Step 9, Create an Estate Plan, showed us the steps to turn our personal wealth efficiently and effectively into generational wealth. Step 10, Share Your Success, takes creating generational wealth to the next level. Once you’ve successfully completed Steps 1-9 and built your own generational wealth, the focus turns to helping the people around you build generational wealth for themselves. By sharing your success, you can use your own experiences and your own position as a role model to help others in your community build generational wealth. If you do this, you can greatly multiply the impact that you have on future generations and create a long-lasting legacy.
Why should you share your success?
The first reason to share your success is to improve the community around you. By equipping others within your sphere with the knowledge and motivation to start building their own generational wealth, you will have a generally positive impact. While you are still alive, this will benefit you directly. Don’t you want to live in a community where less people are stressed about their finances, and therefore more pleasant to be around? You will personally benefit from those around you having the capacity to create a good life for themselves and their families. You will also be able to improve the community for years to come and have a lasting impact long after you pass on. Sharing your success and helping others toward building generational wealth will improve your community for generations and cement your legacy.
The second reason you should share your success is the compounding effect on overall generational wealth you can have. If you create generational wealth for yourself, it helps you and all your future generations. If you help create generational wealth for one other person, it helps you, your future generations, the person you are helping, and their future generations. If you help create generational welath for 10 people, and maybe some of them help others, then all the sudden you could be having an impact on hundreds, if not thousands, of people spanning multiple generations. Now that’s a legacy right there! This is the type of impact that can have a serious impact on closing racial and generational wealth gaps. This is the type of impact that can really make a true difference!
How can you share your success?
There’s no one best way to share your success, but here are a few methods to consider:
Be a role model.
One of the easiest ways to share your success is to be a good role model. Don’t brag about your success. Don’t be condescending or belittle those who have not made it as far as you have. Remember, every single person will have a unique journey towards building generational wealth. Not everyone’s path will look like yours did, so be empathetic. As a role model, demonstrate to others your commitment toward building generational wealth rather than just personal wealth. Be open and helpful to those around you. When you have the chance, share your accomplishments. Don’t share them with the intention of getting praise, but rather with the intention of giving those around you an idea of what building generational wealth looks like. Remember generational wealth does not involve showing off your mansion or flashy cars, but rather your commitment toward turning your own personal wealth into something that will benefit generations to come.
Talk to your family.
This might seem obvious, but start by sharing your success with your family. Start with your immediate family, then your extended family. Family gatherings are a great time to do this. Remember, don’t brag, but rather be helpful and be a good role model to your family members. If you can help a few family members toward building generational wealth, you’ll feel the benefits while you are alive and have a lasting impact on your family’s younger generations.
Be a mentor.
Take someone under your wing. This person can be anyone who is interested in building personal wealth. Make a commitment to helping them along their journey. Grab coffee with them every month to provide advice and check on their progress. The best place to find a mentee is to look for someone younger than you in one of your communities. Maybe a younger coworker, someone on your softball team, or a niece or nephew. Find someone hungry for knowledge and commit to helping them.
Help in schools.
You can have a huge impact when you work with younger people. This is because the younger someone starts the steps to building generational wealth, the easier the journey will be for them. Get involved with career days or teaching opportunities. Consider starting with the schools that you went to and helped shape you. You can have an impact at elementary schools, high schools, community colleges, or even universities. Schools are always looking for successful people to provide mentorship for their students. See what you can offer!
Volunteer
Volunteering is a great way to build relationships while also giving back to your community. By volunteering, you can meet more people you can positively impact. You can also try volunteering for organizations that directly work in financial literacy.
Donate
Donating is a great method if you are more of a behind-the-scenes type of person. If you’re not up to the task of directly providing mentorship and advice, then donate to an organization that specializes in this. Just make sure that you are donating to a cause that directly furthers your goal of building generational wealth.
Provide scholarships and grants.
Providing scholarships and grants is another great way to have an impact in a more behind-the-scenes manner. Grants provide money to non-profits or individuals to further their mission or research. Scholarships give people who might not otherwise have the means, the ability to get a quality education which improves their chances of building generational wealth.
Invest in businesses.
