Most of what you were taught about money, work and life is wrong. Your parents, teachers, friends, coworkers. They all believed it. They got it from someone who believed it too. Repeat anything enough times, from enough different people… It stops sounding like an opinion and starts sounding like a fact. Yet it is still a lie.
What you have been sold.
More money = more happiness. Up to a point. Yes. Getting out of survival mode changes everything, and never having to worry about paying rent is something everyone should experience. After that? Not really. It is great not to have to worry about it. Money doesn’t change who you are. It just amplifies who you have always been. There is a reason so many people turn to substance abuse and bad decisions. Money is not a miracle, as everyone tells you it is. What money can buy you is freedom, time, and health, and no one can disagree with that. Unfortunately… Those are three things most people take for granted.
Scott Galloway.
Get good grades, get a degree, get married, get a mortgage, be grateful… Grateful for what? To live exactly like everyone else around you. It is a scripted lie written for a world that is gone. Yet everyone still follows it because it is the safest path. The reason why no one questions it? Because everyone around them is doing the exact same thing.
When someone is busy, that automatically means they are productive. Lie. One from the corporate world where you have to justify your role and its existence and why you have to be there for 40+ hours when now with AI, you can do it in 20 hours or less. The even bigger irony? Your best ideas will never come when you are occupied. Your best ideas always come from a state of peace. The exact same reason a clear mind is the advantage of the next decade.
Everyone has ____ so you should too. This is something you want to avoid at all costs. To the point that you want to make it a habit to challenge everything you hear. The most common one? Debt. By far. Ask any younger person out there and they will tell you it feels normal because everyone else has it. Meaning that if everyone around you has debt (maxed out credit cards), you should too… The only question you should be asking yourself is why would you do that? Big lifestyle trap.
"Only worry about getting a good salary and you are set"… That is how things worked 4 - 5 decades ago. Not anymore. Salary trades your time for money. Your time is capped. TLDR? Your salary is capped. Not to mention that if you stick to that route, you will often have to remind yourself that you are just some number in a spreadsheet.
You can’t do what you love and get rich off it is another common one. How many times have you heard this one? No denying. It might not be the fastest way to get rich. But saying that it is impossible? Straight up lie. If you become top 10% in the field you are interested in, you will definitely be getting paid based on your skill set.
Struggle is a terrible metric for whether you have earned something in your life. Since early on in your life, you have been positioned to think that in order to earn anything, you have to struggle for it. Sure. Things worth having in your life don’t come easy. But fully believing that you have to struggle for everything you have right now in your life? Nonsense. It is also just another proof that making the right decision carries more importance than doing the "hard work".
You either have it all figured out by 25 or you never will… Another common lie, usually from boomers who played a completely different game than the one you are playing. Reality? Hardly anyone has it figured out at 25. Much less so if they have been trying multiple things (as you should since everyone is offering you a free pass - when you are under 30). Don’t fall for this and burn yourself out over advice from someone who could buy a house in a year from their salary.
All the work you do is the same. What matters is that you are doing something… Another one that will keep you mediocre and stuck in the same place for years. There is WORK and there is work. One is much more important than the other. And it is definitely not creating project boards or coming up with the brand name for your business.
Sales is a shady profession and should be avoided. Everyone has heard this one, usually with a used car dealer in mind. The reality? Different. Sales are everywhere around you. Every single day you are selling (yourself) to others. Getting hired. Asking for a raise. Making new friends… Your life revolves around sales. And your ability to sell your ideas. Not to mention, if you can genuinely help people and actually understand what you are selling (as a profession)… You are a gift to society.
Every single decision you make has to be the right one or at least calculated. Not only is that impossible. But over time you realize that your only job is to make 1 to 3 RIGHT decisions in your life. Everything else clicks into place on its own if you do this right.
Your coworkers are your friends. Are they? You will realize this the moment one of them gets a chance to throw you under the bus for a small raise. The real friendships? They usually start after one of you leaves the company. Coworkers are NOT your friends.
You should always make sure you give advice to others. It shows what kind of person you are… Giving people advice and thinking that they will appreciate it? Not how it works. The effects are quite the opposite. You will usually end up with someone disliking you or straight up hostile to you. The truth hurts, and people don’t want to hear it.
