Rule #3 - Take Chances

 

Overcoming Poverty Requires Taking Chances

Poverty pushes you to play it safe.

When you grow up with very little, risk feels dangerous. One wrong move can mean no rent money. No groceries. No gas to get to work. So you learn to protect what little you have.

You avoid chances.
You avoid change.
You avoid uncertainty.

And unfortunately, you also avoid growth.

Poverty Conditions You to Fear Risk

When you're struggling financially, your brain becomes wired for survival. You focus on today. This week. This bill.

The problem is this: survival thinking keeps you alive — but it does not move you forward.

Every meaningful step upward requires uncertainty.

• Applying for a better job when you feel underqualified

• Moving to a new city

• Starting a small side business

• Going back to school

• Leaving a stable but dead-end position

None of these are comfortable.

And comfort is exactly what poverty convinces you to cling to.

Playing It Safe Is Often the Riskiest Move

There is a quiet trap in staying where you are.

It feels responsible.
It feels cautious.
It feels mature.

But five years later, nothing has changed.

No new skills.
No higher income.
No broader network.
No growth.

Playing it safe often guarantees the very thing you're trying to escape.

You don’t escape poverty by protecting your current situation.
You escape it by expanding beyond it.

Taking Chances Does Not Mean Being Reckless

There’s a huge difference between risk and recklessness.

Reckless:

• Quitting your job with no plan

• Borrowing money you cannot repay

• Jumping into businesses you don’t understand

Calculated risk:

• Learning a skill at night while working full time

• Applying for positions slightly above your experience level

• Taking a lateral move that offers growth instead of immediate pay

• Investing time before investing money

Chances should be intelligent.
They should stretch you — not destroy you.

Confidence Follows Action — Not the Other Way Around

Many people wait until they “feel ready.”

That feeling rarely comes.

Confidence grows after you act, not before.

The first time you apply for something bigger than you think you deserve, your hands might shake.
The first time you speak up in a room of professionals, your voice may crack.
The first time you invest in yourself, it may feel irresponsible.

But growth always feels unnatural at first.

If it felt comfortable, you would have already done it.

Your Current Position Is Not Permanent

One of the most dangerous beliefs poverty plants in your mind is this:

“This is just who I am.”

It is not.

Your income is not your identity.
Your current job is not your ceiling.
Your starting point is not your destiny.

Every person who escaped difficult financial circumstances took at least one moment where they stepped into something uncertain.

They applied.
They moved.
They learned.
They built.
They risked.

Not blindly.
Not foolishly.
But deliberately.

The Real Question

The question is not:
“What if I fail?”

The real question is:
“What happens if I never try?”

Failure can teach you.
Failure can redirect you.
Failure can strengthen you.

Staying stuck teaches you nothing.

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If you want to escape poverty, you will eventually have to take chances.  I know this because I've taken chances my entire life.  Learning a new skill that I had no way of knowing if the time I invested would ever pay off.  I refused to listen to others who were saying "why are you wasting your time on that?"  The biggest chances I took usually resulted in the biggest payoff.

Not reckless leaps.
Not fantasy dreams.

But deliberate steps into discomfort.

Because safety keeps you stable.

And stability keeps you exactly where you are.

Growth requires movement.
Movement requires risk.
And risk requires courage.

Take the chance. Don't be afraid to step out of your comfort zone.  Like I said, calculated risks, not reckless.

Like I said in my Believe In Yourself post, you must be willing to Take Chances.

Your future depends on it.

Rule #2: Admit the Problem — There Is No Shame in Poverty

The first step to overcoming any problem is admitting that it exists.

That sounds simple, but when it comes to poverty, it’s one of the hardest steps there is.

Poverty carries a heavy emotional weight. It comes wrapped in shame, fear, and silence. People don’t like to say the word out loud—I’m poor—because society has taught us that poverty is a personal failure instead of a condition.

But poverty is not a moral flaw.

