March 7, 2025 • 13 mins
Hard work isn't enough to become a billionaire or reach your greatest potential - consistency and acquiring new knowledge are the true differentiators that create extraordinary success.
• Billionaires don't become billionaires just by working hard - two other factors make the difference
• Consistency requires discipline and making decisions based on principles rather than feelings
• Successful people are like waterfalls - what you see is the rush, but what powers it is the steady stream
• At some point, the work stops being about effort and starts working for you
• To reach a new level, you must become an apprentice again on a higher floor
• Many opportunities are missed not from lack of hard work but from lacking the right mindset
• Leaders must embrace both consistency and continuous learning to experience breakthrough success
Like, subscribe, and share if this content has value to you. We're excited to see our community grow and keep unlearning together so we can experience more freedom.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Hello everybody and welcome once again to the
unlearned podcast.
I'm your host with Abigail akaRa, and this is freedom friday,
where we come and sharesomething we've unlearned
recently and how it has made usjust a little bit more free.
So this is something I'veunlearned recently.
It's something I've had tocontinue to unlearn and I'm so
(00:33):
grateful for it, because at thispoint it's like I can see what
the other side is beginning tolook like and it's pretty cool.
Billionaires don't becomebillionaires because they have
just figured out hard work.
Billionaires don't becomebillionaires just by working
hard.
(00:53):
I'm saying it billionairesdon't become billionaires just
by working hard.
Two things happen that they dothat we don't do.
They're consistent and they getnew knowledge.
They're consistent and they getnew knowledge.
They're consistent and theygain new knowledge.
They don't just work hard.
Sometimes we make the mistake ofbelieving if I could just put
(01:17):
more effort in, I'll move toanother level.
The reality is your new level,the new level you're looking to
be at.
Right, if you're a teacher andyou'd like to be a principal,
the way to becoming a principalis not just to continue to work
hard as a teacher.
You will not be a successfulprincipal by working hard as a
(01:41):
teacher only.
You have to also have adiscipline that invites
consistency into your life, andyou have to gain new knowledge.
There are things that aprincipal has to know how to do
that a teacher does not.
Okay, so there there is.
There is there is consistencyand knowledge that has to be
(02:04):
gained.
Elon Musk, jeff Bezos, oprahJay-Z, the Waltons, michael
Jordan, robert Smith, markZuckerberg all these
billionaires, all these peopleare not billionaires because
they put their blood, sweat andtears into what they do all the
time.
That's not all they've done.
(02:25):
They have also remainedconsistent.
What I mean by that?
They don't stop.
They didn't stop doing whatthey started doing.
You keep doing what it is youwere doing.
In order to do that, you have tohave a certain level of
discipline.
Some of you are not where youwant to be because you lack a
discipline.
That's simply it, right.
We just decide that we are notinterested in being consistent
(02:49):
in something.
We're not interested in notalways gratifying ourselves when
we feel like something right.
We refuse to be disciplined.
And when you continue to say noto discipline, you say no to
consistency.
And if you say no toconsistency, you will not see
change.
You will always have to keepputting in blood, sweat and
(03:11):
tears and working hard in orderto get from one step to another.
If you understand the power ofdiscipline and consistency, then
your steps will begin to leadsomewhere and they're going to
lead to a point of leverage.
They're going to lead to yourtipping point, which we've
talked about before in thepodcast.
Your tipping point right themore you inch to the edge.
(03:34):
Think of it like a waterfall.
We are a waterfall.
When we see the waterfall, wesee the rushing stream of water
down to the bottom and it lookslike this.
It's just this incredible rush,right?
Well, what we don't always seebehind the rush is the steady
stream of of water that comes tothe edge.
(03:55):
What we have to do is stopworrying so much about the
waterfall and be consistent inyour stream.
Be consistent in your stream,be consistent in your stream,
stop worrying about thewaterfall, be consistent in your
stream, and if you do that, youwill start to come to the edge.
And when you get to the edge,it's almost uncontrollable.
What happens after that it's notabout your hard work.
(04:16):
At that point, your hard workdoes not matter.
At some point, you stop workinghard and the work starts
working for you.
Say it again At some point.
You stop working hard and thework starts working for you.
