When I first started Financial Samurai back in 2009, I had idyllic dreams of helping as many people as possible achieve financial freedom. My finances were crumbling during the global financial crisis, and I wanted to break free from the corporate grind. So I wrote about how to do just that.

But like anything, over time, those starry-eyed hopes fade as reality sets in: you likely won’t be able to help as many people as you imagined. And as more time passes, you realize that no matter how hard you try, you can’t help people if they don’t want to help themselves.

When I accepted this truth, a sense of peace washed over me. I stopped trying to save the world and began trusting that, in the long run, everyone will act rationally in their own best interest.

It’s Impossible to Help If There’s No Buy-In

Recently, I got