The 5 Wealth Secrets No One Ever Taught You | Lewis Howes

27:00Lewis Howes:I think I had like 17 streams of income. I had the podcast. I had speaking engagements. I was hosting my own events. I was doing free webinars and then selling courses. I had a membership site. I had paid trainings. I was trying every different thing. I had books. I had audio books. I was like, I need as many streams. I took it so extreme. I took it so extreme that it exhausted me because I was the one generating all those income streams. I was the one fulfilling all those products. I was the one doing all the customer support, developing them, selling them. And it burnt me out to the point where I was like, I'm getting rid of every stream and I'm coming down to two or three.

27:45Lewis Howes:Now, so I go to, I went to one extreme back to another extreme and I feel like I'm in a healthy place right now. At the same time, I'm still thinking of the next income stream that I could add on to my business where I can think about how can I serve the maximum number of people to help them improve the quality of their life while also not burning myself out and making sure I use smart systems in place to serve people to generate income as well. And so again, focused effort, all the risk into one main thing is actually how you become really rich. You put all your energy and time into one thing, and then boom, it accelerates, it grows, you make a ton of money from it, you sell it, whatever it might be, and then you generate a lot of wealth, right?

28:34Lewis Howes:But then helping your wealth continue to grow is actually diversifying it into multiple different investments so you protect it and it grows over time. But one income stream is not a financial strategy alone. it is a financial risk at a certain point. And again, if you're smart with your one income stream by investing it in other places, then that's fine. That's great. But a lot of people don't do that. They just spend all their money and therefore they have no money left over. They have no savings. They have no investments. And a lot of people will say that the average millionaire has seven streams of income.

29:15Lewis Howes:And I know that can sound overwhelming. It's also unrealistic if you are starting with just one right now. But what's typically true about this is that they're one source of income. That is their main driver that allows you to build up other sources over time. So our main focus of the School of Greatness is the podcast. That is the engine. Now, I also have five different books, three New York Times bestselling books and a few other books. And this comes as an extra source of income, right? But the content is driven through the podcast. So the content comes to the podcast, then I'm able to create IP.

29:57Lewis Howes:I'm able to create books and IP through the content by repackaging it, packaging it in a way that is easy to consume with lots of information on one subject around the relationship with money. Then I'm able to use the podcast engine to sell this to our audience that wants more products to serve them in that way, right? That's one way. Then I have my speaking fees. I don't do a lot of speaking these days because I have twin girls. I'm married. I have less time where I travel, but I still get asked to speak a lot. And for the right fee, I will go out. I will travel and I will speak to companies.

30:38Lewis Howes:I will do workshops for senior leadership teams. I will speak at conventions to give people my insights, my perspective, my inspiration if people want me to come out for my fee, right? That's another way through this business. We have affiliate relationships and partners. We have a mastermind coaching program that also serves higher level entrepreneurs to take their business to the next level. And so we have a few core revenue streams that support us and this business. And if you try to build multiple at the same time, you're probably going to struggle and feel burnt out. Instead, build whatever your main income source is now as high as you can, and then determine what second source you begin to create.

31:24Lewis Howes:And here are some of the common income streams that wealthy people build. First one is earned income, which is your job or your active business. Like focus on maximizing that to the best of your ability. And really be thinking about that money or that income on how you can use that income to make more money for you. The second one is investments. Investment income. So how do you use that career income, that job income, that business income? First thing is to putting it into certain investments that you feel comfortable with, like stocks, index funds, real estate, another side business that's generating income for you, products, services that you sell, things like that, investment income.

32:14Lewis Howes:And this is something that I think I started to do in my late 20s, and I wish I did sooner. I wish I started putting 50 bucks a week, a hundred bucks a week, a thousand dollars a week, whatever I could have put in into investment income so that I could be generating returns from my money, always making money for me, making money in my sleep over time through one of these investment incomes. The next one would be through royalty income. This could be, again, I get royalties every day through books for you. Maybe that's music royalties. Maybe that's art. Maybe that's intellectual property, IP. The next one could be rental income, property or assets you own.

32:56Lewis Howes:Now, I own physical properties with my wife. We own different apartments that we rent out on Airbnb or long-term rentals. I also have investments in real estate funds where someone else manages those and they are managing all the stress of, you know, getting the tenants in and out, managing the buildings, and I'm getting a monthly return on those assets. So that's another thing that you can do. But again, know the risks, whatever you get into on investing your money. I've also lost money on stupid investments that didn't work out or startups that I thought would make money that didn't make money.

