What does it mean to truly be rich? That’s the question today’s guest is answering every day. He is literally redefining rich through his book, his podcast, and his online platform.
Matt Ham’s story starts with what he calls a “good life crisis.” Not a mid-life crisis, but a crisis rooted in settling for the American Dream as he knew it.
That led him on a quest to redefine rich, with his four principles, an acronym for the word RICH.
R - Recognize you’re broken
I - Invest in others
C - Choose gratitude
H - Humble yourself with confidence.
A couple of years ago, my friend Bryan Allain left a secure job at a Fortune 500 company, where he’d been slowly climbing the corporate ladder for nearly a decade, to venture out on his own as a writer. When I asked him how his colleagues reacted, he said they were surprisingly supportive, some even envious. But something disturbed him.
Every conversation ended the same way. “I wish I could do that,” they would say. “Well, you can, you know,” Bryan would respond. To which they would usually list out the reasons why they felt they couldn’t. They wouldn’t know where to begin or what to do. They’d be scared of losing their health benefits or risking their family’s well-being. What if you failed, they wondered. What then?
The Problem isn’t Fear
This bothered Bryan because he felt like what they were really saying was that they were afraid—and rightly so. Quitting a job to chase a dream is anything but safe. If you’re not feeling a little insecure about taking such a leap, then you probably haven’t considered the cost. The problem, then, isn’t the fear; that’s natural. It’s that many get afraid and stay there.
“The thing I remember best about successful people I’ve met all through the years is the years is their obvious delight in what they’re doing and it seems to have very little to do with worldly success. They just love what they’re doing, and they love it in front of others.” ~Fred Rogers
“Your best is yet to come.” You’ve certainly heard that before. Perhaps, like me, you’ve rolled your eyes at it when a well-meaning parent or friend said it.
“There’s no way I’ll ever accomplish more than I have.”
“I’ll never build my business bigger than it was before the collapse.”
“This is the best job I’ll ever have.”
Have you ever said things like that to yourself?
You hold yourself back when you say things like that. Typically for one of three reasons.