MBA2695 Why You Are Still Poor & How To Get Rich

Summary

Podcast Summary: The $100 MBA Show

Episode: MBA2695 — Why You Are Still Poor & How To Get Rich

Host: Omar Zenhom
Date: October 27, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this episode, host Omar Zenhom delivers a candid and practical lesson on why so many people remain financially stuck, despite hard work, and lays out the true path to building wealth: leverage. Drawing on his two decades of entrepreneurship, Zenhom explores the traps of trading time for money, breaks down four main types of leverage, and offers actionable advice on how to escape the financial dead end of working harder instead of smarter. This episode is densely packed with both personal anecdotes and sharp business insights, aimed at anyone aiming to transform their financial reality.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Trap: Trading Time for Money

[01:15 - 02:30]

• Omar identifies the central reason most people stay “poor”: they trade their time for money.
• It doesn’t matter if you’re an employee, freelancer, or solo entrepreneur—if your income depends entirely on your direct labor, you’re capped.
• “You can never work enough hours to get rich. There’s only 24 hours in the day. We all have 24 hours in the day. No one gets more hours than the other person. No matter how good you are, you can’t scale yourself. You can’t make more time.” (Omar, 02:05)

The Solution: Leverage

[02:31 - 04:50]

• Inspired by investor Naval Ravikant, Omar defines leverage as “your effort produces results without requiring direct time every single moment.”

The Four Main Forms of Leverage

1. Labor ([03:00]):
   • Using other people’s time (e.g., hiring a VA for $500/month), “you’re no longer using your own time… some else is doing that now.”
   • The bigger your team, the greater your leverage.
2. Capital ([03:40]):
   • Money that works for you via investments, loans, or by reinvesting profits.
   • “Capital is a multiplier.”
3. Code ([04:05]):
   • Technology and software that operates 24/7 without your direct input.
   • Example: Webinar Ninja, sold to customers even while Omar was sleeping or on vacation.
   • “This code…was serving me at a higher leverage because it’s doing things I can’t do 24/7.”
4. Media ([04:30]):
   • Content that scales (podcasts, videos, sales pages, etc.).
   • “Media is a form of leverage because you can create it once and then put it out, and many, many, many people can see it by just one creation.”

Why Building Wealth Requires Business

[05:05 - 05:55]

• Jobs provide, at best, incremental raises—and they always require your effort.
• “You don’t build wealth with a job. You build wealth with a business. Why? Because a business is simply a machine that uses leverage.”
• Every self-made wealthy person uses one or more forms of leverage to break the link between time and money.

The Multiplicative Power of Business

[08:56 - 09:50]

• A business, when structured right, provides exponential rather than linear results.
• “Your business is the vehicle that turns effort into exponential results. And that’s the beauty of having a business… Without it, you’re just sprinting on a hamster wheel.”
• Omar emphasizes from experience: after building real leverage, his financial life transformed.

Personal Anecdotes & Hard Truths

[09:51 - 11:48]

• Omar shares his personal story of being stuck in the “wrong game” as a school teacher, always limited by the poverty cycle.
• “That cycle just never ends because I have no leverage. I have no way to make exponential money… with a business you could do something from one month to the next and double your money, triple your money, five extra money.” (Omar, 10:45)
• “Silly games get you silly rewards. You gotta play the right game, and business is the right game.” (Omar, 10:09)

How to Start Using Leverage

[12:00 - 15:00]

• Start Small:

  • Don’t try to use all four types of leverage at once. Pick one and begin.
  • For example, Omar started with media (this podcast), then hired labor, then invested in code, then leveraged capital.
  • “Every video, every post, every podcast episode that you publish is an asset that sells while you sleep.” (Omar, 13:50)

• Actionable Steps:

  • Hire even a part-time VA to reclaim time.
  • Begin automating with software or AI, or hire out the tech.
  • Start content creation (media) to build marketing assets that work around the clock.
  • Reinvest profits rather than just collecting a paycheck.

• Mindset Shift:

  • Many people avoid leverage because trading time for money is familiar and feels safe—even though it keeps them broke.
  • Breaking out of this comfort zone is necessary for wealth.

