15 Obsessions That Translate to Fortunes

You know, some people have the right skill set to get rich, but they focus on the wrong damn thing. In business, we call this a high-level skill on a low-level opportunity. Believe it or not, some of you might have what it takes to get rich faster than most people if someone only introduced you to the stock market or showed you how digital money works. We call these success filters. People who are good at these things have a disproportionate likelihood of winning the money game. Here are 15 obsessions that translate to fortunes.

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Number one: Poker. Risk assessment and taking calculated risks are a cornerstone to business. You have to make decisions under pressure. You’ve got to manage your bankrolls, suppress your emotions, and you’ve got to read people and the situation you’re in. The usual path is like this: someone teaches you poker; you watch a couple of videos, join a poker night, and win. Now, you’re hooked. You get better and better; you make friends who are good at poker and even make a little bit of money playing. The best of them treat it like a business. You play 20 to 30 tables at a time, you have your own rule book that you follow, and you’re not scared of using tools to optimize your game.

By this point, you understand the amount of effort isn’t leading to the kind of reward you want and winning the Sunday Million is unlikely. That’s when you discover trading, peer-to-peer lending, or begin financing other players. That said, poker players become millionaires, but they rarely cross over into Uber wealth. Why? Well, they’re good at risk assessment, but they lack the hard skills; they can’t build things themselves. So, they usually partner up with them, holding minority positions while someone else creates the actual value.

Number two: Strategy games. Civilization, Age of Empires, Starcraft, Warcraft, League, Stronghold—you know the drill. Anything that involves farming and the strategic management of resources. Unlike poker players, strategy game players are more focused on long-term thinking. They don’t mind the grind in building up XP. You start off with something small and do it over and over and over again before you expand. You avoid unnecessary battles and stick to your thing.

Strategy games are dynamic, so your approach to how you’ll win the game changes as the environment changes. Those who love the puzzle of strategy games will love the business world because the fundamentals are exactly the same. But the rewards are houses, travel, and cool toys.

Number three: eBay flipping. Even before that, look—we were the kids who sold things to our colleagues in middle school. Some people always have commerce in them. If you know, you know. They can spot arbitrage opportunities from a mile away—from lemonade stands to sneakers, to thrifted clothes, to tech and smartphones. You name it. The value derives from one's ability to understand value versus cost. When the value is higher than what you can pay for it at the moment, the trade will make you money. It is worth it. Once you have a little bit of money, you go from small things to cars, then apartments, then higher margin plays. Well, talk more about this at the very end of the video.

Number four: Board games. You literally go from playing Monopoly as a kid to buying real estate as an adult. Like with everything in life, there is an element of chance to it, but when you factor in a large time horizon, skill usually prevails. A big part is the social dynamic and negotiation that takes place around the board game. Then strategic planning and forecasting play a big part. The reason why we encourage everyone to play board games, besides the fact that they're just fun, is that they provide a safe environment to fail, learn, and try again.

The more complex the games, the better. The games get over time, and if you’re interested, we’ll leave our top five board games in the description because we’ve got a luxury Monopoly Edition, and it’s always a conversation piece.

Number five: Card trading and collectors. Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh, baseball cards—they all share a common thread of you understanding value that others are missing. A card that looks like a piece of shiny cardboard to someone might be worth hundreds or thousands or even millions to a select group of individuals. When you’re a collector, you learn that the value of a complete collection is higher than the sum of the individual pieces. You learn how scarcity impacts price and how desire evolves through time. Trading and collecting baseball cards translates well to car or watch collections later in life or if you actually have the money for real art.

The higher up you are on the financial ladder, the more specific and rare your collections become. This is why billionaires compete and pay ridiculous amounts of money for art. There’s intrinsic value to it that regular folks simply don’t see. Looking behind the curtain, you realize millionaires and billionaires not only use art as a store of value, hedging against inflation, but actually as a profitable investment. Why? Well, because there’ll never be another Picasso painting. Everyone who has money is fighting over the same limited amount of art out there, and this is happening across the entire industry.

You go from collecting badges, sports cards, or mangas to Basquiat, Rothko, and Warhol because there’s a lot of money to be made in art. Once you’re in, it’s actually a lot of fun. Now, the problem was that historically, you had to be incredibly rich to play the art game, but not anymore. That’s where today’s sponsors at Masterworks come in. It’s called fractional investing. So instead of buying a full painting, they split it up into shares for their investors. When the painting is sold at auction, the profit is split amongst shareholders, and the best part: you get the same collector feeling with the financial upside.