People around you care about your looks, the car you drive, the apartment you live in, the job you do, your taste… They don’t. People around you are too busy being distracted by what is happening in their own lives. Your whole life you have been told that people care and will judge you. It is a big lie. No one cares about you the same way that no one is coming to save you…
The initial set of cards you have been given decides everything in your life. It is hard to deny that your spawn location plays a big role. Parents, geolocation, and access to the people around you… Head start for some and disadvantage for the others. Yet you have access to the same information as everyone else reading this. What is your excuse?
Next time you hear someone tell you that learning is only for young people or that they stopped learning once their formal education ended... Run. Run as fast as you can. Learning and curiosity are lifelong side quests. This will never click for you until you start to cherish it and understand how it plays a role in every area of your life.
Retirement is the end goal. It is something you should strive for because you will finally be free to do what you always wanted. Imagine spending your whole life waiting for retirement to be free to be who you are and do what you want to do. Miserable existence. Huge lie. You can be whoever you want to be and you don’t need anyone’s permission to do what you always wanted to do.
Just be a good employee and you will get ahead… You won’t. IF you are not ready to play office politics and sell yourself (your ideas), you won’t be getting promoted. It is all largely about being liked rather than your actual skill set. Loyalty won’t save you either. If you don’t believe us, ask yourself when it ever gets rewarded… Because you know the answer.
The mortgage you take out on your house will be the best investment you ever make. The truth? Quite the opposite. There is a good chance that it is your biggest expense. To make it even worse, it doesn’t pay you. Mortgage, taxes, repairs. This is where you have to be careful and not fall for the traps others have fallen into. That doesn’t mean you should not buy a house. But you need to know exactly what you are getting into. The purchase of your property (much more so with the debt) shifts everything in life.
Some call it cope - others call it reality. Life only gets worse after your 30s. That might be the case if you never took care of yourself or did your 20s wrong… Otherwise? It only gets better. Much more so if you are actually playing the games you were designed to win. Betting on your skill set and living a better life year over year (the only metric worth following).
"Some people just don’t have talents". Wrong. Everyone has a natural predisposition and talent for something. The problem is that most never give it enough time or exploration to figure out what it actually is. That is why you have to be curious enough to spend time exploring things and pay attention to what others find hard, but you find easy (effortless). That is the clearest sign you have found your talent.
Just put all the money you make into index funds and you will be rich one day. Chances of that in the current climate? Minimal. Yes, everyone should invest in index funds. Does that mean that you will wake up one day and be "rich"? Maybe. But do you really want to depend on a number on the screen? Or do you want index investing to be just another vehicle that helps you there? That is the right answer. Cash flow from the business + other investments + index funds = the game you should be playing.
The job you have is who you become in the end. You have to define yourself by it because that is what you do. Only true if you want to be miserable. Or you have identity problems. The most interesting people alive are those who tend to be polymaths, experts in multiple things. That doesn’t mean you should not become an expert in your field… It just means you have to realize that there is more to it. Otherwise, you might end up as that guy at the party everyone hates because he only talks about his job.
Waiting until you are ready. Where does it get you? Nowhere. Simply because you will never be ready for some things. It is impossible, and it is not how humans work. No one is ever ready to start a business, have a kid, or build the life you have always dreamt about. The only non-lie answer here? Start and figure everything out as you go.
Marriage = happy life. It simply doesn’t work like that. There is nothing fixed or permanent about human relationships. It is a beautiful thing if you pick your partner right and set the expectations from both sides. The other type of scenario? Hell for those who didn’t do it right.
Boomer propaganda was unmatched. The amount of money you need to start a business in 2026? Minimal. You don’t need thousands, as everyone is trying to convince you. At the same time, we are not talking about buying expensive industrial equipment or renting a warehouse. What you need is a landing page and a fake checkout to see whether anyone would actually buy something from you or not. You do not need a lot of money to start a business.
