There’s a big misconception about wealth, one that even I fell prey to.
It’s easy to see why, though. You take one look at how the finance industry is depicted, with men in fancy suits who use big words and point at complicated numbers and graphs … it’s enough for anyone to think that to be wealthy, you have to be smart.
When you let go of your egoistic attachment to feeling smart, you’ll see that you can halve your work and double your results.Credit: Simon Letch
Somehow, we’ve associated financial competence with intelligence. It must take intelligence to manage your money well and invest wisely. Right?
Some time ago, though, I started to realise there’s a big problem with this narrative.
I frequently had very intelligent and well-educated people with stellar careers coming my way to ask for help managing their finances.
Now, obviously competence in one area doesn’t magically bestow competence in another. You can be great at your job and terrible with your finances. They’re different skills. So that wasn’t surprising.
Trying so hard to be smart leads to not-so-smart choices.
What I did notice, though, was that even when presented with a clear action plan, these intelligent, academically oriented, educated people sometimes had a harder time acting.
In comparison, I often found that people who came in as a blank slate – complete beginners with no idea what they were doing – were more ready to learn by doing. This group of people often learned faster, executed faster and got results faster.
Why you don’t have to be smart to be wealthy
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02.04.2024
There’s a big misconception about wealth, one that even I fell prey to.
It’s easy to see why, though. You take one look at how the finance industry is depicted, with men in fancy suits who use big words and point at complicated numbers and graphs … it’s enough for anyone to think that to be wealthy, you have to be smart.
When you let go of your egoistic attachment to feeling........
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