How to Start a Business in 2026 With Zero Dollars

You don't need to hire a massive team or spend thousands of dollars to build a massive company anymore.

If you're starting a company, there's normally like some core idea or something that you're trying to do, and then there's like all these other things that you need to do to make a company work. I do think a bunch of that stuff, we're just getting to the point where the AI can do it better than sort of the average people who are doing that.

I go to the store, get $40 worth of fabric. I come home, I give my mother the stuff to sew the hats, and she says, "I'm not sewing this. You're sewing this." I said, "Oh crap, now I gotta work at this?" I sew the hats and then all of a sudden I have all these hats and only one head. When it happened, that's when I went out and sold those hats outside on that Good Friday, and I sold $800 worth of hats in 1 hour.

And I went on the website. I picked 3 different law firms. I cold-called each law firm. They all quoted me between $3,000 and $5,000 to patent it. And I had $5,000 set aside in my savings to do this. So I decided to patent it myself. I ended up going and buying a book called Patents and Trademarks at Barnes Noble on Peachtree Road in Atlanta. And I started writing my own patent.

Over 79% of successful companies are now using free AI tools to do the work of 10 people for exactly $0.

The companies that will succeed in this transition period will be the ones that most effectively use AI. If you're doing something and making maximum use of AI and you're competing against someone who is not, you will win.

Using the latest large language models, whether it's ChatGPT, Gemini, Anthropic, Perplexity, Whatever it may be, is like having every professor in every university available to you as a mentor.

So whether you wanna start a company or be a programmer, or the ability for one person to use these tools and have great ideas and implement them with what would have taken, you know, decades of experience or teams of people is really quite remarkable. If you don't take action on your big ideas today, You will wake up 10 years from now working for someone else who actually went for it. Strategy is not words. Strategy is action.

Take action. So many people talk about doing something or say, what if? They don't actually get up and do it.

When are you gonna do it? When are you going to do it? You've gotta create a sense of urgency. I'm gonna do it right now.

