How to Double Your Income with These 7 High Return Skills

Most of what you learn in school is completely useless for making real money. School teach you about money, and the answer is nothing. They know nothing about money, and they teach our kids. The highest earners in the world ignore traditional career paths and focus on stacking a handful of high-impact skills. And if you keep following the old rules of climbing the corporate ladder, you will stay stuck struggling to pay your bills while watching other people live your dream life. A salary is the drug they give you when they want you to forget about your dreams. Let's look at Warren Buffett. He is one of the richest investors alive. But if you walk into his office, you will not see his university degrees on the wall. The only thing he hangs up is a certificate for a public speaking course that he took. I actually had the diploma in the office, and I don't have my diploma from college. I don't have my diploma from graduate school, but I've got my Dale Carnegie diploma there because it changed my life. He realized that learning the skill of communication would instantly double his value. He ignored traditional rules and focused on a skill that actually By far the best investment you can make is in yourself. If they just learn to communicate better, both in writing and in person, they increase their value at least 50%. Now you might be thinking, okay, that's easy for Warren Buffett, but I'm just too busy trying to survive to learn something new. The actual truth is you do not need to quit your job or spend years back in a classroom. You just need to focus your limited time on the exact abilities that the market actually pays for. And so today I'm gonna show you the 7 high return skills you can start learning today that will completely transform your earning power If you've been here before, drop a hashtag #believe in the comments below and I can feature you here in a future video. And if you're new, welcome to Believe Nation, the only channel that helps you believe in yourself daily, one video at a time. Believe. Master artificial intelligence and prompt engineering. So you might think that artificial intelligence is going to steal your job, but the truth is a person who knows how to use artificial intelligence is going to take your job. It's projected that 75% of global businesses will use AI in their daily operations. If you ignore this trend, you'll be completely left behind. A massive report shows that artificial intelligence could add $4.4 trillion to the global economy. So you need to claim your piece of that pie. The most important high-return skill right now is prompt engineering. This just means knowing exactly how to talk to artificial intelligence to get the best results. You cannot just type in a lazy question and expect magic. You have to use a specific 4-part framework. First, define the role. So tell the program to act like an expert copywriter or a brilliant lawyer. Second, provide the data. Give it examples of what you want. Third, make the specific ask. Do not be vague. And fourth, request the exact format, like a bulleted list or a table. When you master this communication skill, you can do 10 hours of work in just 1 hour. You instantly become 10 times more valuable to any client or employer. Do not wait for the perfect moment to learn this. Action cures fear. Just open a free program today and start testing it. Build your momentum. Right now. But artificial intelligence is just a tool. To truly multiply your income, you need to know how to sell the value you just created, which leads perfectly into the second skill. Close high-ticket sales. Selling cheap products will keep you exhausted and broke. If you sell a $20 item, you need thousands of customers just to pay your rent. But if you master the skill of high-ticket sales, you only need a handful of clients to completely change your financial life. High-ticket offers are not about tricking people into paying more for the same service. They are about solving problems that are so painful, urgent, or expensive that premium pricing becomes totally obvious to the buyer. So you have to change your entire mindset around selling. Most people feel slimy when they ask for money, but you are built to serve. If you have a product or a service that can genuinely fix someone's problem, you have a moral obligation to offer it to them. If you do not offer it to them, you are hurting them. You are being selfish. Selling is just serving at the highest possible level. You also need to understand that sales is a learned skill, not a genetic gift. Companies that spend money on sales training are 57% more effective than companies that ignore it. You can learn the scripts, you can learn how to handle objections. Do not take the yes away from the customer before you even ask for the sale. So pick up the phone, make your premium offer, and let them decide. Selling one-on-one is incredibly powerful, but what if you want to reach millions of people at the exact same time? That is where the third skill comes in: public speaking and video communication. You have to get on camera. It does not matter if you are shy or introverted. I was. Video communication is the single fastest way to build deep trust with a massive audience. When people can see your face, they can hear your voice, they connect with your story on a highly emotional level. You do not need a fancy studio or an expensive microphone. You just need your smartphone and the courage to share your truth. When I started making videos, I was completely terrified. I was an introverted guy who just wanted to hide. It took me 350 videos before I was not completely embarrassed to watch my own content back, and it took me 700 public videos until I actually started to think I was getting good. I expected to suck at the beginning, and I did, but I just kept going. I focused entirely on the one person that I could help instead of worrying about the millions of people who were not watching me yet. So if you want to stand out in your industry, start making videos about your foundation story. Tell people why you started your business. Tell them about your struggles. Tell them what to believe. Do not wait for validation from the internet. Just put in the reps and build your back catalog. The market always rewards people who show up consistently and speak with passion. Also, if you want to take real action after this video, I made a free worksheet just for you. It covers the top lessons from today, gives you space to write your biggest takeaways, and helps you build a simple action plan. It's 100% free. Just click the link in