- Hey, everyone, so recently some people have said
that they miss my animated story time videos
so, I thought I'd do something a little bit different today.
I thought I would tell you the real reason
about how I was able to become a millionaire in my 20s.
You see, I was thinking back the other day
to a plane trip I took from Los Angeles to New Zealand
in business class.
As you can see, I was flying with a sore throat that day
because this was back before COVID was a thing.
I was 28 at the time of the flight.
My flight manager, Mike, was walking through the aisle
taking off everybody's name from his clipboard
as he was welcoming everybody onto the flight.
And as he came up to me,
his eyes darted out from his clipboard and he was like.
And by now, after taking a lot of flights
I was super used to this sort of thing.
So I was just like, "Hello, it is lovely to meet you."
And he was just like, "Yeah, yeah, kia ora,
welcome on board, it's great to have you."
And in that moment I knew exactly what was going on.
He was standing there going,
"Okay, here's this young girl, I'm confused.
I don't understand, what is she doing in business class?"
I was clearly not flying for work
given I was dressed so casually
and I was flying by myself
so no parents in sight to be mooching off of.
And he could see that I had a late status on the clipboard
and that I flew a lot.
Well, over that flight, we chatted and built up a rapport
until finally, just after breakfast,
as we were about to land, we were all saying, how fun it was
and Mike finally built up enough courage
to just come out and be like,
"Okay, Sarah, I have to ask, how are you here?"
And as we talked, it became apparent
that Mike had just assumed
that there had to be someone else out there
paying for my seat, that perhaps it was my employer
or more likely my parents.
But as I said to him,
"Nope, I was 100% paying for it myself."
And Michael was quite stunned
because the flights were definitely not cheap.
And for this flight I'd actually paid with cash.
And so he said to me, "Okay, you have to tell me,
how does a 28 year old like you
have the ability to be able to buy a business class seat?"
And I said to him, "Look, Mike,
my parents may have not given me my millions of dollars
but my parents are the reason
why have millions of dollars today."
And so while they may have not bought me
my business class seat
they are pretty much the reason why I'm sitting here
especially my father, because you see over the years,
while my parents were not millionaires themselves,
my father became very interested in millionaires
and billionaires and read a lot of books
that they had written
about what they did differently compared to others.
And so one day on a walk, when I was seven years old
my father decided to share with me
the secret that I needed to know
if I wanted to become a millionaire in my 20s.
Growing up, my dad worked hard.
He had a small business
manufacturing and selling commercial lights.
There were many days that I didn't even see him
because he would wake up at the crack of dawn
and then come home late in the evening
after I'd gone to bed.
But even though my dad worked hard
he still tried to spend time with me.
And one of those was going on long walks
where we would chat.
And one of my dad's favorite questions was this,
"Sarah, what do you want to be when you grow up?"
Like cool kids my answer changed every time he asked me.
Sometimes I wanted to work for Nintendo
and make video games.
Some days I wanted to be a doctor
and some days I wanted to be a pilot.
But this day I said to my dad,
"When I grow up, I want to be a millionaire."
And do you know at this point
I'd bet most people's parents would scoff
and they'd be like, "Look, Sarah,
I don't think you understand,
being a millionaire it's not a profession.
You don't just get to choose to become a millionaire,
pick an actual job that you can train for, please."
But luckily for me, my dad ain't like most other dads
and instead he laughed and said to me,
"All right, Sarah, you want to be a millionaire?
Well, let me ask you a question.
How do you become a millionaire?"
"Well, I guess I need to make a million dollars."
"Well, yes, yes you do, Sarah.
So how do you make a lot of money?
How do you make a million dollars?"
"Oh, come on dad, I'm seven years old, I'm just a kid.
I don't know how to do that."
"Well, that's true," my dad laughed,
"But you know, Sarah, most adults don't know
how to do it either.
Nobody taught me how to do it.
And so I had to learn this lesson much later in life,
the sooner you know it the easier it will be
for you to become rich."