• “Wealth, again, is not about working harder. It’s about working smarter and multiplying your efforts with leverage… If I just work hard, I’m going to be all right. No, you gotta work hard on the right things.” (Omar, 14:25)

The Emotional Toll of Financial Struggle

[16:20]

• Omar speaks directly to listeners experiencing financial stress and limitation.
• “All that passion, all that raising my voice today, it comes from a place of love. … It’s so rough not having enough money. I know it’s incredibly stressful. And it stresses every part of your life, your relationships, your family, your health, your dreams.”
• He urges listeners: start with one lever, trust the process, and see results build over time.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “If your income relies 100% on your personal labor, you will never get rich. That’s just the bottom line.”
  — Omar Zenhom [02:17]

• “You don’t build wealth with a job. You build wealth with a business. … a business is simply a machine that uses leverage.”
  — Omar Zenhom [05:22]

• “Your business is the vehicle that turns effort into exponential results. And that’s the beauty of having a business. And by the way, without it, you’re just sprinting on a hamster wheel.”
  — Omar Zenhom [08:56]

• “Silly games get you silly rewards. You gotta play the right game, and business is the right game.”
  — Omar Zenhom [10:09]

• “Wealth, again, is not about working harder. It’s about working smarter and multiplying your efforts with leverage.”
  — Omar Zenhom [14:25]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Trading Time for Money Trap: 01:15 — 02:30
• Forms of Leverage: 02:31 — 04:50
• Why Business, Not a Job, Builds Wealth: 05:05 — 05:55
• Multiplicative Power of Business: 08:56 — 09:50
• Personal Story of Escaping the Trap: 09:51 — 11:48
• How to Start with Leverage: 12:00 — 15:00
• Emotional Reality of Scarcity and Call to Action: 16:20 — End

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Final Thoughts

Omar Zenhom’s core message in this episode is simple yet profound: Stop trading hours for dollars and start building leverage through business. Leverage is accessible to everyone in some form—media, labor, code, or capital—and is the only real way to escape the cycle of financial scarcity. This episode serves as both a wake-up call and a roadmap, urging listeners to take their first step towards lasting wealth by adopting leverage, even in the smallest way.

“If you want to escape poverty, start playing the right game—and that’s the game of leverage.”

Transcript

[A]

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[B]

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When you stop working, the money stops coming in as well. And that is the ultimate financial dead end. If you want to get rich, you have to escape this trap. The way out is something called leverage. Welcome Back to the $100 NBA Show. I'm your host Omar Zenh where I deliver practical business lessons three times a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday to help you start, grow and scale your business real quick. If these episodes help you in any way, hit the Follow button on this podcast app. It helps us to keep bringing you practical business insights three times a week for free. Thanks. Let's be real. Most jobs, whether you're an employee or a freelancer, or even self employed, like a one person service business, you're just a different version of the same trap. You trade your hours, you trade your energy, you trade your life for a paycheck. And here's the kicker. You can never work enough hours to get rich. There's only 24 hours in the day. We all have 24 hours in the day. No one gets more hours than the other person. No matter how good you are, you can't scale yourself. You can't make more time. That's why doctors, lawyers, consultants, people that make good money can still go broke. If they stop working, the money dries up. The truth is, if your income relies 100% on your personal labor, you will never get rich. That's just the bottom line. So how do people actually get rich? They use something called leverage. I learned this years ago from a guy named Naval Ravikant. And he taught me that leverage means your effort produces results without requiring direct time every single moment. Meaning that you're not always using your time in order for you to a result. And there are four main forms of leverage. The first one is labor, and that is when other people's time is being used. When you hire a team, when you hire even one person like a VA for $500 a month, that is leverage. You're no longer using your own time, your own energy, your own life to create something for your business, to create value for your customers. Somebody else is doing that now. And therefore you have leverage. You're able to utilize somebody else's time. This is why when you're networking and talking to and you'll learn somebody's business has 200 team members. The reason why you're impressed by that is because they have 200 people leveraging their time, their effort, their energy to build something valuable for their business. The second form of leverage is capital. Money. Money that works for you. That could be investments like real estate or stocks. It could be loans. You're getting a loan from the bank. It could be assets that's generating returns. This could be you taking the profits from your business and reinvesting it in your business to make it more profitable and make it more valuable. Capital is a multip Leverage form number three code. This is software, this is technology, this is tools, this is AI. Things that work for you 24, seven while you sleep. For example, I had a software business called Webinar Ninja that we built and then sold. After 10 years, we got acquired. And when I was running that business, this software was being sold to people while I was sleeping, while I was on vacation, while I was having dinner, while I was playing basketball. Right 24 7. This code, this software was doing work and providing a product, a service to people to get a job done. And it was valuable to people, so people paid for it. And therefore that code was serving me at a higher leverage because it's doing things I can do 247 fourth form of leverage media. That's content marketing. That is emails. That's podcasts, that's books. That's YouTube videos. Those are sales videos. These ads. Media is a form of leverage because you can create it once and then put it out. And many, many, many people can see it by just one creation. One piece of content can be shared and, and can be consumed by millions. Every wealthy person you know that has built their wealth by themselves and inherit it has used one or more of these levers of leverage. That's how you break out of that time for money prison. So you're probably now seeing the uncomfortable truth. You don't build wealth with a job. You build wealth with a business. Why? Because a business is simply a machine that uses leverage. It uses labor, a team that grows and outputs beyond what one person can do. It uses capital like investors or revenue from the business to reinvest in the business and get more cash flow. It uses code like systems and automations and software to be able to serve more customers. Next, the fourth form of leveraged media. Your brand, your marketing, your social media, your reputation compounds over time and earns you more money. And now with the media, there's no gatekeepers. You could create a podcast tomorrow. 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[B]

