The Stacked Deck

The Stacked Deck.

It was a beautiful summer night, and my life was about to change.

I was hanging out with a successful entrepreneur friend, drinking smoothies of all things.

Through the usual ebbs and flows of catching up, we stumbled upon the topic of entrepreneurship—what he was building and what I wanted to build.

Amid this conversation that touched on the US markets, the economy, our businesses, and, at times, what I described as a lack of perceived opportunity, he spoke eight words that broke my mind.

It was like a bucket of cold water dumped on my head.

He said:

“Tom, the deck is stacked in our favor.”

It was like an arrow pierced through my deepest perceptions of business, investing, and the country I call home.

It was the opposite of what I saw, felt, and read about the country I was doing business in.

At that moment, I realized I was wrong.

My understanding of what’s possible was wildly too small.

To be fair, sitting with someone who has reached places you can only imagine can bring up feelings of insecurity and lack.

But those words made me realize the extent of my true freedom as a businessperson in the US.

I was stuck looking at the cards I had been dealt when I didn’t even realize the deck was stacked in my favor from the beginning.

Humbling.

Let’s be honest for a second too. We all see the news and what’s going on in our country, and it brings up emotions from rage to sadness to disappointment.

While I do not have answers to the many social issues we all question, I want to remind you of one thing.

There is no better place in the world to invest than the US.

The amount of freedom that is actually present here is second to none.

The fact that you can go on Schwab, open an account with relative ease, become an owner of Microsoft, and share in their profits is nothing short of an economic miracle.

The US could be better in many ways, but it is the place to be for generating wealth.

Why am I saying this?

You are free to create, build, and invest.

Think about that for a second.

My friend, ten levels above me in business, told me the truth.

Tom, stop complaining and start building. Complaining gets you nowhere. Look at the opportunity straight in the face and get it.

• When was the last time someone told you the future could be better than you could imagine?

• When was the last time someone told you in ten years, you could have a wildly better financial life?

• When was the last time someone told you your kids could grow up in a world that doesn’t suck?

• When was the last time someone told you anything remotely good about your financial future?

  
  

It’s probably been a long time.

And here’s why that is bad.

If you don’t believe what’s possible, why try in the first place?

Let me be clear as day:

To invest, you must be optimistic.

It’s tough to be optimistic when everyone says the “storm is coming.”

It’s tough to get ahead when you fold the hand you’ve been dealt and walk away.

Meanwhile, people like my friend, who said, “screw that,” are walking around with freedom and confidence that can hardly be imagined.

I am not saying that money = freedom either because we all know that isn’t true.

My friend’s eight words that changed my life were simple: Keep playing hands because eventually you’ll win.

The end game of Tired & Rich is this:

It’s freedom.

Over 7,250 of you received this email, and freedom will look different for each one of you, myself included.

Yet we share the same foundational deck of cards as investors in the US.

So, if you are:

• in between jobs

• just getting promoted

• sitting on more cash than you know what to do with

• in the valley of despair

• on the mountaintop of life

  
  

Never stop the pursuit of becoming Tired & Rich.

We’re at the halfway point in the year—this is the perfect time to brush any dust off for the first six months of the year and commit to a better second half.

The deck is stacked in your favor.