In this episode, equipped with key insights on the power of habits, this best-selling author, motivational global speaker, and property investor gives us a front row seat to the behind-the-scenes practices of the rich. Plus, he reveals the story of a night in 2004 that inevitably led him to the path of becoming a 'brain expert'!

Timestamps:
00:01:12 | From Accounting to Writing
00:02:35 | A Well-Structured Life
00:04:14 | The Early Years
00:06:05 | Education is Wealth
00:07:49 | Being Poor v. Being Rich
00:11:51 | Stronger Together
00:15:23 | A Worthy Risk
00:17:40 | Always Behind the Eight Ball
00:19:49 | The Brain Expert on Board
00:22:41 | One Night in 2004…
00:25:00 | Dissatisfaction and Discoveries
00:29:04 | Wealthy Habits

Resources and Links:

And their excuse was, 'I worked so hard, I worked so hard. That's why I need to rest'. And I said, 'Well, you know, the rich people work harder than you. They're busier than you. And they still have time, two to three days a week, to go out during the week to build relationships with other success-minded people'. 

This is Property Investory where we talk to successful property investors to find out more about their stories, mindset and strategies.

 

I’m Tyrone Shum and we’re speaking with best-selling author, motivational global speaker, and property investor Thomas Corley. Equipped with key insights on the power of habits, he gives us a front row seat to the behind-the-scenes practices of the rich. Plus, he reveals the story of a night in 2004 that inevitably led him to the path of becoming a 'brain expert'!

Tyrone Shum:   

Known as 'Tom' by friends and colleagues, Corley is not one to shy away from a good interview. Picking up my call from the United States, he gives us a bird's eye view of all the metaphorical balls he's juggling these days.

I'm a CPA. I'm a Certified Financial Planner. I have various licences and securities licences. But I guess what I'm known for is my rich habits research. 

I did a 5-year study on the daily habits of rich people and poor people, and then eventually wrote a book about it called 'Rich Habits'. And that evolved into what right now is about seven books. I just kept coming out with another book called 'Wealth Academy' in China. So my books in China seem to be doing really well. 

In fact, Michael Yardney and I had a great year on 'Rich Habits, Poor Habits'. In 2021, we sold a ton of books. 

I have like four balls in the air. And the fifth ball is really the speaking engagements. I'm going to Memphis, Tennessee, to speak at something called 'Freedom Fest'. And so there's all these speaking gigs that I get involved with. And then of course, I continue to write. I write every day, and my website richhabits.net, and share my research as much as I can.

Tyrone Shum:   

With a clear purpose, Corley doesn't waste a second of his day as his schedule and busyness roughly depends on what season it is for him in his country.

A typical day for me is getting up at around anywhere between quarter to five to five-thirty [o'clock]. I usually do about an hour to an hour and a half of research and reading. It's rich habits research, primarily, but also my my tax and financial planning research, and technical reading. And then I'll head off to the gym. I'm usually there between 35 to 60 minutes a day. And then I head to my office, and I run a CPA firm. We've got, you know, about 1,000 clients. So it's a pretty busy place. 

And we've also got a partner in a financial planning firm. So I'm very busy with the financial planning. And I try and get most of my rich habits work done in the morning. And some a little bit during the day, depending on, like, if I have a media interview or from writing something from the media. I contribute to CNBC, Business Insider, and some other outlets. 

I usually finish up my day, depending on the time of the year. It's slow now. So I'll finish up, you know, before five. But during tax season, it's, you know, eight [or] nine o'clock. So it's a busy— it's a good 12- [or] 13-hour day during tax season, which lasts about 10 weeks. And then [for] the rest of the rest of the year, I'm involved in in pretty much managing all four businesses.

Tyrone Shum:   

It's safe to say that Corley is an undeniable hardworker. With a tough character-building childhood, he rose to every obstacle that stood in his way.

I grew up in New York City. And up until about the age of nine, we were wealthy, my father had a very successful tool distribution business. He practically owned the whole Northeast of the United States. And unfortunately, his sales partner died; he had a heart attack. 

So my father ended up, you know, selling the business. And he took the business back when they didn't make all the payments. And anyway, we/he almost went bankrupt. In today's world, most people would go bankrupt, you know, but my father was that just not— he wasn't that type of person. So he fought his way out of it. And we were poor. 

When I went to college, I was a janitor. I had to pay for college myself, and the only way I could afford to do that was by being a janitor. So I did that. And then when I got a job, I went to graduate school at night. Then I got my CPA, I got my CFP. 

