Imitating the rich won’t make you richer

THE internet is filled with countless articles like “20 things ridiculously rich people do every day” or “Nine habits of wealthy people’, and “14 things successful people do every morning”. 

The idea is that if you simply emulate their behaviour, you too, will become insanely rich. 

Don’t fall for it! It is a click bait article that will not make you a cent richer. 

Here’s why: 

First, always be wary of simple success formulas. If it really were so simple, everyone would do it and everyone would be making millions. 
Becoming richer requires a lot of hard, difficult work that cannot be compressed in a simplistic 9-step routine to follow each day. All the shortcuts are scams. All? Yes, all.

Second, if you were to do all the recommended activities in these lists, it would fill up your entire day without actually achieving anything to help you get ahead! 

Some lists tell you to wake up early (as in 4am or 5am), drink water, exercise, connect with your spouse, spend quality time with your family, work on a personal passion project, work on a top-priority business project, make your bed (!), network over coffee, meditate.

The list includes writing down what you are grateful for, inspire others, never procrastinate, never make excuses, check your email, unplug, create a cosy sleep environment, take a warm bath, make time to study, take an hour for lunch, review your performance every night and read the news. That sounds like a full day to me!

Third, it begs the question about causation. Are they rich because of these habits, or are they able to cultivate these habits because of their wealth?

Time for exercise, baths, study and quality time sounds like luxuries that people that are already rich can afford, but not for people who are trying to get richer. 

The cause and effect might be the other way around! Yes, wealthy people eat less junk food, exercise more, gamble less, do more volunteer work, watch less TV, have successful friends, focus on the positive, and network more. 

But is it more likely that these habits made them rich, or that they are able to do these things because of their wealth? I say the latter.

Fourth. Some advice in these lists is just plain nonsense. Some authors say that poor people buy things, while rich people buy “experiences”. 

That might sound nice and make you feel rich and cultured whenever you book a trip, but every Rolex owning, Ferrari driving, first-class flying, caviar eating, Cohiba smoking, Dom Perignon drinking, Armani-wearing millionaire that tries to deceive himself by saying “poor people buy stuff” has clearly smoked something, am I right? 

Fifth, for every millionaire that exercises daily, you can find another millionaire that never exercises and eats junk food every day. 

Another “trait” successful people apparently have is that they always keep their cool, which excludes a lot of “angry” millionaires. 

It seems these are traits that both millionaires and middle and lower class incomes have in common, and are in no way exclusive to a certain class of people, which makes them useless as traits to mimic in order to become richer

Is there nothing you can learn from the rich? Of course, there is, most of which you have heard many times before: look for opportunity, take moderate risks, invest in yourself and work hard. Open doors really.

Mark Reijman is co-founder and managing director of https://www.comparehero.my/ dedicated to increasing financial literacy and to help you save time and money by comparing all credit cards, personal loans and broadband plans in Malaysia.