Arnold Schwarzenegger Infrastructures of Wealth


Building infrastructure is one of only three ways to lock in a benefit from a dollar one hundred years in the future. Number one is to build public works that will last for that long. Number two is to use your dollar to invent something that will still be used in a century. And number three is to educate your children and grandchildren so that they see the benefits of knowledge and educate their own children and grandchildren in turn. Do any of these successfully, and you’ve invested wisely. You may even be remembered for it.  – Arnold Schwarzenegger

I was in Medellin a few months ago reading Arnold’s biography, Total Recall:

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He’s had incredible success in a variety of different areas. Bodybuilding, real estate, acting, business, politics, etc… In the quote above he was actually referring to government spending, but to see into the way he thinks about things, can give you a glimpse at how to replicate success in whatever area you choose. In this article we’re going to talk about how the quote can be applied with how entrepreneurs should be spending their time, and aren’t. Most go against the infrastructures of wealth that Arnold or just about any other wealthy person would advise.

Most people are either selling their time with a boss(9-5ers, aspiring entrepreneurs), selling their time without a boss(people who think they’re entrepreneurs but are freelancers), button clickers(day trading, media buying, poker, fantasy sports, etc…), or making very small advancements to existing products or services enough so that they can make a profit, and if they can, clicking buttons, or hiring button clickers to maximize that profit until it dies and they repeat the cycle.

Building infrastructure is one of only three ways to lock in a benefit from a dollar one hundred years in the future.

Let’s talk about building infrastructure for yourself that will reap you rewards well into the future.

Number one is to build public works that will last for that long.

When applying this to your own life instead of government spending, we could look at real estate investing.

If you invest in real estate there’s a good chance you’ll be making money on it decades from now. My brother invests in a lot of real estate and not only is he making money today, but he can expect the same places he has today will make him cash flow in the future. Not only that, because of the way the math works, he will have built massive equity for himself, with his renters paying him for the privilege.

foreverjobless real estate

Number two is to use your dollar to invent something that will still be used in a century.

When relating this to yourself, we could tweak it to: are you creating a product or service that is likely to be used just 10 years in the future?

It’s hot to create marginally better products these days, or just shitty products in general and then market the shit out of them by being a button clicker, or hiring a button clicker. Arbitraging dollars from consumers until it dies, and then jumping to the next arbitrage opportunity.

For example, look at the new amazon bookselling wave:

“Okay, I’m going to write 50 books this year to create passive income and be an entrepreneur”

Uhhhh…Okay, you basically have a job… a shitty one at that, and that “passive” income you seek is not passive. It’s going to last for an incredibly short time…. if you’re lucky, just long enough to write 50 more shitty books.

For people who aren’t that familiar with the amazon book niche- yes, there’s actually people who use this as their business strategy… a lot of them. People will look at a few people doing it “successfully”, and then copy the model as if it’s a good one. They get distracted by the possibility of having those results- that passive income to do anything they want in their free time. They get blinded by the fact they’re creating shit, and it’s not passive income.

See, real estate income for example remains passive as long as a new kind of real estate doesn’t come in and make the current living options undesirable. So, a house that rents for $1,000/month now, will likely rent for $1,000/month or more a decade from now.

Your shitty book you spent a week writing, or outsourcing, may get you some temporarily “passive” income after your “free giveaway” promotion boosts rankings and confuses people into thinking it’s a great book, and over time that passive income will disappear once they realize it’s not.

There is essentially no chance you will be receiving much, if any income from that book in 10 years, and not only that since you will not have income from the asset in 10 years, it is not much of an asset, so you can’t sell it.

A savvy investor will see the declining income and know that it wouldn’t be a good investment. You may be thinking, “hmmm, how can I avoid that?”.