And, you know, I have three kids. So I've got all three of them; I got them through college, with very little student loans, so I'm proud of that. That's probably my biggest goal that I've achieved other than selling my books, trying to get my books out there. 

I've had an interesting life, you know. It's pretty much everything was on my shoulders. And I did everything I could; in some cases, I had two jobs, three jobs, just to make ends meet. And now things are much better. And, you know, life's a little bit easier.

Tyrone Shum:   

Touching on the specific money-challenges that he and his family experienced, Corley gives appreciation on still having a great education growing up.

When we were wealthy, my dad... we went to a probably the best school in New York; it was one of the top schools. And fortunately, when we hit the skids, when we became poor, my dad had raised so much money for the school—he was that kind of person —that [the school] let us all stay in school for free. 

Even the high school that we [went to]—I went to a private high school—they did the same thing, because he had raised so much money for them. So while we were poor, I had probably a wealthy education, I guess you would say that. You know, I had the best education that money can buy even though he didn't pay for it. 

It was difficult in the sense that I was going to school with a lot of upper middle class, mostly upper middle class individuals, and we weren't, so that was a challenge.

I mean, there were eight in my family—so eight brothers and sisters. Yeah. 

[00:08:33] I was in the middle, Tyrone, the [indiscernible] child.

 My dad had everything and the world on his shoulders, you know. 

 These things happen in life, these unintended consequences, these, I guess, you could call it 'bad luck', it happens. And you have to fight your way through it. 

Adversity visits everybody, whether you're rich or poor. It's the people that survive adversity and the ones who don't surrender to it, they always wind up to some extent successful.

Looking in hindsight, Corley now talks about moments in his young life when the contrasting effects of being poor and being wealthy became as clear as day and night.

Well, I'm grateful, of course, that we were able to keep going to such good schools. But being wealthy was awesome. I mean, it was way, way better. Life was way easier, and happier. 

 When we were poor, everything was a struggle. Every day, you know, it was a new problem to solve. And I didn't have many problems to solve as a kid, but I do remember the nuns coming at night and in a van, periodically dropping off food to our house. 

 I didn't understand it until later. And when I got older and realised how difficult it was for my father to get us through all that, [I] really learnt to appreciate him. And you know, his personality changed. He was a very involved father when we were wealthy. When we weren't, he was never around. He was constantly working just to survive. So I lost that connection. It was a shame.

Tyrone Shum:   

Experiencing both the worlds of wealth and poverty, Corley lists their most apparent differences and how they affected his perspective and the way he lived his adult years—and he starts by sharing what he enjoyed most being financially well-off as a child.

Thomas Corley:  

Well, besides the country clubs, and the country club that we were a member of—that was just an awesome place for as long as it lasted. The vacations. We had just great vacations, and we were all together. 

 I associated wealth with being together and I associated poverty with being apart. We were all separated, and we all had to work. 

We started work at 12 [years old]. I continued, you know, and I haven't stopped since then. So, I think that part there was less recreation, less fun; you couldn't do things with your friends. I remember that they had an amusement park here in the Northeast, and it wasn't far. It was in New Jersey. 

 My friends would all go there when they were 15 [or] 16 years old. I couldn't go. We had no money. So it was just out of the question. And I remember feeling, you know, sort of an outcast and outlier because we were pretty much raised in a fluid community, even though we didn't have any money. 

My father somehow managed to keep the house. 

But it was constantly under foreclosure. I do remember real estate agents walking on the property, showing it off and my Aunt Peg letting the dog out to chase them off the property. That was fun. 

 I wouldn't say my life was the worst life because it wasn't. We weren't homeless. 

But I do remember thinking I was an outlier, where I lived and in my school.

 I've always felt that way. I always felt that I was an outlier. And even when I became a CPA, I felt like I was an outlier. I didn't feel like I fit in. 

Because a lot of the CPAs— they weren't sales-oriented. They were people that could work 12 hours a day at a desk; that wasn't me. I needed to be around people. I like being around people. So I didn't fall into the financial planning until later in my career. And that's when I realised that was the career for me, because you're meeting so many people. And the CPA work is sort of behind-the-scenes stuff, you know?

Tyrone Shum:   

Corley has had a remarkable bond and teamwork with his siblings. He recounts what they all did to make things work for their family when life was messy.

We were all in it together, so to speak. 

 We did as much as we could, you know. If I've made money, it went right in to the household. I didn't get to keep any of it. But I guess, in a way, I helped with the kids because [with] that money that I made, we were able to buy food and groceries and stuff like that. 

