Why "Ridiculously Wealthy" People Never Chased the Money

Think of someone you know who's ridiculously wealthy. Not comfortable — wealthy. Now ask yourself: what do they actually think about differently?

That's the question that opens a new ActionCoach Podcast episode with Danny McFarland, a financial planner who's spent three decades advising some of the wealthiest people in the country. And his answer isn't what you'd expect.

"They didn't think about the money," he says. "If you chase money, it runs away from you. If you chase success, money follows as a byproduct."

If you're a London business owner, that line alone is worth sitting with. But it's just the opening. Over the course of the conversation, Danny lays out the real difference between people who earn good money and people who build deep, lasting wealth — and it has almost nothing to do with income.

The Two Kinds of Rich

Danny makes a distinction that most business owners never think to draw: earning well and being wealthy are not the same skill. Plenty of high earners never build real wealth because no one ever taught them what to do with the money once it arrives. Wealth, he argues, is about knowing where and when to take risk, when to stop taking it, and how to turn a number into an actual life.

That last part matters more than it sounds. Danny tells the story of a client who'd built a business worth millions and didn't realize it. "You're minted," he told him. The man had no idea. He'd gotten so deep into the grind that he'd stopped connecting the business to the life it was supposed to fund.

It's a trap a lot of founders fall into: heads down, chasing the next number, without ever asking what the number is actually for.

Calculated Risk vs. Reckless Risk

This is where the episode gets genuinely useful for anyone running a business. Danny is blunt about the fact that nobody gets wealthy without taking risk — but he draws a hard line between calculated risk and reckless risk.

He shares his own story: leaving a salaried life, moving back in with his parents, borrowing money to get started, later doubling his mortgage and his staff at the same time his household income dropped. Real risk, but calculated — backed by a plan and a belief in himself.

Then he contrasts it with a friend who sold his house to invest in a "sure thing" with old friends. It went wrong. Danny's rule: borrow to the hilt if you need to, stretch yourself, but never sell the roof over your head. There's a difference between stretch and stupid, and knowing exactly where that line sits is, in his view, one of the core skills of anyone serious about building wealth.

The Goal-Setting Mistake Most Founders Make

Danny also unpacks something he calls "very, very fixed goals" — and it's not just motivational talk. It's about reverse-engineering a real number: how much do you actually need, what does that require the business to do, and what are the milestones that get you there. Vague ambition doesn't build wealth. Specific, calculated targets do.

He's equally clear that goals need realism built in. Set a target that's a stretch too far and it becomes demotivating. Set one with no stretch at all and you'll never grow. Finding that edge — and having someone hold you accountable to it — is, he says, why even highly successful people still need a coach or advisor in their corner.

Enjoy the Wealth, Not Just the Wins

Perhaps the most memorable moment in the episode is a personal story from the podcast host about a wealthy client who was still driving a ten-year-old car despite having more money than she could spend in several lifetimes. Challenged gently to actually enjoy what she'd built, she returned a year later in a convertible, sunglasses on, and said simply: "You did this."

She passed away the following year. Not old. The moment lands hard, and it's the emotional center of the whole conversation.

"Who wants to be the richest man in the graveyard?" Danny asks. "You've got to enjoy it."

What This Means for You

If you're a business owner grinding toward a number without a clear sense of what that number is actually for, this episode will hit differently. It covers:

• Why chasing money directly backfires, and what to chase instead
• How to tell the difference between a calculated risk and a reckless one
• Why every founder needs both a business coach and a trusted financial advisor — and how those two roles work together
• The exact questions to ask before choosing a financial advisor
• Why building a bucket list might be as important to your wealth strategy as your P&L
• The one discipline almost every high performer admits they neglect: actually stopping

Danny's closing challenge is simple and, by his own account, one almost no guest on the show has ever given before: take a full day off-radar. No phone, no email, no office. Not a lunch break — a real reset. If you haven't done it in months, this episode is the nudge to finally schedule it.

Watch the full conversation to hear Danny McFarland break down exactly how wealthy people think differently — and what it would take to start thinking that way yourself.