15 Reasons Why Growing Up Rich is a Liability

If you grew up poor like we did, you certainly experienced firsthand what it's like to never ask for anything, to be self-sufficient. But every single one of us, deep down, wished our family was rich. But you know how when you were little, you didn't know you were poor? It's the same with being rich. You grow up in a bubble, isolated from reality, and when that bubble bursts, you're in for a shocking surprise.

Here are 15 of the biggest disadvantages of growing up rich. Welcome to alux.com, the place where future billionaires come to get inspired.

Number one: A lack of hard adult skills. We don't hire kids who grew up in rich families, mostly because they have zero productive skills. Most of them score above average in terms of soft skills, but not much else, which is why most of them end up working cushy jobs their parents lined up for them. Growing up rich shelters you from anything that has to do with manual labor or that's effort intensive. Growing up rich, you get a gold star for trying, and that's all. Rich kids are usually high-maintenance employees because other people used to do even the simplest of tasks for them. As adults, they can't cook, they can't fix anything in the house, and this is very obvious to people who marry someone who grew up with money. It becomes clear just how out of touch with life's most basic functions they are. Professionally speaking, they're not great builders of any kind because they never took the time to master any specific skill. They don't know how to use tools or how to search for the tools and answers.

Number two: A lack of hunger and motivation. The main motivation rich kids have is to prove that they're more than daddy's money, and some of them aspire to make a name for themselves. But the large majority of them fail and end up suckling on the family business or trust fund. That's why over 70 percent of rich kids end up working in daddy's business. Motivation is not enough to push you beyond that limit required to make something of yourself. They lack that hunger, that "this better freaking work because I have no other options" kind of hunger. Some of you know exactly what we're talking about. It's either this works out or we're eating sleep for supper, and when these are the stakes, you best believe you're going after it non-stop with levels of commitment beyond anyone who has safety nets under them. Rich kids try work out as entertainment. They lie to themselves, but when things get hard, they throw away their pride and return right back to comfort. That hunger and motivation evolves you into a different type of individual, one who can navigate the brutal reality of life, one that sticks with their mission and goals no matter what. One that truly becomes self-made.

Number three: Entitlement. Rich kids grow up expecting special treatment. They think the rules for everyone else don't apply to them. Most of them are drama queens; you see it in their friendships. They expect you to drop anything and address their little inconveniences because they've always been the center of the universe. They lack the ability to understand that other people are struggling with their own problems. Entitlement and a lack of empathy go hand in hand on this one because they usually get rewarded for trying, not for the outcome. Once they enter the real world, they expect the same kind of treatment.

Number four: Unrealistic expectations. Rich kids develop an unrealistic self-esteem because everybody around them keeps telling them how great they are for even the slightest achievement. Later on in life, this develops into a set of unrealistic expectations. They believe they should be paid multiple times more than what the job is worth to the market. It's also one of the reasons why their businesses fail at a higher rate than those of middle-class educated young adults. They launch an overpriced candle business or a jewelry line; a few friends of their parents will buy a couple and they believe they've got a great idea until they open it up to the world and crickets. Those initial boosts were signs of support, not an indicator of real value. They fail to do it organically; that's why they beg their parents for a small loan of one million dollars to make something of themselves.

Number five: Nobody is honest with them. Trust is a big issue; they grew up with the need to protect and the threat that other people might lurk around just for the money. But it doesn't stop there. When you're rich, there's no one out there to keep you accountable or call you out on your [ __ ]. So you keep pushing it in the hopes that you'll eventually find a limit. This is why most of them either need extensive therapy or, in the case of people running companies, they rely on high-end coaches. You need a third party that has viable expertise to show you what you need to improve in your life and keep you accountable. They end up spending tens of thousands of dollars for the right people to keep them focused. It's also one of the biggest unfair advantages rich people have, despite them not being as driven or as hungry as everyone else, because they have the absolute best advice and guidance money can buy. Success comes quicker and with less effort for them, and we wanted to fix this inequality. So we found those world-class coaches and paid them to share the same kind of information with the Alux community for pennies on the dollar. And that's how the Alux app came to be. Go to alux.com/app right now and start your free trial. You'll quickly realize that the guidance you'll get there is worth over a hundred thousand dollars per year. We believe in equality of opportunity, and the Alux app levels the playing field in terms of knowledge. Now it's just a matter of you outworking them. Can you do that?

