Getting rich costs real trade-offs: time with family, a wide social circle, hobbies, sleep, entertainment, comfort and even pride, paid for years so that the rewards can come later. It promises reality, not wishful thinking, and recommends rewatching it monthly to keep track of what it takes. Success and riches always come at a cost, and it says getting rich is not for everyone: you are free to live a mediocre life if that is what you want.
The list is based on the average reality of many multi-millionaires and billionaires across countries and cultures, combined into one. Its claim is that nobody made it big without making at least some of these sacrifices. Here are the 15, plus a bonus.
Watch the full video here, or skip to the breakdown below.
The 15 sacrifices at a glance
- Family (1:29)
- Health (3:10)
- Friends (4:08)
- Hobbies (5:10)
- Time (5:48)
- Happiness (8:18)
- Sleep (9:25)
- Who you are (10:28)
- Entertainment (11:42)
- Stability (12:43)
- Income (13:25)
- Comfort (14:10)
- The need to be liked (15:08)
- Pride (15:53)
- Immediate desires (16:37)
1. Family
The video starts here because it is the last thing people want to hear. Many successful people postpone starting a family until after they have built success. They rarely marry in their twenties, and they do not have children as early as everyone else.
Having a child early is described as financial self-destruction, since the child becomes the focus and everything else falls behind, as it should. A third thing that gets sacrificed is time with relatives. Parents and siblings need time, effort and sometimes money you cannot spare in the early stages. It is called one of the harshest realities of the road.
2. Health
Health is named as one of the most important ingredients of a good life, but this video is about getting rich. The paradox: most people sacrifice health to get money, then sacrifice money to get their health back.
The image of an entrepreneur working 16 hours, training for two more, eating kale and meditating for an hour is not the norm. The road to riches takes a toll. Tiredness is the common feeling, because the goal keeps you up at night and worries have to be managed. Entrepreneurs carry a great deal of stress and often neglect their health in the chase.
3. Friends
There is very little room for a social life if you want to be rich. One of the first things to give up is the people around you who are not pushing you further. Cutting down on toxic people is a must, followed by those not actively making you better.
The average future millionaire, it says, has 1.8 close friends, who are also set on getting rich, so they can push each other forward. You need people who understand why you put in that level of effort, and few others will. Your inner circle should shrink in size and grow in value.
4. Hobbies
Hobbies produce little value for you or your surroundings, and they cost time, attention and usually money. The blunt view: if you are not where you want to be, you cannot afford one.
Golf, painting landscapes or whatever you call a hobby can wait until after you have taken care of the basics. Why have a hobby when you cannot yet take care of yourself? It should be the last thing on your mind.
5. Time
The road from zero to financial success averages seven to ten years, depending on the industry, and depends on emotional intelligence, intellect, your ability to read the market and the volume of work you produce. The days at the computer or negotiating with clients may not be the best of your life, but that time yields the results.
Seven years is long, yet time passes either way, so invest it wisely. The question posed: are you willing to eat badly for several years to eat caviar for the rest of your life? The best use of time at this stage is to invest in yourself as often as you can.
Winning the game of life, per the video, happens by winning the day. That idea shaped the Alux app, which delivers a coaching session every morning across finance, relationships, emotional and physical health and intellect.
Time will pass regardless. The sacrifice is choosing what it buys.
6. Happiness
Money cannot buy happiness in the end, but getting money means sacrificing some of it, even if you love what you do. Nobody is happy working 14 to 16 hours every day, because that is not how evolution made us.
There needs to be a balance in how much happiness you give up for material gain. Give up too much and you may not cope with your new reality. It describes itself as a frank observation, with no to-do list attached. Sacrificing happiness now buys other kinds later, such as quality time with your child when the time is right, because you no longer worry about the bills.
7. Sleep
The line is that broke people sleep. A saying holds that sleep is for billionaires, and people split on the topic. Elon Musk is described as sleeping the absolute minimum needed to function, while Arianna Huffington, founder of the Huffington Post, argues more sleep means higher productivity and nobody should cut it.
Sleeping less is a great advantage only if you use the extra time well, since there is no point in five hours of sleep and eight hours of work. Sleep is the first thing to sacrifice when you start, it says, and six hours a night is manageable and fits a lot more work into the day.
8. Who you are
To become who you want to be, you sacrifice who you are now. Think of yourself as software in progress: this is the current version, so do not be afraid to update, fix bugs and iterate on what makes you you.
