How to become a millionaire: everything I learned becoming a millionaire by 30.
What is a millionaire?
To become a millionaire, we need to be on the same page about what that actually means.
Ask five people to define millionaire and you’ll get five different answers.
Is a millionaire someone who grosses $1,000,000 a year? Nets $1,000,000 a year? Has a net worth of $1,000,000 or more? Has $1,000,000 liquid?
What about currencies and exchange rates? Are married couples grouped together? Do you count homes, cars and toys as assets? Or not?
To me, it’s simple: can you write me a check today for a million U.S. dollars?
If you can answer yes? You’re a millionaire. If not? You’re a poser. Plain and simple.
I like this definition because it’s the most hardcore. You’ve gotta do more to earn the title. It protects the prestige that accompanies the millionaire label.
Plus, it’s based on facts, not theory.
(Who’s to say you could get $650,000 for that house? And what happens when the market crashes again?)
See what I’m saying?
So, here on Millyuns, when we say millionaire, we mean one individual with $1M in “net investable assets” as Wikipedia says.
Okay, enough about that. Now that we know what a real millionaire is, can anyone become one?
Are millionaires made or born?
I say both. Obviously, you could inherit millions. But, silver spoons aside, let’s assume you’re doing it the hard way. From scratch. No help. Just you and your million dollar goal.
If you don’t have “magical millionaire DNA,” are you screwed? Nah.
I mean, sure, some people are born with intangibles that set them up nicely for entrepreneurial success. No doubt about it.
But then there’s people like me. Not a “business bone” in my body.
Never had a lemonade stand growing up. Didn’t sell the neighbors back their flowers. No booming baseball card business. Oh, and I was (and still am) scared to death of sales.
To top it off, my parents were about as blue collar as it gets. Their blueprint for “big money” was working overtime at the factory.
My point is this:
If anyone had the millionaire deck stacked against them? It was me. I wasn’t born or bred to make obscene amounts of money. Far from it.
And yet, here I am, making millions of dollars in pure profit like it’s my job. (Oh, wait.)
Which is great news if you were over there, feeling sorry for yourself. I don’t give a sh*t what you think your destiny is; you can change it. I did. Why not you?
And no, your age, your background, and your laundry list of excuses don’t matter.
If you wanna become a millionaire by 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 65; in one year, two years, five years; online or offline; with or without college; in stocks, real estate, tech; starting with no money, little money, lots of money? Doesn’t matter. It’s all possible.
(Not likely. But plenty possible.)
Don’t believe me? Check this out:
The CSRI Global Wealth Report 2016 estimates that there are 33 million mofos with wealth between USD 1 million and USD 50 million. That’s a lot of people.
So why not YOU? Right?
And, no, you can’t expect it to happen overnight. But it can happen. And it doesn’t have to take decades of patiently waiting on compound interest to do its thing.
Which brings up the next question.
How long does it take to become a millionaire?
I once read a quote that said: get rich quick is not a scam, but get rich easy is. In other words, it can happen fast, but it’s going to take hard work.
I couldn’t agree more.
That’s been my experience. And the experience of the small circle of millionaires I run with.
We all did it in less than 10 years. And a buddy of mine went from zero to a million, net, in less than one year!
(Can we agree that that’s pretty damn fast?)
Of course, the majority of millionaires take the longer, slower, more traditional route: climb the corporate ladder, work, save, invest, repeat for 40 years, hope the market cooperates, and one day, maybe, cross the seven figure mark.
And that’s cool too, but I doubt that’s why you’re here.
Assuming you’d like to make your first (or fourth) million by, oh I dunno, yesterday?
Well, keep reading.
That’s what this project is all about: helping you go from nothing to 7-figures as efficiently as possible. And then do it again. And again. And again.
And it all starts with mindset. So let’s explore that.
How do millionaires think?
Different. That’s the short answer.
The long answer would have a lot to do with: self education, dreaming bigger, embracing risk, feeding the mind more positive and less negative, finding opportunity in adversity, accountability, problem solving, seeking out mentors, and so on and so forth.
But there’s one belief that’s more important than all the others combined… if you ask me. And I bet most millionaires would agree – especially the ones who pulled it off at a young age.
Ready for it?
Here goes: time is your most valuable asset.
Now. Broke people hear that and go, “Yeah, I already know that.” But their actions say otherwise.
They’re cheap with their money. Millionaires are cheap with their TIME. And only when you fully appreciate that can you unshackle yourself from the status quo.
Because here’s what mediocrity looks like:
- Watching three hours of Netflix a night.
- Reading celebrity gossip blogs.
- Refreshing Facebook 293 times a day.
- Worrying about Kylie Jenner’s lips.
- Monkeying around with Snapchat selfie filters.
- Doing research for fantasy f*cking football.
- Gossiping.
- Clipping coupons.
- Driving 45-minutes out of the way to take advantage of a sale.
- Booking flights with long layovers to save $125.
- Camping out in front of Apple to get the latest iPhone.
- Standing in line for an hour to get a free sample of pulled pork at the new BBQ joint.
- Sitting in traffic 90-minutes a day to get to and from some soul-sucking job.
- Rotting away in a cubicle eight hours a day.