Well, if your first thought is to pump up sales with more promotions, giveaways, etc… it’s an okay thought, but it shouldn’t take you more than a second to realize than it’s exactly the opposite of a passive income stream if you must constantly be active to maintain, or to prop the income back up. So, you can see the flaw there. Your second thought might be to hope that an unsavvy investor who doesn’t understand that you don’t actually have passive income buys it. A better option would be to just stop producing garbage, and start creating real value.  When you do that, you’ll have real passive income instead of temporary passive income that’s nothing but an illusion.

foreverjobless passive income

You’re making temporary bets and you’ll receive temporary returns in exchange. The problem is you must realize this now, or you’ll be in the same position year after year, getting enough temporary returns to get you to the next temporary bet, but you will have trouble making significant progress. If you’ve been doing things like this for years and wondered why you can’t get ahead despite having many “successful” projects, this is why.

Ask yourself, are you producing something that has a legitimate chance of being around in 10 years? If so, it might be worth pursuing. If not, I’m not saying don’t do it, but you need to consider that the temporary income should make up for the fact it won’t be around long, and realize there’s usually better spots to invest your time for your future.

If you’re thinking about starting a project, ask yourself, “will I be making money from this in 10 years?” or “will this still be of value to others 10 years from now?”. If the answer is definitely “no”, welcome to temporary income land, please spin the wheel again.

And number three is to educate your children and grandchildren so that they see the benefits of knowledge and educate their own children and grandchildren in turn. 

Now, we could tweak this quote to look at self education, as well as educating others. Similar to what we spoke about in #2, you can’t expect to make incremental or temporary improvements to receive long term results, for you or others.

If you’re educating yourself, ask yourself: “Am I learning things that will be important to my success 10 years in the future? Or am I learning a temporary skill that will have no real impact on my future success or happiness?”

You can ask the same questions if educating others. Most people who are educating others have no business in doing so. Why? Well, you can ask the same simple question. Is what they’re teaching going to have a significant impact on their future? Will they be using that knowledge 10 years from now, or have produced results from that knowledge that will be significant 10 years from now?

if you’re teaching someone to build temporary knowledge with your own temporary knowledge source, as a byproduct, you’ll also have temporary income. Now, if you’re one of the best button clickers, hire one of the best button clickers, are first to market for that temporary knowledge source, etc…, you can make significant enough temporary income that will allow you to put your money into #1(investing in real estate), companies that do #2, or have your time freed up because of the money you’re able to accumulate over expenses so that you can take your time doing #2 yourself. You could also invest your time in educating yourself(#3), so that doing any of the three you prefer in the future becomes easier for you.

Many people make the flaw of going from temporary income to educating. This is often a comical decision made by people who don’t understand how to make money. They may have made temporary income from a temporary income source, and will use that to convince people that they know how to make money, because selling the dream is often an ‘easier’ way to make money for them.

Others may be confused into thinking that they know more than just temporary knowledge because of significant results, which will entice them to buy future products/services from them even if those products/services do nothing but offer temporary returns, or dreams, whether it’s an incremental improvement over the competition or not.

If you’re doing this, you’re not only delaying their improvement, and negatively impacting their future, but your own as well. You’re on a temporary ego and money driven hamster wheel that confuses you into thinking you know more than you actually know, but at some point you’re going to get off the ride and realize you haven’t improved much as an entrepreneur or in knowledge(or as a person), as you’ve been going from temporary income source to temporary income source trying to convince others to do the same. You’ve invited them to join you on the hamster wheel of temporary income, knowing that them joining you enables you to continue the ride with their funding, and gives you the chance at escaping the ‘dream’ you’ve sold them.

Instead, if you were to educate people how to be in a significantly better spot for themselves 10 years from now, you’ve done them a great service. Now, the confusing part can be that there is usually significantly more temporary income in temporary education. What’s “hot”, is what’s certainly an easier sell, especially for people who have not been educated past the point of understanding you’re even selling the education of a temporary income source. So you sell the dream, and the promise that “you too, can be like me”, but they can’t… unless their goal is to sell temporary income but if you understand economics 101 you’ll realize that everyone is teaching people to teach people to teach people. If everyone learns to do the same thing, they become useless pretty fast. Case in point- traditional education.

