The gap between the rich and the poor is so wide that even if you intend to measure it, you might just run out of a measuring tape. Oh yeah, that’s funny right, but that’s the reality.
We live in a society where people want to get rich legally or illegally, however many people still don’t know that being rich comes with a lot of principles and disciplines.
When we know the difference between the rich and the poor that makes the rich richer, we can now better position ourselves to build lasting wealth.
Hence, in this guide, you’ll know the differences or gap between the rich and the poor in clear 30 ways. So let’s get started.
1. Rich people read books, poor people watch T.V:
I really had a lot of dreams when I was a kid, and I think a great deal of that grew out of the fact that I had a chance to read a lot.
Bill Gates: American Software Engineer and Co-Founder of Microsoft
The secret of great men are hidden in books. Their is a proverbs that says if you want to hide a thing from a man, put it in a book, because he may never find it.
The gap between the rich and the poor is widely expressed from their interest in books.
Rich people exercise their minds by reading books, they read about businesses, investing, money and how to keep growing their wealth.
They also take time to study self development books which influences their decision making abilities in business.
On the other hand, poor people prefer to spend precious time watching television programs, tuning from one channel to another.
This is because, poor people think reading is a complete waste of time.
2. Rich people set goals, poor people live by chance, they never set goals:
Imagine having a football game without a goal post. That would be a huge waste to time, energy and resources put together to set up the match.
That’s exactly how it is to live without setting goals.
Rich people set short term goals which could be in a few weeks or months and long term goals for future purposes.
The unfortunate thing for broke people is that they have no goals written down, no wonder they lack the zeal and motivation it takes to reach ground breaking heights.
Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into visible.
TONY ROBBINS
3. Rich people compliment, whereas poor people criticize:
For an average poor man, most successful people are thief’s.
They believe success is hard, hence they criticize success more often than ever.
Hence, poor people find excuses to make things look bad without any proper proof to justify their claims.
Whereas, rich people compliment efforts, they celebrate winners, they cheer people up and motivate winners to keep winning.
ALSO READ THESE ARTICLES:
12 Fantastic Ways of Getting Money to Start a Business.
Sales and Marketing Management Tricks that Works.
14 Reasons You need a Business Partnership Agreement.
20 Smart Ways to Get More Customers to your Business.
4. Rich people ask how can I afford it, whereas poor people say they can’t:
The phrase “how” has a way of questioning the mind to produce something tangible.
Successful people always inquire, how can I do it?, how can I afford it?, what do I need to do?
Such questions open their minds to possibilities instead of accepting the lies of fears.
Whereas poor people say the exact opposite, I can’t afford it?, I can’t do it? I don’t know how to do it?
This is one major difference and gap between the rich and the poor.
5. The rich embrace changes, the poor fear changes:
The one thing constant in life is change. Changes are inevitable and would always come.
Successful people are always ready to accept changes and find a way to turn it to their favor.
On the other hand, poor people fear change, they fear uncertainties, they have a pessimistic mentality to change.
They fear the outcome of what will happen if it goes bad at them.
This is why poor people suffer defeats because every man is a victim of what he fears.
Whereas rich people know changes will always come so they position themselves to benefit from those changes.
6. Poor people hold grudges, rich people forgive:
Successful people are always open to let go of deals that didn’t go their way when they do business with people.
Most of the successful names you hear today are people who have been cheated and stolen from by friends, families and strangers.
These are people whom they have assisted one way or the other.
Rich people are always filled with successful thoughts, hence they have no time to store grudges in their heart.
These makes rich people very successful because they only give thought to productivity.
On the other hand, poor people hardly forgive, it’s dangerous to cheat them, you might get the most terrible experience of your life.
On a serious note, cheating is bad and people should detest from it, never cheat anyone wherether they are rich or poor if you don’t want to sleep behind bars.
7. Rich people talk about ideas, poor people talk about people:

You hardly see a company of successful people gossiping about a man or a woman who lives around or come here and there.
They are too insightful and business filled for that, rich people talk about ideas, they discuss plans, moves, they share values.