description, go grab it. I'll see you there. Now you know how to talk to people, but how do you combine all your different interests into one unique career? That is the absolute magic of the fourth skill: the art of skill stacking. So school's taught you that you need to pick one major and do one specific job for the rest of your life, right? That is terrible advice for making real money. Our economy does not reward specialists who only know one narrow thing. The highest earners in the world use a strategy called skill stacking. You do not need to be the absolute best in the world at one skill. You just need to be in the top 20% for 3 or 4 different skills and then combine them. So instead of just being a normal graphic designer, you become a designer who also understands user psychology and direct response copywriting. That specific combination makes you incredibly rare. Research from the World Economic Forum proves that cross-functional skills are the most heavily demanded abilities in the entire global job market. So look at your own life. Take your boring corporate experience, add a little bit of marketing knowledge, and mix in your weird weekend hobby. Suddenly you have a totally unique profile that nobody else can compete with. You stop being a commodity and you start being a category of one. When you are the only person who can do what you do, you get to dictate your own price. But what happens when you have these rare skills and people still refuse to pay you what you're worth? You have to master the next skill to force the market to respect your value. Data-driven negotiations. Most people walk into a salary review or a client pitch completely driven by their emotions. They complain about how hard they work. They talk about how long that they've been at their company. They say that they need more money because their rent went up. That strategy will keep you broke forever. Businesses do not care about your personal financial stress. They only care about the value that you bring to their bottom line. So if you want to double your income, you have to separate your self-worth from the negotiation process. You can use hard data. An analysis of 500 different salary negotiations revealed that using emotional arguments only work 8% of the time. But when people presented a business case backed by actual market data, the success jumped to 67%. You have to do your research, find out exactly what your specific skill stack is worth in the open market right now. Present those numbers confidently. Show the client exactly how much money your work is going to make them. When you frame your request as a smart business investment instead of a personal favor, the money will flow to you. Negotiation gets you paid the right amount, but to build massive wealth that lasts decades, you need to understand the underlying pulse of your entire industry. And that brings us to skill number 6. Data analysis and market research. You cannot build a million-dollar business based just off of your gut feelings alone. You have to know your actual numbers. Most people are terrified of looking at their analytics because they are afraid of seeing the ugly truth. They would rather live in denial. But if you do not know exactly where your leads are coming from or exactly where your customers are dropping off, you are just flying blind. Data science and analysis roles offer massive salaries because the ability to read data allows companies to maximize optimize their purchasing power and predict future trends. You do not need a fancy degree to do this. You just need to log into your dashboard and face reality, right? When I'm trying to grow a YouTube channel, I do not just guess what people want to watch. I look at the exact click-through rates on every single thumbnail. I study the audience retention curves for the first 60 seconds of the video. You have to do the exact same thing for your business. Track your conversion rates, track your email open rates, Double down immediately on the things that are working and ruthlessly cut out the things that are failing. Let the data show you a clearer path forward. Now you can have the best data, the best sales pitch, and the best technical skills, but you will still hit a massive income ceiling if you try to do everything yourself. This final skill is the ultimate wealth multiplier. Leadership and team building. You are the biggest bottleneck in your own life right now. You are trying to control every single tiny detail of your work because you are a perfectionist. You think nobody else can do the job as well as you can. That belief is keeping you stuck playing a very small game. The fastest way to scale your income to the moon is to stop asking how you can do a task and start asking who can do this task for you. When you transition into true leadership, your job is no longer doing the daily grind. Your job is to empower other people to do the work. Self-confidence and the ability to delegate are the absolute foundations of success for any high-level executive or business owner. You must learn the framework of eliminate, Automate, delegate. First, eliminate the useless tasks that you do every day that do not actually move the needle. Second, automate everything you can using software and AI. And finally, delegate the rest of the work to talented people who actually love the things that you hate doing. You have to let go of your ego. Let your team make mistakes so they can learn and grow. Build a culture where your people feel like the work they do actually matters. And when you focus on serving your team and lifting them up, they will build your empire with you. You now have the exact 7 skills you need to completely double your income, this year. But all of these strategies are completely useless if you do not fix the one massive problem happening inside your head right now. Your true potential. The only thing truly holding you back from doubling your income is your own self-doubt. You have to decide today that your biggest goals are actually possible for you. Stop listening to the people who tell you to play it safe and stay small. Step into your greatness and do the work that you were put on this earth to do. And congratulations, you're one video closer to who you're meant to be. Believe. Now let's learn the 7 morning habits that can change your life. You might be sabotaging your success every morning without even knowing it. Billionaires have specific morning habits that set them up to win each day, and chances are you're not doing them yet. If you want to achieve billionaire-level status as an entrepreneur, It starts with how you begin your day. So let's dive in