Jim Rohn: Stop Being Poor.

There is an old saying I think about often. If you do not find a way to make

often. If you do not find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die. I see people put it on t-shirts. They put it on coffee mugs.

t-shirts. They put it on coffee mugs.

But I do not think they actually understand the physics of what that means. This is not a motivational quote.

means. This is not a motivational quote.

This is a mathematical warning. Welcome

to the most dangerous trap in the modern world. We call it the employee trap.

world. We call it the employee trap.

Most of you watching this video are currently selling the only asset you cannot get back. You are selling your time. You wake up, [music] you drive to

time. You wake up, [music] you drive to a building, you sit there for 8 or 10 hours, and in exchange, someone gives you a certificate of value called a paycheck. You think this is normal. You

paycheck. You think this is normal. You

think this is how the world works. But

in the world of the ultra wealthy, and the world of the 1%, this behavior is considered insanity. Why? Because time

considered insanity. Why? Because time

is a finite inventory. Imagine you owned a store, but you only had 24 items on the shelf every day. Once you sell those 24 items, you cannot sell anymore. No

matter how high the demand is, no matter how hard you work, your income is capped by your inventory. That is your life as an employee. You have a ceiling. You can

an employee. You have a ceiling. You can

become a doctor, you can become a lawyer, you can charge $1,000 an hour, but you are still just a high paid laborer. If you stop working, the money

laborer. If you stop working, the money stops flowing. The machine turns off the

stops flowing. The machine turns off the moment you stop moving. You start dying financially. This is not an accident.

financially. This is not an accident.

This is by design. Let us look at where this mindset comes from. It comes from the industrial conveyor belt we call the education system. Think about your

education system. Think about your school years. What were you actually

school years. What were you actually trained to do? You were trained to sit still for 8 hours. You were trained to memorize instructions. You were trained

memorize instructions. You were trained to raise your hand to ask for permission to speak or even to go to the bathroom.

You are trained to fear failure and above all you are trained to complete tasks given to you by a superior authority. These are not the skills of

authority. These are not the skills of an owner. These are the skills of a

an owner. These are the skills of a compliant worker. The school system was

compliant worker. The school system was designed in the Prussian era to produce soldiers and factory workers. It was

never designed to produce capitalists.

It does not teach you how to read a balance sheet. It does not teach you how

balance sheet. It does not teach you how to identify a competitive advantage. It

does not teach you how to leverage debt or how to build a system that works without you. It teaches you one thing,

without you. It teaches you one thing, how to be a specialized part in a machine that someone else owns. And when

you graduate, you are handed the ultimate leash and is called the salary.

Nasim Taleb once said that the three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates in a monthly salary. He

was right. A salary is a drug. It is a steady drip of morphine that numbs your ambition. It gives you the illusion of

ambition. It gives you the illusion of safety. You know exactly how much is

safety. You know exactly how much is coming in. On the 15th of the month,

coming in. On the 15th of the month, this predictability feels good. It feels

safe, but it destroys your ability to hunt. A wild bird never knows when it

hunt. A wild bird never knows when it will find its next meal, so it stays alert. It stays hungry. It learns to

alert. It stays hungry. It learns to read the environment. A bird in a cage knows exactly when it will be fed. So,

it rests. It gets comfortable. It loses

its instincts. Most people are like caged birds living in safety but dependent on someone else for food. One

day, the feeder might stop coming and then the cage becomes a trap. We see

this in every recession. We see this when technology changes. The loyal

employee who sold his time for 30 years suddenly let go. He is 55 years old. He

has no assets. He has no systems. All he has is a resume that says he is good at following orders. And now nobody wants

following orders. And now nobody wants to give him orders anymore. This is a tragedy of selling time. It works until it does not. And when it stops working,

the fall is catastrophic. I know what's in your mind, Jim. What is the solution?

Solution is sample. Just step focus.

