hey friends welcome back to the channel so I made my first million at the age of 26 but if I'd followed the advice that I'm going to share in this video I probably would have gotten there a lot sooner and so these are the five key lessons that I would give to my younger self if I were to start all over again okay so let's start with the first lesson now back when I was younger uh everyone I knew was a doctor my parents were doctors all of their friends were doctors and the way that people got rich like the people who I knew who had a lot of money essentially they got there because they were doctors and they bought houses in London in the 1980s and so the whole messaging around financial success it was just it was so implicit it was you get a job like working as a doctor and then over time you buy houses and then over time you'll become like financially successful all words to that effect but then at the age of 17 I read a book that changed my life and that was the four hour work week by Tim Ferriss and I will forever be indebted to Tim Ferriss for putting me on this path because this book taught me that actually financial success did not have to look like you work your ass off for 65 years and then you retire to a beach when you've got a bunch of properties like it taught me that that wasn't actually the path and that in fact there was a way of becoming financially successful while you're relatively young and you can join what he calls the new Rich I.E the people who recognize the value of time freedom and Independence rather than just the value of money and the book made me realize that wait a minute do I really want to live a life where every day I'm showing up to work maybe not necessarily enjoying my day job maybe I'll find bits of it enjoyable but like broadly I might not enjoy it do I really want to do that for the sake of the promise of retirement further down the line and reading the four-hour work week was the first time in my life that I really thought wow I'm gonna set it as a goal of mine to reach Financial Freedom Financial Independence I didn't even have that terminology before I read the book but it became a clear goal in my mind and so that's lesson number one lesson number one is to have a clear goal for Financial Freedom in mind you don't necessarily need to have a number I never had a magic number I still don't have a magic number in my mind for like I need x amount of money to consider myself financially independent but the thing that the four hour work week taught me was that actually building streams of passive income or active income or building a business was the way to unlock the freedom and the optionality that I wanted from my life and so the reason I'm mentioning this as lesson number one is you know this video is how I became a millionaire in my 20s basically if you don't have a goal of becoming financially independent or financially free or being a millionaire whatever that thing is while you're young then it's probably not going to happen this sort of stuff does not happen accidentally people don't just wake up and stumble into some sort of thing that makes them super financially successful every single person I know who has achieved whatever they deem to be Financial Freedom has done it very very intentionally they've had it as a goal in their mind and even just the fact that you then have this as a goal means that you know manifestation and all that kind of stuff but essentially the brain starts to recognize patterns and starts to look out for opportunities to help you get towards that goal so ever since I read the four hour work week and I got this idea in my mind that I want to become financially free suddenly my brain started to see these opportunities everywhere and then every year through Medical School while I was keeping up with my studies while I was socializing doing all the stuff in the back of my mind and sometimes in the front of my mind was this idea of I want to be financially free I need to therefore build assets and build businesses around me that can allow me to make money while I sleep so that I want to do medicine I can doing it for fun rather than for money and you've probably come across this idea that you're the average of the five people that you spend the most time with and for most of us and certainly for me growing up the people that I was spending my time with were not on this path to Financial Freedom the people I was spending my time with they're still really good friends of mine they're all like very normal people who wanted to become doctors or be lawyers or be management Consultants or be investment bankers all that all that kind of stuff but I was really the only person in my friendship group other than my brother who was into this whole like oh let's build stuff on the internet let's make money online all this kind of thing but I think the really cool thing about the time that we live in is that you don't necessarily need to have actual people around you who are doing this thing to benefit from this averaging effect of the five people around you because depending on what sort of content you consume what books you read what books you listen to what podcasts you listen to what YouTube videos you watch those things can somewhat mirror the effects of these five people around you obviously I would still continue hanging out with my friends I'm not going to say to my friends Hey Jake I'm not gonna hang out with you anymore because you're not like trying to make money on the internet but it does mean that while I'm at the gym I'm not going for a run I'm listening to podcasts like the indie podcast or my first million or smart passive income with plat Flynn or online marketing Made Easy with any Porterfield I'd be looking out for podcasts where people are talking about how they are making their money it's all going to make my brain tune into the frequency of what are the things I need to look out for in the world to try and move towards this goal of Financial Freedom that I have oh and by the way in case you haven't heard my new book has just launched it's called feel good productivity it's a guide on how to do more of what matters to you it's a combination of the past 10 plus years of my own experience with productivity combined with hundreds of hours of research papers and interviewing experts and trying to condense it all into a book it's got 54 actionable experiments that you can apply to your life for being more productive in a way that's actually enjoyable and meaningful and sustainable so if you want to check it out head over to the website feelgoodproductivity.com which is linked down in the video description and it's available in countries all around the world let's move on to lesson number two now and this is the thing that I wish someone had told me when I was very very young I sort of implicitly took in this message but