33:41Lewis Howes:So you've also got to know the risks to any investment that you make. There could be digital income. There's a lot of people, you know, right now there's so many creators that have courses, content, micro communities, things like that, where they are generating income based on their digital content. There's lots of different ways you can be thinking about, but if you also focus on one, your main career, and you focus on your job of generating that income and being just as wise and intelligent as possible about taking action with that money, you could set yourself up for financial freedom if you do it the right way, if you do it consistently, and you do it over a long term.

34:25Lewis Howes:You don't build it all overnight, but the wealthy mind thinks in multiple streams or taking the money they're bringing in every month and investing it for long-term wealth. The ordinary mind thinks in paychecks and spending as much as possible to feel good. And the moment you start thinking in streams, your entire financial life begins to shift and your future self will thank you for being wise with your money today. That's the end of secret number three. One income stream is a financial emergency. You know those moments when you're ordering everything to your house? From groceries, gear, random things you didn't even realize you needed until the last minute?

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36:39Lewis Howes:That's the kind of opportunity that adds up over time. Visit usbank.com slash smartlycard to learn more. The creditor and issuer of this card is U.S. Bank National Association, pursuant to a license from Visa USA Inc. some restrictions may apply. Number four, this is a big one. This is probably if I could boil down all of my success in business comes down to secret number four. Now I've done a lot of other things well. I've also made a lot of other mistakes, but number four is the thing that's probably generated 80 % of my money from secret number four. And that is to get into the room where you're the least successful person.

37:26Lewis Howes:Now, when you grow up like me, the bottom of my class, feeling like a stupid person that had no money when I was 25, I was broke as a joke, living on my sister's couch, student loans. I hadn't graduated college yet. I just felt like the stupidest person in the world. I was always the dumbest person in every room. So this was not hard for me to do. Anywhere I walked, I was the dumbest person. I was the least successful person. I had no money. Everyone had more money than me. And most people surround themselves with people at their level or maybe a little bit below. And they wonder why nothing in their financial life ever changes.

38:06Lewis Howes:So what is the move that actually accelerates wealth faster than almost anything else? It's getting yourself in rooms with people who are farther ahead than you financially. The fastest way to change your financial life is to change what feels normal to you. And what feels normal to you is determined by the room you're in. If everyone around you is stressed about money, that stress becomes your baseline. It becomes your normal conversation. It becomes your normal way of being. If everyone around you plays it safe, then playing it safe becomes your ceiling. It becomes a place where, oh, we all play it safe here.

38:48Lewis Howes:No one goes past this point of discomfort. We like to stay in this comfort room bubble, and we're not going to try to risk something different from where we feel comfortable right now. It's going to be hard for you to break free from that if that's your environment and that's your room. But when you jump and get so uncomfortable and get into rooms where people are making decisions you've never even dreamed of or considered or thought about, then talking about investments like they're obvious or building businesses at scale that you haven't even imagined, or giving away money in amounts that you've never even thought about receiving that seem impossible to you.

39:29Lewis Howes:When you get in those rooms and those conversations are happening, something shifts inside of you. At first, you're going to feel terrified. You're going to feel like, ah, like I'm in the wrong room and this is scary. But that's exactly what you need to start thinking differently, to start seeing possibilities, to stop limiting yourself from what you're capable of. And I'm not saying you need to think like millionaires and billionaires and be in these rooms in order to create some certain lifestyle that's not you. But what I'm saying is you want to be surrounding yourself with people that are willing to think just a little bit differently, a little bit, maybe a little bit delusional at times, a little bit unrealistic at times to see what is possible.

40:11Lewis Howes:And it doesn't mean you have to go there, but at least you get you out of the environment you're currently in. Not because someone handed you a strategy, but because your brain starts to recalibrate again with what is possible for yourself. Proximity is the strategy. It is about being in the rooms where the right people are who think in ways that you've never thought. And early on in my career, I got on a Greyhound bus from Columbus to Philadelphia. and I think I spent around$55 and I maybe had$100 at the time. I didn't have a car and I got on a Greyhound bus because there was a conference. This was in late 2008, early 2009.

41:01Lewis Howes:And I didn't have a place to stay. I found a hostel. I think it was$17 a night. I put my bags in a little locker when I got to this hostel. I had a carry-on bag I brought on the bus with me and a suit jacket. And I locked in my bag in this little locker. There was bunk beds. There was probably 20 bunk beds in one room. I left my bags there. I went to the event. I was there till about 2.30 a.m. late night building relationships. I come back to the hostel. I kid you not. There was puke all over the doors to get into the bathroom. There was puke all over the mirrors, all in the sinks, all in the urinals.

