4 Sacrifices You Must Make to Escape Poverty

I was born and raised in one of the poorest countries on earth. — Uganda.

With a GNI per Capita, PPP ($int’l.) of $2,260, it means people many families that make up the middle class depend on $188/month to survive.

Not to mention that African families are often extended in nature, meaning that you can’t be surprised if you find that 10 or more people have to survive on that $188 every month.

With these numbers, you can expect that each person lives on about $0.6/day.

For many people in Uganda, therefore, their purposes usually don’t rise and go beyond the casual survival of having a sustenance job, marriage, a house, and a car.

Observing what some have done to achieve more than just these normal goals and, in the process, lifted themselves out of poverty and lack has helped me to also have a fighting chance to make sure that I build on the good life my parents gave me instead of falling behind.

Here are those habits and sacrifices.

You must have principles that directly address your growth

There is no doubt that as we grow up, we get responsibilities. When you are in an extended household, you will always bear part of the responsibility for each and every person when they need you.

This is so common in Uganda, so it creates a situation in which your earnings always go into fulfilling these expectations.

You cannot afford to have all your income go into taking care of other people if you want to break out of poverty.

Sometimes, it might require that they don’t get all that they need so that it can give you time to build up wealth in order to give them more when you can.

This is why as a fundamental principle, part of your income has to go into investments or other vehicles that can increase your cash flow.

I currently have no significant responsibilities, so 50% of my income always goes to this.

When I had a lot of responsibilities, I made sure that at least 10% of my money went into savings and investments.

Principles should not just exist around having money alone. They should exist in other areas too, including your health and relationships.

In general, principles should be habits that optimize your wellbeing.

You must have a dynamic approach to working towards success

The trap that we fall into when making principles for ourselves is that they can be highly limiting at times.

I, for example, for the longest time thought I could only write at 9:00–1:00 pm every day.

But life happened, and sometimes I overslept or felt unmotivated when that time came or had other things to attend to urgently at that time. With this, I failed to actually stick through and do what was intended.

This principle was set up so that I could write every day. So I changed it from a time-specific task to something I had to do every day at any time.

This meant that, at times, I could write in the early morning, midday, late at night, or anything in between.

It helped me become consistent and build a writing habit that I previously never had.

Many times people stick to doing things a certain way, but it is important to use the best approach as long as it leads to the same result.

You must learn new things constantly

Most people who are in poverty have fixed mindsets. To them, things are the way they are, and nothing can be done to change them.

To them, it’s the government’s fault that they don’t have a good life and so on.

They think this way because they have to. They don’t have any knowledge that can help them through their tough times. Even when you present that knowledge to them, it would be akin to casting pearls before swine.

This is not to mean that they have no hope though. Their hope lies in learning new things.

The process of learning is not the same as studying. This is because sometimes learning can mean unlearning old unhelpful ideas by replacing them with the new ones.

The more you learn, it will soften the fix that you might have of your mindset. These ideas that you learn all merge to help you form new beliefs and see the world in a different light.

You expand your awareness, and this helps you to identify solutions to problems you once thought were impossible to solve.

You must build your network

I think there is a place for hermits in this world, but this is beyond the scope of this article.

To be a functioning human being that contributes to society, you need to have friends. You need to speak to people and build networks.

This is important because part of the journey out of poverty will require help.

For the first 8 months of my self-employment journey, my dad and friends were the ones that paid for the cost of running my business. They paid for hosting, subscriptions, and so on.

I had job offers before I left university because my sister forced me to go out and meet people. These people were the ones that gave me these offers. Even if I took none of these jobs, the connections I built then were great because at least they gave me a chance to start from somewhere had I taken the self-employment route.

Through talking to people, you can also learn about their pain points that are mutual to your experiences. This can lead to a birth of an idea that can lift you out of poverty.

I feel sorry for people who demonize rich people without truly knowing the story behind their success. This behavior robs you of a chance to learn valuable lessons from people.

The person who first introduced me to the world of online marketing was a guy from Australia. At his peak, his company was bringing in over $100 million in revenue. But when he got a lawsuit and his company failed, many people were quick to laugh and call him names.

His lessons were however genuine, and he started again from scratch. I stayed in touch with him to this day, and I have watched his growth from the ashes. It is amazing.

It was through his lessons that I learned and finally became profitable in this online world.

You must build connections with people most especially those who have better results than you. You will always find something you can learn from them.

Conclusion

Everyone has a chance to be in a better place compared to where they are now if they desire such conditions.

But sacrifices must be made, and habits must be developed to get you there.

The above suggestions might help you get started, but you will need to do them and keep at it until you win. You will also learn new things along the way that will push you even further.