to the 7 morning habits that billionaires swear by so you can start adopting them too. Are you ready to upgrade your morning routine? Let's go. Habit number 1 is wake up early consistently. Do you hit the snooze button? Billionaires don't. Nearly half of self-made millionaires in one study woke up at least 3 hours before the workday began. By contrast, only 3% of low-income earners did the same. Waking up early gives you a massive head start. It's quiet, it's distraction-free, and it's time you can use to invest in you before the world wakes up. Take Sir Richard Branson, for example. He rises at 5 a.m. no matter where he is in the world. Why? It allows him to exercise, spend time with his family, and get in the right mindset before business begins. As Branson says, exercise and family time put me in a great mind frame before getting down to business. I like to wake up early so that I can work through my emails before most of the world logs on. That early start gives him an edge. So here's your action step: start waking up even just 30 minutes earlier than you do now. Use your time for your growth, as we'll cover in the upcoming habits. Gradually push it to an hour or more. Consistency is key. Waking up at the same time each day trains your body and builds momentum. In my book, Your One Word, I talk about the power of defining a single core value. Use your extra morning time to focus on your core value or mission. This will give you a why that makes getting out of bed easier. Remember, the early bird catches the worm. Billionaires catch the worm and conquer the whole farm by breakfast. Habit number 2: Exercise and move your body. Your body is your engine. Billionaires treat it that way by making morning exercise non-negotiable. Dr. Richard Branson, worth over $4 billion, says the secret to his productivity boils down to two words: work out. He claims regular exercise is a tool that doubles his daily productivity. It boosts his energy and focus for the rest of the day. If a billionaire running 400+ companies can make time to break a sweat each morning, so can you. Science also backs this up. Morning exercise floods your brain with oxygen and releases chemicals that improve your memory and concentration. Even a quick 20 to 30 minute workout will get your blood pumping and your brain firing on all cylinders. Bill Gates starts many days with cardio exercise, often on the treadmill while learning via video lectures. Oprah Winfrey does regular morning workouts ranging from hiking to strength training to stay in peak state. These leaders know that a healthy body equals a more effective mind. Now don't worry, you don't need to train like an Olympic athlete. Just get moving. Do some stretches, do a quick run, yoga, hit the gym, or even take a brisk walk. Consistency matters more than intensity. As I often emphasize, building momentum is critical. By exercising each morning, you create momentum of positive energy that carries into your work. Work, you will feel more confident, alert, and ready to tackle challenges. Plus, exercise is a natural stress reliever. So here is your action step: pick a form of morning exercise that you enjoy, or at least can tolerate, and schedule it in. Even 15 minutes daily is a great start. Over time, you can ramp that up. Treat that appointment with your body as sacred. Remember, you're not just working out— you're sharpening your biggest business tool: yourself. As the saying goes, take care of your body— it's the only place you have to live— and it will reward you with sharper focus and higher output foot all day long. Habit number 3: Practice mindfulness or meditation. Stressed out about the day before it even begins? Billionaires calm their mind first thing. Many credit meditation or mindfulness practices as their secret weapon for their success. Hedge fund billionaire Ray Dalio, who's the founder of Bridgewater Associates, says, whatever success I've had in life has been more due to my meditating than anything else. This man manages billions of dollars and he gives a huge amount of credit to daily meditation, which was 20 minutes in the morning and again later in the day. It helps him stay calm, think clearly, and make better decisions under pressure. What's so powerful about mindfulness? By taking even 10 minutes for quiet reflection, you train your brain to handle stress and chaos without panicking. Studies show that practices like Transcendental Meditation can significantly reduce anxiety and stress. And even improve your mental health and resilience. When you're an entrepreneur, your ability to stay focused and composed is a competitive advantage. Meditation is basically a daily workout for your brain's calm and focused muscles. Successful people use different mindfulness tools. Meditation is one. Prayer is another. Breathing exercise can work, or journaling. Oprah Winfrey, for example, starts her day with 20 minutes of meditation to center herself. Jack Dorsey, who's the co-founder of Twitter and Square, reportedly does meditation each morning at 5 a.m. to clear his mind. This isn't just hippie stuff. It's about getting your brain into peak operating condition. When you're calm and centered, you make smart decisions, not emotional reactive ones. So here's your action step. Tomorrow morning, before diving into work, sit in silence for a few minutes. Focus on your breath or try a simple meditation app. If meditation isn't your thing, just try sitting with a notebook and writing down your thoughts or intentions. More on intentions soon. The goal is to quiet the mental chatter and sharpen your focus. In Built to Serve, I talk about finding your purpose. Sometimes you can't hear your purpose because your mind is too noisy. So morning mindfulness will help you listen to that inner voice and approach the day with clarity and confidence. Habit number 4: Read and learn every morning. Billionaires are learning machines. They make feeding their mind a morning priority. So instead of scrolling social media or news fluff, they read books, articles, reports, anything that builds knowledge. Warren Buffett spends about 80% of his day reading and famously suggests aspiring entrepreneurs should read 500 pages a day. He says that's how knowledge builds up like compound interest. Now, 500 pages daily might be extreme for you, but the point is never stop learning. Many of the top entrepreneurs use mornings for self-education. Bill Gates reads roughly 50 books per year, often devoting morning time to reading before work. Mark Cuban reads 3+ hours a day to gain any advantage that he can. Elon Musk has said that when people asked how he learned to build rockets, he