What Entrepreneurs Can Learn from I Will Teach You to Be Rich
Assuming that managing your personal finances well requires constant attention and willpower is the specific trap I Will Teach You to Be Rich names; automatic systems make good decisions happen without needing daily discipline.
The whole book, compressed
This edition works through 4 core lessons — take them one at a time, not all at once.
What's different for your conditions
Tap whichever ones sound like you. Nothing here is sent or saved — it's just for your own noticing.
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The core lessons, applied to you
Automate your finances
Setting up automatic transfers for savings and investing removes the need to make the same good decision manually every single time, which matters especially when your attention is already stretched thin running a business.
A founder manages personal savings manually, and inconsistent business income means saving happens only when there's spare attention left over, which is rarely.
Set up one automatic transfer this week that moves money toward savings or investing before you have a chance to spend it.
Spend consciously: lavishly on what you value, ruthlessly cut what you don't
Guilt-free spending on what genuinely matters to you, paired with ruthless cuts on what doesn't, beats generic frugality that treats every expense the same.
A founder cuts spending across the board out of general financial anxiety, including on things that genuinely matter to them, while a low-value recurring cost goes unnoticed.
Identify one expense you'd cut without hesitation and one you'd protect without guilt, and make sure your current spending actually reflects that distinction.
Focus on growing income, not just cutting costs
Growing your income has a much higher ceiling than cutting expenses ever will, and as a founder you often have more direct leverage over your own income than most people do.
Someone spends significant energy optimizing small personal expenses while a much larger opportunity to increase personal income goes unpursued.
Identify one concrete way you could increase your own income this quarter, and give it as much attention as you'd give a cost-cutting effort.
Start investing early and consistently
Starting to invest now, even with imperfect knowledge, matters more than waiting until you feel fully informed, since time in the market is a bigger factor than timing or perfect knowledge.
Reinvesting in the business today and building personal wealth aren't opposites — automating even a modest amount of personal saving and investing runs in the background regardless of how the business is doing.
Name one thing, honestly
Is there a personal financial decision you've been putting off simply because business demands have taken all your attention?
Good. Now look back at the "Try this" line under whichever lesson feels most connected to what you just wrote, and treat that as this week's actual assignment — not all 4 at once.
The practices from this edition
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Run this for seven days
Identify one concrete way you could increase your own income this quarter, and give it as much attention as you'd give a cost-cutting effort.