So my dad took a detour to a gardening store
and he pointed at the wind chimes hanging.
And he said to me, "You see those wind chimes, Sarah,
what do they remind you of?"
I instantly recognized those wind chimes.
A few weeks prior, I've been given a craft book.
And one of the crafts was how to make wind chimes
out of Popsicle sticks.
And it looked very similar to the wind chime in the window.
And dad said, "Wow, those wind chimes,
that's selling for $40.
How do you think they got those wind chimes for sale?"
And I paused, and I was like,
"I don't know, did they make them?"
"No, they didn't make them, Sarah.
They bought them from someone else.
They might've bought those wind chimes
for $20 from someone else who made them
and now they're selling them for a higher price of $40.
Now, Sarah, I have another question for you.
Each week you help your mother with the dishes
and you clean your room and you take out the trash
and how much money do you make
for doing all of that chores?"
"I get $2 pocket money."
"Right, and it probably takes you about 20 minutes each day
to do all of your chores.
So that is about two hours a week.
What is two divided by two?"
"It's one."
"That's right, so that means right now
you're earning $1 an hour doing chores.
Now, Sarah, I have another question for you.
I know you made a wind chime like that.
How long did it take you to make it?"
"Well, I spent last week doing it."
"Yes you did, you worked on it each day after school
and you spent two hours on it.
Well, what's five times two?"
I had to think a little bit for that one.
"I think it's 10."
"That's right, it is.
That means you spent 10 hours making that wind chime.
Well, Sarah, now I have another question for you.
This garden store, they bought this wind chime
for $20 from someone.
Well, imagine if you had sold them your wind chime
you would've made $20 for 10 hours work.
And what is 20 divided by 10?"
I stared at my dead blankly.
Nobody had taught me how to go beyond multiples of 12.
My dad laughed and he said, "20 divided by 10 is two.
That means Sarah, that instead of doing chores
for $1 an hour, you could have been making wind chimes
and making $2 an hour.
That is double what you're making doing chores.
If you would made wind chimes
you wouldn't have had to do chores anymore
and you would make more money."
And now, obviously, this was a simplification
but hopefully you get his point.
He was teaching me the first lesson
that I needed to know about money.
And that is this.
Most people earn money by completing tasks for others.
Maybe they go into an office and fill out spreadsheets
or perhaps they work in a retail store
and spend the time taking payment from customers,
or maybe they're an engineer
and they go to work each day and build planes.
Either way it's all the same.
But as my dad pointed out,
while this might make a decent safe living,
it does not make you a millionaire.
To become a millionaire rather than going to work
and building things for someone else
so that they can sell them for a profit
you need to make the things yourself
so that you can sell them for a profit.
And so a little seven year old Sarah was like,
"Aha, I have figured it out."
So the way that I become a millionaire
is I should make wind chimes
and sell them to the garden store.
And my dad burst out laughing because I was so, so close
but I had one more money lesson that I had to understand
if I wanted to become a millionaire while I was young.
And so my dad was like,
"Okay, I have one final question for you, Sarah.
Your sister, Melissa, what do you think she'd rather do?
Do you think she'd rather be paid $1 an hour
to do chores around the house?
Or do you think she'd rather be paid $1 an hour
to do crafts?"
And I was like, "Well, she'd rather do crafts.
I'd rather do crafts."
"Exactly, so Sarah, if Melissa is willing to do
$1 an hour for chores,
imagine if you offered her $1 an hour
to make wind chime even quick.
If it took her 10 hours to make a wind chime.
You could pay her $10
and then you could go to the garden store
and sell the wind chime for $20.
What is 20 minus $10?"
Again, I had to think that one through a bit.
"I think it's $10."
"You're right, if you sold it to the garden store
you'd be making $10 for each wind chime."
But I was so confused because I was like,
"Dad, I don't understand, how on earth is this a good idea?
Previously, when I was making the wind chimes myself
I was making $20.
