17 Clear Signs Someone’s Not Ready To Become Rich

16. Not Saving Money

It’s impossible to become rich if you spend all the money you make. A lot of people say that it’s impossible for them to save money, because they don’t make enough to put anything away. This is a very real problem that some people have. However, you have the choice to change your career if your current job doesn’t give you enough to save. Trust me- This advice isn’t given lightly. I’ve done this myself. For eight years, I worked for a company that wasn’t paying me enough to cover basic living expenses, let alone save for the future.

I stayed with that company for so many years out of loyalty. But I wanted more out of life. I realized that if my boss doesn’t respect me enough to give me full-time benefits, then I shouldn’t be giving my loyalty to him. So, in 2016, I left the company and pursued my own online businesses. I was finally able to set up multiple income streams, get my debt under control, and save as much money as I could. Then, the 2020 crisis happened. My savings are enough to cover my expenses even if I stopped working completely.

15. Having Doubt in Your Abilities

It might sound arrogant to your friends and family if you were to say out loud that you believe you’re going to be rich someday. If you’re a humble person, you might genuinely doubt your ability to make a lot of money. But if you have any doubts at all in your chances of becoming rich, odds are that you’ll never get there. Think about all of the people throughout the course of history who achieved amazing things. Do you think they got there by telling themselves, “I can’t do this”? No. They got there because they believed in themselves.

Of course, you can’t simply believe millions into existence. It doesn’t work that way. You need to visualize your goals and figure out the steps in the process to achieve it. You need to believe that success is possible. If you have any doubt in yourself at all, this can completely interfere with your success. One good trick is to pretend like your success is guaranteed, or that it’s already happened.

14. Looking for Get-Rich-Quick Schemes

Some people look for a get-rich-quick scheme. This is happening a lot lately with more people losing their jobs and working from home. All over social media, you’ll see advertisements for online courses of people promising you’ll make millions of dollars. There are also a lot more scams that have stolen thousands of dollars from people’s accounts. Under normal circumstances, someone might not have fallen for a trick like this. Desperation is what leads people to try these risky ideas. But remember that if something seems too good to be true, it usually is.

The real people who find these rare “golden ticket” opportunities for success are hiding that information. Or, they only explain the process to their closest friends and family. If they advertise their methods to the world, it would create more competition for them. The only way to get rich is by working hard and putting in the work. It has to be a legitimate job or business, and you need to have a solid plan on how you’re going to get to your goals. Every successful person you assume has gotten rich quickly probably has a long story you never get to hear.

13. Believing in Overnight Success

People love the idea of overnight success. It’s a nice way for people to daydream that their problems could be magically solved without a lot of hard work. However, aside from winning the lottery, there isn’t actually anything remotely close to becoming an “overnight success”. And by claiming that someone was just “lucky” in their success is actually very disrespectful and discredits their hard work.

Many people have called Harry Potter author JK Rowling an overnight success, because her first book became a bestseller. In reality, she graduated from college, struggled through an abusive marriage, poverty, and becoming a single mother. It took her six years to write the first Harry Potter book. Even then, she was rejected by multiple publishers who didn’t believe in the potential of her story. There is absolutely nothing quick or easy about her journey.

12. Being Proud of a Humble Life

I’ve met several people in my life who claim that they’re proud to be poor. One girl I knew in college told me that she fully expects to live through poverty the rest of her life. I also grew up in poverty This girl said that she had no intention of even trying to find a good-paying job, and that she had already resolved herself to working for minimum wage the rest of her life. Throughout my life, I’ve met a lot of other people like this. They fully embrace the poverty lifestyle. There’s nothing wrong with loving and accepting who you are. But if you have this attitude, you won’t become rich.

Wealth only comes to those who want it desperately. People who become rich need to genuinely believe that they can achieve this goal. It requires constant visualization and manifestation in order to get your mind on the right track. Finding money-making opportunities is a lot like going on a scavenger hunt. Once you find pieces of the puzzle, it all fits together in an incredibly satisfying way. But you’ll never find those opportunities if you’re already resolved to a lifestyle of being broke.