From the classics to names like KAWS and Banksy, you can invest in art from the comfort of your own home. Every painting Masterworks has sold to date has delivered a positive return to their investors. They’ve been pulling in net returns like 14.6%, 17.8%, 21.5%, and even more. Plus, you get bragging rights, like saying that you’ve got some Banksy and Picassos in your investment collection. As you can imagine, normally, there’s a long waitlist to get access to this kind of exclusive platform, but not for you, my friend. Since you’re an Aluxer, you can go to masterworks.art/alux right now or scan the QR code on screen to skip the waitlist. Start investing in art today. Almost 1 million people invest in art through Masterworks—that's masterworks.io. Simply click the link in the description.

Number six: Individual sports, not team sports, but individual sports. Team sports don’t teach you the same kind of entrepreneurial lesson that people think it does. In team sports, you stay in your lane, and you help your teammates. In individual sports, it’s all about you—the resilience, the goal setting, the discipline, the performance management, the ability to self-motivate and pick yourself up when you have to. There’s a deep intrinsic value of someone who’s able to get it done by themselves. Martial arts, swimming, tennis, golf, and anything that has to do with running, especially long-distance stuff like marathon running, unlocks a part of the brain that teaches you to win in your own mind.

Once you apply the same mindset to business, well, you’re unstoppable.

Number seven: Growing up in an impoverished country and getting out. There’s a case to be made for people who never liked the hand they were dealt. Since their childhood, they knew they had to get out. They wanted to move to a bigger city to leave the country because the future they envision for themselves is not available in their location. The U.S. was built on this American Dream idea, and why so many immigrants have a leg up over everyone else: because there’s a hunger and self-awareness that those born into comfort lack. The hungrier person will always fight harder for food. If you’re the type of person who left your small town or village and moved to the big city, if you got yourself educated and learned a valuable skill that you’re able to monetize, well, you’ve got this.

Number eight: Math or physics Olympiads. You already know about these kids. If your math has more letters than numbers and your brain is able to work through it efficiently, just wait until you discover the business world. Business is universally a numbers game. Once you understand that money is just numbers on a screen, and if you make small changes, the numbers will go up, you’ll be hooked. We used to compete nationally in both math and physics when we were young, and everyone we knew from back in those days who wanted to become rich got there either by working for a big tech company or by being recruited by venture funds or private equity. STEM fields teach you how to systematically solve a problem, and this is the foundation for writing code, valuing a business, or becoming profitable.

Our goal with this channel is ultimately to teach you money math: put one in and take two out. If that's what you're looking for, subscribe to Alux on YouTube.

Number nine: Forum mods. Bet you didn’t see this one coming, but to us, it makes more sense than even the rest of the things on this list. Why? Well, because these people are able to build and keep a community together. Those who can grow communities can monetize communities. You have to communicate clearly; you keep people in check; you know what does well and what doesn’t; you solve conflicts, and you have innate leadership qualities—all from keeping a Facebook group alive for longer than six months. According to a LinkedIn study, individuals with experience in community management roles show a 30% higher rate of transitioning into successful entrepreneurial ventures compared to those without any similar experience.

Number 10: Avid readers. Money and wealth are a learning game. If you keep learning, you’ll perform better, thus getting better outcomes. Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. That’s why avid readers have a superior mind to everyone else. The average CEO reads 60 books a year; the average person barely reads one. Once you switch Harry Potter for The E-Myth Revisited and for The Millionaire Fastlane, things start falling into place.

We loved reading growing up, and our life literally changed after reading Rich Dad Poor Dad when we were 15 years old. Back then, the idea of owning properties that pay for your life and you don’t have to work was revolutionary, so we began looking for ways to earn money to buy properties, and it all spiraled from there. The thing is, these books that were so life-changing for us no longer hold up the way they used to, and our generation is different. There had to be an alternative. Podcasts were interesting; you’d listen to a three-hour podcast, and maybe you’d get lucky with one or two insights that are interesting, but not necessarily explained in detail.

