Making money is not easy… duh. But what’s making it harder is the misconceptions we have about money.
Why does it seem that people who really want to make money never do? It has something to do with the misconception we have about money.
The biggest mistake I have ever made was that I was chasing money, and it seemed that I was chasing them away from me. When I finally realized that I should be focusing more on things like quality content, message and marketing, the money came pouring in.
Even after I made 800.000$, I was still unable to really “dig” money, and later on I discovered that I had awful misconception about money and the way I should treat them.
So here are 5 of the biggest misconceptions about money that is blocking you to be financially independent and stay there:
1. Money = Emotion (Wrong)
Let me put it in simpler terms. If you want to make money to feel happy, fulfilled or feel like a big shot, there is a high chance that you won’t make them and higher chance that you won’t sustain them. Oh, and yes. You will never feel those emotions once you make money.
Chasing something physical cannot make you happy or fulfilled. Even if you get them by chasing those emotions, you will feel even more depressed when you realize that you are not a tiny bit happier now that you have them.
We have to realize that anything physical — be it a Rolex or a Bentley — is not going to give us positive emotion on long-term. It’s actually based on science.
At the heart of it all, stuff makes us feel good, and we all love feeling good. Many human behaviors are rewarded with pleasurable feelings (caused by the chemical dopamine). Buying stuff can release those same pleasure chemicals, and for many of us, our natural addiction to feeling good can hence be easily satisfied by buying something.
2. More Money = Less Worries (Wrong)
As a matter of fact, the people with less worries are the bumps you see on the street. They worry about the basic human needs: food, water and shelter. If you want to have less worries, I suggest you to throw all your money away and join them.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I don’t say that if you make money you’ll have 1000x things to worry about and you’ll be overloaded with stress and problems. I am just saying that if your aim is to make money to have less problems, you’ve taken the wrong turn already.
Educating ourselves about finances and the way we should handle them, will make our life easier, but having more money to have less worries is wrong. Here’s why is that: when financially poor people worry about a lot of things in times of hardship, they start to imagine that finances will make it all go away in a blink of an eye, which in fact doesn’t come from a state of abundance, but a state of worry and scarcity.
3. Money = Security (Wrong)
While this can be partially true, money won’t make you secure. Let me explain why is that.
When a person thinks about security, they think about predictability. Humans have the need to know what’s going to happen next. We just can’t stand not knowing about the outcome of our actions.
When we flirt with a man or a woman in a bar, we want to know what they are going to say back, right? “Are we getting declined or accepted as company?” We hate the lack of predicament in the everyday life.
Thinking that money will decrease the predicament is wrong, especially if your security means predicament (which I am 99.9% that it does). Success comes with a price, and one of the cost is taking risks, sometimes higher than the ones we can take. This in turn will decrease the “security” we imagine to get from money. So no. Money is not security in terms of predicament.
4. Money = Debt Free (Wrong)
Having a company comes with a lot of costs. From office space to employees, to gear, digital servers to taxes to a bazillion other things, company will put you in more financial debt and stress if you lack knowledge to sustain and grow it.
And here’s one brilliant example: what’s the difference between someone who makes $50.000 a year with a $100.000 mortgage and someone who makes $500.000 a year with a $1.000.000 million mortgage? Answer: nothing. Unless they have money set aside for emergencies, they’re both a paycheck away from disaster, especially the one with higher mortgage.
Debt often rises with income. What keeps you out of debt isn’t a high income or net worth. It’s not borrowing money.
Read After: The Ultimate Guide To Become Successful Under Any Given Circumstances
5. Money = Love (Wrong)
The only thing that money will bring is a gold digger that will take your money away.
By aiming to find love with money, you attract people who love money more than love, because that’s your reflection on relationship, love and money. We attract the things we are.
Yes, sometimes having more cash in your pocket can take you to a fancier dinner, but that has nothing to do with love. You can have the loveliest date on a picnic in nature that will probably cost you less than a glass of wine in a fancy restaurant.
Bottom Line – Money = Freedom (CORRECT)
To me, money is freedom. Yes, we can still say that money will make you “shackled” to something that is opposite of freedom, but let me explain.
When you work something out of passion and have a clear vision about the future of it, you reap an extraordinary power to make that thing work. You will educate yourself, practice it, and learn it until you master it. If you can find that job of your dreams, then you’ll truly feel what I am saying (I hope that you already did).
When you set you company and put the chess pieces in place by applying the knowledge, your company will give you the real freedom that we all search in all forms and emotions.
If you truly look at each and every one of the misconceptions we mentioned above, you will find Freedom piece in each and every one.
Don’t chase money. Chase your personal development to create a company that will truly set you free.