11. Joining Multi-Level Marketing Schemes

Earlier on this list, we talked about avoiding get-rich-quick schemes. Unfortunately, people who are willing to work hard are also tricked into scams as well. Multi-level marketing companies are just a nicer way of saying pyramid schemes. Here’s how they work: A company asks you to pay for inventory up-front, and they ask you to sell to your family and friends. These are often through parties, whether virtual or in-person. You may offer a discount or free products to your friends if they’re willing to have a demonstration in their house.

After a while, you begin to realize that selling this product is incredibly difficult. There’s only so much you can unload on people you know. You’re already in debt from buying the up-front inventory, so the only way to make more money with this company is by recruiting others to sell. The higher up on the recruitment pyramid you are, the more money you make. And those left at the bottom are in debt 99% of the time. Only the top 1% of the pyramid make a substantial amount of money. Hence, a pyramid scheme. Educate yourself on MLM’s, and don’t fall for their tricks. They will promise you success, but it’s really just a way to trick you out of your money.

10. Not Willing to Make Sacrifices

A lot of people dream of becoming rich but they’re not willing to make sacrifices to get there. For example, if you need startup cash to launch a business, you need to cut back on your spending. The easiest way to save money is to move back in with your parents so that you don’t have to pay rent. A lot of adults are not willing to do this. They would rather choose having independence over taking the risk to launch a business. So they get into debt instead. The only way to achieve great things is to be different than normal people.

In this world, there is always a balance of things. You’ll need to give up something in order to achieve wealth. For example, millionaire Graham Stephan stayed single for several years while he built his real estate business. He knew that being in a relationship took a lot of time and effort to make it work. So he waited until he achieved financial success before he found a girlfriend. Many people who try to “have it all” end up burning out before they can achieve success.

9. Being Scared of Change

Change can be terrifying. Recent events have shown us that there are plenty of people ready and willing to protest and lash out all because they want their life to go back to “normal”. But if you’re not willing to embrace change, you’re going to struggle and get left behind. For some people, we’ll get out of this stronger. But there are also a lot of people who are going to be mentally broken from these horrific experiences. From here on out, you can’t be afraid of change.

Becoming rich always requires people to change. At the very least, you’ll need to find a way to make more money. Anyone who aspires to be rich might need to move to a new location, or cut ties with people who are holding them back in life. You might also have to learn new things or enter a field you’re completely unfamiliar with.

8. Equating Material Things to Wealth

When you ask people to define what they think it means to be rich, some people will respond that it is someone with a big house, new car, and beautiful clothes. The truth is that being truly wealthy has little to do with owning expensive things. Someone with a good job and credit score can buy all this by getting into debt. They still have to go to their 9-5 job to pay back this debt. And if they’re living paycheck to paycheck, all of these nice things aren’t going to save them from bankruptcy. If your goal of being “rich” is so that you can buy nice things, you really only need a middle-class job to achieve material goals. After a while, you’ll realize these things don’t make you happy after all.

True wealth is a matter of being secure knowing that you can maintain your lifestyle without working. When things go wrong, you’ve got enough of a cushion to survive. Rich people usually have multiple streams of income. Time is another luxury that not everyone has. In a lot of ways, freedom to spend your time any way you want is something that makes you truly “rich”.

7. Spending All Your Free Time on Entertainment

With everything that’s going on in the world right now, it’s totally understandable why a lot of people are resorting to escapism with entertainment. Everyone needs to spend this time taking care of themselves right now and focus on being healthy. However, if you want to be rich, you need to take at least a few hours a day working towards your goals.

Even if you have no intention to run a business, you could take this time to improve yourself. You could take online classes, reconnect with old friends, and so much more. Being proactive is the best way to achieve success. Remember that it’s okay to have days or even a week go by without achieving anything. But if you result in spending 100% of your free time watching Netflix, you can’t make money from that.

6. Waiting For The “Perfect” Moment

Something that holds a lot of people back from achieving their dreams is that they are waiting for the right time. In all honesty, waiting for the perfect moment to start something is usually an excuse. None of us know what the future holds. There is never going to be a perfect time. There is an old saying- “Done is better than perfect.” And as soon as you start taking steps in the right direction, you might realize it was easier than you thought.

Far too many people have waited for their dreams to start, only for a life event to happen that makes it seem even more difficult to do the things they want to do. Don’t wait for your dreams to pass you by. Work on achieving them as soon as it’s safe to do so.

