How to Go from Broke at 18 to Millionaire by 30: The Roadmap That Actually Works

I’m 45. If You’re 18 to 30, Watch This…

https://www.youtube.com/watch/nby0dYLcz8I

00:00:00.080 I became a cash millionaire at 27 years
00:00:02.240 old. But if I had to start from zero at
00:00:04.880 18 and go from broke to millionaire
00:00:07.120 before 30, these are the exact choices I
00:00:09.599 would make at every point in my journey.
00:00:11.200 And if at any point during this video
00:00:12.800 you think I can’t do this, you might not
00:00:15.200 be cut out to be a millionaire. And
00:00:16.560 that’s totally fine. But if you’re part
00:00:18.160 of the select few that are willing to do
00:00:20.240 the work, then this video is for you.
00:00:22.560 The first choice I would make is college
00:00:24.800 or no college. Here’s the thing. The
00:00:27.599 pros, you get to learn how to learn. I
00:00:30.080 can’t tell you how many people finish
00:00:31.359 high school and they didn’t learn the
00:00:33.360 skill of learning. College is going to
00:00:34.960 teach you that cuz it gives you creative
00:00:36.480 freedom over the courses you get to
00:00:38.000 pick. It also gets you access to
00:00:39.600 incredible mentors. You know, when I
00:00:41.200 think of like the professors and the
00:00:42.960 other teachers I’ve met at the college
00:00:44.640 or university level because they’re
00:00:46.079 going to be getting called by other CEOs
00:00:48.079 of companies saying, “Who are your top
00:00:49.600 students?” and recommending the people
00:00:51.440 in those classes. And the truth is, if
00:00:53.840 you go to college, you will come out
00:00:56.160 with a higher pay. If you get the
00:00:57.840 degree, you get paid accordingly if you
00:01:00.000 stay in that lane. Not going to college,
00:01:02.239 I mean, first off, you get to start the
00:01:04.319 thing you actually want to do. See,
00:01:06.159 college is in many ways a reason to
00:01:08.479 delay just doing. If you don’t go, you
00:01:10.640 get to start right away. One of the big
00:01:12.400 ones is the cost of college. If you look
00:01:14.560 at the cost of college, it’s gone up
00:01:16.479 five, six, seven times. Guess what has
00:01:18.240 not gone up accordingly? Your pay. And
00:01:20.560 then finally, how does AI change
00:01:23.200 college? What if nobody needs it?
00:01:25.200 Because AI is your co-pilot. It has
00:01:27.040 perfect information and PhD level
00:01:29.119 knowledge to help you do anything you
00:01:30.640 want. Is college really even needed?
00:01:32.880 That could very much be true in the next
00:01:34.720 12 months, 24 months. So, if I was 18
00:01:37.600 again, my opinion, don’t go to college.
00:01:40.079 I just don’t think taking on debt and
00:01:42.240 becoming a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer
00:01:44.159 is the fastest way to a million anymore.
00:01:46.159 So, now that I’ve decided to skip
00:01:47.759 college and save myself four years of
00:01:49.920 sitting in a class, it’s time for the
00:01:51.520 next choice. Getting a job or starting a
00:01:53.840 business. So, pros of getting a job.
00:01:56.079 First off, jobs come with built-in
00:01:57.920 mentors. You’re going to be around other
00:01:59.840 people that are doing the thing that I’m
00:02:01.759 assuming you’re going to start in the
00:02:02.960 future if you want to start your own
00:02:04.000 business. So, you get to fasttrack your
00:02:05.840 learning by getting paid to learn. The
00:02:08.399 other one is structured skill building.