Starting a business is a great way for someone to build generational wealth, but it can be so difficult and expensive to get started. One way you can have an impact is to invest in someone’s business. This will not only help them toward their generational wealth building journey, but it might also be profitable for you as well. Additionally, consider investing in businesses that have a mission of improving financial literacy and contributing toward generational wealth.
Use technology to spread the word.
In this modern age, the word “community” can mean our local community or your social network. Using social media and other forms of technology, you can spread your success far and wide. Consider writing or sharing articles that promote generational wealth. You can also try creating or appearing on podcasts, starting your own blog, or even writing your own book. Find what works for you to spread your success effectively to as many people as you can.
Be an advocate.
Get active! Be an advocate for the causes of financial literacy and generational wealth. Do what you can to support policies that promote economic equality. You can do this just by being a voter or you can get more involved in politics. This is a great way to make real structural changes that will improve generational wealth.
What should you share?
Start by sharing your own experiences. Tell others what steps worked for you. Also, be sure to share your failures. Not only does this humanize you, but it might help someone else avoid making the same mistakes you made.
Share your connections. If you successfully created generational wealth for yourself, you probably didn’t do it alone. You probably had a trusted financial advisor, an accountant, some attorneys, or some other influential professional that helped you along the way. Don’t hoard these people for yourself. Give others in your community the opportunity to get the same help you did. Not only will those people thank you, but the professionals will probably appreciate the business. In general, being a connector of people is a great way to ensure that others have the same chance of success as you.
Be an educator. You can embody this trait in everything you do. Whether it’s providing guidance in small talk at the dinner table, mentoring someone at a coffee shop, or giving educational seminars at your local community college. Being an educator in any sense of the word is a great way to share your success.
How I am taking this seriously in my life
I figured it would be wise to follow my own advice of being a role model and explain the ways that I have made building generational wealth for my community a priority. I’m not suggesting that everyone do this, but for me, I have turned building generational wealth into my career and life’s work. As a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERTM and Wealth Manager, I run a team of financial professionals who work directly with clients and help them strategize to reach their financial goals and build lasting generational wealth. While we work with people from all walks of life, I love working with educators and non-profits. My belief is this: because these people have such a big impact on the young people in their community, if I can help them, then in turn, they can focus on their important jobs and spread their generational wealth building skills to the next generation.
Another way that I am committed to building generational wealth for my community is by avoiding the cycle that most financial advisors fall into. Most financial advisors start their career by working with anyone and everyone. Then, over time, due to time restraints, they end up only working with higher and higher net worth clients. This isn’t a bad thing on its own because high net worth clients need advice just as much as anyone. However, the reality this creates is that the best financial advisors typically don’t work with the everyday people that need their help the most. I am personally committed to structuring my business in a way that allows me to continue to work with those that need help the most rather than those that have the most personal wealth.
I try to take this philosophy and commitment into my everyday life outside of work. I try to look at myself as an educator and connector. I am an educator by writing this step-by-step guide to building generational wealth, writing helpful blog posts, creating helpful videos, putting on workshops and seminars on important financial topics, and educating my friends, family and clients. I do all these things for free. I believe that if I lead with education, then clients, business and revenue tend to naturally follow. I also try to be a connector by connecting my clients, friends, and family, with all the amazing professionals that I meet in my community. Not all the connections I make lead to anything, but I try to find joy in the process of making the connection itself.
I give some of my personal story, not to preach or get on my high horse, but rather to provide an example of how someone can commit themselves to spreading generational wealth in their community.
Final Thoughts
Sharing your success is the final step of my step-by-step guide. It really takes building generational wealth to the next level because of the compounding impact it can have on your community. Remember, don’t belittle or condescend when you are sharing your success. Be empathetic. Everyone will have a unique journey toward building generational wealth. When you share your success, you will improve your community while you are alive and can enjoy it. You will also create a strong legacy and leave the world a better place than you found it. Isn’t that what building generational wealth is all about?
This blog post is a rough draft for Chapter 10 of 10 for my Step-by-Step Guide for Building Generational Wealth. For now, each step has been in the form of a monthly blog post. I really hope to get your feedback and thoughts. The next step for me is to revisit each blog post, add detail, implement changes based off your feedback and thoughts, and then publish the guide into a book. Thanks for following along in my creative process. I hope you will all continue to support when I release this as a fully formed book in the near future!