And I remember buying groceries with the money that I made. I would just finish shoveling or finish mowing the lawn and go down the street and pick up milk and bread and the things we didn't have in the house. And so I do remember that; that was common. 

 I remember when I was in college, and I finally— we have something called 'unions' in New York City, where I worked [in] the public school system. I was a custodian, a janitor. And I got on the union because I worked 20 hours a week and I was able to get braces for my brother, Timmy—basically claimed him as a dependent—, and he got braces. 

 In that sense, we all were in it together, that we were all there to help each other. 

I worked every summer full-time and then, during a week, I worked 20 hours a week. And the way they scheduled it was to allow me to go to college full-time. So I would leave school... I tried to schedule my classes so they ended at about 2 p.m., and then I would start my janitor job around 3:30 p.m. Finish up at about 8 p.m. And that was Monday through Thursday.

Friday nights [was] a night that we, you know, where a lot of my friends went out. On Friday and Saturday night, they would go out. That was the two nights that I had—the two nights and days that I had available to do my homework. So that was kind of my life.

Coming up after the break, Corley reveals the insightful motivation that finally led him to become his own boss…

Things really took off when I purchased us a CPA firm that [has] been around for a long time. And that was a big risk, because that was $1.2 million.

The unquestionable proof he found in his research on the powerful role habits play in our lives…

And then when I found in looking at the summary sheet, which went page after page after page, I said, 'Oh my gosh, this, I would say probably 60% [or] 70% of the data points were habits' 

He unveils the secrets of the wealthy on their path to success and gives a sneak peek on how you can practically apply them to your own journey today.

I kind of took a page out of their book and I said, 'Well, they're doing it; they became successful. If I do it, I'll become successful'. And it's turned out that way.

And that’s next. I’m Tyrone Shum and you’re listening to Property Investory.

Tyrone Shum:   

Armed with good work ethics and integrity, Corley relays the reason why he decided to become his own boss and start his own business.

Once, I got a job at a big accounting firm called 'Arthur Andersen'.

The money back then wasn't very good. It was okay. 

 I just got married. And so we were living in a condominium. And, you know, that was kind of the start, I suppose. 

And then I became an assistant tax director, and then I started making a little bit more money. 

Things really took off when I purchased us a CPA firm that [has] been around for a long time. And that was a big risk, because that was $1.2 million. So I had to put up quite a bit. And then I took a big note. There's [a] big risk, you know. 

 Although I had a good work ethic and I was a hard worker, I never liked working for somebody. So I felt that I would probably do best working for myself and, you know, managing people, because I'm a mentor. I'm a teacher. And I think those kinds of people should be managers and should be in charge of people. 

Because [the] most important thing in businesses [is] mentoring people, so that they can do their job to the best of their abilities. And that was something I really had a passion for. I just loved teaching and educating, and I had a lot of patience. 

It worked out perfectly for me. And we have a great firm; we have a lot of people that are really good at what they do. And I don't have to do the grunt work like I used to. And it gave me more time so that I could write books, so I could go on to speaking engagements. 

And I've been everywhere. I've been to Vietnam, Australia, Canada, [and] China. I've been all over the place. The books have taken me all over the place to speak. So I wouldn't have been able to do that if I was working for somebody, right? So being the boss gave me that; [it] afforded me that luxury.

Tyrone Shum:   

Remembering how his father struggled with debt after he lost his booming business, Corley shares how he and his siblings did their best to rise to the occasion. It was a time in his life when one of the big realisations about being poor hit him.

Thomas Corley: 

We all chipped in. My father recovered. 

 It wasn't until the later part of his life when his money started running out that we had to step up to the plate. But that only lasted for about 10 years, I would say, maybe 15 years where we had to help support him. But we got him into a sort of [an] assisted living facility for older people. [It] hit my hand, my wife, my mom, and then they could afford... They didn't have financial problems after that. So, yeah, it was difficult. 

I remember when we had to tell my father that he had to sell his home because we couldn't—all of the brothers got together and said 'We just can't afford to raise our family and afford to pay for everything, your home'. So he ended up selling that; it all worked out in the end.

Yeah, 15 years wasn't a short period of time though, Tom.

Yeah, you get used to it though. 

Yeah, that's true. 

It's a point, Tyrone, that I think is important. Poor people—one of the things that is an albatross around their neck is if you're a poor person earning an income, you become the family's banker. And so you can never get behind... you're always forever behind the eight ball. 

 I remember saving $5,000 [or] $6,000 or $7,000 only to see it go out the door for property taxes for my father. So I think poor people have to struggle with that; it's a real burden. 

