63 – The Rich – Use them for Personal, Economic and Business Success

I want to talk about the rich. Not in the way you usually hear it, particularly during this politically hot climate. What I’m talking about is we should be, instead of condemning them or worrying about them, encouraging them and using them. That’s right, use them for our benefit.

Why do we need to use and have the rich there? I want to explain that a little bit, but let me first tell you a little analogy. Think in terms of the lottery now. Separately from everything else. We have the lottery. Every once in a while, we hear somebody won a hundred or more million dollars, etc. Why do people buy the tickets? The odds of winning are incredibly small. Why do they buy the tickets? They feel there’s some chance, some odds of them winning the jackpot. The jackpot used to be—now I’m talking about the Mega Millions, here, you can use different ones for different statistics, etc. but that’s the biggie—1 chance in 176 million, until I believe it was this past October, the odds changed, and they made it so that it would also bump up, because there would be fewer winners, it would bump up the prizes. Now the chances of winning are 1 in 259 million. It’s clearly a waste of money. When you hear somebody buying a ticket: Okay, I won’t condemn somebody who buys a ticket, figuring: “Okay, what the heck? It’s $2 or $1, whatever it is,” but when they say: “Oh, no, I buy a lot of tickets because it’ll increase my chances,” that is plumb idiotic, but they get there and they do that because they think there might be a chance of them winning.

Let’s first look at—back to the rich—the distribution of income. Wouldn’t most people like to be in the position that basically 90-95% of the people are below them, that means they’re in the top 10%, 5%? What about that enormous number, the top 1%? Well, there are different ways of measuring it; by individuals, male, female, personal income, family income, household income, etc. Just to give you an idea just for individuals, because that’s usually what we talk about: The top 1% is $235,000 a year. This is 2014 data. The top 1% for families, everybody that’s related in that household as a family (not relatives) is $365,000 a year. Certainly not the outlandish numbers we hear, but yes, it is a lot of money.

They are usually made out to be villains, or these people that somehow, nefariously, got their money from some “source” or something. Actually, 80% of the people who are considered rich came from poverty. This is why in so much that I talk about these things on the podcast of what you can do. Yes, you can at least do well. Keep in mind, the numbers are not that high, and these people didn’t have some special dispensation. 80% came from poverty. It also means a lot of them move in and out of poverty, up to being rich, and maybe lose it. They probably don’t fall all the way to the bottom, although some come close to it, and they get that way by what they do.

In the case of what we’re talking about is starting a business. Why do people start a business? Because they feel they might or can be one of those that make those high incomes, but the numbers show that most people fail within five years. I hear the number 80%, according to Forbes. Most of those that start small businesses; stores, franchises, etc., work ridiculous hours and may only make 50,000 to 60,000 per year. It is only when they finally get in the case of franchises, say, three locations, that they start seeing those six-figure incomes. Yes, there are exceptions, there are always exceptions; but then, yes, so many of them die off.

So, is it worth it? Well, it’s what drives people, just like the lottery. According to Houston Chronicle, there was a survey that had been done of franchises in the restaurant owners’ industry, and the average income was $47,000 as of 2013, but they still do it, and people still drive into these things doing small businesses. The small businesses, they hope to become medium businesses, etc.