99% of Americans Don't Understand This About Growing Wealthy

Want wealth without luck? Chris Markowski shares the secret: build assets that work for you, not status. Start a business, fill a niche, and leverage compounding interest—skills and money. Skip day trading, embrace accountability, and value your time. www.watchdogonwallstreet.com

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact it we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, and trader Chris Markowski.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Okay, here's the secret how to get wealthy? How to
get wealthy without being lucky? Listen. I know, first and
foremost you make your own luck in life, but hey,
certain people get certain gifts and it is what it is. Yeah.

(00:37):
I was always amazed that you hear some of these
stories like Chevy Chase being discovered by Lauren Michaels because
he was cracking jokes in line waiting for a movie.
Johnny Depp had no aspirations to be an actor, just
ended up becoming one. Or you take a look at
great singers or guitar players and God has blessed them

(00:58):
in a certain way, and listen, they may have gotten
lucky with certain talents without a doubt, but you know what,
they cultivated them, They worked at them. And that's one
thing everybody needs to understand. You don't look down on
people because they might be blessed with athletic ability or
looks or whatever. It may be it just with the
chips fall where they may take that and put that aside. Okay,

(01:20):
because I don't want to hear that the person was
just lucky. Listen, you can build wealth without being quote
end quote lucky. All right, First and foremost, wealth is key.
Don't look to be rich. I want to be rich.
I want to have status. I want to have Instagram followers.

(01:45):
Wealth is having stuff, stuff that does stuff for you,
having assets that are working for you while you're sleeping
at night. Yeah, what's money? I have a lot of money.
Money is is just a means of allowing us to

(02:08):
conduct business with one another. It makes it much easier. Okay,
got money, Okay, I can buy something that that's not wealth.
There's a big difference between the two. I don't like
having money. No, people say, what do you mean. I
like having money. I like having my money working. I

(02:30):
don't like having myny I don't like having money sitting around.
I know it's the old school types out there. I
don't know, have not many of them left. Let's put
put the money into a can and bury it in
the backyard or matrices. Now again, I get it. If
you're you know a gangster or something like that, and
you can't put the money in a bank. But come on,

(02:51):
you want to build wealth, your money has to be
working for you. Stop in a status game. I've talked
about this going back to our financial Independence Top twenty
and the fact that keeping up with the Joneses has

(03:12):
been put on steroids, and it was a one of
the rules on our Independence Top twenty was you have
more money than your neighbors and they don't have a clue. Okay, again,
having equity, owning a part of a business, how does

(03:35):
one is Well, it's easy for you to say you
have to find something to provide a good or a service.
This is a small business, a niche that needs to be filled.
People want to do something, they want a service, they
want a product. You provide that for them. And look

(04:00):
at that. You've got yourself a business. There's listen, if
you're looking for things, there's not a day that doesn't
go by. Well, I don't see, boy, there's a void
that needs to be filled. Boy that there's a void
that needs to be filled. If I could replicate myself,
I have a million different businesses out there. It is

(04:21):
what it is. I said, Well, boy, that I need
someone to do this. I need someone to do that. Listen,
there's a million different things. If you're willing to look
and you're willing to work again, you know, but you
want businesses that are not You don't want flashing the
pan type stuff. Okay, the influencer thing on the internet

(04:46):
that that's going to go away, kids, Just so you know.
Compounding interest this is something we talk about when it again.
Albert Einstein called it Man's greatest invention. We talked about
it with Ben Franklin and how he demonstrated it and
put certain money away. Then it went to I think

(05:08):
it went to the University of Pennsylvania down the road.
You compound interest with money and what you invest, but
you also compound interest in the things you do in life,
the people you meet, the relationships you have, the work
you put in. Charlie Munger talked about this a great,

(05:29):
late great Charlie Munger from Berkshire Hathaway talked about building
Berkshire Hathaway brick by brick over time. It works works.
Another thing. Okay, you want to be wealthy without being lucky.
You know what, arm yourself, prepare yourself, gain a certain

