The Top Mindset for Getting Rich: Play

Wealth is a projection of perception, and your mindset is the lamp that illuminates it. On the subway during the morning rush hour, some people frown as they check their emails, as if a second's delay would cause the sky to fall; while others close their eyes and listen to podcasts, with a slight smile on their lips. Looking back ten years from now, it is often the latter who live more easily and achieve financial freedom more readily. Perhaps this is how life works: the tighter you hold on to something, the more likely it is to slip through your fingers. This is not a coincidence.

The research from the Harvard Business Review reveals a harsh reality: the work efficiency of the former is an average of 32% inflated, yet their promotion probability within five years is 57% lower than that of the latter. Look at those who are truly successful; on one hand, Buffett "skips to work"; on the other, Musk spends more time playing memes with netizens on social media than in meetings. They seem to treat work as a game rather than a serious battle. Perhaps true success never belongs to those who wear a tense expression, but to those who can remain relaxed under pressure. Yet we have become the opposite example, where working late is the norm, and every minute is planned meticulously, always fearing that a moment of relaxation will lead to being abandoned by the world. We view work as a burden for survival, forgetting that it could be an enjoyable game. Interestingly, those who have abandoned the "hardworking warrior" attitude, who return to a comfortable environment and adopt a "let's have some fun" mindset, often unexpectedly carve a shortcut to success. While we use a magnifying glass to search for money, the sun has already burned a hole in our wealth map. Those chasing money are trapped in the stench of copper, while those playing with money sit atop a mountain of gold. It is truly ironic.

Why do people who work hard work lose to people who "can play"? Time never waits for those who work hard, but always makes shortcuts for those who can play. Working overtime until the early hours of the morning, the circle of friends posted office selfies of writing reports late at night, and I felt that being proud of being "busy" has become the standard configuration in the workplace. But I've found that those who are really successful rarely talk about how hard they work. I have heard a sentence that is quite heart-wrenching: "Employees work overtime every day, and eighty percent of them are too inefficient or doing useless work." "I know that very well. After staying up for a few days and nights, my brain became a pot of porridge, and I couldn't figure out anything. Let's be honest, you think that staying up for an extra hour will bring you one step closer to success, but you may just end up spinning in place at the speed of a snail, and you may be riding your body and energy. On the contrary, those who seem to not work hard enough and can play, they seem to understand the importance of rest.

Former Tesla executives revealed that beneath Musk's workaholic facade, he pays special attention to protecting his thinking and relaxation time. Does this surprise you? Another very realistic point is that those who know how to play often have a cross-disciplinary perspective.

When you are just burying yourself in work, they are making new friends in various situations and exploring new fields, thus gaining more good inspiration. Those real insights often do not come from work, but from moments of relaxation. Don't fool yourself into thinking you're enhancing your worth by staying up late; in the eyes of capital, you are just a replaceable part. Before you decide to work overtime next time, ask yourself: are you gilding your resume, or accumulating points for the ICU? The journey in the workplace is long, and if you can only rely on physical strength, you'll be eliminated halfway.

Why do they treat making money as a "game", while you treat it as "survival"? Once the survival mode is activated, the world narrows down to the barrel of a gun. You focus on the crisis in the crosshairs, while your back is braced against the next bullet. Those insomniacs making millions a year are like walking a tightrope with a chamber full of bullets, each shot of wealth secured with a safety catch, yet they have turned themselves into a live firing range. Look at those who can navigate it well; they treat every investment as a game—cheering when they win, shaking their heads when they lose, and starting anew the next day.

Psychologist Daniel Kahneman clearly states in "Thinking, Fast and Slow": In survival mode, the brain is tense and defensive, making it nearly impossible to come up with good ideas; whereas a playful mindset allows you to analyze calmly and see further. You might say: I have elderly parents and young children to care for, I am the pillar of my family, I can't afford to lose. But where in the world is there a guaranteed win? Winning and losing are simply the norm; what's important is not to let a momentary failure drag you into a pit of doubt. Failure is not the end; treat it as a new starting point, and you can explore more possibilities in life.

If you want to change your way of life, first leave yourself an escape route, set a basic living bottom line, and then you can use the rest to take risks and try new things. Why do some people make more money the easier things are? There is a special group of people who seem to have mastered the counterintuitive laws of wealth:

The less they take money seriously, the more money chases after them. This is not a coincidence, but a recognizable pattern. This group of people has a clear characteristic: they rarely talk about hard work and struggle, but often speak of experimentation, exploration, and curiosity. It's not that they aren't serious; rather, they approach work and wealth with a different mindset.
Wealth psychology discovers that those who are "easy at making money" have a different perspective on wealth. While ordinary people think about "how to exchange time for money," they think about "how to exchange money for time back." While everyone is busy studying the "Pomodoro Technique," they are already using the "Energy Cycle Theory": identifying their best performance periods, handling the most valuable tasks only during those times, and using the rest of the time for recovery and nurturing creativity.
The most special thing is that they break the myth that "hard work equals reward." Ordinary people believe that the harder they work, the more valuable they are; while those who make money easily follow the formula "interest × talent × market demand = wealth." They turn serious matters into a "game." This mindset makes them more resilient in the face of setbacks, broadens their perspective when making decisions, and enriches their sources of innovation.

So, when you see those people who say "the easier it is, the more money you make," don't think it's just luck. They are playing by a different set of rules, a set that may be more in line with the rules of this era than our familiar "sweat for money" approach. Making money has never been about how many hours and sweat you put in, but rather about how much value you create and how you view that creation process.