Dangers of The Middle Class Mindset

Summary

Earn Your Leisure Podcast: Episode Summary

Title: Dangers of The Middle Class Mindset
Hosts: Rashad Bilal, Troy Millings
Guest: 19 Keys
Release Date: January 11, 2025

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1. Introduction to the Middle Class Mindset

In this thought-provoking episode of Earn Your Leisure, hosts Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings delve deep into the concept of the "Middle Class Mindset" and its implications on personal and financial growth. Joined by guest 19 Keys, the discussion aims to unravel how ingrained societal and familial beliefs can inadvertently hinder one's path to success and generational wealth.

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2. Defining the Middle Class Mediocre Mindset

Rashad Bilal initiates the conversation by introducing what he terms the "middle class mediocre mindset." He emphasizes its detrimental effects on individuals striving to break free from its confines:

Rashad Bilal [05:20]: "There is a thing called middle class mediocre mindset... it's extremely detrimental to your success if you're trying to break out of it and you don't really realize it until you're out of it."

This mindset, Rashad explains, is characterized by complacency and limited aspirations, often leading individuals to settle for stability over substantial growth.

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3. Generational Limitations and Their Impact

The hosts and 19 Keys explore how limitations are perpetuated across generations. Rashad shares an illustrative experiment involving flies and jars to demonstrate how perceived boundaries can restrict potential:

Rashad Bilal [05:52]: "They put a cap on a jar, and the flies could only fly as high as the cap. Even when the lid was removed, the flies still only flew to the original height... Their children only flew as high as the invisible lid because they were already programmed that that's only as high as you can go."

This metaphor underscores how children internalize the limitations set by their environment and upbringing, often without conscious awareness.

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4. Societal Norms and Personal Aspirations

The discussion shifts to everyday scenarios where societal expectations curtail personal ambitions. Rashad shares personal anecdotes highlighting the subtle pressures to conform to middle-class norms:

Rashad Bilal [05:51]: "You ever had somebody say, like, you just came back from a trip, why are you traveling so much? Well, why not?"

Such remarks, he argues, sow seeds of doubt and self-imposed restrictions, preventing individuals from pursuing their true passions and goals.

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5. Contrasting Mindsets: Middle Class vs. Wealthy

A significant portion of the episode contrasts the middle class mindset with that of the wealthy elite. Rashad posits that while the middle class seeks comfort within established boundaries, the wealthy create their own rules and environments:

Rashad Bilal [09:34]: "Rich people don't have any rules. They make their own rules."

This segment highlights the importance of autonomy and the willingness to challenge the status quo as key differentiators between maintaining the middle class mindset and achieving substantial financial success.

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6. Practical Exercises for Mindset Transformation

To empower listeners, 19 Keys introduces actionable exercises aimed at shifting mindsets and setting ambitious financial goals:

19 Keys [16:55]: "Everyone in chat. If you had to make $2 million in three months, write out at what price point you would sell your products. How many do you need to sell, and what's your plan to get there?"

Such exercises encourage listeners to think beyond their current limitations and strategically plan for significant financial milestones.

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7. Embracing Fear and Taking Action

The conversation takes a reflective turn as Rashad discusses the role of fear in inhibiting personal growth. He shares a transformative realization:

Rashad Bilal [19:05]: "Once you embrace death, you're not afraid to live because you realize that we're all going to die one day."

By confronting the inevitability of mortality, individuals can liberate themselves from the fear of failure and societal judgment, paving the way for bold actions and meaningful endeavors.

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8. The Power of Mindset Over Money

Concluding the core discussion, Rashad emphasizes that mindset, rather than the amount of money one has, is pivotal in attracting and managing wealth:

Rashad Bilal [14:35]: "The goal is creating something that is going to change the world... It's not necessarily the money because you could still make a lot of money and still have a middle class mindset."

This perspective shifts the focus from mere financial accumulation to creating value and impacting the world positively.

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9. Final Takeaways

The episode wraps up with a reaffirmation of the episode's central theme: the urgent need to recognize and overcome the limitations imposed by the middle class mindset. By adopting an abundance mentality, setting ambitious goals, and embracing fearless action, listeners are encouraged to pave their own paths to success and generational wealth.

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Notable Quotes:

• Rashad Bilal [05:23]: "Middle class mediocre mindset... extremely detrimental to your success."
• 19 Keys [16:55]: "If you had to make $2 million in three months, write out at what price point you would sell your products."
• Rashad Bilal [19:05]: "Once you embrace death, you're not afraid to live because you realize that we're all going to die one day."

