Even if we have the knowledge required to do well, there are barriers that hold us back from succeeding financially, or with any goals in general. I have been learning and writing about these for the past couple days and this will be the last one on this topic. Realistically I feel like there is no set amount of barriers and the list could go on and on with several different perspectives. Nevertheless, I have quite enjoyed learning about Fear, Doubt, Laziness, and Bad Habits and I am keen to overcome each one. The last one that we will be tackling today is the barrier of Arrogance so let’s get straight into it.
Arrogance:
I always like to start off by looking at the dictionary definition of the topic so that I have a strong base to start from. From there I explore the perspective of other smarter people like Robert in his book Rich Dad Poor Dad, and then I like to apply it to myself so that it becomes real and hopefully more relatable to you, the reader. So, the definition of Arrogance:
“the quality of being unpleasantly proud and behaving as if you are more important than, or know more than, other people.”
Yay, another quality which means another barrier we can choose to develop or slowly get rid of. The main factors I see here are the things that make one person act as if they are more than someone else. That second one around behaving as if you know more than other people can be dangerous. That type of mindset shuts you off from learning more, and we should all know that there will always be people that know things we may not know. Even if you do hold more knowledge than someone, they might have one little piece of knowledge that you so happen to not know, and becoming proud and arrogant steals your opportunity to absorb that piece of knowledge.
I understand that some people may find it really hard to lower themselves and take off their pride. It would be interesting to look under the hood and see why people can be like this. One funny but insightful comment from Robert is that “many people use arrogance to try to hide their own ignorance”, meaning they don’t actually know what they’re talking about. Maybe they fear the idea that people will think they are dumb or inadequate and so they put up a barrier of arrogance to make themselves look like enough. That is another issue that should be dealt with at the root, but the arrogance portion of their response definitely doesn’t protect them, and it holds them back from learning more. This all seems quite deep and intangible, but let’s pull all of this information back into the day to day life.
Robert’s explanation is that what he knows makes him money, and that what he doesn’t know loses him money. Let’s say I start having a conversation with one of my finance classmates on the market, and I have my own theories and thoughts set. If I go through the whole discussion trying to fight for my pride and prove that I am smart and know what I am talking about, then most of the time I am just thinking about what I can say next and don’t listen well. He could ask something like “Oh have you heard about the latest bust in the stock market?”, and let’s say that I had heard something of it in the news. If I am locked into my arrogance my response would be something like “oh yeah yeah, I heard a bit about that but didn’t find it very interesting”. This would be me trying to fend off any further discussion about me not knowing what I’m talking about. Whereas if I didn’t have any arrogance in me then I could simply say “no I don’t know” and he would go on to give me information that makes me smarter. Who knows, maybe he has inside knowledge on when the market bounces back, and if I listen well then I could start a journey that leads to me buying at the right time and making some financial gains.
I personally would like to think that I am not arrogant, but I will keep an eye out for this one as I can imagine it gets harder as you grow. Also, since arrogance is built off a concept of trying to lift yourself up, if I just stick to my roots of knowing that I am already enough then hopefully I won’t have to deal with this one.
In saying that, lately I have been experiencing some pride and passion for the topic of money management since I put so much effort into it, and when I start to talk to someone who doesn’t dabble in this area I do feel a bit of pride coming through. To be honest I haven’t yet processed whether I am being overly proud and arrogant or if it’s just me naturally being excited and wanting to talk more. One indicator I have learnt from this is that arrogance cuts you off from learning more, so a good indicator for me on this blurry line of pride, passion and arrogance is to identify whether I am shutting myself off from anything. Am I avoiding topics I don’t yet know? Am I listening to their perspective despite me thinking something different? What do they know that I don’t? I can already see myself having better conversations even with my girlfriend because the way she was brought up was very different to me so there will surely be a few nuggets of wisdom that I will try and catch next time we chat. In the end, I’m aware of the danger of arrogance, and I hope you are now too!
Key points:
- Identity overthrows ignorance
(If you are confident in who you are, then there is no need to cover up what you don’t know.) - Never know everything
(Thinking you know more than everyone prevents you from learning the things you don’t know.)
Barrier Wrap-Up:
Reflecting on all of these barriers, I have noticed that a lot of them dig very deep into things like identity and characteristics. The barriers seemed like bandaids that we put on to try and cover up our shortcomings, like fear to cover the fact that we can’t control everything, doubt to prevent us from trying things that could lead to failure, laziness to hold us back from getting uncomfortable, bad habits that are easier than pursuing good character, and now arrogance that hides us if we feel insufficient or not enough. I know I am not immune to any of these, but I can confidently say that I know where the answer lies, and that is in my awesome God. Jesus paid for all my shortcomings, and now I am super blessed and lucky to walk in a complete identity and confidence in who I am. And just as Matthew 6:33 says, if I seek him first then all the basics of life will be added on to me, I believe that all of these good qualities can be added on to me till the point where no barrier will hold me back! I won’t fear losing money, I won’t doubt myself when going big, I am not born to be lazy, I am constantly refined to build good habits, and I have no need to prove myself and be arrogant. This is purely my processing of these lessons so I encourage you to do your own, and I hope you have learned a lot whether you have the same beliefs as me or not.
