How Rich People Get Paid Forever

If you stopped working tomorrow, how long would your money last? A week? A few months? For the rich, the answer is simple… forever. I mean, imagine building something once and getting paid for it for the rest of your life. That's not a fantasy, ok? That's ACTUALLY how rich people operate. There are tons of ways to build wealth on autopilot, so today we're showing ALL of the best ones. Welcome to Alux, the place where future billionaires come to get inspired. So let's start off our discussion today with a banger because there's a strange kind of wealth that doesn't come from building or selling things, but just from being the first person to think about them. We gotta talk about patents here. Back in the 1980s, a guy named James Dyson was frustrated with how vacuum cleaners got weaker and weaker over time. So he started tinkering. That's how Dyson, the company that makes all of those sleek, expensive home gadgets got its start. Over 5,000 prototypes later, Dyson created a vacuum that didn't lose power and it was revolutionary. But here's the thing, he didn't just MAKE a better vacuum cleaner, he filed HUNDREDS of patents for it, which meant that if any other company wanted to use that same tech, they had to pay him. He didn't need to run factories, he didn't need to ship anything, he just owned the idea. And that idea made him a billionaire. You see, when you patent an invention, no one else can legally copy it without your permission. Even if somebody else does all the work of building a product, manufacturing it and selling it, if they want to use YOUR ideas, they have to pay you. So each patent you file can create a stream of income that lasts for decades. And that's how the rich think. They don't always BUILD the thing, sometimes they just have the idea first. Sometimes though, the rich don't INVENT anything that revolutionary. Like for example, everybody loves Christmas, but if there's one person who loves it more than anybody else, it's gotta be Mariah Carey, because royalties. Every single year when her song All I Want For Christmas Is You shoots to the top of the chart, so do her royalty checks. You've almost certainly heard this song before. She recorded it back in 1994, that's over 30 years ago. But even today, every time that song is played in a mall, a movie, a radio station or even just a TikTok, she gets paid. That's why Santa's yearly present to Mariah Carey is somewhere in the ballpark of $2.5 million a year. Pretty sweet, right? Well, that's the power of royalties. They're payments you earn when someone uses your creation, like a song, a script, a book, even a photo. You don't have to sell it, you don't have to promote it. Once it's out there, it just keeps earning, because when you create something valuable and lock in the rights, you don't just make art, you build a machine that pays you for the rest of your life. Now, royalties can pay you forever, but what if you could do that on your own terms, without a record label, without a publisher and without anyone in your way? Well, that's where digital products come in, and nobody understood that better than internet marketing guru Russell Brunson. Now, Brunson didn't start a million-dollar company, no. He started out with a short, no-fluff e-book called Dotcom Secrets, which he promoted on his blog. He released it without a publisher or a printer, it was just a downloadable PDF that you could download digitally. And now, over 10 years later, that same book is still selling, still printing money. That's why digital products are such a game-changer. They're assets you create once, like an online course, a template, a toolkit or a book, and you can sell them forever with literally no additional cost. And the internet gives you the ability to scale faster than anything physical ever could. There's no inventory, no shipping, no cap on how many people can buy it. Digital products are one of the most powerful ways to build income that scales without effort. Alright, so by now you've seen a few ways that rich people get paid forever, but sometimes the most valuable thing isn't the product itself, it's the words people associate with it, we're talking trademarks here. Nobody proves this better than Michael Buffer. Now you might not know his name, but you've definitely heard his voice. Before any big fight, boxing match or sports event, he's the guy that walks into the middle of the room and shouts let's get ready to rumble and I'm not gonna say it like he does because then I'll need to pay him. Now here's the thing, you might think Buffer is just some guy with a cool voice that they hired to do this, but back in the 90s he trademarked that phrase. Every time a sports league, movie or game show wants to use it in public, they have to pay him. It's crazy to think about it, but that trademark has earned Buffer over 400 million dollars just from 5 words. That is the power of a trademark. Trademarks give you ownership over a name, a phrase or even a look so that when somebody else wants to use it, they have to cut you in. You're not selling a product, you're selling the right to use your brand. And when that brand is valuable or attractive or it hypes up entire stadiums, the money shows up whether you are working or not. But look, if 5 words can generate 400 million dollars, imagine how much wealth an entire universe of ideas can create. Just look at what George Lucas did with licensing agreements. So when he dreamed up Star Wars, he created an entire world of characters, places, vehicles, lore and creatures that yes, make for some fun movies, right? But the real empire, pun intended, came from licensing deals. By being the owner of the world of Star Wars, Lucas was able to put his entire universe on toys, backpacks, video games, lunchboxes, you name it. I mean, just imagine how many plastic lightsabers and baby Yoda plushies have been sold. And Lucas didn't manufacture a single thing himself. He just licensed the rights and the companies lined up to pay for the privilege of selling his world. It's estimated that Star Wars has generated nearly 30 billion dollars in merch sales alone, which is actually twice what the movies have made. That is the power of licensing my friend. When you own the rights to something valuable, whether it's an invention, a product or the idea of a universe of space wizards fighting evil with laser swords, you don't have to sell it yourself. It's like being the landlord of an idea, you just rent it out, let other people do the heavy lifting and you collect your cut. That is how licensing builds automatic income. Now moving on, most people build a business and get stuck running it forever, right? But the wealthy, well they build a winning formula, once and then they just let other people copy it, franchising style. And there's probably no better example of this than McDonald's. Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald's Corporation, didn't invent the cheeseburger and he didn't invent the french fry. What he did invent was a repeatable system for a restaurant that could be duplicated across thousands of locations. You see, McDonald's Corporation doesn't operate every McDonald's in the world. No, usually it's a local entrepreneur who buys the rights to run a McDonald's system. The branding, the menu, the process and in exchange for that, they pay fees to the McDonald's Corporation. There are over 38,000 McDonald's restaurants around the world. Ray Kroc didn't have to run them, he just sold the brand on the blueprint and he took a piece of the profits. That is how franchising works. You take a business that works, package it into a system and let other people operate it under your brand. They handle the employees, the location, the day-to-day stuff, you just collect the checks. Because when you franchise, you stop running a business and you start scaling an empire. And that is how McDonald's grew through franchising, but let's stick with him for just a moment here, because what if I told you that the money isn't in the burgers or the nuggets. You see, McDonald's does something pretty clever with real estate rentals. Every McDonald's operator has to pay rent to whoever owns the land their restaurant is built on. But here's the thing. McDonald's actually owns the land under nearly 50% of its restaurants, so they themselves are the landlord. This means that pretty often when someone wants to open a McDonald's, they don't just get the branding and the systems, they also lease the ground their restaurant is built on from McDonald's itself. They're not just making money from burgers, every month those franchise owners pay rent. It's not just some random landlord or real estate company, it is directly to McDonald's. Real estate leasing is one of the oldest and simplest ways to earn a passive income. You buy a house, a building or a piece of land and you let somebody else use it. In return, they pay you rent, just for having access. You don't have to be the one living there yourself, you don't have to be the one running a store and if you hire a property manager, you don't even have to deal with the tenants yourself. That is what makes real estate so powerful. When the money keeps coming in month after month, whether you're working or not, that's when you can sit back and collect paychecks for a living. But of course, you can spend an entire life building a company like McDonald's, but if you know how to play your cards right, you can make money just by owning the right ones. That is the quiet game the rich play with dividend stocks. And you know, Warren Buffet is the king of this move. He bought a huge stake in Coca-Cola like 4 decades ago and he literally has never sold a single share. And why would he? When you buy a share in a company like Coca-Cola, you're not just hoping the stock goes up, you also get dividends. Warren Buffet's investments in Coca-Cola pays him over 700 million dollars a year and he doesn't even have to sell any of his shares. He doesn't need to show up to a board meeting, he doesn't run marketing, he just owns a part of the company and the money shows up. That's the beauty of dividend investing. Companies pay out a share of their profits to shareholders and the more shares you own, the bigger your cut. No calls, no clients, no hours logged. It's one of the cleanest, honestly, laziest ways to build wealth. Your money will work way harder than you do. But here's the thing, alright. Dividend stocks might let you earn by owning a slice of public companies and yeah those can grow a lot over time, but if you want to unlock real explosive growth, you have to think like the rich. Real insiders do the same thing with private companies. Welcome to private equity my friend, where you're not investing in Apple or Coca-Cola. No, you're investing in the companies that might become the next Apple or Coca-Cola before anyone else even knows they exist. That's what Peter Thiel did with Facebook. In 2004, he spotted a great team with a great idea and they needed a bit of money to make it happen. So he wrote Mark Zuckerberg a $500,000 check to get the company off the ground. When Facebook blew up, that one investment turned into over a billion dollars. But Thiel didn't write a single line of code, he didn't come up with any features or even offer any ideas. He just owned a piece of a business and gave some gasoline to it. Same thing with Naval Ravikant, who's backed companies like Twitter, Uber and Notion from early on. And even guys like Shaquille O'Neal. He made more money off business than basketball by buying into chains like Five Guys and Krispy Kreme. That's the game, ok? Private equity is about spotting potential, getting in early and letting somebody else build it. Because when you choose the right players, you don't have to take the shot yourself, you just win when they do. Alright, so by now it's clear that some income comes from owning assets, some will come from owning ideas. But honestly, the only way to guarantee that you get paid forever is by knowing the right people, your network is paramount. Let's say you've got a friend, a successful entrepreneur who wants to write a book. They've got the ideas, but not the time to actually sit down and write it. Well, you happen to know a solid writer who's done this type of thing before and they're good. So you reach out to them and say Hey, I've got someone looking to hire a writer for their book. I'll make the introduction, but I'm asking for 10% of whatever they pay you. The writer agrees because hey, 90% of something is much better than nothing. So you make the connection and a few whatsapp messages later, the deal is done. Now every time that ghostwriter gets paid for the project, you get a cut. You're not doing the writing, you're not managing the process, you just opened the right door and now you're getting paid for it. That's called a referral. And once you understand how it works, you start seeing opportunities everywhere. You can do it with writers, with consultants, with interior designers for your friend's new place, even with collectors. Connecting buyers and sellers of watches, art, real estate, whatever. There's a reason people say your network is your net worth, my friend, because it is true. You don't need to be the expert, you just need to be the guy who knows the guy and you'll be surprised at the amount of wealth you can build this way. Alright Aluxer, those were 10 ways rich people get paid forever. Remember though, if you want to learn the wealth building strategies and mindsets of the 1%, be sure to download the Alux app. Hundreds of thousands of people have already started changing their lives with it and we would love to have you on board. You can check it out by scanning the QR code on screen right now and you'll get a special 25% off discount on your yearly plan just for sticking around until the end of today. With that said, we'll see you back here next time, my friend. Until then, take care!