Rich Kids; Poor Kids (How Rich And Poor Kids Think And Act Differently)

Dedication - To my wealth-conscious friend and enlightened villager, the Educated Cocoa Farmer (ECF) in UCC.

The title of this piece of writing is inspired by Robert Kiyosaki's bestselling book "Rich Dad Poor Dad," but my content differs from his in several ways. "Rich Kids; Poor Kids" is only meant to express the brevity of my practical thoughts, and it has an African setting to a large extent. My intellectual analyses are highly subjective, and thus can be refuted since they are dispute-prone. Besides, there is a greater degree of accuracy in this write-up, because my personal and other people's experiences validate the substance of my arguments.

Okay, so who is a rich kid and who is a poor kid? Or how do we define "rich" and "poor"? Well, "Poverty and wealth are the results of internal states of mind, and only as mind changes will material change," Wallace D. Wattles wrote in 'The Science of Getting Rich' in 1910. However, conventional wisdom about being rich holds that the rich are folks with huge material possessions such as money, properties, and the like. Yet the poor are perceived to be those with very little or virtually no material possessions, and such people live from hand to mouth or struggle to afford some basic needs in life.

But for the purpose of this article, a rich kid is a kid whose family is far more than financially sound and is at least relatively affluent. And a poor kid is a kid whose family is really financially handicapped and its finances are in a terrible mess. That makes me a poor kid as per the aforementioned criteria for describing a rich kid and a poor kid. As a poor kid, I relate well with other poor kids and also rich kids in my very ambitious life. Therefore, I am technically competent to dissect the crucial-cum-delicate matter in hand.

(1) Rich kids are driven by wealth; poor kids are driven by passion---

Rich kids can do anything pleasing to them because their wishes will be satisfied through money. A rich kid who wants to initiate a commercial project will get the funding from his/her family. So rich kids actually have moderate passion since wealth drives them to accomplish their goals. And they are very likely to get stuck at or even quit their plans if there is little or no financing.

As a poor kid, I still cannot secure mere half of $1k as sponsorship for my first book project. Yet my rare passion for my writing talent compels to press ahead with my super ambitions despite this financial challenge. In fact, I own a writing firm with no capital, employees, office, equipment, and fewer business links etc., but it is growing steadily. Why? Passion, not wealth, empowers me.

(2) Rich kids see money as their greatest asset; poor kids see their potentials as their greatest assets---

Why should the average rich kid yearn to discover and utilise his/her potential when he/she already lives in a profligate way? Rich kids see money as their greatest asset since it makes them enjoy uncommon luxury which poor kids, especially the gifted ones, only dream of. Some rich kids I have as friends capitalise on their family's wealth in everyday life, and they also have little regard for the significance of talents.

But a poor kid believes that talent is his/her most powerful resource and the pathway to his/her success. Poor kids do not have the financial capacity to live a better life, so they leverage their potentials as their greatest assets with all their might and wisdom in order to emerge successful. Look, the poor kid without any gift is the most hopeless kid because he/she will always wallow in despair.

(3) Rich kids love schooling; poor kids love hustling---

As a poor kid, I defiantly tell people that I am a proud hustler while I hate schooling which is quite expensive in Ghana and also backward-looking in nature. As a writer of genius, I love hustling with my gift of writing deliberately at the expense of schooling. For I believe the right hustle brings riches and not mere schooling. Besides, I educate my soul unusually from what the school system teaches.

Also, the late Steve Jobs, my great role model, was a poor kid during his childhood. His guardians managed to send him to college but he later dropped out to start Apple at age 19, emphasising that he needed to hustle and learn priceless stuff as a technology innovator which college did not offer. His rich college mates probably got their first and master's degrees, but they have not achieved a quarter of Jobs' success.

(4) Rich kids are less visionary; poor kids are hyper-ambitious---

It is a paradox that rich kids with all their familes' wealth normally do not create unthinkable visions. Rich kids are satisfied with the lots of money their familes have, that is why they are usually not extremely ambitious. After all, a rich kid's dad may have a few luxurious cars, a million-dollar company and huge investments with high reputation. Isn't that enough for him/her to enjoy now?

Moreover, the success story of Mensa Otabil epitomises this fourth point. Otabil was a very poor orphan in his teenage, but he dreamt of establishing a rare ministerial empire with international representation. This is because he was so desperate to change his appalling conditions, and to become an internationally great icon in Christendom and beyond.

(5) Rich kids believe in smartness; poor kids believe in hard work---

I am yet to meet a talented rich kid matching my age who works harder than me, a talented poor kid. I work harder because I encounter certain obstacles as a gifted poor kid which are strange to gifted rich kids. Example, a rich kid who is a blogger just like me has smart devices, reliable internet, impressive links etc., so he/she does blogging smartly. For me, I blog the very hard and difficult way since my blogging falls short of those requisites.

Yes, Floyd Mayweather Jr. was once a poor kid because his father had been jailed as a drug dealer and his family was financially constrained too. He then dropped out of high school purposely to work harder as a talented teenage boxer to support his poor family. And he perfected his craft in incredibly arduous ways. His poor family background could not enable him to practise boxing smartly but rather the inevitably hard way.

(6) Rich kids associate themselves with fellow rich kids; poor kids associate themselves with fellow poor kids---

Rich parents want their rich kids to associate themselves with other rich kids in order to avoid poverty oriented influence from poor kids. That's so awful! This explains why I am struggling to get unconditional support from rich kids I know in person and from afar.

They are obviously reluctant to really help me, probably because I am not among their social class or well born group. Stated differently, they believe I do not think and act like them. Indeed, birds of a feather flock together.

Source: sirarticle.blogspot.com