Health doesn’t matter until you get older. It is something you should only worry about later… Your body and your health are the only things that you carry for the rest of your life. Everything else is replaceable. So don’t be stupid about it. Forget about drugs, alcohol abuse, or any other substance. It all comes with a price. And what you do in your 20s comes with the bill later on in life.
You have to have social media to stay connected with others and know what is happening in the world. Only true in two cases:
When you are selling something online or
Showing the world what you are building
Otherwise, there are much better ways to stay with your friends than a social media profile. And let’s be honest… Most end up using it to scroll reels and short-form content.Just be yourself. Probably one of the worst lies you can be told… Even more so if you are struggling with something and trying to get better at it. Why would you be yourself and keep doing what you have done for years to stay in the same exact spot?
Money is the root of all evil. Not really…
Mindset work is all a waste of time, and it doesn’t work. It doesn’t pay bills. No one can disagree with that. At the same time? It shapes you into someone who can take more pain than others. And that over a long enough period of time ends up paying the bills. It is the exact same reason some people stay stuck in the same spot for decades… While others run laps around them.
Disregard what everybody tells you until you have thought it through for yourself. - Max Gunther
Hardly any white-collar work is actually important. Most of it? Fake email jobs. Ones you should be (ab)using to get an advantage over others and a predictable cash flow.
Be grateful for what you have gotten and don’t ask for more. You should always be grateful for what you have been given. But not pushing for more? Big lie. In every single area of your life where the decisions matter to you, you should be willing to negotiate and ask for more… Always. The difference between someone who gets what they deserve and someone who doesn’t all comes down to this.
Make sure to trust the experts because they know better than you do. Hard one to get over… Until you realize that "experts" don’t know better than you do. Most of them are trained to protect what they have been taught in school and not challenge it or even think outside the box. Next time you go to the doctor, take the advice you were given and run the same questions through AI. Compare the two. You will be surprised. Days of outsourcing your thinking to the "experts" should be long gone.
Once you push through something big, the next time it will be easier. That might be the case if you are doing something for the second time and it was not as big as you made it seem. When it comes to the big stuff? Never the case. As soon as you have to keep your head above the water, it doesn’t get easier. You just get more acclimated to it. Nothing else.
One big win will change your life. Jackpot propaganda. Crypto millionaires and lottery thinking. Where does it lead you? To the same place where most lottery winners end up. Right back at the same place they started. The moment you stop treating your life as a jackpot… Things start to make a lot more sense.
Confidence in life ONLY comes from status, money, or looks. This is something that has been getting a lot of push, and yet it never made sense. The truth? The confidence comes from knowing who you are, what you are lacking, and embracing it with 110% intensity. It also builds a character that others won’t be able to manipulate (this is how you kill FOMO).
Always compare yourself with the people around you because that is the baseline. Never do this. The game never ends, which makes this the worst thing you can do. Better off than everyone around you? You will start taking it easy. Currently in a worse position than everyone else? You will start panicking. Neither works in your favor.
I am (insert your excuse: too old, too young, too inexperienced, already failed, not enough)… All of those are nothing else but the lies you have been told your whole life. Some because others convinced you. Others because they serve you as defense mechanisms, and you decided to accept them. You are exactly what you think you are. All limitations are self-imposed.
More education, courses, knowledge, and information will prepare you better. Reality? The opposite. 48 hours in the arena doing what you were studying beats around 3 months of "studying". Remember what we talked about earlier? You will never be ready enough… Embrace it.
Everyone wants you to succeed. Another big one. Many people, and sometimes even your closest ones, would prefer you stay where you have been for years. This is why you have to learn who you should share your information with. Not everyone should know what you are doing.
Prestigious job means that you are set for life. In the sense that you will never have to worry about your bills, paying for vacation, or anything else. Childhood fantasy… Until you realize most of the high-earning professionals end up in golden handcuffs because they have spent years competing with their peers on who can spend the most money to look rich instead of being rich.
You can’t influence luck because it is random… And others have more of it. Everyone knows that this is not the truth. Luck doesn’t just happen to you. It is more of something you set yourself up for. Remember - luck surface area. The more chances you give yourself and the more you are willing to go out of your comfort zone, the luckier you will get.
Disclaimer: None of this is legal or financial advice of any kind.