So we got to work. Instead of reading 60 books a year or listening to podcasts on 1.5x, we built the Alux app. We use firsthand real-world experience to help coach our community on the five pillars of a good life: finance, health, emotions, intellect, and relationships. We find the smartest and best performing people in the world and pay them to break down their most valuable learnings for you. Go to alux.com/slapp right now. Download it and you’ll be prompted to fill in a survey. Based on the survey, our app sorts through the library of content that’s most valuable to where you are in your life.

There’s nothing like Alux out there. Every morning, while you have your coffee or tea, you put on your headphones, press play, and just get the most valuable stuff distilled and applicable to you. No fluff. No hundreds of thousands of people have downloaded the app and love it. We’re on a mission to create 1,000 new millionaires with this app, and hopefully, you’ll be one of them. Go to alux.com/slapp, and let’s get started.

Number 11: Student council. Most high-level work involves getting people to trust you and grant you power. Being class president or on the student council offers you a glimpse of that power. You develop leadership qualities; you’re able to manage a project. But more important than anything, you realize success is not actually about who is the smartest or most capable; instead, it’s about the person most able to play the game at hand. You’ll do well both in business or in the corporate world, and if both seem too difficult for you, there’s always politics.

Number 12: Design. Good design is good business. The most valuable skill we acquired early on was the ability to use Photoshop. If we needed a banner, a logo, or something with transparency, we did it ourselves. This ability to prototype and iterate sets you apart from everyone else who just has a wish about doing something. This is a real skill: making things beautiful, making them yourself, understanding fonts, spacing, communicating clearly through visuals.

Here’s the controversial part, though: if your marketing is good enough, the product can be mediocre and people will still buy it. Supreme sold for $2 billion for putting a word on t-shirts and building the marketing around it. Airbnb’s founder, Brian Chesky, is just a designer; he can’t write code, yet Airbnb is incredibly successful. And here’s some market research for you: according to a 2021 survey by the Design Management Institute, companies that emphasize design in their operations outperformed the S&P index by 228 over 10 years. See? Good design matters.

Number 13: People who can throw a party. These folks can create hype, bring people together, and can charge money for experiences. Even if you don’t do it for the money and just host your friends at home, making sure people show up, crafting a great experience for your guests is a skill. This is how you build great relationships. You can build fortunes by simply connecting people. You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than a year of conversation.

You’ve heard the saying that your network is your net worth, and it’s just a matter of time until the right pieces fall into the right place to get you paid.

Number 14: Opinionated or funny people. Controversial take: truth is a commodity; information is a commodity. What we want are opinions and hot takes. Although there are many bands who write love songs, you’ve got your favorite one because it speaks to you. You like the way they do it; you vibe with their perspective. That is what personaity is—the ability to shine somehow and be recognizable in a crowd.

Funny people have an unfair advantage when it comes to business because while most business folks have a stick up their behind, you just don’t get that many people who are incredibly fun. Your voice, your writing, your personality is your competitive advantage; nobody can be a better you than you are.

And number 15: Those who deeply understand street culture and have street smarts. Look, here’s the thing nobody will tell you because they’re all too scared to admit that they themselves are becoming outdated. Every generation is different; you have a unique perspective about what it was like growing up for you and your peers than we did. We make our Cartoon Network references, our Jay-Z lyrics, our Friends and Home Alone jokes because we grew up in the '90s, and '90s kids get us because we get them.

But Jay-Z is 54 years old; Jeremy Clarkson is 64. Charlie Munger died of old age. The new kids have a different vibe. Both Vice and BuzzFeed are shutting down because they were not able to stay relevant to the new generation. But here’s where the gold is: every generation has its superstars. You can be the Jeremy Clarkson or the Marques Brownlee of your generation. Just because you get it, street smarts means being able to take what you have and make it profitable.

It might not have clicked for you just yet, but when it does, you’ll feel it. Now, we’re looking for five more of these success filters. What would you add to the list? Let us know in the comments. And since you stuck around with us until the end, here is your well-deserved bonus. If you are extremely good at any of these but haven’t discovered the money yet, write to us: contact@alux.com. Tell us about you and what your obsession, passion, or hobby is, and we’ll try to point you in the right direction.

The only thing we ask in return for that is that when you find your thing and consider making a business of it, that we get the chance to invest a little bit of money early on. If you feel like you’re still early in life, write the word "early" in the comments. Let’s see how many of you still feel like you knew early on in life that someday you’re going to be big.