On the other hand, poor people talk about people, they talk about their neighbors, what kind of cloth he/she wears, the cars they drive and how many kids they have.
Broke people spend most of their time discussing about people’s private life.
At the end of the day, they have nothing to account for that day.
They would expend hours discussing past events like football matches, movies they saw and how interesting it was.
How the actors and actress demostrated their roles without minding that they are wasting their productive time on unimportant stuffs.
8. Rich people are detailed and attentive, they plan whereas poor people don’t give a damn:
Oh yes, many people are poor today because they don’t pay attention.
They don’t give a damn about valuable information’s around them.
Most poor people believe on what will only give them food to eat at the moment.
I once shared a business idea with someone who later asked if it will give him food now. Oh yeah, can you imagine that?
Rich people have long term plans whereas poor people only think about the now.
An average rich man have long term visions , it could be 3 years, 5 years or even 10 years and more.
They understand the values of the future and would stop at nothing to secure it.
On the other hand, an average poor man doesn’t have even a 2 year plan.
Some don’t even have a plan at all because they don’t know the powers of planning.
9. Rich people learn continuously, poor people think they know it all:
The most difficult class of people to teach are poor people. This is because most of them think they know it all.
Rich people are humble enough to learn new strategies, new ways of doing things, they are open to learning new ideas to promote their businesses.
On the other hand, poor people have a mentality such as, this is how we have been doing it and this is how we intend to continue doing it.
Poor people are skeptical about learning new strategies, they feel they already know how it works so why further attend seminars or trainings.
10. Rich people take responsibilities for their failures, poor people blame other for their failures:
Rich people admit their failures, they don’t blame other for their mistakes, they see it as part of the process.
They see their mistakes as a learning curve and would always take appropriate steps to avoid the repetition of such mistakes.
On the other hand, poor people blame their failures on other people. Oh, am late for work because of you.
When they work with a group, they blame their failures on team members.
Poor people say words like “I couldn’t do it because of you”, hence they are likely to repeat those silly mistakes.
11. Poor people don’t learn about money because they feel it’s not necessary:
According to Robert Kiyosaki, best selling author of rich dad poor dad, he once asked his poor dad why they don’t learn about money in school.
In response, his poor dad said he doesn’t need to learn about money. All he should just do is go to school, get good grades and get a job.
One of the reasons the rich get richer and the poor get poorer is because the subject of money is taught at home, not at school.
Robert Kiyosaki Best selling author of rich dad poor dad
However, when he worked with his rich dad, his rich dad refused to pay him because he wants him to learn about money instead of sitting for a paycheck.
Rich people understand how money works, no wonder they know better ways to save money, invest money and grow wealthier.
12. Poor people work to earn, the rich work to learn:
After I read the book written by Robert Kiyosaki on rich dad dad, I learnt that Rich dad told Robert he shouldn’t expect a pay check if he wants to learn from him.
In his teachings to Robert Kiyosaki, when you work for money you think like an employee.
On the other hand when you work to learn you become a true entrepreneur.
So poor people are basically working primarily to earn money whereas rich people are more interesting in learning from a job than to get a pay check.
This is because one idea well implemented can produce a billion dollars.
Rich people know this, poor people don’t.
Hence, this is one major gap between the rich and the poor.
13. The poor work for money, the rich make money work for them:
There is a good difference between working for money and getting your money work for you.
The true reality here is that the cadre of income a person chooses to be determines where he sits.
I like to refer to Kiyosaki once again on his 4 cadres of income.
The employees, the self employed, the entrepreneurs and the investors.
The first two category work for money, they can’t make money if they aren’t around, though the self employed still enjoys the benefits of self-employment compared to being an employee.
On the other hand, the entrepreneurs and investors don’t work for money, their money work for them.
14. The rich save to invest, the poor save to spend:

Saving money is good but becomes bad when the purpose of the saved money is wrongly invested in something that can’t yield money.
The true reason rich people save is to invest it when an opportunity comes up, they are good savers, they know what to do.
Poor people save money to buy liabilities, whereas rich people save money to buy assets.
This is why you must know the difference between assets and liabilities that makes the rich richer.