Today we are going to break this programming. We're going to uninstall

programming. We're going to uninstall the employee operating system from your brain. We're going to look at the

brain. We're going to look at the mathematics of surfom. We are going to look at why tax laws are written to punish workers and reward owners. And we

are going to talk about how to decouple your time from your money. You do not need to quit your job tomorrow. That

would be foolish. But [snorts] you need to quit the mindset today. [music] You

need to stop viewing yourself as a worker who gets paid to do a job. And

you need to start viewing yourself as a business that is currently selling its services to a single customer. The

difference sounds small, but the difference is everything. One path leads to a lifetime of anxiety and a retirement of poverty. The other path leads to true independence. Let us begin

the deprogramming. Welcome to part two,

the deprogramming. Welcome to part two, the mathematics of surfom. Most people

think the game is rigged. They are

right, but they do not understand how it is rigged. They think it is rigged by

is rigged. They think it is rigged by corruption. No, it is rigged by math. If

corruption. No, it is rigged by math. If

you look at the tax code of any major country, you will see a clear message.

The government wants you to be a businessman. It does not want you to be

businessman. It does not want you to be a worker. How do I know this? Because of

a worker. How do I know this? Because of

the tax rates. If you go to work and earn a salary, you pay the highest tax rate possible. You pay income tax, you

rate possible. You pay income tax, you pay payroll tax, you pay social security tax. Before that money even hits your

tax. Before that money even hits your bank account, the government takes 30 or 40%.

The world's wealthiest people know a truth that nobody teaches ordinary people. They earn their income through

people. They earn their income through business profits and ownership not by working for someone else, but by owning the thing others work for. And the

system taxes them at sometimes half the rate of a regular salaried employee.

Many people hear this and get angry.

They judge the rich for it. But this

isn't a story of arrogance. This is

simply how the system works. The system

was designed this way because economic growth needs capital, businesses, factories, innovation. So those who

factories, innovation. So those who build and risk their capital are rewarded. And those who only sell their

rewarded. And those who only sell their time are taxed more heavily. The world's

biggest fortunes aren't built by working harder. They're built by owning

harder. They're built by owning businesses. If you want to keep more of

businesses. If you want to keep more of what you earn, stop selling your time.

Start building ownership. That's the

path. That's the rule of the game.

Lesson two, the inflation lag. This is

the silent killer of the working class.

When the government prints money, prices go up. We know this. But here is the

go up. We know this. But here is the secret. Prices do not go up for everyone

secret. Prices do not go up for everyone at the same time that prices go up.

First, the stock market booms. Real estate booms. The rich get richer immediately. Then consumer prices go up.

immediately. Then consumer prices go up.

Bread gets expensive. Gas gets

expensive. Do you know what goes up last? Your wages. Wages are what

last? Your wages. Wages are what economists call sticky. Your boss does not wake up and say, "Oh, inflation's up 8%. Let me give everyone a raise today."

8%. Let me give everyone a raise today."

No, he waits. He waits a year, maybe two. By the time you get that 3% raise,

two. By the time you get that 3% raise, you have already lost 10% of your purchasing power. You are running a race

purchasing power. You are running a race where the finish line is moving away from you faster than you can run as long as you are selling time. You are always on the losing side of the inflation

equation. Owners are on the winning side

equation. Owners are on the winning side because they own the assets that are repricing upwards. Lesson three, linear

repricing upwards. Lesson three, linear versus exponential. This is the final

versus exponential. This is the final nail in the coffin. Selling time is linear math. 1 hour equals 1 unit of

linear math. 1 hour equals 1 unit of pay. 10 hours equals 10 units of pay. If

pay. 10 hours equals 10 units of pay. If

you want to make twice as much money, you have to work twice as long. But

there is a hard physical limit. You

cannot work 25 hours a day. This means

your income has a cap. It is

mathematically impossible for you to get rich selling time because you run out of time to sell. Wealth is exponential.