Daymond John didn't wait for a millionaire investor to hand him a massive check. He started FUBU with exactly $40 in his pocket. He bought some cheap fabric sewed 80 hats by himself and sold them on the street to make his first $800. He turned his own house into a factory because he refused to let a lack of money stop his dream. You have more tools on your phone right now than he had in his entire house back then. Jan Koum stood in line for food stamps before he created WhatsApp. He had $0 for marketing and $0 to hire an expensive team. He just used his own skills and a cheap computer server to to build something people desperately needed. A few years later, Facebook bought his company for $19 billion. He didn't let his empty bank account hold him back, and you shouldn't either. When Sara Blakely invented Spanx, she had no money to hire expensive lawyers to trademark her idea. Instead of giving up, she went to a bookstore, bought a textbook, and wrote her own patent from scratch. She didn't have millions of dollars to launch, so she did the hard work herself. She became a billionaire because she focused on what she could do right now instead of what she couldn't afford. You can do the exact same thing with the free AI tools available today. Now, right now you're probably thinking, that worked for Daymond or Sarah back then, but this year it's just too crowded. The truth is, starting has never been easier than it is today. You don't need to invent the next big app or sew hats by hand. You just need to use the free tools that exist right now to solve one simple problem for people. I'm going to show you exactly how to do that step by step. I've got a proven system to help you find your idea and get your first paying customer with $0. If you've been here before, drop a hashtag #believe in the comments below so 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. Find your first customer before you build anything. Most people do this completely backwards. They spend 6 months picking a name, designing a logo, and reading every business book they can find, and they never make a single dollar. So we got to flip that. Your very first move is to find find one real customer, not a perfect idea. Start with something you actually enjoy doing, because if you don't love it, you'll lose to the person who actually does. Then go talk to real people who have the problem that you can solve and listen closely to exactly what they ask for. Don't sit in your living room guessing what the market wants. Let your first customer tell you what to build, then build that one thing for them. This year you can do this before you create anything at all. It's called pre-selling. You offer a small beta version of your service at a discount to your first few people. You get paid upfront and you use that money and those early reviews to build the real version with zero risk. So picture it like this. Instead of spending 3 months and your savings building a course nobody asked for, you message 10 people who have the problem. You offer to solve it for them personally for a beta price, and you let the 2 who say yes fund the whole thing. Being leads to doing here. The moment you decide you're the kind of person who solves this problem for money, you stop researching and you start asking. Validate the demand with a real yes from a real human before you spend a single dollar or a single weekend building anything.. And here's a question that I want you to sit with right now. You know when the best time to start is? Right now. How about now? That one habit, customer first and product second, is the entire difference between an expensive hobby and a real business that actually pays you. The $2,000 times 4 rule that builds a real business. So here's the math that makes all of this real, and almost nobody teaches it this simply. You don't need 1,000 customers. You need one offer you can sell for $2,000 a month for just 4 or 5 people. 4 clients paying you $2,000 a month is a $96,000 a year business, and you can run it from your laptop with nothing but your skills and your phone. That's real income built on 4 relationships, not 4,000 sales. And it gives you a survivable base to build everything else on top of. Now let's talk about what's actually worth $2,000 this year, because this is where it gets pretty exciting. AI automation projects where you build a chatbot or set up systems for a company run $2,000 to $10,000 each. A consulting or social media management retainer runs $1,500 to $5,000 a month. Per client. Good consultants charge $150 to $500 an hour, and digital products like templates, guides, courses are pure profit once you make them one time, with the top creators pulling $5,000 to $50,000 a month while they sleep. You only need 4 yeses to change your entire life. So when you tell me your goal is to make an extra $2,000 a month on the side, I'll tell you, hey, that's a good start. And then I want you to see something much bigger. The same effort it takes to land one client can land you 4, and 4 is a real company that replaces your job and then some. So keep the Keep it super simple because a confused buyer never buys. Keep the price at $2,000 or more so the math works fast and you're not grinding to make 200 tiny sales. Then go get the first one this week, not next quarter. Stop building things that only feel like progress. So I'm going to save you months of wasted time with one sentence. You do not need a website to start making money. I have helped launch multimillion-dollar agencies that never had a website when they landed their first clients. The website, the perfect logo, the business cards, the fancy email signature, all of that feels like progress, but it's really just a comfortable place from hiding from the one scary thing that actually matters, which is asking another human being to buy from you. The Small Business Administration says it costs less than $100 to legally register your business. So the real barrier was never the money and it was never the paperwork. The barrier is that selling feels uncomfortable. So you invent busywork that lets you feel productive while you quietly avoid the thing that actually will pay you. Your customer does not care about your logo. They're not buying from you because of your name. They care about one thing, which is whether you can solve their problem and make their life better. So strip it all away, pick your offer, write one clear sentence about who you help and the exact result that you will get them, and then spend your hours in real conversations with real people instead of inside design software. So here's what it looks like on a Tuesday. Instead of redesigning your logo for the fifth time, you send 20 personal messages to people who have the problem you solve, and you start 3 conversations. That's progress. The logo is not progress. Speed beats polish every single time when you're starting from zero, because every hour you spend perfecting something nobody has paid for yet is an hour you didn't spend earning your first yes. The faster you get to your first paying customer, the faster this stops being a someday dream and becomes a thing that you actually do. We also got a free link in the description to the PDF for this video to summarize all the key points and give you an action plan. It's 100% free. Just check it out in the description below. I'll see you there. Use the connections you already have. You're not starting from zero connections, even if it feels that way today. Before you ever pay for a single ad, audit the people that