Lewis Howes: The Belief Keeping You Broke Without You Knowing
In a Nutshell
Your money beliefs—formed by watching your parents—dictate your financial behaviors and keep you in scarcity when you view money as bad, hard to earn, or only for shady people. The shift to abundance happens through consistent generosity and gratitude: offering value freely even when broke, saying "thank you" to every dollar that comes and goes, and flipping from helplessness to helpfulness. Quick-money schemes repeatedly fail because sustainable wealth requires going all-in on one path over time, not chasing easy wins.
These notes were generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.
When someone is desperate for money, stressed by it, paralyzed by it, or feeling pressure around it, the first thing to do is create awareness. This means noticing how you feel and think when you receive money, when you pay money, when you look at your bank account, or when you open your purse or wallet. The key is to observe whether you have shallow breathing, feel relaxed, anxious, scarce, or abundant. The goal is to have awareness around how you feel and think about the money you have, the money coming in, and the money going out.
After establishing awareness, the next step is understanding your money story. The relationship style people develop around money typically comes from watching their parents unless they heal or have a breakthrough as a teenager. This includes all the conversations parents had around money, whether parents fought about money, were involved in discussions about how expensive things were, or whether money contributed to arguments or divorce.
The question becomes whether your nervous system, body, energy, and thoughts are stressed out around money, and whether you feel scarce or abundant.
Lewis Howes grew up feeling a little bit beneath everyone else. While his family had a home and he went to school, other kids had rollerblades while he had sneakers, and others had Nintendo while he read books. This shaped his belief system that he was just a little bit under everyone else, which created insecurity around money. When he received money, he got excited but didn't know what to do with it, feeling afraid, insecure, and unsure.
Jay Shetty grew up in a household where the language was "we have just enough." His parents often argued about money, and he wasn't allowed to buy cool shoes or brands, only getting the knockoff cheapest brands. He started working at age 14 delivering newspapers, getting paid £2 per street with five streets taking at least an hour each, earning £10 per week. This gave him an understanding of how hard it was to make money, which became a story that making money is hard.
Jay also internalized the belief that people who have money are doing something bad or dodgy. When visiting friends' nice homes, his family would say they do shady stuff to make money, leading to the belief that having money means exploiting or taking advantage of people.
The fundamental principle is that beliefs dictate behaviors. If someone believes that money is bad or that people who make a lot of money are bad and take advantage of others, and therefore having lack means being a good person, that belief will keep them in scarcity. They will see only opportunities that give them just enough rather than opportunities that could create incredible wealth.
Jay had 150-200 million views on content but felt it was wrong to make money from it. He was four months away from being broke despite the massive reach because his story and personality style were anxious around money, feeling that making money was bad.
The biggest shift that creates abundance is a mindset habit of generosity. One major block is the belief that being generous with time, wisdom, knowledge, or secrets means others will take it and run with it, leaving nothing behind. This leads people to hoard their energy, time, and knowledge.
However, billionaires and millionaires who sustainably create wealth year after year all say the same thing: having a sustainably good heart in the process requires a generous mindset. Generosity is the first habit needed when creating abundance with money and feeling abundant internally.
When Lewis was on his sister's couch with no money, in student loan debt, without a college degree, and not knowing how to make money, the shift came from learning the mindset habit of generosity and gratitude. He wrote down all the talents he thought he had and realized he was curious and could ask people questions, which eventually led to a 12-year-old podcast.
The practical approach was bringing energy of curiosity, possibilities, and joy when meeting people who had money and success. Lewis recognized that passion, energy, and excitement are currencies that older, burnt-out, exhausted people crave because they want to feel young, curious, and excited again.
Before having a platform, Jay partnered with Nasdaq to interview people on Facebook Live in the Nasdaq building, with pictures going up in Times Square. He didn't get paid for this work. The value offered was admiration and connection with people he looked up to, including Lewis Howes, Ryan Holiday, and Deepak Chopra.
This led to relationships and opportunities. Ryan Harwood, who founded PureWow and sold it to Gary V, came on the show and later introduced Jay to Gary Vee. The principle demonstrated is that even when feeling you have nothing to offer, finding a way to create something of value for others generates abundance over time.
Gratitude and generosity are the gateway to abundance. The goal is not just financial wealth but feeling a rich life inside. Having money in the bank account or high net worth does not mean freedom if someone is stressed, overwhelmed, anxious, or constantly in drama.
The practice is to flip from helplessness to helpfulness when feeling scarce. Instead of saying "I feel helpless," the shift is to ask "How can I be helpful?" This means helping others even when having nothing, being generous and in gratitude, saying "Thank you for this opportunity to learn" and "Thank you for this opportunity to grow because I'll never be here again."
Ken Honda's approach involves saying thank you whenever money comes, whether a check, Venmo payment, or regular paycheck. He looks at the number, whether a penny or a million dollars, and says thank you while opening his heart and loving that money. He asks where the money wants to go - to bank account, savings, investments, paying off debt, or giving away.
The same practice applies when paying bills or paying off debt - saying thank you for allowing payment of debt, for paying cell phone bills to call loved ones, and for the ability to live a richer life. This approach helps people feel more rich and abundant internally, which attracts more opportunities.
Everyone has skills that are valuable somewhere, even if they are not the skills wanted for the rest of life. There is a season of life when certain work needs to be done. Jay made money from consulting, running social media, and video editing - things he didn't want to do long-term - but invested everything earned that year into launching his podcast On Purpose.
The distinction is between things that have to be done and things that are loved to be done, recognizing that both exist in life.
When starting to make money in 2008, 2009, and 2010, LinkedIn served as a platform to meet CEOs, executives, and business leaders. The approach began by helping them optimize their LinkedIn profiles, offering to do this work for free. This built relationships, and those contacts began offering help and giving back in return. Eventually, someone offered payment for the service, demonstrating that money could be made through LinkedIn. While this was not the intended long-term path, it was a skill available at that time. This work continued for a few years, providing the foundation and financial runway needed to launch The School of Greatness.
The desire to make money quickly—such as making a million dollars in a week or finding a hack that solves money problems—often stems from money wounds. The ego wants money to come immediately and seeks quick investments that will 10x in two months. While outliers exist who achieve this, repeated attempts to make quick and easy money have consistently resulted in losing money and painful lessons.
I've got money wounds, and it's because I wanted to make easy money in my past. Not make money easy.
No one who has made hundreds of millions, millions, or billions has built that wealth through quick and easy money strategies. While some have invested and gone all in on one business to create generational wealth, or gone all in on one main stock that grew 10x or 20x over time, the quick-money path does not usually work and leads to painful lessons afterward.
Seeing others act as if there is an easy way—through crypto, specific investments, or particular strategies—creates the illusion that quick and easy money is possible. Every time the quick-money opportunity appears, the same pattern repeats: initial excitement followed by the realization of another mistake. The lesson learned is that going the quick-make-easy-money route does not lead to sustained wealth.
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