You may be living in poverty because of circumstances completely beyond your control. You may have been born into it. You may have grown up surrounded by it, never seeing a clear way out. You may have done everything “right” and still ended up here.

That happens far more often than most people want to admit.

Poverty Is Closer Than People Think

Here’s a truth that makes many people uncomfortable:

Most working adults are only one serious setback away from poverty.

A job loss.
A medical emergency.
A family crisis.

If you’re living paycheck to paycheck—and millions of people are—losing your income for even a short period can mean missed rent or mortgage payments, drained savings, mounting debt, and a rapid slide into financial instability.

People like to believe poverty only happens to other people. The truth is, it’s often just a thin financial margin separating “getting by” from not getting by at all.

Naming the Reality Gives You Power

There is no shame in honestly acknowledging your situation.

Saying, “I am living in poverty,” is not giving up.
It’s not weakness.
It’s clarity.

When you deny reality, you can’t change it. When you pretend things are fine, you stay stuck reacting instead of planning. Poverty thrives in silence, avoidance, and self-blame.

Facing it—really facing it—changes the dynamic.

Look it in the eye. Call it what it is. Admit where you are right now, without excuses and without self-hatred.

That moment of honesty is not defeat. It’s the starting line.

This Is About Truth, Not Labels

Admitting you’re living in poverty does not define who you are.
It does not predict your future.
It does not mean you will always live this way.

It simply means you’re choosing to deal with reality instead of hiding from it.

And once you stop hiding, you can start learning:

• how poverty actually works,

• why it’s so hard to escape,

• and what practical steps do and don’t help.

You can’t fight an enemy you refuse to acknowledge.

The Path Forward Starts Here

This is step one—not the only step, not the hardest step, but the most essential one.

No false optimism.
No shame.
No pretending.

Just honesty.

If you are living in poverty, admit it—to yourself first. That single act creates space for understanding, strategy, and eventually, change.

And change is possible—but only after the truth is spoken.

 

Rule #1: Believe in Yourself

1) Opening Reality

When you grow up in poverty, self-doubt isn’t a personality flaw—it’s conditioning. You are surrounded by evidence that effort doesn’t always pay off, that hard work can still leave you behind, and that people like you are expected to stay where you started. Over time, that environment plants a quiet question in your mind: What makes me think I’m different?

That question doesn’t shout. It whispers. And if it goes unanswered, it decides your future for you.

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2) The Rule

Not as a slogan. Not as blind optimism. But as a disciplined decision to treat your own potential as real—before the world confirms it.

Believing in yourself means acting as if your effort, learning, and growth actually matter, even when your current circumstances suggest otherwise.

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3) Why This Rule Exists

Poverty constantly provides counter-evidence to self-belief. You try and fail. You work hard and still fall short. You watch people with fewer skills advance because they had access, connections, or timing you didn’t.

Without deliberate self-belief, the logical conclusion becomes dangerous: “This must be my ceiling.”

The rule exists because escaping poverty requires sustained effort before results appear. And no one maintains long-term discipline for a future they don’t believe they’re allowed to have.

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4) What Most People Get Wrong

Most people misunderstand self-belief in two ways:

• They confuse it with arrogance

• Or they dismiss it as “positive thinking”

Neither is correct.

Self-belief isn’t pretending you’re already successful. It’s refusing to interpret early failure as a verdict on your worth or capability. It’s understanding that lack of results today does not equal lack of ability tomorrow.

Well-meaning friends or relatives often say things like:

• “Just be realistic.”

• “Not everyone makes it.”

• “You should be grateful for what you have.”

What they miss is that realism without self-belief doesn’t protect you—it quietly convinces you to stop trying.

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5) How to Apply the Rule

Believing in yourself is not emotional—it’s behavioral.

A. Act first, let confidence follow.
Confidence grows from evidence. Evidence comes from action. Start before you feel ready.

