Something I learned early on in my investment journey was just how mental the average ‘normal’ person on the street is. Having discovered the wonders of dividend investing and how it can set you free I would naturally want to share this information with the people I love and those I care about.
But after seeing the reactions from so many different people I came to a point where I no longer bother. A person would almost have to beg me to show them how to get started with investing to be financially free.
Which just blows my mind on so many levels. Imagine that we’re all captives in a hellish nightmare of a prison. We all hate the confinement and restrictions placed on us by our prison masters and we often talk with other prisoners about how amazing it would be to be free from this hell hole.
And then imagine someone comes up to us and tells us about a hole in the fence that they have found. It is a certain path to freedom and unlimited choices, but the catch is that it’ll take time to dig under the fence and it’ll require some discipline and hard work.
You would think that the thought of freedom and choices would be enough to motivate most people to start digging straight away.
The last reaction I would expect is for a fellow prisoner to run to the prison guard and let them know about the hole or gossip with other slaves about the ridiculous fantasies of freedom. But this is what I see from 99% of everyone I have spoken with about financial freedom with dividend paying stocks.
I guess you could argue that it must be my delivery of the information to have such a miserable conversion rate and that may well be true as I’m not one to sugarcoat things but the information shouldn’t need to be dressed up, it should be pounced upon regardless of the delivery.
My conclusion is simply this: People are deathly afraid of freedom. They’re comfortable with their slavery and they’ll do whatever necessary to keep things as they are. They’ll tell you that they want freedom and would love to someday win the lottery and everything would be different. But they are empty words designed to fool themselves and anyone who dares come to them with an actual way out.
Obviously their love of slavery is kept from their own consciousness as who in their right mind wants to be conscious of such ridiculousness? You would have to be a special kind of stupid to be aware of your own slavery and to attack anyone that shows you a path to freedom.
Everyone rejects your hole in the fence theories in their own way but the message is always the same: leave me in peace with my slavery and imprisonment. And I oblige.
I haven’t completely given up on humanity though and that is why I continue to work on this website. If you have found this website you’re probably interested in becoming financially free. We’re on the same page. You don’t need to be converted, you’re already a believer! You’ve probably already started investing, you might be half way towards your goal or maybe you’re already financially free.
I have no idea what the secret is to waking people up but I know it’s not talking to them rationally about the blessings of financial freedom or the wonders of compound interest over time. Perhaps it’s something that you have to do for yourself. I know that I had to do it the hard way, later in life after making a thousand mistakes. Hitting bottom was the only thing that got through to me. It lit a fire under me and set me free.
What got you started on the path to financial freedom?
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