I came across a book and it literally blew my mind. It made me want to invest in a business right away. The book narrated an ancient story of two best friends. Pablo and Bruno. Both had great visions, strong bodies and were determined to earn well and make a great deal out of themselves. They lived in a village with a scarcity of water, and therefore, people had to fetch water from the other village. Pablo and Bruno were offered a job to fetch buckets of water to deal with the water scarcity in their village. They were both happy and ambitious and took the job immediately. They were offered a dollar a day, and they had to carry buckets till the evening.
The job started. They carried buckets of water all day and got paid at the end. Bruno was happy with his wages, but Pablo was not. It was indeed a hectic job, and his body was drained and aching with the hard work. His hands were calloused, and he didn’t want to go to his job the next day. He proposed an idea to his best friend.
Why don’t we dig a pipeline instead of carrying buckets all day? Pablo asked
Are you mad? We are being paid so well. Only a fool would give up on a job like this and start digging instead, which is nothing but a waste of time and energy. Bruno said bluntly.
However, Pablo did not give up. He started digging the pipeline after his working hours of carrying buckets. Everyone in the village, including Bruno, would call him crazy, but he continued the hard work.
On the other hand, Bruno spent the rest of the time spending the money that he earned all day. He started showing off his wealth by drinking a lot and paying for others’ drinks. He was becoming the town favorite, and he enjoyed this feeling.
After a year, Pablo completed his pipeline, and now he did not have to carry the buckets and instead began his own business. The hard work had paid off. He could earn money without him being present on the site and without putting in any effort.
Bruno lost his job to Pablo’s business, and he could no longer carry the buckets because his health would not permit him to. His back arched, his hands became calloused and frantic, and he lost all his interest in life. Due to working like a donkey, he became frustrated, and people no longer liked him. Also, he had no savings.
Now Pablo came up to him and offered him to join his business. Bruno now realized what Pablo meant by building a pipeline.
The concept of success in the world
In this world, a successful person is considered to be the one who does well at school, who has a good job, or who is able to show off his money by his extravagant behavior. Whereas, in reality, a successful person is the one who is content with his life. A successful person does not have to worry about their future. There is no specific goal for them, but they’re always ready to learn more and earn more. It’s all about having the hunger of moving forward.
It is not necessary that a successful person be the topper of the class. However, they must be well equipped with financial education.
Financial education
It teaches you the ways to spend, invest and save money. Unfortunately, we are not taught about this in our schools; and instead, we are taught about how to get a good job. Society is turning us all into bucket carriers and does not encourage us to build our own pipeline.
The key is to realize your worth and start investing in a pipeline rather than draining yourself into a job that you don’t even like. Here are a few steps that you must take if you want to be a wealthy person.
1. Be financially educated
It is necessary that you learn to spend, save and invest your money in the right place and at the right time. Schools do not teach us to do all this, they don’t help us with financial education and rather emphasize academic education only. If schools don’t understand the importance of how to spend, invest and save their money then how can our students get financial education? The answer is, by doing the following things,
Spend time with businessmen
Work in sales
Take risks, learn through your experience
Be humble and always be eager to learn
2. Figure out what you want
Ask yourself if you are happy with your 9-5 job if you are okay with your boss scolding you if you are okay with no appreciation if you are okay with too much work and little payout.
Do you know what is even better? Investing in something that is worthy. Take out an hour or two from your busy schedule and invest in your new venture. Make sure you take this time in the early morning when you are fresh rather than in the evening when you are exhausted.
3. Don’t Get Distracted
Set your focus on the goal and save your money and energy for the important things only. Don’t be like Bruno, who wasted himself just to show off his wealth and ended up being frustrated and hated by everyone.
4. Always Invest in Assets
Gain a deep understanding of the concept of liability versus assets and only thrive to build more assets rather than accumulating liabilities.
Let’s take the instance of a car. If you spend your earning on a car and keep it for your own convenience, you will have to pay for the fuel and maintenance from your own pocket and gain in return only the utility of owning the car. A utility which unfortunately comes at a cost.
However if you were to take the same car you pay monthly installments for and offer uber rides even if two days a week, it all of a sudden because a machine is generating extra cash for you rather than a cash-eating monster.
The greater part of making this fully an asset is when you will be able to get that car to run as an uber without you in it since your time as a driver of it can also be quantified and consequently might balance out the extra cash the car was generating in the first place.
before you know it, you have a bunch of cars in the circuit working for you. Such is the concept of turning a liability into a money-making asset.
5. Never Stop Learning
It is necessary that you consider yourself in a learning phase all the time. Observe closely and learn from each of your failures and successes. It is okay to take risks; it is okay to be at a loss because it always comes with an experience.
To wrap it up!
Establishing a business overnight is impossible. You have to have patience and a strong belief in yourself. Don’t get your morale down by listening to people who try to bring you down. Just listen to your heart and always give your best, then wait for the results and don’t rush; good things take time.