FROM THE CLASSROOM TO WEALTH

The importance of having an excellent formal education can't be underestimated.

There’s nothing wrong with learning sciences, history, languages, the arts and so on.

The problem though is that our educational system as it is, is woefully inadequate in teaching personal finance and wealth building principles.

The result is that a lot of us go through the process and come out of the classroom with our degrees and book knowledge, but with little to no idea on how we can actually strategize for healthy wealth accumulation in real life.

In fact, we end up finding out that going from classroom to wealth may require that we actually go against some of the things we were taught in the classroom.

While it may seem like those who have gone on to achieve success at the highest levels did so by chance or simply because of their given talents, everything they've accomplished is usually the result of dedication and perseverance - and a similar approach and effort in these areas from you will yield you similar results.

Most people will not be able to achieve the highest levels of success of course, but anyone who sets their mind to it can go from the classroom to wealth in a few short years by sticking to certain principles and putting in the necessary time and effort.

Below are some of the timeless principles involved in going from the classroom to wealth:-

1 Keep learning and investing in yourself: A lot of people think their learning ends when they've graduated from the classroom.

They couldn't be more wrong.

Your brain is your greatest asset in your bid to go from the classroom to wealth. A strong knowledge base is the most valuable thing you have, so keep expanding your knowledge — even after the classroom. Thanks to the internet, you can now learn almost anything for free.

Your learning should include and exceed your particular disciplines. No knowledge is a waste and the more you know, the more money you can make.

2 Get a Mentor:- By getting someone who has already achieved what you want to achieve to mentor you, you can accelerate your journey towards success.

By leveraging your mentor's experience and insights, you will avoid mistakes and pitfalls you would otherwise have made or fallen into had you gone out on your own.

3 Quit with the excuses: Going from classroom to wealth entails that you let go of procrastination, excuses and accept responsibility for how your life turns out.

A lot of people who are fresh off the classroom believe that there's always enough time for everything. They see strategising for wealth building as something that comes later in life, and are more preoccupied with the pleasures of the moment.

Unfortunately, this is naive at best. Building wealth is a gradual process and the earlier you start working towards doing so, the better placed you will be to achieve success.

And the longer you make excuses or wait, the fewer advantages you have.

4 Avoid the shiny object syndrome: Young people who are fresh off the classroom, in their bid to "strike quickly" are often susceptible to all the communications they receive promising guaranteed and magical wealth.

The truth though is that there is no such thing. The fundamental principles behind accumulating wealth are based on working smart even as you work hard, putting your money to work for you and being shrewd with your spending.

5 Be an entrepreneur: Even though you will want to get a job immediately after school to start earning and grow your income, it is a fact that you can't accumulate great wealth by working for someone else.

Being an entrepreneur who creates values, products, services and businesses is without a doubt one of the fastest and most effective ways to earn spectacular wealth at a young age. This is how most of the world's wealthiest young people made their money.

So you want to start your side hustle as soon as possible.

6 Take calculated risks: As a young person who's just out of the classroom and intends to accumulate wealth, you have to get used to taking calculated risks.

You statistically have a lot of years ahead of you and so now is the time to take risks. Carefully research and invest in higher-risk, higher-payoff opportunities, start your business, jump on new ventures and new opportunities. If things don't work out as well, you'll have plenty of time to rectify.

Most who have accumulated wealth will tell you one of the greatest keys to success is taking calculated risks.

While your peers are averse to risk and comfortable being average, you are going to have to take a different path if you're to achieve wealth.

7 Understand the concept of redundancy: This simply means diversity or giving yourself options. Don't have or rely on just one skill set, have several. Don't rely on one income stream, have several. Don't rely on one opportunity or connection, have several.

By having multiple sources of everything, you hedge and protect yourself from paralysing setbacks should any negative event affect any particular source.

8 Build your connections: To go from classroom to wealth, you've got to build as many connections as possible. In this day and age, just being hardworking isn't enough. You need to be connected to the right people whose influence you can call upon to advance your interests.

The more connected you are, the more opportunities you will be informed of and exposed to and the faster your progress will be.

By applying these eight principles, you'll be able to start accumulating wealth no matter where you are in life. It may not necessarily be easy and you'll have to make sacrifices -but if you get on the path early and stick to it, you'll set yourself up for massive financial success.

Implement these principles in your life and watch as you healthily accumulate wealth regardless of the fact that it's not that long ago you left the classroom.

Relationships Are All You Need to Become Wealthy

Chances are, that you may have at one time or the other, been beaten by someone who is more connected than you are.

