Like many words in the English language, the term “leverage” has more than one meaning. It can be used to describe something good, as well as something potentially scary.
Leverage, while negotiating, means that you are negotiating from a position of strength. That’s the “something good”.
Leverage can also mean that you have a great deal of bad debt – because “leverage” is another word for debt. We don’t want that kind of leverage!
Leverage is not a word we use daily. But it’s more important than most people realize…and believe me, it can impact your life without you even realizing it.
In order to build wealth or become financially free, you need leverage. Creating leverage is an extraordinary thing. Why? Because it allows you to generate income without you directly having to do something.
Here are some examples of leverage:
1. Income generated from owning real estate.
2. Income generated from writing a book. Once you write a book, you can generate sales 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
3. Income generated from a website, blog or YouTube channel. There are a good number of influencers that generate a substantial income from each of these sources of leverage. When you create content, you have the potential to make money from it while you’re sleeping!
4. If you work at, or invest in, a startup, you have a great deal of leverage. Your net worth can increase significantly when the company you work for or invested in goes public. People in this position usually become very wealthy literally overnight.
5. Buying and holding individual stocks is another great way to gain leverage. (It’s also, of course, my favorite.) When you buy shares in a company, you are putting the management team of that company to work for you. Over time, you will share in the company’s profits as well as the losses.
Here’s a real example of how leverage with stock works. If you invested $5000 in Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) when it went public in 1993, and held it until today, your investment would have grown to over one million dollars. Over a 26-year period, you would have earned $40,000 a year of unrealized gains without lifting a finger.
That is leverage.
And that is why you must have leverage in order to generate wealth or financial freedom.
Click the image of the book at left to be taken to its Amazon page. (Disclosure: As a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, I earn a small commission on each sale generated through these links.)