Rich people use their savings to buy income generating assets that has capacity to take care of their liabilities.
15. The value attached to time by both class:

Time is one of the greatest human resource. Rich people value time over money, they will spend a lot of money to conserve time.
Poor people don’t know that when they waste time, they waste money, check out the 6 most painful ways people lose money without knowing.
Besides, poor people value money over time. they will waste time to save a little amount of money.
Rich people understand the relationship between their time and their money, hence they know that the more time they get the more money making opportunities available to them.
You can’t call a man who have time poor.
If he understands the value of his time and how to convert it to money, it’s only a matter of time, he would become rich.
Therefore, it’s important for poor people to know that time is a convertible resources.
16. Rich people treat quality first before quantity, poor people treat quantity first before anything:
Quality is a vital measure in branding products and services. It’s one of the 16 major brand awareness strategies.
The quality of a product or service is so important, rich people know this reality.
This is why companies have quality department but never have quantity department.
Rich people know that quality comes first in any business venture.
Hence, they will always treat quality first before any other thing.
Poor people care more about quantity if they need to purchase an item.
17. Rich people leave at their pleasure, poor people live to impress the rich:
The poor live to impress people, they care about what people will say and don’t do things that will improve their lives.
Rich people are never pressured by others, they are in zero competition with others.
They drive the cars they can afford and live in houses they can afford.
Besides, poor people would sometimes borrow to look rich in trying to meet up with community standards.
Hence, they keep getting themselves into financial crises.
18. Poor people go for the cheapest plans, rich people go for the best plans:
Poor people try to save money by going for cheap stuffs irrespective of what the product or service have to offer.
On the other hand, rich people go for the best stuffs. Rich people look out for values not cost.
They understand that paying for the best plans will give them greater benefits and returns on a long term than going for cheap stuffs which might lack durability.
The is one major difference and gap between the rich and the poor, take note of this.
19. Rich people think rich, speak rich and act rich, poor people think they don’t deserve to be rich :
How a man thinks influences every aspect of his life. For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.
How you think determines how you speak and how you speak determine how you act.
Rich people think positive thoughts, they try to see the light in every situation they find themselves.
On the contrary, poor people complain about almost everything.
They think the system is bad, they think nothing works for them and speak negative words which also influences their life’s negatively.
Here are 3 psychological business disciplines of rich people, check it out.
20. Income channels:
Rich people earn from multiple streams of income, poor people earn from one source
Rich people are not rich because they are smarter than the poor, they are rich because they spend less than they earn.
Well, how do they manage to spend less than they earn in spite of the increasing cost of living around the world today.
It’s simple, they earn from multiple streams of income, no wonder they make enough money to carter their bills, save and invest to grow richer.
However, poor people only earn from their jobs, from just one source.
Hence, if you take away their only source of income, which could be their jobs. They will become critically broke and helpless.
This is one major gap between the rich and the poor.
21. Poor people prefer jobs to businesses:
Its normal to look for jobs which is often common amongst graduates today.
However, rich people look for businesses because they know a business will grant them the opportunity to maximize their entrepreneurial potentials.
This spans a big gap between the rich and the poor.
Rich people want to pay themselves, they want more than a salary, they want a jackpot.
However, poor people don’t see the same picture, they look for jobs instead of business opportunities.
ALSO READ THESE ARTICLES:
12 Fantastic Ways of Getting Money to Start a Business.
Sales and Marketing Management Tricks that Works.
14 Reasons You need a Business Partnership Agreement.
20 Smart Ways to Get More Customers to your Business.
22. Poor people play lotteries to become rich, rich people build networks to become rich:
Poor people believe they just need one lucky hit to become rich.
No wonder they play lotteries even when it’s obvious to them that their changes of winning is close to zero percent.
Even if they win and discipline isn’t in place, it’s only a matter of time and the money won through lottery would disappear.
This explains why lottery winners go back broke after a few years winning lottery money.
I don’t mean to say lottery players don’t get rich, however you can stick your success to chances. This is why rich people don’t just fancy lottery games.
