Why Following Your Passion Will Keep You Broke

The 7 Habits of High-Earners: A Quant’s Blueprint to Maximizing Your Income

I recently saw this video on youtube and it actually inspired me to make my video outlining why it’s important to (at the right age) give up on your passions and make logical choices as it pertains to you career. Check out the video below it shows some additional information not shown on the newsletter

Ever wonder why some people seem to print money while others, just as smart, struggle to break through?

It’s not about working harder. It’s not even about being the best.

It’s about strategy.

After analyzing the paths of thousands of high-earners, a clear pattern emerges. If you only care about money, your smartest move isn’t chasing fame. It’s owning a business in your lane.

Here are the 7 habits that separate the wealthy from the merely employed.

Habit 1: Understand the IQ-Income Curve

Your intelligence sets the upper bound of your earning potential. Most jobs act as a ceiling, capping your earnings based on a title and a pay scale. The key is to deliberately choose a path that fits your specific IQ bracket. A brilliant mind in a simple job will be bored and underpaid. An average mind in a highly complex field will be overwhelmed. Know your lane.

Habit 2: Avoid High-Variance Traps

We’re hypnotized by the glamour of pro sports, acting, and viral influencer fame. These paths are lottery tickets. For every winner, there are hundreds who fail completely, often after years of investment. The math is clear: these are high-risk, low expected value (EV) pursuits. The quant’s mind avoids gambles and seeks certainty.

Habit 3: Respect Survivorship Bias

The media only shows you the winners. They never show the massive graveyard of failures that lie beneath them. Don’t model your life on the outlier. Look at the thousands who didn’t make it. The data, not the headline, tells the true story. The average outcome in a "glamorous" field is financial ruin.

Habit 4: Learn from Zero-to-One Founders

We celebrate Elon Musk and Walt Disney as gods of innovation. And they are smart. But they are also incredibly lucky. Replay their lives 100 times, and in 99 of them, they end in bankruptcy. Their path is one of extreme volatility. Admire them, but understand that their strategy is not a replicable blueprint for most.

Habit 5: Choose High-EV Business Models

So what works? The most reliable path is owning a proven, unsexy business in your field of expertise. A doctor with a private practice. A skilled plumber with his own crew. A lawyer with her own firm. These models have tremendously high success rates and, over a lifetime, almost always out-earn their high-status employed counterparts in net worth.

Habit 6: Leverage Experience Before You Leap

The most successful business owners are often in their 40s and 50s. Why? They spent decades building industry knowledge, a reputation, and a network. Then, they use that leverage to start a business. Their success rates are 80–90%, dwarfing the >90% failure rate of flashy, VC-backed startups founded by 20-somethings.

Habit 7: Match the Business to Your IQ League

This is the master key. Don’t try to be something you’re not.

  • If you’re a master mechanic, own a repair shop.

  • If you’re a finance whiz, start a boutique advisory firm.

  • If you’re a creative, build a small agency.

Play to your proven strengths, not your fantasies. Your odds of winning don't just improve; they skyrocket.

The Bottom Line:

Stop chasing the spotlight. Start building equity.

The fastest way to maximize your earning potential isn't to get a promotion. It's to become the owner. Find your lane, acquire deep expertise, and then bet on yourself by building something that leverages what you already know.

It’s the least sexy, most effective financial decision you’ll ever make.

Until next week,