00:02:10.080 If you go work at the right place,
00:02:11.440 you’re going to be put in maybe into
00:02:12.879 marketing and then they’re going to move
00:02:13.920 you into sales and then you could go
00:02:15.440 into operations. In four years, you
00:02:17.280 might come out of there as a freaking
00:02:18.560 weapon. The other one is that it’s low
00:02:20.400 risk. You’re not putting your own money
00:02:22.480 and time into something and hoping it
00:02:24.560 works out. You’re going to be learning
00:02:25.920 the skills and somebody else is going to
00:02:27.120 be paying you to do it. So, it’s a heck
00:02:28.720 of a lot lower risk than starting your
00:02:30.160 own thing. On the other side, we have
00:02:31.520 starting your business. First off,
00:02:33.440 unlimited income. You could literally
00:02:35.760 get as rich as you possibly can get
00:02:37.840 based on your skill level and the
00:02:39.280 opportunity in the market. It’s up to
00:02:41.040 you. That is not true in a salaried
00:02:43.440 position that you get when you do your
00:02:44.879 own thing. Then you have unlimited
00:02:46.640 upside, maybe relationships or do really
00:02:49.200 cool projects or travel the world doing
00:02:51.120 what you love to do. And the last is
00:02:53.120 faster decision cycles. I can’t tell you
00:02:55.519 how soul sucking working for somebody
00:02:57.519 else can feel if you’re in the wrong
00:02:58.720 place. When you’re doing your own thing,
00:03:00.400 guess what? You decide what you want to
00:03:02.959 work on. It’s incredible. that may not
00:03:04.959 come if you’re working for somebody else
00:03:06.319 because you’re going to be stuck in
00:03:07.519 their vehicle instead of building your
00:03:09.519 own. So, if I was 18 again in this
00:03:12.080 world, I’m doing my own thing. Why?
00:03:14.000 Because the world has never been ready
00:03:15.840 for people to decide to do their own
00:03:17.599 thing, then right now all the tools that
00:03:19.280 didn’t exist, all the opportunities, the
00:03:20.879 people, the customers are all available
00:03:22.400 for you to talk to. There’s no lack of
00:03:24.480 places to go learn. If anything, you’re
00:03:26.159 going to be overwhelmed. But that’s the
00:03:27.760 beauty. So, now that you decided to do
00:03:29.440 your thing, the next choice I would make
00:03:31.360 is co-founder or go solo. Both are
00:03:34.000 awesome. Having a co-founder, the first
00:03:36.319 thing is it has built-in accountability.
00:03:38.080 See, when you’re doing everything
00:03:39.200 yourself, it is easy to decide to go
00:03:41.840 down a path that to any other person if
00:03:44.000 they’re actually watching you would stop
00:03:45.840 you from going down that path. Having a
00:03:47.760 co-founder can fill in the gaps around
00:03:49.599 skill sets that you don’t naturally have
00:03:51.280 that they bring to the table and could
00:03:52.640 be world class at. The other thing is
00:03:54.239 having somebody else that also believes
00:03:55.760 in your crazy idea sets you up in case
00:03:57.519 you want to raise money because an
00:03:58.720 investor is going to go, “Okay, if you
00:03:59.920 convince one other person that what
00:04:01.519 you’re doing could work, then that’s a
00:04:03.200 good sign.” But then you could also go
00:04:05.040 solo. There’s a lot of reasons why you’d
00:04:06.720 want to do this. First off, it’s a lot
00:04:08.560 faster. You don’t have to build
00:04:09.840 consensus when making decisions. The
00:04:11.599 other thing is you get to keep the whole
00:04:13.040 business. If I bring on a co-founder, I
00:04:14.720 might have to give up 50% of my
00:04:16.160 business, even more if they’ve got more
00:04:17.759 skills and more capital that they’re
00:04:19.040 bring to the table, and that might
00:04:20.320 create more risk in my business. The
00:04:21.680 other one, the truth is it costs less.
