Are you INTERESTED in being wealthy?

I learned something quite a while ago – interest does not translate into action.

And interest seldom translates into result.

Someone who is “interested” in getting fit, is unlikely to get fit, just as someone who is interested in becoming wealthy is unlikely to become wealthy.  I find that folks who are interested in wealth generally buy lottery tickets – which is a form of action, but it’s really not the right kind of action.

What, you might ask, is my inspiration for this post?

I read.  I read quite a bit, though my reading in recent years has turned into some sort of all-out ADHD case – I switch between books every 10-20 minutes, and I am not sure I have finished a book in at least a year, though I could be wrong 🙂  You might be curious what I read – and I can tell you that nothing I read is fiction.  Almost everything I read is related to either self improvement, business growth, marketing, and so on.

So… last week I pulled up a book on my Kindle that had been there some time, the title of which was “Publish To Sell” which is really about the business of publishing a book.  This isn’t about publishing books for fun, and it’s not about writing fiction either.  If you are interested in using books as a tool to grow your business, or even start your business, I do recommend this read (though, as above, I haven’t finished this book either 😉

Anyhow – he brought up some numbers from a study that I found interesting – and as a sidenote, I want to make it clear that I don’t find studies to be too accurate necessarily, though the numbers themselves can be interesting.  I would always tell someone that is looking at a study to take the results with a grain of salt…. but I digress.  The point of the study was reading habits of the rich versus the poor, and I found these to be quite interesting, so I am sharing them with you:

• 86% of the wealthy loved reading vs. 26% for the poor.
• 63% of the wealthy listened to audio books during their commute to work vs. 5% for the poor.
• 85% of the wealthy read two or more self-improvement books every month vs. 15% for the poor.
• The books wealthy people read disproportionately included non-fiction books such as: biographies, history, self-help, history, science, career-related books and educational books.
• 88% of the wealthy read 30 minutes or more each day vs. 2% for the poor.
• 94% of the wealthy, on a daily basis, read newspapers, newsletters, magazines, blogs and other digital media vs. 11% of the poor.

Now – I don’t know what you get from this, but there’s a real divide here – my guess is that if you asked the wealthy if they bought lottery tickets, the answer would be a resounding NO.  I mentioned the results of this study to Andrea, and her immediate response was along the lines of “that’s not really fair because the poor cannot afford books” which would be the default thinking… but I am of the mindset that if there are folks that really want to improve their situation, a good place to begin would be with taking tips from people who have done the things that they want to accomplish… instead of spending money on bad food (there’s a study somewhere about this too) and lottery tickets.

I am curious – where are you at with the topic of wealth?

Are you interested in becoming wealthy, or are you doing something about it?

Let’s sound off below – comments are not only welcome, but encouraged – let’s start the dialog!