41:47Lewis Howes:So I couldn't go to the bathroom. I was stepping on the floor of puke everywhere to just go to the bathroom at 3 a.m. I get in one bunk bed. All the bunk beds are full. I kid you not, there was puke all over my bed and all over the floor right where I'm stepping into the bunk bed to go to sleep. And 19 European guys are snoring all night long. And I'm thinking to myself, this is hell. This is crazy. But I'm telling you, I still have relationships today that I connect with from an event I went to 16, 17 years ago at a conference that I couldn't afford, that I snuck into, that I took a Greyhound bus to get to, that I stayed in a hostel filled with puke, and I got in the rooms where the right people were.

42:46Lewis Howes:And I'm telling you, if you are willing to have the courage to risk, to get in proximity and open yourself to say, hi, my name's Lewis Howes, what's your name? And ask people questions and be curious about them and not talk about yourself and just think, how can I learn about people and serve them? I'm telling you, it's almost like God or the universe just opens doors for you to create abundance in your life. When you are willing to get into uncomfortable situations and rooms, I'm not talking scary, unsafe rooms, but I'm talking about maybe, oh, these people, I don't feel like I belong because they're so much smarter, so much more successful.

43:28Lewis Howes:They've created so much more results in their life than I have. You put yourself in a room. You have the courage to go up and talk to people. You have the courage to ask questions. You have the courage to say, hey, how can I be of service to you? And I'd really like to serve you. What's your biggest challenge in life? If you have that ability to have courage to risk with proximity, this is 80 % of my wealth is being in the right rooms and developing these relationships over time. The goal here is not to impress people in these rooms. Again, if you are the least successful, the least rich, the dumbest person in the room, you're not going to impress people.

44:08Lewis Howes:The only thing you can do is impress people by being present with people, by looking them in the eyes and being curious and actually being interested in learning about them, not trying to talk about you because you don't have anything of results that's going to impress them. So don't try to. The goal is to learn from them, to let their normal way of being become your new behavior. Because once something feels normal to you, and once it stops feeling out of reach to you, and once you feel comfortable in those situations, you should start opening doorways, inner channels to embody that abundance, to create financial opportunities, to look for new advances in careers, to be seen with different levels of respect, to build your personal brand in those rooms and industries where people will start talking about you in positive ways behind your back.

45:08You start moving toward abundance without even realizing it.

45:14Lewis Howes:So the question is not, am I ready for that room? I've never been ready for any of these rooms. The question is, what room do I need to get into? What room does my future self need me to get into today that's going to unlock this level of abundance for my future self? And that is the end of secret number four. Get in the room where you're the least successful person. And secret number five, generosity is the most underrated wealth strategy. This one is one you're probably not going to like because I heard Tony Robbins say this, that the secret to living is giving. And it's so true, but it's so hard when you have nothing.

46:00Lewis Howes:It's so hard to say, how do I give when I have nothing? When I'm broke, when I'm in debt, when I'm living off credit cards, it's really hard to think I need to be a giver. when you're living scarcity day by day, moment by moment, and you're thinking, no, I just need to save, save, save, save. So this last one is the one that surprises a lot of people because it feels counterintuitive to almost everyone. And how does giving more lead to having more? Well, for the last, man, how long has it been now? 14, 15 years. I have been a contributor to many nonprofits. One of them is one that I really love.

46:41Lewis Howes:It's called Pencils of Promise. And I remember many years ago, I met the founder of Pencils of Promise, Adam Braun, who's a friend of mine, who just inspired me so much by his way of giving and his contribution to the world because he started building schools for kids in different countries when he would go backpacking around the world in kind of gap years in college. And he would backpack through Ghana and Guatemala and Laos, and he would take around pencils and give them to kids. And he remembers giving a pencil to a kid and his eyes just lighting up. It was like the greatest gift he could ever receive.

47:27Lewis Howes:And he gave him this pencil because he said, hey, if there's if there's one thing you could want, you know, one gift that I could give you or one thing you could want in life, what would that be? And he said, I want a pencil. And when he gave it to him, his eyes lit up because he wanted a pencil because he just wanted the ability to learn. He wanted to have the ability to learn, to eventually get out of his situation in his village and create something more for himself. So receiving a pencil was such a great gift because it sparked a greater future that this child had never seen before. The ability to learn, the ability to read and write, the ability to come up with creative ideas and make something.