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[B]

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[A]

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[B]

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[A]

Your business is the vehicle that turns effort into exponential results. And that's the beauty of having a business. And by the way, without it, you're just sprinting on a hamster wheel. Faster and faster, but never really moving forward, never really going anywhere. I know this firsthand because I did that for over a decade trying to get ahead financially and couldn't because I didn't have any forms of leverage because I didn't build a business. And once I did build a business, things changed. I really saw the light. If you're still poor, it's because you're not playing the right game. That's just it. It's not because you're unlucky. It's not because you don't have the skills or you don't have the know how. It's just that you've been playing the wrong game for a very long time. And that game doesn't actually get you much return. They say silly games get you silly rewards. You got to play the right game and business is the right game. You're in the game of survival right now. You're just trying to survive. Paycheck to paycheck, client to client, hour to hour. That game is rigged against you. I know firsthand. I was a teacher, a school teacher for over a decade, and I was in that cycle. You know, I would have just enough money and then things got expensive and now I barely have enough money. And that Cycle just never ends because I have no leverage. I have no way to make exponential amount of money. Like, the most I could ever get is a raise, which is like 10% more money. But with a business, you could do something from one month to the next and double your money, triple your money, five extra money. You know, there are startups and software companies that go from zero to $100 million in a year, in eight months. That's not a mistake, that is reality. Because these businesses are really using leverage to build that wealth. The game of wealth is all about leverage. And it starts the moment you decide to stop being a worker bee and start being a builder. Somebody that builds an asset, builds a business that serves them. That's what's beautiful about business, is that you're building something that has its own intrinsic value. You're building something that is going to work for you rather than you work for it. So instead of only doing labor, start hiring labor. Even one assistant frees you up. So for example, if you hire a virtual assistant for $500 a month from the Philippines or in South America, they can take care of all this. Admin tasks that are on you, calendars, emails, helping you edit things, proofreading, helping you through AI, all that kind of stuff sucks up all your time. And even if it frees up 20 hours of time, that is 20 hours for you to focus on building a better product, marketing, sales, you know, using tools, learning tools that you can help leverage your business right Instead of only spending. Start deploying capital, even small amounts to help build your business instead of only working manually. Start using code code, start using AI. Automate your marketing, your sales, your fulfillment. You don't know or don't want to learn. Hire somebody to do it for you. Hire somebody to build you a product or build you software to help your business or point you in the right direction. Because there's already ready made tools that do a lot of things for you that you just need to kind of set up once. Instead of just staying silent and working in your room on your business, start creating with media. Share the experience. Build in public, use social media. Every video, every post, every podcast episode that you publish is an asset that sells while you sleep. I know this firsthand. I've been running this podcast for 11 years. This podcast has opened so many doors for me, has allowed me to be able to get on stages, to get partnerships, to get sponsors, to be able to build relationships that then allowed me to sell more products and services that I sold. Listen, you don't need to Deploy all four forms of leverage at once. Start with one. But you need at least one lever, one thing to get started with so that you can start to play smarter and start to escape this cycle of poverty. I'm speaking to you frankly, I'm speaking to you passionately, because I've been there, and it's incredibly frustrating. And I'm kind of shouting at my old self and saying, hey, wake up. This is how you're supposed to do it. Because the truth is, wealth, again, is not about working harder. It's about working smarter and multiplying your efforts with leverage. A lot of people think it's like, if I just work hard, I'm going to be all