The Ladders of Wealth Creation
Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes and 42 seconds
Today for Thinker Thursday I will be sharing a blog post that changed the way I thought about my career forever.
Nathan Barry is the founder of ConvertKit, and has built a net worth of over $100,000,000 over the past 15 years.
Once you understand the ladders of wealth creation it’s like your eyes are opened and you suddenly realize why businesses are failing left and right.
Blog Post
The Ladders of Wealth Creation
I highly recommend you read the entire post from Nathan Barry. But I will summarize everything here and give key takeaways.
If you can understand this picture, it will open so many doors for you.
To summarize it, let’s use an example.
I’m sure you’ve seen this gif before. This is Ryan from The Office.
At the beginning of season 1 Ryan is hired through a temp agency. He is at the lowest rung of the shortest ladder. He trades his time for money by working a job that is paid by the hour.
He goes to business school, gets his MBA, and finally is promoted to be the Vice President of Sales. Huge pay increase, different lifestyle, and living in New York. Ryan made it to the top of the first ladder.
After committing fraud and getting arrested he ends up working back at the same company through a temp agency again.
So far Ryan has just been moving back and forth on the first ladder, but then he makes a mistake that I see is all too common in young entrepreneurs.
His big idea is Wuphf.com, a brand new social networking app that allows you to call, text, email, dm, fax, or whatever other communication methods there were in 2010. They raise money to fund the business, create fancy marketing campaigns, create the product, but it never gets off the ground.
Why?
Because Ryan didn’t have experience from the previous 2 ladders. He tried to jump from the first ladder all the way to the top of the last one.
Obviously this is a fictional story, but the lesson is still the same.
8 Principles of Wealth Creation
Extra time and money need to be reinvested
You can skip ahead, but you still have to learn the lessons from each step
Apply your existing skills in a new way to build wealth
There’s a difference between working for a better wage and truly building wealth
Using an earlier rung on the ladder to fund the next one
Moving between ladders often means a decrease in income
Each step is easier with an audience
It takes longer than you think, but the results can be incredible
In the Bible you read of similar advice.
But the word of the Lord was given unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little.
Tweets
Books
Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story
Ben Carson’s story gives a real life example of using the wealth ladders to not only create wealth, but to actually make a difference in the world. I highly recommend this book.
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