simply answered, I read books. Billionaires treat knowledge as the greatest asset they can accumulate. The average person might be content with browsing headlines. The billionaire devours information that can spark new ideas or improve their decision-making. Now, you don't need hours each morning to read. Read, but do try to read something useful each day. It could be a chapter of a nonfiction book that you're learning, an industry article, a biography of something you admire. Even 30 minutes every morning can set you apart. One study of rich versus poor habits found that 88% of wealthy people read at least 30 minutes a day for self-improvement. It's a habit that clearly correlates with success. Reading does two big things: it expands your knowledge and it inspires you by showing what's possible. You can effectively mentor under great people by reading their ideas and experiences every morning. So here is your action step. Pick a book or learning resource like YouTube that aligns with your goals. Wake up, grab your coffee or tea or whatever you want to drink and read before you jump into work mode. Make notes of any ideas that jump out and think about how to apply them to your business, your life. And over time, you'll notice that this habit not only increases your knowledge, but also puts you in a more inspired, motivated state to start the day. Feed your mind before you feed the world's demands. In a year, you'll have read dozens of books, and your improved thinking will directly benefit your business. This is how you go to bed a little smarter each day, as Buffett says, by starting each morning as a student of success. Habit number 5: Plan your day and prioritize. Billionaires don't wing it when it comes to their day. They take a few minutes each morning or the night before to plan and prioritize what needs to get done. Instead of reacting to whatever comes up, they proactively decide what their day will look like. This often means identifying the number one most important task for the day and tackling it first. As the old saying goes, if you have to eat a frog, eat it first thing in the morning. In other words, do your hardest, highest value tasks first while your energy and willpower are at their peak. Research backs up the power of planning. In Thomas Corley's study of rich habits, he found that 81% of wealthy people maintain a daily to-do list versus just 19% of low-income people. Not only that, 67% of those wealthy people complete 70% or more of their tasks each day. They write down what matters and they execute on it. Writing your plan forces you to clarify what's important. Remember, being busy is not the same as being productive. Billionaires focus on the few critical activities that drive their goals, not the trivial many. Jeff Bezos, for example, schedules his high-IQ meetings at 10 a.m. while he's still fresh. He refuses to take meetings early in the morning so he can have time to think, plan, and get important work done, and even enjoys a relaxing breakfast with family before diving into Amazon business. Bezos said, I do my high-IQ meetings before lunch. Anything that's going to be really mentally challenging, that's a 10 o'clock meeting. He knows he's at his best in the morning, so he protects that time for critical work and decision-making. By 5 p.m., time, as he says, his brain is tapped out. So he structures his day to make the big moves early. So here's your action step. Take 5 to 10 minutes each morning to map out your day. Write down your top 3 priorities. Do this before you get caught up in emails or fires. If you have a major task that could really move your business forward, schedule time in the morning to attack it. Planning doesn't mean every minute is fixed. It means you have a game plan and clear priorities. This will keep you from drifting and reacting all day. As you complete your important tasks, check them off. It builds momentum and confidence, and over time, this habit will make you incredibly effective. Remember, either you run the day or the day runs you. Billionaires run their day starting with a solid morning plan. Habit number 6: Avoid morning distractions. That means no phone first. So here's a habit to not do. Don't grab your phone the moment you wake up. Seriously, the average person, about 80% of people, checks their phone within 10 minutes of waking up. That means most people start their day in reactive mode, scrolling through notifications and emails and social media and the news and other people's agendas. Billionaires break this common habit. They protect their morning focus like gold. So why is avoiding your phone so important? Attention. The first hour of your day sets the tone for the rest. If you immediately plunge into a flood of messages and emails, you're telling your brain to play defense all day. You're chasing, you're reacting, you're stressing. Instead, successful entrepreneurs use mornings for offense. Their goals, their mindsets, their plan. As we've already covered, they know Twitter and email can wait until they've taken care of key morning habits, exercise, planning, etc. By doing so, they stay in control. You own your morning instead of letting push notifications and inboxes own you. So think about it. When you wake up, your mind is relatively clear. If you fill it with a social feed or frantic work emails, you've essentially let 100 people in your bedroom shouting demands at you. Top performers often keep the phone on airplane mode or in another room until their morning routine is done. Arianna Huffington as an example, not a billionaire, but a very successful founder. Has spoken about banning devices from her morning routine to reduce stress. Even Oprah is known to avoid checking emails first thing. She'll spend her morning on meditation, exercise, and a good breakfast to ground herself. So here is your action step: don't check your phone for at least the first 30 to 60 minutes after you wake up. If you currently use your phone as an alarm, consider getting a separate alarm clock or placing your phone across the room so you can't mindlessly reach for it in bed. Use that first hour for the habits we're I'm talking about exercise, reading, planning, etc. If you absolutely must see if an urgent message came in, scan briefly after you've done one positive activity for yourself. Trust me, the world will not implode if you wait to check Instagram or Slack. By avoiding digital distractions, you give yourself the gift of presence and focus each morning. This will make you far more productive when you do dive into work. It might feel tough at first since phone checking is an addiction for But stick with it, because