00:04:23.520 You might have to pay yourself a little
00:04:24.880 bit to get started. And if you bring
00:04:26.000 another person that also needs to take a
00:04:27.600 salary and you saved up some money, all
00:04:29.120 of a sudden those savings start to
00:04:30.400 dwindle really quick. If I was starting
00:04:32.320 over today, the decision I would make is
00:04:34.720 neither. Cuz the truth is is I think you
00:04:36.960 should look at a third option, which is
00:04:38.639 finding somebody could be a partner. It
00:04:40.560 doesn’t mean a co-founder. Language
00:04:42.560 aside, a partner means that they’re
00:04:44.400 involved in the business. They might
00:04:45.759 have a little bit of equity, but you’re
00:04:47.759 still driving things forward. I’ve been
00:04:49.520 doing this for 28 years and I’ll tell
00:04:51.199 you everybody is in until it starts to
00:04:53.759 hurt and then we’ll see who actually
00:04:56.560 shows up. So, I like to use the word
00:04:58.400 partner. So, there’s two benefits to
00:05:00.080 this strategy. First off, you don’t give
00:05:01.759 up one of the most expensive things,
00:05:03.600 which is equity, meaning the ownership
00:05:05.520 in the business. If somebody buys your
00:05:07.120 business for $10 million and somebody
00:05:09.039 else owns 50% and they’re no longer part
00:05:11.759 of the business, trust me, when you
00:05:13.360 write that check for $5 million to that
00:05:15.199 person, it’s going to eat you up inside.
00:05:16.880 So to fix that, and this is the second
00:05:18.479 part, you need to use vesting. And what
00:05:20.320 that means essentially saying like, I’m
00:05:22.160 willing to give you 10% of this business
00:05:24.400 as a partner, but I’m only going to give
00:05:26.240 you pieces of it over time. Most lawyers
00:05:29.280 know how to set this up. And it’s
00:05:30.639 absolutely normal. The reason why this
00:05:32.320 works the best is you get the benefit of
00:05:34.160 having a co-founder, aka partner, that
00:05:36.400 helps you to grow, to be accountable to,
00:05:38.560 to pull you up when you’re feeling down,
00:05:40.400 and you’re still driving the business
00:05:41.919 and have the most ownership in the
00:05:43.600 company. Now that we’ve established
00:05:44.960 that, this next step could make or break
00:05:47.199 your business. Bootstrap or raise money.
00:05:49.840 Bootstrap, which means you start the
00:05:51.759 business through sweat equity. You’re
00:05:53.520 doing the grind. You’re borrowing
00:05:54.960 resources. You’re trying to sell to
00:05:56.720 customers. You got no money. The other
00:05:58.560 one is you raise money from somebody
00:06:00.400 else, which means they get a piece of
00:06:02.080 your business and some profit in the
00:06:03.600 future. So, my first successful company
00:06:05.600 that I ended up building and selling
00:06:07.680 completely bootstrapped. I own 100% of
00:06:09.680 the company after I bought out my
00:06:10.960 partners. The other two companies, I
00:06:13.199 raise venture capital for both of them.
00:06:15.280 So, I have experience in both sides of
00:06:17.039 the equation. So, the pros of raising
00:06:18.960 money, first off, fast scale. You
00:06:20.960 literally can get the money, execute,
00:06:23.120 buy the stuff, find the customers, hire
00:06:25.120 the team. It is very fast. You get a
00:06:27.680 built-in investor network. Think about
00:06:29.280 it. Having somebody give you money,
00:06:30.800 well, now they’re incentivized to see
00:06:32.160 you win. So, if you need an introduction
00:06:33.840 to somebody that you otherwise wouldn’t
00:06:35.440 get to know that they know, they’ll make
00:06:36.960 that introduction. The doors open
00:06:38.639 faster. And the last one is validation.
00:06:40.960 If you can sell investors to part with
00:06:43.440 their hard-earned dollars to invest in
00:06:45.440 your company, it’s a good sign you can
00:06:47.199 sell customers. Think about it. Shark
00:06:48.960 Tank, if an investors invest in your
00:06:50.880 company, they’re going to want to see
00:06:51.759 you win. So like Mark Cuban was actually
00:06:53.440 investing in one of my companies. So
00:06:54.880 when I was hiring a CTO and I knew that
00:06:56.880 they really like Mark’s work, I could
00:06:58.720 ask Mark to send him a quick message to
00:07:00.479 nudge him along the way. That is
00:07:02.240 powerful. So not only did I get his
00:07:04.000 resources, his money, I also got his
00:07:06.080 time and influence to help move the
00:07:07.680 business forward. Now, if you look at
00:07:09.199 bootstrapping, here are some of those
00:07:10.800 pros. First off, you keep the ownership.