Maybe it was a job you were after, or an admission, promotion or opportunity. Perhaps you were just as qualified or even more qualified than the next person to be awarded these. But the simple reason the other fellow got it instead of you was that he or she had a certain relationship with the key decision makers.

For some of us, we actually have been the ones benefiting from our relationships in this manner. This may not seem fair, right or ideal, but it is the reality of the world we live in.

It should therefore come as no surprise to learn that the most connected people are usually the most successful.

Despite the obvious and immense benefits of healthy personal and business connections, putting in the efforts to build these isn't given priority by a lot of people. They may consider it a waste of time and money.

However, when you invest in your relationships, both professional and personal, you set yourself up to reap a lot of rewards throughout the course of your life and expedite your journey to wealth. Your relationships will open doors that will otherwise have stayed closed, keep you informed and abreast of relevant opportunities. Keep a pulse on things, meet prospective mentors, partners, and clients, and gain access to other necessary resources that will accelerate your progress.

Of course there are other factors that influence your success. These include your motivation, your work ethic, your drive, your determination and will. They also include your ability and willingness to make required sacrifices to achieve your goals.

Additionally, in your journey, you'll definitely encounter your fair share of setbacks, challenges and obstacles. So being able to bounce back from these setbacks and continue pursuing your goals is important as well.

Regardless, the value of healthy relationships can't be underestimated.

Irrespective of how smart, talented, motivated, knowledgeable and resourceful you think you are, there's only so much you can do or accomplish by yourself.

The driving force behind incredible growth and success at the highest levels is your relationships, circle of influence, connections and audience. People you know, work with, partner with and team up with. People who have the positions, resources, talents, skills and knowledge to compensate for your shortcomings.

Being successfully able to connect with and maximize the benefits you get out of these relationships may be all you need to become wealthy.

In today's world of cutthroat competition, it is vitally important that you take control of your relationship building process. Being proactive about this is crucial to maintaining beneficial connections. As you work on these relationships with people in your personal life, at your company, in your industry, and even outside your field of interest, you will uncover opportunities to connect with different types of influencers, key players, decision makers, mentors and advisors.

With these in mind, there are various ways we can ensure we are successfully nurturing these valuable relationships. Approaches that ensure that the connection building process is efficient and effective.

One of the easiest ways to build relationships and make valuable connections is by emphasising the mutual benefits. In so doing, you constantly look for opportunities to provide value to those in your network.

It is therefore important to have an idea of what particular influence, qualities, skills or resources you have that the different connections you have may need, value or appreciate.

The more relevant value you provide to these relationships, the more valuable you become to these connections and the easier it will be to call upon their influence when needed to advance your interests

Even as we constantly provide value, we also need to adopt a system of creating connections that best works for us individually. Building relationships and connections can be done in a wide variety of ways and not all these may be practical or suit the situation--both for you and the people you're connecting with. The key is to try out a number of different strategies to discover what best suits you and regularly employ these in relating to those who can help you achieve your goals.

In doing these, you should use your resources: it has become easier to create and maintain relationships due to technological advances. The internet for example, is a valuable outlet for creating, cultivating and regularly communicating with your contacts. Social media apps like WhatsApp, Facebook and platforms like LinkedIn can be employed to reach out and maintain contact with the people you need.

It is a basic of human nature that we are influenced by those we have the closest relationships with. Our inner and outer circles play significant roles on how we turn out to be.

Those struggling financially in life are usually found surrounded by poor relationships. They are influenced by backward individuals with bad money habits, bad health habits, emotional instability, addictions, poor work ethic, and many other things detrimental to living a happy, successful life. 

Conversely, the wealthy and successful are richly connected. They are in close relationships with like minded individuals possessing excellent money habits, good health habits, emotional stability, and strong, long-term relationships of their own with similar people. These, along with many other things, contribute to success.

It therefore follows that for those who want to improve the quality of their lives, it is very important to pursue rich relationships as members of your inner circle, even as you minimize your exposure to negative influences.

You want your inner circle to be made up of people with a positive outlook, a common purpose, and a shared desire to succeed. These people will be your most valuable assets in your bid to become wealthy. They will keep you motivated, and exert their influence for you.

Forging rich relationships and avoiding toxic ones may indeed be all you need to become wealthy. You can't leave this process to chance. Actively managing this can become the most vital duty to yourself if you're to achieve the success you're after.

Because, in the end, your network determines your net worth.

The Extra Wealthy Man

To become extra wealthy, you have to think like the extra wealthy.

