Wise & Wealthy: Achieving your dreams and strategic inflection points

Welcome to Wise & Wealthy: A weekly newsletter full of proven ideas to become smarter and wealthier. I send this every Monday.

#99 – November 27, 2023

Open for registration now: digitalbusiness.school, a step-by-step framework for building a profitable business. If you ever thought of building your own (side) business or taking your current business to the next level, this is for you.

Registration is open only until this Sunday, December 3.

Register here: members.dariusforoux.com/digitalbusiness-school

Wise: Achieving your dreams

Imagine an ambitious goal for yourself. Say you want to write a book, switch to a completely different career, or start your own business.

How could you increase your odds of success? Try this:

  1. Always aim high. People will try to make fun of you. Tell you to be more ‘realistic.’ Never let the small-mindedness of others affect your goals.
  2. Focus on one thing per area. Divide your life into separate areas – say work, health, hobbies, and relationships. Assign only one objective to each area. Learn to decline other pursuits. 
  3. Adapt. As Charles Darwin said: “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change.”
  4. Get rid of your silent desires. Watch out for all the other things you also want to have in life. These desires might seem harmless but they can destroy your focus.
  5. Embrace crazy. While you may not have the capacity to invent the next Facebook, solve world hunger, and send rockets to space, you could aim to be a successful entrepreneur who also runs marathons. Pursuing success in business and maintaining physical fitness can be goals that complement each other. 

Those who have truly made an impact on the world didn’t dilute their ambitions. They embraced their craziness. 

And so can you.

↳ If You Want to Achieve Your Dreams, You Have to Be A Little Crazy

Wealthy: The inflection curve of business

In 1984, Intel Corporation was a leading producer of memory chips. But as Japanese competitors like Toshiba and NEC came to the US, Intel started to lose its market share.

The Japanese were cheaper and better. Intel tried to compete harder, but that didn’t work.

Andrew Grove, then CEO, slowly started to realize that memory chips had no future. 

By 1985, Grove decided that Intel had to move towards microprocessors, which was risky. While microprocessor chips were becoming increasingly important parts of the computer revolution, they weren’t considered as crucial as today.

Grove’s move didn’t yield results immediately. Microprocessors weren’t profitable for a few years. But Grove knew what he was doing. When the personal computer (or PC) started gaining popularity in the 90s, Grove’s move turned into a goldmine for Intel.

Grove called these make-or-break moments in the life of a business “strategic inflection points.”

In my other latest article, I share how you can spot them in your career or business, and use them to your advantage.

↳ The Inflection Curve of Business: Will You Grow or Die a Slow Death?

One interesting thing

Recent data shows that more than half (54%) of small business owners in America are over 50 years old. 17% of them are 60-69, while 4% are 70 and up.1Source: Score.org

This tells us two things:

  1. It’s really never too late to start a (side) business or change careers. In fact, the more experience you have, the better.
  2. If you’re in your 20s or 30s and feel like things didn’t work out, have patience! Experience and skills come with time. You’ll get there.

Thanks for reading! I hope you found this edition of Wise & Wealthy useful.

All the best,

Darius

Join the 5-day Financial Freedom Challenge

I created a 5-day email course you can do alone or together with a group. It’s called the Financial Freedom Challenge. And it will help you to gain control over your finances.

Most people try to calculate their way out of poor finances. But money problems aren’t rational. They’re emotional. Manage your emotions well, and you’ll manage your finances better.

Financial Freedom Challenge

How to Unlock the Financial Freedom Challenge

You can join the challenge for free. For five days, you’ll receive a short email with a small challenge that inspires you to improve your relationship with money.

I highly recommend sharing it with your friends/family so you can go through the program together. It helps bring perspective. And it’s more fun that way too.

Join here for free: dariusforoux.com/financial-freedom

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