Many people say that they want to be rich, but are they doing the things that rich people do?
The following quiz is based upon research done by Thomas Corley, the author of “Rich Habits: The Daily Success Habits Of Wealthy Individuals.”
What you do today matters. In fact, your daily habits may be a major determinant of your wealth.
Grab an old-fashioned pen and piece of paper and take the following quiz.
Answer “YES” or “NO” to the following nine questions:
I focus on my goals every day
I maintain a daily to-do list
I watch TV one hour or less per day.
I love reading.
I listen to audio books during the commute to work.
I do more than my job requires.
I play the lottery regularly.
I count calories every day.
I floss every day.
Here are the answers according to Entrepreneur Magazine:
1. Rich people always keep their goals in sight.
“I focus on my goals every day.”
Rich people who agree: 62%
Poor people who agree: 6%
Not only do wealthy people set annual and monthly goals, but 67% of them put those goals in writing. “It blew me away,” says Corley. “I thought a goal was a broad objective, but the wealthy said a wish is not a goal.” A goal is only a goal, he says, if it has two things: It's achievable, and there's a physical action you can take to pursue it.
2. And they know what needs to be done today.
“I maintain a daily to-do list.”
Rich people who agree: 81%
Poor people who agree: 19%
Not only do the wealthy keep to-do lists, but 67% of them complete 70% or more of those listed tasks each day.
3. They don't watch TV.
“I watch TV one hour or less per day.”
Rich people who agree: 67%
Poor people who agree: 23%
Similarly, only 6% of the wealthy watch reality shows, compared to 78% of the poor. “The common variable among the wealthy is how they make productive use of their time,” explains Corley. “They wealthy are not avoiding watching TV because they have some superior human discipline or willpower. They just don't think about watching much TV because they are engaged in some other habitual daily behavior — reading.”
4. They read … but not for fun.
“I love reading.”
Rich people who agree: 86%
Poor people who agree: 26%
Sure, rich people love reading, but they favor nonfiction — in particular, self-improvement books. “The rich are voracious readers on how to improve themselves,” says Corley. In fact, 88% of them read for self-improvement for 30 minutes each day, compared to 2% of poor people.
5. Plus, they're big into audio books.
“I listen to audio books during the commute to work.”
Rich people who agree: 63%
Poor people who agree: 5%
Even if you aren't into audiobooks, you can make the most of your commute with any of these commute-friendly self-improvement activities.
6. They make a point of going above and beyond.
“I do more than my job requires.”
Rich people who agree: 81%
Poor people who agree: 17%
It's worth noting that while 86% of rich people (compared to 43% of poor) work an average of 50 or more hours a week, only 6% of the wealthy people surveyed found themselves unhappy because of work.
7. They aren't hoping to win the jackpot.
“I play the lottery regularly.”
Rich people who agree: 6%
Poor people who agree: 77%
That's not to say that the wealthy are always playing it safe with their money. “Most of these people were business owners who put their own money on the table and took financial risks,” explains Corley. “People like this aren't afraid to take risks.”
8. They watch their waistline.
“I count calories every day.”
Rich people who agree: 57%
Poor people who agree: 5%
Wealthy people value their health, says Corley. “One of the individuals in my study was about 68 and worth about $78 million. I asked why he didn't retire, and he looked at me like I was from Mars. He said, ‘I've spent the last 45 years exercising every single day and watching what I eat because I knew the end of my career would be my biggest earning years.' If he can extend his career four to five years beyond everyone else, that's about $7 million for him.”
9. And they take care of their smiles.
“I floss every day.”
This is a copy of a recent Facebook post by the great John Reese.
He went from $100,000 in debt to being the first person to make $1 million dollars in a day…
from his parent's living room…
on the internet…
while his town was being evacuated for a hurricane!
He's someone to pay attention to.
He recently posted the following on Facebook. It's worth the read.