(05:52):
knowledge in whatever it may be something that other people
might not have, cannot be trained for. Again, this is
something that you can get just via curiosity. It's amazing,
it's it's it's today. You can differentiate yourself from most

(06:14):
people just by rather than than reading your phone all
the time, deciding to read books and the type of
skill and what you can gain from that. Another thing accountability, accountabity.
You have to embrace accountability. You have to own it,

(06:36):
to own everything that you are doing. I talk about
this when you want to. You know, you're an adult
when you just every every anything that goes right. You
know what you look when I do when I thinks
go right, I look to others that helped me to
get to that point in time. And you live a
humble You have a lot of humility and gratitude. Okay,

(06:59):
when things.

Speaker 3 (07:00):
Go wrong, it's my fault, my fault. I just just
throwing this out here. It's hard for human beings to
do when things go right. When things go right, business
is doing well, everything is going what you know what,
give others credit? Be humble, express gratitude. When things go wrong.

(07:25):
Own it, you own it, you take responsibility for it.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
Capital labor when you're building up your business, because that's
what you need to do. You want to build wealth,
you want to have something of your own. Don't be
too I know it's the thing. I've got to go
spend a tony and I got to hire all these people.
Be prudent with your dollars. Having capital, having leverage can

(07:57):
be a good thing, but use it wisely. Here's some
tips as well. Okay, you can put down, put down
the business books, stupid business books, business classes, whatever it
may be. It's it's not necessary, it really is. Listen,

(08:20):
if you were really wanted to go out, let's just
say you really want to whatever. Maybe you wanted to
be an actor, you wanted to be a basketball player.
You could read books on those things and you might
pick up a thing or two. But isn't it better
to go out and just do it if you want?

(08:44):
I said, your people want less. Sometimes people to get
these crazy notions. They've never worked in a restaurant in
their entire life. They come to the point time they
want to tire. I want I always wanted to own
a restaurant.

Speaker 1 (08:54):
Really do you?

Speaker 2 (08:55):
Huh? Well, this is what I suggest you do. You
want to own a restaurant, put your check book away. Okay,
go get a job. Go get a job at the
diner down the street and start washing dishes. And start there,
you wash dishes. Then you know what you also, you know,
made me ask if you could be a bar runner.
Learn how to work the bar, work behind the line

(09:19):
a little bit, learn the front of the house. Okay,
you have to do a myriad of these things. You
want to get involved with that Again, you have to
obtain the skills. And I'm sorry, the best way to
obtain skills is by doing. That's just the reality. Another thing,

(09:39):
your time. There was a line in the movie Wall
Street by Gordon Gecko lunch, lunch is for whimpsy. Another
line as well, you know, rich enough not to waste time.
I find it. I find it fascinating. I get all
the time I get offers to go out to lunch, dinner, trips,

(10:07):
come here, come there, and this by various different uh uh,
you know, fund managers, private equity head looking to get
my clients involved. And also these are sometimes it's people
that I do business with, clearing agents, we do business
with that we'd love to take you out to dinner.
We'd love to take you out to lunch. I appreciate it,

(10:31):
but I don't have time. I don't have time. If
you have time for meetings and lunches and coffees, you're
not making money there. You know, you know you want
to get to you want to get to me. You

(10:51):
want to get to me. You better be very much
to the point in your phone, call, in your email,
tell me why. And you have to be you have
to be understanding that my time is valuable. Don't waste it, Okay,
don't do that. When you're building business, it's it's not again,
it's not a social activity. It's work, really is. There's

(11:13):
no such thing as getting rich quick. Everything in life
that is meaning, value and worth involves work, time and effort.
Figure out what your passions are, figure what your skills are,
apply them, use them. God gave them to you. Do
something with it. Watchdog on Wall Street dot com