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- Feb 15, 2019
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As I was thinking tonight, I wanted to put together a list of the top 10 things I learned on my journey to make my 1st million. Some may go against everything you've heard before. Some you may have already heard, but hopefully they're worded in a way that hits differently than the last time you heard them. P.S. I hate making titles to posts like this one, it makes it seem like I'm flexing. I just make titles like that so you will actually click on this thread and hopefully get something out of it. If you're curious and want to read my whole journey step by step of how I made my first million, feel free to read it here:
www.thefastlaneforum.com
1. You're a product of your belief systems. What you think about determines what you believe. What you believe determines what actions you take. what actions you take determines what results you get. What results you get determines what you think about. When I was broke, the first thing I did was absorb everything I could about developing a better mindset. Building discipline, Focus, grit, etc. Went to Tony Robbins seminars, read books about mindset, youtube. Didn't even really focus on what business I wanted to do, I focused on building the mindset I'd need to perform in any business.
2. Life is a series of inputs and outputs. As simple as it seems, the inputs you do will provide the outputs earned by those inputs. When I began to break down my business like this, it got really simple. I'm in real estate and wanted to focus on finding deals. How do I find an off-market deal? Well I talk to the people that own the properties. It's that simple. so I made that my primary input.. I started cold-calling. Was it the best way? Maybe not. But it was an input that got me closer to the output I wanted. What's an input that would drive you close to the output you want? Focus on 1 then expand. I focused on just cold calling before adding in mass texting, google ads, mailers, etc.
3. Driving revenue is the only thing that matters. For me, that meant finding the next deal. No matter how much of a whirlwind of shit I had to do that day, I always started my day the same way. Cold calling for 3 hours chasing down the next deal. If nothing else got done that day, I still won the day. I did the input required to drive revenue. I didn't prioritize anything else, and I didn't get in the weeds on things. Once my revenue driving task was done, I could tackle any other problems I had that day. You can buy your way out of problems, but you can't do that without driving revenue.
4. The Fundamentals are everything. Every business has the fundamentals to driving revenue. For Real estate, it's cold calling, texting, sending mail, posting signs, digital ads, etc. What I quickly learned is there's no secrets and everything comes back to executing the fundamentals well. When I would have a lull and not finding many deals, I would get in the weeds and try to find some secret list I could call that would give me 100 deals. The end result? I would end up calling the same sort of list I always called, focused on making the calls consistently, then the deals would start flowing in again. There was no secret list. I was just looking for a quick easy answer.
5. 16 hour work days and waking up at 5am is BS. I put in some long days along the way, don't get me wrong. But I roll out of bed at about 8:30-9am everyday. I'm usually done by 5pm, unless there's a bunch of things that demand my attention. I would challenge most people that flex how long their work day is with what are you actually doing and what are you calling "work"? If you spend 8 hours every day driving revenue and only focused on what's truly important, 8 hours is probably enough. I spend about 80% of my work day on the phone. Talking to cold prospects, warm leads, lenders, and putting transactions together. Most of them don't want to talk to me after 5pm anyways. Your business could be different.
6. Lack of certainty will kill your dreams faster than anything else. Most of us know what to do, we just want to be reminded by someone to give us certainty that we are right. Everyone knows how to lose weight, but miraculously, people line up to jump on some new diet or trend. They just want to feel certain "this time, this diet will work". The flip side of this coin is the person on the sidelines saying I'll never be able to lose weight because I'm big boned. They lack certainty that it can be done. The work will always come before the belief. Just know what you want can be obtained. You don't need the certainty on what the next step is. Just take a step, in any direction (except backwards), and see what happens.
7. Business evolves and so will you. If you read my post on here titled "how I made my first million by 23" you'll see it play out in real time. I started a pressure washing company which ultimately lead me getting into real estate. I knew starting my pressure washing business that it wasn't the end all be all for me. Sure enough, it wasn't. But doing the inputs lead to me meeting people that opened other doors for me. I used to get so hung up on "what business will I start" and I see it all the time on this forum. Start something, anything. Doesn't have to be what you love, doesn't have to be something you want to do forever. But get started and opportunities will begin to present themselves.
