Money, wealth, and prosperity—whether for a person or a nation—are not tangible assets in the way we often imagine. They’re fundamentally created from “thin air,” or more accurately, from credit and debt. The core principle is simple: money is a promise of future value. When a bank grants a loan, it’s not simply handing you its own cash; it’s creating a new line of credit based on its confidence in your ability to pay it back. The central, hidden condition for this transaction is your capacity to fulfill your credit and repay the debt.

In a free market, you can’t force a bank to give you a loan. So, the real question isn’t how to get the loan, but how to build the confidence to take it out. The answer isn’t in financial speculation, such as investing in the stock market or buying Bitcoin, which are often zero-sum games. True wealth is created through mastering technology, developing know-how, and fostering innovation to produce goods and services the market genuinely demands.

Think of an entrepreneur like Elon Musk. He could secure massive loans to produce Tesla vehicles because he had the technological know-how and market vision to create a product he was confident people would buy. He wasn’t just gambling on a financial instrument; he was leveraging debt to create tangible value. For any individual aspiring to be wealthy, the path is not to chase quick returns in financial markets but to head down and think about what you can offer that competes with or improves upon existing products. Once you have a truly compelling idea, you can take out a loan without hesitation because you know your venture will generate the profits needed to repay it.

This is how both individuals and nations create wealth. A country isn’t prosperous because it has more gold reserves, but because it has tons of such individuals and entrepreneurs who are confident in their ability to innovate and take on debt to create new goods and services. By doing so, they don’t just accumulate personal wealth; they create a cycle of productivity and prosperity for the entire nation.