Work hard, don’t spend, invest well.
Best analogy I’ve ever read: An Indian lying on a mat in Calcutta has more wealth than the average American. While an American may live better, he lives on credit, and all things considered lives most of his life paying off accumulated debt.
The man on the mat on the other hand can never have the mat taken away.
What the analogy proves is that material wealth is really a matter of accumulating capital, not in having “things” that are really leased from the true owner over a period of years. Best lesson I’ve learned in awhile.