Say it again At some point youstop doing all the work and the
work starts working for you whenthe stream comes to the edge of
a waterfall and it comes downthe edge and you see the
(04:37):
waterfall.
That stream is not working.
That stream is no longer doinganything.
Now all it's doing is falling.
And we see the result.
We see the result of the fall.
It's a beautiful, magnificentbody of water that we get to see
coming down from a cliff.
It's amazing.
We love it.
But it is no longer the.
(05:00):
It's not steady anymore, right,it's just, it's a whoosh and
it's just there, right, and itjust, it falls down and it and,
and it drops and it'smagnificent and it's powerful
and it's uncontrollable.
You can't control the waterfall.
I could get a hold of thestream, a and if I am caught in
(05:26):
a waterfall, if I'm caught inthat rush, I'm likely not going
to be able to get back up.
I will probably drown in it,right?
That's how powerful and howvast it is, and that's the kind
of success and that's the kindof thing that consistency will
do.
That's the kind of level thatwhen you get to it, that's when
(05:46):
the work hard on your end stops.
But what does it take to dothat?
You got to be consistent.
I think this idea of disciplineis just not interesting to us in
a world that tells us that weshould be happy, that we should
have the things that we shouldbe constantly catered to in some
(06:09):
way.
Right, that I need toconstantly be understood.
All those things are not bad.
I want to be clear.
They're not bad.
Yes, being happy, beingunderstood, all those things,
those are great.
I want those things too.
But that entitlement that wehave to say that that should be
the way my life is all the timeis truly what's stopping you
(06:30):
from being disciplined becausediscipline creates guardrails
and boundaries in your life.
That at some point I makedecisions to say yes and to say
no according to some guardrailsor boundaries, not according to
my feelings.
I'm saying yes, I'm saying noto things that are in place, not
(06:52):
that are fluid and canfluctuate according to the day,
to my mood, right?
So that's not how I choose tolive my life.
If I choose to live my lifethat way, then consistency is
out the window.
I can't be consistent because Inever know how I'm gonna show
up.
I don't know what kind of daythe day is going to bring,
tomorrow's Monday, I don't knowhow I'm going to feel when I
(07:13):
wake up in the morning.
But I have to decide today thatI'm going to be consistent, no
matter how I feel.
That's discipline.
It's making a decision toremain true to what you want,
true to the path, true to theprocess, regardless of the
(07:40):
circumstance.
If I can learn how to do that,then I can get in my steady flow
and I'm going towards mywaterfall.
The other thing is I have tounderstand that I have to begin
to learn new things.
Again.
Going back to the teacher thing,right, we all know teachers
like if you are a teacher, it'sa very different world than if
you're a principal.
(08:00):
A lot of my friends and even mysister, they have made the
transition right.
They were in the classroom andnow they're administrators.
Totally different ballgame theydid.
They have made the transitionright.
They were in the classroom andnow they're administrators
Totally different ballgame.
They could not.
Their working hard in theclassroom was not enough for
them to be successful as aprincipal.
They had to learn new stuff.
(08:20):
What does it take to learn?
You have to slow down, you haveto humble yourself, you have to
listen to the right people andyou have to become a apprentice
again.
You have to go from being anexpert to an apprentice on
another level and that can bereally hard sometimes, because
(08:42):
you're in this steady flow, youreally feel like, okay, I'm
going, I'm going, I'm going, I'mgoing and now I want to get to
this new level.
But what it takes to do that,to be successful there, you have
to slow yourself down, listen,learn, humble yourself and
you're going to start over.
You're going to start over atsquare one, on a different floor
(09:03):
, and that's the only way youhave to gain new knowledge.
Billionaires are learners allthe time.
They're always gaining newknowledge, new perspectives,
because it's gonna shape howthey use their time, use their
energy where they put their mindright.
I can't give myself toeverything anymore, so I have to
(09:25):
be judicious about that.
So how do I do that?
I gotta learn, I gotta figure.
I have to be judicious aboutthat.
So how do I do that?
I got to learn, I got to figure, I got to.
I have to sit down and betaught some things and then make
decisions based on an educatedmindset.
A lot of us stop learning,really, after we get out of
school.
