Financial Freedom: Books & Wealth. Can You Really Ignore the Statistics?

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Let’s Talk About Books

Remember when we were in school and were subtly groomed to think that all the kids that got good grades would be the successful ones? Were you one of the smart kids? Do you remember being told how bright your future was and that tomorrow had in store for your success, wealth and constant endorsement?

Maybe you were not so strong academically, and although they may not have said it outright, you knew that your teachers thought that you wouldn’t amount to much.

Our teachers were always right about one thing: A good study was more likely to be successful in life. What they were grossly mistaken about is what needed to be studied. To me, the difference between intellect and intelligence is that the former is an acquisition, while the latter is an application. Said differently, intellectuals have amassed a body of knowledge, while intelligent people are able to use their knowledge to create.

The former needn’t necessarily command a larger body of knowledge than the latter. I would even argue that individuals that are able to create with a smaller body of knowledge are more intelligent than those who would require a larger body of knowledge to create the same. I digress.

We have all heard the adage, “Knowledge is Power.” I humbly beg to differ. This notion places too much emphasis on intellect, as if intellect implies intelligence. Say, for example, you were locked into a room. Intellect would tell you that you have the potential to escape because that’s pretty much what Houdini gained his critical acclaim doing and you have this history as part of your body of knowledge. It is, however, only intelligence that would actually get you out of the room. Knowledge is not power.

The Good News

The great news about school is that it teaches you to think like probably very few other exercises could achieve as efficiently. The danger is that it teaches you how to think. Dangerous still, is that it teaches that academics is the measure of intelligence.

Musical, spatial, linguistic, and interpersonal intelligence is important and probably more closely linked to success than the conventional logical or mathematical intelligence. If you were to compile a Calculus textbook but did not know how to interact with people you would have a hard time selling your textbook idea to a publisher. If someone who was people smart were to partner with ten academics to get their textbooks published he would make more money than each of them and never have to learn calculus or linear algebra. This is just one example of how the kids you didn’t think would make it made it big.

What School Was Really Made For

The education system as we know it today came about in a way that goes something like this: Napolean goes to war in an agrarian era, taking with him to the battlefield local bakers, farmers, blacksmiths, cobblers and similarly skilled men of the trade; He loses dismally and observes that these independent, self-supporting men were not easily inclined to take instruction from him or anybody; luckily this happened to take place at a time when the industrial revolution was gaining momentum, an era that needed to see a great number of the population being employed by the factories; this gave rise to a change of the status quo, the way of life at the time, a new generation that would form a part of this much-needed workforce

Thus was born the Prussian education system, mandated to mass produce a people who would take instructions and see them through.

You were trained to be a good employee, and employees seem to take most of their financial advice from other employees who by the definition could not be financially free.

Breaking the Mold

Remember that kid in school that got straight A’s and ended up having a mundane career and an average degree of success? Or that kid that never shone academically but ended up becoming the most successful in your entire class? Why do you not think of financial success when you think about a PhD or professorship?

I have found that academics often times make the worst entrepreneurs. I should probably take this time to make it known that I don’t think that being a businessperson is the same thing as being an entrepreneur. Business owners are good at managing or owning systems, where entrepreneurs build or create systems.

Most of you reading this post have probably read enough textbooks. If you want to achieve financial freedom, the odds of you achieving this quickly or to a remarkable degree probably will not happen without you reading books. Literature will get you there. Reading about other people’s experiences (application) will help you learn (acquisition) in a manner that will better train you to create a stronger link between your knowledge and application.

Your relationship with your money needs to become one of application rather than acquisition if you want to reach financial freedom quickly. Like I say on my blog page, nobody ever saved their way to wealth. The wealthy create systems that make them money, and no, you needn’t become a business owner or entrepreneur to own one such system. All you need do is learn money, give your money legs, deploy your money and let your money build you a system.

Be Like These Guys

Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Charlie Munger, Elon Musk, Larry Page, Oprah Winfrey, Mark Cuban, Peter Thiel, Phil Knight, David Rubenstein, Mark Zuckerberg, MJ DeMarco, Zig Ziglar and a myriad of others all place massive importance on reading.

Most of them read books and newspapers (and of course blogs, Haha) daily.

Find out how Johann Rupert feels about reading in, Did You Know Porsche Sells Most of Its Units in South Africa?

Conclusion

Read, read, read, read, read.

And no, not a college textbook.

Go to the bookstore and get a book, or two, or three.

You can do it, and you don’t have to quit your job.