The hardest thing [is], if you're really an up and comer and you're success-minded but you're poor, and the people around you—your family—they kind of hit you up for money if you're moderately successful. And that's what happened to me.

Tyrone Shum:   

Diving deep into his journey of finally writing his first book, Corley recounts how it all started and how he eventually became something akin to a 'brain expert'.

When I was doing my research, my study, I didn't go into it, Tyrone, thinking I'm going to do a habit study—you know, a study on habits between the rich and the poor. 

 My understanding of habits was what anyone's understanding of habits was back then. 

So when I finished my research, I [had] asked 144 questions to each person. And there were 366, I think, in my study, [or] maybe 361, I think. And so that's like 54,000 questions, and I gathered a lot of data. And then when I started breaking the data up between rich and poor and [the] self-made millionaire[s], because some of the rich people had inherited their wealth. 

I wanted to really understand the dynamics between those three groups. 

And then when I found in looking at the summary sheet, which went page after page after page, I said, 'Oh my gosh, this, I would say probably 60% [or] 70% of the data points were habits' —[they] were daily habits, things that [are] repetitive behaviors. And so that took me down a rabbit hole, where in I had to become somewhat of an expert on the neurology of habits. 

So I studied. I must have read about 20 books on the brain. And these were not easy books to read. But I became sort of a brain expert. I understood the physiology behind habits, which is important because whenever somebody is talking about... some expert out there, [if] he's talking about how to change your habits, if they're not addressing it from a physiological standpoint, then they're wasting your time. 

Because the physiology behind habits is what makes creating a habit possible. And so in my book, 'Change Your Habits, Change Your Life', I talk about the physiology of habit change—the neurology behind habit change. 

 What was interesting is when I got approached by a big, huge, publisher—I think the biggest publisher in China—they liked my research, they liked my books, and they combined [my books] 'Rich Habits' and 'Change Your Habits, Change Your Life'. And their thinking was in alignment with mine. I always thought those two books belong together. 

And we talked about it. They read both books, and they said, 'Yeah, you're right, they belong together'. 

One tells you about —the 'Rich Habits' [book]—tells you about the habits, the keystone habits that you need to incorporate into your life, and [the other book] 'Change Your Habits, Change Your Life' teaches you how to actually incorporate habits, how to how to forge a habit, and how to get rid of an old bad habit.

Tyrone Shum:   

Notably, Corley gives insight on the heart-wrenching encounter that thrusted him into all this research in the first place at a time when he was already running a successful CPA business and managing people.

What happened was, almost immediately after I took over the helm as president of my CPA firm... and I was approached by one of our business clients who had been with us for probably 30 years. 

 His business was his father's business, and he took it over. 

 We met one night in 2004. And his bank had converted his line of credit to a term loan. So now he didn't have access to any more capital. And he couldn't come up with enough money to make payroll for that Friday. So the guy came to my office; he was hoping that I could help him find a banker, you know, that week, which was impossible. 

Anyway, he didn't know me and he didn't know what you know... 

And I told him, 'It's not going to happen'. He broke down and started crying. He said, 'What are your successful clients doing that I'm not doing? Why am I struggling?' 

And so, I did some research, [an] initial research, on that I was trying to answer his question because he was so emotional about it. It stirred me emotionally. 

I spent about three to six months trying to find research out there that would explain the difference between rich and poor people. Why are rich people rich? Why are poor people poor? 

The thing that was the best resource but it was so inadequate that I had to do my own research—but the book that was the best resource at the time was 'The Millionaire Next Door'. 

Oh, yes. I love that book.

I read that book. And then there was another book he [the author] came out with. I read that book, and I studied that book. 

And I said, 'You know, this doesn't answer the question of what...' 

Those books were talking about these wealthy people when they were wealthy. It didn't really explain how they got wealthy or what they did every single day. 

Tyrone Shum:   

Dissatisfied with what he discovered in the available books on the subject, Corley finally expanded his research—thus eventually leading him to the findings that he himself would soon write about in his own books—and as they say, 'the rest is history'.

I wanted to be that fly on the wall. I wanted to know what the rich people do with their time and what the poor people do with their time. 

Because I felt if I could understand how they utilise their time, then I would be able to explain to people, 'Hey, this is what rich people do on a daily basis. And this is what poor people do on a daily basis; do this and don't do that'. 

 The two questions I was trying to answer with my research [are] 'Why are some people rich or poor?' [which was] No. 1 and, No. 2, 'What do rich people and poor people do every day?' And my 'Rich Habits' research answered that question because I had so many, as I mentioned, 144 questions and covered almost every activity every part of the day. 

