There are around 22 million millionaires in the United States.
That's almost triple the population of New York.
In 2021 alone, at the peak of the pandemic, 2.5 million people crossed the million-dollar
threshold.
Becoming a millionaire is no longer the unachievable dream.
The title of this video is about How to Get Your First Half a Million, but what I have
realized is that the tools and principles that get you to make your first half a million
are the same that get you to your first million or 10 million.
To be 100% transparent with you, I cannot teach you everything in one single video no
matter how hard I try.
But what I can do is share with you some fundamental principles that will help you move in the
right direction.
I have met a lot of rich people, and every one of them follows religiously these 7 principles
that I am about to share with you.
It doesn't matter how you are trying to get to the top; everyone follows these fundamental
rules.
Pick up a pen and a notebook and write them down.
Every time I see someone who starts making money but deviates from any of these principles,
they slip away and end back where they started.
**1.
Do Not Focus on Today**
If you talk to any rich person, anyone who has made at least a few million dollars, you
will realize one common trait: they don't care about what's happening today.
Whatever businesses or industries that are thriving today, they know they have no chance
to make any real money there.
In order for you to get into an industry and make real money, you must spend a couple of
years at least building something before that boom happened.
"Behind Every Overnight Success Story Is Someone Who Worked Really, Really Hard."
Most people see what's trending, where people are making money, and try to get in.
Then a year later, something else is in the headlines, so they move to the next thing.
That's not how you make money.
Start by asking yourself: What are the technologies that will thrive in 2 or 3 years, and start
a project in that sector today.
It's extremely difficult because it's not rewarding now; you will be working for free.
It will only be rewarding sometime in the future, so you need to have the patience to
focus on your success in two or three years.
Take the example of Jeff Bezos.
When he discovered the internet, he knew that if he wanted to build something big out of
it, he needed to focus on where the internet would be 10 or 20 years from now.
While everyone was thinking that he was selling books online, he was building the largest
online store in the world.
If you talk to any CEO of a major company, they don't care about the next quarter; they
don't even care about this year.
They are thinking about the tech that will thrive in 3 or 5 years, because if they want
to take advantage of it, they need to start working on it today.
**Number 2: Money Grows on Trees**
If you don't look at money from this perspective, you will never get rich.
There is no one in this world who becomes rich and then stays rich without this rule.
There are literally thousands of ways to make money.
But the problem with most of these ways is that you almost always have to trade your
time for money, as it is your only resource.
What you want to do instead is plant trees that will earn money without your presence.
That's what an asset is: something that continuously puts money in your pocket.
Be it real estate, a business, or stocks.
It sounds easy, but do you know how difficult it is to plant a tree?
First, you need to plant a seed, but the seed is useless if it's not planted in nutrient-rich
soil.
The tree isn't going to grow by itself!
You need to water it and take care of it, and it's definitely not going to grow overnight.
Not even in a few days or weeks!
Some trees literally grow for 10 or 20 years.
However, once it grows up, it will keep producing fruits with minimum effort.
The same goes for assets.
Once you build up a business or save up enough to make a good investment, it keeps generating
income whether you are there or not.
One of the best trees you can plant is by investing in the stock market.
That's why the top 10 percent richest Americans own 90% of all the stocks in the country.
That’s one of the main reasons why the gap between the rich and poor keeps growing every
single year.
I don't think there is a single rich person in the country who doesn't actively invest
in the stock market.
Real estate is also great, but it's difficult to get into real estate.
You can't get into real estate with as little as a few hundred dollars like you can with
the stock market.
For those interested, I will leave a link to our program specifically designed to turn
you from someone who doesn't know much about the stock market into an intelligent investor
with real, practical knowledge.
You don't necessarily have to take our program; you can learn it on your own, or ask someone
else to teach, I am sure they are plenty of smart people who can teach you.
But for those interested, use the link in the description, because the first 100 people
who use the link and the code INVESTNOW will get a 40% discount.
**3.
Stop Reacting**
This is probably the number one reason why most people never make it out of the paycheck-to-paycheck
lifestyle.
Listen carefully.
If you look at the world around you, there is always something happening.
There is always a drama that’s making someone rich.
And most importantly, the media has to come up with a story to win over your attention
because attention is the new currency.
Whoever captures the world's attention makes a fortune.
And the problem with most people is that they have such weak control over their minds that
they constantly get distracted.
Let’s just look at the last 10 years.
In 2014, the Malaysian Airlines 370 disappeared, and then we spent the entire year wondering
whether the CIA or aliens captured it.
