Why Working Harder Will Never Make You Wealthy.... (But What Actually Does!) | The Wealth Experts

Name: Why Working Harder Will Never Make You Wealthy.... (But What Actually Does!) | The Wealth Experts
Uploaded: 2026-07-18T15:30:14.000Z
Duration: 34 min 25 s
Channel: Jay Shetty Podcast

Jay Shetty PodcastJuly 18, 202634m

In a Nutshell

Hard work alone won't make you wealthy—advancement comes from moving from low-value execution to high-value thinking and ownership. Build an emergency fund first, then follow the 75-15-10 system: spend at most 75%, invest at least 15%, and save at least 10% of every dollar. Invest consistently in index funds while avoiding status spending and high-interest debt to escape the cycle of living paycheck to paycheck.

AI-Generated Notes

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There is a culture of hustle culture that promotes the idea that hard work will equal wealth, but that is actually not true at all. If hard work would equal wealth then the person who runs a laundromat would make just as much as Jeff Bezos. There is a video showing for the 60 seconds that Jeff Bezos is in the video how much money Jeff Bezos is making every single second as he walks around the factory. He makes x millions of dollars per second. By the time the laundromat owner has picked up his coffee put it in his mouth, Jeff Bezos has already lapped him multiple times for the year. Jeff does not work as hard as the guy who's laying actual bricks or actually cleaning the roof. The idea of just work harder and improve your work ethic is not true anymore, especially in the age of AI.

If you want to make more money as an employee, number one, you have to understand how much money you make the company today. If you do not understand what your value dollar amount is that you bring into your business, you should probably go talk to your boss and say, "Hey, I'd like to understand how I make you money. If you had to quantify how I make you money, could you help me understand that?" Your boss is going to be like, "This is amazing. Nobody's ever asked me this before." Once you understand that, you need to figure out how could I make more money for the company. Once you can understand how you can make more money, you can say, well, what do you think the profits of this business are? If we bring in a $100 sale, do we keep 20 bucks of it? If you figure that out, then you can go, okay, I made you a hundred bucks, we kept 20 of it. If I do that, could I keep five of that 20 I brought you? Then you actually know how to negotiate for your salary. This isn't always possible if you're in a big corporate job, but more often than not, there is money available for those who understand how to ask for it because they've earned it.

From your boss's perspective, they hired you for a reason because they thought that you would make their life easier and that you would make the business better. A lot of times you leave your job before you get all of the money out of your job you could have. You would make way more money if you thought that you could have a conversation with your boss and say, "Man, this isn't exactly working how I thought it would be. I think I could be of use over here as well. I'd love some additional responsibility here. Maybe less here. Could I make you more money over here if I prove myself here? Could we do less here?" You leave the devil that you know for the devil that you don't often. When that happens, you actually lose more money than you anticipate.

It used to be back in the day, you made about 20 to 25% more money every time you job hopped to the next job. These days, there is a real value you can have to increase your salary or overall pay by more like 25 to 50% if you stay and you diagnose as opposed to you skip and then you guess. It is highly recommended not to skip and never give the place a chance to pay more. They might want to. What you miss when you skip is you actually miss the skills of negotiating, up managing, learning new skills and abilities at that place.

A framework of how to talk to a team about what helps you grow at the company uses a very simple analogy and metaphor of beginning at the brick layer. The brick layer is usually at the level with which you come in. The brick layer knows I have to lay this brick and I've got to lay it next to this one. And I know the pattern and I can lay a brick and maybe I can build a wall. The next level up is a builder. You actually know how to build a wall. You know how to paint the wall. You know how to put up scaffolding. You know how to connect walls. You can do a bit more and you're a builder. Above from that is the architect. The architect is not just good at building a wall. They could actually go and build and design a new part of the business, an extension of something, a new idea. The highest stage is the city planner. This person's not just building one home. They're planning the whole city of the ecosystem of how everything falls into place. The goal is for people to graduate from brick layers to builders to architects to city planners. That is what's attached to more money. It's not more effort. It's not more work. It's not being more busy. It's not doing more stuff. These all come with a different type of vision. They come with a different strategic element. They come with more care. They come with a wider scope. It isn't just about, oh, but I worked more hours this year or I put in more time. Didn't you see how much effort I put in? Those things don't necessarily result in more success for a company.

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Why Working Harder Will Never Make You Wealthy.... (But What Actually Does!) | The Wealth Experts

Hard Work vs. Wealth Creation00:00

How Employees Can Make More Money01:00

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