How Bad Do You Want It?
This Is What I Learned
How ironic is it that the first book I ever bought to improve my financial life… wasn’t even about finance?
It was personal development.
And that little plot twist taught me something huge: wealth isn’t just something you build in your account — it’s something you build in yourself. The book that hit me hardest was Jim Rohn’s 7 Strategies for Wealth and Happiness. If you haven’t read it yet, put it on your list. And if you’re more of a “let me hear it” learner, there are countless Jim Rohn talks on YouTube that are straight-up timeless.
I titled this post with a Jim Rohn quote because he helped me understand a truth most people skip: becoming wealthy isn’t only about acquiring more — it’s about becoming more.
One passage from the book stamped that lesson into my brain:
Jim Rohn explains that if you give a million dollars to someone who doesn’t have the mindset, habits, and discipline of a millionaire, they’ll likely lose it. But if you take everything away from a true millionaire, they’ll rebuild it. Why? Because the real value isn’t what they have — it’s what they’ve become: the skills, knowledge, patience, and decision-making ability that can reproduce results again and again.
That idea is uncomfortable… because it means you can’t cheat the process.
If you don’t develop the mindset and the skills, you either:
- never reach financial freedom, or
- you reach it, but you can’t keep it.
Knowledge isn’t the problem — action is
After Rohn, I read Status Anxiety by Alain de Botton. I won’t break it down here, but I will say this: it’s one of those books that quietly exposes why so many people stay stuck even when they know what to do.
Something I’ve learned (and seen up close): a lot of people get the information… and still don’t act. And one reason is simple:
We’re exhausted from competing.
Competing for status. Competing for approval. Competing for stuff.
I wrote this quote in my journal a while back, and it still punches me in the chest every time I read it:
“Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy things we don’t need.”
That’s real. And I know it’s real because I’ve been a victim of it too.
It’s hard to focus on your goals when your brain is constantly being dragged into everybody else’s highlight reel.
Choose your hard
Here’s the truth nobody can escape:
It’s hard being broke.
And it’s hard working hard, saving hard, and investing hard.
So… choose your hard.
Jim Rohn said it best (and he had a gift for saying things that make you laugh and panic at the same time):
“Life’s risky, it’s all risky, so risky that none of us are going to get out alive.”
If you’re young and reading this, now is the best time to take on some risk — not reckless risk, but tolerable risk. Everybody’s risk tolerance is different. Find yours. Respect it. And build with it.
Because once you start saving and investing, you’ll have stretches where it feels like nothing is happening. Like you’re standing still. I’ve been there.
But progress in money works like progress in the gym: quiet, slow, and embarrassing at first… until one day it isn’t.
Wealth is hidden (and that’s why it’s rare)
Morgan Housel nails this idea in The Psychology of Money:
It’s easy to find rich role models.
It’s harder to find wealthy ones.
Why? Because wealth is often invisible. It’s restraint. It’s patience. It’s not needing to prove anything. And since we can’t see it, it’s hard to learn from it.
So instead, people copy what looks like success… even when it’s financed by debt, stress, and insecurity.
What I learned
You have to really want it.
Because if you don’t, you won’t act.
You’ll procrastinate.
You’ll “start next week.”
And then time will hit you with the meanest magic trick ever: years disappear.
Every day you don’t move toward financial freedom is another day you’re signing up to work for someone else’s dream — or staying stuck in a life you know you’ve outgrown.
And since I already brought Jim Rohn into this, I’ll leave you with one final quote (I promise):
“Working hard on your job will make you a living, but working hard on yourself will make you a fortune. Work harder on yourself than you do on your job.”
That’s the whole game.
Become more — so you can have more.
This Is What I Learned — Rickey L. Albert Jr.
Disclaimer
This is not financial advice. I’m not a financial advisor. This is personal experience and opinion. Do your own research before making any financial decisions.