A lot of the learning that wehave to do has to happen on our
(09:46):
own, and A lot of times wewonder why I can't?
Why am I not being asked to domore things?
Why am I continuing to stay atthe same pay grade, right, why?
Why?
Why did I?
Why am I not getting thispromotion?
X, y, z we ask these things.
Okay, a big reason could bethat there are some things you
(10:09):
have not learned.
There are some minds.
There's a mindset that you havenot.
You don't have that you need inorder to be successful.
And the people who are, who aretrying to find those people to
fill those positions, uh, inorder to take it, fill those
positions, those next levelpositions that that are out
there, uh, they know what ittakes and for whatever reason,
(10:31):
the mindset isn't there.
It's not just about I'm a hardworker, I'm a hard worker.
I hear that a lot.
I'm a hard worker, I'm a hardworker Irrelevant At some point.
Working hard by itself isirrelevant.
If you have not figured outanother mindset, if you have not
figured out that I need to, Ineed to be thinking differently
(10:53):
about something.
I need to be thinking in adifferent way, then those
opportunities won't be availableto you until you do that.
Billionaires don't becomebillionaires just because they
understand hard work.
They may have started off thatway, but at some point they got
consistent, they didn't stop andthey took on new knowledge.
(11:14):
They were willing to become anapprentice again on the second,
third, fourth, fifth, sixthfloor.
All right, that's it.
Let's do that.
I know we have a lot of peoplewho wanna go to the next level.
If you're an unlearner, you'reprobably a leader in some way.
(11:34):
You're interested in leadership, you want to grow, you want to
get to the next thing, you wantto get to the next level.
I'm telling you from experienceand just from observation it
won't happen if you lackconsistency and if you lack a
certain mindset and a lot of thetimes, if we can really work on
(11:55):
those two things, you'll findyourself in a very different
place.
So I just hope that'sencouraging um to you.
We are hard workers, but that'snot going to be enough to get
you where you want to go.
You have to be willing to dothose other things.
All right, that's it.
Y'all Um, make sure to like,subscribe, uh, share, share if
(12:15):
this content has any value toyou.
We absolutely love you being apart of our community and we're
excited to see it grow.
Let's keep unlearning togetherso that we can experience more
freedom, peace.
Thank you once again forlistening to the Unlearned
Podcast.
(12:35):
We would love to hear yourcomments and your feedback about
the episode.
Feel free to follow us onFacebook and Instagram and to
let us know what you think.
We're looking forward to thenext time when we are able to
unlearn together to move forwardtowards freedom.
See you then.
Hello everybody and welcome once again to the
unlearned podcast.
I'm your host with Abigail akaRa, and this is freedom friday,
where we come and sharesomething we've unlearned
recently and how it has made usjust a little bit more free.
So this is something I'veunlearned recently.
It's something I've had tocontinue to unlearn and I'm so
(00:33):
grateful for it, because at thispoint it's like I can see what
the other side is beginning tolook like and it's pretty cool.
Billionaires don't becomebillionaires because they have
just figured out hard work.
Billionaires don't becomebillionaires just by working
hard.
(00:53):
I'm saying it billionairesdon't become billionaires just
by working hard.
Two things happen that they dothat we don't do.
They're consistent and they getnew knowledge.
They're consistent and they getnew knowledge.
They're consistent and theygain new knowledge.
They don't just work hard.
Sometimes we make the mistake ofbelieving if I could just put
(01:17):
more effort in, I'll move toanother level.
The reality is your new level,the new level you're looking to
be at.
Right, if you're a teacher andyou'd like to be a principal,
the way to becoming a principalis not just to continue to work
hard as a teacher.
You will not be a successfulprincipal by working hard as a
(01:41):
teacher only.
You have to also have adiscipline that invites
consistency into your life, andyou have to gain new knowledge.
There are things that aprincipal has to know how to do
that a teacher does not.
Okay, so there there is.
There is there is consistencyand knowledge that has to be
(02:04):
gained.
Elon Musk, jeff Bezos, oprahJay-Z, the Waltons, michael
Jordan, robert Smith, markZuckerberg all these
billionaires, all these peopleare not billionaires because
they put their blood, sweat andtears into what they do all the
time.
That's not all they've done.
(02:25):
They have also remainedconsistent.