B. Separate outcomes from identity.
Failure means a method didn’t work—not that you don’t work. Learn, adjust, continue.

C. Keep promises to yourself, especially small ones.
Each kept promise rebuilds trust with yourself. That trust is the foundation of belief.

D. Limit exposure to voices that define your limits.
This includes people who love you but expect you to stay small because it feels safer to them.

E. Invest in skills that compound belief.
Learning something valuable—slowly, consistently—creates internal proof that you are capable of change.  Invest in yourself, not with money, but time and energy.

Self-belief isn’t declared. It’s constructed.

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6) Cost of Ignoring the Rule

Without self-belief, you self-select out of opportunity before anyone rejects you. You don’t apply. You don’t ask. You don’t persist long enough to break through the initial resistance that stops most people.

The cost is subtle but devastating:

• You abandon paths too early

• You settle for ceilings that aren’t real

• You mistake fear for wisdom

Worst of all, you live with the quiet question of “What if?”—a question that never fully goes away.

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7) Closing Reflection

Believing in yourself doesn’t mean you think success is guaranteed. It means you believe your effort is worth making, even without guarantees.

Poverty tries to teach you that hope is naïve and ambition is risky. This rule exists to reject that lesson.

Believe in yourself not because it feels good—but because without that belief, no long-term escape from poverty is even possible.

This is the first rule because without it, every other rule collapses under pressure.  You absolutely MUST believe in yourself or no one else will.  Success means different things to different folks.  For me, it meant a very well paying job in Information Technology.

Poverty

Poverty Isn’t a Personal Failure

I know that because I lived it.

This blog exists because poverty in America is often talked about by people who never had to survive it. The advice is usually simple, the judgments are quick, and the reality is missing.

This is my attempt to tell the truth—plainly, carefully, and without pretending it’s easy.

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Why I’m Writing This

I grew up poor. Not “tight budget” poor. Real poor—the kind that shapes how you think, what you fear, and what choices even feel possible.

For a long time, survival was the goal. Not success. Not fulfillment. Just making it through.

Eventually, I found a way out—but it wasn’t fast, clean, or predictable. And it didn’t happen because I suddenly “worked harder.” It happened because I learned things no one had ever explained to me.

This blog is where I write those things down.

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What You’ll Find Here

I write about:

• What growing up poor actually does to you—mentally, emotionally, and practically

• The hidden rules of poverty that don’t show up in school or self-help books

• Mistakes I made that kept me stuck longer than necessary

• Choices that helped me move from survival to stability

• Why escaping poverty often costs more than people admit

Some posts are stories.
Some are reflections.
Some are uncomfortable truths.

All of them come from lived experience.

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What This Blog Is Not

This is not a how-to-get-rich blog.
This is not a motivation blog.
It’s not a hustle culture space.
It’s not about blaming people for where they start.

I don’t believe poverty is a moral failure.
I also don’t believe escape happens by accident.

Both things can be true.

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Who This Is For

This blog is for:

• People who grew up poor and feel like they’re still carrying it with them

• People trying to figure out a realistic path forward, not a fantasy one

• People who made it out and want to understand what that journey took

• Anyone willing to listen instead of judge

If you’ve ever felt behind before the race even started, you’ll probably recognize yourself here.

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Why This Matters

A lot of survival knowledge never gets written down. It gets lost when people are too tired, too busy, or too ashamed to talk about it.

I don’t want that knowledge to disappear.

If something I learned the hard way can shorten someone else’s struggle—even a little—then writing this is worth it.

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Start Reading

If you’re new, start at the beginning. The early posts explain where I came from and how poverty shaped my life.

This blog isn’t about pretending everything turns out fine.

It’s about understanding the terrain well enough to find a way through it.

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A Quiet Invitation

I publish when I have something real to say.

No spam. No hype. No pretending.

Just honest writing about poverty, survival, and the long road toward a better life.

You’re welcome here.