reclaiming those lost minutes of focus is game-changing. Your brain will thank you, and your business will benefit from a more focused, strategic you each day. And habit number 7: cultivate gratitude and purpose. Billionaires often start their day by feeding their spirit and mindset, not just diving straight into work. This means practicing gratitude, visualization, or setting a clear intention for the day. It might sound a little touchy-feely, but this habit is about training your mind to be positive, resilient, and purpose-driven. When you're grateful and purpose-focused each morning, you carry that strength into everything that you do. Let's go back to Oprah Winfrey, for example. She has openly credited much of her joy and success to keeping a gratitude journal. In fact, Oprah kept a daily gratitude journal for a full decade, writing down 5 things she was grateful for each day. She says this practice changed her life profoundly. Why? Because it shifts your perspective to focus on abundance and opportunity. When you appreciate what you have, what you have appreciates in value. Gratitude literally rewires your brain to look for the good in situations, which is crucial for an entrepreneur facing daily challenges. Harvard researchers found that gratitude is strongly associated with greater happiness and health. It helps people feel more positive emotions, improves their health, and and build stronger relationships. Imagine starting every day feeling thankful and optimistic. Do you think you'd be more motivated and creative? Absolutely. Another powerful mindset habit is connecting with your purpose. Billionaires are often fueled by a big mission, not just money. Steve Jobs had a famous morning question he'd ask himself in the mirror: If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I'm about to do today? If many days went by with the answer no, he took it as a sign to change something. Now, that's a pretty heavy question, but it instantly cuts through trivial worries and forces you to focus on what matters. It gave Jobs a daily dose of perspective and drive. You don't have to use his exact question, but find a morning thought or mantra that connects you to your why, the reason why you do what you do. In Built to Serve, I explain that when you find a purpose centered on serving others, it ignites you every day. So use your mornings to remind yourself of that purpose. Here's your action step: before you launch into your busy schedule, take a few minutes for gratitude or intentional ritual. This could be as simple as thinking of 3 things that you're grateful for as soon as you wake up, or writing them down in your journal. Feel that appreciation. Then take a moment to visualize your goals or say an affirmation that aligns with your mission. For instance, you might say, I'm building a business that makes a difference, or whatever drives you. If you're spiritual, you might pray or meditate on your purpose. The key is to start your day heart first, not just head first. When you do this, you'll notice you approach your tasks with more enthusiasm and resilience. Challenges that come up during the day won't knock you down as easily because you've rooted yourself in gratitude and purpose at dawn. So the 7 morning habits of billionaires: 1, wake up early. 2, exercise. 3, meditate. 4, read. 5, plan your day. 6, avoid distractions. And 7, practice gratitude and purpose. Now, you might be thinking, that's a lot to do every morning. Start with one habit at a time. One at a time. Build it up. Consistency is more important than perfection. Even adopting a couple of these habits will give you a noticeable boost in your mood, your energy, and your productivity. The more you can stack together, the more powerful your morning routine becomes. Remember, morning routines set the foundation for your entire day. If you win the morning, you're far more likely to win the day. These habits are common among the ultra-successful for a reason. They work. They prime your body and mind to be at your And as an entrepreneur, your business rises or falls based on your mindset, energy, and choices. By noon, a billionaire has often taken care of their health, fed their mind, knocked out a top priority, and centered themselves on what matters. Imagine how further ahead you'd be if you did the same thing starting tomorrow. No more excuses. You do have time for this. Remember, it can all start by waking up a little bit earlier and not letting your phone hijack your attention. Protect your morning for you and the growth of your dreams. And over time, these small habits compound into massive results. Like I say in my book Momentum, success is built through steady momentum, and that momentum begins anew each morning. So now it's your turn. Which habit will you adopt first? Commit to it. Make it part of your identity. I'm the type of person who blanks every morning. Keep going even if you stumble some days. The goal is progress, not perfection. Soon you'll notice you're more in control, more energized, and closer to your goal than ever before. This is how you join the ranks of the ultra successful, one morning at a time. So you've got this. Make your morning count and you'll change the trajectory of your whole life. All that's left is to start. Get up, get going, and make your success routine a reality. Now let's learn the 7 traits that successful people have in common. All successful people have the exact same 7 traits. Most people will ignore this and stay average. If you ignore it, chances are 5 years from now, you'll still feel stuck. Or worse, you'll be looking back with regret, wondering what went wrong. I don't want that for you, and I know you don't either. Look at Walt Disney, the man who created Mickey Mouse. He was fired from his first newspaper job because they said he lacked imagination. Then his first animation company went bankrupt. He was told over and over that his ideas were too risky, too expensive, or just plain silly. At one point, he couldn't couldn't even afford food and survived by eating beans from a can. But he refused to quit. He kept creating. He kept believing. When he pitched Disneyland, more than 300 investors turned him down, yet he kept going until one finally said yes. Today, Disney is one of the biggest brands on Earth. He succeeded because he never gave up. So ask yourself, if a man who got fired for no imagination could build a world of imagination, what could you build if you to stop. I almost gave up on my dream too. At 19, I quit on my first business. I had left a high-paying job opportunity to own a part of a startup and ended up making $300 a month. Nothing was