00:07:12.800 When you go exit your company for $10
00:07:14.400 million, you get all $10 million. And
00:07:16.639 the most expensive equity is the early
00:07:18.720 equity you might have to give to an
00:07:20.080 investor. You also have no vision drift,
00:07:22.639 meaning that you have nobody else’s
00:07:24.319 agenda or ideas steering the ship. You
00:07:27.039 get to make the decision with your
00:07:28.639 vision in mind and the only one that
00:07:30.479 gets to decide that. You also get to
00:07:32.160 grow it at your own pace. I mean, if you
00:07:33.759 have investors, they’ve got a window
00:07:35.360 where they want to see a return. And if
00:07:37.120 you’re building for them, then you got
00:07:38.639 to push and you might not want to do
00:07:40.160 that. I mean, at the end of the day,
00:07:41.680 when they say lifestyle business, you
00:07:43.360 can still become a multi-millionaire
00:07:45.520 creating a lifestyle business that’s
00:07:47.039 incredible for your lifestyle. So, if I
00:07:49.360 was starting over today, the choice I
00:07:51.280 would make is technically neither. I
00:07:53.840 would do a thing called customer
00:07:55.039 financing. Essentially, I would pre-ell
00:07:57.440 to customers and have them invest
00:07:59.599 without giving up equity to pre-by or
00:08:02.560 service so that I could get their
00:08:04.240 capital to start the business. If you
00:08:05.919 want to start a lawn care company, go
00:08:07.759 get 25 customers to prepay you for the
00:08:10.160 season, then go buy the lawnmower, show
00:08:11.759 up and start cutting their lawn. See how
00:08:13.199 that works? This is my version of
00:08:14.720 bootstrapping that works even better
00:08:16.560 because you get customer validation or
00:08:18.879 validation from the market and you get
00:08:20.800 the capital you need to grow faster. So
00:08:23.360 this way again, you get the best of both
00:08:25.440 worlds. So now that you got your plan
00:08:27.120 for ownership, it’s time for the next
00:08:28.800 step, which is making the choice of
00:08:30.400 niching down or going broad. People
00:08:32.958 often say the riches are in the niches,
00:08:36.159 but are they really? So, when I started
00:08:38.080 my first company that finally made me
00:08:40.159 money, I had to niche down from just
00:08:42.000 building software for everybody to only
00:08:44.480 Fortune 500 companies. We’re talking
00:08:46.399 Proctor and Gamble, Dole Foods, Johnson
00:08:48.480 and Johnson, these big companies,
00:08:50.160 because that’s what I knew really best.
00:08:51.839 And it turns out they were willing to
00:08:53.279 pay the money I needed to invest in my
00:08:55.200 team. With that being said, there are a
00:08:57.200 lot of pros to keeping it broad. So,
00:08:59.360 first off is that it’s easier to find
00:09:00.959 them. I mean, you can literally like
00:09:02.720 sell to a small business and run into
00:09:04.320 about a dozen of them in a day at the
00:09:05.680 mall. And lastly, it’s just easier to
00:09:07.519 start when the market is broad. You
00:09:09.120 don’t have to have so much experience in
00:09:10.880 the specific niche. You don’t have to
00:09:12.480 spend so much money on like a specific
00:09:14.399 solution for a customer type. You can
00:09:16.560 essentially just get started and find
00:09:18.240 the customers easier. So, now that we’ve
00:09:20.080 addressed the pros of staying broad, now
00:09:22.240 we got to talk about why there’s a
00:09:23.519 benefit of going niche. First off,
00:09:25.440 cheaper acquisition. When you’re
00:09:27.279 creating ads and you’re being super
00:09:29.040 specific, you’re essentially spending
00:09:30.800 less money because the ad platform
00:09:33.040 doesn’t have to try to find the
00:09:34.560 customer. You can literally tell it that
00:09:36.399 I only want to sell to this type of
00:09:38.000 person and it’s only going to show the
00:09:39.519 ad to those people. It also comes with
00:09:41.360 higher close rates. If you think about
00:09:42.800 when you’re having a conversation about
00:09:44.240 fitness, if I specialize in helping
00:09:47.040 menopausal women with specific fitness
00:09:49.279 goals, that’s a lot more interesting
00:09:51.040 than just saying, “I’m a personal
00:09:52.640 trainer and I help everybody.” So, the
00:09:54.640 women are going to buy quicker because I
00:09:56.560 specialize in their specific pain. The
00:09:58.240 last one is the word of mouth flywheel.