Number six: An over-dependence on money. Those who grew up in wealthy families are accustomed to fixing almost every problem by throwing some money at it. They don't fix items; they replace them. When they hurt your feelings, they try to buy your forgiveness. They can't change a tire or fix a leaky faucet on their own; they call specialists. They're overly dependent on money. Take the money away, and they're naked and afraid. When you can always throw money at problems, you never take the time to develop foundational skills and know-how. You don't know how to solve a problem; you only know who to call to solve it for you. That's the beauty of learning through trial and error; nobody can take away what you already know how to do.

Number seven: Pressure to maintain appearances. Rich kids grow up under a lot of pressure to maintain the family's reputation. If you watch the three-part series we did on low class, high class, and pretenders, you know how important reputation is to the long-term prosperity of a family. This forces you into behaviors you wouldn't otherwise entertain. You learn to spend a lot of money on maintaining an image. If the friends of the family invite you on an expensive trip, you gotta say yes, otherwise they might think you're having some money problems. You cannot show up improperly. There's this facade, a mask you always have to wear, and more often than not, it isn't who you really are.

Number eight: Inferior work ethic. This is also called the silver spoon syndrome. Remember the hunger we mentioned earlier? Those who have it will smoke you when competing head to head. Rich kids get tired after two hours of focus while the rest have been pulling all-nighters since they were babysitting their younger siblings. They find it hard to commit to anything. They're all surface; sure, they present well, they show up on time, but they find it increasingly hard to hit deadlines and almost impossible to over-deliver.

Number nine: They're uncomfortable with failure. Growing up with money, there's no such thing as failure. Fail a grade? Mommy shows up at school with a gift basket for the teachers, and suddenly your grades turn around. Not getting into the school you wanted? Well, Daddy donates some new gym equipment, and there you go. Failure is not something they're accustomed to. But out in the wilderness of everyday life, they tie their flimsy personality onto one effort. They call themselves artists despite never selling any art, actors that never act, influencers that well, never influence. I guess you get the point. They start projects, and when they don't come to fruition, they have an identity crisis. For years, they've been telling other people about this cool thing they're doing or working on But when reality hits, you realize it was just an excuse you used to keep people off of you.

Number ten: Unfamiliar with sacrifice. Growing up with everything you need, you never have to trade something you treasure for something you need. Kids born into wealthy families find it hard to grasp the idea of sacrifice—that you'll have to work through the summer just so you can fix your car and pay for next semester's tuition instead of going to Bali or Tulum. For self-made individuals, life rewards you in proportion to the sacrifices you are willing to make. But life already gave them everything, and they were born into it, so the concept of sacrifice is not something they grow into. Sacrifice is your parents taking from themselves to give to you. They never saw their mom or dad take them to McDonald's and only order one Happy Meal for your birthday and share the small portion of fries with you. Hit that like button if you lived through your own version of this. They do know hardships, but not sacrifice.

4.3 million people subscribe to this channel because we know what your childhood was like growing up. We know how much effort, dedication, and commitment it'll take to get you to where you want to be because we walked the same path, my friend. Go to alux.com/app and download it on your phone. Genuinely try it out for a year, and you'll see it pay back a thousandfold. We'll help guide you and focus your efforts to get you there in half the time it took us.

Number eleven: Inability to manage money. It's hard to live within a budget when you never had to budget before. It's hard to not buy ice cream at the store or spend the paycheck because rent is due next week. This happens because when they were growing up, they received an allowance they could just spend however they wanted. All basic needs and necessities were taken care of, so all the income they were able to generate could be spent on pleasure.

Number twelve: Poor understanding of how much things cost. Speaking of financial delusion, these are people who assume a bottle of water costing between five and ten dollars is something totally normal. We know it's a running joke of asking rich businessmen and politicians how much an egg costs or a gallon of milk, but it's true. Okay? They're completely disconnected. You spend enough time eating in nice restaurants and nightclubs or fancy gyms, and all of a sudden you assume a new baseline of costs. But it's not the specific price that's the problem, but the disconnect between how much things cost and how much they think people earn. When they're presented with real-life situations, their math really doesn't compute, and they fail to understand how everybody else can survive.