Your current reality did not make you rich, and the present version could not solve the puzzles that would move you ahead. Evaluate who you are and what holds you back, then find ways to transform that. An easy example is discipline. Lacking it, you will probably never be successful, because success comes from repeated actions that add up. Poor people, in the video’s view, always lack discipline.
9. Entertainment
After sleep, this is the second sacrifice. There is no need to sit through ten seasons of Friends, because there is no value there. Poor people, it claims, always justify wasting time somehow.
When starting out, cut the low and medium levels of entertainment immediately. Unless you are a professional esports player, skip the video games, and unless you are on TV, skip watching TV and sports. Skip social media unless you run a media business. The topic here is what getting rich takes, with happiness set aside, and half-hearted effort will not get you there.
10. Stability
Getting rich is a roller coaster with many ups and downs. You do not know what tomorrow holds and you cannot be at ease. You have to position yourself, meet people, negotiate your own reality and provide for yourself.
Nobody is going to get it for you. When your environment is holding you back, sacrifice it and move somewhere else. You are in control of the ride, and if it fails, you are the only one to blame. The ride is worth it, so get busy.
11. Income
Until you make it big, you sacrifice your share of the income and put it right back into the business or project. There is no other way, and you cannot be a baller while still pushing toward it.
Every dollar needs planning for the most impact, and you are usually far down the list unless the money builds your skills. It says it feels bad for people who flaunt purchases before they are where they want to be, since they are sabotaging themselves.
12. Comfort
Unless you were born rich, you struggle to get there, and the simplest sacrifice is comfort, with the cash used to speed growth. It marvels at how many people burn money on things they see as comfort.
You do not need the latest iPhone when your old one works, or a big house or apartment in your twenties. Cut rent and use what is left somewhere productive. Poor people stay poor trying to look rich, while rich people get richer acting poor. Many successful people call this their ramen phase, living on the bare minimum.
13. The need to be liked
The video states as fact that disagreeable people are more likely to become rich and successful than agreeable people. For people to like you, you often have to sacrifice yourself for the good of others.
That does not mean becoming a jerk. It means focusing on yourself first and giving up the need to be liked. If people like you for who you are and what you do, fine, but you will never go out of your way to make it happen. Getting rich is about getting the job done, not being the most popular person in the room.
14. Pride
You do what you have to do. Being too proud to work at a fast-food place to eat while you build your project at night means you will not make it. Pride is counterproductive.
Do not worry about what others think, since people mostly care about themselves. Keep your focus on your goals. Everybody respects a winner, and you just have to get there. Put your head down and give up pride for yourself and your future family.
15. Immediate desires
People seek instant gratification from the slightest effort, and that separates those who make it from those who only want to look like they have. Stick to the plan with constant work and improvement and you will see positive results. The process is fairly linear.
At the first glimpse of success it is easy to congratulate yourself for the lap instead of winning the race. While you indulge immediate desires, you stray off course and end up with that small win as your high point. The question is whether you want to win small or win big.
Bonus: the sacrifices are short term versus long term rewards
After the list you might wonder who would sacrifice family for money. To prevent a misreading, it spells out that you can have it all, including a loving family, close friends, a healthy lifestyle, status and comfort. You just need to postpone them by a couple of years.
The alternative is an unfulfilled life haunted by what-ifs and by explaining other people’s hard work as luck. In its words, work hard when others will not, so you can enjoy the life they cannot. The expense of the success you seek is great, so think twice about what you are willing to do.
FAQ
What do you have to sacrifice to become rich?
The video lists family time, health, friends, hobbies, time, happiness, sleep, who you are now, entertainment, stability, income, comfort, the need to be liked, pride and immediate desires.
How long does it take to get rich?
The video puts the road from zero to financial success at an average of seven to ten years, depending on the industry.
How many close friends does the average future millionaire have?
According to the video, 1.8, and those friends are also focused on getting rich so they can push each other forward.
Do you have to give up everything permanently?
No. The bonus says these sacrifices are short term: you can still have family, friends, health and comfort, but you postpone them by a couple of years.
Why does the video say to sacrifice comfort?
Unless you were born rich, the simplest way to speed growth is to cut comfort spending and use the cash on growth, the so-called ramen phase.
Keep reading
- These are the 15 SKILLS You Need To Develop If You Want to be RICH
- 15 Mistakes You Make Once You Get RICH
- 15 Mistakes Rich People Make That Make Them Miserable