And I started learning things about how the rich people utilise their time. For example, one of the things that was like—I guess you'd call it an aha moment for me is—when I came up with the question, which became a profound question, I asked the rich people what they did with their time after they finished their so called 'workday'. 

I was, you know, under the assumption they went home, ate dinner, and that was it, right? But the answers I got, almost 100% of the time, these wealthy people, at least two to three days a week, were not home. They were on board of directors of other companies. They were on board of directors of nonprofits. 

 Some of them were going to school at night to learn something. Some of them were practicing a skill that they thought that could help in their business. Some of them were coaching sports teams. Some of them were writing. Some of them were doing speaking engagements. There was just a potpourri of things that they did with their time. And so that was fine. 

And then when I asked the same question to the poor people, they said, 'Oh, you know, I'm so tired from my job that I come home. I'll have a beer or some wine, eat, and then I'll lay down on the couch for like, an hour, and then I'll watch some TV, and then I'll go to bed and do the same thing all over again'. 

And their excuse was, 'I worked so hard, I worked so hard. That's why I need to rest'. And I said, 'Well, you know, the rich people work harder than you. They're busier than you. And they still have time, two to three days a week, to go out during the week to build relationships with other success-minded people'. 

The people on the board of directors of nonprofits, they're mostly successful people. 

So now you're building relationships with like-minded people. And those relationships open doors and create opportunities for you to make more money. And when you do it, you know, maybe [while] preparing for a speaking engagement, because you do that on the side. And I think about 18% of them did. That takes time. 

And then when you, of course, do the speaking engagement, you meet 50 [or] 100 [or] 200 [people]. 

I had one speaking gig in Vietnam, and it was 3,000 people. I mean imagine meeting 3,000 people. [And] I met a lot of them. 

 They did these things that put them in front of people and mostly in front of important people or people that could help them in some way. So I thought that was interesting—that they were developing relationships, building their brand, [and] showcasing their skills. And they weren't doing it just a 9-to-5 you know; they were doing it after work.

Tyrone Shum:   

Contrasting the habits of the rich and the poor, Corley further explains the route he chose when he interviewed those two groups of people. What he discovered spoke volumes about the time habits of the wealthy.

I asked them questions about what they did with their time in the morning, what they did during the day, and what they did at night. And I also asked them what they did with their time on the weekends. 

 The questions were configured in such a way that it gave me answers without asking them [the question], 'What do you do with your time?' You know, like, 'Do you exercise?' 'Yeah, well, when do you exercise?' 'Well, I exercise between, you know, six in the morning and seven in the morning.' You know, 'Do you have any outside activities?' 'Yeah, I'm on the board of directors. We have meetings once a week. You know, I coach two sports teams. And we have practice, and then, of course, we meet with the parents periodically'. 

They had all of these things. And I said, 'Well, that's consuming time. The only thing I needed to know is when you were doing it'. 

And a lot of them did it at night.

The weekends, I think, were mostly leisure. But there was a good percentage, probably over 50% of them, [that] were engaged in some productive activity. 

Some of them worked Saturdays; not the whole weekend, but Saturdays. And some of them were constantly on, so to speak, and some of them, turned the switch off on the weekends. 

But I would say more than 50% of them were constantly on, constantly going, constantly doing things that would help them to grow as individuals, grow their relationships, [and] maybe help them[selves] develop skills, like my writing. 

 Many wealthy people got up early in the morning. So I started getting up early in the morning, even though I'm not an early bird—but now I am. And that's where I did all my writing and my research, in the mornings and at night. 

I kind of took a page out of their book and I said, 'Well, they're doing it; they became successful. If I do it, I'll become successful'. And it's turned out that way.

In the next episode of Property Investory, Tom Corley explains how the physiological and neurological aspects of the brain impact the way we form habits.

 

The physiology, the way the brain works is, if you were to jump in and say, 'I'm going to forge this 60-minute-a-day habit', in about two weeks, you'll lose that war with the brain. 

 

What he deems as the best and the worst kinds of property investments…

 

I learnt that from my clients that the best type of investment [in] real estate—real estate investment—is that what you control.

He sheds a light on why having a clear vision for yourself can be a powerful ally and weapon in your ongoing expedition for success.

So the difference between point A and point B are dreams and goals. So you have to have that clarity of vision—the end in mind—in order for those dreams and those goals to manifest themselves.

 

And that’s next time on Property Investory.