8. Mentors will find you. For the longest time I searched and searched for some mentor or "guru" to solve my problems and give me the road map to El Dorado. I hired a plethora of different coaches, wasted a lot of money on some, made a lot of money from others. The best ones I found were found on accident. Finding deals for them, making them money soon lead to a mentor-like relationship. Let Youtube be your mentor to begin with, then you will find them along the way as you bring value. Don't go up to rich people with puppy dog eyes asking if they'll be your mentor. It's cringe and probably won't go anywhere.
9. Books are over-rated, people are better. Books are great. But I've come to realize there's only a handful of things I've actually ever taken away from books and implemented. Maybe I'm just a bad student. Along the same lines as #6.. Most of us already know a lot of the answers besides some technical things. We really just need someone to give us the confidence to execute. Books don't give you the confidence, really. But they will give you some of the technical things you may be missing. The best "mentor" (gah I hate that word) that I've ever had did teach me some things. But the best thing he gave me was the confidence to go execute on what I already knew and what he taught me. The ability to call someone and have them answer your questions/respond to the worst case scenarios you come up with in your head, is hands down the most powerful thing I've had along this journey. No book can provide me that.
10. Time is part of the equation, and you can't remove it. If I could have a dollar for every night that I was frustrated because I wasn't where I wanted to be.... Time is a part of the equation and you can't change that or get around it. Most of us read the millionaire fastlane , because we all want to be on said fastlane. It took me 2 years to become a millionaire. It happened fast, but while I was in the trenches it felt like a long slog uphill where I'd fall on my face and slide down 100 feet before getting back up to continue my slog. It never felt like I was really getting where I wanted to go fast enough. It was frustrating, felt like I was in the wrong business, then I quickly got shiny object syndrome. No matter the business, time is a requirement. If I knew this when I started, I would've been much happier along the journey. That being said, don't spend too much time on stuff that doesn't work. But make sure you spend enough time to see if it will work before giving up.
Hope you got something out of this.
GOLD! - EXECUTION - My whole journey on how I made my first million by 23
Hey Guys. Long time no talk... I've been on this forum for years and haven't been on in about a year or so and thought I'd share how my life has changed since. I figured I'd make a post outlining where I'm at today and how I arrived here. Some of it will repeat the prior posts I've made, but...
www.thefastlaneforum.com
1. You're a product of your belief systems. What you think about determines what you believe. What you believe determines what actions you take. what actions you take determines what results you get. What results you get determines what you think about. When I was broke, the first thing I did was absorb everything I could about developing a better mindset. Building discipline, Focus, grit, etc. Went to Tony Robbins seminars, read books about mindset, youtube. Didn't even really focus on what business I wanted to do, I focused on building the mindset I'd need to perform in any business.
2. Life is a series of inputs and outputs. As simple as it seems, the inputs you do will provide the outputs earned by those inputs. When I began to break down my business like this, it got really simple. I'm in real estate and wanted to focus on finding deals. How do I find an off-market deal? Well I talk to the people that own the properties. It's that simple. so I made that my primary input.. I started cold-calling. Was it the best way? Maybe not. But it was an input that got me closer to the output I wanted. What's an input that would drive you close to the output you want? Focus on 1 then expand. I focused on just cold calling before adding in mass texting, google ads, mailers, etc.
3. Driving revenue is the only thing that matters. For me, that meant finding the next deal. No matter how much of a whirlwind of shit I had to do that day, I always started my day the same way. Cold calling for 3 hours chasing down the next deal. If nothing else got done that day, I still won the day. I did the input required to drive revenue. I didn't prioritize anything else, and I didn't get in the weeds on things. Once my revenue driving task was done, I could tackle any other problems I had that day. You can buy your way out of problems, but you can't do that without driving revenue.
