← Success Story with Scott D. Clary
Success Story with Scott D. Clary
Lessons - The Wealth Paradox: Why Some Billionaires Are Broke (Scott)
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Scott
Lingoda is a partner of success story. Look, I'll be real with you. My French used to be solid. I learned it in school. I even had decent pronunciation. But when I booked a trip to France last year, it was a total blank. I could barely order a croissant without sounding like a tourist. So I jumped into the Lingoda Sprint challenge and man, it changed everything. I'd take live classes late at night after podcasting. Only five students max. Real teachers, real, real conversations. And in just two months, I went from bonjour to holding full conversations at a Paris cafe. Confidence unlocked. Now here's the play. 30 or 60 classes in 60 days. And if you finish them all, you get 50% cash back. That's basically €4 or $5 per class. That's insane value. Go to try.lingoda.com successsprint and then my code Scott sprint for an extra €20 off on top of their current deal. Registration closes May 5th. Classes start May 12th. Let's get fluent. Prolon is a success story partner now. Long weeks and busy weekends, they can leave everybody feeling depleted and tired. We work non stop. And that's why I love Prolon's five day fasting mimicking diet. I love this company. Let me explain how it works. Basically, they have a fasting mimicking diet that rejuvenates you from the inside and out. They deliver plant based soups, snacks and drinks that keep your body in a fasting state while giving you nutrition. And when your body's in a fasting state, this triggers cellular renewal and it actually works. This is why I loved intermittent fasting for so many years. This is the magic of Prolon. And the exciting news is that they just launched a new next gen five day program. So it has all the benefits of that they had before, but now they have 100% organic ingredients in their food, better taste and ready to eat meals that make the whole process easier. I've tried the original Prolon program. I felt fantastic whenever I do it. I personally cannot wait to try this new and improved version. And if you've never tried them before, you're in for a treat because the old one was great. I can't even imagine how good this new Prolon five day program is going to be. And for a limited time, Prolon is offering success story listeners, all you guys, 15% off site wide plus a $40 bonus gift. When you subscribe to their five day program, just go to prolonlife.com Clary that's P R O L O N L I f e.com Clary to get your 15% discount and your bonus gift. Prolonlife.com Clary in this lessons episode, I want to speak about the wealth Paradox, why some Billionaires are Broke we're going to talk about the true nature of wealth and why most entrepreneurs have it backwards. Because real wealth isn't what you earn, it's what you have minus what you want. We're going to cover Morgan Housel's wealth formula, why chasing more never works, and three practical steps to fix your relationship with money. You're going to learn how to grow your assets while managing your desires, and a strategy that most founders and entrepreneurs completely miss. Today I want to talk about the wealth paradox and why some billionaires are broke. And I know that many people listening to this podcast are not billionaires. But the whole point of today's podcast is to help you focus on on the right goals, on the right definition of wealth, especially when you're first starting out, so that you don't end up like billionaires who are quote unquote broke. But let me explain. Most of you are chasing the wrong definition of wealth. Every single day you wake up, you check your accounts, your revenue, your profit, your subscribers, your followers, and you are constantly monitoring metrics and you are always anxious about where you stand. I know this because I'm that person too. And you've read about the founders who've raised millions and they have just by all outside measures and metrics of success, made it. And you feel envy. You see your competitors buying vacation homes while you're reinvesting every single dollar into your business. And you're starting to wonder when you'll finally quote, unquote, make it. But what if I told you that some of the richest people in the world are actually broke now? Not financially broke, but broke in the way that actually matters. The whole reason why I put this piece together is because of a quote by Morgan Housel the best measure of wealth is what you have, minus what you want. And by this measure, some billionaires are broke. And this isn't just some feel good platitude designed to make you comfortable with mediocrity. It is a fundamental truth about wealth that most entrepreneurs completely miss. And I believe it is one that will transform your relationship with money, success and satisfaction if you truly understand it. So today I want to break down why the conventional definition of wealth is fundamentally flawed. How the wealthiest people that I know measure their success, and how you can build genuine wealth even while you're building your business. Because once you understand true wealth, you're never going to look at success the same way again. So most people get the wealth equation wrong. Let's get mathematical for a moment. Most people define wealth with a very simple equation. Wealth is equal to what you have, which means the more money, the more assets, and the more resources that you accumulate, the wealthier that you become. Simple, right? But the issue is that this equation is incomplete. It ignores the denominator of the wealth fraction what you want. So if we were going to redo this formula, the complete equation would look like this. Wealth equals what you