When I buy a company, I do not need to be there for it to grow. Bill Gates

earns income from Microsoft whether he gets out of bed or not. Steve Jobs sees iPhones selling worldwide whether he is working or sleeping. That is exponential growth. Our income is not tied to my

growth. Our income is not tied to my effort. It is tied to the efficiency of

effort. It is tied to the efficiency of the system I own. If you are a doctor, you are smart, but you are linear. If

your hands stop moving, your income hits zero. If you build a medical software

zero. If you build a medical software company, you are exponential. You can be on a beach and the software is still billing patients. You have to move from

billing patients. You have to move from linear to exponential. You have to move from selling hours to owning outcomes.

If you do not make the shift, you will always be one bad health event away from financial hardship, diagnosis away from poverty. Now that we understand the

poverty. Now that we understand the math, we have to understand why you are still doing it. Why do you keep showing up to a game you are mathematically guaranteed to lose? The answer is in

your head. It is an addiction. Welcome

your head. It is an addiction. Welcome

to part three, the psychology of the paycheck. Now that we have proven that

paycheck. Now that we have proven that selling your time is a mathematically losing game, we have to ask a difficult question. Why do 99% of people still do

question. Why do 99% of people still do it? Why do smart people, people with

it? Why do smart people, people with degrees from Harvard and Yale, fight tooth and nail to get a job that pays them for their time? The answer is not

logic. The answer is biology. Lesson

logic. The answer is biology. Lesson

four. the heroin of the 15th and 30th.

Now, Sam Caleb was not joking when he said the three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary. Let us look at how a salary

salary. Let us look at how a salary works on your brain. Human beings are wired to seek patterns in safety. The

unknown terrifies us. When you get a paycheck every 2 weeks, it triggers a dopamine release. It tells your brain,

dopamine release. It tells your brain, "You are safe. You have food. You do not need to hunt." Over time, this creates a dependency. [music] You start to

dependency. [music] You start to organize your entire life around that drip. You buy a house that requires that

drip. You buy a house that requires that drip. [music] You buy a car that

drip. [music] You buy a car that requires that drip. You become terrified of the silence between checks. This is

exactly how drug addiction works. The

dealer gives you just enough to keep you coming back, but never enough to set you free. If I gave you $5 million, you

free. If I gave you $5 million, you would quit your job tomorrow. That

proves that you do not love the job. You

are just addicted to the drip. The price

of this addiction is your dreams. I have seen brilliant men who could have built empires, but they took a high-paying job at a law firm or a bank. They got hooked on the lifestyle, and 20 years later,

they are tired employees with expensive habits. They traded their potential for

habits. They traded their potential for certainty. Lesson five, the busy badge

certainty. Lesson five, the busy badge of honor. This is the second

of honor. This is the second psychological trap in the corporate world. If you ask someone how they are,

world. If you ask someone how they are, they say, "Oh, I am so busy. I am

swamped." They say this with pride. They

wear their exhaustion like a medal. In

my world, being busy is not a sign of success. It is a sign of a lack of

success. It is a sign of a lack of focus. It is a sign of mental laziness.

focus. It is a sign of mental laziness.

If you look at my calendar, you will see days that are completely blank. If you

look at Charlie Munger's calendar, you would have thought he was retired for 40 years. We are not busy. We are thinking.

years. We are not busy. We are thinking.

The employee mindset tells you that activity equals productivity. If you are sweating, you must be working. The owner

mindset knows that thinking equals value. If you spend all day chopping

value. If you spend all day chopping wood, you are too busy to design a chainsaw. Most employees use busyiness

chainsaw. Most employees use busyiness as a shield. [music] They fill their calendars with meetings and emails so they do not have to face the hard, scary work of thinking about their future.

They are running on a hamster wheel.

They are sweating. They are tired. but

they are not going anywhere. You have to stop being proud of how hard you work and start being obsessed with how smart you work. Lesson six, the social

you work. Lesson six, the social validation trap. This is the final chain

validation trap. This is the final chain that holds you down. Corporations are

geniuses of manipulation. They know they cannot pay you what you are truly worth or they would go broke. So, they pay you in something else. They pay you in status. They give you a title, vice

status. They give you a title, vice president, director, senior manager.

[music] These titles cost the company nothing, but they mean everything to your ego.

