You Need to Be Street Smart to Live a Successful Life. Here Are the Best Street Smarts Secrets.
It doesn’t matter how book smart you are.. Statistically speaking, when it comes to getting the job done, street smarts almost always outperforms book-smarts? Why? Because street smarts is anchored in reality while book smarts is anchored in theory!
That’s why we always encourage you guys to get both!
By the end of this piece you should have a good idea of how streets smarts can be applied in business and life.
As always, here is the video version of this article:
With that said, here are 15 Best Street Smarts Advice!
1
Don’t Make It Easy for Them
The first thing you learn is to never be an easy target in life. Don’t walk around all vulnerable and expect the predators to ignore you. A little paranoia goes a long way when you grow up in shady neighborhoods.
In business and in life, predators always go for the low hanging fruit. That’s not where you want to be. Your place is at the top, become a hard to get target and they jackals will ignore you because you’re simply too much work.
2
Look Like a Threat or at Least like You Will Fight Back
Every gable we make in life is based on the risk – reward ration. If the reward is big enough, somebody out there is willing to take the risk. Increase the risk of people screwing with you. That’s why the rich always bring the bus of lawyers with them to court. It scream out don’t mess with me for hell will rain on you.
In everyday life you want to be bold, but not so much that you’re issuing a challenge. This is a very important distinction you learn out in the world. Once again, if you seem like the risk of things going south is there, they’d rather go for someone else, that low hanging fruit we mentioned.
3
Carry Cash Outside of Your Wallet
We learned this when negotiating with a gypsy woman when we were younger. We were bargaining for something and, while negotiating, we pulled out our wallet that had more than enough money to pay the amount she was asking.
Revealing how much money you have obliterates any negotiation.
That’s when we learned 2 valuable lessons:
- Never disclose what your buying power is
- Keep some cash separate, just in case you need it for small transactions. You don’t want everyone to see your hundred dollar bills.
Also, here’s something a pickpocketer once taught us:
Always put your wallet sideways in your pocket so it gets stuck if trying to pull it out. Most pickpockets can tell where and how easy you wallet is to reach and they’ll always go for the easy targets.
4
Money That Has Left Your Hand Is No Longer Yours
This right here, is straight up facts! The same goes for your bicycle or for playing ball.
Some of you learned this lesson the hard way didn’t you?!
The opposite is also true: a deal is done only when the money is in your hand.
Pay attention to how money is changing hands because:
Money is never actually yours, it’s just your turn to hold it!
5
They’re All in It Together
Ever watched a group of hustlers do the 3 card monty on the corner? There’s the guy who’s shuffling the 3 cards and then there are the folks pretending to win. This is a classic set up.
In business and in life you’ll find this type of set up meant to trap you. Don’t take the bait.
6
If You Get Arrested: SHUT THE F**K UP & Call Your Lawyer
This is by far the most valuable legal advice there is. Shut the hell up!
Always be polite, don’t offer any kind of information. Ask if you are free to go or if you are being detained and until the moment you can call your lawyer, you keep your mouth shut.
They even say it to you upfront: Everything you say can and will be used against you!
So don’t give them anything to use against you.
7
If Someone Asks You What Time It Is, Keep Walking
C’mon guys, we live in the age of the internet and smartphones, everyone knows what time it is.. Just keep walking.
Depending on how bad the neighbourhood you grew up in is, you might even have people ask you about your shoe size.. That’s when you know you have to move the hell out.
8
It’s Not What You Know, But Who
This one has to do with power plays. Growing up in a corrupt country teaches you this first hand, unless you know someone in the right places, you’re not getting the problem solved quickly. You know what we’re talking about right?!
This power dynamic can also get you out of trouble. Name dropping is a very powerful weapon, it open the right doors either for you to enter or exit through.
9
Always Thug Hard at the Plastic Card Reader When Using an ATM
One thing you learn growing up street smart, is to be a bit paranoid. To this very day, if we have to use an ATM we thug had at the plastic cover over the slot where you put the card in. We’ve seen first hand how the operation works, where they install a card cloner on top of the real reader in order to steal your info.
