What I learned from turning a six-figure inheritance into a five-figure education. Few understand this.
Look. When my father passed, he left me $187,000. Three years later, I had $31,000 and more knowledge than any MBA could provide. Some people call that a loss. I call it tuition. These are the wealth lessons the elites won’t teach you—mostly because they’re too busy counting their money to help anyone else make it.
Today, I’m going to share with you the seven wealth principles I discovered on my journey from comfortable inheritance to financial enlightenment. Consequently, you’ll understand what Wall Street doesn’t want you to know.
Wealth Lesson 1: Credentials Are A Trap
Everyone told me to talk to a “financial advisor.” But think about it: if these people were so good with money, why are they working for someone else? I decided to trust my instincts instead. Furthermore, I developed my own framework for what I call “liquidity consciousness.”
Were my instincts always right? No. But they were mine. As I explained in my piece about strategic liquidity positions, ownership of your decisions matters more than the outcomes. That’s basic economics.
Wealth Lesson 2: Timing The Market Is Easy If You’re Not A Coward
The so-called experts say you can’t time the market. That’s exactly what someone who can’t time the market would say. When I saw that a certain cryptocurrency—$FREEDM, which was going to decentralize patriotism—was up 400% in a week, I knew it was about to go higher.
It didn’t. It was a rug pull, actually. Nevertheless, the logic was sound, and that’s what matters. I lost $11,000, but I’d do it again. The smart money takes risks. Most people won’t do this. That’s why most people stay poor.
Wealth Lesson 3: Diversification Is For People Who Don’t Believe In Themselves
Why spread your bets when you could put everything into the one thing that’s definitely going to work? My concentrated position in my cousin’s tech startup taught me that conviction is its own reward. Similarly, my dropshipping business taught me that four months is sometimes all you need to learn a lifetime of lessons.
The company no longer exists. The dropshipping store folded after four months. However, my conviction remains. Few understand this.
Wealth Lesson 4: If It Sounds Too Good To Be True, It’s Probably Once-In-A-Lifetime
I’ve missed more opportunities by being “cautious” than I’ve lost by being bold. Sure, some of those “ground floor investments” turned out to be scams. But the ones that weren’t scams? Those could have been huge. Theoretically.
Here’s what the elites don’t want you to know: they got rich by taking risks that looked crazy at the time. Meanwhile, you’re sitting there with your index funds like a good little employee.
Wealth Lesson 5: Passive Income Requires Active Delusion
Everyone talks about passive income like it’s magic. The truth is, building passive income streams takes work, investment, and in my case, three separate e-commerce stores that all failed for different but equally instructive reasons.
Additionally, I launched a mastermind coaching program teaching others to start dropshipping businesses. It made about $8,000 before refund requests piled up. The lesson? Keep trying until it works or you run out of money. I’m currently in a transitional phase between those two outcomes.
Wealth Lesson 6: Your Network Is Your Net Worth (Unless Your Network Is Also Broke)
I’ve surrounded myself with other entrepreneurs, visionaries, and idea people. Together, we’ve brainstormed some incredible concepts. None of them have made money yet, but the energy in those rooms is priceless. Literally priceless, because we can’t sell it.
I’m writing this from my luxury apartment in Austin—it has a pool, which is basically the definition of luxury—and I can tell you that mindset is everything. Your bank account is a reflection of your mindset. Mine is reflecting a transitional phase.
Wealth Lesson 7: The Best Investment Is In Yourself
After everything—the crypto losses, the failed startups, the $FREEDM disaster, the mastermind refunds—I still have something no one can take away: the knowledge that I tried. And that knowledge, combined with the remaining $31,000, is the foundation of my next chapter.
My father would be proud. He was always telling me to learn from my mistakes. Well, Dad, I’ve learned from approximately $156,000 worth of them. Furthermore, I’m just getting started.
These are wealth lessons the elites won’t teach you because they don’t want competition. But I’m different. I’m sharing the blueprint.
Stay liquid. Stay sharp. Stay dangerous.
Not financial advice.
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