Wonder why your $100k degree from traditional education is now just a $0 piece of paper? Ya. The info space is the new traditional education. “Today class, we’re going to teach you things that will be irrelevant soon. But not to worry, I’ll have more classes selling you more temporary solutions very soon, so no matter how many things become irrelevant I’ll always have more!”

foreverjobless infomarket

 

The real education is in educating people with knowledge that will still be valuable 10 years in the future. The latest amazon trick, or social media hack, or cheap traffic source will make more temporary income, and will make educators of the temporary income source more temporary income, but 10 years from now, neither is likely to have escaped. They’re both likely to be on another temporary income journey, chasing the dollar from temporary opportunity, to temporary opportunity. Or, they may have jumped off that ride and went back to the time for money hamster wheel, claiming entrepreneurship was too risky, and that the job will protect them. It wasn’t that it was risky. Noticing they were not actually an entrepreneur, or at least weren’t operating as one with long term plans would have been the first discovery to lead them down a better road.

What you spend your time on should be significant enough to give you a return 10 years from now. Take that for what it means to you.

Do any of these successfully, and you’ve invested wisely. You may even be remembered for it.

If you want to be remembered for doing something great, that’s cool. There’s nothing wrong with that. We don’t all have to be Elon Musk or Steve Jobs, but if being remembered is a goal of yours, you’re clearly not going to be remembered for doing temporary shit. You’re also more likely to do very well financially if you do one or more of these three things:

  • Invest in real estate(at the right prices), or something else where it’s mathematically likely you’ll reap significant long term returns while remaining relatively passive.
  • Build something valuable that improves people’s lives
  • Help people to think in a more prosperous way

If you can do at least one of these things successfully, your finances will be in a significantly different situation 10 years from now. Most likely much sooner.

Foreverjobless passive income

 





25 Responses to “Arnold Schwarzenegger Infrastructures of Wealth”


  1. Austin

    Hey Billy,

    I appreciate your consistent clearing of the bullshit.

    If you’re comfortable with it, I’d find value in seeing decisions you’ve made/are making that put this infrastructure into practice.

    Take it easy man

    Reply
    • Billy

      When you say decisions, you mean the decisions that led me to something, and/or away from something else? Anything specific you’d like to see?

      Got a lot of content coming, so may have some of these stories included, but if you’ve got something specific around it you’d like to see let me know and I’ll do my best to include.

      Reply
  2. Carl

    Very insightful.

    About 10 years ago I was trying to sell ‘how to’ info products, taught by ‘Guru’s’ who marketed ‘how to’ info products.

    I ended up going back to being an employee, however thanks to a fresh mindset, I want to really create a business of value, that can give me a true residual income.

    I’m studying Anna Macko’s ebook at the moment.

    Reply
    • Billy

      That’s the path most take, which is why I’m trying to educate against it so help people avoid those mistakes. Glad you’ve got a fresh mindset and are ready to create a valuable business, let me know how I can help. I’m not familiar with Anna, how is it so far?

      Reply
      • Carl

        Thanks for the reply.

        I’m half way through Anna’s ebook and the focus is creating an e-commerce business.

        Being mindful of your comments on providing value.

        I’ll keep you updated.

        Regards Carl


    • Anna Macko

      WOW! I love you Carl! Thanks for reading my book!

      Anna xo

      Reply
  3. Victor Silva

    There have been some magazines that tried to expose how scammy the biggest part of the digital marketing industry is, but they dug more into the characters of some famous names than into the logic that explains why their products are not nearly as useful as they claim. Although I’ve always liked your posts, I think you’ve been at your top in 2016 so far.

    Reply
    • Billy

      Thank you Victor! Really appreciate you saying that. Definitely trying to raise my game on the writing this year.

      Yes, the logic is all that matters, and no one has talked about it. Great point.

