Poverty, not death, is the greatest enemy of mankind. We only die once. When you are poor, it is an everyday struggle. Some people struggle with lack and poverty all their lives. This is the worst kind of life anyone can live on earth.

Human beings were created to prosper. This is why the maker created so many resources around us. However, most people do not see the abundance in the world and thus, they remain poor.

Poverty is not a product of poor education or background. It is a product of living and doing things the wrong way.

There is a way you do things in life and you can never be poor again. It is not the amount of work that you do but how successfully you do what you do.

Look at this: someone may spend the whole day on the farm all his life and never make a fortune in life. Another person may work for 2 hours every day for 5 years and make millions. This is what we are talking about.

Here is why people live and die poor

1. Trading time for money

People who trade time for money never get much in life. If they are lucky, they make it when it is too late.

Trading time for money means getting paid based on the amount of time you work. It means that you have to work from 9-5 every weekday to get a paycheck at the end of the month.

People who overcome poverty are paid based on value, not time. Such people are paid for getting results not putting in the hours. It is proven that these people make more in less time.

People who trade time for money may spend 40 years working in a job just to make a million. People who are paid based on value can get a million in one contract.

2. Consuming rather than producing

People who remain poor in life never produce anything; they only consume what is produced by someone else.

Successful people focus on producing for other people to consume. This is where wealth is transferred.

Consumers keep spending money on products while producers keep making money from what they produce. With this, poor people become poorer while rich people continue in riches.

3. Seeking quick fixes

Poor people love taking short cuts. They do not realize that short cuts are always long in the long run. Short cuts do not create sustainable wealth. They only provide a temporary reprieve.

Successful people hate quick fixes that have no long term advantage. They would rather grow slowly but steadily.

Playing lottery and gambling is not their thing. They invest hours upon hours producing something and introducing it into the market. It may take them several years to be successful but it is the only sustainable way of making wealth.

4. Never investing

Poor people rarely invest. They consume everything they make.

If you want to be successful, you have to do everything it takes to invest something at the end of the month. You have to live below your means and avoid the rat-race.

Seek ways to make more money so that you will have enough to invest. You may take a second job or start a side hustle.

Also, minimize your expenses. As your income increases, let your expenses decrease. After you do this, always pay yourself first. This is how you will rise above the limitations of poverty.

5. Lack of entrepreneurial skills

If you want to be successful, you cannot afford not to start a business. All ultra-wealthy individuals are business people.

Starting a business is easy but scaling it is hard. This is why you need to sharpen your entrepreneurial skills.

It is proven that a lack of entrepreneurial skills among the founders is the leading cause of startups' failure. For this, you have to make sure that you are learning every day.

6. Ignorance and arrogance

Ignorance is worse than a disease. It is a leading reason why people remain poor. When ignorance is mixed with pride, it becomes arrogance.

People who are ignorant and arrogant do not see the need to learn. They think they know everything already. Such people do not seek mentors nor read books.

The more they resist knowledge, the more they lack the ideas and skills of wealth creation. They remain poor or average all their lives.

7. Comfort over progress mentality

If you value comfort over progress, you will never make it in life. Successful people make progress at the expense of comfort.

Have you heard people say statements that are retrogressive just to promote comfort? It is very common. These are statements like, “Science recommends that we sleep at least 8 hours a day.” Or “If you stress yourself too much, you will become sick.”

Although these statements are correct, many people use them to justify their laziness. They do not want to do what brings pressure in their lives. They also want to oversleep.

If you are going to overcome poverty, you need to stop seeking comfort and start seeking progress.