you already know, because most beginners are sitting on a gold mine and you just can't see it. If your sister owns a clinic, offer to run her ads or her social media so you can learn the industry from the inside and earn your first real testimonial. If a friend runs a local shop, help them with the exact service that you want to get paid for later. Those first few Wins gives you proof, and proof is what lets you charge real money the next time around. After that, go where your future customers already spend their time online. Join the groups, the communities, the comment sections where they hang out, and give away genuinely helpful advice without pitching anything at all. Answer the question everyone is too busy to answer. Share the thing you learned the hard way. When you become the person who keeps showing up with real value, people start asking How can they work with you? And now you're not chasing anybody. You're being chased. And the second you have one happy customer, build referrals in from day one because this is the cheapest growth on earth. Here is the number that proves it. Getting a customer through cold outreach costs around $1,980 on average, but getting one through referral costs around $150. That's not a small gap. That's the difference between exhausting and effortless. So make it simple and rewarding for happy clients to send you the next person. Give them a credit or bonus, a free month for everyone they bring you. When you start with no money, your network is your startup capital. And the good news is you already have one. You just have never asked it for anything. Let AI be the team you can't afford yet. This year you're starting with an advantage that no entrepreneur in history has ever had. You have AI and it works for free or pretty close to it. The thing that used to stop people with no money was simple. They couldn't afford a designer, a writer, a developer, an assistant, a researcher. So here's your move. You can't afford a team yet, so let AI be your team. You need a logo and a brand while you wait for revenue? AI can make it in minutes. You need to write your offer, your emails, your social posts? AI can draft all of it and you can just add your own voice on top of it. You need to build a simple tool or automate a boring task for a client? You can set that up with AI and free no-code tools without ever writing a single line of code yourself. This is exactly why those AI automation projects are worth $2,000 to $10,000 right now, because most business owners know they have this need and they have no idea how to do it. And you can learn the basics this weekend for nothing. So here's how I want you to use it. Don't use AI to replace your thinking. Use it to remove all of the excuses in your mind. Every time you catch yourself saying, I can't afford that, I can't do a part, stop and ask whether AI can do that part for you today. Because today the answer is usually yes. The person who wins isn't the one with the biggest budget anymore. It's the one who's willing to learn the tools and actually use them while everyone else is still arguing about whether they should or not. You have a full team sitting in your pocket right now. Most people will never open the door. You're going to walk right through it. Build 50 relationships, not 50,000 followers. This is a strategy that changed everything for me, and it works even if you have zero subscribers today. Don't try to build a giant audience first. Building a brand from scratch will take 3 to 5 or more years, and most people run out of money and quit long before the views ever pay them anything back. So instead, build what I call your Money 50 list. This is what we teach inside Movement Makers. These are 50 specific people who could could each send you life-changing business if they knew you, liked you, trusted you. Write all 50 names down on the page, then start a simple interview show, what I call a biz dev show. When you invite those exact 50 people on to your show to talk about them, share their journey, share their work— you don't need a big audience for this. And that's the part people miss, because the entire point is the relationship, not how many views a video gets. You get a full hour with someone who never would have taken your cold call and ask them about their wins, what they're working on next. You make them look great in front of their own people, and you build real trust in the process. People do business with people that they trust, and there's no faster way on earth to earn someone's trust than to genuinely champion them before you ever ask them for anything. So 50 real relationships will out-earn 50,000 random followers every time, because a follower, they will just scroll right past you. But a relationship picks up the phone and sends you a check. And remember, your purpose comes from your pain. The people that you are meant to serve are often the very ones walking the exact road that you have already survived and gone through. So reach out to them on purpose because you understand them in a way that no big brand with a huge budget ever could. Protect your runway so you never have to quit. Here's the part that keeps you in the game long enough to actually win, and it's the opposite of what most of the internet will tell you. When you're starting with no money, your job is not to be a hero who burns the boats on day one. Your job was to survive long enough for the business to work. So keep your day job while you validate. I know that's not the exciting answer, but But emotional pressure is exactly what makes so many founders quit way too early. And a steady paycheck buys you the calm to make smart decisions, long-term decisions instead of desperate, scared ones. The simple rule— you can just use this— don't go all in until you've saved 6 months of personal living expenses and until you've earned at least 75% of your salary from your business for 3 months in a row. Hit those 2 numbers and the leap stops being a gamble and starts being the obvious logical next step that any sane person would take. Until you get there, you build at night, you build on the weekends, you, you reinvest your very first dollars back into the business instead of spending them, and you let the proof quietly pile up until the decision makes itself for you. This is exactly how you start with zero and never have to crawl back to that job. If you have the ability to help people, then you have the responsibility to keep showing up long enough to actually reach them. If you can, then you must. So protect your runway, stay patient with your timeline, and let the math do exactly what the math always does when you give it enough time. The money was never the thing stopping you. The money was never the thing holding you back. It was the, the belief that someone like you isn't allowed to start. You are. You can. And if you can, then you must. And congratulations, you're one video closer to who you're meant to be. Believe. Now let's learn the 5 high-income skills for you to learn this year. Ready to discover the skills that could skyrocket your success this year? These aren't academic theories. They're practical, in-demand abilities that you can learn without a formal degree. Each skill taps into emerging market needs, offers entrepreneurial leverage, and has scalable impact. Let's dive in and imagine the possibilities each one opens up for your business and income. Skill number 1: AI integration and automation, turning intelligence into income. Okay, so what is it? Here we're going to leverage AI and