They prefer to build a network that generates wealth, you can checkout this guide on how to become a network marketing professional in 1 years.
Rich people understand that building wealth comes in a circle, it takes continuous plodding to build wealth.
This is why they can conveniently control their wealth.
23. Rich people know when to quit, poor people think quitting is a sign of weakness:
Some people think quiting is a sign of weakness, whereas it isn’t actually so in the real sense.
A course that seems not to be moving towards success demands a quit if their are no possibilities of success.
Rich people know the best time to quit a business and any investment moving towards the wrong direction.
This is because they plan and analyze their profits.
Whereas, poor people might not quit a bad course till their investments become completely zero.
24. How do each class respond to retirement:
Most poor people carry the retirement mentality, rich people see it from a different perspective.
In the real sense, rich people don’t retire, they only change their work positions and the way they work as they grow older.
Poor people think retirement is a must so sometimes they prefer to work for the government and become pensioners.
This strikes a huge gap between the rich and the poor.
25. Rich people build a team, poor people prefer to work alone:

A team is important in the game of success. Rich people value partnership
Rich people work with a team, they want the combination of ideas, techniques, they believe bringing people together makes work easier and faster to carry out.
On the other hand, poor people think want to do it alone.
They believe they might be cheated if they work with others in building a business.
Hence, they prefer the one man business or call it sole proprietorship.
Please note: If you must do business with partners, here are 14 reasons you need a business partnership agreement.
26. Poor people show off the little they have, rich people know it’s not necessary:
Poor people try to show they are rich by borrowing money to buy expensive items and spending the little money they have to impress others.
Rich people don’t live to show off their wealth, they don’t think impressing people is important and this makes them exceptional, unique and respected.
They wear cloths an average man can afford.
They drive modest cars and live a simple live even though they can afford all the luxuries in the world, they don’t show off.
27. Rich people know how to manage their money:
Making money could be easier than managing it.
Poor people are bad money managers, this is because most poor people don’t learn about money.
Rich people control their money, they are good financial managers.
Hence, they don’t just know how to make money, they also know how to keep more money and invest more money.
28. Poor people have bad spending habit:
Bad spending habit is a critical sign that creates a huge gap between the rich and the poor.
Poor people have bad spending habit, they spend money without control and even spend all their earnings.
They always believe they will work for another money or even get a loan when they run out of money.
The problem is that poor people don’t just spend what they earn, they spend more than they earn.
On the other hand, rich people keep budgets, they spend only when it’s necessary and that’s why they could actually build wealth.
29. Rich people see opportunities where poor people see obstacles:
When poor people encounter problems they see it as a barrier.
Rich people see opportunities instead, they know how to make the best out of any trouble.
Rich people have the habit of converting obstacles into an opportunity to build wealth, they seek knowledge, carry out research’s to find out how to build something good out of any obstacle.
On the other hand, poor people hate obstacles, they avoid it, they don’t have the potential to turn obstacles to wealth.
They will complain about it while others will utilize the obstacles for wealth creation.
GREAT ARTICLES FOR YOU:
How to Sell a Digital Product Online to Make Money.
10 Important Reasons to Sell Digital Products Online to Make Money.
6 Most Painful Ways People Lose Money Without Knowing.
8 Major Reasons why Entrepreneurs Fail in Business.
30. Rich people focus on what they want to achieve, poor people focus on what they want to avoid:
Rich people focus on rewards, the end results and what they stand to win if their idea works out.
They take calculated risk because of the end results of what they intend to win after such risk is taken.
However, they consult experts to do some risk analysis to help them take good business decisions.
On the other hand, poor people focus on what to avoid not minding the end result, hence they avoid risk and not ready to lose a dime if possible.
Poor people try to avoid risk, they try to avoid losses, thereby playing too small in their business industry.
This is one major gap between the rich and the poor.
Conclusion:
Now you know the major difference and gap between the rich and the poor, where do you choose to be?
I will advice you choose the category of rich people.
Begin to take steps that leads to wealth creation.
Did I miss anything, would you like to share your thoughts with us, drop it at the comment section.
Kindly share this article to loved ones, someone needs to see this.