You put that title on your LinkedIn profile. You give that business card to

profile. You give that business card to your friends, it makes you feel important. It makes you feel like you

important. It makes you feel like you are somebody. But here is the brutal

are somebody. But here is the brutal truth. That title is not an asset. It is

truth. That title is not an asset. It is

a liability. It is a golden handcuff. I

have seen people refuse to leave a job where they were miserable simply because they did not want to lose the title of vice president. They valued the applause

vice president. They valued the applause of the crowd more than their own financial freedom. When I closed my

financial freedom. When I closed my investment partnership in the 1960s, people thought I was crazy. I was

walking away from prestige. I was

walking away from Wall Street. But I did not care about the outer scorecard. I

cared about the inner scorecard. I knew

that if I wanted to build real wealth, I needed to step out of the spotlight and focus on compounding. You have to be willing to look like a nobody for a few years so you can live like a king for

the rest of your life. You have to be willing to give up the title, give up the busy badge, and give up the steady drip of the salary. It is scary. I know

your brain will scream at you. Your

friends will question you, but remember the bird on the branch. It is not as hungry as the bird flying in the open sky. But the bird in the cage is not

sky. But the bird in the cage is not hungry at all. It is just waiting for the slaughter. Oh, how do we break out

the slaughter. Oh, how do we break out of the cage? How do we rewrite the operating system? We need to install a

operating system? We need to install a new code. We need to learn the owner's

new code. We need to learn the owner's operating system. Welcome to part four.

operating system. Welcome to part four.

The owner's operating system. We are now going to install software that makes the rich get richer. You do not need to be a genius to run this software. You just

need to understand three lines of code.

Lesson seven, the art of equity. If you

take nothing else from this video, take this. You will never get rich renting

this. You will never get rich renting out your time. You must own a piece of a business. This is called equity. When I

business. This is called equity. When I

was young, I realized that if I worked for a salary, my money stopped when I stopped. But if I owned a stock, that

stopped. But if I owned a stock, that stock was working for me 24 hours a day.

[music] Think of every dollar in your pocket as a soldier. You can send that soldier to the bar to buy a beer and he dies. He is gone forever. Or you can

dies. He is gone forever. Or you can recruit him into your army. you can

invest him and now he goes out and captures more dollars for you and those new dollars capture even more dollars.

Soon you have an army of thousands of soldiers working for you while you sleep. Most people kill their soldiers.

sleep. Most people kill their soldiers.

They spend them on liabilities. The

owner mindset is different. The owner

eats last. The owner takes every spare dollar and buys freedom. If you cannot start a company to get equity, you can still carefully study and enter the

stock market because after businesses, the stock market creates the most wealth. For 5,000 years, getting rich

wealth. For 5,000 years, getting rich required leverage. Two types existed.

required leverage. Two types existed.

Labor and capital. Labor meant hiring people hard and expensive. Capital meant

borrowing money risky and could bankrupt you. Today, we live in a miracle age.

you. Today, we live in a miracle age.

There's a third kind. Zero marginal cost leverage code and media. Write software

once, sell it a million times. Make a

video once, 10 million people watch it.

It works while you sleep. It works while you're on vacation. No bank loan, no boss, just a laptop and a brain. If

you're still selling time, one hour at a time, you're fighting a nuclear war with a stick. Build things that duplicate

a stick. Build things that duplicate themselves without you. Lesson nine,

thinking in systems. The final piece of the owner's operating system is how you look at problems. An employee looks at a problem and says, "I need to solve this." An owner looks at a problem and

this." An owner looks at a problem and says, "I need to build a system that solves this." Look at McDonald's. Is

solves this." Look at McDonald's. Is

their burger the best in the world? No.

But their system is the best in the world. They built a system so robust

world. They built a system so robust that any teenager can run it. They

remove the need for extraordinary talent. You need the McDonald's of your

talent. You need the McDonald's of your life. If you are a freelancer and you

life. If you are a freelancer and you are doing everything yourself, you do not have a business. You have a job with a bad boss. You document what you do.

