Get rejected

How to set yourself up to be wealthy as a millennial

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Jia Jiang wanted to build a company that would take over Microsoft when he was a teenager. But he never did. It’s not that he tried and failed – he was afraid to start because every time he got an idea, his mind automatically pushed it aside because he was afraid of failing. More than failure, he was afraid of rejection, of asking people for things, and being told “no”. At the age of 30, he was a marketing manager and he felt like he had stagnated in life. So he decided to do something different.

Jia came across a concept called Rejection Therapy that encouraged people to ask for something ridiculous every day. The idea was to get comfortable with rejection, and take more risks. But Jia took it to a different level. He decided to do the experiment for 100 days, and also film his videos and post them online.

On the first day, Jia asked a stranger if he could borrow $100, and he freaked out and ran away when the stranger replied, “No. Why?” But Jia continued and tried new challenges every day, including getting a doughnut from Krispy Kreme made in the shape of Olympic rings, teaching a college class at UT Austin, and test-driving a BMW for free! Jia’s goal wasn’t to succeed, but rather to face his fear of rejection – in the beginning, he was nervous while asking requests, but after a while, he learned to empathize and negotiate with people, and transformed himself!

Jia Jiang recorded his experiences in this really fun Ted Talk (if you like my humor, you’ll love this guy – he’s funny):

Embracing the fear of rejection and moving past it can give you more control in your life than you realize. Most people remain stuck in their careers and life because they feel they aren’t ready for the next step. But you miss a hundred percent of the shots that you don’t take. Doing the opposite could work wonders – 70% of people who asked for a raise received some raise over their existing income.

And right now, this isn’t just a nice-to-have skill: If you’re a millennial, it could decide your financial future. Some experts are saying that retirement is dead, while in other news, millennials are being reduced to tears while trying to buy a house. 51% of people earning over $100,000 are living on a monthly paycheck. Learning to negotiate for higher pay and push past your current level despite rejection could make all the difference.

And that’s just the beginning. To learn about the other key principles you can use to shape your financial future – like tracking your spending, being smart about debt, building a strong credit score, and more – watch this video:

In my other video this week, I talk about…

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Why you should not buy stocks in 2023

You know me – I’ve always been a strong proponent of Index Funds and the growth potential of equities in the long term. But there’s a euphoric feeling in the air after the stock market had the best January in 20 years – and a lot of brash decisions are made in emotional states. Here’s some perspective about how you should approach asset allocation for the long run, the one strategy you need to follow to weather all market conditions, and how not to be swayed by current trends – so that you increase your chances of building wealth!

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So that’s it for my Sunday round-up. For the new folks here, in this newsletter, I give a quick recap of whatever you may have missed over the week on Sunday, and on Wednesday, I will be doing my deep-dive article on one of these topics.

See you next week with another bunch of exciting videos!

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