If You Want to Be Rich, Do What Rich People Do on Weekends
You should spend your spare time doing things that increase your knowledge and game theory skills.
The weekend arrives, you take a shot of tequila, and party a little. Before you know it, you’re waking up tired Monday morning wondering where the weekend went.
That was how my typical weekend went for years (usually with vodka though). However, when I quit drinking alcohol and was searching for new weekend activities, I decided to look at what the ultra-wealthy were doing.
It turns out rich people quite often participate in activities that work their brains, make them think, improve their game theory, or alternatively, force them to relax.
The obvious statement is, “If you want to be rich, look at what the rich are doing, and did.”
Poker
There is an insane number of successful people who play a lot of poker. Just to name a few… Andy Beal, David Sacks, Dan Blizerian, Kevin Hart, Chamath Palihapitiya, Guy Laliberte, and the list goes on.
Poker of course forces you to do math if you are actively calculating odds, but it actually also helps your people skills.
You are not only socializing the entire time, but you are also trying to read the other players to see if they’re bluffing, or to try to figure out what hand they have, etc.
Poker is also great because you are constantly solving problems that require strategic intelligence.
All of these skills that poker requires can help you in business. It’s no wonder that poker players notoriously quite often also make great entrepreneurs.
I wouldn’t recommend doing it online though, because then you are missing on the personal aspect. You can play games at the casino, or even better, organize games as a way to network!
Settlers of Catan
Bill Gates is pretty rich, right? Yeah well, he loves Catan.
This is a game that has quickly grown in popularity over the last few years, and one that I can say is incredibly fun, and addicting.
At first, it comes off almost like a kids' game, but the more you play it, the more you’ll realize there are actually quite a few layers of strategy.
There is some luck involved, but that luck can go in your favour if you are good at calculating odds, creating reliable relationships, and planning strategically.
Unlike poker though, Settlers of Catan actually involves high-level negotiations.
In order to win you need to accumulate certain resources. These resources you may not have, but your opponents might. Quite often it is the player who negotiated the best that ends up winning.
In Catan, you also need to know when to be generous or ruthless. You want the other players to like you, so they won’t block you out, but if victory is near, you may have to be ruthless.
Catan requires a delicate balance of charisma and statistics that can be applied to the business world.
Chess
Chess players are often thought of as extremely intelligent and it’s easy to see why. Chess has been around for well over 1,000 years, and many of the smartest people around the world play it.
Professional chess players have some of the highest IQs out of anyone. For example, it is believed by some that Magnus Carlsen’s IQ is 190, and Garry Kasparov’s is around 185. In comparison, Stephen Hawking’s IQ was 160.
There are many rich people who love studying chess. Some of the most popular are Peter Thiel, Bill Gates, and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Chess requires the ability to think logically while testing your pattern recognition skills, and forces you to adapt to new circumstances. All of these are extremely useful in the business world.
Relaxing and walking
This is something that you may not have expected to see, but something that is extremely important. Relaxing on weekends, or taking a day out of your week to relax, is something that many very rich people do.
If you are constantly working, you are not giving your brain enough time to daydream and wander, or to simply take a break.
Paul Graham in his latest essay, “How To Do Great Work”, talks about how important it is to let your mind wander. These are those moments where quite rich people quite often come up with their brilliant ideas.
Naval Ravikant for example is someone who highly encourages taking 1-2 days a week to simple silence. He says,
“It’s only after you’re bored that you have great ideas.”
This time relaxing is often spent going for long walks alone. Steve Jobs is one of the most famous people who was known to go for long walks by himself so he could let his mind wander.
It’s during this period of time when there is nothing above you where you can truly be creative.
Closing remarks
Paying attention to what the people who have the success you want do from day to day is important. It reveals to you how you should be spending your time if you want to get to their level.
The “weekend activities” of the rich will help you improve your creativity, charisma, pattern recognition, and a whole bunch of other key skills. Those skills will pay off, and if you’re lucky, help work feel a little bit more like play.
On top of that, the games are just plain fun. What’s better than having fun, while getting smarter?
Thanks for reading
To get more personal content, life hacks, and to stay up to date on my blog - sign up for my free weekly newsletter.