You need to to make what you do and eventually you need to outsource what you do. Your goal is to make yourself

you do. Your goal is to make yourself useless to the daily operations of your income stream. If the business depends

income stream. If the business depends on you, it is not an asset. It is a liability. I have companies I haven't

liability. I have companies I haven't visited in years. They send me checks.

They do not send me problems. That is a system. So, stop trying to be the

system. So, stop trying to be the smartest person in the room. Stop trying

to work the hardest. Start building an army of dollars. Start using code and media leverage. And start building

media leverage. And start building systems that can run without you. Now,

you might be thinking, Jim, this sounds great, but I still have bills to pay. I

cannot just quit my job. You are right.

You need an exit strategy. Welcome to

part five, the escape velocity. So, you

understand the trap, you understand the math, but you are still stuck in the cage. How do you get out without

cage. How do you get out without starving? You do not burn the bridge

starving? You do not burn the bridge while you are still standing on it.

Lesson 10. The Saturday morning CEO.

Most people try to escape the employee trap by quitting their job in a fit of rage. They shout at their boss. They

rage. They shout at their boss. They

walk out. This is stupid. This is

emotional. Capitalists are not emotional. We are calculated. You need

emotional. We are calculated. You need

to keep your job. Your job is your first investor. It provides the cash flow that

investor. It provides the cash flow that funds your escape. But you need to change how you spend your time off. Most

employees spend their weekends recovering from their week. I would.

They drink. They watch sports. They're

recharging their batteries just so they can be exploited again on Monday. The

owner spends their weekends building their exit. You are the CEO of your life

their exit. You are the CEO of your life from Friday night to Monday morning.

That is your real job. During those

hours, you build the side business. You

research the stocks. You write the code.

You create the content. You do this until your part-time income exceeds your full-time expenses. This is called

full-time expenses. This is called escape velocity. Once you hit this

escape velocity. Once you hit this number, your boss no longer owns you.

You walk into the office with a different energy. You're not there

different energy. You're not there because you have to be. You are there because you choose to be. And let me tell you, there is no feeling in the world better than knowing you can walk

away at any moment. Less than 11. The

promotion trap. This is the final test.

Just as you are starting to build your escape, the system will try to pull you back in. Your boss will offer you a

back in. Your boss will offer you a promotion, more money, a bigger office, a fancier title. You must be ruthless.

You must say no. A promotion is usually a trap. It demands more of your mental

a trap. It demands more of your mental energy. It demands more of your time. It

energy. It demands more of your time. It

tightens the golden handcuffs. They are

paying you a little bit more to stop you from becoming free. I have seen men destroy their lives chasing the next rung on the corporate ladder. They climb

and climb only to realize the ladder is leaning against the wrong wall. Do not

be afraid to be a mediocre employee so you can be an exceptional owner. Give

the company what they pay for, but give your best energy to yourself.

Conclusion, the rocking chair test. We

have talked about money. We have talked about math. But ultimately, this is

about math. But ultimately, this is about regret. I want you to imagine you

about regret. I want you to imagine you are 90 years old. You are sitting in a rocking chair. On your porch, you can no

rocking chair. On your porch, you can no longer work. You can no longer build.

longer work. You can no longer build.

You look back at your life. What will

you regret more? Will you regret that you did not get that promotion to senior vice president? Will you regret that you

vice president? Will you regret that you did not buy a slightly nicer car in your 30s? Or will you regret that you spent

30s? Or will you regret that you spent 40 years building someone else's dream while yours gathered dust? Will you

regret that you sold your limited time on this earth for a paycheck that is long gone? Time is the only thing you

long gone? Time is the only thing you cannot buy back. I have billions of dollars, but I cannot buy yesterday. You

have today. You have right now. You can

choose to keep selling your time.

[music] You can choose to stay on the conveyor belt or you can choose to stop.

You can choose to think. You can choose to build. The door to the cage is open.

to build. The door to the cage is open.

It has always been open. You just have to be brave enough to walk out. That's

all. Thanks for watching.