The more hands you shake, the more money you make.
Table of Contents
Why Millionaire Habits Matter Early
Most people wait until their thirties, forties, or later to figure out how money and success actually work. By then they’ve wasted years on the wrong habits.
Millionaires think differently. They move faster, cut mistakes quicker, and build momentum that compounds. The good news is you don’t need millions in the bank to start thinking like one. What you need is the right set of daily habits.
Here are seven millionaire habits I learned early that helped me go from broke at 24 to millionaire at 27.
1. Talk to Strangers Like It’s Your Job
Your next investor, co-founder, or best customer is just one conversation away. Millionaires know networking isn’t a vanity metric, it’s about real connections that create opportunity.
Practical ways to build this muscle:
Practice daily. Ask a waiter what they’d recommend on their birthday. Ask a cashier how long they’ve worked there. The small reps matter.
Use a clear intro script: “Hi, my name is ___, I help ___ get ___ through ___.”
Collect nos, not just yeses. I once sent 500 personalized podcast requests. Most ignored me, but the reps built the skill.
If starting conversations makes you nervous, build the confidence muscle the same way you build anything else. Small consistent reps.
Before you get the opportunity to have your Oprah moment you have to be ready for it.
2. Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time
Millionaires don’t brag about working 100 hours. They brag about how much they get done in 40.
Here’s the formula I use:
| Habit | Why It Works |
|---|---|
| Block everything in your calendar | Your brain is for solving problems, not storing to-dos. |
| Tackle moneymaking tasks first | The leading domino makes everything else easier. |
| Review tomorrow tonight | Adjust your flow so you’re intentional every day. |
If you’re saying “yes” to the wrong things, you’re actually saying “no” to your dreams. Structure creates freedom.
If you don’t write things down in your schedule and know what you’re saying no to then a yes is a no to your dreams.
3. Feed Your Mind Every Day
Reading is the cheapest way to compress decades of wisdom into hours. Most millionaires I know read daily, not to finish books, but to solve problems.
How to apply this:
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Pick 3–5 books recommended by the best in the world on the topic you’re tackling.
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Read to learn, not to finish. Highlight, apply, and teach right away.
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Minimum 10 pages a day primes your brain to see opportunity.
I’ve read over 1,800 books. That’s not a flex, it’s a reminder. Knowledge compounds if you put it into action.
A book can give you 20 years of knowledge in a few hours for just 20 bucks.
4. Be Obnoxiously Curious
Curiosity isn’t a cute trait, it’s a growth engine.
Ways to use curiosity like a millionaire:
Ask your customers why they bought or why they didn’t.
Ask your team why they prioritize what they do.
Ask yourself why you react the way you do under pressure.
One of my mentors once told me, “I already know what I know. Learning from other people is how I progress my life forward.” That hit me.
The world will show you where you’re not free.
5. Ask for Feedback Relentlessly
Money runs out. Feedback multiplies.
But you need to ask the right people:
Target customers not random friends.
Active users not churned or disengaged ones.
Trusted advisors not every critic.
My brother almost went bankrupt in his first year of homebuilding because he didn’t ask for feedback. Once we course-corrected, he sold 16 homes in year one.
No business plan survives first contact with a customer.
6. Measure Everything That Matters
What you measure expands. Millionaires obsess over numbers.
Examples:
Health: track macros, workouts, weight.
Business: daily cash flow emails, KPI dashboards, pipeline conversion.
Life: hours worked, hours recovered, commitments delivered.
I dropped 33 pounds in 90 days by measuring with specificity and frequency. The same applies to revenue, leads, or customer success.
What you measure with specificity and frequency expands.
7. Default to Action
Millionaires aren’t smarter. They just make more decisions, faster.
How to train this habit:
Don’t wait for perfect. Act, then adjust.
Use MENS: Most Important Next Step. Distill the blockage down and move forward.
Build momentum. Small wins create speed and speed attracts money.
Courage isn’t waiting until you’re fearless. It’s taking action despite fear. The world rewards those who move.
It’s not about making the right decision. It’s about making any decision and then making it right.
Take Action on Millionaire Habits
Success is a habit game. You don’t need to master all seven at once. Start with one. Build consistency. Layer the next.
Millionaires don’t wait until life is easier. They move forward, then figure it out. The same opportunity is in front of you today.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do millionaire habits help you become a millionaire faster?
Millionaire habits help you become a millionaire faster by turning daily behavior into automatic systems that compound. When you talk to strangers to expand your network, block priorities on a calendar to manage energy, read and apply books every morning, ask curious questions, seek qualified customer feedback, measure specific metrics, and default to action using the most important next step, you create repeatable momentum that turns effort into results.
