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Can A Lifestyle of Luxury Make You More Money Get rich by feeling rich.

By Vinil Ramdev

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

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New age millionaires have changed the business world in many ways. Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook rarely wears a suit. He prefers wearing a jeans and a t-shirt even to business conferences. Several internet millionaires live a fairly simple life, far away from luxury and glamour.

Old fashioned millionaires like Vijay Mallya, Subroto Roy, Donald Trump, and many others wore fancy clothes, drove luxury cars, and were seen with glamorous models in exotic locations.

Recently, at a get-together, a fairly successful friend of ours in the internet marketing world told us that most of his extended family don't have a clue about what he is doing with his life. This friend is a fairly successful marketer, who works from home and has a lean team. He usually wears a jeans and a t-shirt, and believes in minimalism.

One day, he decided to experiment with his wardrobe after reading Neil Patel's blog post where Neil claims to have made $692,500 by spending $162,301.42. Neil further states that people believe what they see. If you drive a fancy car, wear great clothes and look successful, they'll believe that more than anything else. Unfortunately, that seems to be the reality of life.

Now coming back to my friend, he shifted his apartment to a fancy location where rich people lived, he only went to the best gyms in the city, frequented the swankiest restaurants, and he did spend about $5000 on clothes, and another $5000 on shoes and luxury watches that made a style statement. His total luxury bill for three months was close to $20,000, not a lot compared to Neil's $162,301.

In the first week of his experiment, his gym trainer decided to hire him for his marketing services. He decided to call and check back with some of his old leads, he closed two of them after a meeting with them at a luxury restaurant. In his first month, he closed 5 clients. I wasn't told the ticket size of each client, but his charges are nothing less than $12,000 per client. Even at his minimum rates, it's a 300% ROI.

This is a topic I've been reading about for a long time.

Brian Tracy in his book talks about a sales manager who would convince his new sales guys to buy a Cadillac on their first day at work. With his new Cadillac, the sales person catches attention in his neighborhood, he starts to feel successful, and his confidence just begins to go up.

A stock broker friend of mine who didn't want to be named said, "I am not a big fan of cars. But I drive a BMW because it's part of an image, and as a person whose primary job is to make people money, I should look the part."

There're several stories like these all over the world.

On the flip side, I have come across a lot of people who have tried this but they just didn't seem convincing enough to me because their substance didn't match their persona.

If you're looking to experiment with a fancy lifestyle, make sure it's with money you can afford to lose. This is not something I would do. I prefer living a holistic and minimalistic lifestyle.

Vinil Ramdev

Entrepreneur and Business Writer

Vinil Ramdev is an entrepreneur, business writer and marketer. He graduated with a Bachelors degree in Marketing in 2004. Since then, Vinil has been involved in starting and growing several businesses predominantly in retail, marketing, media, advertising and on the internet. His skill for seeing the big picture, and identifying trends and patterns have made him a sort-after consultant for companies who want to grow their business and make their products more discoverable. 

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