I wish it had been told to me way more explicitly now again in my previous life all I knew was the way you make monies by having a job right like you work as a doctor you work as a lawyer and people give you money for doing that thing and it's like that's the the only conception of money that I had but a job is basically if you imagine a machine a job is where you are a component a cog within that machine your component labor and the whole education system teaches us to be component labor inside some sort of machine the modern education system is built off the back of the Industrial Revolution where the objective was to train people to become cogs in factories where we go into the education system as a unique individual with their own strengths and desires and all this kind of stuff creativity and we're all spat out of the education system with like a grade point average or with like standardized tests and all this kind of stuff we are very much trained to be a cog inside a machine now in this metaphor the Cog within the machine is known as a job but the machine itself is known as a business and the person who owns the machine the business owner is the one who becomes rich while they're young and so lesson number two is that if you want to become a millionaire in your 20s you need to start your own business there are very few jobs that allow you to become a millionaire very rarely that will happen in your 20s maybe if you work at Goldman Sachs maybe if you're a neurosurgeon in the US then of course yeah you're going to become a millionaire they're probably happen in your 30s probably gonna have to work really really really really really hard for it you don't have that much leverage on your time by far the most sensible path if you actually care about becoming very financially successful is you need to have your own business so what is a business well a business to really simplify down a business just solves a problem in exchange for money a business just solves a problem in exchange for money now broadly there are three different types of businesses arguably too but like let's go with three the first one is a service business where you are doing a thing and then charging money for the thing for example an accountant is broadly a service business you're doing someone's accounts and then you are charging them money for the thing a mechanic or a plumber is a service business you are doing a thing doing mechanicing or plumbing and you are charging people for that service next up we have product businesses where you are making a thing and then charging more than one person for that thing ideally so for example if you own a bakery that is a product business you are baking lots of bread and then you are charging people for the bread you're making money and that is the business that is the machine the people who bake the bread who work inside the business are the cogs they have a job but the person who owns the bakery is the business owner they own the machine that person becomes very and then the third type of business is a bit of a modern Innovation but I would call that a Content business where the business model is that you're making content online and you're monetizing through advertising there's a bit of nuance here some would argue that a Content business isn't really a proper type of business because it's actually you're just a marketing channel for someone else's product because fundamentally the way this video makes money on AdSense for example is there were ads before this video but content I think is becoming way more of its thing which is why I'm calling it a third category of business and so the advice that I would give to my younger self is that if you want to be a millionaire in your 20s then you need to build some sort of business either a service business or a product business or a Content business or maybe even all of the above and by the way once you have all this money that you're going to make through your journey through business and through life then you're going to 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it's just super helpful so thank you so much trading 212 for sponsoring this video so at this point we've got the goal of financial Independence and we have adjusted our content data accordingly we know that the only real way to get there is to start some sort of business and so that begs the question well how do you actually start the business and honestly the main thing I would say is just give it a go we've already talked about the three different types of businesses service product and content I would recommend starting with a service business a service business is by far the easiest way to start making money now when I was 13 years old I started my first service business and I started being a freelance web designer and then within a few months I started calling myself a web design agency it was just me as a 13 year old kid in school getting home from school and designing websites and trying to Market my services on the internet on a website that was called getacoder.com back in the day and that was where I got my first taste of making money online I was solving a problem I eat web design stuff and charging for the solution I.E five dollars ten dollars here and there then from the age of 14 to 19 I had another sort of mini business I would call it and that was Private tutoring and I was being paid for that I was being paid four pounds an hour then four pound fifty then five pounds and six pounds and then I started doing it for gcses and a levels so exams here in the UK and I was being paid 15 pounds an hour and that was more money than I'd ever seen in my life I felt really rich I would go to the bank then I'd you know get my little cash cash in hand and like put it in a little envelope and deposit it be like whoa 360 pounds this month I'm rich and that's why this is less than have a strong bias to action the best way you learn how to build a business is by trying to build a business you don't learn how to build a business by doing an MBA you don't learn how to build a business by reading books you don't learn how to build a business by watching videos you learn how to build a business by actually doing the thing and then while you're doing the thing now you can supplement the action with your learning action is the foundation and learning is the supplementation so I was doing service based businesses from the age of 13 to 19 ish and then I graduated shall we say to a product business where at the age of 19 I decided to make a product which was a course that would help people get into medical school still somewhat service component because I was the one teaching that course initially but then at some point I was hiring people as cogs as employing online employees as contractors to work within my business so that they were teaching the courses and I was owning