What is the millionaire way to network with strangers for more opportunities?
The millionaire way to network with strangers is to practice concise introductions and high volume outreach that warms cold contacts. Use a simple format that states who you help, the outcome you deliver, and your process, then get reps by starting conversations daily. More hands you shake means more opportunities because your network becomes your net worth.
How do millionaires manage energy instead of time to get more done?
Millionaires manage energy instead of time by calendar blocking the day in advance, doing the moneymaking project first in the morning, and reviewing the next day the night before. Putting everything into a calendar removes decision fatigue, aligns commitments, and protects peak energy for high leverage work so a yes today is not a no to long term goals.
Why do millionaires read every morning and how do they read for results?
Millionaires read every morning to prime the mind for opportunity and they read for application rather than completion. They pick the best three to five books on a goal, extract an insight, execute immediately, and teach it to others which locks in learning and turns knowledge into leverage.
Why do millionaires measure everything and still default to action?
Millionaires measure everything to make progress visible and controllable, then default to action to create momentum. Tracking specifics like macros, workouts, weight, cash movement, or key inputs daily makes improvement inevitable, while taking the most important next step turns imperfect information into speed and results.
Related Articles
Related Articles
More Resources
Tools Mentioned
Dan Martell’s Buy Back Your Time
Systems for reclaiming capacity and focusing on high leverage work.Good to Great by Jim Collins
Bullets then cannonballs framework for validating before you scale.Google Calendar
Calendar blocking to plan priorities, review flow the night before, and protect peak energy.
Full Transcript
7 Habits of Millionaires – That Most People Learn Too Late – YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CcoqTUIu_A
Transcript:
(00:00) I’m going to share with you the seven habits of millionaires that most people learn way too late these help me stop wasting Life as a broke 24-year-old and become a cash millionaire at age 27 if you start today they’ll literally compound into millions so let’s dive into the seven habits of millionaires starting with habit number one talk to strangers everyone is one conversation away from achieving their dreams you’ve probably heard this before your network is your net worth but it’s not just knowing people see a lot of folks make
(00:28) it a game of like I know this person and I have this contact and I have this email but you don’t know them and honestly they don’t want to help you and that is the big thing it’s not who you know it’s will they support you when you reach out to them and the only way you can even start a relationship is learning to talk to strangers learning how to go from cold I’ve never met you to warm this person wants to help me in my life to do this right you have to learn how to introduce yourself it’s the number one skill that I teach all young
(00:55) men that I coach so the format is this you say hi my name is then I help then get desired outcome then your unique process for me when I was building SAS Academy I would say hi my name is d mtell i help software CEOs get growth in their business with our perfect exit strategy then the person can lean in and ask you well how does that work you can practice this every day all day long when you go into a retail store ask the person how late do you guys stay open it sounds so trivial but learning to ask a complete stranger a question getting
(01:27) those anxious feelings out of the way and just making it who you are asking the waiter how long they’ve been working there or what they would order if it was their birthday those are all great ways that on a daily basis you can build this muscle and overcome the fear of talking to strangers when I decided I wanted to go be on other people’s podcast I sat down and I sent personalized messages to over 500 podcasts I knew my goal was to just get reps it was less about being on the right podcast and more about getting
(01:56) time on a podcast and even though it sucked not getting replied to or getting NOS I learned a long time ago that if I want to win I have to fight for the NOS not the yeses and that’s why I reached out to so many people so I could learn to talk to strangers learn to answer the question what do you do how did you get started what is your story before you get the opportunity to have your Oprah moment you have to be ready for it the more hands you shake the more money you make and if you’re not talking to strangers then you’re not learning
(02:26) anything new they don’t know about you you don’t know what they know you already know what you know asking question gets you new information to be able to grow your life but you can’t build your network if you don’t make time for it before I share number two we have a goal of hitting 1 million subscribers so if you haven’t already take a second and hit subscribe below which brings us to Habit number two manage your energy flows most people confuse work with getting things done see I used to work 100 hours a week I
(02:54) was burnt out stressed out overworked and I couldn’t figure out how to get out of it now I work less than 40 hours a week but I’m way more productive the reason why is I focus on Energy Management not time management one of my favorite quotes on this by Benjamin Franklin is that if you fail to plan you plan to fail to make sure that I get the most out of every day and I used to think I was productive I wasn’t I do these things first off is I make sure everything I do is blocked in my calendar I’m talking personal
(03:23) professional workouts date nights I need to see if I have capacity for more I need to understand if there’s conflicts or I don’t have enough time to get a project done what has to get dropped so that I can deliver on my commitments if I don’t put it in the calendar then I’m playing a game in my head and your brain was not designed to retain a lot of information it was designed to solve problems so take the stuff that you want to get done out of your head and put it into your calendar the other thing that took me a long time to learn is put the
