Many people desire to be rich but only a few actually become rich. There are many reasons why this happens such as fear and lack of focus. In fact, there are even some factors in your life that you’re totally unaware of that are holding you back financially so here are the 5 Fs that are ruining you financially!
Number 1: Fear
Do you hate being alone in the room when it’s dark because you feel something bad might happen to you? If you answered yes to this, the feeling is caused by fear. Fear is an unpleasant emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger. You must have experienced fear at one point or the other. Fear is not a bad thing on its own as it prepares you for unexpected danger. However, fear can become excessive and even keep you from becoming rich.
Fear is a great enemy of success. It affects the mind and makes it difficult for you to be productive. Fear can also appear in different forms and this makes it important for you to understand how it operates and how to overcome it if you want to become successful. One of the most common fears that many people have is the fear of failure. People are so scared that they will fail that they eventually attract failure to themselves. No matter how well you plan, you can’t have totally certainty on any outcome. In short, there are certain things that you cannot control. You can do a thorough market survey and introduce a product that you think people will want but, there is a chance that no one will buy it. That is why many people refuse to start new ventures because they do not know what the outcome will be. You have to forget the things that are beyond your control and focus on the things that you can control such as how you react to fear.
Another fear is the fear of starting. The fear of failure and the fear of starting are closely related. People are scared to start something because they don’t want to fail. There are a lot of people with great ideas and dreams that they have never implemented. They keep asking themselves things like “what if people don’t like my idea?”. There is no way to tell whether people will like your idea or not when you have not worked on it. People who have become rich today are the ones who were willing to start and there is no business today in which the owner was 100 percent sure it would be successful before they started.
This will take us to the next fear that can keep you poor and it is the fear of taking risks. There are possible losses that may occur when you want to start something new. For example, if you spend money to create a new product and people do not buy it, then you will be at loss. However, if people like your product, you are likely going to make a profit. If you only think of the possible losses, the fear of taking risks will not let you start anything. But if you think of the possible profit you can make, you will be willing to take risks.
Another fear that may keep you poor is the fear of rejection. Some people are afraid that they are not good enough. An employee who has this fear will not be confident to ask for a salary increase even when they deserve it. Some people who are self-employed who think they are not good enough will also not be able to charge what they are worth.
Number 2: Friends & Family
Believe it or not but another F that can keep you poor is your friends and family. Friends and family are good people but they can also influence your life and the decisions that you make. Hence, friends and family can be responsible for your poverty.
The types of friends you associate with have the ability to affect your mindset. If you associate with poor friends, you are likely going to be poor too. This is because they will tell you what they believe and make you do what they do and if you do what poor people do, you are going to get the same result that poor people get. You are going to be and remain poor. But if you have friends who are rich and successful, they will influence your mindset and you will soon become successful. They will start telling you what they know and this will cause you to emulate their actions. Then, chances are, soon enough you will become successful and get the same result that they have.
The same goes for if you hang around negative people, you will soon become negative too. If you hang around lazy people, you will soon become lazy. If you hang around poor people, you will soon become poor. Therefore, if you don’t want to remain poor then you must learn to change the type of friends that you keep. Always look out for people who are doing better than you to become friends with. They will motivate you and force you to become better than you are right now.
Another group of people that can keep you poor is family. Unlike your friends, you can’t decide who your family members will be. Most people born into a rich family end up becoming rich and most people born into a poor family may end up becoming poor. Your family is your immediate environment and you learn most of the things that influence your mindset from them. While growing up, you must have watched your parents; the way they handled money and how they made their financial decisions. Even if you didn’t pay close attention, their actions must have been registered into your mind. You may find out that as you grew, you probably started making the same decisions as they did.
If you were born into a family where your parents were scared to take risks, you are likely not going to be willing to take risks too. For example, if your father lived a simple life and worked with a single company all through his career he will likely want you to do the same. If you want to quit your job and start a business, he may discourage you because he believes that a job is secured but a business is a great risk.
Number 3: Fun
There is a saying that all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. This means that no matter how much you work there is always a time to play and a time for fun. However, as enjoyable as having fun is, it can keep you poor. When you have more time for fun and less time for other activities, it reduces your productivity.
I am not against having fun but you must limit it if you want to become rich. Fun can distract you from doing the things that you are supposed to do to increase your wealth. Moreover, we all enjoy having fun and might not always realize how much time we spend doing so. For instance, watching TV is fun and it can be easy to let countless hours pass when your into a great show or movie.
Another source of fun that people fall victim to is social media. You may only want to spend a few minutes on social media but you end up spending hours scrolling endlessly on what others have posted. Social media can distract you and can keep you busy with the wrong things. You must learn to discipline yourself. Having fun is great but must be enjoyed in responsible quantities.
Number 4: Failure
If you’ve been reading attentively, I said earlier that one of the reasons why people remain poor is the fear of failure. Failure is one of the things that can keep you broke. Failure is part of life and it is important for your success. When you learn to overcome failure, it becomes easier for you to be successful.
From childhood, you might have been taught that failure is not a good thing. Your parents probably complained if you ever came home with a bad grade. This might have built a resentment for failure in you such that as you grew, you hated it when you failed. Failure however helps you point out what you might not be doing right and how to make the required correction. Whenever you make a mistake, you should take note and learn from it if you want to grow.
Unfortunately, the fear of failure can keep you from starting potentially fruitful projects because you don’t want to risk your self-esteem by potentially being unsuccessful. To be truly successful, you must not give up when you face failure. Almost every successful person you see today must have failed at one point or the other and what made them successful must have been their determination and strong will not give up even in the face of failure. Abraham Lincoln is one great example of someone who refused to give up in the face of failure. He learned to accept rejection and at the end of the day, he became one of the most famous US presidents in history.
Another successful person who attributed his success to failure is Michael Jordan. You can’t mention the names of great basketball players without mentioning the name Michael Jordan. One would think he was a flawless player who knew how to play perfectly well. But he missed thousands of shots in his career. He lost several games and missed winning shots that could have given his team victory. But, he became successful because he did not allow failure to limit him. In his own words, he said “I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
Number 5: Focus
Another reason why many people are poor is that they lack focus. They lack the ability to concentrate on one thing until it becomes successful. If you want to become rich, you cannot do away with focus because that is what you need to be able to achieve maximum results. You can have many things going on but you have to focus on one thing at a time until it succeeds before you move to the next thing.
People without focus always want to do everything. For example, someone without focus may start three businesses at the same time and wonder why none of them become successful. They may want to start a blog and at the same time do drop shipping or sell products online. Successful people know that they need to master one before they proceed to the other. A successful person may start with a blog and learn how to create content that engage the readers as well as build an email list. Thereafter, they may create a product that they can add to their blog before they start their drop shipping business.
Lack of focus creates confusion and it leads to reduced productivity. When the energy you are supposed to use for one particular thing is diverted into so many other things, in the end, you may not achieve a meaningful result. When you hear the name of someone like Bill Gates, you will think of Microsoft. When you hear the name of Mark Zuckerberg, you will think of Facebook. When you hear the name of Jeff Bezos, you will think of Amazon. One thing that is common with these people I just mentioned is that they all have a focus and they concentrated on one thing until it became successful before moving on to other things.
There you have it, the 5 Fs that will ruin you financially!