4. The Fundamentals are everything. Every business has the fundamentals to driving revenue. For Real estate, it's cold calling, texting, sending mail, posting signs, digital ads, etc. What I quickly learned is there's no secrets and everything comes back to executing the fundamentals well. When I would have a lull and not finding many deals, I would get in the weeds and try to find some secret list I could call that would give me 100 deals. The end result? I would end up calling the same sort of list I always called, focused on making the calls consistently, then the deals would start flowing in again. There was no secret list. I was just looking for a quick easy answer.
5. 16 hour work days and waking up at 5am is BS. I put in some long days along the way, don't get me wrong. But I roll out of bed at about 8:30-9am everyday. I'm usually done by 5pm, unless there's a bunch of things that demand my attention. I would challenge most people that flex how long their work day is with what are you actually doing and what are you calling "work"? If you spend 8 hours every day driving revenue and only focused on what's truly important, 8 hours is probably enough. I spend about 80% of my work day on the phone. Talking to cold prospects, warm leads, lenders, and putting transactions together. Most of them don't want to talk to me after 5pm anyways. Your business could be different.
6. Lack of certainty will kill your dreams faster than anything else. Most of us know what to do, we just want to be reminded by someone to give us certainty that we are right. Everyone knows how to lose weight, but miraculously, people line up to jump on some new diet or trend. They just want to feel certain "this time, this diet will work". The flip side of this coin is the person on the sidelines saying I'll never be able to lose weight because I'm big boned. They lack certainty that it can be done. The work will always come before the belief. Just know what you want can be obtained. You don't need the certainty on what the next step is. Just take a step, in any direction (except backwards), and see what happens.
7. Business evolves and so will you. If you read my post on here titled "how I made my first million by 23" you'll see it play out in real time. I started a pressure washing company which ultimately lead me getting into real estate. I knew starting my pressure washing business that it wasn't the end all be all for me. Sure enough, it wasn't. But doing the inputs lead to me meeting people that opened other doors for me. I used to get so hung up on "what business will I start" and I see it all the time on this forum. Start something, anything. Doesn't have to be what you love, doesn't have to be something you want to do forever. But get started and opportunities will begin to present themselves.
8. Mentors will find you. For the longest time I searched and searched for some mentor or "guru" to solve my problems and give me the road map to El Dorado. I hired a plethora of different coaches, wasted a lot of money on some, made a lot of money from others. The best ones I found were found on accident. Finding deals for them, making them money soon lead to a mentor-like relationship. Let Youtube be your mentor to begin with, then you will find them along the way as you bring value. Don't go up to rich people with puppy dog eyes asking if they'll be your mentor. It's cringe and probably won't go anywhere.
9. Books are over-rated, people are better. Books are great. But I've come to realize there's only a handful of things I've actually ever taken away from books and implemented. Maybe I'm just a bad student. Along the same lines as #6.. Most of us already know a lot of the answers besides some technical things. We really just need someone to give us the confidence to execute. Books don't give you the confidence, really. But they will give you some of the technical things you may be missing. The best "mentor" (gah I hate that word) that I've ever had did teach me some things. But the best thing he gave me was the confidence to go execute on what I already knew and what he taught me. The ability to call someone and have them answer your questions/respond to the worst case scenarios you come up with in your head, is hands down the most powerful thing I've had along this journey. No book can provide me that.
10. Time is part of the equation, and you can't remove it. If I could have a dollar for every night that I was frustrated because I wasn't where I wanted to be.... Time is a part of the equation and you can't change that or get around it. Most of us read the millionaire fastlane , because we all want to be on said fastlane. It took me 2 years to become a millionaire. It happened fast, but while I was in the trenches it felt like a long slog uphill where I'd fall on my face and slide down 100 feet before getting back up to continue my slog. It never felt like I was really getting where I wanted to go fast enough. It was frustrating, felt like I was in the wrong business, then I quickly got shiny object syndrome. No matter the business, time is a requirement. If I knew this when I started, I would've been much happier along the journey. That being said, don't spend too much time on stuff that doesn't work. But make sure you spend enough time to see if it will work before giving up.
Hope you got something out of this.
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