What I mean by that?
They don't stop.
They didn't stop doing whatthey started doing.
You keep doing what it is youwere doing.
In order to do that, you have tohave a certain level of
discipline.
Some of you are not where youwant to be because you lack a
discipline.
That's simply it, right.
We just decide that we are notinterested in being consistent
(02:49):
in something.
We're not interested in notalways gratifying ourselves when
we feel like something right.
We refuse to be disciplined.
And when you continue to say noto discipline, you say no to
consistency.
And if you say no toconsistency, you will not see
change.
You will always have to keepputting in blood, sweat and
(03:11):
tears and working hard in orderto get from one step to another.
If you understand the power ofdiscipline and consistency, then
your steps will begin to leadsomewhere and they're going to
lead to a point of leverage.
They're going to lead to yourtipping point, which we've
talked about before in thepodcast.
Your tipping point right themore you inch to the edge.
(03:34):
Think of it like a waterfall.
We are a waterfall.
When we see the waterfall, wesee the rushing stream of water
down to the bottom and it lookslike this.
It's just this incredible rush,right?
Well, what we don't always seebehind the rush is the steady
stream of of water that comes tothe edge.
(03:55):
What we have to do is stopworrying so much about the
waterfall and be consistent inyour stream.
Be consistent in your stream,be consistent in your stream,
stop worrying about thewaterfall, be consistent in your
stream, and if you do that, youwill start to come to the edge.
And when you get to the edge,it's almost uncontrollable.
What happens after that it's notabout your hard work.
(04:16):
At that point, your hard workdoes not matter.
At some point, you stop workinghard and the work starts
working for you.
Say it again At some point.
You stop working hard and thework starts working for you.
Say it again At some point youstop doing all the work and the
work starts working for you whenthe stream comes to the edge of
a waterfall and it comes downthe edge and you see the
(04:37):
waterfall.
That stream is not working.
That stream is no longer doinganything.
Now all it's doing is falling.
And we see the result.
We see the result of the fall.
It's a beautiful, magnificentbody of water that we get to see
coming down from a cliff.
It's amazing.
We love it.
But it is no longer the.
(05:00):
It's not steady anymore, right,it's just, it's a whoosh and
it's just there, right, and itjust, it falls down and it and,
and it drops and it'smagnificent and it's powerful
and it's uncontrollable.
You can't control the waterfall.
I could get a hold of thestream, a and if I am caught in
(05:26):
a waterfall, if I'm caught inthat rush, I'm likely not going
to be able to get back up.
I will probably drown in it,right?
That's how powerful and howvast it is, and that's the kind
of success and that's the kindof thing that consistency will
do.
That's the kind of level thatwhen you get to it, that's when
(05:46):
the work hard on your end stops.
But what does it take to dothat?
You got to be consistent.
I think this idea of disciplineis just not interesting to us in
a world that tells us that weshould be happy, that we should
have the things that we shouldbe constantly catered to in some
(06:09):
way.
Right, that I need toconstantly be understood.
All those things are not bad.
I want to be clear.
They're not bad.
Yes, being happy, beingunderstood, all those things,
those are great.
I want those things too.
But that entitlement that wehave to say that that should be
the way my life is all the timeis truly what's stopping you
(06:30):
from being disciplined becausediscipline creates guardrails
and boundaries in your life.
That at some point I makedecisions to say yes and to say
no according to some guardrailsor boundaries, not according to
my feelings.
I'm saying yes, I'm saying noto things that are in place, not
(06:52):
that are fluid and canfluctuate according to the day,
to my mood, right?
So that's not how I choose tolive my life.
If I choose to live my lifethat way, then consistency is
out the window.
I can't be consistent because Inever know how I'm gonna show
up.
I don't know what kind of daythe day is going to bring,
tomorrow's Monday, I don't knowhow I'm going to feel when I
(07:13):
wake up in the morning.
But I have to decide today thatI'm going to be consistent, no
matter how I feel.
That's discipline.
It's making a decision toremain true to what you want,
true to the path, true to theprocess, regardless of the
(07:40):
circumstance.
If I can learn how to do that,then I can get in my steady flow
and I'm going towards mywaterfall.
