Alex Hormozi’s 28 Rules For Staying Poor — Do These 28 Things Instead
The bottom line: If you want something, get it yourself
Alex Hormozi is a serial entrepreneur with a portfolio of companies worth upwards of $100 million.
In the last few years, he’s blown up on social media, posting nonstop, amassing over 400 thousand TikTok followers and 330 thousand Youtube subscribers.
Here are his 28 rules for staying poor, but more importantly, solutions so you don’t stay poor forever.
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1. Start tomorrow
Hormozi’s Twitter thread starts with this.
Every day comes with its unique challenges.
Most challenges come down to the time needed to solve a problem. Do you have chores, need to pick your parents up from the airport, or are you feeling down today and think you’ll feel better tomorrow?
Make a habit of choosing to do something now because years later, you’ll regret not starting sooner.
2. Read books. Do nothing.
Balance your content consumption with your content creation.
Do you watch golf and wish you were a better golfer? Or do you watch the pros play and then hit the range?
Adopt the personality of a doer.
3. Take advice from poor people on how to be rich
Wealthy folks have money for a reason.
Listen to them without sizing yourself up. Remember, they were once in your shoes. What can you learn from those two steps ahead?
4. Pick a spouse who will make you feel guilty for working
This goes for friends too.
Real loved ones don’t scoff at your ambitions. They want to see you win before they do. Read that again.
Return the favor, and your ambitions multiply.
5. Fail once, quit forever
Future successes are built on past failures.
6. Think the world is fair
You’re reading an online article.
You have a higher advantage than many people in the world who don’t have internet access. You were born with an unfair advantage.
Learn the world isn’t fair, take the problems you’ve experienced, and think about how you can monetize them.
7. Blame your circumstances & complain
Turn your cheeky cheek and get hit by your circumstances again.
Where you were born isn’t something you can control. The only things worth worrying about are those that are under your control.
You can control:
Your diet
Your work ethic
Your productivity
The way you treat others
8. Complain, do nothing about it
It’s natural to complain about a problem — it’s sad to victimize yourself, crawl into a ball, and get stuck.
No one can help you but yourself. The good thing is that you’re capable of more than you can imagine right now.
Be 1% better than yesterday’s version of you every day for a year; you’ll look back and wonder why you ever complained.
9. Expect the government or other people to save you
The government doesn’t care about you.
Those stimulus checks you got in the mail created record-high inflation that has now cost you more than those checks were worth.
Focus on what you can control.
10. Value the opinion of others over your own
My life changed when I stopped comparing myself to others on social media.
Monitor your screen time and get more introspective “you” time. You’ll be happier for it.
11. Avoid discomfort
Living in the comfort zone is a life sentence of mediocrity.
If you have big goals, you need to not only do something about it but dip your toes into the land of discomfort.
Writing online for strangers to read isn’t comfy cozy. I don’t do it because I like working after hours. Writing online has given me a newfound purpose.
Purpose = Happiness
12. Tolerate mediocrity
We’re great at telling other people what they should do.
We should take our advice. We love to tell other people what we think they should do in a relationship, but when it comes to ourselves, why do we struggle?
If you demand greatness from your friends, you deserve the same treatment.
13. Make promises, break promises
It’s better to say nothing than to bite off more than you can chew.
Unless they ask you specifically, don’t tell your boss you’ll have something done by a specific time. Surprise them with the complete assignment and gain their trust.
14. Wait for perfect conditions
There’s an old saying about investing in the stock market:
“Don’t time the market.”
In life, start now and watch your efforts compound over time.
15. Prioritize looking rich over being rich
You’ll sleep better at night knowing you‘re’ rich even though you drive a Toyota instead of a BMW.
Pro tip: Don’t spend more money than what’s in your checking account.
If you already do, make it your life’s priority to get out of debt, or you’ll live your entire life knowing you owe others before yourself.
Looking rich is overrated — being rich and having time on your side is a blessing.
16. Avoid working on what matters most
Prioritize tasks that matter.
Some include work, side hustles, and relationships. Yes, relationships, both romantic and mutual friendships, are just as meaningful as your 9–5.
People won’t remember you for what you did at your office job, but people will remember the legacy and the friendships you built.
17. Say you’re going to do something and then don’t do it
Stay quiet.
Grind in silence. Work when no one’s watching. When you’re ready, show everyone what you’ve done.
Showing what you can do > telling what you will do
18. Do what everyone else is doing
Your coworker clocks off and goes to the bars.
You clock off, go to the gym, make dinner, and spend 30 minutes a night working on your side hustle.
Be different in moderation.
19. Do your best, not what it takes
There are no participation trophies in the real world.
20. Talk more, do less
As the saying goes, “talk is cheap.”
Take it a step further: don’t just talk, but show me what you can do.
21. Start something new today, start something new tomorrow, repeat
Give yourself time to figure out what works and what doesn’t. Reiterate once you have concrete data.
22. Believe what other people think about you more than what you think about you
Other peoples’ opinions don’t matter, king.
23. Make a mistake, then repeat the mistake
Don’t go through the motions.
If something isn’t working, test a slight variation of what you’ve been doing.
24. Be replaceable
Ask yourself what your “edge” is.
Focus on communication skills. You’ll become irreplaceable when you make it known how organized you are.
25. Find something that works, then stop doing it
Two years ago, when I started writing, I wrote about all sorts of things.
Now I focus on three niches I like writing about and am knowledgeable about, but most importantly, topics people want to read.
If I kept writing about the topics that got me abysmal views, I’d be nowhere.
Throw mud at the wall, see what sticks, and build with that mud.
26. Hire dumb people
Don’t hire people unless you have to.
Intelligent people are hyper-focused communicators who ask the right questions and stay quiet when it’s time to listen.
Don’t underestimate the quietest person in the meeting.
27. Assume you’re always right
Assume there’s a smarter person in the room.
There’s always someone to learn from.
28. Make money. Spend more than you make.
Follow the 50–30–20 rule of finances.
Allocate 50% (or less) of your monthly income to expenses, 30% for pleasure, and 20% for investments.
Remember, it’s not always how much you make but how you spend that money that can make or break a great budget.
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