(03:52) most important task first this is what all millionaires do they wake up and they attack the moneymaking projects first thing in the morning because if they get those things done right everything else takes care of itself it’s the leading Domino most people make the mistake of saying freedom is doing what I want with who I want anytime I want the truth is is that if you don’t write things down in your schedule and know what you’re saying no to then a yes is a no to your dreams cuz if you say yes to somebody to taking the day off
(04:20) and going to the beach but you don’t know what you’re giving up then essentially you might be saying no to your dreams your goals of the future by saying yes to the present that is not what millionaires do and if you want to make make this even more powerful review your calendar the night before 8:00 p.m. every night it’s in my calendar I review the next day even though it’s pretty well baked a week ahead of time I just want to ask myself does this feel good does it flow right am I having the right conversation am I focusing on the right
(04:47) projects if not I make adjustments and this next one is on every Millionaire’s calendar which brings us to Habit number three feed your mind one of the greatest gifts my dad ever gave me was when I got out of rehab at 17 years old was a decision to give me an unlimited budget for computer books he told me as long as I finished it he would pay for the next one and my dad didn’t have unlimited means I knew how much of a stretch it was for him to be willing to say this to me but he understood and I eventually learned the power of self-education the
(05:19) value of reading a book understanding how to solve problems on my own since then I’ve read over 1,800 books what’s crazy is a book can give you 20 years of knowledge in a few hours for just 20 bucks any new goal that I set for myself I always ask what are the three to five books that the best in the world recommend around that topic if it’s Fitness if it’s relationship if it’s business and then I go deep not only do I read them I study them I ensure that when I’m reading them I’m thinking how can I apply this today and then also how
(05:51) do I teach this to others I read to learn not to finish the moment I get a massive takeaway from a book I go execute and if I never come back to that book cuz it solved my problem I have no problems not finishing a book I honestly believe for myself and many of my friends that are millionaires reading first thing in the morning primes our mind it gets us ready to find Opportunities all around us and the coolest part is when I read those 10 pages minimum every day I’m looking for something that I can use to serve the
(06:19) world with in that energy of going on the hunt and highlighting different options to then share on my Instagram I think that’s what makes the book work for me if you want to go deeper and learn how I think about my calendar and buying back my time then get my book I put 27 years of experience into this book and distilled it into the only strategies you need to read to get the most out of your life but knowledge alone won’t make you a millionaire which brings us to Habit number four be obnoxiously curious the other day my
(06:47) kids started asking why and then I said stop asking me why and then the other one started asking why and then both of them just kept going why why why and it occurred to me I don’t want to stop them from being curious but I think in this moment they were messing with me that idea of asking why and being curious is a powerful way to challenge any situation if you don’t learn to ask questions even if it makes other people feel uncomfortable then you’ll never understand the reasoning behind why something is being done for you to be
(07:16) able to use that in other areas of your life Albert Einstein famously said I’m not talented I’m just curious years ago I was hanging out with my mentor at a dinner party I said to him it was interesting watching you because you just sat back and listen to everybody’s answer yet I knew you already knew most of the stuff you were hearing why did you do that and he said I already know what I know learning from other people is how I progress my life forward I think some people just talk too much and that one hit me as an extreme extrovert
(07:44) I realized I wasn’t asking enough questions so this is exactly how I use curiosity to become a millionaire first off I would ask my customers the ones that bought and the ones it didn’t buy why didn’t they buy what was missing for them to say yes the ones that bought what did you believe to be true that made you think that this is the right product for you I asked my team why I asked them why did you decide to work here why are you deciding to do this why do they prioritize certain projects how do they think about their work and where
(08:11) they want to end up in the future being curious about your customers and your team is how you develop a different mental model to be able to solve problems that are more effective even more importantly to that is asking yourself why why do you react that way why do you feel anger when those situation happens what gets you frustrated I always say the world will show you where you’re not free a life unexamined is a life that wasn’t lived for you to truly express yourself in business with your family with your friends you have to understand who you
(08:41) are even today I was just recently at one of my mentors Patrick B David’s office and I saw a poster on the wall and I asked one of the sales guys what’s that poster and he told me that it’s all the goals of the business and the way it works is that if the bottom people don’t hit their goal cuz there was a reward next to it the people at the top don’t get theirs and I thought to myself how’s simple of an idea to get everybody aligned in the business with their goals across different departments I took that idea I created the Align goals ladder
(09:08) within my business and now I’ve got my team operating towards a common goal because I got curious when I was visiting another office which brings us to Habit number five ask for feedback when my brother started his Home Building Company he almost went bankrupt the reason why is he built a product that nobody wanted to buy how did he end up doing that because he didn’t ask for feedback he knew his Target customer was firsttime home buyers specifically women but he never asked them about his designs the locations the finished the
