There is an old African Proverb that says, “If you want to move a mountain you must first start by picking the small rocks around it today.” Think of the mountain as your dream of success and think of the small rocks as the little things you do every day.
So are you busy lifting the small rocks on your way to the big mountain or are you busy walking down the path of perpetual pauperdom? As you ponder upon that rhetorical question, here are some signs that show that indeed you are going to be poor and that your dreams (most likely) are INVALID.
1)You cannot survive without your salary
If your salary is delayed by a week you would be in the streets rioting. By the middle of the month you are so broke that you have to get a salary advance or apply for an M-shwari loan to survive. Without your salary you cannot afford to pay your rent, buy food or fund your basic needs. Does that sound like a description of you?
If yes, then you are living a lie. Having a great lifestyle and income can easily cheat you that you are headed in the right direction financially but in actual fact, you may not be. You are a slave of your job (or small business) and it’s just a matter of time before reality strikes.
So stop working hard to keep up with a lifestyle. Instead, work hard to build an independent future for yourself. Your salary can only support you for so long. Think outside the box.
2)Your flossets exceed your assets
You know you are headed for poverty if the value of your personal belongings (personal cars, shoes, phones, suits, gadgets) plus the money you spend on entertainment, rent, gifts exceeds your actual investments in businesses, shares and property.
So take a minute right now and reflect deeply. If you find that your flossets actually exceed your assets, then you badly need to change the rules. Flossets are things that tend to lose value over time and ideally you should own less of these. Assets on the other hand are things that tend to gain value over time (things like property, some shares, a growing business etc.)
If you are busy investing in a bunch of things that depreciate then you better be prepared for a hard future – a future of I wish I knew.
3)You confuse consumer debt with commercial debt
Commercial debt is healthy e.g. there is nothing wrong with taking up financing to finish a real estate project or to expand your business. Consumer debt on the other hand is mostly unhealthy as it tends to fund recurrent expenditure and DOES NOT result in any new money being made by the borrower.
Consumer debt includes salary advance, school fees loans, car loans, credit card debt, furniture loans etc.
The truth is that majority of people today take loans to satisfy consumer needs NOT commercial needs. And just as Abraham Lincoln once put it, you can never escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today, the reality is that consumer loans are a fast car to a life of debt.
Keep your appetite for such loans at an absolute minimum, or else fasten your seat-belt for you are headed for a life of unbearable suffering and immense psychological torture.
4)You spend to get the attention and to impress
Many atimes we spend to impress other people. We fool ourselves that a new car, phone, neighborhood will elevate our social status. In reality though, you find it is not respect you get but short-lived attention.
To keep gaining this attention, you will always feel obligated to buy more flashy but useless things.
Sometimes you'll even find yourself taking an expensive loan just to go for a holiday, take pictures and share them on Instagram just for the fame and temporary admiration that comes with it.
This gradually becomes a non-ending cycle. You put yourself inside a prison where you are even ready to take a heavy loan to finance your growing appetite for higher status and recognition.
Before you notice it, paucity comes calling, responsibilities become a reality and the culture of mass spending takes its toll on you. As you age and weaken you cannot help but regret the opportunities you wasted in your heydays.
Be free! Don't lock yourself in a prison struggling to make a point to people who rarely care about your existence?
5)You are busy helping others build their financial powerhouses instead of building yours
Are you too busy with your current job to an extent that you don’t have time for personal stuff? Are you constantly being misused by politicians to spread propaganda so they get into power as you (direct translation from Swahili) remain there with nothing? Are busy carrying buckets instead of building a pipeline for yourself?
Then my friend you are headed for poverty (head first). Poverty of ideas, poverty of love, poverty of wisdom and poverty of prosperity. You may be making a lot of money today, but the means and ways you are using are too radical or one sided. In the long-run you will end up being poor and feeling used.
You will regret having not spent enough time with your loved ones and not being there for those who needed your help. You will regret wasting your time chasing after someone else’s dreams.
Final Word
Poverty is not just lack of money. It’s more about living a dissatisfactory life and making life mistakes that render ones agenda redundant now or in years to come.
Today you can make a choice on whether you want speed down the path of poverty or play a different game and invest in a successful future. Visit our website to get some more tips from Kuza Biashara.
Featured Pics Courtesy: Cagle