      Reply
  4. Sam

    Spot on Billy,

    I’m doing all those three things and starting to see the results already.

    Sam

    Reply
  5. Jim

    It took me a day to digest something about this that hit a nerve.

    Not sure if i will be able to articulate it as eloquently as your post. It’s something like producing shit goes way beyond a lackluster temporary and unsatisfying income. Guys at the very top teaching the latest “2.0 Pipeline Cash Machine” have a large team and an infrastructure behind the scenes but teach their methods to some dude at a kitchen table. This guy is under the delusion he can replicate the success. The alpha guru meanwhile is on top of the world even if he is selling temporary products. I know some of those guys make over $25mm in top line revenue. Someone else writes the scripts, edits the videos. They are confident and have a “look” about them. The look and confidence along with the notions of easy money and freedom are all what the kitchen table dude buys into forgetting himself in the process. I suppose it’s an easy mistake to make. I’ve made it.

    But not only is not very feasible, creating shit and then marketing it somehow (this is where it gets woo woo) effects a person’s inner world/soul/????. Not only does a person not attain the sustainable wealth they were looking for, they begin to lose an inner sense of themselves and the intuitive ability to make good judgements. They buy into it. Then at some point that person becomes a shade of a real person with a shade of a real life. it becomes harder to look into the mirror. That resistance is the beginning of something. If they have the awareness to chase down the question honestly “why it is hard to look into the mirror” it will be hard, but fruitful. However, most of time it gets bulldozed over in the name of “grit”, “commitment” and not being one of the failures.

    By contrast, you can look at someone like Bob Marley and tell he was a man of truth living a full life. He had a passion for a certain set of ideals. You could tell it would be the highest insult to even ask him to consider compromising those ideals. There are brilliant interviews of him calmly making minced meat, but not in a degrading way, out of misguided interviewers. I get the impression it would be super easy for him to see through the same BS that I and many others have fallen for. Some might say because of his success, but I would say his success is a result of his inner wisdom, not the other way around. Essentially he helped people think in a more prosperous way. Other people create feel good music about island life too. Jimmy Buffet for example. None of those people took inspiring people as a deep personal life-commitment the way Marley did. The Marley estate continues to make millions every year. He had to forge that value and path alone by listening to his inner wisdom. In doing so he created sustainable lasting value that is estimated now at around $150 million and makes millions every year, but just as importantly still inspires people to live to higher ideals to this day many decades after his death.

    In that sense Marley’s own biblical quote is close to what I am trying to say, “What is it to gain the world and lose your soul?” By creating shit not only do you NOT get the sustainable wealth you were looking for anyway, you also lose your soul and you engender a lower state in others.

    I joined a productivity guru who seemed/is legit – Todd Herman. Solid teachings I will be using 10 years from now. That membership also came with access to a facebook group, which I have grown to hate. That has been a maddening experience. ( BTW, Is EVERYONE a life coach now???? Seriously? I wonder, but it seems like more people teaching how to be a guru/life coach creates an army of students doing the same, which creates an army of “grandchildren” students doing the same and suddenly overnight there is this facebook army of amateur life coaches. )

    The comments of these perky people are, “Should I take my opt-in page off my home page to make that all important marquee page seem less salesy?” or “Have you seen this thing from the Navy Admiral about making your bed?” or, seriously, “What color should I make my brand.” or “Check out this blog post 10 ways to have a better morning.” They ALL seem to desperately lack an inner wisdom. A deep inner wisdom would say put an opt-in on your home page or not, but who cares! That’s not why you are in this. They all seem to be looking to finally improve or “arrive.” Never mind that Todd has been doing this for over a decade. It’s odd as if it’s based on a weird kind of self-hate where people despise themselves and want to arrive, but want to get there by polishing the outside so much that it tricks others, and themselves that the colors of a brand are the serious questions of the day.

    What’s most infuriating is the blind-spot these people have. They believe they are on the cutting edge because the conversation is digital and about b-school seeming things like brand colors. (Also makes me cringe thinking what blind spots I have others could see, so hit me up, I’m open.)

