Thank you again to Steve Siebold for being on our show – it was such a pleasure having his insight, especially for two whole episodes and because I help people and work with people who try to preserve their money or wealth, his book brings to light the positive aspects of money, making or having money and almost negating the whole “Money is the root of all evil” thought.

It was great to have Steve Siebold on the show with us discussing his book, How Rich People Think.  Each chapter looks at the contrast between what he has categorized as the Middle Class and World Class, the latter being the wealthy people he has met and interviewed for the book.  The contrasts are very simple as were his explanations. Bear in mind we were under time constraint and if you feel you may not agree right off the bat, and that his thoughts are a little simplistic, the book delves deeper and explains clearly he thinks that way.  That said, here are some highlights of the radio show from last week:

Charities couldn’t exist without the wealthy: “If you look at some of the wealthiest people in the world, they’re not leaving their money to Uncle Sam, they’re leaving their money to charities because society would gain the most value from that. Look at where people like Bill Gates or even Warren Buffett (even if I don’t agree with his political views) and look at what they’re doing with their wealth.”

Middle Class focuses on Saving, World Class focuses on Earning: “Steve explained these chapters to me as I went through them. “We’ve been taught to save and now I’m talking about earning but what I’m saying in this particular chapter in this book is that most people are taught to focus on those things whereas the wealthy focus on earning to create big numbers so they have much larger numbers to save and invest. If you think about it the average person in the US makes about $42,000 a year. Just to save and invest making $42k a year you’d have to be saving and investing for a long time to really accumulate anything so if you want to learn how to earn that could be the number one thing, THEN really working on saving and investing.”

Middle Class think of money in Linear terms, World Class think of money in non-linear terms: “We’re all taught in school to trade time for money, hours for dolalrs as they say and the wealthy don’t do that. As we talked about, it’s really about leverage, that non-linear leverage – they’re leveraging everything their time, their contacts, their credibility, their money. Everything they can leverage, they are the masters of leverage and it’s a non-linear strategy that most of us aren’t taught. Donald Trump makes a lot of money, Oprah makes a lot of money but you don’t see them working 20 hours a day breaking bricks. It’s a different way to earn money, it’s just a way where the big money is made.. if you start thinking about how you can leverage your skills, the world could be your oyster.”

Middle Class believes money as the root of all evil, World Class believes poverty is the root of all evil: “I think the people that are most obsessed with money are the people with no money. I know that happened for me. You become obsessed with something when you don’t have it if you have you don’t really have to worry about it you just keep adding to the pile. But when you don’t have it I think that’s when things turn sour.”

Middle Class believes being rich is a privilege, World Class believe being rich is a right: “It’s not that it’s a God-given right, but that they think it’s a right, that if they solve a problem that helps people they think they have the right to be rewarded financially in America, and become rich if they can solve a big enough problem they really believe it’s a right under our system. WHereas the middle class think that it’s a privilege or it’s luck where it’s a completely different way to look at it.”

Middle Class believes rich people are crooks, World Class believe rich people are ambitious: “How many times have we been told this, you drive by a gigantic mansion on the water and someone says, “well! Of course, they probably stole it or they’re probably a drug dealer.” But the rich and very successful see themselves as ambitious people. Of course there’s crooks in every class and socio-economic bracket and that includes the rich but for the most part these are good, solid people who are very ambitious and know what they want.”

Middle Class believes building wealth is a solitary effort, World Class believe building wealth is a team effort: “It takes a team to build a dream. It may be a cliche but it’s true – if you’re going to do something really big it’s going to take more than you and a lot of people are going to be involved and they can all benefit from being on the team and all profit from being on the team.” (I agree – there’s a limit to how much you yourself can do. This is how you build wealth, it’s through accumulating a good team.)

MIddle Class worries about money, World Class dreams about money: “It’s all about where you direct your mental energy. This is what we talk about in mental toughness training all the time it’s – ‘Where is your mental energy being directed?’ Is  it towards worry like most people or creating wealth or anything else or any positive result you want in your life whether it’s dreaming a great business dream or personal dream or whatever it is. But where do you direct your mental energy because that’s what you’re going to get back – wherever you direct it. ”

Something Steve said during the segment that stuck with me is that “Anyone can do this, this doesn’t take a Harvard degree to do, it’s a mentality.” We’ve all heard and read about the power of positive thinking.  Just by reading How Rich People Think, talking to Steve, reading his blog, it’s all extremely motivating and like he said, anyone can do it. YOU can do it.

We covered a few more chapters in the 2nd episode of the show and  I encourage you to listen to both episodes here and here, and also to get the book for yourself as well.  Those of you who have read the book, I’d like to know what you think – leave me a comment, or email me at info@hankparrott.com.

If you’d like a preview, Steve gives you FIVE FREE CHAPTERS if you visit his How Rich People Think Book site and sign up.