(09:38) fit and he ended up building these houses that are said to have no curb appeal before he ran out of money he called me up and we changed the whole strategy instead what we did is we identified five women that were his ideal customer ran around to all the open houses that were going on by his competitors collected all the feedback about what these women love then fed that to the designer so he could architect the perfect home he went from almost going bankrupt to building and selling 16 homes in his first year
(10:06) that’s the power of feedback money Runs Out feedback multiplies what’s unique about my Approach in business that allows me to make a million in my first year minimum is that I start expecting that something’s wrong about my idea I’m looking for how to validate my assumptions not holding on to the belief that I’m right and then hoping the market responds no business plan survives first contact with a customer in the book good to great Jim Collins talks about shooting bullets lead bullets at the Target so that you can
(10:34) refine your focus and only once you’re hitting the target with multiple bullets you then load up the cannon and take a shot because you know it’s going to hit the challenge with feedback is that you have to be careful who you listen to I used to make the mistake of just asking everybody for feedback people that are not your Target customer even people that signed up for your product but never used it cuz you didn’t check are horrible people to ask for feedback from I see this even when people hire and fire employees when they’re leaving the
(11:00) company after they fired them they’re asking them for feedback for what they could have changed why would you change your business for somebody that you decided to fire this no longer there so yes get feedback but ensure you get it from the right people but the next habit is one that millionaires can’t live without which brings us to Habit number six measure everything a year ago I decided I wanted to have visible ABS why well I heard there was 22 million millionaires in the US but there’s only 3 million people with visible apps so I
(11:28) thought it’d be a fun little project not 90 days what changed everything specifically though I had to measure all aspects of my health I had to measure my macros I had to measure my workouts I had to measure my weight these are things that I recorded on a daily sometimes twice a day basis so that I could ensure I could drop 33 lb in 90 days and have absolutely shredded ABS the best part is I’ve kept it up 12 months later how by continuing with the measurement one of my beliefs is what you measure with specificity and
(11:58) frequency expand hands I get a daily cash email for all of my companies so I can understand how money moves in and out of my businesses on a daily basis and I use that as almost like a heartbeat for how my companies are doing yes my CFO creates reports but at the end of the day something as simple as cash and wanting it to expand and focusing on it is I think one of my key strategies that I would never get rid of but even with all the tracking in the world none of the millionaires I know would make it anywhere without this last
(12:26) habit which brings us to Habit number seven default to action I have people talk to me all the time about starting their next thing starting their first thing and they always put it off they wait until the situation is perfect the truth is it’s not about making the right decision it’s about making any decision and then making it right here’s how much I personally believe in taking action when you know it’s on your heart in 2012 my company flowtown was bought by demand force and I had to stick around for 12 months it’s called your earnout so that
(12:55) I receive the full amount that they bought me for yet after a few months of being there came up with a new idea this concept called Clarity and I knew on my heart I really wanted to do that but I also knew leaving was kind of a dumb financial decision but I decided after 7 weeks of working on that idea that I had to go do it after 3 months I not only rais 1.
(13:18) 6 million in funding demand Force got acquired by into it for 600 million which meant that it triggered a clause in the contract that meant that I still got paid out my earnout that’s when I reinforced this belief I heard a long time ago which is the world rewards those that take courageous decisions and your default to action is you making that courageous decision courage isn’t making a decision when you have no fear courage is making a decision in spite of fear if I didn’t decide to go work on this new project I probably would have never got to that next level of growth
(13:48) and got the money not only from the exit but from eventually exiting that second company I bet on myself and that’s what I want you to do for yourself you want to be patient with your results but impatient with action you might be young thinking I need to be further along or you might be further along in your life and say why am I not further along I’m telling you just be impatient with daily action be consistent but also understand results sometimes take time you can’t make a baby in one month with nine women
(14:14) what millionaires do different is they don’t just talk about doing the thing they actually do the thing by the time you hear about it through their mouth they’ve already taken action on it because they have a process for taking action one of them I like to use is this concept called mens your most important Next Step if I can just distill where I feel blockage in my life to move forward into that next step and then just commit to taking any action towards that one thing not the bigger thing that usually gets me building momentum and momentum
(14:40) is contagious money likes speed your ability to process imperfect information and make a decision is what makes the best entrepreneurs millionaires but it’s not just only what I do that makes me a millionaire it’s what I don’t do if you want to learn the seven things I quit to go from broke to millionaire click here and I’ll see on the other side