have divided by what you want, and this changes everything. If what you want constantly expands to exceed what you have, you're never going to feel wealthy, no matter how much you accumulate. And this is why some people with millions and tens of millions feel broke, while other people with a modest amount of money feel abundant. I know founders personally who built eight figure businesses, but live in constant anxiety about the next milestone because they've trapped themselves in this perpetual cycle of wanting that keeps them feeling poor despite their objective success. Meanwhile, I know solopreneurs with six figure businesses who have designed their lives so intentionally that they experience genuine wealth every single day. They have mastered the denominator of the wealth equation. So at the end of the day, the problem isn't your revenue, it's your relationship with wanting. Now, I'm not saying that wanting things is inherently bad. I'm just saying that most people don't purposefully map out what they want in life and why, and they are playing this game based on someone else's idea of what success looks like, and that's why you're unhappy. Now, let's look at how this plays out in the real world. And I'll give you some examples of people who've seen rich on paper, but if you apply this equation, they're actually broke. And I personally believe this is the most meaningful measure of wealth and the best equation that you can apply to your own life. So let's tell a story about Elon Musk, who is the billionaire who can't stop working right? Elon Musk should be, by any objective measure, one of the wealthiest people alive. And at times, he's been the richest person on the planet. But there were times when he still slept on the couch at the Tesla factory during production crunches. He works 80 to 120 hours a week. He describes his life as excruciating, and he admits to taking Ambien just to sleep. Now, this isn't the lifestyle of a wealthy person. It's the lifestyle of someone who's fundamentally broke. Now, why? Because Musk's wants, they vastly exceed even his enormous halves. His ambitions for Tesla, for SpaceX, and all of his other ventures. They create a deficit that no amount of money can fill. Now, I'm not criticizing his choices or his ambition, but the wealth equation we're discussing. He is running a perpetual deficit. Now, contrast this with someone like Derek Cyvers, who sold his company CD Baby for 22 million, which is a lot less than a billion. He gave most of it to charity. Now, he lives a life of freedom, of learning and creation. Now, these are two opposite ends of the spectrum. I would still say a $22 million exit is great. Most people would love to have that. But the point is, by his own account, he feels extraordinarily wealthy because his wants are modest and intentional. So it's not about how much you have. It's about the gap between what you have and what you want. And I'll tell you, this pattern repeats itself across the entrepreneurial landscape. The founder who sells their company for 10 million but immediately feels empty because they've lost their identity. The creator, who reaches 1 million subscribers but can't enjoy it because they're fixated on competitors with 5 million. The consultant who earns 500k annually but works so much they have no time to enjoy any of their income. And they all look wealthy from the outside, but they live in this constant state of deficit. Now, let's explore how this applies to you directly and how you can start building true wealth right now, even if your business is still growing. So how do you become wealthy before you're, quote, unquote, rich? Wealth creation typically follows one of two paths. Path one, you increase what you have, while your wants expand even faster. Now, this is the default path. Each achievement unlocks new desires. Each milestone reveals new comparison. So your numerator grows, but your denominator grows faster. And path two, and that, by the way, this is most people. This is. This is. This is lifestyle creep that a lot of people succumb to. They make more money and they find ways to spend it or want more immediately, right? You're never satisfied. Now, path two is you increase what you have while carefully managing what you want. And this is the path to actual wealth, where your numerator grows through your hard work, but you maintain control over your denominator. Now, let me be clear. This isn't about limiting your ambition or settling for less. It's about being intentional about what you really want versus what you've been conditioned to want and there is a massive difference. You have to be aware of why you are pursuing the goals that you are pursuing. Are they actually your goals? Are they someone else's goals? Are they society's goals? Are they Instagram's goals? Are they your parents goals? Are they your spouse's goals? You have to do an audit. You have to do a want audit and a self audit because most of your wants aren't actually yours. They're implemented by comparisons to other entrepreneurs or just people. Social media highlights industry expectations, status games with your peer group. So if you take inventory of what you genuinely want versus what you think you should want, you start to ask yourself if no one would know about this achievement, would I still want it? Does this desire align with my deeper values or does it just align with my ego? And is this something I want or something I've been told to want? When I did this exercise, I personally was shocked that about 70% of my wants weren't actually mine. They were external expectations that I'd internalized. This podcast is brought to you in part by Stash. Are you still putting off saving and investing because you'll get to it someday? Stash turns someday into today. Stash