 In the culture where I grew up, when someone starts making money, there are three things you're expected to do. First, you should get married and have kids. Second, you should buy a car. And third, you should own your own home. The idea behind this unwritten commandment is that if at all you are broke in the future, that is after retirement, you have already done some important things with your life to protect you against extreme poverty. Another common tactic is that you should try as hard as you can. Try as hard as you can to work for the government, especially the federal government because if you work for private companies, you could be fired any time. But for the government, the political reason doesn't allow politicians to fire government employees as freely as privately owned businesses can. Until recent times, another common tactic in my culture is that you should make sure your children study medicine or law because if they study other courses in the university, they may not get good jobs. But for medicine or law, there are always jobs. You probably get where I'm going now. You see, most of the financial strategies the society taught us to use are defensive strategies. This is a wrong money habit and except you renounce such a habit, you'll be poor. While offensive wins the game, there are two basic warfare strategies, offensive and defensive. Defensive means that I don't want the enemy to invade me while offensive means that I want to invade the enemy. If I continue using defensive strategies, though I may protect my territory against the enemy for some time, the enemy will soon learn how to successfully penetrate my stronghold. Similar things happen with our finances. We have the option between trying not to be poor and fighting to become rich. Most people are trying not to be poor and that's defensive. Why do most people avoid offensive? Well, offensive means going all out. Offensive means running after your dreams. Offensive means risking your comfort and it could be risky. Defensive seems to make a lot of sense until it stops making sense. Let me tell you a personal story to explain what offensive looks like. In the year 2008, after about five months of starting in the business world, one of my friends called me and advised me to go and get a job because he saw me suffering. This particular friend knows me very well and knows all my academic successes. He knows that I was one of the best students while in school and I could easily get a job if I wanted to. So he asked me, why are you suffering in poverty while you can easily get a job to take care of yourself? My friend was right. Getting a job was going to make my life a lot easier because I'll get a paycheck every month and I will be protected against poverty. But my goal was not to be protected against poverty. My goal was to become rich. My goal was not to avoid poverty. My goal was to become wealthy. My goal was not to protect the enemy from invading my territory. My goal was to capture the enemy. Poor people don't want to be poor. Rich people want to be rich. There is a difference between the two mindsets and until you understand the difference you can't become wealthy. Trying not to be poor. Think about two students who just got admission to a university. One of them doesn't want to have poor grades while the second guy wants to get the best grades. These are two different mindsets and these difference in their mindset will influence how they think and what they do. For instance, the guy who doesn't want to have poor grades will inquire to know what is the minimum grade acceptable in the university while the guy who wants the best grade will inquire and pursue the highest possible grades anyone can have in the university. The first guy is defensive while the second guy is offensive. Though most people don't want to confess that they are the first guy in this strategy the truth is that most people are. Are you trying not to be poor? Or are you fighting to get rich? If you're trying not to be poor you'll be protective and careful about what you do because you don't want to be poor. If you're fighting to be rich you'll be proactive and aggressive towards your financial plan. Are you trying not to be poor? Fighting to be rich Signs of defensiveness I've tried as much as I can to explain the difference between trying not to be poor and fighting to be rich but if you don't get this let me show you some signs that show if you're trying to avoid poverty instead of trying to get rich. 1. You focus on what you cannot change There are two kinds of people in our world people who focus on what they don't have the power to change and people who focus on what they can change Most people I know and meet usually focus on what they can't change This is the sign of defensiveness because the reason why you focus on what other people are responsible for is that you wish they could fix those things so that you will have a better life On the other hand offensive people will focus on what they can change because they want to change something and conquer territories Check yourself and tell yourself the truth Do you complain about what the government is doing that makes you poor or you look at the mirror and blame yourself for what you're doing to make yourself poor Do you blame the government for bad policy or do you blame yourself for having read any book about money in the last year Do you blame the economy for your poverty or do you blame yourself for wasting several hours every day on social media If you point fingers at what you can't change you'll be using defensive strategies and you can't be rich To be rich you have to focus your life on what you can change Check yourself for what you are failing to do for yourself Take in 100% responsibility I was born into a grade 1 poverty and suffered rheumatism for the first 17 years of my life I wasn't able to attend school or live a normal life as a kid and to add to that I was born in a country where 1% of the population uses political power to steal all the money So at 16 years I had everyone in the world to blame for my poverty When I was around 17 I came across Brian Trace's book titled The Maximum Achievement Reading this book Trace simply told me Hey, you're responsible for your life If your life will change it's up to you While it could be difficult to accept I did accept that I was responsible for my future and started concentrating on what I have the power to change I don't have the power to stop the politicians from stealing my country's money but I have the power to go to a library and read books about money So I started reading books about money I don't have the power about the fact that I was born a sickly child but I have the power over what I eat to improve my health So I started avoiding sugar eating a lot of fruit and drinking a lot of water I don't have the power to influence how much my employer will be willing to pay me but I have the power to learn how to build a company So I concentrated on that and I decided that whatever happens to my future is my fault Take responsibility Full responsibility and your life will change 3. Don't be reactive Be proactive Steve Covey wrote about proactiveness in his popular book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People It's very simple Reactive people believe that life happens to them while proactive people believe that they make life happen Most people in the world are reactive They talk and think as though they have no power over their lives and destinies and that's why they do nothing to change their lives The one wrong habit every poor person has is that they try not to be poor instead of fighting to be rich They are reactive and focus on what they can change instead of being proactive and focusing on what they have the power to change Be proactive and responsible Don't be defensive Be offensive They are not on poverty They are on after riches Don't try to be poor Be all out and fight to be rich If you like this video you might like our other channel We call it Money TV and you can join the channel in the description box We Love You