What do you need to invest time in?  Mary* decided that she wanted to live her desired lifestyle and figured out that her current job would not be enough. She bought a tuck shop. Mary would wake up at 3 am in the morning everyday so she could have the snacks ready and drop them at the shop before reporting to work. Fast forward several years and several different investments later. She is wealthy. You would see Mary now and want her life. Are you ready to start waking up daily at 3 am? Time is the one resource we are given equal but the difference lies in how we spend it. The wealthy simply spend time productively. It costs them social activities at times or like Mary they wake up really early.

Relationships

I once wrote an article about the poverty support group. Creating wealth will cost you that group.  You will need to let go of it. Tom* was a banker but left two years ago to start his own company. His social circle when he was at the bank were made of his peers as well as some friends. Their point of connection was the bar. They would meet once or twice weekly, drink and talk. Conversations were mainly about what other people were doing. What somebody has bought, stolen, did or did not do.  Mainly gossip and trying to subtly show off for each other. Other than that, they would talk about how bad things were e.g. the economy, government, employer. I met Tom in our entrepreneurship program and he told me the one thing he had to change was the company. First of all, without a salary he could not keep up that entertainment lifestyle. He also realised his responsibilities now do not afford him the luxury of these conversations. He has employees to lead and pay, a business to grow, supplies to deal with, money to collect and a family to raise. Both his mind and time has to be concentrated on that. Talking about politics and the government simply does not put food on his table. He left his poverty support group and sees them once in a very long while. Are there relationships that may be toxic to your vision? That will be your cost and remember you can’t please everybody.

Comfort zone

The places or situations where you feel safe and at ease. You cannot create wealth in a comfort zone. The term ‘regular income’ is used a lot. Regular income is what you are creating with relative ease. The challenge is if you want additional income or above ordinary income you have to do above ordinary things. Like Mary who woke up at 3 am to get a way to earn additional income. This requires you to get out of your comfort zone. Our jobs or businesses can become comfort zones if we don’t continuously push ourselves. The way we invest can be a comfort zone. There are people who are very comfortable with buying land but will not do any other investment or turn the land into an income generating asset. That would require something different. The comfort of a salary for many keeps them in this zone. We stay in our comfort zones because when we step out it is scary. The price to pay for wealth is not only the comfort zone but the relationship with fear.  Presence of fear does not mean you should not take action (Click to Tweet this thought).

Last but not least is obviously money.

Creating wealth will obviously cost money but this is not about having a lot of money at once. How you spend and interact with money will change and the price to be paid is instant gratification. The benefit of consumption is seen today but the benefits of wealth creation will be realised later. You may have money to buy a car today but will have to make the decision to invest that money so that it can grow. You may be buying lunch everyday but will have make the decision to carry food from home and save that money. You may get a different job that pays you more today but your current job offers longer term opportunities where you could earn more. Wealth creation and consumption cannot compete. So, are you ready to pay the price? Allow me to rephrase a common quote- The wealthy do now what most people won’t so that they can live in a way that most will not be able to (Click to Tweet this thought).

Waceke, runs Entrepreneurship and Wealth Creation Courses at Centonomy. For details do get in touch at waceken@centonomy.com

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