00:09:59.839 Because you’re so specialized, people
00:10:01.760 that buy from you and you get them
00:10:03.120 results a lot quicker, they’re going to
00:10:04.640 tell everybody. It’s like the win that
00:10:06.800 you get them infects the whole market
00:10:08.959 and everybody starts referring to you
00:10:10.720 because you only do that thing and
00:10:12.399 you’re not broad for everybody. So, with
00:10:14.160 all of that in mind, if I had to make a
00:10:15.760 choice today between going broad or
00:10:18.000 staying super niche, I would niche down
00:10:20.079 as soon as possible. The reason why is
00:10:22.560 that when you start, it is so hard to
00:10:25.519 get traction that if you try to be
00:10:27.440 everything to everybody, you won’t be
00:10:29.120 anything to anybody. I’m telling you,
00:10:31.600 the marketing is harder, the sales
00:10:33.680 conversation’s harder, the product is
00:10:35.600 harder. I mean, I see people literally
00:10:37.600 going out of business not because they
00:10:39.200 don’t have enough opportunity. It’s
00:10:40.399 because they sell too many different
00:10:41.839 things to too many people and they get
00:10:43.760 overwhelmed and then there’s bugs and
00:10:45.760 issues and complexity in their business.
00:10:47.680 Picking a niche will make you rich. So,
00:10:50.000 now that you’ve decided to go niche, the
00:10:52.079 next choice you got to make is, do I get
00:10:53.839 a coach or do I do it myself? When I
00:10:56.320 started, I went at it alone. And I
00:10:58.880 struggled. I had two failed companies
00:11:00.480 before I ever made my first dollar. And
00:11:02.240 the truth was is I eventually had to
00:11:04.000 hire a coach, this guy named Bob, who
00:11:05.760 taught me how to do it. And it was crazy
00:11:07.519 cuz I was paying them 1,500 bucks a
00:11:09.279 month. And it completely changed my
00:11:11.040 business. But I’ve also started
00:11:12.640 businesses and I didn’t have a coach.
00:11:14.320 And that had a completely different
00:11:15.600 outcome. So, let’s talk about the pros
00:11:17.040 of either doing it yourself or hiring a
00:11:18.720 coach. If you do it yourself, first
00:11:20.480 thing simple. You save the money. I
00:11:22.399 mean, when you start, cash is tight and
00:11:24.560 every dollar that goes out is a dollar
00:11:26.079 you don’t have. The other pro is that
00:11:27.680 you get to build the business through
00:11:29.040 your vision, not tainted through
00:11:30.560 somebody else that might have done it 5
00:11:32.000 years ago, cuz the world’s completely
00:11:33.440 changed. On the other side, getting a
00:11:34.959 coach is like a mentor, and mentors
00:11:36.880 bring the map. Having somebody that you
00:11:39.120 could pay to give you access to the map
00:11:41.279 to show you exactly how to build your
00:11:43.200 business is incredibly fast. The other
00:11:45.760 benefit is you have somebody else to
00:11:47.279 give you feedback. And the cool part is
00:11:49.040 they’ve been there before. So you get to
00:11:51.040 avoid giving up equity or raising money
00:11:53.120 from investors. So you get all the
00:11:54.720 benefits without losing control. It also
00:11:56.800 comes with accountability. You know when
00:11:58.720 you spend money to get advice, trust me,
00:12:01.200 you will pay attention. When we pay, we
00:12:03.120 pay attention. And often times I say
00:12:04.959 transformation for ourselves happens at
00:12:07.200 the transaction. So again, if I was
00:12:08.959 starting over from scratch and I had to
00:12:10.639 make that choice today, I would 100% get
00:12:12.639 a mentor. I personally have an unlimited
00:12:14.639 budget for my health and education. I
00:12:17.360 mean, think about it for yourself. If
00:12:18.480 you’ve gotten good at something, maybe
00:12:20.000 it took you 10 years to learn an
00:12:21.279 instrument. Knowing what you know now,
00:12:22.959 if I took everything away from you, how
00:12:24.639 much faster could you have gotten there?