“More and more I realize how “Multiple Streams of Income” is bullshit. I'm not talking about passive investments, I'm referring to having multiple businesses generating income.
I've done very well as an entrepreneur so far in my life but I'm the first to admit that my “hyper-creative” self has cost me millions of additional dollars. I was constantly forming new LLCs and starting new ventures over the past many years. STUPID.
I just pulled the plug on a newer venture that I had invested about $250,000 into that never even got to the point of generating $1 in revenue (if you're curious what it was it was an online cooking school of sorts called CookingLessons.com). I did the same thing with another one (and had spent a bit more than that) back in 2009. You'd think I would have learned my lesson but the “serial entrepreneur” sickness got me again.
What do most of the top entrepreneurs in the world have in common? The ability to focus on making ONE venture GREAT instead of doing 10 things FAIR.
Every moment you spend on a 2nd or 3rd idea is when the 1st not only makes less money, but has its exponential growth thwarted. If you performed regression analysis and compared all the variables of a digital marketing business such as traffic generation, list building, avg. value per customer, etc. you'd find that taking ANY time, energy, or resources away from one and putting it towards others greatly affects the original business by a factor greater than 1 times the value of those things; because of the momentum and compounding value of higher numbers (larger list, more data, great sales, higher cash flow, etc.)
So while the concept of having multiple streams of income, in the sense of multiple businesses, seems like a “smarter” model because it provides diversification, it's NOT. Because it ultimately produces a lot less money due to the factors I just mentioned.
But even more important than the money side, I believe HAPPINESS is degraded as well. Overwhelm, stress, anxiety, and loss of more personal TIME is greatly affected by each additional business added to your Life Equation.
Think of all the people you know doing $5 million per year or more. Almost every one of them are doing so well because they are putting all of their focus into ONE business. You should focus on multiple product streams (within the same business, serving the same customer base) rather than different markets and different businesses.
I can only imagine how much money I've lost, and a bit of happiness, by chasing so many ideas.”
I mostly drink iced coffee so I switched to cold-brew … this is the “recipe” I started with and am in the “evolutionary” stage with the process. I've discovered that the ratio of ground coffee to water in my “extractor” is too high when I follow this so I've revised to 4 oz (weight) of coffee – finely ground in my 12 cup press and fill to the “band” … otherwise I'm getting too strong an extraction.
I like to make cold-brew with a medium roast, as I find it tastes more like coffee and less like the roasting process than dark or French roast. Light roasts tend to be too acidic. As with any kind of coffee brewing, it’s best to grind the beans yourself just before using them. The ratio of water to coffee is 1:1 by volume and roughly 4:1 by weight, so feel free to scale the recipe to suit your needs. If you don’t have a French press you can make the coffee in a pitcher and strain it through a fine-mesh strainer, and finally through a coffee filter, as in step 2.
3½ cups finely ground medium roast coffee (see note)
Kosher salt (optional)
1. Stir together coffee and 3½ cups room-temperature water in large French press. Allow raft of ground coffee to form, about 10 minutes, and stir again to incorporate. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 24 hours (an hour shorter or longer is fine).
2. Using French press plunger, press firmly on grinds to separate them from concentrate. Pour coffee concentrate into coffee filter-lined fine-mesh strainer set over large measuring cup. Let sit until concentrate filters through, up to 30 minutes. (You should have about 2 cups of coffee concentrate; concentrate can be covered and refrigerated for up to 3 days).
3. Combine ½ cup coffee concentrate, ½ cup cold water, and pinch Kosher salt (if using) and pour into glass with ice. Drink.
Following their recipe I used about 4 to 1 of water to extract and use the pink salt grinder for a touch at the top.
My next phase is to have the coffee ground by our local Starbucks when I purchase it and use my new ratio of 4 oz coffee to a filled press pot. I'll keep you posted on results and in the mean time you can go and do your own testing and see how you like it.
Nine Habits That Rich People Have
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