right. No, you got to work hard on the right things. You got to make the right decisions, and you got to use what is available to you so that you can grow faster and bust out of this poverty cycle. So why are you still poor? Simply because you're still trading time for money. I'm going to drill this home. So how do you get rich? You start a business that leverages things like labor, capital, code, media. Just pick one and start small and build from there. You know, I started the first one. I started with with media. I started this podcast, and then once I had that, I then moved into labor. I started hiring people and building out a team. Then I started to earn some more income, and then I invested that into code, building code. I built a software from there. I used that, and I got the revenue from the code and from the software. And you leverage the capital and invest it into the business again and continue to grow because of that. So, as you can see, one by one, do this, and in a few years, you're going to look back and say, why? Why did I just think grinding it out for 60 hours a week was the answer? Right. You're going to be kicking yourself, but you're going to be glad that you decided to change. And if you want to get my honest opinion about this is that a lot of us don't want to break out because we're scared, because we know this concept of trading time for money. I do the work, I get paid. This is something that we're just used to from a young age. This is why we get allowances for doing our chores or whatever it is. We're never used to the idea of, oh, maybe I should be leveraging other people's time. Effort, money, capital, media. Maybe I should be building something that works for me. It's a foreign concept for many of us. And it's uncomfortable. And we usually don't lean into something that's uncomfortable. But I'm telling you, this is how people get rich. Look at everybody that you know and look up to that are wealthy. What do they build a business? What do they use? Leverage. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. All that passion, all that raising my voice today, it comes from a place of love. It comes from a place that I care. And I want you to have a smoother, better experience than I did. It's so rough not having enough money. I know it's incredibly stressful. And it stresses every day part of your life, your relationships, your family, your health, your ability to fulfill your dreams, your ability to fulfill your goals and the things that you're looking forward to. It's kind of meek. It's hard for you to even look past the next few days or the end of the month. That's horrible. I don't want anybody to go through that because I went through that, and I know how bad that feels. So I'm imploring you to take the first step and start saying, okay, I know that I'm doing everything myself now, but if I need to break out of this, if I want to be able to have a bigger, better life, I need to start just with one form of leverage and start growing with that and understand that eventually I'm going to trust the process and get to where I want to go. I'm telling you, you're going to start seeing results by just using one form of leverage. You're going to start saying, okay, I see what's going on here. All right? I see that the results are proving that Omar was right. So thanks so much for listening, and I hope you take this to heart, because personally, I wish somebody told this to me a whole lot earlier in my journey. If you found today's episode helpful and you want more practical business lessons to help you start, grow and scale your business, the best thing you could do is subscribe to this podcast. Hit subscribe or follow on your favorite podcast app, the one that you're using right now, whether it's Apple or Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. By hitting subscribe, you get our next episode automatically. And it's the best way to support the show. It's absolutely free, and it's a way for you to commit to growing your business. And now that you've subscribed, I'll check you in the next episode.

[C]

A Sapphire Reserve story from Ben Stiller.

[D]

People who want to get into entertainment. Always ask me for advice. And after shooting Severance for Apple TV Plus, I basically have a simple answer. Don't work with goats. They don't take direction. They eat your shoes. They're emotionally distant. I mean, I used to think certain actors were difficult, but goats are worse.

[C]

Sapphire Reserve now comes with Apple TV plus, including severance Chase Sapphire Reserve now even more rewarding. See More [e-mail] Reserve IT cards issued by JPMorgan Chase bank and a member FDIC, subject to credit approval terms apply. Apple and the Apple logo are trademarks of Apple Inc. Registered in the US and other countries.