the business and in our first year we made 10K that year which was like whoa ten thousand pounds in a single year what the hell second year we did about 80k 30 we did about 150k and then year four five and six we still we sort of hovered at that 150k a year Revenue Mark with margins of around 30 and so I was taking home somewhere between 40 and 50 thousand pounds while I was in medical school and then at the age of 23 I pivoted somewhat into a Content business I decided to start my YouTube channel my reasoning was that hey if I make videos that help people get into medical school which is what I was doing back in 2017 then people would buy my courses and so this YouTube channel started off as a marketing asset for my business but then over time I realized that actually making videos is way more fun way more rewarding and actually way more lucrative than this old medical school admissions business was but the lesson I would say to my younger self is that at each stage if you're genuinely trying to achieve Financial Freedom if you're trying to be a millionaire in your 20s or however old you are focus on action have a bias to action but then that brings us on to lesson number four and I think this was the biggest mistake that I made and if I had done things differently I would have probably gotten to this millionaire Point Way sooner than age 26. now buys to action is really good but I think in my case I was too much biased to action and not enough time actually spent learning every time I would do something I was basically trying to invent the Playbook from scratch when I built my first business doing this medical school admission stuff I was trying to build it from scratch I didn't know anything about sales and marketing I didn't know about anything about operations or Finance or delegation or management I didn't even know what these words meant I didn't even know that these words existed like obviously I'd heard the word marketing but I just thought what is marketing I don't know Billboards so for example we got to a point with that business sex Med where we were stalling at 150k annual revenue at this point I was thinking damn how do we make more money and there's only really two ways of making more money at least Topline which is you either get more customers or you charge more money to those customers what I didn't realize is that this whole thing of how do you get more customers and how do you charge them more money this is literally called sales and marketing and there are literally books and courses and videos and podcasts that are all about sales and marketing and this is stuff that people have already figured out and had I just bothered to read a book about sales and marketing it would have completely leveled up the business because I would have had a firmware update in my own mind I'd have been like oh that's how you do it similarly we got to a point with our business about two years in where I felt very overwhelmed we were doing about 100K Revenue ish and I was feeling so overwhelmed because I was doing all the admin all the operations all the logistics all the bookkeeping all the accounting all of the tax returns like all of that stuff I was doing it all myself while trying to do medical school on the side while trying to have a social life and while at the same time I was trying to be the coder and developer and I just didn't know at the time but this is a thing that every single business goes through and at that point you need to hire someone and that is where businesses grow through hiring through delegation through management through onboarding through leadership through having a vision to setting goals to getting people into the business to work as the cogs I just had absolutely no idea that that was even possible because I had never read a book at that point on how to do business thank you foreign these are just a handful of the business books that I've read in the last few years and had I read like literally any of these when I was younger or anything similar to business books I would have realized that actually these are the mistakes I'm making this one in particular the emails Revisited by Michael Gerber this book literally describes all of the things I was struggling with when trying to build that first business and had had I just known this existed I've been like wow I don't have to be so overwhelmed I don't have to do all this stuff by myself I can hire people bloody hell that would have blown my freaking mind and I just wish someone had told me that even these books even existed I had no idea I had biased action so much to the point that I forgot to learn along the way and so the advice that I would implore my younger self who is on this journey of financial Independence is lesson number four please make time every single week to learn things learn things through reading books listening to audiobooks listening to podcasts taking courses if you want watching YouTube videos where people are actually drilling into the details rather than kind of saying staying surface level potentially even think about hiring a coach or getting a mentor hiring a coach is the single biggest Roi expense I have ever made in my life if when I was younger when I was first making money with my business at the age of 19 I wish someone had sat me down and said hey look man do you think you can get better at tennis without a coach maybe you can maybe you can watch Tennis videos on YouTube and like read books about it but like do you think you'd improve faster at tennis if you had a tennis coach probably everyone has a tennis coach I had a tennis coach when I was young why did I not think I should hire a business coach I just didn't realize I just did not know it was a thing and so if you're at this point in the video I'm imploring you please younger me or whoever you are watching this I I so wish I'd spent more time learning learning is always the thing that gets bumped from the calendar because there's always other other going on in the business and even as I was planning this video and I realized that this is a lesson that I'm still not taking taking forward enough to myself like at this point the stuff I need to learn to level up the business is no longer found in books audiobooks and podcasts particularly because people tend not to go that in depth in those things and they don't have very much context but the way that people level up their business at the stage that I am is by hiring coaches and My Girl by going to events and masterminds where you're surrounded by other business owners there are even people I know who spend fifty thousand dollars a year to literally just join a zoom call once a quarter with other business owners and they say that that 50 000 expense has generated a 10x or greater return on investment I.E by paying 50 000 they've unlocked learnings that have allowed them to