How To Build Wealth Without A Guru
Okay let’s cut to the chase. I don’t think you need a guru to become Financially Independent. In fact, I actually think it is counter-productive.
Before I dive into this let me give you some insight on myself and where I’m coming from. I’m 29 years old, I run a multi-million company with my wife, we serve thousands of families, and at the time of writing this I am about 6 months away from becoming financially independent. Meaning before the age of 30, I’ll never have the obligation of trading my time for dollars ever again as long as I live.
I grew up in poverty, didn’t go to college, parents were divorced, was a C student in high school, didn’t inherit wealth, didn’t qualify for loans to get started, or any of the other “well it’s easy for him to say….” type phrases you’re trying to come up with.
The bottom line is I shouldn’t be in the financial position I am at the age I am.
So what does this have to do with gurus and influencers? Well, I like to consider myself somewhat of an Anti-Guru.
Close your eyes for a second and think 29 year old social media millionaire who shows others how to build wealth.
What did you see? I saw a young guy with a fade and a hard part posting Instagram stories containing racks of cash, driving his leased Lambo around, and live streaming from his hourly rate private jet rental. Maybe dash a few bikini clad girls who may or may not know they’re being recorded…and there you have it!
Only, that’s not all a guru is. The dictionary actually defines a guru as “any person who counsels or advises; a mentor.”
Let me tell you my story real to better explain this.
I was 18 years old and was just getting into the financial services business. I had gurus within my company that I looked up to. I listened to every word they said, followed all of their instruction, consumed all of their content, and was convinced it was going to bring me success. Only it didn’t.
Fast forward a few years and I was heavily into a new guru because my old ones “didn’t work”. This guru told me debt is dumb, cash is king, and a paid off home mortgage is what life was all about. Similarly I consumed all of his content, listened to every word, and followed in suit. It was helping me pay off my debt and save money, but soon a newer shinier guru caught my attention.
This new guru said I needed to learn how to sell and close, cash is trash, and that the solution to every problem was just to do greater amounts of activity and work. This guru seemed wealthier than the last one so I listened to him now instead. Consumed all of his content, listened to every word…you know the drill.
But do you know what I didn’t do?
Think for myself.
Study.
Observe successful people who weren’t putting on a show for those watching them.
I spent years following guru’s. My income went up. But so did my expenses. So did my debt. So did the amount of consumption I was doing. I wasn’t a student, I was a customer. (As a side note, anything that drives me into consumption that exceeds my production is not good for me)
The average person who wants to build wealth immediately gets sucked into the funnel of the same 1 of 5 people (I won’t name any names but we all probably could) and begins consuming their content. They usually buy a book, then a web-course, then a digital product or online university, maybe some coaching, then a high ticket live event or mastermind, and before they know it they’re giving all of their money to this guru like an upper middle class worker to the IRS!
But here’s the problem and what I experienced. Guru’s are usually selling something, which means they’re going to tell you just enough to make the sale not to get you where they are. This doesn’t mean selling something is wrong. I sell lots of things. But it means you and I need to understand when we’re being educated and when we’re being sold to because they aren’t the same thing.
Also, if someone makes all of their money from being a guru or an influencer, they can’t truly tell you how to get where they are because you’ll find out you have to become a guru too. Because that is how they got there. It reduces their credibility and also increases their competition. And the few times you see this occur it results in Facebook ads selling us courses that teach us how to sell courses.
I’m not saying gurus are bad. I’m simply pointing out they’re not necessary and in my experience, actually hindered my financial growth.
You see, where exactly do you think the guru’s got all of their secret knowledge from? They read books from the gurus before them.
Where did their predecessor gurus get all of their secret knowledge from? They read books from the gurus before them.
Well if we trace this all the way back to the first guru, where did they get their knowledge from? They either learned it through trial and error, observed it by watching someone or something else in their environment, or they read about it in a textbook or biography.
My point is, almost everything you’re going to learn from a guru is something they’re regurgitating from their guru. They won’t tell you that because then you can just bypass them and use their guru instead. But even deeper than that, everything any guru writes about is observable to the naked eye in the world around us. We don’t need a guru. We just need to go and look for ourselves.
So what did I do instead? I stopped following gurus. I fired all of my coaches. I stopped watching anyone else’s content and I began to study.
