Playing The Wrong Game
I’ve learned about investing and financial freedom through books, podcasts, blogs and youtube university.
I’ve shared some the financial thought leaders in the space that I respect and have learned from. One of them being, The Wallstreet Trapper.
From being a convicted that use to sell drugs on the street, he brands himself as a trapper but not in the sense of selling drugs, but in accumulating assets through the stock market.
I first heard of him in 2019 on a very powerful podcast he was on.
The name of the podcast is The Wealth Renaissance and the title of the episode was “Know which game your playing.”
Three years ago, he was on Tom Bliyeu’s podcast Impact Theory and he talks about the concept of playing the wrong game.
Wanted to share it with you guys as I believe there is something to take away from this.
He shares this concept of playing the wrong game in the first five minutes.
You Don’t Know It’s A Game
The first part that hit for me is when the cellmate says to him ‘You don’t even know it’s a game.”
And its so true.
He’s says “There’s a game being being played, and your playing a game that you can’t win.”
When I wasn’t in the best financial situation, I remember saying to myself this doesn’t make sense. I’m doing everything right.
Not until I learned how money works, what the financial stable people are doing with their money, how they go about spending their money, is when it clicked for me.
For most of us, we grow up with a certain set of rules and beliefs that in my opinion, don’t really set us up the win the “game.”
Seeing A Different Side Of The Game
When the wallstreet trapper listens to inmate saying “There’s a game being played, and you playing a game that you can’t win,” he started reflecting on his childhood and his environment.
He came to realize that they all suffered the same circumstances. For people his age, he didn’t know anyone that won.
When the Wallstreet trapper responds asking if your playing the game why are you in here with me.
He stated that he was locked up for 2.8 million embezzlement - that meaning a crime taking money or property that a person has been trusted to handle for an organization business or another person.
He had to pay $800,00 in restitution. That just means returning whatever something to rightful owner, paying back money for loss or fixing a damage. In this case, it was money. In short, its making things right after a wrong
He explains that he kept 2 million and then proceeds to ask the wallstreet trapper if he has ever seen 2 million dollars in his life.
He didn't; believe him, the inmate showed him his prison paper work, and got his attention.
Right then and there, even at a young age, he was exposed to something new.
It brings back memories when I first started learning about personal finance.
Seeing an average person invest in like 2-3 funds, keeping it simple, being consistent and having a net worth of a couple million.
Growing up or even in my social circles, there was never any talk about investing and having a net worth of $1-$5 million dollars.
Class vs Race When It comes to Financial Independence
The interviewer stopped trapper mid sentence during the interview to point out that he didn’t say white people but he said wealthy people.
I love that he emphasized that part of the game in seeing wealth does not paint the lines between race.
He also points to his experience working with inner city youth.
At the beginning of my journey, it was important that I realized that it was more about the financial behaviours that people do vs your race or gender.
Made me realize that by making good decisions, I could efficiently change into a different economic class.
Just A Different Game
I’m glad I came across this concept early on in my journey that financial literacy is like playing a game. That you can learn it, understand the rules and become better at it.
For myself, It was a hard concept to grasp because early on in my life, I didn’t hear or know anything about the financial game.
The best way I can explain it is like you grow up your whole life playing basketball.
You become good at the game.
You learn the rules, better your skills and you feel good about yourself.
You finish school and your no longer living with your parents and life starts.
It’s like you playing a whole new game. It’s like you playing soccer
The rules and the skills that you learned growing up playing basketball, are very different when playing soccer.
You have to use your feet and there’s different rules.
A whole new set of skills have to be learned, hence your playing a whole different game.
