To Get Rich, You Must Conquer Your Fear

To get rich, you must conquer your fear. Your fear is what holds you back from making calculated investments. Fear is what keeps you from asking a raise or joining a promising startup.

Being able to conquer fear is one of the biggest factors in getting wealthy and living a life true to yourself. In 2012, I decided to give up a $250,000/year investment banking job and retire early. It was scary as hell to leave a high-paying job at 34. But I wanted to give a go at entrepreneurship.

Today, Financial Samurai is one of the largest independently owned personal finance sites with over 1.2 million organic pagevews a month. It generates more a year than I ever made in banking. Plus, it is way more fun to operate and requires much less time. Conquer your fear!

Examples Of Conquering Fear To Get Richer

* An intelligent person studies hard and goes to college so they can become an accountant. Being an accountant has to be one of the most boring jobs in the world. But it's a safe occupation in high demand because our tax code is so damn complicated. Due to fear, the accountant will lead a comfortable lifestyle, but will probably never get rich. 

* A slightly more intrepid person decides to get his MBA. Despite learning about entrepreneurship, marketing, modeling, communications, operations, and more, he decides to play it safe and join a big tech company instead of building his own business with all the knowledge he learned from school. He pigeon holes himself as a business development guy for one small product at a large tech firm. It's the safer route. It's just too scary for him to strike out on his own even though that's all he dreams of doing.  

* A friend didn't focus her energy on her personal life because she had just made Managing Director at a large investment bank. As a female and a person of color, after she got promoted, she decided to work 60+ hours a week for the next 20+ years. She wanted to prove that she deserved to be there just like most of the men at her level. She was too afraid to let down the younger women who looked up to her for guidance. But in retrospect, she deeply regrets not focusing more on her love life.  

More Examples Of Conquering Your Fear

* A woman is too afraid of getting ridiculed online, even though she has so much to say. Every time she wants to post an article, a podcast, or a video, she thinks back to her middle school and high school days when girls would say and do the meanest things. As a result, she never publishes anything. It's so sad since she has the potential to be one of the greatest creators today. What a shame to never start your own website!

* Due to the fear and pain of rejection, a guy never introduces himself to the woman he sees every morning at the bus stop. Although she always smiles at him when he looks her way, he just can't muster up the courage to say hello. 10 years later, they meet at a mutual friend's party. She tells him she just got divorced and not only wished he had said hello, but also wished she had the courage to say hi as well. Maybe their lives would have been different if someone had said something.  

* After losing his job during the 2008-2009 financial crisis, a guy decides to only invest in Treasury bonds and CDs. Stocks are simply too risky and he doesn't want to go through the pain of losing his job and half his wealth again. Due to fear, the guy misses out on a 4X return that would have allowed him to retire 10 years sooner. At least he was able to buy a primary residence to get neutral inflation.

Conquer Fear To Your Advantage

You have to smell the fear and do it anyway because there's one fear that's scarier than all other fears combined. It's the fear of regret. Don't look back and regret not having done something. It will eat you up for the rest of your days. 

Regards, 

Sam – Financial freedom sooner, rather than later.

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