I wouldn’t expect to be able to sit down at a piano for the first time and play a concerto. The same is true for making money.
This is why most first companies fail.
The Ladders of Wealth Creation—a step-by-step roadmap to building wealth:
I wouldn’t expect to be able to sit down at a piano for the first time and play a concerto. The same is true for making money.
This is why most first companies fail.
Look at this graphic, then we’ll break down each step.
The first ladder is trading time for money. This is how most people you know earn a living.
It may start with an hourly job working for Starbucks, but then transition into a salaried position working at a company.
1. Show up consistently
2. Being reliable
3. Eager to learn
Every job requires those three things.
To climb the ladder to a salaried position you need to specialize in certain skills (design, copywriting, legal, nursing, etc).
If you choose to make the jump to the next ladder of running a services business there's an entirely new set of skills you need to learn that build on the last step…
1. Forming a company
2. Finding clients
3. Creating proposals
4. Pricing services
5. Hiring employees
6. Establishing an online presence
7. Accounting, finance, & operations
There are so many things that seem easy now that were daunting to me at the time.
Most often they stop being reliable and showing up consistently.
Up until now each sale has been made by talking to customers or an employer directly. But to truly reach new levels of income you need to learn a different lesson:
How to make a sale without ever talking to the customer.
A designer moving from designing sites at $100/hr to charging $2k for a 5 page site.
An editor charging $250/video instead of $50/hr
1. Writing sales copy that can make a sale without talking to the customer
2. Designing a sales page (or hiring experts to do it for you)
3. Processing online payments
4. Standardizing systems to deliver repeatable quality
The goal of a productized service is to remove the manual work from making the sale. Selling products continues that trend by also removing the manual work from *delivering* the product.
A new tripod for vloggers
A video course on new cooking techniques
An ebook on how to learn a new programming language
A software product for realtors
Customer support at scale
Gathering customers at scale
Supply chain (for physical product)
Fraud prevention
The trick is to start with a lower rung on the product ladder & only move up as you’ve learned more skills.
https://t.co/zdRu8LzeET
You can also follow me @nathanbarry to learn more about audience building and wealth creation.
Here’s the original tweet where I’d appreciate a RT or reply:
https://t.co/YhHz4xmUCo
The Ladders of Wealth Creation\u2014a step-by-step roadmap to building wealth:
— Nathan Barry \U0001f1fa\U0001f1e6 (@nathanbarry) March 20, 2022
More from Learning
Lifelong learning is a competitive advantage.
But contrary to what you’ve been told, lifelong learners are built, not born.
THREAD: 20 lifelong learning habits you can start developing today.
Stimulate Dynamically
The mind is a muscle - it needs to be stimulated dynamically to continue to grow.
Don’t rely on one “exercise” - develop a menu of options.
Write, read, listen, watch. Solve puzzles, play games. Enjoy it!
Stimulate dynamically, learn dynamically.
Build Learning Circles
The most powerful learning is communal, not individual.
Build learning circles with other intellectually curious minds.
Engage regularly with no set intention or goal.
Community is everything. Embrace it.
Keep Asking Why
“Why?” is the most useful tool in our learning toolkit.
But somewhere along the line, we are told to stop asking why and just accept “facts” as we are told them.
Reject the norm.
If you want to understand the world, take a cue from our kids - keep asking why!
Adopt a Process Orientation
Prioritize process.
Learn for the sake of learning, not always for a specific goal.
When you prioritize process, you become flexible in where you are headed.
Life is a winding, confusing journey - forward progress is all that matters.
But contrary to what you’ve been told, lifelong learners are built, not born.
THREAD: 20 lifelong learning habits you can start developing today.
Stimulate Dynamically
The mind is a muscle - it needs to be stimulated dynamically to continue to grow.
Don’t rely on one “exercise” - develop a menu of options.
Write, read, listen, watch. Solve puzzles, play games. Enjoy it!
Stimulate dynamically, learn dynamically.
Build Learning Circles
The most powerful learning is communal, not individual.
Build learning circles with other intellectually curious minds.
Engage regularly with no set intention or goal.
Community is everything. Embrace it.
Keep Asking Why
“Why?” is the most useful tool in our learning toolkit.
But somewhere along the line, we are told to stop asking why and just accept “facts” as we are told them.
Reject the norm.
If you want to understand the world, take a cue from our kids - keep asking why!
First principles thinking is a powerful mental model for driving non-linear outcomes. It also requires a willingness to ask difficult, uncomfortable questions.
— Sahil Bloom (@SahilBloom) March 14, 2021
Here are a few to help you get started: pic.twitter.com/KyuAr7IUf7
Adopt a Process Orientation
Prioritize process.
Learn for the sake of learning, not always for a specific goal.
When you prioritize process, you become flexible in where you are headed.
Life is a winding, confusing journey - forward progress is all that matters.
You May Also Like
"I lied about my basic beliefs in order to keep a prestigious job. Now that it will be zero-cost to me, I have a few things to say."
We know that elite institutions like the one Flier was in (partial) charge of rely on irrelevant status markers like private school education, whiteness, legacy, and ability to charm an old white guy at an interview.
Harvard's discriminatory policies are becoming increasingly well known, across the political spectrum (see, e.g., the recent lawsuit on discrimination against East Asian applications.)
It's refreshing to hear a senior administrator admits to personally opposing policies that attempt to remedy these basic flaws. These are flaws that harm his institution's ability to do cutting-edge research and to serve the public.
Harvard is being eclipsed by institutions that have different ideas about how to run a 21st Century institution. Stanford, for one; the UC system; the "public Ivys".
As a dean of a major academic institution, I could not have said this. But I will now. Requiring such statements in applications for appointments and promotions is an affront to academic freedom, and diminishes the true value of diversity, equity of inclusion by trivializing it. https://t.co/NfcI5VLODi
— Jeffrey Flier (@jflier) November 10, 2018
We know that elite institutions like the one Flier was in (partial) charge of rely on irrelevant status markers like private school education, whiteness, legacy, and ability to charm an old white guy at an interview.
Harvard's discriminatory policies are becoming increasingly well known, across the political spectrum (see, e.g., the recent lawsuit on discrimination against East Asian applications.)
It's refreshing to hear a senior administrator admits to personally opposing policies that attempt to remedy these basic flaws. These are flaws that harm his institution's ability to do cutting-edge research and to serve the public.
Harvard is being eclipsed by institutions that have different ideas about how to run a 21st Century institution. Stanford, for one; the UC system; the "public Ivys".