working. I was grinding every day and feeling like a total failure. I was so embarrassed by how broke I was that I stopped hanging out with my friends, and I couldn't even afford pizza. One night, I hit rock bottom and told my business partner, I'm done, I quit. And then a new kind of pain hit me. I pictured myself years later haunted by the fact that I gave up on my dream. That vision of regret was worse than the failure, and I couldn't accept that. So the very next day, I crawled back into the office, which was my, my business partner's condo. I had no idea how I was going to fix things, but I made a decision. I would find someone who did know and learn from them. And I picked the best model I could think of, Bill Gates. Since I had a software company, he had the largest software company in the world, and study how he built Microsoft and made his first million. And guess what? Within a few weeks, we closed our first major deal for $13,500. I went from making $300 a month to bringing in a $13,500 check in a single deal. That blew my mind and it changed who I was. I realized I could have stayed a quitter and missed out on everything, but instead I proved to myself that if you push one more day, if you're resourceful and you model success, you can turn things around. I learned a lot about the value of resilience and belief and finding mentors in your darkest moment. Now, you might be thinking, okay, great story, Evan, but I'm not Walt Disney. I don't have a ton of imagination. I'm just a normal person with normal problems. Listen to me. Every successful person you admire started as a normal person with normal problems. None of them began with special powers. The difference is when things got hard, they didn't settle for normal. They made different choices, choices that built those 7 traits into them. Them. You can make those choices too. This isn't about born talent or luck or money. It's about what you decide to believe and how you act when the pressure is on. And the fact that you're watching this tells me something— that there's a fire in you. Maybe it's small right now, but it's in there. And my job in this video is to pour gasoline on that fire. So here's the good news: these 7 traits can be learned. They can be practiced. They can become your traits at an identity level. Starting today, you can decide to develop each one and completely change the trajectory of your life. So let's Let's break them down one by one and get specific on how you can build them. Trait number 1: self-belief. All successful people believe in themselves unapologetically. They believe in their vision even when it's just a crazy idea and everyone else doubts them. There's a famous saying, whether you believe you can or you can't, you are right. And it's true. If you don't believe in your ability, you won't even try or you'll quit as soon as it gets tough. On the other hand, when you do believe in yourself, you'll move mountains to prove yourself right. In psychology, this is called a growth mindset, the belief that you can improve and adapt. Stanford research has shown that the view you adopt of yourself literally shapes your life. If you believe you're capable of growth, you will grow. Successful people act like they're capable of amazing things long before it's evident, and that belief becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Think of Oprah Winfrey. Early in her career, she was fired and told she wasn't fit for television. She could have said, maybe they're right, and she faded away. But she didn't. She held on to her belief that she was meant for more. And now she's Oprah, one of the most influential media figures of all time. She believed in herself when no one else did. Do you? Ask yourself honestly, do you believe you can do great things? If your immediate answer is no, then let's change that right now. You might say, but I've never done anything great before. So what? Every success story starts with someone believing before they have evidence. I learned this from my mom. She used to tell me, if you have the ability, you have the responsibility. If you can, then you must. Whenever I failed or felt down, she'd look me in the eyes and say, you're Evan Carmichael. You can do anything you believe you can. And I didn't buy it at first. I was a B and C student while my sisters got straight A's. But after hearing it enough times, I finally thought, huh, what if she's right? And that little seed of belief— what if it's true— changed my life. I started behaving like I could achieve something, and eventually I did. Trait number 2: passion. Successful people love what they do. They are obsessed with it. They would do it for free just for the joy because it's part of who they are. I spent over 20 years studying entrepreneurs, artists, innovators, leaders, and one one of the most consistent pieces of advice is follow your passion. You have to find the thing that makes you feel alive, the thing that you would do even if you never got paid. Why? Because doing anything great is hard. It takes years of hard work. If you don't love the process, you'll quit. If it's just a paycheck or a casual interest, you'll give up when it stops being fun. But if you're truly passionate, you'll keep going even when it sucks, even when everyone calls you crazy, even when it doesn't make logical sense anymore. You keep going because you need to. It's who you are. You don't get to be the best by doing what you hate or what you think you should do. You become the best by loving what you do more than anyone else loves what they do. Think about the greats. Kobe Bryant shooting baskets at 4 AM because he loved the game, not just because someone forced him. Or Steve Jobs, who famously said, the only way to do great work is to love what you do. He was right. If you haven't found something you can pour your heart into, you need to keep looking. Don't settle for a life of lukewarm interest. It's a recipe for mediocrity. So what do you love so much that you do it no matter what? What would you regret not doing? It might be a career, a project, an art, a cause, anything. Identify it and give yourself permission to pursue it. Yes, you might have responsibilities and bills, and I'm not saying be reckless, but you owe it to yourself to incorporate your passion into your life and ultimately into your work. Because when when you operate from passion, work doesn't feel like work. It feels like honor, like service, like play. And that's where the magic happens. You'll put in more effort, you'll put in more hours, you'll be a lot more creative and happy because it feeds you. That's how winners pull ahead of the pack. They're