Want success? Behave like a rich person

Have you ever looked around and wondered why you’re working a lousy job while someone else has a much better job, and therefore, a lot more money? Who hasn’t. But still, it makes you wonder: Is it simply luck? Was the other person born into better circumstances, or have an uncle who opened doors?

Of course, those are possible explanations, but behavioral differences also separate the rich from the poor. Take, for instance, dieting. Rich people are more likely to change their diet and exercise more when they need to lose a few pounds, while poor people are more likely to take diet pills, according to a recent study in the Journal of Preventative Medicine, which found that your economic status plays a strong roll in how you tackle a weight problem. The Atlantic described the results as follows:

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5 thoughts on “Want success? Behave like a rich person

  1. “Act as if ye have Faith and Faith will be given to you…..till then………fake it till you make it….”

  2. I like this article. The underlying principle is that hard work is needed for success and it starts now if you want to see long term results. This is a mentality that differentiates itself from the easier path in life. Also, I could stand to drink more water and work out more. This is a lesson in thinking as much as it is anything.

  3. Formula for success= wealth at birth.+ Cultural homogeneity

    Sadly, one must be uptight WASP upper-middle class at minimum in order to get anywhere in life. Go to the correct schools (Ivy League only, of course), wear the correct clothes (popped collars, Brooks Brothers,… wear pearls if you are female…, of course), work for free/intern until age 24 and work those high-level contacts that your family must have (of course), play the right sports (golf, polo, tennis, yachting, racquetball only, of course), work in remunerative field (finance only, of course). If one is married to someone well-off like this, one can prance in wine and cheese environments/ philanthropic fields and pretend to be saving the world. Your WASP husband’s BMW will pick you up after the meeting with the billionaire philanthropist.

    One only has to read Piketty to see that accumulating capital is the only way to be successful. The wage slave has gotten nowhere, and that short term blip of moderate Baby Boomer success was an aberration supported by government spending. It’s the Gilded Age, my dears.

    1. Hmmm, I guess my non-baby boomer success is also an aberration? I didn’t go to the Ivy League. Don’t even own a car, let alone have a WASP husband with a BMW. I’m not sure I’ve ever been in the same room with a billionaire.

      No doubt, if you have a stable family life with employed parents you get a head start. But, there are a ton of people who are making it that weren’t born with silver spoons in their mouths.

      1. While I’m glad you’re an exception to the rule, but one anecdotal exception to Piketty’s (and others’) assertions of the primacy of accumulated wealth/capital over wage income surely does not blow that century plus of data out of the water. This country is really screwed right now. Very little social mobility.

        Also, while I get and appreciate the whole ‘fake it til you make it’ / ‘sunshine and rainbows’ positivity that these sorts of articles espouse, that can only go so far. Most of the behaviors and abilities that you suggest fall to the wayside under poverty. Chronic stress and lack of ability to afford fruits and vegetables, along with unsafe neighborhoods where running is not a possibility are barriers to looking rich, or even middle class. Heck, all of the outward appearances of middle and upper class (preppy clothes, orthodontically straight and Hollywood white teeth) are out of reach of the working class and the poor.

        Generally, the best predictor of how far you go in life is based on your parents. Both of mine grew up on farms during the depression, they raised us in a crime-filled urban neighborhood, and only one of ten of us got to go to college. None of us could afford to look rich.

        In fact, as the one who got to college, I remember being ridiculed at a fancy New England college for wearing jeans and t-shirts while everyone else wore clothes straight out of The Preppy Handbook and behaved exceedingly snobbishly. You cannot comprehend how painful years of being treated like garbage by these rich people was. I’d much rather be competent than prance around acting like a snot.

        Millionaire’s do fine too…I’ll admit that the billionaire thing was an exaggeration. I recently met a billionaire, and he was surprisingly less haughty than some of the upper class WASPs I’ve met throughout my life. Clearly he is an exception.

        Sorry for being so negative. I know, I know, It’s unAmerican to not spout sunshine and rainbows all the time- (btw, see Ehrenreich’s work on this topic. http://barbaraehrenreich.com/website/brightsided.htm)

        It’s just realistic.

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