I recently spent some time watching YouTube channels about how to get rich.
There is a vast amount of information on becoming the next big success, and more often than not, some gurus are selling their courses, videos, books, and so forth.
Yet, I tried to avoid biased judgments before attentively watching some of those videos.
I found two main categories:
- the ones asking rich guys “how did you make it?”
- the ones claiming “I made it and so I tell you how I made it”
Quickly said, I gave up on the second category, finding it pretty undiversified, and I watched the first category of videos.
It turned out pretty interesting.
Most successful people shared common techniques (find a common problem, solve it better than others, work hard).
Ok, that’s for the books and I believe them to be true, also knowing that it is not so easy to find a niche to exploit and be ready to fail.
What struck me more is about the mindset of those characters (as far as I am concerned, I have no way to ascertain whether some of those guys are actors or genuine millionaires, apart from Warren Buffet or similar heavyweights of the business world…too known to be fictional).
In the attitude checklist I found:
- a strong bias for action, rather than being super educated
- a minimum interest for making money, which is key to grant business sustainability, but never an end in its own
- confidence and self-assurance
The last of those three traits is the foundational one: none of the reported interviewed examples of business success put education (foundation) or money (ultimate goal) as a guide in their journey. They all state “I was sure I would have made it”.
It sounds like positive psychology: you can make it if you have a strong will.
Actually, I think that such mindset is the ticket to ride. If you do not believe in yourself about something, better you fix this first, and then set to an actionable path towards your goal.
Last reflection…it would be very interesting to catch any YouTube channel devoted to failures: interview people who went broke, or who failed several times. This can be as entertaining as educational as showing off some lucky ones (after Sandel’s work).