    If these people were able to tap into an inner intuitive place that decided “all of that stuff is playing small and bullshit and I’m not really offering any value anyway,” It could lead to a different type of knowing. That is, understanding INTUITIVELY what is possible in terms of a true and REAL impact that can be made. That can only come from understanding oneself and then knowing how best to step out into the cold to create differentiated value based on that knowing. That path seems riskier, because there isn’t a “Watch over my shoulder as I build an adsense blog from scratch that makes $100k a month. Who cares if this isn’t really what you want to do with your life? It’s just time right? LOL, money is cool.” I mean people are wasting their life AND getting further away from themselves and their inner knowing, AND influencing other people to go on these shitty shallow low energy paths, where more people buy into this thus creating a hive mind that reinforces the belief and delusions. I guess this is a rant, but the biggest point is that yes temporary results are bad, but it has other unintended consequences. The latest amazon publishing thing will lead to a pale half-life and create a dark influence that spreads to others as well.

    Reply
    • Will

      Boom, headshot!

      Nice perspective, Jim. Thanks for sharing.

      Reply
    • patrick

      Jim,

      Great rant. I enjoyed that more than the article. You articulated my emotions on this whole emergence of ‘life coaches’ ‘gurus’ and basically snake oil salesman. The whole philosophy and tactics I see seem to be completely antagonist with genuine human values and characteristics that help people become successful, and more importantly happy. I will look up Todd Herman and see what he has to offer. Thanks.

      Reply
    • Rod

      Jim
      Rockstar comment. I think it is true.

      Reply
  6. Brad

    Hey Billy,

    Fantastic article, really well said.

    Wanted to follow through, and listen to your related podcasts…however I’m not able to find FJP070 and FJP091 anywhere. iTunes doesn’t work.

    Would you be able to provide a working link ? I’d really love to listen to it.

    Thanks and keep up the great work !

    Reply
  7. ian

    Man, I have never seen anything less than the highest quality information on this blog. Every post has the potential to change a person’s life.

    I am finally getting some traction in my business, and I have this blog to thank for it.

    Reply
  8. Jonathan Goodman

    This is fantastic man. Really great work.

    Reply
  9. John

    You’re nailing it with this blog mate.

    1. Build something valuable that improves people’s lives – check
    2. Help people to think in a more prosperous way – check

    I hope you’ve got some real estate.

    Reply
  10. Rich Cosh

    This article would have been great for me to read 4 years ago! I got into digital marketing through horrible things like affiliate marketing and MLM. It took me a couple years to realize that these were just tricks that worked for some people, and ruined industries for others.

    On that note, it’d be great to see some examples from your point of view of what great value creating businesses have helped you grow.

    Reply
  11. Peter

    I usually agree with most of what you’re writing, I do agree with this blog post. However, it’s not in all fields that you can create products that will have a 10 years life span. In my field (plugins for musicians), there’s isn’t much companies that are doing this. And even then, the plugin have to be maintained, which means recurring work loads over the years (that’s without counting the time it takes to market your products regularly, running promo campaigns, etc.). I figure it’s pretty much the same situation with game development. You make most of your money over a big spike of sales combined with the “long tail”.
    That being said, there’s probably a way to create long lasting “classic” product in those fields too. But technological development is pretty hard to predict.
    I’m wondering what kind of product and in which field it’s possible to create long lasting value, aside from the obvious real estate and the top 4 field where there’s always money?
    By the way, thank you for the great articles. They really help me in the way I do business. Cheers for that! 🙂

    Reply
  12. Chad Westby

    When you assess potential business ideas and projects, I wonder how many projects are likely to be sustainable over this “10 year” framework you mention? Particularly, any online venture.

    I really like how it forces you to filter possible opportunities and will definitely apply it as I look at new ventures.

    Really enjoy the long view perspective you bring.

    Reply

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