Welcome to Wise & Wealthy: A weekly newsletter full of proven ideas to become smarter and wealthier. I send this every Monday.
#72 – May 22, 2023
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Wise: Success over pretensions
Self-esteem is our overall sense of self-worth or personal value. It’s how much we appreciate and like ourselves.
How do you improve your self-esteem?
In 1890, William James, “The Father of American Psychology,” published his book, The Principles of Psychology. I’ve been a fan of James’ work for many years.
William James says that self-worth is based on two elements: Our actual achievements, and our aspirations. He demonstrated this idea in an equation:
Self-esteem = success/pretensions
Our self-esteem is dictated by how well we’re doing in life (success) and divided by how good we feel about ourselves (pretensions).
Good self-esteem is the result of having more success than pretensions.
↳ Improve Your Self-Esteem With the William James Formula
Wealthy: How to live a fulfilling life
Marcus Tullius Cicero was one of ancient Rome’s most well-known philosophers, writers, and statesmen.
He once said: “The world has not yet learned the riches of frugality.”
Cicero believed that to live a fulfilling life, we must cultivate virtues such as honesty, compassion, and courage.
He saw philosophy as a means to attaining wisdom and leading a good life.
One of Cicero’s other famous quotes, “Frugality includes all the other virtues,” explains his belief that living a simple life will cultivate all the important virtues within us.
To me, this is the most important reason I’m living frugally. If you live a frugal life, you strengthen your character.
I talk more about that in my latest article.
↳ Cicero: Why Frugality is The Root of Riches
One interesting thing
To achieve success and wealth, it’s essential to learn from those who have already reached these milestones. Al Ries and Laura Ries, in their book, The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding, advise:
“If you want to be rich, you have to do what rich people did before they were rich—you have to find out what they did to become rich. If you want to have a successful company, you have to do what successful companies did before they were successful.”
Study the people who have already achieved what you desire. Study their journeys, learn from their mistakes, and incorporate their wisdom into your own life.
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.
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