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This episode of Earn Your Leisure serves as a compelling call to action for listeners to reassess their mental frameworks, challenge societal norms, and strive for greater financial and personal achievements beyond the constraints of the middle class mindset.

Transcript

[Rashad Bilal]

Earners.

[Troy Millings]

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[Rashad Bilal]

I want to talk about this.

[19 Keys]

I wasn't going to take the tweet down.

[Rashad Bilal]

What tweet?

[19 Keys]

I'm talking about Skip. I told you about Skip. Go ahead. I'm going to let you finish your monologue. We'll have issues on our show. Go ahead.

[Rashad Bilal]

So it's important to understand before I say this, we come from a working class environment like, you know, sanitation workers and nurses and school teachers and, you know, real hard working people. People that saved up for a vacation maybe once every two years, you know, working to send their kids to college. Different things of that nature. Right. So I want to preference it before I say that.

[19 Keys]

Okay?

[Rashad Bilal]

No, no, no. It's important, what's going on. But there is a thing called middle class mediocre mindset. I think I've coined that phrase. I haven't heard anybody else say it, but, you know, I was just thinking about it, and it's extremely detrimental to your success if you're trying to break out of it and you don't really realize it until you're out of it. It's like the Matrix. You never really realize you're in the Matrix until you break out of the Matrix.

[19 Keys]

Fact.

[Rashad Bilal]

And, you know, 19 Keys has said something, and I actually looked it up on YouTube and it's actually true, where they did a research study where they took flies and they put them in a jar and they put a. They put a cap on a jar, and the flies obviously could only fly as high as the cap, the lid. When they took the lid off, they still only flew as high as the lid, even though the lid was off. That's interesting. But what's even more interesting is that when they had children, their children only flew as high as the invisible lid because they were already programmed that that's only as high as you can go. So, you know, it's interesting. Like, so many different things when I think about it. And you probably don't even realize these. These things happen. But you ever heard, like, parents tell their children, like, you just went, you just played yesterday. You just had fun yesterday. Just had a party yesterday. Like, you can only have fun one day out of the week. You can only have a party one day. Like, I had a family. Like, I took my son to. To dinner in the city for his birthday. His birthday was on a Tuesday. And somebody said, like, well, why are you taking them to the city on Tuesday? Like, why don't you just take them on the weekend? And I'm like, well, because his birthday's on Tuesday. But that's the whole mentality of, like, low, let's just wait till the weekend because we're working and we gotta get up. Like, I say that to say, you really have to break out of the middle class mindset because it's extremely detrimental. And the most dangerous thing that America ever did was create a middle class. Because when you create a middle class, you create some level of comfort because you're not in poverty, right? You're not in poverty. So you think that you actually are living the American dream, yet you're not. You're really not. And it's like that mindset is so detrimental because there's so many limiting factors that go into play here, right? Where it's like, you got to wait till the weekend to do things and you can only, like, you ever had somebody say, like, you just came back from a trip, why are you traveling so much? Well, why not? Well, why not? Why am I not traveling? So much work for like, you know what I'm saying? Like, why am I not traveling? It's a lot of these things that you have to be extremely careful to kind of people that you're around because these kind of limiting words develop habits in your subconscious. And then you feel bad about it. You, like, you, you feel guilty about going on a trip, you feel guilty about going out two nights in a row. You feel guilty about going to the city on Tuesday. Like, you start to like, reel it back a little bit. Like, no, I'm doing too much. Let me, let me pull back. But at the highest level, there's no limitations. And I'm speaking from firsthand experience because I see it. So when we in Dubai or Abu Dhabi on a win, nobody knows whether it's Wednesday or Saturday or Sunday. It doesn't matter. Just living life doesn't matter. It really doesn't. Nobody says, It's 4 o'clock in the morning, what are you doing out? Nobody says it's 6:00, you have to get up. This. There's really no rules in life. At the highest level, there's no rules. Rules are only for middle class and poor people. Rich people don't have any rules. They make their own rules. So.

[19 Keys]

And we can argue that the middle class died and after Clinton left office.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, yeah. So it's extremely important to understand that. And like I said, I'm not even speaking from a level of like, condescending, but I'm speaking from firsthand experience because I've seen both, both hands of it. Like, this is how I grew up. So now when I'm in a different environment, but I always thought like that, but you start to see it. You start to see things and it's like, damn, it's hard to even get people to understand that the way that they're thinking is so small and so limiting, so you don't even waste your time. But for everybody that's watching it, you're on your pathway to generational wealth, you're on your pathway to success, you're on your pathway to becoming, you know, a superstar in the entrepreneur world. Whatever you want to do with your life. So just be mindful of that because a lot of times you're limiting yourself based off of the expectations that have been laid down from you, from your parents, your grandparents, your friends, your neighbors. So just be mindful of that. It's very important.

