Often, the terms “rich” and “wealth” bring up images of stacks of money and mansions and expensive cars. We are taught to seek affluence and abundance but are never shown that wealth can appear in different ways. 

For Kale Abrahamson, a viral tweet reminded him of this. It posed the question: imagine you can instantly become as wealthy as Warren Buffett (100.5 billion USD) but to achieve that, you must also become his age right now (91) — would you do it? 

If you answered no, you’re already aware that youth and life and time are a form of wealth. Sure, Buffett has billions of dollars in assets but it’s likely he would surrender some of that for ten more years of life, or five, or even one. 

One of Kale Abrahamson’s life lessons is to remember that everyone is going to die. That thought can either depress you into stagnation, or it can fling you forward into action. It should inspire you to appreciate how precious each moment really is and to live it accordingly, but even Abrahamson struggles with it. 

He says, “I work and work and work and strive and push, and in the process, forget to LIVE the best years of my life!” His work ethic sometimes overrides his mind and makes him focus only on one type of wealth. 

The trick, according to Kale Abrahamson’s lessons on life, is to find balance and to keep these realizations in mind: 

1. Scarcity Is Everything

What gives things value is their scarcity. Time is the most limited resource we have as people, and that is what makes it the most valuable. The same concept applies to precious gems, gold, silver, Bitcoin, etc. 

2. Things That Are Hard to Create Have the Most Value

Similar to scarcity, the harder something is to make, the more value it has. If something can be replicated easily that also means it can be cheaply made, copied, and distributed and its value suffers as a result. That’s why time is so valuable — you can’t make more of it! 

3. Humans Behave Irrationally Until They Don’t

Human behavior can seem like a mystery but every realization, like how everyone is going to die, usually points us in the right direction. We need constant reminders of our mortality, or the value of things, or that life is a rare occurrence to fully appreciate the world around us and to act correctly. 

If we reminded ourselves of death and how precious it makes time, that would alter our decisions and make them efficient and impactful, and rational. 

4. These Concepts Apply to Everything 

As always with Kale Abrahamson’s life lessons, we can apply this one to pretty much everything. 

For example, Bitcoin is valuable because of its predetermined scarcity since only 21 million can exist. It also has a capped supply which makes it difficult to create, heightening its value. Humans behave irrationally towards Bitcoin. They think there is a lot of time left to invest until they find out that isn’t true and then they rush in because they know they must. 

The same idea can apply to a person — if they diversify their skills and commit themselves to extensive personal growth, then their value skyrockets. Not only do they have skills that not many people have, which creates scarcity, but they’ve also done the rigorous work building themselves up which is hard to mimic. 

You can create value and wealth just by bettering yourself. Start a business, create a commodity, but most important of all, remember how rich you are and appreciate the time you have. In this way, you can even become wealthier than Warren Buffett could ever hope to be!

These are only a few of Kale Abrahamson’s life lessons, but if you’re looking for more you can subscribe to the Kale letter here to keep learning, growing, and earning! Or you can also check out our other blogs!