But now that Melissa's making them, I'm making just $10.
How does making less money make me more rich?"
And my dad just grinned and he was like,
"So Sarah, your best friend at school, Jean.
How do you think that she would prefer
to earn her pocket money?
Do you think she'd rather do chores
or do you think she'd rather do crafts?"
And I was like, "Well, she likes making can crafts too."
"Exactly Sarah, so now you have two people
making you wind chimes,
Melissa, who makes you one wind chime for $10
and Jean, who makes you another wind chime $10
and then you go to the garden store
and sell both for $20 each,
you'll make a $10 profit on each one,
which when added together means each week
you'd be making $20.
That's double what you'd be making doing chores
at home for mum.
And I, and do you know what is the best part, Sarah?"
"No, what?"
"Because Melissa and Jean,
are making these wind chimes for you
you don't have to do anything.
You can play video games
and each week you'll still make $20."
And so it was in that moment
that everything truly clicked.
The way to get rich isn't just to go buy the materials
so that I can make a wind chime and sell it.
It is to also use my pocket money
to buy other people's time
and get them to make the wind chimes for me.
"Yes, Sarah, that's the secret.
Hire other people or use tools
to make the products or services to sell for you
so that you don't have to spend your time doing it.
This has a name it's called passive income.
Most people work to get their money
but the wealthy have figured out ways to make money
make itself, and that, Sarah,
that's how you become a millionaire."
And as he walked home that day,
I finally understood the true pathway
to becoming a millionaire
but I also understood something else.
I understood why my dad had told me
that nobody had taught it to him
and he had to figure it out himself.
Because you think about it.
School teaches us to do the opposite
of what my dad taught me.
At school, what do you do?
You go into class each day
and spend time completing tasks assigned to you
and in exchange you get rewarded with good grades.
Wow, this sounds an awful lot like a job, doesn't it?
You go to work and spend time completing tasks
assigned to you and in exchange
you get rewarded with a salary.
There are just two problems though
with that strategy, isn't there?
The first problem, you only have 24 hours in a day.
And for some of that you need to sleep.
Exchanging your time to earn money
will mean most people will never become a millionaire fast
because your income is not scalable, it has a ceiling.
The second problem is that since it is you selling your time
it is you that has to come in and do the job.
You can't outsource it to either technology or a person.
And if you think about it
that's exactly what school makes us do as well.
If you were to hire a friend who is better at math than you
to complete your math homework
instead of being applauded for being efficient with time
you be punished for cheating.
But luckily for me, unlike most people
who only have school to teach them how to earn money
I had my father who taught me a different way.
And so when I turned 16
and all my friends went off to get a part-time job
I instead did something different.
I started an e-commerce business
which is I shared on this channel
I've been scaling ever since.
Like most people I could have used my energy to find a job
to exchange my time for dollars
but instead I used my energy to find products
that I could make and sell.
And so, because of that over time,
I've been able to outsource all aspects of this business
to either humans or apps.
And so now, unlike a job,
this business is running by itself 24 hours a day
making me money while I sleep.
And so I said to Mike,
"Well, my father may have not bought me this plane ticket.
He is indeed the reason why I am sitting
at the front of the plane instead of in the back."
I'll admit it, I find it so baffling.
There are so many people out there
they're afraid of investing their money
into building a business
because they're afraid of losing it.
And yet they are more than happy
to exclusively earn their money
by exchanging the most valuable resource
that we all have, which is our time.
There is a reason that people like me
want to buy it from you by hiring you.
And that's because millionaires understand
that there are always ways to scale and earn more money
but the one resource that you can never earn back
once you spend it is your time.
And each day that you spend doing something
that you don't want to do
is a day that you can never get back.
So, did this video inspire you?
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And if you'd like to learn more
about my scalable sources of income
then you should be sure to watch my video,
five income streams that I built in my 20s
that makes me over $1,000 a day.
So go ahead, watch my next video
and I'll see you over there.