At least when it comes to money.
Every group has one. The guy who argues with whatever gets said, just because it got said. Somebody mentions the weather and he’s got a problem with it.
Nobody likes that guy. You spend half the get-together managing around him instead of just enjoying it.
So don’t be him. That part’s easy to agree with.
But not being the contrarian doesn’t mean going along with whatever the room decides. Those are two different things, and most people only learn the first one.
Last week I laid out the pyramid. However you divide the exact percentages, the basic shape isn’t very controversial. A relatively small group ends up doing extremely well financially. A much larger group doesn’t.
Which raises an obvious question.
If you want an uncommon financial result, why would you copy common financial habits?
The good thing is you don’t even have to know the right move to get started using this.
Watch what most people actually do. They spend what shows up before it clears. They finance things that lose value the second they leave the lot. They treat “I deserve this” like a financial strategy.
None of that tells you what you should do instead. It tells you what to cross off the list, which is most of the way to an answer before you’ve even picked one.
Same logic works outside of money too. Look around any waiting room, any checkout line, any church pew five minutes before service starts. Half the room’s face down in a phone, and most of them would tell you they’re being productive.
They’re not. They’re just bored in a way that feels busy.
Doesn’t mean throw your phone away. Means the constant, twitchy, always-checking version of “staying connected” isn’t actually buying anybody anything. You can see that just by watching, without having a better system worked out yet.
That’s the whole trick.
You don’t need the answer sitting there ready to go before you start paying attention. You need to notice what the majority’s doing, ask whether it’s producing a result you actually want, and let that rule things out one at a time.
You’re not arguing with anybody at the party either. You’re not standing up and announcing that everyone’s broke and bad with their phones.
You just quietly stop doing what they’re doing. Let your own results talk whenever they get around to it.
Ignore the crowd. Keep your mouth shut about it. Check back in ten years.
If you want a whole book built around this idea, and one that will actually give you something to put in place of what you crossed off, get The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson.
His argument is that the little decisions that are easy to make are also easy not to make. One doesn’t look like it matters much either way. But stack enough of them together over enough time and the difference gets enormous.
Most people won’t do that because nothing dramatic happens today.
Which is kind of the point.
Is it worth a few hours to learn how a few small choices can put you somewhere very different ten years from now?
P.S. That link goes through Amazon, and I’m an affiliate. Doesn’t cost you a dime more, but if you click through and buy the book, or anything else while you’re there, I get a small commission.
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