5 Secrets Wealthy People Know That Most People Don’t (2024)

So many people believe that money is what is stopping them from living their vision.

The truth is that money is the byproduct of living your vision.

I want to share with you today five secrets that wealthy people know that most people don’t. Let’s get started.

1. Money is an abundant, renewable resource

You can always have access to more money, just as you can have access to more air when you want to breathe.

People have money. They are looking for ways to use it.

To make more money, you only need to offer someone with money a good plan for using it.

A few of my clients told me that they decided to invest in one of my coaching programs instead of buying a fancy bag or watch.

All I had to do was create a more valuable use for that specific client’s money than a fancy bag or a watch.

As long as you can come up with a good use for someone’s money, you will always have access to money.

You may need to create a business plan for an investor.

A product for a client.

Or your full-time service to a business owner or a hiring manager.

Broke people worry about money because they believe it is scarce and difficult to come by.

Wealthy people know they can always make more money because they can always offer people with money a good use for it.

2. Spend on what makes you richer.

If you are uncomfortable spending money, paying your taxes, or your bills, you do not believe that money is abundant.

If you knew that more money would keep coming your way, you would not cringe at the bill.

To get into a more abundant mindset, get comfortable with spending money.

You cannot keep breathing in. You need to breathe in and then breathe out. That is how it works with money, too.

Every investment I made from a place of alignment made me richer: my education, my coaching, and my rent in a beautiful home where I can do my best work. My travel that sparked most of my money-making ideas, my Exchange Trade Fund (ETF) portfolio or my team who brings my vision to reality.

Broke people spend money to keep up with the Joneses or to distract themselves from what they need to focus on.

Wealthy people spend on what makes them happier and richer. And they know that what makes them happier will also make them richer.

3. Only make happy money

I was introduced to the concept of happy money by author Ken Honda.

I committed myself to only making and keeping happy money.

Happy money is money that my clients or investments happily paid because the value they got out of me was worth multiple times more.

It is also money that I made with pleasure rather than pain or grind.

Happy money is a very practical concept that I implemented this week.

I had an assignment with a FTSE 100 company. I did most of the assignment last year, and I got paid for the entirety of it. There were a few hours of coaching left to do, but it proved very hard to book those in.

I woke up on Saturday with a strong pull to refund the company the money corresponding to the work I had not yet done (around $6K) and close the project.

They had not asked for a refund, and as they are a huge company, the refund would not make a difference to them. I could keep the money and let it go.

But this unfinished business was leaking my energy, and my peace of mind was worth more than any amount of money.

I wrote to them explaining that unless we booked the remaining amount of work, I would contact their finance department and arrange for a refund.

They replied immediately, apologising and asking me to please not refund but do the work in April.

Broke people prefer money over peace of mind. They will choose to default on their debt, for example, rather than pay it off even if they have the funds.

Can someone be a crook and make a lot of unhappy money? Yes, but they usually do not last. In a reviews-driven marketplace, there is nowhere to hide. Subconscious guilt will also ensure that they keep living in scarcity.

The best way to build lasting wealth is with happy money.

Ask yourself, is your money happy?

If not, it may be time to clean some of it out. When you let the unhappy money go, you create space for a lot more happy money to come in.

4. The more value you provide in the marketplace, the more money you make

This statement is self-evident, right? Should I even list it as a secret? It is a secret because most people are unaware of it.

Broke people think that to make more, they need to work more.

Wealthy people know that the marketplace does not care about how hard you work. All it cares about is the value you offer. That’s what will get you paid.

There are three ways to create more value in the marketplace. Let’s unpack them:

1. Solve Bigger Problems.People are willing to pay more to solve a bigger problem than a small problem. If you want more money, solve a bigger problem.
   
2. For more people.Scale is essential when it comes to money. That is why software and media are some of the most valuable companies; they can scale with marginal additional costs. How many people are you serving?

   The more people you help, the more money you can make.

3. In a more unique way.This is the most important variable of all. This is why Taylor Swift makes so much money:

   There are very few people in the world that can do what she does. Go to a city to sing and stimulate the local economy.

   The more unique you are in what you can do, the more people will be willing to pay you. That is why being more of you (who is inherently unique) will make you more money.

Let’s consider an example. Let’s say you are a teacher making $50K/year. Most teachers will simply consider working more hours or giving private lessons in the afternoons to increase their income.

A teacher already solves a pretty big problem: education. But what if the teacher decided to solve an even bigger problem, like education for kids with special needs or reducing the language barriers to education for foreign kids?

Then, they could potentially command a higher salary from the private sector.

What if a teacher offered an online course to 1,000 students or other teachers? If 1,000 people bought a $100 course, the teacher would make $100,000 per year—more than what most teachers make. This is how scale adds value.

What if the teacher became more unique in the marketplace?

What if they developed a unique method of teaching using music and gamification? Then, their competition would become irrelevant.

They could attract more buyers while charging a higher price. If they charged $500 for their unique course, and 5,000 people bought it, the teacher would make $2,500,000!

The Duolingo app, which teaches foreign languages, leveraged both scale and uniqueness by gamifying learning. At the moment, it is worth more than $8BN!

These are just examples to illustrate the point.

The teacher who makes $50,000/year could be working the same or more hours than the teacher who makes $2,500,000/year.

Wealthy people know that the hours you work do not matter; what matters is the value you create in the marketplace.

Which of the 3 ways (bigger problem, more people, in a more unique way) can you focus on to create more value in your market?

5. You do not need to work hard for your money; your money needs to work hard for you

Broke people think that the only way to make money is to work for it.

If you want to make a lot of money, though, you need to transition from an employee to an owner and investor.

The earlier you start investing, the better.

Then you won’t need to work for your money, but your money will be working for you.

This is where financial independence happens. It is when you can say no to projects you do not like and take unlimited time off.

Are you an owner and investor? All wealthy people are.

Note on privilege

One key factor that has extended financial inequalities for generations is that nobody teaches the poor the secrets, beliefs, and mindsets of the wealthy.

People from poor backgrounds find it difficult to break through their financial ceiling because they lack basic financial literacy and have limiting, inaccurate beliefs about money.

Combine that with the more limited opportunities for minorities, and you have a recipe for poverty.

It is by sharing and democratising the mindsets and the knowledge of the wealthy that we can support everyone in claiming their financial sovereignty.

I know that sharing these secrets will trigger some people because it challenges their belief system. People will spend a lot of energy arguing in favour of their limitations.

But, the more we share the secrets and mindsets of financial abundance, the closer we get to a world of equal opportunity and prosperity.

Conclusion

The journey to financial abundance is not just about accumulating wealth. It is also about shifting your mindset towards money and how you engage with it.

The five secrets I shared today illuminate the path to a life where money is not a source of stress but a tool and a byproduct of living your vision.

Money is abundant. When approached with the right strategies—offering value, spending wisely, making happy money, and letting your money work for you—you unlock the door to endless possibilities.

Which secret resonated most with you?

Download my free guide with the 10 Powerful Mindset Shifts To Achieve Your Vision.