This happens in business as well, especially with contracts. The more time we spent talking to our attorney the more complex our contracts have become. You never want to leave any doors open for intruders + you want to make sure that somebody else didn’t leave one open for themselves to come after you.
Speaking of credit cards and having your info stolen..
10
Scammers Will Use Anything to Get to Your Money
4 months ago we let youtube know that a new scam is going around on their platform. The scam is simple. Scammers create fake accounts with our logo and a name fairly similar to ours and spam reply to comments pretending to be us and inviting you to talk to us about investing your money on whatsapp… like we would ever do business on whatsapp.
We reported them to YouTube. Blocked their pages, but they kept coming back. We even offered YouTube a simple technical solution which would flag anyone who replies 3 times or more with the exact same text, but they wouldn’t listen.
Now, we assume you guys are smart enough to realise that these aren’t the real ALUX, or whichever influencer you follow that’s being targeted by these scammers, but we were shocked to find out that people are sending them money.
So here’s one piece of advice: NEVER SEND MONEY TO ANYONE YOU DON’T KNOW PERSONALLY! Every product we sell is sold through our website.
These scammers are getting more sophisticated by the day. They use email scams to get cookies on your computer and track your activity. Which is why for the past 4 years we’ve been using a VPN to hide our online activity for anyone who’s looking our way. We reached out to the company we use, NordVPN, and they have an exclusive offer for the alux community. Go to alux.com/vpn
If you move fast, you can get 73% off a 2-year plan. That’s the bargain of a century. Go to alux.com/vpn and start protecting yourself online.
11
If You Withdraw a Large Amount of Money from the Bank, Put the Money Bag inside a Retail Store Bag
This concept is about construding wealth. The more money you have the less you want to actually show it. We keep saying the money is loud but wealth whispers!
You don’t need to put a target on your back. Just keep living your life, be happy and don’t waste time trying to flex on people you don’t even like.
12
Test People’s Character before You Trust Them
You give your friend $5 for something… do they give it back?
Do people talk you up or down behind your back?
Growing up around inconsistent values, you get a forced education into reading body language and small behavioral traits. We can call out a side-eye in your sleep.
If you can’t trust someone with little money, you most certainly can’t trust them with a lot. By the way, this applies to you as well.
If you don’t know how to handle $1000,
You most certainly can’t handle $100,000.
13
Know That Not Everything Shiny Is Gold
Anyone ever tried the gold ring scam on you? That’s when somebody comes to you holding a gold ring saying you must’ve dropped it. After you say no, they still offer it to you as a gift and maybe you’ll give them something in return. You take a look at it and it seems like a genuine gold ring so you give them some money and walk with your newfound treasure, only to realise you’ve been scammed.
Rule number 1. Nobody is stupid enough to give you the treasure when they can keep it themselves.
Rule number 2. If you didn’t earn it, don’t take it!
The first rule speaks to human nature and the second rule speaks to who you are as a person.
Investing in gold is kind of outdated now, check out 15 Reasons Why Crypto is Gold 2.0
14
Always Know Where the Closest Exit Is
For your own sake and that of those you care for, always have an exit plan. This is both true in life and business. If things go well you don’t have to worry about it, but as experience taught us, things are not going to go in your favor 100% of the time, so you best get ready. That law of averages will make the pendulum swing back anytime now.
This is the thing that made us be prudent and disciplined with our investments. What if Alux disappears tomorrow? What do we do then? We have our other investments in companies that we advise in. What if those go away as well?
That’s why we have our real estate to provide for us and our stock portfolio that can be liquidated for cash.
Always have a way out. Failure to plan = planning to fail!
15
You Can Always Cut a Deal
Booksmart people have no idea what emotional intelligence is and how important it is to talk to people like humans are supposed to. Everytime you’re dealing with a human, there’s a deal to be made. We learned this from our Arab friends.
Everything in life is negotiable!
You just have to ask for the negotiation to begin.
Question:
We have so many more street smarts examples, but come on, we want to hear yours!
What is something you learned in the real world that they don’t teach in a book?
Throw the most valuable street smarts in the comments and let’s see how educational your upbringing was!