Number thirteen: Absentee or unemotional parents. Usually, rich parents are busy, always busy, always away. And the parents justify it by saying that they're doing it for the kids in order to provide for them. But they're already rich. The kid doesn't need any more toys or fancy holidays; they just need some more time with mom and dad. You know how it goes. The father travels and works a lot, mom is busy with her own things, so you never really see them together and displaying affection toward one another. At this point, their marriage seems more like a business contract than anything else. So you grow up with a distorted image of what a family is like. These patterns of behavior eventually get replicated when they're in relationships themselves, and every now and then, you'll even hear their parents' words come out of their mouth as if they were in official position.

This brings us to the next point: Number fourteen: They're isolated and lonely. You pretend to be one thing to maintain the family's image. You know that everyone else around you is doing the same. The only truth you find is outside of your social circle, but they marginalize you for being different because they can't relate to your struggles. In the eyes of everybody else, you're living this perfect lifestyle, but you know damn well it's all manufactured. Inside, you're feeling alone. You were always alone. Even when you're surrounded by people, you still feel lonely, and that is not a pleasant place to be.

Number fifteen: Going into the real world is a downhill experience. If all your life you've been driven around in a Mercedes, downgrading to a 2010 Toyota Corolla is really something. The problem with growing up rich is your baseline level of comfort is incredibly high. You've already stayed at five-star hotels. You've already flown first class or private. While poor people can enjoy the process of gradually experiencing higher levels of comfort, for the rich, the only way to go is down.

Of course, there are a plethora of advantages to being born into wealth if you know what to do with it. But don't get fooled by what you see on the outside. You probably have seen behind the curtain a few times in your life.

So we want to know, what are some setbacks you've seen with people born into money? Share your experiences with the community in the comments.

And for those of you sticking around until the end of the video, of course here's the bonus we owe you: Our kids will be born into a wealthy family. What now? The goal of every parent is to provide a better life for their kids than the one they had—one without the same struggles and at least a little bit more comfort than before. When you go from poverty to wealth, the jump between your childhood and the one that your child will experience is so massive that the child will have no way of ever relating to you. Remember when your grandma used to tell you she had to walk three hours in the snow just to go to school? And your brain simply doesn't process it as fact because the reality now is just so different? Yeah, it's kind of like that with money as well.

We've been pondering this question a lot because look, the last thing we want to do is to raise an entitled and spoiled brat. So here are some options we found, and maybe you can share some of yours as well:

One: In order to build empathy and acceptance, you can live in different parts of the world. Exposure to different lifestyles, different cultures, and different ways of thinking will make them more accepting. You want them to run through the woods, spend time with animals on a ranch, and see how things are made firsthand.

One thing we realized is you cannot hide wealth from the children, and for wealth to not affect their social dynamic, they need to be around peers of similar wealth and status, so it's no longer a variable.

Two: The way you build hunger is by having them in environments where the people around them are wealthier and more accomplished. That way, they'll still think of themselves as the underdog and will still have the desire to grow in order to catch up and eventually overcome.

And three: You want to drive the competitive spirit through team sports, as it builds camaraderie, discipline, and competition.

Now we're curious to know what other tools you found for keeping your children grounded, especially those of you who already have kids. Ideologically, we've got no interest in our children pushing themselves as hard as we did, but we do want them to pursue happiness and find their purpose. We want them to be self-sustaining and productive elements of society.

So what do you say that we both make a promise right now that when our children grow up, we will make it a priority for them not to experience the setbacks that we've explored in this video? A promise that although we were not born into a wealthy family ourselves, a wealthy family will be born through us—one that keeps its soul.

If this is a promise you're willing to make, write the word "promise" in the comments. We want to see just how many of you are joining us on this mission of raising rich children with none of these disadvantages.

Thanks for spending some time with us today, Alux. We're so glad you did. If you found value in today's video, please give us a like, hit that bell icon to never miss an upload, and hey, don't forget to subscribe.