In my Cashflownaire Membership, I do my best to try and break this false programming…

In order to be successful financially, you MUST work hard.

Sadly, we’ve all been taught some version of this statement.

Thankfully, it isn’t 100% accurate.

How do I know it isn’t accurate?

Well, if you study lots of successful people, you may find a few that don’t work really hard. 🙂

If someone is able to achieve financial success without working hard, then the statement must be false.

Next, we can actually go the other way and study lots of people who actually work very hard to see if they’re successful financially. If you do this 2nd study, you’ll find plenty of people who work extremely hard and still haven’t achieved significant financial success.

This is another sign that this statement we’ve all been programmed with is false.

To illustrate this, I thought I’d share the incredible lifestyle of Judge Judy…

Who would you think is smarter, Judge Judy or Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson?

OK, now that you have your answer, keep reading.

In 2018, Forbes released their annual list of the highest paid celebrities. I’ve included the top 10 below, but you can find the full list here.

When I first studied this list, I found something interesting.

Apparently Judge Judy (Judy Sheindlin) is ranked as the 4th highest paid entertainer, with $147 million in earnings. Ranked just below her at #5 was Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson with $124 million.

I don’t really follow celebrities, but this struck me as being a little odd.

Would you have guessed that Judge Judy makes more than ‘The Rock?’ I wouldn’t have.

‘The Rock’ seems to work non-stop, jumping from one movie to the next without any time off. He also films several shows (Ballers), runs a few different businesses, and has various endorsement responsibilities. He is a literal non-stop work machine.

Just Google The Rock’s work schedule and you’ll find some crazy stuff like “he’s grinding 12 to 14 hours a day, every day.” “He’s going 150 miles an hour every day.” “He does two workout sessions a day.” On top of this, his work schedule requires him to travel constantly. Sure, he flies private and saves a lot of time when traveling, but who wants to travel constantly for work? Especially when he has two very young children at home.

Now let’s take a look at Judge Judy. It seems that she works about six days a month. Yes, you read that correctly.

They only film her show, “Judge Judy,” three days every other week. During these filming days, they record 10 to 12 cases per day. In three days of filming, they shoot 30 to 36 court cases for her show.

When Jimmy Kimmel asked Judge Judy how many days a month she worked back in 2011, she replied, “five days.”

On top of this, the show takes two breaks each year. During the months of July and December, they only film for one week. This means she only works a total of three days during those two months.

Digging a little further, it seems as if Judge Judy’s actual annual salary is only $47 million. In 2017, she sold the rights to her extensive library of shows to CBS for an estimated $95 million. This $95 million jackpot took her to number four on the Forbes annual ranking. CBS can now sell the streaming rights to her older shows to Netflix or Hulu.

So, technically speaking, Judge Judy doesn’t make more than ‘The Rock.” She did for this one-year period. However, she works a lot less.

In fact, she actually seems to work a lot less than all of the other highly paid celebrities included in 2018 list.

Take some time to study Judge Judy. She’s incredibly smart and seems to have a few things figured out.

One more thing… Judge Judy operates from the glorious Position of F- You.

From CNBC.com

“She achieved her stunning annual $47 million salary by refusing to engage in salary negotiations with CBS executives and simply stated what she wants. Sheindlin detailed how every three years, she sits down for a renegotiation with the network, and brings an envelope that contains a card with her demands on it. “I hand him the envelope and I say, “Don’t read it now, let’s have a nice dinner. Call me tomorrow. You want it, fine. Otherwise, I’ll produce it myself.” That’s the negotiation.”

She went on to say, “They pay me the money they do because they have no choice. They can’t find another one. They’ve tried to find another Judy.”

Her show is estimated to generate $244 million in ad revenue annually for CBS.

P.S. Where do you think this programming about hard work came from?

P.P.S. None of this means that hard work isn’t helpful. It certainly is helpful for financial success, it’s just not mandatory.

P.P.P.S. In my journey, I’ve found that around 3 hours of focused work each morning produces the best results.