I’ve come to realise that being rich is far easier than being a specialist in any field.

Becoming a specialist demands years of training, study, and narrow dedication. Whether you’re a doctor, engineer, or academic, the process is exhausting — you trade decades of your life to master a domain, often under the illusion that mastery naturally leads to prosperity. But that illusion rarely holds true.

Wealth, in contrast, doesn’t require mastery. It requires sensibility. You don’t need to be brilliant; you just need to understand how money works — how value flows, how compounding behaves, and how human behaviour shapes markets. The rules of money are simple. It’s people who make them complicated.

Most specialists are trained for competence, not for wealth. Their education teaches them how to solve problems inside a system, not how to design or own the system. They become exceptionally good at doing the work, yet never pause to question why the work exists, who benefits from it, and how value actually transfers.

The tragedy is that many of them earn well — and spend even better. Lifestyle inflation quietly replaces growth. The six-figure salary buys comfort but not freedom. It’s a golden cage built from professional pride. They master earning, but not keeping.

Wealth, on the other hand, rewards those who think laterally. It belongs to people who connect dots across disciplines — who understand risk, timing, incentives, and psychology. It’s not about brilliance; it’s about temperament.

A calm mind will always outperform a clever one in the long run.

The wealthy don’t chase credentials; they build leverage. They create systems that earn while they sleep. Specialists, meanwhile, remain confined by time. When they stop working, income stops too. It’s not lack of talent — it’s lack of leverage.

The paradox is simple: specialists spend a lifetime seeking certainty, but wealth belongs to those who embrace uncertainty rationally. Specialists play defence; the rich play offence. The former avoid mistakes, while the latter pursue calculated asymmetry — small risks with outsized potential returns.

In the end, wealth is not about luck or genius. It’s about understanding the mechanics of money and having the temperament to let time do its work.

It’s much easier to be rich than to be a specialist — but only if you’re willing to think differently.