What can the majority do to get closer to the rich? How can we find quality sources of information?
In this day and age, the efficiency of learning decides the value we can give, which in turn decides how much we can make. The more efficient we are in learning, the more value we can give and money we can make. The richest men and women in the world are all lifelong learners and they love learning. Whether they get rich because they learn better than others, or whether they learn better than others because they are rich? It should be the former, because learning is an ability that can be learnt by anyone with such intention. It is like the skill to ride a bicycle, it can be learnt. And once learnt, it will make you richer and richer.
One of the key questions before improving learning efficiency is the selection of sources of information. The Internet is a sea of information. There are good information and bad information. Good information are first hand or second hand information while bad information are N-th hand information and could be wrong and inaccurate taking out of context.
This article is about “How to Find Quality Sources of Information for Better Learning?”. Assuming you want to get richer and more successful in your field, this article is for you.
I am going to break down and share:
(i) the underlying principle of information -> knowledge -> money
(ii) 3 sources of quality information that most of us can have access to that would get us closer to the rich
(iii) insights on learning
Part 1:
The underlying principle of the selection of information is based on the science that:
What we know forms our perspective towards the world, the opportunities it presents, other people, what we are capable of, etc.
The rich becomes rich because of their operating system (i.e. the software they have in mind), which supports and determines how they act in times of opportunities and crisis. And their action in turn determines their fortune.
Therefore, inputting the “right” information in our software in the mind is critical.
While the majority of us is inputting a lot of advertisements, marketing materials, bits and pieces of unverified, incomplete content from social media into the brain, the rich is inputting quality, reliable information that helps them to make better decisions.
What we can do — practically — to get closer to the rich is to input high quality of information into our brain.
Part 2:
I will share 3 sources of quality information that most of us can have access to that get us closer to the rich.
#1 top university courses
Rich people pays hundreds of thousands of dollars for their kids to study at the top education institutions. Yale, Harvard, Standard, Oxford, just to name a few.
In 2021–2022, Yale tuition and fees cost $59,950. For four years at this price, Yale tuition and fees would equal $239,800, but that is not all:
rooming costs $9,400 and boarding costs $7,200
books and personal expenses costs students about $3,700 a year
student activities fee is $125 a year
school health insurance ($2,404) and senior class dues ($119)
etc.
Many students who attend Yale come from wealthy families and earn more than $300,000 a year. The majority of students in Yale comes from the highest-earning 20% households, and 15% of Yale students come from families in the top 1%.
It is not a secret that students from the top 1% of households are 77 times more likely to be admitted to and attend an Ivy League school.
All that points to a fact that rich people are willing to pay for high quality information.
Yet, thanks to technology, most of us with a laptop and wifi connection now can have access to many Yale courses online.
There is a “YaleCourses” youtube channel where Yale university uploaded some of their best and most popular courses online for anyone to watch.
Not only Yale, Standard university also shares its courses on “Stanford Online” youtube channel, and more top universities today are sharing their courses online publicly for free access.
Aren’t we just lucky to live in this era where we can save hundreds and thousands of dollars to access the same source of information as the rich’s kids?
Of course, we still need to do the work ourselves to learn, but the resources are available for us for free — why wouldn’t we take opportunity to make the most out of these?
The professors in these top schools are paid around $170,000 each year for their job of teaching. Many of them also lead research teams so the information they have would be first or second hand information — if it is not 99% accurate, at least the information would be more reliable than those we seen on social media discussion forum where anyone can opine or make up anything to grab the attention.
#2 teachers / coaches
Find people who are doing what you want to do is one of the fastest, easiest way to learn.
If you want to be a criminal lawyer, why not talk to the best criminal lawyer in town?
If you do not know the best criminal lawyer in town or he or she is too busy to talk with you, just talk to any criminal lawyer or any lawyer. You will be able to find one willing to talk to you at the cost of a coffee or a meal or one session of consultation.
This is an affordable way of gaining access to high quality information because no one knows better about what does it like being a criminal lawyer than a practising criminal lawyer. He or she knows what skill is the most important in the job, knows the tricks and details about the job, knows the procedure and day in and out.
If you want to do business online, paying a few hundred for a course which gets you access to someone who is already doing business online will give you opportunity to learn about what does it like doing business online, what are the opportunities and risks, what are the difficulties and how he or she overcomes them, what are the must-read books, what is the best way to get started etc. No one knows how to do business online than someone who is already doing it.
Paying for a teacher / coach’s knowledge will give you the best return of investment because they are doing it, one piece of information from them could save you years of trial and errors, and one piece of information from them could save you from costly mistakes that could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars (not to mention lose in self-confidence).
#3 Successful people’s book list
One of the questions I love asking speakers of conferences I went to is about the books they read and recommend.
Q1 — “what’s on your book list?”
Q2 — “if I would like to dive further into the topics you mentioned today and I have no prior experience on the subject, what books would you suggest me to read?”
Which one is a better question do you think?
Q2 would be better because it gives the context for the speaker or coach to understand my situation so that they can recommend the relevant books accordingly.
I also like to peak the recommended book list by famous authors and index of good books — these usually lead me to good sources of information, including but not limited to specific research papers, and a classic book on the subject matter.
I am also a subscriber to Bill Gates newsletter so that I can read the same books as he does. If we are not as rich as Gates, at least we can read the same books and input the same information from these books in our brain.
Part 3:
While the majority of us just consume any information that comes to our paths, the rich and successful actively seek out relevant and quality information that helps them with the context they are in.
When it comes to learning, the more active one is, the more one will be able to benefit.
That is also the reason why I have spent the last 6 months on learning how to learn (which is not a skill taught at school but a critical skill that will determine the extent of personal growth and income growth in life). From what I have learnt so far, learning is a skill that is highly valuable (and perhaps the most valuable skill that one could possess and master in any industry to become successful and rich).
If anyone asks what is the high income skill of 2023 (or any year in fact), my answer would be the skill of learning.
That’s the end of my sharing this time, hope you benefit from it. See you in the next article!
Connie is an Active Reader, Creator to 1 framework “Sustainable Simplified Soulful”, 3 programs “Rich Brain Installation, Knowledge to Cash, Easy Passive Investing”, Author to 1 book “Design your Day: How to Achieve More in a Day than Most Do in a Year”, Host at “Simplified Business Show” podcast. She shares about book recommendations, new learnings, and principles that she learned and practised in business and life.
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