00:12:26.560 That’s the benefit of having a mentor in
00:12:28.399 your life is they’ll save you literally
00:12:30.480 decades of time. So, these choices will
00:12:33.120 help you get to your first million. But
00:12:35.200 we don’t want to stop there. How do you
00:12:37.279 multiply it? The final choice you need
00:12:39.360 to make is, do you scale or exit? Exit
00:12:42.320 the business, make a bunch of cash, or
00:12:44.160 keep scaling it to generate more profit.
00:12:46.240 I get the call all the time, people
00:12:47.920 going like, “Man, I’m burnt out and I
00:12:49.839 think I want to sell.” Or others going
00:12:51.600 like, “Man, I’m getting calls from
00:12:52.959 people want to buy my business. Should I
00:12:54.800 keep building or should I exit now?” I
00:12:56.480 don’t know. When I was 28, I was getting
00:12:58.720 those emails, those calls. Hey Dave, we
00:13:00.800 want to buy your business. Hey, Dave, we
00:13:01.839 want to buy your business. But you got
00:13:02.800 to understand, I just built this thing.
00:13:04.959 Struggled for 2 3 years. Finally was
00:13:07.600 getting some momentum. And I didn’t have
00:13:09.839 anybody to turn to who had gone through
00:13:11.680 this trying to wrestle with the pros and
00:13:13.360 cons of selling or keep building. So
00:13:15.519 because of that I had to think like what
00:13:17.360 are the pros to each decision. Selling
00:13:19.360 gives you cash in the bank. Essentially
00:13:21.200 it reduces the risk of being in the
00:13:23.279 market. It gives you liquidity and you
00:13:24.800 can take that money and invest it and if
00:13:26.240 you do it right you may never have to
00:13:27.760 work another day for the rest of your
00:13:28.959 life. The other benefit is getting that
00:13:30.880 capital creates an opportunity for you
00:13:32.720 to reinvest and have ammo to do bigger
00:13:34.959 deals. I mean, now you can transition
00:13:36.720 from being an operator and just
00:13:38.240 stressing under the build of the
00:13:39.600 business to investing in other people
00:13:41.600 and creating diversity in your
00:13:43.360 investment so you don’t have all of your
00:13:45.120 personal net worth tied up into one
00:13:46.959 company. On the other hand, you have the
00:13:49.040 option of keeping the business, which
00:13:50.560 the truth is, check this out. If you
00:13:52.399 actually ask yourself how much money per
00:13:54.320 month you would need to live this wildly
00:13:56.399 awesome life, it’s not that much. For
00:13:58.880 most people, it’s like a $100,000 a
00:14:00.880 month, which I know sounds wild, but if
00:14:02.399 you think about that potential of
00:14:04.000 building the business to that level,
00:14:05.839 then you have the beautiful home, a
00:14:07.760 couple really cool cars, the ability to
00:14:09.680 travel the world, and that monthly cash
00:14:12.000 flow becomes consistent the bigger the
00:14:13.920 business gets. There’s a lot of benefits
00:14:15.600 to keeping the business. First off, you
00:14:17.519 don’t have to worry about what are you
00:14:18.800 going to go and do with all that money.
00:14:20.320 Trust me, most people that exit their
00:14:22.079 business, they can’t find a safe,
00:14:24.480 reliable thing to invest in that was as
00:14:26.800 predictable as their previous business
00:14:28.399 they just exited. Having that company
00:14:30.399 just creates consistency in your life.
