August 6th, 2007 in Lifestyle
The 5 Myths of Getting Rich
Do you have what it takes to be rich? Of course you do! It’s in everyone who actually wants it. So what’s holding you back?
According to CNNMoney, the 5 myths that stop people becoming rich are:
Amy Domini didn’t invent the mutual fund, but 15 years ago she saw an opportunity to mass-market socially responsible funds that appealed to investors who felt they couldn’t put money into businesses they found morally objectionable. Today, Domini Social Investments manages nearly $2 billion in assets.
I always thought the saying, “You have to have money to make money”, could be #6 but I think that one is quite true.
Do you have what it takes to be rich? – [CNNMoney]
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Comments
carlity says on August 6th, 2007 at 11:34 am
I would say myth 1 and 5 are needed if you plan on doing it the old fashioned way of hard work. You can’t expect the money to just fall onto you.
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Michael says on August 6th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
Really great post, and a fun read. Though a lot of the myths could be argued as true.
Regardless, I’ve also added them to my blog (http://www.theinternetjournalist.com).
Great find.
Matthew Stibbe (Bad Language) says on August 6th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
There are two fallacies in this kind of retrospective ’success is easy’ analysis (CEO autobiographies are usually the worst example).
First, the subject assumes that because something (getting rich) happened after something else (lacking charisma, say) it must be the case one thing led to the other. For example, that charisma-less people are more likely to get rich.
Second, the sample size is wrong. An article like this only analyses people who are already rich. For every person who gets rich, there are (by definition) millions of people who don’t. The top 1% of the US population, approximately, is a millionaire. So for every millionaire you analyse, to be accurate, you need to look for the differences between them and at least 100 other people.
Successful people would like to attribute their success to admirable personal characteristics rather than, say, luck, hard work, charisma, height, looks or exploitation of others, to name but a few attributes that might also have contributed. I think perhaps, we, as readers, cooperate in this because we would like to see success and riches as within our reach.
It wouldn’t make a good article or a good autobiography, but I’d love to see a proper scientific study of why rich people get rich. I may write one and charge people to read it :)
Jay Young says on August 7th, 2007 at 7:20 pm
This is a great post and makes for great conversation at dinner. There are perhaps hundreds of reasons why people get rich and millions of reasons why they don’t. This is a great list of myths, but there are great examples where these myths are true (e.g. Steve Jobs). #5 in particular intrigues me. The desire to get rich is never mentioned in the books on business icons, but on the other hand if you peer behind a) the desire to change the world; b)the desire to help customers; c)an interest in wanting to solve problems; and d) a personal desire to give back you will surely find an interest in financial independence! I would also add a myth #6 that you can be ineffective in your personal and professional affairs (see for example http://www.areyouineffective.com).