The rich did not think like the people around them – they thought like the people above them

If you think like the people around you, you will remain at that level. Communal thinking created that level.

US motivational speaker Jim Rohn famously asserted that we are only as successful as the median of the five people with whom we spend the most time. The idea is that we are greatly influenced by the nature of thinking typical to our ‘tribe’, which forms our thought community. Based on this notion, let me ask you a question: how wealthy – or, in broader terms, how successful – are the five people to whom you are closest?

In The top 10 distinctions between entrepreneurs and employees, author Keith Cameron Smith writes, ‘My mentor Nido Quebein is a successful entrepreneur, author, and professional speaker who owns multiple companies. He had a very wise mother. She told Nido, “Son, if you want to be great then you must walk side by side and hand in hand with great people. If you want to be happy, then be around happy people. If you want to be a drunk, then hang around drunks. If you want to be rich, then find out what poor people do and don’t do that!”’

I agree, and like to use the Escape from Khayelitsha analogy to illustrate this point.

Thought experiment: Escape from Khayelitsha

Khayelitsha is a poverty-stricken township in Cape Town. I drive past it regularly on my way to and from conferences. On one such occasion, I posed a mental challenge to myself, which I mention in my book on innovation, Relentlessly relevant: 50 ways to innovate.

Let’s assume that you live in a middle-class South African family. You have a highschool certificate, and possibly a bit of university education. If you were transplanted into the township of Khayelitsha, with none of your toys or trappings and only your wits and education, could you get yourself back out again? Could you work your way back to your current level of prosperity, your current lifestyle?

I arrived at the conclusion that I probably could. When I pose this question to audiences, most people give the same answer.

Now let’s take this thought experiment one step further. If a multibillionaire were to be transplanted into your life, could that person get back out? Could he or she get back to multibillionaire status? If you believe that the answer is yes, as I do, then the only difference between yourself and a multibillionaire is the thinking.

A middle-class person living in the suburbs thinks differently from a person who lives in a township. And multibillionaires think differently from the middle-class. The gap between the middle class and billionaires is only a gap of knowledge.

The solution, then, is what I call extra-scenario thinking. This is thinking that you import from outside of your usual world. You cannot use the thinking of people around you to graduate from your current position. The answers are to be found in the community of thinkers who have already left. So, extra-scenario thinking is about accessing information that is outside the norm of the people in your thought community. It’s the art of realising that you need to import extra-scenario ideas.

The simplest way to do this is through reading. Another way is to start studying the people who are successful in your industry of choice.

You don’t have to have an original idea to become rich. Learning what others have done, and copying them, will work too. One of the world’s richest men in the previous century – Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart – prided himself on being nothing more than an effective copier of anything he saw that worked. He regularly attributed his success to studying the techniques of others and adopting what worked. Clearly, his approach did work – his family is still ranked among the wealthiest families in the world.

In Money: Master the game, Tony Robbins writes, ‘The best way to change your life is to find people who are already achieving what you want and then model their behavior’.

Copy and paste

Why borrow and implement (copy and paste) the success principles and best industry practices of others? Because they are ‘smart cuts.’ They are wealth levers and wealth-generating mechanisms. As you use these the wealth-levers that are already built into other businesses, you may see ways of taking them further.

The key is to copy the right ‘level’ of behaviour. Import thinking from billionaire level, and you will put yourself on a whole new trajectory. 

Poverty mindset: People in my community say I must get a job.

Wealth mindset: The answers are not to be found where the problems exist. I need to think like people who have graduated to the next level. 

Douglas Kruger is a business author and professional speaker. See him in action, or read his articles, at www.douglaskruger.co.za. Douglas’s books, including ‘Is Your Thinking Keeping You Poor? 50 Ways the Rich Think Differently,’ are available at Exclusive Books, Estoril, CNA, and as ebooks from Amazon.com.