You Are a Badass at Making Money

RISK BEING UNPOPULAR
Successful people are tenacious, which means they keep the faith much
longer than the average person does. Because of this, the average person
tends to look upon the successful person, before they have become
successful, as insane, ridiculous, give it a rest already! Successful people
must hold tight to their vision while everyone around them is shouting
things like (if you’re, say, Thomas Edison), What do you think you are,
magic? You’re never gonna get that stupid thing to light up. Go get a job!
I remember seeing one of the most impressive displays of tenacity on a
flight once while waiting for my plane to take off. A woman came bursting
on with her two sons just as they were closing the doors with that sweaty,
disheveled, wild-eyed look specific to two types of people: out of shape
people who’ve just narrowly made their flight, and people who have just
killed someone. We’re all sitting there, a captive audience strapped into our
chairs, watching her try to find a place for their luggage in the overhead
compartments, deal with getting the kids in their seats, and apologize to the

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entire plane for the holdup. She obviously booked the flight last minute too,
because they weren’t sitting together, they each had middle seats, one in
front of the other, which made it even more difficult for her to get everyone
settled.
But her real difficulty was with her older son, who refused to sit down.
He was about nine years old, and as he watched his little brother climb into
his middle seat, he quietly informed his mother that he wanted a window
seat. She responded with something about him being out of luck and that he
needed to sit down right now, to which he calmly replied, “No, I’m sitting
by the window,” to which she hissed, “Sit down,” to which he said, “No,” to
which she shot another apologetic look down the aisle to the crowd. I’m
sitting there, in my window seat, watching all this, trying to figure out if I
should give him my seat and end her torture, give him a talking to, or hire
him as my coach. I’d never seen such unshakable, calm resolve in the face
of such great danger—an entire airplane full of pissed off grown-ups. Yet
this kid, without being bratty or pitching a fit, held his ground until the guy
in front of me got up and switched seats with him.
His desire for, and vision of, his goal outweighed and blinded him to all
other options: public humiliation, verbal abuse from adults other than his
mother, no screen time for the rest of his life. He had the stick-to-itiveness
to pooh-pooh one of the biggest blocks to success known to man: the need
to be liked and fit in. If you plan on going from poor to rich, you too must
stick to your guns at the risk of being unpopular. You cannot make this big
change in your life and expect nothing around you to change, especially
your relationships with other people. When you change who you’re being,
you will upset people, you will lose friends, and maybe even cause rifts
with family members, so your desire to grow into who you’re meant to be
must be firmly placed in the very front of your mind at all times—as must
the specifics of the life you’re creating for yourself and the feelings
associated with it, so you have the courage to stay the course. Trust that
you’re meant to realize your desires, and know that while you’ll still love
the people you lose along the way, you will attract new people who are at
the same frequency you are.