Once you get the mentality and mindset straight, the reality becomes easier to achieve. This is because, the mentality controls the reality and by controlling the mentality, you control the reality.

Put another way, all the strategies in the world, regardless of how effective they might be won't work for you if your mentality isn't right as you will continue to find ways to jeopardise yourself.

And the easiest way to learn how the extra wealthy think so you can adopt this philosophy for yourself and translate to your reality, is by studying the extra wealthy.

Here is the path of the extra wealthy man:

1 Is an entrepreneur: The extra wealthy man understands that one can't become extra wealthy by working for someone else.

He knows that he has far greater odds of becoming extra wealthy by having his business. As such he has a business or several where he sells high-margin, high-demand products and services to a growing, vibrant niche market within a growing industry.

He works hard at his businesses, focusing his efforts on marketing and sales, keeping his expenses reasonable and reinvesting money made back into the business.

2 Is value driven: The extra wealthy man is all about giving value. He knows that adding more value to the world than he takes usually results in him being given more wealth than he expects. A continuous cycle of this phenomenon is the key to his success.

He measures his success by how much value he imparts. As such, the more value he gives, the more successful he becomes and as his success increases, he gives even more.

In a world where majority are focused on consuming rather than creating or giving, the extra wealthy man employs this reverse approach to get even wealthier.

3 Multiple streams of income: The extra wealthy man understands the concept of redundancy. As such, he doesn't depend on only one source of income or anything else for that matter. He has and is focused on developing as many streams of earning as possible.

This way, if he suffers any setback in any particular stream, he is a bit bothered but not affected because he has several others functioning just fine.

4 Well connected: The extra wealthy man understands that the more connections he has in various capacities, the more successful he is.

He recognises that his inner and outer circles matter and have a direct effect on his net worth. As such, he is very particular about who he associates with choosing to only develop relationships with other success-minded individuals.

Therefore he makes building these connections a high priority. He willingly puts in the effort, time and money to build and maintain these relationships because he knows that they form the foundation of success at the highest levels.

5 Focused on self improvement: The extra wealthy man is a student for life. He knows that the idea that will always take him to the next level might just be in a book he reads, course he goes through or conversation he has.

As such he regularly steps out of his comfort zone and exposes himself to new learning experiences regardless of how uncomfortable these make him.

He sees and welcomes these as opportunities to grow himself.

6 Has the right talent at his disposal: The extra wealthy man is smart enough to recognise and employ those with the talents and skills that can improve his operations and mitigate for his shortcomings.

From analysts, to consultants, to lawyers and accountants. He isn't shy about seeking the assistance of these talents whenever necessary.

7 Big thinker: The extra wealthy man places no limits on his expectations and ambitions. He sets them as high as possible and is up for any challenge.

He is incredibly creative when it comes to thinking about moving forward. He believes that there are always bigger and better projects to work on and there’s always more money to be made. As such, he's open to exploring new ideas however unusual they might seem. He believes he's always capable of making anything happen.

8 Shrewd investor: The extra wealthy man knows how to make his money work for him understanding that the ability to do so is critical to growing his wealth. Therefore he's good at spotting and making smart investments that give him healthy yields.

9 Is a risk taker: The extra wealthy man knows that there's no real reward without risk.

He therefore takes regular risks both personally and professionally, seeing the potential rewards where others only see the risk.

This doesn't mean he's careless or not diligent. Quite the opposite actually. He always carefully does his research and avails himself of all relevant information or data that may affect the outcomes of his ventures. It is only after precise evaluations of these factors that he makes his moves.

10 Effectively utilises leverage: The extra wealthy man admits that regardless of how smart, talented or knowledgeable he is, there's only so much he can do by himself in any given period of time.

Hence, he works smart even as he works hard by leveraging various forms of leverage to expedite his results.

He regularly leverages other people's money, time, connections and influence as and when needed.

He also leverages automation and technology to improve his efficiency and save time or money that would have been expended on manual operations.

Using leverage in this way allows him build more wealth than he could ever had by himself as he exceeds his personal limits to draw upon resources that extend beyond his.

Not too long ago, the extra wealthy man was just another average joe. He was stuck in a negative cycle, always in debt, not being able to afford the things he wanted, stressed out and unhappy.

In spite of his situation at the time though, he was determined to break through, to maximise his freedom and happiness.

And by staying on the path, and sticking it out despite all kinds of obstacles and challenges, he eventually arrived at a place of unlimited abundance and glory.

Stick to the path and you will become the extra wealthy man.