There is no “Get Rich Slowly” category in the success literature genre. Why?
Because we want it now.
Because we’ve been undisciplined in our spending, and we can’t afford to wait.
Because millennia of living with the constant threat of starvation has conditioned us to have a scarcity mentality instead of an abundance mentality.
Because “thoughtful” and “patient” aren’t qualities that typically get you associated with the “in” crowd in your industry.
Because we’re poor at long-term thinking.
Jeff Bezos, on the subject of long-term thinking, once said: “It’s not natural for humans. So it’s a discipline you have to build. The get rich slowly schemes (emphasis mine) are not big sellers on infomercials. That’s something that you have to … teach over time”
But while the “get rich slowly” success stories abound, our eyeballs are immediately captured by the shimmering oasis of the “get rich quick” schemes.
Even the word “schemes” seems to commonly be associated with “get rich quick” ideas, never “get rich slow” ideas. When Bezos, in the quote above, attaches the word “schemes” at the end of “get rich slowly”, he’s being funny and poking fun at the whole idea of “scheme” and long term thinking.
The business press know we love a good get rich quick story, which is why we’re fed a steady diet of people who experienced (seemingly easy) income jumps.
But successful stories are often that: a narrative that the storyteller wants you to hear. They want you to think that their success was about them. They want to think that themselves as well. But you know as well as I do that if they had not succeeded we would have heard a litany of complaints about the external factors that doomed them. But when they succeed, it’s because they had the vision and guts lacking in the hearts of mere mortals.
Consider the “get rich slowly” idea. Commit yourself to something bigger than yourself that will require something more than luck.
Good luck!