I’m a strong believer that how someone behaves is based on how much that person has. I hope you benefit from this by using this framework to understand the people around you: why they might behave the way they do, what range of wealth they might have because of how they behave, and how they think.
Level 1 Wealthy: If someone has nothing or close to nothing, then they are close to death. Every day they wake up alive is a celebration. Anything they have is a celebration. They are generous and helpful and grateful in their nature because they have no other choice. The other choice would be to give up and die, and so if they make that choice they do die. So you’re much more likely to meet the positive attitude dirt poor person than the negative attitude poor person simply because the negative attitude poor person population dies off.
Level 2 Wealthy: If someone has found a way to survive, then they are level 2 wealthy. They don’t have nothing, but they don’t have everything either. Tradeoff decisions exist: either they can eat today, or they can eat tomorrow, but they can’t eat both days. This person is more likely to be highly calculating: in order to make it long term, they have to appropriately be investing for the future while investing in the present. They can’t have both, risk management is a constant daily chore. This person is likely to be very conservative: save money, save everything in case someday you need to use it, then you have it. Theres a lot of fear for big events that might wipe them out completely. Illness, storms (literal and figurative storms), threats from danger (animals, people, etc.) Highly risk averse, this person is likely to follow the path of least resistance: their life is hard enough as it is that they don’t pick the harder road, they don’t pick challenges. They avoid them at all cost.
Level 3 Wealthy: If someone begins to experience the pleasures of abundance, the peace of mind of not having worries for the future because they have enough to invest appropriately for the future and the present simultaneously, the peace of mind of not having fears because they have enough to build protection and safety around them and their home and their world/society/civilization, then they start becoming a happier more generous person overall. They see the world as exciting and full of positive opportunity, because most of their time is spent experimenting and playing with things and hoping for positive outcomes. They don’t have to do serious risk analysis because they have enough to pay for any cost that might unexpectedly come up. They have a surplus of resources so they play with the surplus, and because it is surplus it doesn’t affect their basic needs and necessities. These are kind people.
Level 4 Wealthy: If someone becomes addicted to participating in activities that generate wealth, they enter this category. Just like Level 3 Wealthy people, a Level 4 Wealthy person will play around with surplus resources. However, the difference is that while Level 3 Wealthy people have the goal of having fun, Level 4 Wealthy people have the goal of getting more resources. Collecting resources is a game, finding opportunities to earn resources is a skill they work and refine as their life’s art and craft, and they become greatly disconnected from common man emotions and feelings because 1. they have enough wealth to not feel fear/worry/risk/negative emotions and 2. they have refined their craft of earning and have learned that emotions and feelings do not contribute to that craft, in fact it is counter productive, therefore they shut down all emotion and feelings in pursuit of maximizing their score in the game of earning in life.
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