Just Two Minutes: Build vs. Preserve

Bite-sized dental wisdom in under 2 minutes.

One of the biggest mindset shifts in business?
Realizing that building wealth and preserving wealth require completely different strategies.

When we opened our first practice, we were in full builder mode—new loan, new team, new everything.
And yet the financial advice we got was the same kind you'd give to a 60-year-old trying to retire quietly. Conservative. Safe. Protect everything.

It didn’t fit.

We needed someone who understood that we weren’t in defense mode—we were just getting started. That we needed to bet on ourselves. That the real risk was playing it too safe, too soon.

And the truth is: a lot of people get stuck there.

They either:

• Try to preserve before they’ve built anything worth protecting

• Or keep grinding in builder mode long after it’s necessary, because they don’t know how to switch gears

Josh Cochran said it perfectly on this week’s podcast:
“There’s a pyramid to wealth.”

Here’s how he broke it down:

The Wealth Pyramid:

1. W2 Employee

   • Time-for-money

   • No ownership or leverage

   • Stable, but no real wealth building

2. W2 + 401k Investor

   • Starts investing

   • Still dependent on job

   • Slow, steady compounding

3. Small Business Owner

   • Cash-flowing asset

   • More risk, but way more upside

   • Leverage through systems and people

4. Private Investor (real estate, equity)

   • Deploys capital, not time

   • Passive income and scalable growth

   • Wealth starts to outpace effort

5. Capital Allocator / Wealth Preserver

   • Protects what’s been built

   • Thinks in decades

   • Main job: don’t lose it

You don’t go from W2 to capital allocator in a weekend.
And you definitely don’t use the same mindset or tactics at each level.

What builds wealth at level 3 (say, taking a big hiring risk or reinvesting every dollar) might wreck you at level 5.
And what protects wealth at level 5 (being conservative, trimming fat, holding cash) might keep you broke if you’re still in level 2.

That’s the real skill—knowing when you’ve outgrown your strategy.
Knowing when to push harder.
And when to switch from offense to defense.

Here’s how you know:

If you’re still early, and still hungry—don’t let conservative advice hold you back.
You need momentum, not protection.

If you’re later in the game—start thinking about leverage, protection, and long-term preservation.
You already took the big risks. Now it’s about keeping what you earned.

Final Thought:

There’s a time to grow fast.
And a time to protect smart.
But trying to do both at the same time?
That’s how people stay stuck—tired, confused, and wondering why none of it’s working.

Get clear on what season you’re in.
And use the right tools for the job.

-Dr. Alex

P.S. As Scarface once said “First you get the money, then you get the power…” I’d argue the next step is systems, but hey, I’m only a dentist, not gangster.