[19 Keys]

And a quick exercise real quick so it doesn't come off as elitist because you know, I want to end up on shade room or nothing.

[Rashad Bilal]

Shade room, please. I'm hoping to end up on shade room. I need. We need shade room. We need that 500 dinners coming back now.

[Troy Millings]

You understand us?

[Rashad Bilal]

500 dates coming back. Polygamy.

[19 Keys]

Listen, the only thing they gonna listen to. Diddy vibes, what we doing.

[Rashad Bilal]

The only thing they gonna listen to.

[19 Keys]

My man had a baby. Anyway, please write in chat. If money was not an object or issue, what are the three things you would do spending your day on? It's very important to set that. I remember when I set the decision to become an investor and trader, I'm like, man, I just want to be able to trade, not have to talk to anyone regarding doing business and be able to make money out of the ether. And man, I have to bust my ass to be able to get there. But that manifested. I will tell you that the middle class has died though. Even. I know a lot of people are mad about that quote from Grant Cardone on if he only made X amount of dollars per year. But the truth is, took it a little too far. Yeah, if, if. Did he though?

[Rashad Bilal]

No, I mean, some things you can't say. Some things you can't say.

[19 Keys]

And see, that's why I respect it. Okay, now if we're gonna be honest because now I got some energy, right?

[Rashad Bilal]

6,400 people on YouTube.

[19 Keys]

Let's go. About to argue. Let's go.

[Rashad Bilal]

This is what they want.

[19 Keys]

This is what they want, the truth, right? Because if you, if it's not just about you, I don't want you to make half a million dollars to go blow it on Balenciaga and Mike and Mary and all that, right? But let's say if you're going to help five people in your family, how much does it cost to help five people in your family and take care of all your stuff and be debt free? There's a cost. So I want you guys, one of my favorite exercises of money mastery game. How much money do you need to retire you and three people that you love and give everyone that you love a soft life, you know, because when I date, I don't even mind to wash no dishes, nothing.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah, I'm not. No, I'm not. That's not the part that is, That's. That was like all right, maybe since I think the word ashamed is what triggered me personally.

[19 Keys]

Like if you're a great marketer, you don't think he did that?

[Troy Millings]

No, I get, No, I get the, I get the marketing part of it. I'm just saying, right. If you're in pursuit of that, like everybody has a threshold, right? Like when you're saying like, hey, we got to prepare for where we want to go.

[Rashad Bilal]

Right.

[Troy Millings]

And so sometimes when you're in the grind, I talked about that on, I think that was drink champs. When you're talking about when we're in that survival mode. Yeah, we can have the goal of 400,000, we can have the goal of 15 million. But I got to work on the day to day. I might be in pursuit of it. Should I feel ashamed that I'm not there yet? I don't think so. Like that, that word I think is what triggered like if, if you're not there now, great. You might be in pursuit of.

[19 Keys]

Yeah, we can't knock the people that's.

[Troy Millings]

In pursuit of it.

[Rashad Bilal]

You can't, you can't, you can't disrespect people. You can't just.

[19 Keys]

I don't think he was saying it's a disrespect, but it did come. That's how he said it.

[Rashad Bilal]

The tone.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah, the tone.

[19 Keys]

What you say is how you say it, Right. So ashamed, I think is a strong word. Like I personally haven't hit what my personal income goal is ever. I'm mad that I haven't hit it yet. Meta, write my check so I can hit it. But I think we have to have realistic goals. Cause like, well, excuse me, unrealistic goals. Because the truth is, as a person that has hit a realistic goal 25 times, it's not a good feeling to hit that goal and be like, fuck, I should have, should have asked for more, should have did more, should have pushed for more. I should have been not only going after Meta, but every top 1000 company on Earth at the same time.

[Rashad Bilal]

But what I also realize is that even like being around billionaires and hanging around people, that's extremely wealthy, non figures. The goal is never money.

[19 Keys]

Yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

The goal is, is creating something that is going to change the world. The gold is creating like, you know, that's the goal. Right. So even.

[Troy Millings]

Or helping people create something.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah. So even the money, I think that, you know, it's not really about money. That's why I wanted to say the middle class mindset, it's not necessarily the money because you could still Make a lot of money and still have a middle class mindset. Right. It's, it's liberating yourself from the shackles of the oppression that was put on you from people.