- Trading five days of work for two days of freedom.
- Going out for beers with Broke Bob.
- Listening to Broke Bob b*tch about his life.
- B*tching to Broke Bob about your life.
- Conspicuous consumption.
- Being forced to stay at that soul-sucking job even longer, thanks to conspicuous consumption.
And so on and so forth. Are you picking up what I’m putting down here? See how pathetic this looks on paper?
Millionaires know better.
(That’s why they’re millionaires. Duh.)
They don’t whore out their time. They understand: every hour counts.
Instead of pissing precious minutes down their pant leg? They’re busy creating cash flow.
Instead of blowing money on material goods, they invest it… to create more income that’s passive (Buying mansions and Lambos and designer clothes comes later, only after freedom is secured.)
Instead of pinching pennies, millionaires happily spend money to protect their free time.
Make sense?
But here’s the good news: you don’t need to be perfect. You can watch the next episode of Silicon Valley. (Damn fine show, by the way.) It’s okay. I’m not asking you to be a robot.
Just be aware. Give time the respect it deserves.
Cherish each day. Sooner or later? You will run out of them. Invest wisely. Or you’ll never be rich.
Enough on that. I’ll get off my soapbox. Onto the good stuff.
What’s the fastest, easiest way to become a millionaire?
Obviously, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer here.
All I can do is speak from 12 years of in-the-trenches experience and share what has and has not worked well for me.
So after too many botched businesses to count and two multiple seven figure home runs, here are 15 truths about generating millions of dollars with maximum speed and minimum headaches.
1) While you can make money in almost any niche, if you can help someone get laid or paid, you’re off to a good start. “Do what you love” is only good advice if what you love just so happens to fall within an industry that’s known for birthing million dollar businesses.
2) Passion is not an absolute requirement, but it’ll sure help. And it can be developed over time. When a business starts spitting out $650,000 a month, it’s amazing how your passion for it grows. (Wink.)
3) Bigger numbers are better. The more you charge, the greater your margins, the larger the audience is you’re trying to sell to? The faster you can go from nothing to a million or more.
4) Speaking of charging more, I’ve found that it’s actually easier to sell high-end products and services to affluent buyers… than it is to sell low-end to the poor or middle class. (And since the rich always have money, your business is less susceptible to economic downturns.)
5) Know your numbers. You could provide $1 of value to one million people. Or $100 of value to 10,000 people. Or $1,000 of value to 1,000 people. Or whatever else works out, mathematically. But you’ll never be a millionaire trying to sell something for too little to too few.
6) Do it all online. Do you have to? No. There’s no shortage of ways to build million dollar businesses offline. But the internet gives you unfair advantages over brick-and-mortars: speed, reach, simplicity and low overhead.
7) Own 100% of the business. Avoid partnerships. If you can’t do it alone, hire talent as independent contractors… but pay them a flat-fee plus or minus bonuses. Never give up equity unless there’s no way around it. Trust me, you’ll regret it.
8) This ties in with what I just said, but control the money. If you’re gonna do affiliate marketing or MLM, that’s fine, but because you’re dependent on someone else to get paid, it’s absolutely crucial you control the traffic! (Like I do here, with Millyuns.)
9) Go “all in” on one business. Say no to everything else. Don’t get distracted. Don’t chase shiny sh*t. Don’t half-ass six businesses all at once. Don’t sell out for small money, today. Nope, use every minute, every ounce of energy, every dollar to a) become the best at what you do and b) build a system that allows you to scale whether you’re working or not.
10) Study copywriting, marketing, advertising, sales and the millionaire mindset, daily. I don’t care how. Books, mentors, podcasts, interviews, blogs, courses, coaching. A little bit of everything. Whatever floats your boat.
11) Apply what you learn. This is what separates internet marketers from internet millionaires; wantrepreneurs from entrepreneurs; talkers from walkers; dreamers from doers.
12) Don’t major in the minors. If you catch yourself thinking, discussing or doing anything that won’t boost sales or improve your offer? Stop, and do something that will. Ignore 99% of the minutia and zone-focus on the 1% that actually matters.
13) I’ve shared so many quotes on this website, but here’s one of my all-time faves:
“Complexity is the enemy of execution.”
Online, everyone’s way too worried about funnels, squeeze pages, membership sites, plugins, webinars, tools, and software. They spend most of their time making things more difficult; I do the opposite. As a result, I’m able to crank out more meaningful work, more efficiently, widening the gap between us. Like this website, for example. Could it be any simpler? I spent almost no time on design or tech, leaving me nothing but time to type these words. Which’ll go to work for me, day after day, for the rest of my life.
14) Live below your means. Stack as much cash as possible. You’ll need it, to outspend the competition on marketing and advertising. That’s how you dominate: by being willing and able to pay more for customers. I can’t overstate this. The pace at which you go from zilch to millionaire is set, more than anything, by your ad budget. Small budget? Slow growth. Big budget? Fast growth.
15) Start now. No more waiting. Sorry to say, the stars will never align. Do the best you can with what you have right now, this very minute. For the love of God, stop procrastinating.
Want more million dollar advice?
Remember this website and don’t be a stranger. I’ll have new sh*t drippin’ daily on all things millionaire.