00:14:32.399 So, it makes it less stressful. You also
00:14:34.160 get more upside because you take that
00:14:35.760 money, you reinvest it in your existing
00:14:37.680 business, which you know really well,
00:14:39.120 and it keeps growing. So, you have more
00:14:40.959 upside later. I mean, somebody might
00:14:43.040 give you 10 million today, but they
00:14:44.399 might give you 50 million in 3 years.
00:14:46.480 And that path is a lot more predictable
00:14:48.240 than selling today. So if I was starting
00:14:50.160 over today, my choice would be to sell.
00:14:53.680 Specifically when growth plateaus or
00:14:55.440 passions fades. I mean when I think
00:14:56.800 about selling my companies when I felt
00:14:58.959 that either, hey, I didn’t love to sell
00:15:01.120 to this customer anymore. It kind of
00:15:02.560 grew into something that I didn’t enjoy
00:15:04.480 or the opportunities to keep learning
00:15:06.560 and growing was not found in my current
00:15:08.480 business. So the passion faded for the
00:15:10.560 thing I was doing and then exiting made
00:15:12.800 a lot of sense. The key here is to call
00:15:14.800 it before it’s too late. If you look to
00:15:17.360 sell once you’re like absolutely burnt
00:15:19.199 out and tired, the buyer is going to
00:15:21.120 have the advantage. You want to get that
00:15:23.040 decision made before you get to that
00:15:24.880 place. Think about like a UFC fighter.
00:15:26.959 Them deciding to retire is always best
00:15:28.959 to do it at the height, not after they
00:15:31.120 got completely knocked out on the last
00:15:32.720 fight. But there’s an asterisk. If you
00:15:35.040 really enjoy your business, then maybe
00:15:36.959 you keep building. And here’s why. If
00:15:38.800 you’re buying my business, you’re
00:15:40.320 essentially buying years of perfect
00:15:42.720 execution. So, if you’re only buying one
00:15:45.040 year of perfect execution in regards to
00:15:46.959 what you’re going to pay me for it, then
00:15:48.079 I’m probably just going to keep
00:15:48.959 building. Like, when I look at my life
00:15:50.399 today, I’ve got Martell Media and
00:15:51.920 Martell Ventures, and both of them have
00:15:53.600 actually been built up. So, I could exit
00:15:55.360 them today. I think it’s just a great
00:15:56.800 way to build a company. But I wouldn’t
00:15:58.880 because if I sold them, the first thing
00:16:00.639 I would do the day after the transaction
00:16:02.560 completed was to do it over again
00:16:04.800 because my life that I’m living is
00:16:06.480 literally the life that I wanted to
00:16:07.839 design. that is the thing that you want
00:16:10.079 to get right so that you don’t struggle
00:16:12.399 with these decisions. So those are the
00:16:14.639 choices I would make if I wanted to go
00:16:16.399 from broke to millionaire starting at 18
00:16:18.880 years old. And that’s essentially the
00:16:20.320 advice I gave my friend Josh. He was 18
00:16:22.880 struggling in life. Parents want to go
00:16:24.560 to university. He’s like, I just want to
00:16:26.720 start. And I said, bro, if you know it’s
00:16:28.720 on your heart to start a business in the
00:16:30.320 future, you don’t have to go to
00:16:31.759 university to start. Just make a
00:16:34.160 commitment to yourself. Bet on yourself.
00:16:36.399 go all in on you. It won’t be easy. You
00:16:39.759 won’t have your parents support. You
00:16:41.440 will have a lot of people misunderstand
00:16:42.959 you. You got to be willing to go long
00:16:44.959 periods of time being misunderstood
00:16:46.560 before you win. But guess what will
00:16:47.920 happen? The day you win, your parents
00:16:50.160 will tell all their friends, “Oh my god,
00:16:51.440 my son is so successful.” But there’s
00:16:53.680 going to be a period where you’re going
00:16:54.639 to have to go through it and make these
00:16:56.399 decisions. But trust me, on the other
00:16:58.079 side, it’ll all be worth it. Now, if you
00:17:00.560 want to learn how to build a business
00:17:01.680 that runs itself, click here and I’ll
00:17:03.279 see you on the other