Why Leveraging Knowledge Is Greater than Financial Leverage to Growing Rich?
Perhaps leveraging knowledge is the greatest lever that a person can apply. Your wealth creating ability depends on what lies between the two ears. One has to develop financial muscles in the brain. Intellectual leverage is the most powerful leverage. I have seen entrepreneurs amass massive wealth with nothing more than an idea.
“Thinking is hard work. When you are forced to think, you expand your mental capacity. When you expand your mental capacity, your wealth increases.” – Robert Kyosaki
The fastest method to achieve intellectual leverage is to use ‘Other People’s Experience’ or OPE. It takes too long to learn on your own—become an apprentice and find a mentor. Learn from the experiences of those who have traveled the path.
Secondly, knowledge has become so complex that no lone individual can acquire all the knowledge one needs to grow rich. Wealth is created through knowledge or ideas of other people. One has to learn the art of using ‘Other People’s Ideas’ or knowledge. This may require collaboration, or buying the right expertise to cover any grey areas that exist in our knowledge construction.
We live in an information age where ideas can be converted into wealth with relative ease. It is very similar to Eisenstein’s theory wherein mass can be converted into energy. If you look at all the new billionaires like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zukerberg, Jack Ma, Larry Page, Sergy Brin, Jeff Bezoz, just to name a few, they used ideas and knowledge of others to grow rich. Most of them used financial leverage but they grew super-rich mainly due to the leverage of knowledge.
What is needed by a wealth creator is the judgment—as to what knowledge is needed for a particular project and from where it can be imbibed at the cheapest price. Our world is full of specialists who do not know how to apply their knowledge to create wealth. It is wealth creators who leverage the knowledge of the specialist to amass great wealth.
You have to develop a keen eye for talent and look out for skillful people, because these are the kind of people who will make you rich. You have to leverage, and harness the intellectual strength and talent of these people. Intellectuals consist of professionals such as accountants, legal advisors, tax consultants, etc. They fill the gaps in your knowledge. Their intellectual strength helps you grow rich.
Microsoft Corporations grew mainly due to its ability to harness the intellectual strength of young computer whiz-kids on its pay roll. Do you know that Bill Gates never created a software on his own. He either bought or hired someone to create the software that made him rich. If Microsoft can do it, why can’t you?