48:11Lewis Howes:And I met Adam, I think, after he'd made maybe five schools. And now the organization, I believe, has made 500 plus or close to a thousand schools around the world and help kids develop their education in conjunction with the local communities, with the local governments to support the way they want things done as well. And so I guess it's been maybe 15 years, 14, 15 years where we've been contributing every year to helping build schools, fund the teachers, fund the kids for that. And that started because I was like, I started learning this principle from people by being in these rooms. I would ask wealthy people early on, what is one of the greatest keys to earning more?

48:56Lewis Howes:And so many people said, you got to give more. You got to give more. You know, it's a blessing to be on this earth. It's a blessing to have an opportunity to live another day. No one is guaranteed this day or tomorrow. And people, so many people have been here before you who have given you so much, this environment, this world, this building, this facility, this work, this art, this book that you get to read. So many people have created before you, they've given to you, whether directly or indirectly, it's benefited your life. Be a giver. Give more. If you don't have money, give time. If you don't have time, give knowledge.

49:35Lewis Howes:Give resources. Give whatever you can. Every wealthy person that I've ever interviewed has talked about generosity as one of their core parts of their life. Not because they were naive, not because they didn't understand business, but because they understood something deeper. And that is abundance is not a fixed amount. It expands when you share it. Let me repeat myself. Abundance is not a fixed amount. It's not limited. It expands when you share it. So when you invest in something, when you share something, when you give knowledge, give resources, give money, give time, it impacts people. and it's not limited.

50:21Lewis Howes:And I'm not saying give all your money away every single day. That's not what I'm saying. But I am saying you can give some of your money and the more you're willing to reach and stretch to give to causes that you care about, that you want to make a difference in, it's eventually just going to come back in different ways. And it may not come directly from that. But that idea, that philosophy, that belief, that baseline of I am a giver, It just means it opens the door to abundance.

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51:41Lewis Howes:It's avoiding the conversation. it's staying busy so you don't have to slow down and feel what's really going on inside. Even in 2026, stigma still gets in the way of people getting support for their mental health. And maybe you tell a friend to consider therapy, but when it comes to you, you keep saying you'll handle it all on your own. But therapy with BetterHelp, Better H-E-L-P, the world's largest online therapy platform, can be a space to slow down and talk through what's been building before it feels unmanageable. Just take a short questionnaire to identify your needs and preferences, and BetterHelp will handle the initial therapist matching work for you.

52:18Lewis Howes:Their industry-leading match fulfillment rate means BetterHelp typically gets it right the first time, and BetterHelp therapists work according to a strict code of conduct and are fully licensed in the U.S. Don't let stigma stand in the way of support. Start therapy with BetterHelp. Sign up and get 10 % off at BetterHelp.com slash greatness. That's betterhelp.com slash greatness. Now, I caveat this with the saying, you don't want to be a giver with no boundaries because sometimes if you find a narcissist or an extreme taker, then they're just going to take everything from you until you're nothing.

52:53Lewis Howes:So this is a caveat that you get to be discerning in your life with certain people that are only takers, that are also not in appreciation, but they just want to take, take, take from you until they take all of you. That's not what this is about. You need healthy boundaries. Sometimes that's with family, friends, co-workers, whatever it might be. And so you're going to have to learn those lessons on your own through how you do it. But being a giver and being generous is the gateway to abundance. Scarcity says, if I give, then I have less. But abundance says, when I give, I open the door for more.

53:29Lewis Howes:And the people who grip money the tightest are almost always the ones who have the least. and really they're the ones that have the least joy, the least hope, the least positivity, the least inspiration, the least love because they're holding on to something so tight. And the people who give most freely with their time, their resources, their knowledge, their joy, their love, they are the ones who somehow always seem to have enough and it's overflowing. It just overflows. And even if they don't have all the money in the world right now saved up, they know money's going to come to them and they're going to have enough to be okay.

54:10Lewis Howes:And they feel good about that. Generosity is not just a moral virtue, although that's a great moral virtue. It's a great business strategy. Be generous. Our podcast, our show is 100 % free. Sure, we have ads, we have sponsors, but the consumer doesn't have to pay for the content. It is free. So if someone says, hey, I can't afford your book, Lewis. I can't afford an event or a course or whatever you're coaching. That's okay. We want to give you the best information we can. Every single day, you can watch thousands of episodes for free to help you improve your quality of your life and your business.

54:47Lewis Howes:It's free. Generosity, it's a great business strategy. Give. It's an energetic strategy. It's a wealth strategy. And when you lead with your heart by giving, you build trust with people. You build community. You build loyalty. People want to be around you. You're like, hey, I like that guy. I like that gal. They're givers. And those things are worth more than any tactic. Just be a giver. And that is the end of secret number five. Generosity is the most underrated wealth strategy. And I want to leave you with this. I hope you've enjoyed this so far, but I want to leave you with this. I want to leave you with a 30-day wealth building challenge.

