Your bank account is a lagging indicator. Your vision is a leading one.
Look. I get it. You check your bank account and see a number that doesn’t match your potential. Society tells you that number defines you. Your parents echo the same message. Your ex-girlfriend definitely emphasized that number, which is why she’s your ex-girlfriend. However, here’s what the entrepreneur mindset wealth builders understand that everyone else doesn’t: money is a result, not a starting point.
It’s not even a midpoint. It’s what happens after you’ve done everything else right. So if you haven’t done everything else yet, of course the money isn’t there. This isn’t copium. This is economics.
The Pre-Revenue Framework
In Silicon Valley, they have a term: pre-revenue. It means a company that hasn’t made money yet but has the infrastructure to make money eventually. Therefore, the entrepreneur mindset wealth approach applies the same logic to personal finance.
Are you employed? That’s pre-revenue. Living with your parents? That’s pre-revenue with reduced overhead. Negative net worth? That just means your liabilities currently outpace your assets, which is a liquidity timing issue, not a failure.
I’ve been in the pre-revenue phase for about three years now. Some people—people without vision—would call that concerning. But those same people probably thought Amazon was a mistake in 1999. Look at them now. Look at Jeff Bezos. I’m not saying I’m Jeff Bezos. Nevertheless, I’m saying nobody thought he was Jeff Bezos either, until he was.
Reframing Your Financial Reality
The entrepreneur mindset wealth masters know that language matters. You’re not “in debt”—you’re leveraged. You’re not “unemployed”—you’re between opportunities. You didn’t “lose money on crypto”—you paid tuition for a decentralized education.
Consequently, when my mother asks why I haven’t paid back the money I borrowed for my mastermind coaching program (which is on pause, not failed), I explain that she’s essentially an angel investor in my future. Her ROI will come. Eventually. The timeline remains TBD.
She didn’t love that framing. But she also doesn’t understand venture dynamics.
What The Wealthy Know
Here’s the truth: most wealthy people were broke at some point. However, they just didn’t stay broke mentally. They maintained the entrepreneur mindset wealth requires even when the numbers said otherwise. Furthermore, they kept going. They kept building. They kept explaining to their landlords that late rent is just an invoice timing issue.
Is it hard? Yes. Do people doubt you? Constantly. Did my roommate move out because I kept using his Netflix password even after he changed it twice? That’s a separate issue.
The point is this: wealth is a mindset first, a bank balance second. And if you have the mindset, the balance will follow.
Probably.
Not financial advice.