Why is it that so many well-educated and talented people are unable to make a decent living for themselves? Today, we share with you 7 reasons why most educated people end up poor.
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Let’s begin…
Table of Contents
1. The Numbers Game
There are two common ways to create consistent wealth: one way is to serve lots and lots of people; the other way is to serve people who serve lots and lots of people. As unfair as it may seem, the reason a footballer earns ridiculously more money than a school teacher is that the entertainer is offering value to millions of people at a time, while the teacher offers value to a few people at a time. Most educated people only focus on the depth of value, whereas highly successful people focus on the depth but most especially the breadth of value. This is why you see an average guy with average ideas become wealthy while the intelligent and academically educated guy barely gets by. In the game of money, it’s not enough to be intelligent. You must either have access to the numbers or you have access to the people with the numbers.
J.K. Rowling became a billionaire from selling over 400 million copies of the Harry Potter series. That’s the number game. Interestingly, teachers are now making a fortune by using the internet to reach a large number of people. Are you playing the number game?
2. Instant Gratification vs. Delayed Gratification
You get poorer or richer one decision at a time. If you own an iPhone but can hardly pay for an internet subscription, you are making yourself poorer. The richest black man in the world bought himself a private jet worth $45 million at the age of 53, but he was worth over $10 billion, and it took him 30 years to get to that status. Now think about this: what is the ratio of the price of his jet to his net worth? Well, it’s equivalent to someone worth $10,000 spending $45 on a toy. Not so extravagant, right? Now you see why it’s not smart to spend $750 on a phone when all you are worth is $2,000.
There are two paths we can take in any given situation: the path of avoiding pain in the moment and the more difficult path of delaying pleasure for a bigger purpose in the future. According to researchers at Temple University and several other research institutions, the ability to delay gratification is one of the most effective personal traits of successful people. Educated people end up poor or coast a little above poverty when they cannot delay pleasure for future benefits.
Read Also: 7 Industries Most Likely to Make You a Millionaire Today
3. Responsibility vs. Irresponsibility
I applaud that you stayed through the rigor of academic work to acquire your qualifications. But I’m sorry to tell you this; your degree in itself is for you alone. It does not benefit anyone. Really, what difference does yet another qualification with acronyms make? None. It is what you bring to the table that matters. The problem is that most educated people develop a false sense of value and expect everyone else to see it that way. The market is driven by value, not by the level of academic sacrifice.
As sad as it may seem, after your four or five years in the university and more qualifications to follow, you are still responsible for your life’s outcome. And this will be influenced by how much value you bring to the market and to whom you bring the value. The ball is in your court, my dear educated one. People who break out of the life they desire believe that they are responsible for their success or failure regardless of circumstances, and they choose to succeed, one decision at a time.
4. Poor financial education
There are three money skills you need to create wealth: the skill to make money, the skill to keep money, and the skill to grow money. Most of the people you consider rich from their spending habits are only good at making money. Real wealth is created when you grow money. Unfortunately, these skills are not taught in school. This is why most educated people know very little about the first and second and almost nothing about the third.
When you read that Jeff Bezos is the richest man in the world, do you imagine him having access to over $100 billion in cash? You may be surprised to know that rich people can run out of money sometimes. But they have spent years growing assets so that even if they lose all the cash they have, they are still rich because of the increasing value of their shares in companies, real estate, property rights, and so on.
Educated people tend to equate their financial value with the money they make from their job. The problem with this is that money, by itself, is designed to depreciate. Your academic qualification is also designed to depreciate. That is why you need to keep going back to get another degree to get a raise. While wealthy people see money as a tool to build appreciating assets, everyone else sees money as a tool to buy things for pleasure and status.
Read Also: 5 ways international students can finance their education in the UK
5. Rich people collaborate. Schooled people compete.
Who is better between Messi and Ronaldo? This is one of the most common arguments in sports entertainment history. There are several versions of such arguments among celebrity fans on who is better. Interestingly, while the fans are arguing, these people are collaborating to give them the next thing to debate about. Rich people are always looking for ways to collaborate.
Our school system is generally designed to encourage competition. It’s not surprising that most educated people are consumed by the desire to compete rather than seek to collaborate. Nobody cares if you succeed alone, which is unlikely. When you collaborate with other people, you leverage their knowledge, skills, resources, and network to achieve greater results. Like the saying from the Holy Bible, “One will chase a thousand; but two will chase ten thousand.”.
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6. Low Consumption to Production Ratio
Each time you spend watching your favorite show on TV, YouTube, or any other media outlet, you are consuming other people’s products. There is nothing wrong with consuming people’s products. But how does this increase your value? And what are you creating for other people to consume? Most educated people can afford to be distracted because they don’t think in terms of value creation versus consumption. Does the time you spend on social media add to your personal, career, or business growth? Wealth is created by offering value in exchange for monetary value. To increase your ability to earn, improve the value you offer.
Read Also: 8 Practical Things You Must Do To Escape Poverty
7. They mistake schooling for education.
Schooling is a destination for certification. Education is not a destination; it is the process of seeking and acquiring the knowledge and skills to navigate your environment. Education isn’t what you get in the classroom. It is what you learn in your daily life. The last time most people read a book was to write an exam and not for the sake of education.
Whatever field of endeavor you are in, you need to understand the necessary skills to get the job done. Failure is often the result of reaching for something without having the necessary education to make it happen. If you are educated but cannot get your financial life together, that means you lack the education to make that part of your life work. The problem is that most educated people are too arrogant to learn what they don’t understand.
While most educated people rely rather too much on their academic qualifications to get through life, people who become successful continuously invest in themselves to know what they don’t know.
Finally, remember this saying from Jim Rohn: Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune. You choose. What’s one lesson you are taking away? Let us know in the comment section. If you are yet to subscribe to the After School Africa channel, this is likely a good time to subscribe.
Until next time, YOUR SUCCESS MATTERS!