not straining themselves to compete. They're playing their own game that they love. So they naturally practice more, they learn more, they persist more. If you haven't found that thing yet, it. Keep exploring. Follow your curiosity. Think about what pain you've overcome in your life. Often your purpose lies in helping others with the struggle that you went through. I always say your purpose comes from your pain. In my case, I struggled so much as an entrepreneur that I became passionate about making entrepreneurship easier for other people. Find your why. Trait number 3: action. Successful people do something. They have a bias for action. They execute. Execute fast, even before they feel ready. This is where so many people fail. They get paralyzed trying to plan the perfect approach or waiting for the right time, and they never actually start. Newsflash: there is no perfect plan and there is no perfect time. At some point, you have to pull the trigger and go. And I learned this the hard way in my first business. I was a perfectionist. I'm, I'm still a recovering perfectionist. I spent an entire summer drafting the ultimate business plan, dozens of pages of research, projections. It looked beautiful. And while I was planning, a competitor in my industry was acting. They got out there, they got customers, they got attention. A large competitor came along looking to acquire a business like ours, and guess who was already ready and who wasn't? Not us. Our competitor got bought for $40 million and we got nothing. I missed out on a $40 million deal because I was stuck in planning mode, and that one hurt. But it taught me a pretty valuable lesson: a half-assed plan you start now is better than a perfect plan that you never execute. Most of your precious plan is going to be wrong anyway once it meets reality. You can't think your way to success. You have to do your way to success. So ask yourself, what's one important thing that you've been putting off because you don't feel ready? And decide to take one small step today. Make that call, publish the post, start the channel, make the video, reach out to that person, whatever it is, just start. You won't have all the answers and that's okay. You figure it out by doing. Start before you feel ready. Trust that you'll learn along the way. The simple trait, being an action taker, already puts you miles ahead of most people. Remember, you can't steer a parked car, so get moving and you'll find your direction. Trick number 4: Embrace failure. Every successful person has a healthy relationship with failure. In fact, they fail more than the average person. The difference is they're not afraid of it. Most people are so terrified of failure that they don't even try. And that's the biggest failure of all. Successful people understand that failure isn't the end of the road. It's just a data point on the path to success. It's feedback. It's education. It's a necessary stepping stone. They don't take failure personally. They don't make it mean I'm a failure. They just say, okay, that didn't work. Good to know. What can I learn from this? Let's try again. They fail their way to success. In fact, they failed at more things than most people have ever attempted. Think about that. The average person might try a dozen things in their life and give up when something doesn't immediately work out. Successful people might try 100 things, fail at 90 of them, but the 10 that hit more than make up for it. Failure is the price of admission for success. Michael Jordan, one of the greatest basketball players of all time— I put him as number 1— he put it this way: I missed over 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times I was trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I failed over and over and over in my life, and that is why I succeed. Failure is not the opposite of success, it's part of success. Thomas Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful light bulb prototypes. When a reporter asked him how it felt to fail 1,000 times, he said, I didn't fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps. And that's the mindset you need to adopt. Trait number 5: perseverance. Never giving up. If one trait separates the winners from the losers, it's the sheer grit to keep going no matter what. Life will test you, business will test you. Do you get back up one more time, or do you stay down? Successful people always get back up long after other people have thrown in the towel. Remember Walt Disney with his 300+ rejections? That's perseverance. Or look at J.K. Rowling. She was rejected by 12 publishers. 12 publishers said Harry Potter wasn't worth publishing. She could have stopped at rejection number 12 and we'd never have known Hogwarts, right? But she persisted until a small publisher took a chance on her. Now she's one of the best-selling authors in history. Stories like that aren't the exception to the rule. Virtually every success is built on a mountain of persistence. They say it takes 10 years to become an overnight success, and it's true. The problem is most people never make it to year 10 at whatever they're doing. They quit at year 2 or 3 because they're not seeing results yet. Don't let that be you. Perseverance is a choice. It's a quiet, daily choice that I will not quit. Decide that for yourself. Decide that no matter how long it takes, you're going to see your vision through. There are no expiry dates on your dream. I don't care if it takes you until you're 30 or 40 or 65. Time is going to pass anyway, so you might as well keep pushing towards something that you care about. Keep keep going. Trait number 6: positive environment. All successful people raise their standards for their environment. They purposefully shape who and what they surround themselves with. So you've probably heard the saying, you are the average of the 5 people that you spend the most time with. It's true. Environment is everything. If you hang around 5 pessimistic, lazy, excuse-making people, you will become the 6th. If you hang around 5 ambitious, optimistic, high-performing people, you'll also become the 6. We as human beings are contagious to each other, so winners curate their environment ruthlessly. So this means two things: cutting out the negative influences and adding in positive influences. First, the negative. You must distance yourself from chronic negativity, naysayers, people who hold you back. Sometimes that's friends, even family. Sometimes it's the content that you consume. Pay attention to how the people around you you feel? Do they make you feel energized, inspired, capable, or do they make you feel drained, discouraged, and