Stages, not Hacks

 

The First Stage is a Scrum

Wealth creation is not about hacks. Hacks imply shortcuts, quick fixes, a secret lever that lets you skip the hard parts.

In truth, the only real shortcuts are two very blunt tools. And those blunt tools are the same ones you’d use if you wanted to take a hammer to wealth rather than build it: concentration and leverage.

Concentration means betting everything on one thing. That’s the classic “overnight success” story we all admire. The tech founder who picked the right idea. The entrepreneur who built the outlier. The investor who picked the one stock that ran a hundred-fold.

Leverage means using borrowed money to amplify outcomes. It’s paying someone else’s money a salary in exchange for growth. If your returns are higher than the salary, you win. If they’re not, you lose... and you still owe. Imagine leading an army of a million mercenaries. If they win the battle, you look like a genius. If they lose, they turn on you, because they still want to be paid.

Both concentration and leverage can create spectacular wealth. They can also destroy it. These are not refined chisels. They’re blunt instruments. Anyone can swing them, but few survive the recoil.

The more sustainable path to wealth comes in stages, not hacks. And the first stage is a scrum.

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Stage One: The Scrum

Stage one is the hardest.

At this point, it’s all on you. You are the last line of defence against noise, accidents, and life’s randomness. Death, illness, disability, family responsibilities, redundancy, pandemics, bad luck... all of these can knock you flat.

Worse, they can push you backwards into the shadow world of wealth: the debt trap. That’s when you’re working hard just to pay the salary of the money you already spent.

In the first stage, you have to be pragmatic. Ruthless, even. You look at the menu of options and pick something difficult. Something not everyone can or wants to do. If it were easy, it wouldn’t pay.

This is where many people underestimate the grind. Stage one requires doing hard, unglamorous things, often under pressure, often alone. Your job is to turn labour into surplus. That surplus is fragile. It must be protected and reinvested.

So, what helps you survive the scrum?

• Risk cover: insurance against the catastrophic blows (death, disability, illness) that would reset the game.

• An emergency fund: liquid reserves to absorb shocks without selling your future.

• Social capital: networks, mentors, colleagues. You may feel alone, but you don’t have to be. Borrow wisdom and opportunity where you can.

Stage one is about survival and surplus. Without surplus, there is no engine. And without an engine, there are no later stages.

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Stage Two: When Your Money Has a Job

Stage two begins when your money earns as much, or nearly as much, as you do.

This is the point where compounding becomes visible. Your capital is no longer just savings. It is a worker. A co-earner.

At this stage, you face a choice:

• You can let capital shrink while supporting you in retirement. The aim is to outlive your money.

• Or you can keep working while drawing on your capital’s earnings, letting the engine continue to grow.

Stage two is fragile in its own way. Market volatility can give and take. Inflation can eat away. Overspending can undo years of progress. But for many, stage two is enough. It’s financial independence, even if not absolute. It allows flexibility, optionality, and support in tough times.

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Stage Three: Stewardship

Stage three is rare.

It’s the stage where your spending is comfortably less than what your capital earns, and the capital can still grow.

Here, your framework changes completely. Time is no longer forced through the filter of “what pays.” You can spend your days on things driven by curiosity, care, or legacy. You become a steward of capital rather than just its worker or consumer.

At this stage, your decisions aren’t about survival. They’re about purpose. You are no longer asking “How do I earn?” but rather “What do I enable?”

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Stages, Not Hacks

Too often, we mistake outlier stories for the norm. The billionaire who made one big bet. The trader who caught the cycle. The founder who built the unicorn.

Yes, those stories happen. But they are concentration and leverage. The blunt tools. For every one of those, there are thousands who swung the hammer and shattered everything.

For most of us, wealth creation is slower. It’s about progression through stages. First the scrum. Then the engine. Then, if fortune allows, stewardship.

The key is knowing where you are and what matters most at that stage.

• In stage one, survive and build surplus.

• In stage two, let capital work and protect its job.

• In stage three, steward with wisdom.

There are no hacks. Just stages. And the first stage is a scrum.