[19 Keys]

And it was that cost though?

[Rashad Bilal]

Well, it depends.

[19 Keys]

If you're in New York, how much does it cost?

[Rashad Bilal]

Well, first, before. So for me personally, right before I had any money, I was already liberated. I didn't have no money and I, I was already on that type of time. I never had a real job. I was always waking up whenever I wanted. I was always doing. I went to Asia with 30 for 30 days. I wasn't rich when I did that. And it's like people were saying that at that time, like, I went to Asia. We went to Asia five years ago for 30 days with a round trip plane ticket and two nights in a hotel with no plan. We winged it, we went to five different countries and people like, well, why would you go and do that? You got two types of people in this world. You got, you got one type of people that say why? And the other type that say why not? So they say, like, why are you going to do it? Well, why not? Because I'm going to die one day and if I don't do it, then I'm never going to have an opportunity to do it. So instead of asking me why I'm going to do it, ask yourself why you're not going to do it. So that doesn't really take money to kind of have that first. Mine makes money. Money don't make money, doesn't make the person. Your mind is the most important thing, period.

[19 Keys]

Absolutely.

[Rashad Bilal]

Once you get your mind right, then the money's just going to come flowing because now you're in abundance mindset and it, you're attracting it, you're attracting it. But what you're doing with these negative thoughts and these limiting thoughts is that you're actually blocking it. So it's extremely, it's extremely important for people to understand that because I feel like a lot of times people don't fully understand how their mind is so powerful and how, and even the things that you tell your children, just be careful how you speak to your children because it's like you're, you're already instilling fear. You're already instilling different things in them that you might not even be aware of. And it's like they're already growing up with limitations and fear. At 10 years old, at 8 years old.

[19 Keys]

Yep. This is an interesting thought exercise. Yeah. Everyone in chat. If, if you had to make $2 million in three months. Write out, at what price point would you sell your products? How many do you need to sell, and what's your plan to get there? One of my favorite things to do is reverse engineer. How do you get from this point, and what are the steps you need to take to get back there? For me personally, when I was in investing, I was watching CNBC like crazy. And it was Maria, part of Romo and Santanelli and everybody back in the day, right? And I'm like, if they would just give the prices and fundamentals, right? So that's when I started working on the formulation that became the crystal ball, because I thought you should be able to, like, know the fundamentals of a company and give the price in, like, less than 30 seconds, right? So everyone in chat, $2 million, three months. What is your formulation? But it all started with the problem. When I was watching CNBC in 2008, the information wasn't that clear. And here we are today in 2022, 2023, doing this for you guys for free at scale, right? Shout out to y'all. But whatever you put into your mind eventually will matter. And for my Christians, I keep saying it, how can you be a child of God and be afraid to put your ideas, proclamations, products and services out into the world and serve him? And he made the moon mountain stars, grass, gr. Grasshopper, man, go get that this year. $2 million in three months. What's your plan?

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, you know what changed my life? This is the last thing I'll say about this. You know what changed my life? Because even social media, I always tell this story. I want to do this eight years ago. What we're doing now. I wanted to do it eight years ago, but, you know, it's fear, it's self doubt. It's thinking, like, you know, what will people think of me? I have 500 followers in a private. I had a private page with 500 followers. This. No, this is just. This is just reality. Yeah, but you know what? You know what?

[19 Keys]

How many years ago was this?

[Rashad Bilal]

This when. When we started?

[19 Keys]

Yeah, when you have 500 followers, that was like six.

[Rashad Bilal]

That was like six years ago.

[19 Keys]

Life could change in half a decade, yo.

[Rashad Bilal]

Like, that was like six years ago. But. But you know what I realized I had an epiphany that I'm going to die. Once you embrace death, you're not. You're not afraid to live. I'll say that again. Once you embrace death, you're not afraid to live because you realize that we're all going to die one day. And ultimately somebody's opinion of you doesn't matter what people think of you, don't matter what people are going to say about you doesn't matter because it's like it's a very short period of time that we have on this earth, so you might as well just make the most of it because what's the worst that could happen? The worst that could happen, it just doesn't work out. But it's like if you never tried or if you never really went for it, now you gotta live with regret. And regret is much harder to live with than failure. You can live with failure, it didn't work. People fail all the time. But to live with regret is much harder to deal with because you never know what's going to happen. So nobody wants to be on their DeathBed when they're 70 years old, 80 years old, 90, whatever. And it's like, damn, I wasted my whole life. I really didn't do anything because I was afraid of what my friend would have wrote on Instagram.

[Unknown]

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