small? If it's the latter, you need to start spending less time with them. This can be hard, but it's necessary. Successful people from tough backgrounds often had to be the ones who said, enough. I love you, but I can't have you around my dreams if you're going to tear them down. They raise their standards and refuse to tolerate constant negativity around them. They stop blaming their circumstances and they started demanding more of themselves. That's how you break free from a limiting environment. You declare to yourself, I will not accept this anymore, and you change it. Now, cutting negativity alone isn't enough. You have to add in positivity too. If you don't have supportive, inspiring people in your life immediately around you, seek them out. Find a community of people who are also pushing for more and believe in more. That might mean joining groups or clubs or online forums Even here in the comment section here in Believe Nation on this video, put it down below. Fill your ears with the words of great mentors from videos and books and podcasts. I still do this constantly as a shy introvert starting my business. I didn't have any entrepreneurial friends to turn to, so I turned to my heroes. I called them aspirational mentors. Through their biographies and their talks, their mindset became my mindset. You can do the same. There's no excuse to not have positive influences. You have YouTube, you have audiobooks, You have virtual mentors at your fingertips 24/7. Make use of it every day. Consume something that elevates you, ideally earlier in the morning. It's like healthy food for your brain. Trait number 7, a strong purpose. The final trait that all successful people share is that they're driven by a deep sense of purpose. They know why they do what they do, and that why is everything. It gives meaning to their work and fuel to their fire. Purpose is what turns a job into a mission. It's the difference between someone who is just making a living and someone who's making a difference. Now, if you study the greats, you'll see this over and over again. They weren't just chasing money. They're usually chasing a mission to change something in the world or to reach a personal vision. When you have a purpose, setbacks don't defeat you as easily because you know what you're fighting for. Like Viktor Frankl said, he who has a why to live can bear almost any how. Successful people have a powerful why I like to say your purpose comes from your pain. Whatever you struggled with in life is what you want to help other people through. Now, here's another thing. Having a purpose also attracts other people to you. People want to be a part of something meaningful. Your team, your customers, your audience, they will rally around you if you have a genuine mission. It's inspiring. It's also a compass for your decisions. When you're lost or you're facing a tough call, you can ask, does this align with my mission or not? That, that clarity becomes gold. The world needs what you have. Successful people internalize this. They carry a sense of duty about their purpose. It's not just about personal gains, it's about using your gifts to make an impact. When you approach your life like that, as a mission, you become someone a lot more powerful. You won't give up easily because it's not just your own comfort that's on the line, it's your calling. And that is identity-level motivation. That's what creates your legacy. So those are the 7 traits, and I'll list them out one more time. And as I do it, I want you to imagine who you could become if you committed to all 7. So self-belief, trusting that you can figure things out and win even when no one else believes in you. Passion, doing work that lights you up so you have endless fuel to devote to it. Action, moving quickly and decisively rather than overthinking and hesitating. Embracing failure, learning from every misstep rather than never trying because you're afraid. Perseverance— getting back up every time, outlasting everyone who gave up. Environment— surrounding yourself with inspiration and cutting out the negativity. And purpose— knowing exactly why you're doing all of this and letting that why drive you forward. Notice something important here: none of these traits are genetic. None are privileges given only to the lucky. They are all choices. They are habits of mind and behavior that anyone can cultivate, including you, especially you. Success is not this mystical thing that is handed out to a select few. It's the result of building these traits day by day until they become who you are. Don't be intimidated by the entire list. You don't have to master all 7 overnight. Just start with one. Which one of these do you need the most right now? Pick that one trait and focus on it this week. Write a sticky note reminder. Do one small action each day and practice it. Keep it simple. If you chose action, for example, then every day this week, identify one important step and do it before your head hits the pillow. If you chose self-belief, start each morning with a video, an affirmation, a visualization of you accomplishing your goal. Bit by bit, you'll feel that trait growing stronger inside you. And here's the secret: these traits reinforce each other. When you act, you gain confidence. Your self-belief grows. When you persist through failure, you discover new passion and purpose. When you surround yourself with positive people around you, you'll find it easier to keep going and your belief gets stronger. It's all interconnected. You're basically upgrading your identity piece by piece and momentum will build. Now it's your turn. No more waiting, no more excuses. You have the blueprint. You have the same 24 hours in a day as everyone else. You have gifts inside you that the world needs. Yes, needs. It's time to unleash them. Them. So the moment this video ends, I want you to take one concrete step toward your dream using one of these traits, even if it's tiny, especially if it's tiny. Just do it now, and then do it again tomorrow, and then again the next day, and let those little steps compound. Remember, the only thing that can stop you is you. And you're done standing in your own way, aren't you? To learn the 10 money traps that keep you poor, check the video right there next to me. I think you'll love it. Continue to believe and I'll see you there. You're not broke because of the economy or bad luck. You're broke because you keep stepping into the same 10 money traps. While other entrepreneurs are quietly getting rich by avoiding these mistakes, you might be repeating them without even realizing it. And if you don't fix this, a year from now