What if they gain? Will you lose?
When we were hunting for food 10,000 years back, if someone takes food from us, we will not have food. So humans generally think that if someone else gains, you will lose.
That's why so many partnerships and joint ventures don't work. If one partner gains something, the natural reaction of the other partner is to think he is losing something.
We are not hard-wired to think any other way. Just like we are not hard-wired to save money, do fasting or be polite. Our lizard brain thinks about survival and the short term.
However, the world works in a different way. When someone gains, you do not lose.
Let's look at a simple example:
Let's say you spend 1 crore to build a house.
You pay 40 lakhs to the land owner, 30 lakhs for the construction of the structure, and another 30 lakhs for interiors and furnishing.
You have "spent" 1 crore.
But where did the 1 crore go?
It went to the land owner, the construction workers, the material suppliers, and the furniture sellers.
After all that the house is still 1 crore worth.
Now, there are 2 crores in total. You just doubled the money. You have a house worth 1 crore, and all the other people who you paid 1 crore to, did not disappear, it is with them. In the process of building wealth for yourself, you have also made others wealthy.
And the cycle continues.
Power doesn't come from taking power away from people. Power comes from empowering people.
Similarly, wealth doesn't come from taking wealth away from people. It comes from making people wealthy.
I wish our corrupt short minded and crooked politicians can understand this. Most politicians who make dirty money by stealing it from people lose it because the next generation blows it away.
Entrepreneurs have an inherent understanding of building wealth and multiplying it. If you don't have this mindset, you cannot become a successful entrepreneur.
In my 15 years of career, I have seen a lot of chut*yas. Almost everyone who focused on their own gains and didn't care about others ended up losing money in the long term.
Being ethical is short-term losing, but long-term greed and winning.
Being unethical is short-term greed and long-term loss.
So remember:
- Pay your professionals, employees, and partners well. Share the wealth with them. People would want to work with you only when you build wealth for them.
- If they gain, you will gain even more. If they lose, you will lose even more. It is stupid to think that if they gain you will lose.
- If there are people who are narrow-minded, stop working with them. Don't try to get back at them, it will only waste your time.
- If someone wronged you financially, let it go. You might end up making more money by focusing on wealth-building activities than trying to recover the money that you let go.
Almost all the decisions in my life have been driven by this thought process.
There are people who have cheated me out of lakhs and there are people who have stolen crores from me (I am not kidding). But I am not angry at them because doing anything about it is not gonna build wealth for anyone, and I could probably make 100x more than that if I just focus on creating more wealth.
Wealth is not limited. It is only limited by the minds of people.
If someone wronged you with money, you can't "teach people a lesson" because you cannot teach pigs to sing. It irritates the pig and wastes your time. If you want to take "revenge" on a pig, it is a shame to you, not the pig. Move on. A life that is lived well is the best revenge.
If you can read this sentence right now, you have education, a device that is connected to the internet, and common sense. That's pretty much all you need to create wealth in this day and age.
I hope this post gave you some insights into how I think about wealth. And I hope this mindset helps you build wealth too.
Cheers,
Deepak Kanakaraju