isn't just an investing app. It's a registered investment advisor that combines automated investing with dependable financial strategies to help you reach your goals faster. They'll provide you with personalized advice on what to invest in based on your goals. Or if you just want to sit back and watch your money go to work, you can opt into their award winning expert managed portfolio that picks stocks for you. Stash has helped millions of Americans reach their financial goals and starts at just $3 per month. Don't let your savings sit around, make it work harder for you. Go to get.stash.com success story and see how you can receive $25 towards your first stock purchase and to view important disclosures, that's get.stash.com/success story paid non client endorsement, not representative of all clients and not a guarantee Investment Advisory Services offered by Stash Investments, LLC and SEC Registered Investment Advisor Investing involves risks and investments may lose value. Offers subject to T's and C's. I just want to take a second and thank Cornbread Hemp for supporting today's episode. Now Cornbread Hemp CBD gummies have been this really nice addition to my wellness toolkit. I don't use them every day, just when I want to unwind after those extra busy weeks, but they're perfect for those moments when you want to take the edge off and just find your balance, really just shut off from work. And what makes them special is how Cornbread hemp crafts them. They only use a flour of USDA organic hemp plants. That's the best part for the purest, most potent experience. No fillers, no artificial fluff, just clean full spectrum goodness in delicious watermelon, berry and peach flavor. I keep them in my nightstand for those moments when I just need a little extra help relaxing. And I love how transparent they are too. Every batch is third party lab tested so you know exactly what you're getting and they put together a special offer for all Success Story podcast listeners. All listeners can save 30% off their first order. Just head to cornbreadhemp.com success and use code success at checkout. That's cornbreadhemp.com success code success for 30% off your first order of these amazing gummies. Hey everyone, Scott here. I just want to take a second and say thanks for listening to the podcast over the past couple years. Obviously this wouldn't be possible without each and every one of you. I have a favor to ask so I would love to get some more information about you and why you listen to the podcast and why you listen to the show and why you tune in every week. And I have put together a short survey and we are using this to help us sort of inform what type of content we want to create and the direction of the podcast going forward. This information is not shared with anyone else, so this is just for us internally and I put together a link so scottdclary.com survey where you can go and you can fill in some information so we can know what kind of content you love. Also, for the first 100 people that respond to the survey, you will be entered into a draw for a hundred dollar Amazon gift card. So we'll be giving out one of those to the first people that respond. It should not take more than two minutes of your time to fill out the whole survey. It's really not that long and it will help you shape the future of the podcast podcast. So I really appreciate each and every one of you and thank you for listening. Number two Design your Enough so the most powerful financial concept is in compound interest. It's a concept of enough. So define what enough looks like across different dimensions of your life. Enough income to support your ideal lifestyle. Enough working hours to feel productive without burning out. Enough achievement to feel accomplished. Enough possessions to be comfortable without excess. This isn't setting a ceiling on your growth, it's establishing a floor for your satisfaction. Now, when you know what enough looks like, you can enjoy everything beyond it as a bonus rather than a requirement. The wealthiest people that I know have a very clear definition of enough now. The broke ones, regardless of their bank accounts, they never do. After you defined enough. Next, you want to practice conscious wealth daily. Because true wealth is not a future state. It is available right now through daily practice. That could mean gratitude without complacency. So you appreciate what you have while remaining ambitious. These are not mutually exclusive ideas, experience over accumulation. So I want you to prioritize experiences that create memories rather than possessions, that create clutter. And lastly, time abundance. Guard your calendar as fiercely as your bank account. Time wealth is the purest form of wealth. And the most reliable way to feel wealthy today is to spend a portion of your day in a way that would make others envious of your freedom, not your money. One of my founder friends that I know, he's worth about eight figures. He still drives a 10 year old car, but he blocks off every single Wednesday for hiking with no phone. That's wealth. Now I really want to show you how to apply this wealth mindset to your situation as a founder, creator, or just somebody who's super ambitious. I made the argument that true wealth requires addressing both sides of the equation simultaneously, right? Both the what you have and the what you want and the balance between the two. But the issue is most people only focus on the what you have and they never focus on the what you want. Most people will focus on the numerator, right? The building, the business, the developing multiple streams of income, the accumulating assets, the learning high leverage skills. Keep doing those things because they matter tremendously. But I'm telling you, they