Do You Think Like the Upper-Class or the Middle-Class?

A friend of ours told us about the Bridges Out of Poverty program.

We’ll warn you – there’s controversy surrounding it.

Many teachers seem to love the program. Many academics don’t.

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It was started by Dr. Ruby Payne, who co-authored a book with the same title along with a book called A Framework for Understanding Poverty.

We can’t do it justice in a short time but here’s the basic idea:

In addition to political, economical and societal issues which we need to address collectively, Dr. Payne says that poor people think (and therefore behave) differently than people in the middle-class.

But here’s the reason we’re talking about this today:

The middle-class thinks (and therefore behaves) differently than the wealthy.

Educating for middle-class

Our educational system is designed to teach people to be middle-class. For example, business schools don’t train students to become C-level executives. It trains them to be middle managers.

Why? We don’t know. We think we should train people to be exceptional, to be a BIGG success.

But we don’t.

Promoting the upper-class

Even worse, the images we promote in the media – from Madison Avenue to Hollywood – are mostly images of the upper-class.

So we train people to be middle-class and then bombard them with messages about how great the upper-class is living.

Is it any wonder so many people bash the rich?

How do the different classes think?

Good middle-class people are thing-oriented. They save money to buy a house. They set aside money for retirement. Money is to be managed.

The wealthy are goal-oriented. They seek first to preserve capital. Then they strive to grow it. Money is a tool to make more money.

How do the wealthy make money with money?
In many cases, it’s about control. They manage their risk by exercising more control over their investments.

What’s the best way to do that?
Look at the Forbes 400 – most of the people on that list, year after year, got there by owning their own business or by owning real estate or both.

But what if you don’t have the money?
First, with the technology available today, it’s amazing how much can be done with a small amount of money.

Second, if you really don’t have the money, find a partner who does. Of course, you’ll want a partner who shares your vision, shares your values and complements your own skills.

You can come up with all sorts of reasons not to go for it. Without a question, it’s not easy. It can be complex if you don’t educate yourself.

But it’s your choice: be happy with where you are or do something about it. That leads to BIGG success!

Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file | podcast:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/biggsuccess/00611-072610.mp3