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I'm Anastasia Koroleva, a 4x exited founder exploring life after selling a business with some of the most remarkable post-exit entrepreneurs in the world. Together, we rediscover purpose, redefine success, master investing, and build fulfilling lives and families.
Having survived a 9-digit exit, I dedicated a decade to researching the deepest challenges faced by entrepreneurs after a business sale. This podcast is the platform to share my and other exited founders' hard-earned wisdom with the world.
To join our community, please subscribe and share your thoughts. I’d love to hear from you 🙏.
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Today I want to talk about the wealth lag. Something interesting happens after we hit financial freedom. The moment when we can finally stop working and enjoy life.
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All of us who cross that line experiences it eventually. Yet no one talks about it.
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Most of us follow the same pattern after we get wealth. At first, we just want to play with it with our new shiny toy. We buy all the things we couldn't afford before the cars, the homes, the experiences, the trips on private jets. We also angel invest. We join the hottest deals and maybe build a family office.
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We we experiment with wealth and that's great. It's the only way for us to know what it can and cannot give us.
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Because the relationship with wealth, it's highly personal, intimate, even
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a relationship which takes time to build. And this initial period is new and exciting. But then the excitement fades. The novelty of wealth eventually wears off. We start trying to understand the deeper place in our lives that our wealth can have beyond its buying power. And that's when things start to feel off and confusing.
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There is this emotional delay.
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It's as if our wealth has arrived, but we haven't. And that's what I call the wealth lag. On the outside, everything looks great. But inside, we're not quite there. Not yet. We look at others and wonder how. How did they build a more harmonious relationship with their wealth.
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I found that wealth lag usually takes a few years. It's a natural period of adaptation to the new reality, and it's longer and harder on people who stop working.
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I came into wealth 15 years ago after selling my bootstrapped company for an in an all cash nine figure deal. My wealth leg stayed with me for years. By now, I've also talked to hundreds of people who experienced the wealth lag. And today, I want to share a few important things that I've learned. Number one,
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wealth lag is common. Wealth lag is not only common, but it's also perfectly natural as common as jet lag. Successful founders, investors, athletes, artists, actors all feel it. Next generation wealth feels it. And just because we do it doesn't mean something is wrong with us. We are not broken. We don't need to be fixed.
It's simply that wealth creates a massive shift in our reality and no one prepared us for it.
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We need to give ourselves permission to be confused for a while because we need to get used to it. To our wealth. We need time to adapt to our new reality.
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Number two, the wealth lag is a signal. It's our system saying, hey, my inner world has not caught up to my outer world. Yet
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the discomfort we feel is how the brain sends that message. When our worldview clashes with our new reality, the brain creates what's called cognitive dissonance, the psychological tension that pushes us to reconcile our inner and outer worlds. It feels unpleasant because it's designed to be unpleasant, but it's healthy.
It's good for us. It's protective. And if we ignore this cognitive dissonance, this signal, it doesn't fade. It lingers. It keeps raining. Unlike jet lag, wealth lag does not resolve on its own.
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Number three, most of us don't adapt well. Well, flag lasts until we adapt. Until we master our new life. But many people never reach that point. Some are 1020 years into wealth and still feel that same quiet dissatisfaction. The same signal to adapt. And it comes in waves. Usually we push it down with busyness and pleasure.
At the moment, life gets quiet. It returns. And it's natural but dangerous. Because every time we try to soften this discomfort with pleasure, it's like giving in to jetlag. It only extends the leg.
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And comfort can be seductive in a way nothing else is. It becomes this unseen, gentle force that slowly suffocates us. Over time, it forms a web of habits, habits of ease and consumption. It tracks us without us noticing, and that's what makes it dangerous. Comfort and wealth can become our masters. And we become their servant.
Obedient. Stripped of individuality. Aimless. Unfulfilled.
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Living a life far below our potential. And the price of staying there is massive. We risk missing the life we actually want. Energized. Inspired. Meaningful. Fulfilling. So what's the solution if we let it? Well, flag can last decades, even a lifetime, so we have to take charge of our adaptation emotionally, intellectually, spiritually, socially.
This is the real work. Learning how to live with wealth. Master it. From my research, people who succeeded in this journey move through five stages.
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Step number one. We need to reframe wealth as leverage, not the goal. Most of us see wealth too narrowly. We see it as optionality is comfort or just the permission not to work. But wealth can be so much more than that. It can be a uniquely powerful leverage for a deeply fulfilling life. But if we don't build that kind of life, we waste the leverage.
We waste the effort and years we spend creating it. So we need to reframe wealth as leverage to see that we must prioritize build in that life, and only then we can use the real power of wealth.
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Step two build a new life strategy. Creating wealth has been the strategy for many of us for years. After wealth, we suddenly have no strategy at all, just dreams, desires, bucket lists, and also fear and confusion.
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So we have to ask, what is the best version of my life? One that feels fulfilling and truly mine?
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The problem I found that most of us have no idea what fulfillment actually is and how to create it. When I ask my podcast guests to explain it, literally no one can.
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Yet the path to fulfillment is universal and proven by science and millennia of human experience. No need to reinvent the wheel.
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Once we understand how fulfillment works, we can apply it to our unique personality and circumstances.
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And yes, it's easier said than done, but it is absolutely doable. Enough people in similar situations like ours have done this very successfully and we can learn from them.
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Step three learn the new skills and tools to succeed after wealth. We have to upgrade our mindset and our skill set. We need a new way of making decisions and managing time and energy, and a much deeper understanding of ourselves.
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We need tools to work with our fears, cognitive Biases, habits
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in imbalances and not only ours, but also those of our loved ones. Without these, even the best life strategy can fall apart. But again, these tools can be learned from others. Ahead of us on the journey.
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Number four build a tribe.
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Our tribe defines our direction. Always. Humans are tribal. And the fastest and most natural way for us to learn is from our tribe. Spending time with people who are already living well in the post wealth reality. The most common mistake I found the newly wealth make is surrounding themselves with others who are also stuck in the wealth leg.
It feels comfortable, safe. We can easily relate, but it locks us into stagnation. We start absorbing other people's ideas, fears, limiting beliefs without even realizing it. So golf courses, private clubs, wealthy enclaves, peer to peer communities, they all create this risk. And it doesn't mean we shouldn't join the join them.
We absolutely should. But we must stay aware of this risk.
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And the real solution is to gradually build our own tribe around people, building not just more wealth and comfort, but a far greater life. The kind of life we want to lead.
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Step five take a decisive action. We thought financial freedom meant the struggles are over. That proved to be wrong. Wealth can buy many things, but it cannot buy the things we need most right now. Peace and contentment. Love and connection. Purpose, drive and energy. These cannot be bought. They can only be earned.
So the next question for us becomes am I willing to earn these things? And if the answer is yes, then we must step out of comfort and build the best version of our life. Wealth can help us enormously in this process, but only if we resist its soothing, suffocating pull. This is not easy, but it works. And all of us can rise to the challenge.
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What I found we lack is not ability. It's clarity and conviction. And that is my mission to help build that clarity and conviction by sharing the real life stories, the patterns, the tools I've discovered across hundreds of posts. Wealth. Lives. My podcast, videos, articles will always be free. Knowledge should never be the barrier, but taking action.
That part is yours. No one can do it for you.
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Together we can break out of the wealth leg and into a life that is content, yet full of energy, joy and excitement. A life that feels truly ours, truly free, meaningful to us and others. A life worth living.