The other thing is I have tounderstand that I have to begin
to learn new things.
Again.
Going back to the teacher thing,right, we all know teachers
like if you are a teacher, it'sa very different world than if
you're a principal.
(08:00):
A lot of my friends and even mysister, they have made the
transition right.
They were in the classroom andnow they're administrators.
Totally different ballgame theydid.
They have made the transitionright.
They were in the classroom andnow they're administrators
Totally different ballgame.
They could not.
Their working hard in theclassroom was not enough for
them to be successful as aprincipal.
They had to learn new stuff.
(08:20):
What does it take to learn?
You have to slow down, you haveto humble yourself, you have to
listen to the right people andyou have to become a apprentice
again.
You have to go from being anexpert to an apprentice on
another level and that can bereally hard sometimes, because
(08:42):
you're in this steady flow, youreally feel like, okay, I'm
going, I'm going, I'm going, I'mgoing and now I want to get to
this new level.
But what it takes to do that,to be successful there, you have
to slow yourself down, listen,learn, humble yourself and
you're going to start over.
You're going to start over atsquare one, on a different floor
(09:03):
, and that's the only way youhave to gain new knowledge.
Billionaires are learners allthe time.
They're always gaining newknowledge, new perspectives,
because it's gonna shape howthey use their time, use their
energy where they put their mindright.
I can't give myself toeverything anymore, so I have to
(09:25):
be judicious about that.
So how do I do that?
I gotta learn, I gotta figure.
I have to be judicious aboutthat.
So how do I do that?
I got to learn, I got to figure, I got to.
I have to sit down and betaught some things and then make
decisions based on an educatedmindset.
A lot of us stop learning,really, after we get out of
school.
A lot of the learning that wehave to do has to happen on our
(09:46):
own, and A lot of times wewonder why I can't?
Why am I not being asked to domore things?
Why am I continuing to stay atthe same pay grade, right, why?
Why?
Why did I?
Why am I not getting thispromotion?
X, y, z we ask these things.
Okay, a big reason could bethat there are some things you
(10:09):
have not learned.
There are some minds.
There's a mindset that you havenot.
You don't have that you need inorder to be successful.
And the people who are, who aretrying to find those people to
fill those positions, uh, inorder to take it, fill those
positions, those next levelpositions that that are out
there, uh, they know what ittakes and for whatever reason,
(10:31):
the mindset isn't there.
It's not just about I'm a hardworker, I'm a hard worker.
I hear that a lot.
I'm a hard worker, I'm a hardworker Irrelevant At some point.
Working hard by itself isirrelevant.
If you have not figured outanother mindset, if you have not
figured out that I need to, Ineed to be thinking differently
(10:53):
about something.
I need to be thinking in adifferent way, then those
opportunities won't be availableto you until you do that.
Billionaires don't becomebillionaires just because they
understand hard work.
They may have started off thatway, but at some point they got
consistent, they didn't stop andthey took on new knowledge.
(11:14):
They were willing to become anapprentice again on the second,
third, fourth, fifth, sixthfloor.
All right, that's it.
Let's do that.
I know we have a lot of peoplewho wanna go to the next level.
If you're an unlearner, you'reprobably a leader in some way.
(11:34):
You're interested in leadership, you want to grow, you want to
get to the next thing, you wantto get to the next level.
I'm telling you from experienceand just from observation it
won't happen if you lackconsistency and if you lack a
certain mindset and a lot of thetimes, if we can really work on
(11:55):
those two things, you'll findyourself in a very different
place.
So I just hope that'sencouraging um to you.
We are hard workers, but that'snot going to be enough to get
you where you want to go.
You have to be willing to dothose other things.
All right, that's it.
Y'all Um, make sure to like,subscribe, uh, share, share if
(12:15):
this content has any value toyou.
We absolutely love you being apart of our community and we're
excited to see it grow.
Let's keep unlearning togetherso that we can experience more
freedom, peace.
Thank you once again forlistening to the Unlearned
Podcast.
(12:35):
We would love to hear yourcomments and your feedback about
the episode.
Feel free to follow us onFacebook and Instagram and to
let us know what you think.
We're looking forward to thenext time when we are able to
unlearn together to move forwardtowards freedom.
See you then.
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