are only half of the equation. The whole lesson here is to manage the what you want part, right? This is the neglected side of the wealth building formula that separates the truly wealthy from the perpetually striving. This means that you have to distinguish between authentic desires and social programming. Like I just mentioned, you have to set clear enough thresholds. What is enough? If you don't define it, you're signing up for infinite dissatisfaction. And I know a lot of entrepreneurs, they have written thresholds, very specific thresholds for income, for material possessions, for business metrics. The happiest entrepreneurs, they know their numbers. And also you have to create space between stimulus and response. So when somebody appear, buys a larger house, or raises at a higher valuation, can you witness it without automatically adding it to your want list? This space is where wealth Lives. And the growth of your desires is truly the silent wealth killer that no one speaks about. Every time your mastermind group upgrades their lifestyle, you feel the pull to follow. Every time you hit a revenue milestone, the target immediately moves forward. Every single comparison creates a new want that has this gravitational force. And without conscious management of this process, you are building a wealth destroying machine alongside your wealth creating business. So I'm telling you right now, don't be like most entrepreneurs who try to solve their wealth problems exclusively on the numerator side, just make more money. But it's like trying to fill a bucket with a hole in the bottom. No amount of water will ever be enough. The truly happy, truly fulfilled people that combine aggressive growth of their assets with deliberate containment of their desires. Now you may ask Scott, well why is that? Why do we keep chasing money status, whatever that metric is? And really it's because there's a, there's safety in feeling broke. When you're not there yet, you have the perfect excuse for grinding yourself into the dust, saying no to all these life enriching experiences, postponing joy indefinitely. We're all, we're all, we're all guilty of this. You know, you've said things like, I'll relax after the exit, I'll spend time with family after this funding round, I'll focus on health when we hit 10 million. ARR. The vulnerability lies in admitting that you might already have enough for happiness. Right? The life you're living now is something that your past self could only dream about. And when I speak about this perspective with founders, I see this raw fear just flash across their eyes. Not fear of failure, fear of contentment. They are terrified that accepting their current situation as enough will kill their drive and their ambition. But this fear is based on a false dichotomy. Ambition and satisfaction aren't opposite. They are powerful allies. I don't know why people think they're polar opposites. You can be deeply grateful for what you have while enthusiastically building something greater. You can find your enough for today while creating more for tomorrow. This isn't a spiritual bypass or toxic positivity. It's hardcore strategic wealth management, addressing both sides of the equation simultaneously. The founders with the longest, most successful careers aren't the most driven or the most satisfied. They're the ones who've mastered the integration of both states. They celebrate milestones fully before immediately shifting the goalposts. They work with an intensity that would rival any successful entrepreneur without deriving their entire identity from their company. They enjoy financial success without becoming hostage to lifestyle inflation, and they compare themselves primarily to their past selves, not the peers or competitors. These ideas are the fundamental operating system of sustainable success. So at the end of the day, the wealthiest person isn't the one with the most zeros in their bank account. It's the one who can say with genuine conviction, I have more than I need and I know exactly what enough looks like. And when you know what enough looks like, you can make radically better business decisions. You don't make terrible deals out of desperation. You don't compromise your values for quick wins. You don't burn out your team chasing vanity metrics. You build from abundance rather than scarcity. And the ultimate irony is this mindset tends to create substantially more financial wealth over the long term because it enables sustainable, principled growth rather than destructive accumulation at all costs. Morgan Housel's insight that wealth equals what you have minus what you want isn't just clever. It's the most practical wealth building formula ever created. So ask yourself honestly, by this equation, are you rich or broke? If you're running a deficit, it's time to work both sides of the equation simultaneously, growing what you have while deliberately managing what you want. Because true wealth isn't having everything, it's wanting what you already have while building something greater. I have to take a second and thank Northwest Registered Agent for supporting today's episode. Now listen. I know a lot of entrepreneurs listen to this show. If you're an entrepreneur, if you're building a business, you have to listen. If you want to get more when you're launching your next big idea, Northwest Registered Agent lets you establish your entire business identity in just 10 clicks and 10 minutes. For nearly 30 years, they've been the secret weapon for entrepreneurs who want to move fast while getting expert guidance. For just $39 plus state fees, they'll handle your formation, create a custom website, and establish your local presence wherever your business takes you. 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