0 to 1: Acquiring Wealth, Finding Purpose

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."—Thomas Edison

You need chances and opportunities to find ways that don’t work until you find a way that does. This is a great quote and at the core of it, it means that individuals must have the luxury of many opportunities so they can fail, and eventually find the path to success. Truth is, in all of history, the biggest barrier has been just that.

Opportunities come at a cost. The number of opportunities shifts further to the side with higher status and more money.

This article is a generalized how-to-get-rich tutorial but also an explanation that a lot of money ≠ self actualization.

I’ll start by explaining the concept of levels to you with a framework below which punk6529 created. The image below is an adjusted version of it, but you can read the entire thread here. I will refer to levels throughout this article so make sure you take a mental note.

You can add a ".5" in between all of these levels which would cover the gap. “2.5” being you work one job and have a little bit of savings, but may not own a house. Etc.

From my experience speaking to friends who have been in levels 2, 3, and 4—the increase in the level of happiness is faint with the jump from 3 → 4.

During Covid, I jumped from level 2 to 3.5 very quickly. $1 -> $1M in 6 months. The first thing I did was pay my parents’ mortgage off. I had a checklist of targets that I wanted to achieve, this was at the top of it. That by far was my most impactful purchase, even though it wasn’t the biggest, it (the feeling) is the best thing money can buy. Any other goals I accomplished from that point onwards were nice, but didn’t hit the same because they were pure financial targets or materialistic items. It did not make me happier than my first purchase.

Vapid consumerism is a major societal trap, and the notion that it is the only way to achieve self-actualization is wrong. The modern era of materialism and greed for goods beyond necessities has always existed in the past (see Rome or Egypt). But the Industrial Revolution marked a pivotal point where most major goods were made affordable and widely available — resulting in the mass production of products beyond basic needs, and every class of people purchasing unnecessary items.

Why do I mention this?

Inner Peace (self-actualization) can be attained by people in Lv3 whilst one can be in Lv5 without doing so. This is something I will come back to at the end of this article.

In this article, we’ll examine how the lottery of birth shapes our beginnings, the journey of creating something from nothing, how to maximize every opportunity you get, and last but not least: uncovering a sense of purpose.

Lottery Of Birth

The path to financial success is rarely simple, whether it involves starting a business, investing in the right companies, or going to a top university. From Level 2 onwards, you have a lot of choices in life that lead you to where you go. If you want to sit and consume Netflix all day, that’s up to you. But you don’t have a say in the lottery of birth.

Born rich or poor.

Healthy or unhealthy.

Attractive or unattractive.

Life is like Monopoly, but we don’t all start with $200.

It’s worse than that, the game changes with things like your health, looks, gender, skin color, who you love, where you grow up, how your parents treat you, and the kind of school you go to. It's like some of us are rolling dice in Monopoly navigating a world of chance and comfort, while others are stuck in Dungeons & Dragons facing obstacles at every turn in a quest for survival.

Once born, it’s been decided where you are in the world: what level you are, and if you have the luxury of having opportunities. Even then, the opportunities differ. A kid born in a country at war surrounded by bombs may have the opportunity to survive. A lower-class family in a first-world country may have the opportunity to send their kids to a good university. The simple fact you are reading this article means you have access to a device someone else can only dream of.

I was lucky to be born in a first world country and I attribute the lottery of birth landing me here as one of the main reasons I was able to make it. Yes Crypto is the most accessible free market in the world, but there is still a small barrier of having a mobile phone. And that is a big barrier for most people in poverty.

It boils down to this point: You do not have a say in the Lottery Of Birth. You are already far ahead of someone else, just like someone else is far ahead of you. That is your starting point, and now you need to keep walking ahead without looking back. Any time spent trying to alter something that isn’t possible is a setback.

Going From 0 To 1

The ability to learn from opportunities, and the luxury to have opportunities—in summary, is the best way to explain how you can make the jump from 0 to 1.

You can answer the “how do you get rich” question in one statement: gain as many opportunities as you can and make one stick.

