THE KEY to becoming a Millionaire this year. (not what you think)

Like, honestly, I have goosebumps. I don't know if you can see them on camera. Probably not, but like I have them because it's like the first time that I could realize, I realized that I can be an ambitious entrepreneur and I can have peace.

I read an awesome book to start out, 2022, and it was called Turning Pro by Steven Pressfield. This is the follow up to the book the War of Art, which was also good. And both of them are like 60 to 90 minute reads. And this book forced me to go internal and face some questions that I did not want to deal with. But I'll give you the thesis of the book which essentially says that we all have a muse, we all have some passion in us that we want to pursue, and most of us deny that pursuit because of other things that we think we have to do. He calls it the shadow career, the career that we think we have to pursue rather than the career that we really want to pursue. That was really convicting for me.

Now this also sort of stirred up some questions and confusion in me because I genuinely like most of the things that I'm pursuing. And it made me wonder, which of these do I genuinely want to go after? Which one of these am I doing because I think it will bring a result? And which one of these things am I doing because it's an art form? For example, this author, he's a writer. He's a full time writer. It's what he does all day, every day. So it's in my mind, easy for him to say, right? He writes all day, that's his art. Well, I've written a book and I'm frickin proud of that book. But do I want to wake up every day and be a writer? Not really. And even if I think about being an entrepreneur, do I want to wake up and work on this business every day? Not all the time. So is that a true muse? Is that a true art for me? So what I did is I made a list. I made a list of all the things that I have going on in my life, all of the projects that I'm working on, all of the things that I'm exploring with potential partners, all the businesses that I want to start. I just made a list of all, all of them on one sheet of paper. And then I organized the ones that are currently making me money. What are the things that are actually bringing in profit right now? And then what are the things that I keep doing over and over again, regardless of their results? Now, if you follow my content at all. You know that I've been making videos and podcasts for 10 years. And some of you comment in the comments. I don't understand why Ryan doesn't get more views. And yet I continue to put out content and I continue to record podcasts. And the truth is, if everything fell apart, I would still wake up and record podcasts. I might change the name of it because I've done that a few times. I might start some side shows, I might publish somebody else or bring on a partner to make content, but I can't not create content. I have to. And sometimes that's written words, sometimes that spoken word, sometimes it's videos like this one. But the truth is, I can't not do it. And when I look at, I realize that's my art, because I'm doing it anyway, because I do it regardless of what happens, because I will go broke trying to do that more often. It's just the thing that I'm committed to because I can't not do it. I can't not express. And then when I looked at all of the other projects that I had going on, I realized that every opportunity, every business, every money making activity that I did came as the result of me producing content. Even if my audience isn't huge, even if I'm not Tim Ferriss or Joe Rogan, all of the opportunities that I have that have produced revenue came from a relationship, a partnership, an idea, a network that I built, an event I put on that came from me creating content. Isn't that interesting? Isn't it interesting that my one activity, my one art form is, is a thing that produced all of these other opportunities. Even the company that I built to $10 million and sold was really built because I made a few connections and partnerships along my journey of creating content. And the interesting thing is that every time I've tried to do something that was not a reflection of that audience, that was not an extension of my art form, it has failed. I started to sort of look at my life and what it might appear to be if I were to simplify all of my projects into just my art form. And operating as an advisor who mentored and served the entrepreneur, brought a network to the table and raised capital. And you know what? That is my perfect life. The idea of creating and communicating to a group of entrepreneurs who are hungry to grow, and taking an advisor fee and a cut of the company for me to continue to network and promote and mentor and bring opportunities to the table. That's awesome. And the thing is that's probably what I would do if next week I had a billion dollar exit. If I. Well, I would. First I'd invest in the Cleveland Guardians, and then after that I would just mentor and advise companies that I was excited about and bring capital and advice to the table. And that's my end game. And I'm realizing now that it needs to be my today game. And I'm telling you all of this because it's been part of my processing over the last couple of months as I have sought to simplify my life and prioritize joy rather than hustle or hard work. And I'm slowly learning, slowly giving the opportunity to see that if I prioritize my state and the things I want to do, then all these other opportunities show up to support that. But I first have to protect my art like it's sacred, which means showing up in a way that is genuinely in service to the people that I'm partnered with or that have given me money. And that requires me to have boundaries on everybody else that is trying to get my attention. So in your business, I'd be willing to bet that you have something that is an art, something that you would do anyway. For some of you, that is creating amazing products. You will love the design portion, or you will love the coming up with ideas, or you love the marketing of it, but there's something in your business that you just love to do. If you were to focus exclusively on that, then all of the other projects that you're considering can sort of be plugged into that. It's almost like there's a fire that is built by you pursuing this art. And anything that you stick into that fire catches. But when you distract yourself with other things, the fire starts to come down. And now there's not as much to burn and to set on fire all these other ideas or all this other growth. And you know what that feeling is. You know that when you're fully lit up and on fire, that when you're in that zone, everything that touches you catches on fire. You don't even need to touch it. It touches you and it's set ablaze. And yet we compromise that when we start to fear. And that fear is often because we're afraid we're gonna run out of money, or we're afraid that something's not gonna work and we're gonna look bad, or we're afraid of what somebody is gonna think of us when we start doing things for those reasons out of fear, we're now no longer in the position to be able to create great art. You have those activities that you do because you genuinely just love them and you know that they bring value to other people. When you operate from that place, it doesn't matter how much money Jeff Bezos made last year. You don't need. You don't need to be that big. You don't need to have the same results. It doesn't matter how much money the person you follow on YouTube made, because you're actually just in your zone. And that's what we really want. I've learned from being around a lot of successful people that all of us are craving excitement more than anything else. We view money as the safety net for us.

To be excited about what we're doing. We view money as the route to freedom so that we can do the things that we're excited about. That's the end game. Excitement is the end game. Service, peace of mind, a sense of calm, that's the end game. We think that money is the route to do that. But I've learned that it is the calm, the service and the excitement that is the route to money. And we compromise that when we operate from a state of fear and we pursue money from a state of fear. Because when we're in a state of fear, we're not in a position to serve, we're not in a position to create, we're not in a position to help other people. And those are the things that actually create money. If you've been struggling as an entrepreneur because you feel like there's so much going on and there is so many decisions making you feel so behind, I'd just like to invite you to do the same practice of looking at all of the things that you've got going on and look at what is the art form that makes all the other things possible. And can you eliminate or outsource or modify all the other things that you have going on? Even if it doesn't result in the billion dollar business that you want, my guess is that your life will be simpler and you'll be happier in the process. I'm Ryan. Daniel Moran. Thanks for watching this video. If you found value in it, would you let me know in the comments? It'd mean the world to me if you told me how it impacted you. Thanks for watching. I'll see you on the next one.