How to Be a Capitalist Without Any Capital: The Four Rules You Must Break To Get Rich

by Nathan Latka

Build systems around the things that take up most of your time. Sadly, most people don’t even know what those things are. How many of us are constantly busy but can’t look back on our day and say what we did? It’s all a blur. If that’s you (and even if it’s not), spend a week documenting what you’re doing. This kind of awareness forces you to be reflective and intentional, not reactive to whatever thing is in front of you.

This is the essence of systems leverage. If you have a clear system, it can be done faster and cheaper by somebody (or even something) other than you.

Whatever your business or industry, remember that the gold mine is the hot trend. That’s the part of the iceberg above the water that everyone sees and wants. The pickax is the part of the iceberg below the water—the part nobody can see but that the hot trend relies on to function.

This may sound slimy, but it doesn’t have to be. People today are less rational and more emotional than ever, but it’s your decision whether to use that opportunity for good or for bad. Sell a great product and you can profit off fear without the moral dilemma.

Fear of Failure: This is such a universal feeling that everything from software to shoes can tap into our fear of failure. Say you decide to run a triathlon with your friends. You want to make sure you have the right shoes so you don’t get blisters or twist your ankle while running for eighteen miles. So you just do it—you buy the best shoes out there. If you’re launching a business you might spend thousands to alleviate your fear of failure: coaching services, online courses on how to pitch investors, top lawyers.

That’s a big blind spot for people. They shut down opportunities they’re not interested in rather than letting the conversation play out. But remember, your best analysis is done when you have people’s best and final offers in hand, whether that’s employees you want to recruit, CEOs you’re trying to sell your company to, or customers you’re trying to sell a product to. You want to be as close to the finish line as possible before you decide on anything so that you have the best and most accurate data possible.

It’s because we overestimate what we can do in a day and underestimate what we can do in a year.

I know someone who is working on launching a career as a voiceover artist. His plan looks like this: In the next decade, he will have a full client base and will bring in a high six-figure annual income from his VO work. This year, he plans to secure ten regular clients and get an agent. To accomplish the year’s goal, he’s setting five systems in motion: System 1: Record/produce demos for the genres he plans to work in: audiobooks, radio/TV commercials, corporate videos. System 2: Build a portfolio website to showcase his demos. System 3: Audition for thirty gigs a week through websites like Voices.com and Voices123.com. System 4: Reach out to ten agents a week. System 5: Reach out to five audiobook publishers a week. Each day of the week he’ll focus on building out one of these systems. If one system has to launch before he can start another (demos before website, website before auditions and agent/publisher outreach), he’ll dedicate his week to building each layer of the cake that will ultimately provide him with year after year of voiceover success.

If you had $18K today, would you sacrifice it if you could get it back in nine months, then make $24K/year forever?