Learning through smart; hard work, curiosity; open-mindedness, focus, and some stubbornness. The common answer to getting rich is the right one. It’s right because it’s so general. Qualities include working hard, thinking strategically, adapting to the times, having the desire to learn, and so forth. But people interpret these details differently.

Hustle culture is associated with perseverance, education is about being smart, and so on.

Of course, they miss the other qualities. You can be book smart, but if you don’t think outside the box, that is all you will be. Following the pathway society has set for you: Study hard in school, get a job, work; get promoted, retire, and die. (This is exaggerated, but also true. Not everyone can be a main character, you need NPCs.)

The conventional routes each have their flaws but they lead back to the same qualities that have existed for generations upon generations. This is not to say that everyone can escape the traditional pathway. If we didn’t have the educational system that exists today with the core academic disciplines of math, science, and language, we would live in a completely different reality.

In our current generation there are many directions you can run towards that will push you from 0 to 1. You do not have to be an extremely smart mathematical physicist or a genius astrobiologist. But whatever you decide to focus on, implement the main qualities of life in your work. This will help you a lot in the future, and the next section digs deeper into this: the importance of not wasting your opportunities.

Learning with every opportunity, not gambling

In our current era, it has never been easier to make money. With the rise of e-commerce, crypto, content creation, and more, you can sit in your home as an anonymous individual making millions of dollars. This also means you can make a lot of money without improving your skills. That is a wasted opportunity. And as we've established previously/above: to become rich is to gain as many opportunities as you can, and make one stick. This means all opportunities are inherently valuable, so naturally, you should not waste them.

Increase your self-leverage. Invest in yourself. Enhance your abilities. Continuously learn. The most valuable asset you possess is yourself. You are your greatest source of opportunity. The answer to getting rich has been the same thing interpreted in different ways for a long time now. Any time spent not maximizing your opportunities is a major loss. Upgrading your skills is the most obvious way. If you want to make money in Crypto and all you do is trade, or buy a coin and hope it goes up, then plan to exit the market (this never ends up happening anyways, “about a third of lottery winners end up in bankruptcy court”) — you are living in a fantasy world. Even if you somehow financially make it through this way, you are stuck with no skills or idea of what to do next. So, figure out how to maximize every opportunity.

Purpose In Life

Money without purpose is a trap that people want to fall into in this modern generation. This is usually because making money through a purposeful goal is harder than making it in any way you can–you are by definition limiting yourself.

The best, and simplest way has always been to do what you love in a field that makes you money and continue shooting the dart at the board. You will get more opportunities as you are improving yourself, your skills, your connections; more.

People pursuing money without a goal shouldn’t surprise you too much, money will forever be the tool that solves the majority of day-to-day problems people face, so naturally people get angered when you suggest they are purposeless, as their “purpose” is to make a bunch of money to improve their lives.

However, it is still a trap. And no one should deny that. Man should have purpose. We are built to have purpose. Your mind will break without purpose. What purpose is not, is to go on holidays every week, drive supercars in Monaco, and do drugs at parties. Sure, go ahead and do that once. In fact I encourage you to try new things (probably not drugs) if you ever reach a net worth that allows you to do that. You will learn from your own experience.

However, money is not a blocker for purpose, you can figure out your goal first. And you should.

If you’ve made it to the end of the article, I appreciate you taking the time out of your day to read. The lessons here can be summarised into a few bullet points:

• Recognize your starting level and status 
• Maximise your opportunities
• Upgrade your skills
• Find your purpose

Quickly circling back to the goal of inner peace.

"Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver." – Ayn Rand

This is probably the first quote I memorized about money. Only because I was seeking knowledge about what money is. You need a goal in life and there are certain things you need to achieve that goal. Money is certainly always a factor until you get to a certain level of wealth where it's diminishing returns; you lose more chasing it.

Happiness is always spoken about. The definition of that is different for many people. If a million dollars can bring you the freedom to work wherever you want, you are suddenly not confined to a job in times when you may want to relax with your family. If your parents are still paying off debts, you can remove that stress from them and they can show even more love to you as they haven't got any blockers in their head.

Seek inner peace. Don't fall in love with money. Fall in love with the journey. I hope this article opened your eyes to anything in your life and you implement change straight away. Until next time.