You see, a guru is someone who counsels and advises. I didn’t want that. I wanted someone who does and succeeds. I don’t need their stories, advice, or counsel. I need to watch them and study them and in a way that they aren’t aware of my doing so so that I can get a true, unadulterated look at what they actually do to achieve their success.
One thing I always noticed from back in my guru-groupie days (yes we’ll go ahead and start calling it that) is the the gurus never gave me all the steps. They’d say “cash flow is king! Go invest in real estate!” but they’d leave information out, or omit steps, or sometimes follow that with a contradictory statement that left me confused. I overlooked it in the moment because I was a Guru-Groupie, but in hindsight I knew those were illogical and that I should have investigated further rather than just blindly following what I was being told.
In contrast, as I started to wind-down on my Guru-Groupie-ing I began reading biographies of old, dead, wealthy people. Take John Rockefeller for example. I read his biography (which was WAY more work than I’d anticipated) and I was able to see everything he did. Not just what he would have told me he did, but everything. From that I was able to take an objective view and begin to organize the steps I saw him take, associate the cause points and effect points, and mimic it for myself. There was no sales pitch. There was no slick marketing tactics. It was a boring book with hundreds upon hundreds of pages of how the wealthiest man in modern history lived his life and built his empire. Rockefeller isn’t my guru because he didn’t give me any advice or counsel. He just lived his life and I studied it and learned. See the difference?
Okay so what about me though? What about Jerry Fetta, the guy with all of the financial content. Aren’t I a guru?
Heavens no!
For one, I don’t give advice and I don’t give counsel. I don’t offer coaching and you can’t pay to come hang out with me at an overpriced Air BnB for a week.
I spent years studying the Top 1%. Reading about the Rockefellers, the J.P. Morgans, the Carnegies, and even the largest banks in history and Fortune 100 corporations.
I organized the commonalities I saw in each of their successes and laid out a step by step plan that I was going to follow. If all of these guys are doing the same thing and getting the same result, logic stands to reason the same thing will happen for me if I do what they did.
And I was right. My income sky-rocketed. My net worth began to multiply. My passive income grew. And fast forward a handful of years later and I’m on the brink of Financial Independence.
You see, I don’t advise you or counsel you. I just show you the steps I followed. Steps I didn’t come up with myself by the way (you should be very worried if a 29 year old “made up” all the steps to financial freedom on his own accord). These are steps I got through direct study and observation of the Top 1% throughout history.
The service I provide? I show you the steps, educate you on them, and show you the exact strategies I personally used to implement them. It’s like a roadmap and I’m simply the guide. I built a better map, but the routes and destinations are not my own. And I help you understand and follow the map.
I call it the Blueprint To Financial Freedom. Because like a blueprint, when I followed it, I got the end result I wanted to build. Which is Financial Independence.
So if you ask me for advice…I’m going to tell you to look at the map .
If you ask me for counsel…I’m going to tell you to look at the map.
If you don’t believe my or my map…you can go study all of the people I studied, read all of the books I read, the financial statements, reports, tax codes, etc. for yourself. It’ll take you years like it took me and if you’d rather do it that way, that’s fine. But the smart person trying to get where they’re going as fast as possible is going to buy a map and follow that instead of surveying the land and building a new one themselves.
Where do gurus fit in?
Well on any road trip, as you drive and follow the map, you’re inevitably going to see side shows and tourist attractions. For the wandering traveler those can be entertaining, but if you stop to check it out it will slow you down.
My map is not one for tourists and thrill seekers. There are no sideshows landmarked and there are no rest stops. Because those who follow it only seek to get to the end destination. Financial Independence.
To get a copy of my recent book Blueprint to Financial Freedom click here!
To Purpose, Wealth, and Freedom.
Jerry Fetta
Jerry Fetta is the CEO and Founder of Wealth DynamX. He is a nationally recognized financial expert featured in Forbes, Yahoo Finance, Fox, Chicago Weekly News, New York Finance, interviewed on over 45 podcasts with world renowned experts, earning endorsements and affiliations throughout his career with names like Grant Cardone, Dave Ramsey, and Pamela Yellen.
Jerry’s mission in life is to help create millions of financially educated and solvent families achieving greater financial freedom and sharing the truth about money with those around them.
Learn more at www.WealthDynamX.com
(DISCLAIMER: The information in this content should not be considered tax, financial, investment, or any kind of professional advice. Only a professional diagnosis of your specific situation can determine which strategies are appropriate for your needs. Wealth DynamX can and does not provide advice unless/until engaged by you.)