Then Trump ran for president, and the media made it look like if Trump becomes the president,
that's the end of America and the world.
He won the election, and everything was fine.
Then he started a trade war with China.
Then came the pandemic, another disaster for the next 2 years.
Then Russia invaded Ukraine, which captured the headlines again.
I am not saying all of these events don't matter.
But what if you, instead of being worried and reacting to these events, you focused
on building yourself, building your skills, your business?
Imagine for a moment where you would be today.
It sounds so selfish, but you shouldn’t care about everything that doesn’t impact
your life in any way.
It's election day, go and vote for the candidate you believe in.
If a disaster happened, can you help?
Do it.
If not, don't waste your time.
**4.
Do Not Start a Business**
The people who build successful businesses are the most talented people in the world.
You need to have a combination of multiple great talents, and on top of that, you have
to be right about the business you are starting.
If you are starting from zero, the chances that you will miserably fail are almost guaranteed.
A better way to do it is that you pick one skill and master it and then learn how to
effectively monetize it.
It doesn't matter whether it's coding, video editing, marketing, content creation, or social
media management.
Then you scale up from there by hiring people who are good at that thing but don't have
the experience or the discipline at finding clients or getting a team together.
That will give you the experience of building a business.
Take that experience and apply it to start another business while not being worried about
your bills.
**5.
Money Won't Solve Your Insecurities**
This is one of the main reasons why people never get rich.
When you understand this, it becomes so much easier to make money.
When I ask people, "Why do you want to make money?"
they always give me a typical answer: "I want to buy a nice car, an expensive watch, travel
the world."
Why do you want to buy the expensive car?
If you keep asking people why and why and why, you will realize that at the end of the
day, all they want is to be recognized, have a lot of beautiful women around them, want
to be praised by their friends, or something like that.
That's fine, but when they make a few hundred thousand dollars and buy that Lambo or Rolex
and realize that they still struggle to make friends, they still struggle to attract women.
So they keep spending money on stuff they don't need and never get out of that paycheck-to-paycheck
lifestyle.
If you want to get rich, you have to be strategic.
You shouldn't be thinking about your next move, but rather about your next 10 moves.
So if you splash your money on the expensive car, you have no more money to plan your next
9 moves.
Solve your insecurities without money.
Take public speaking classes, become a better communicator, practice talking to strangers.
**6.
Don't Let Anyone Know You Have Money**
It sounds contrary to what you see on social media, where everyone is bragging about how
much money they have by driving supercars, showing you their mansion, or how much money
they made last week.
I don't want to undermine anyone, but these people often make money by selling you their
lifestyle.
That's just a marketing campaign.
If you are truly rich, you never want anyone to know that.
First of all, everyone will be fake with you.
You never know who is there for you or because you have a lot of money.
Suddenly, everyone wants to be your friend; suddenly, you are their best bro.
But that’s the least of your problems.
Then you have these journalists or the people who want to sue you; suddenly, the girl who
told you she loves you is now accusing you of raping her, but she is ready to drop the
charges if you give her 5 million dollars.
But if they don't know how much you are truly worth, they probably won't start that war
in the first place.
People, for some reason, feel good when they see you fail because they somehow use that
as a justification for their miserable lives.
It happens all the time.
That’s not a YOU problem, but that's just the reality.
If you don’t let people know how much money you have, you will have an easier life; you
will have more time to focus on making more money.
**7.
Money Is Never the Destination**
When I started my financial freedom journey, I imagined that once I make an X amount of
money, I will be free.
Saving my first $100K felt great, but the next morning, I woke feeling the same as every
other day.
$100K was no longer enough.
So I set another goal, which was to buy a house.
But I didn't want to get a mortgage because back then, I was so afraid of getting into
debt.
My perspective on debt changed over time, but back then, I was young and stupid.
To be honest, Buying a house without a mortgage felt great, but a few days later, I was like,
so what?
If you make money your destination, you will never be satisfied.
What happens when you have achieved that goal?
Is that the end of your life?
Money is just part of the game of life.
That's why when you look at the richest people in the world, you might get confused: Why
are they still working when they have so much money?
Why are Elon, Bezos, or Gates still working?
Because they are playing the game of life and money is just part of it.
Because they are so good at it, they keep making more and more money.
These are some of the rules that I have learned on my journey to financial freedom.
And I have seen countless other rich people following the same principles to get to the
top.
I hope they will help you too to achieve your financial goals.