55:27Lewis Howes:and the beginning of this episode, I told you that you're going to come back to this and as a turning point in life around money and you're going to say, you know what? That one time, a year ago, six months ago, three years ago, five years ago, Lewis Howes did this episode around money that shifted my belief system, shifted the way I think about money. And at the end, he talked about this 30-day wealth building challenge. Send this to your friends so they get on this challenge with you. And if you've made it this far and feel ready to change your financial life, then here's what I want you to do for the next 30 days.

56:01Lewis Howes:I want you to audit your money beliefs. Go back to the beginning of this video. We talked about your money beliefs. I want you to write down every negative thought or belief you have about money. Again, most of you won't do this, but if you're ready to actually start shifting the frequency of creating more abundance in your life around money, then I need you to get out your journal. I need you to get out a pen, your journal, or on your phone right now in the notes app and write down every negative thought or belief you have about money right now. Do not wait. Do not say I'm gonna do this tomorrow.

56:35Lewis Howes:Do it now. Otherwise, the more you delay, the more you delay generating money for yourself. After you write down every negative thought or belief you have about money, I want you to answer, where did it come from? Who taught you that? And is it even true? Just because it's a belief doesn't mean it's true. It's just a belief that you've stuck with up until now, and it's been true for you. But it doesn't mean it's true for everyone, and it doesn't mean it has to be true for you. It's just a belief that you've been stuck in. I want you to audit your income. How many streams of income do you have?

57:14Lewis Howes:Write them down. Where is your time going towards that income? Write that down. Where is your extra time going right now if it's not towards an extra stream of income or developing an extra skill that could one day bring you income? I want you to identify one new stream that you could be building, whether it be at a skill level, a talent that you could eventually build a stream in the future. And I want you to make one investment in yourself, whether it's, and it could be a free thing. You know, it's like I can do something for free as well. This can be an investment in your time, but I want you also to make an investment in yourself.

57:57Lewis Howes:It can be a book. Again, we have Make Money Easy, but there's lots of great financial books out there. Get any book that has been recommended on learning about money. This is about your relationship with money. There's other great investing books out there that I recommend. Get a book, get a course, get a mentor or a mastermind. A mastermind is a group of people that are typically smarter than you. I'm in lots of them because there's a lot of smarter people than me, and I want to be in those rooms where I can learn more. And commit to learning one skill, like we talked about, that will pay you back in the future.

58:33Lewis Howes:That could be, I'm going to learn how to write copy. I'm going to learn how to speak in public. I'm going to learn how to develop some type of skill with AI. Whatever that skill is for you that can pay you back in the future. And I want you to start thinking about leading with generosity with your knowledge. Instead of hoarding your knowledge and information, be more open about what you've learned and your skills. I want you to be more generous with your time or your resources to someone. And don't do this with expectation of return. Just notice what happens when you're a giver and you give more.

59:09Lewis Howes:And if you do these few things for the next 30 days, you won't just think differently about money. you'll start moving differently and money will start moving towards you differently. Now, if you want to go even deeper on what we've talked about today, again, my book, Make Money Easy. It's a New York Times bestseller. It's the book I wish I had when I was 25, broke on my sister's couch because it teaches me everything that I knew wrong about money. And it's about developing a deeper mindset and relationship to money so that when you have it, you feel good. When you don't have it, you learn to feel good with that relationship as well.

59:48Lewis Howes:It's about the mindset first, understanding your money habits, and how to unlock money in your life. The link to get your copy is in the description below of this podcast or video. You can go on Amazon or any bookstore and get it. Again, it's called Make Money Easy. And the wealth you want is not out of reach. You were just never given the right map on how to generate it. now you have that map and it's time to start moving in the direction of your dreams. I hope you enjoyed this episode. My name is Lewis Howes. My intention and my vision and my mission is to serve you to improve the quality of your life.

1:00:25Lewis Howes:I hope this has given you some time to reflect on that relationship you have with money. And I want to see you start generating more for yourself and having a healthier relationship to it for the future. And if no one's told you lately, I want to remind you that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And it's time to go out there and do something great. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and it inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a full rundown of today's episode with all the important links. And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me personally, as well as ad-free listening, then make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel exclusively on Apple Podcasts.

1:01:09Lewis Howes:Share this with a friend on social media and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts as well. Let me know what you enjoyed about this episode in that review. I really love hearing feedback from you and it helps us figure out how we can support and serve you moving forward. And I wanna remind you, if no one has told you lately, that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something great.

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