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“Broke” in this context is a financial literacy term that refers to one’s inability to generate cashflow. Being broke and being poor are different. There are some semantics here but with regard to being poor the implication isn’t that you can’t get money, it’s that you have difficulties getting access to an adequate amount. Poor means you don’t make enough for a certain standard of living; broke means you can’t make money period. You can’t make money if you’re broke because you’re broke. When something is broke or broken that means it doesn’t function correctly in some way. For a person to be broke means they can’t function industriously.
The broke mindset is a way of thinking and behaviors that reinforces the idea that the individual with this mindset can’t function properly in their society. Not to be confused with some type of disability, the broke mindset is a paradigm. For example, I had a friend once loan me some money. He didn’t have to but he figured he would be doing me a favor (red flag). I’m exaggerating a little but I couldn’t get from his place back to mine before he started asking for his money back. I paid him back immediately and we took some space apart because I still value our friendship. The broke mindset likes to cry broke. The broke mindset will put itself in positions to be able to cry broke.
The broke mindset likes the drama of being broke. Telling so and so how much money they need or are down, or why they overall can’t accomplish something. People with this mindset wish they were more generous or philanthropic than they are. Not to say that they aren’t willing to give but rather to acknowledge that with the broke mindset at least some of that giving has an ulterior motive. What’s most wicked about the broke mindset is the tendency the people with it have to rope others into their madness. I have another well off friend who at one point was probably rightfully closed fist about his money. The issue was the brother wanted everyone he knew to know in one way or another that he was well off plus, while at the same time shuffling for his wallet or slow to grab the bill during certain group occasions.
That’s another example of the broke mindset, acting like you don’t have it when you do and just don’t want to give it, but you still want to be involved for one reason or another. You should be starting to see here that the broke mindset is a performance; there is crying and acting involved. A person with a broke mindset will brag about what they have and even offer and give it away, but as soon as what they have leaves their hands that’s their moment to “shine.” Now all of a sudden they are down bad. They may want to blame someone else but they can’t so instead they sing “woe is me” which is one of their preferred songs to sing anyway. People with a broke mindset set themselves up for failure on purpose because they either think they are a failure, or they want to reinforce that narrative because they benefit from it in some way.
For a person to be broke means they can’t function industriously.
Someone with a broke mindset can be rich. But they act like beggars. And that scratches their proverbial itch for whatever reason. I have learned that it is a fool’s errand to try to understand why a person does what they do. You’re better off dealing with the reality. And the reality is if you have a broke mindset or hang with people who do, they are dragging you down and more so you are dragging yourself down. I know someone who would rather jump through hoops to keep a false narrative intact, than take a step back for a moment and allow space for clarity. For some people being broke is an inconvenient convenience. A mindset is different from a state of being. How you think allows you to interpret your reality, but the things in your life also have a degree of objectivity. For some things it just is what it is.
I’m calling out this mindset because at Life with Ken we are done dealing with that low vibrational energy. During spring break I realized that I don’t get along with broke-minded people, not because I have all the money in the world, but because their favorite thing to do is write, sing, and perform a sad song/dance/oration. Towards the end of spring break this year I was put in more than one situation involving money (certainly though not exclusively), where the perpetrator also wanted to be the victim at mine or someone else’s expense.
People wanted me to follow their lead. I did. It didn’t work, then they started crying about what happened. Which made me feel bad and look like a bad guy in a scheme that THEY concocted. That’s broke behavior. Leave people with a broke mindset to their own devices. They can’t help themselves, that’s their whole modus operandi. What makes you think they can help you or that you can help them? The broke mindset is somewhere in between the scarcity mindset and the abundance mindset. Somewhere between I don’t (ever) have enough and I always have everything I need is this lukewarm thought process of I have enough but not to give. And it’s that un-dealt-with desire but apparent inability to give that causes more trouble than it’s worth.
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