5. Blaming Others For Your Misfortunes

One of my former coworkers went to an Ivy League university. With her expensive education, she should have found a great job through alumni networks. But she only made $400 a month and was very upset about it. I asked her why she didn’t quit to find a better position. She kept making excuses and blamed her boss for not recognizing her talent. This woman alluded that she felt if she stayed at the company, some day the boss would realize her talent and give her a promotion. Unfortunately, that never happened. The last I checked, she became a mom and was still in over $100,000 of student loan debt. Essentially, she completely gave up and chose to blame her boss.

If you go through life being angry about your circumstances and blaming other people for your problems, you’re never going to get anywhere. It’s okay to be angry when someone mistreats you. But the best thing to do is to forgive these people, even if they never apologized. Forgive, let it go, and move on with your life. If one company or boss doesn’t recognize your value, move on to the next one. At the end of the day, you’re the only one in control of your destiny. It doesn’t matter what you’ve been through, who your parents are, or where you went to school.

4. Believing Hard Work Is The Only Answer

There are a lot of advice articles out there that will encourage you to take on multiple part-time jobs if you want to be rich. This might help you make more money in the short-term, and it might be a stepping stone in your journey. The only problem with that is that there is a ceiling to how much you can make. As long as you’re working for a boss, you’re not in control of how much income you’re making. You could work until you’re ready to collapse, and still only be making a set amount of income at the end of the day. Unfortunately, hard work doesn’t always equate to wealth.

Don’t get me wrong. You need to work incredibly hard if you want to go from being poor to rich. However, it’s always better to work smarter rather than harder. Truly wealthy people have cracked a code to make their money do the work for them, rather than working for their money.

3. Staying at a Job You Hate

There are plenty of people out there who hate their job. They love to complain but never do anything to change it. And even when we come out of this on the other end, applying for work is going to be a huge struggle. Many people can’t be picky when it comes to finding work. We can’t deny that money that puts food on the table is important, even if you just like what you’re doing. But if your goal is to become rich, you can’t stay at a job that you hate for the rest of your life.

Try to imagine your dream life. What kind of work are you doing? Depending on how far away you are from that goal, you’ll have to make the right choices accordingly to set your new life in motion. For example, if you wish you could become a doctor, you’ll have to go to medical school first. That job you hate might be necessary in order for you to pay for tuition. As long as you have a game plan on how you’re going to get out of this, you’ll feel a weight lifted off your shoulders. A job that makes you miserable suddenly becomes bearable when you have a goal of exactly when you’re going to leave. You’ll realize that it’s a permanent but necessary step in your journey, rather than a prison sentence.

2. Allowing Friends and Family to Drag You Down

You should never blame other people for your problems. But sometimes, when people find some level of success, we allow friends and family to take advantage of us. You can’t control what other people do. But at the end of the day, you’re still in control of how you react to other people. The more you give your money away, the less you have to pay off debt, reinvest in growing your wealth.

You need to balance generosity with making sure no one is taking advantage of your kindness. Sometimes, people are doing nothing by dragging you down, and it’s best to cut them out of your life. Remember that you don’t have to buy love. People who truly love you will want you to succeed and will be willing to give as much as they receive.

1. You Need Others to Motivate You To Get Rich

Sometimes, even if you’re normally a self-motivated person, you need a little bit of a boost. Watching motivational speakers or reading a self-help book can help you get your mind back on track. However, if you feel that you absolutely need to work together with other people before you can achieve anything, it’s not likely that you’ll ever become rich. One of the most common traits among millionaires is that they’re self-motivated. They don’t need a boss to tell them to get up and go back to work. And they don’t need the threat of losing their job to wake them up in the morning. They’re also typically a bit introverted, and they can put their head down and get to work right away.

People who grew up with rich parents have a lot of business ideas, but they always want someone else to get involved. They haven’t actually put in any of the work yet, because they’re waiting for someone to help motivate them to get started. It may be because they feel it’s not worth doing the work unless they can convince someone else to partner with them.

Remember this: Successful people don’t waste their time on ideas. They want to see results first. So if you’re looking for a business partner, you need to work on something you truly believe will be a success. Put in all of the work on your own first, and find outside help later.