make 500 000 total freaking no-brainer but depending on where you're on the journey I feel I feel very passionate about this I'll just implore myself there are books about this stuff you do not need to invent the Playbook from scratch please take my advice learn from the mistakes that I've made please learn along the way but remember that action is the foundation and learning is the supplement oh I felt like a good rant um let's move on to the final lesson lesson number five which is basically that I tried making my first daughter on the internet when I was 13 years old I am now 29 and it took me 13 years to make my first million and my journey of like income over time has been a slow compounding gain over the long term so for me personally I basically made zero dollars from age 13 to 19 despite trying all this stuff then I made about 10K a year from 19 to 20. then I made around 100K a year from around 21 to 25 and then I started making a million a year and Beyond from the age of 25 and a bit onwards 26 onwards but the point I want to make is that it took me 13 years from the age of 13 to 26 to make my first million that is a long time but the key over time and this is the final lesson is you need to not stop you need to not give up because there are so many people that start on the path to building a business or to making YouTube channel whatever the thing might be they start on the path but then they stop they don't see the results immediately and they stop and this is why it's actually it's a lot harder to do this side hustle stuff when you have a day job I was doing it as a student where my time was worth nothing like I was not making any money in my time and therefore even if I was putting four hours of work and getting like ten dollars out of it I was like yes I'm making money it's better than nothing but it's so hard now for my friends who have real jobs because now you have an hourly rate and you have a paycheck that's coming in once a month and there is nothing that stifles Innovation more than a paycheck that comes in once a month because now you're thinking well I could spend 10 hours working on my business this weekend but I don't really need to I've got money coming in I'm so comfortable like life is good and if you're content with that kind of lot in life fantastic all power to you but I also have loads and loads of friends who have those jobs but who would love to have Financial Freedom they would love to be able to quit the job or to go part-time and have the freedom to unlock the autonomy and the life that they actually want to lead but they do not stay consistent they do not take action and part of that is because they are hoping for results too soon and you cannot hope for results too soon in this game you have to play it for the long term you've got to play the long-term game you need to not give up and you have to have as garyvee calls it impatience with actions but Supreme patience with results and honestly the way that I've done this over time is that for me this whole thing of building businesses and learning the skills and charging for them and learning all the stuff and providing value along the way and all this kind of stuff all of it has just been so fun it's been so enjoyable it's been so energizing it's been so exhilarating like I remember even back in the day when I was 13 years old I could not wait to get home from school to get on the computer to go on my get a coder profile and see have I got any any work coming in that first day where I got where I got my first five dollar gig on get a coder was just like oh my god I've made money on the internet I made a PayPal account I had to lie about my age because I was 13 and the minimum age was 18 but I had like five dollars in my PayPal account oh my blew my mind and it was so exhilarating and I still have that feeling now with building this business even even the stuff that I was building while in medical school and while working as a doctor building the YouTube channel and so if you're playing this game then find a way to do it over the long term and I think the way to do it over the long term is find a way to make it feel good and this is in fact what my brand new book is about to feel good productivity I'll link it down below if you want to check it out basically the thesis of the book is that if you want to do more of the things that matter to you focus on making them feel good because feeling good drives energy energy drives productivity and just improves your life overall so if you're if you're fancy checking this out there'll be some bonuses there's a link down below and I think really the way to think about it is like let's say when I was working as a doctor and building this YouTube channel or when I was a medical student and building the first courses business or whatever the thing might be when I was in high school and I was making websites on the side doing the business was more fun than the alternative like I would rather work on my business than I would scroll Tick Tock or scroll Instagram or scroll Twitter or watch something on Netflix it's more energizing it's more exhilarating more enjoyable I feel like I'm using my skills I feel like I'm learning I feel like I'm leveling up and if you can get to that point where the work that you are doing genuinely feels like play and you're doing this thing of following this advice and learning along the way then there's it's it's it's difficult to imagine a world in which you wouldn't reach financial success at least at some point what matters is that you're solving a problem and you're charging for the solution and you're building a business you're building the machine and you're the owner of that machine you're not a cog in someone else's machine so this is the advice that I give to myself find a way to make it fun find a way to enjoy the journey because the more you enjoy the journey the more the journey is sustainable and it takes a long time to get the results but if you stick on the path long enough you'll be looking back at your life and you'll think oh my god wow I had such a great time building this business I would not change anything I would not trade it for the world and I'm a freaking multi-millionaire where I can do whatever I want and I can quit my job because like actually I can just do whatever I want like someone had told me that 13 years ago 16 years ago when I started on this path I would have had a stroke and a heart attack and a hernia all at the same time I would not even have known that it's even remotely possible now if you're interested in specific ideas of side hustles and businesses that you could potentially start then I've got a list of seven side hustle ideas over here to hopefully give you some more ideas of what sort of business you can start with so thank you so much for watching and I'll see you hopefully in the next video bye