automation tools to streamline operations, create smarter products, or even launch AI-driven service It's using machines to do the heavy thinking or doing for you, from chatbots that handle customer inquiries to AI systems that optimize your marketing or inventory in real time. Here's why it matters this year. The AI revolution isn't coming. It's right here now, and it's rewriting the rules of business. By 2024, 70% of organizations reported using AI in some capacity, up from just 55% the year before. Companies are pouring investments in the AI at record levels, over $109 billion in the US in 2024, with nearly $34 billion globally into generative AI. And they desperately need people who can make it work. The catch? There's a huge talent gap. 94% of business leaders say they face AI-related skill shortages on their teams, with 1 in 3 reporting massive gaps in critical AI roles. What does that mean? Demand is way bigger than supply, and that means opportunities for you entrepreneurs who are AI savvy can step in and command premium prices for their solutions. This isn't just for tech companies either. From healthcare to finance, AI is being woven into daily operations. Even the FDA has approved hundreds of AI-enabled medical devices, and self-driving cars are logging thousands of rides right now. The world is racing to adopt AI, and those who can ride that wave stand to reap huge rewards. So how can entrepreneurs profit? Think of AI as a force multiplier for your for business. An entrepreneur with AI skills can automate super boring processes, freeing up time to scale faster. You can make smarter products with better features. You can offer AI consulting and integration services to companies who are willing to pay for help. Uh, so for example, a small e-commerce founder might use AI to personalize their shopping experience for each customer automatically, leading to happier customers and higher sales. Or maybe you're launching a micro SaaS tool that uses AI, like an AI scheduling assistant or content generator. Even a one-person business can serve thousands of customers when AI is doing most of the work. The evidence is everywhere. Companies using AI report higher productivity and lower costs, and many have seen AI-driven projects boost their bottom line. One entrepreneur created an AI-powered copywriting service and landed hundreds of clients globally, essentially earning money 24/7 as as the AI works for them. The key is that AI is practical and learnable. With countless online courses and tools, you can start applying AI even if you're not a programmer. Many AI platforms are actually plug and play. So this year, knowing how to harness AI is like having a superpower. It's not just about efficiency, it's about unlocking new income streams. From automating your marketing to building the next ChatGPT-like app for a niche industry, AI integration is a skill that can pay off almost almost immediately. So embrace it, and you ride the biggest tech wave of our era straight towards profit. Now, AI might be the brains, but data is the backbone. So next, let's look at the skills that turn raw numbers into gold. Skill number 2: data analytics and business intelligence. Profiting from big data. Okay, so what is it? It's the skill of collecting, analyzing, and drawing smart insights from data to drive business decisions. So data analytics is like having X-ray vision for your business. It lets you see the patterns and trends that normal people's eyes would miss. So business intelligence, or BI, goes hand in hand, focusing on those who are using insights to make strategic calls. This skill isn't about math genius. It's about knowing which numbers matter and how to translate them into action. So why it matters right now in this year, we live in a world that has tons of data. Every click, every purchase, every interaction, it can be tracked. But few people know how to turn that ocean of information into actual real value. And that's where you can come in. Companies have realized that gut instinct isn't enough. 81% of businesses now believe data should be at the heart of all decision-making, and they're willing to pay handsomely for those who can deliver results. Why? Because data-driven businesses simply perform better. They're more productive and more profitable on average than their less data-savvy peers. Companies that truly embrace analytics have seen efficiencies boost as high as 60 to 80% in operations. It's not just about giant corporations. Even small startups benefit when they can quickly identify which product feature is a hit or which marketing channel brings the best ROI. And this is a very clear trend. The global big data analytics market is massive. It's over $270 billion in value and still growing. And there's a shortage of professionals who can wrangle data effectively. Executives are literally hungry for insights. A recent survey found 88% of business leaders rank rank data analytics as a top priority for upskilling in the organization. So this year, being fluent in data is like having a secret weapon in your market. You base decisions on facts, not guesses, which is a recipe for winning. So how can entrepreneurs use it? Data analytics can make you rich in two ways. First, by applying it to your own business, you can pinpoint your most profitable customers, you can find inefficiencies to cut, you can test pricing strategies with actual hard For example, Netflix famously used data analytics to save $1 billion a year by recommending exactly what viewers wanted. So imagine bringing that kind of insight into your business decisions. Secondly, you can sell this skill as a service to others. Many companies, especially smaller ones, they drown in data but have no idea what to do with it. You could come in as a freelance analyst or consultant, turn their data into a clear action plan, and charge premium fees for delivering growth or savings. So picture telling your client, I found a way to boost your sales sales, 20% by analyzing your customer behavior and then actually doing it. There are real case studies of entrepreneurs doing just this. One startup founder used business intelligence tools to optimize her inventory and eliminated over $100,000 in annual waste, directly padding her profits. Another built a consulting agency that helps local businesses set up simple dashboards and KPIs, and within a year he was booking 5-figure contracts regularly. The bottom line is data analytics Analytics is practical and learnable. There's tons of online courses, YouTube videos, tools that are now drag and drop. Master it and you can either supercharge your own business or become the go-to data guru who turns others' confusion into cash. So in this year, data, it's a new oil, and knowing how to drill for it is an extremely high-income skill. Now, having great data is pointless if you can't attract customers. That's where our next skill comes in. It's time to cash in on the art of getting noticed. Skill number 3: digital marketing and growth hacking, scaling visibility into wealth. So what is it? Digital marketing is a skill of getting customers for people's businesses online through channels like social media, through search engines, through email, through LLMs, and more. Growth hacking is a trendy way to say creative, fast-paced marketing experimentation, right? So finding clever, low-cost tactics to drive growth or sales for your business or other people's people's. This skill is about making your business impossible to ignore on the internet and turning that attention into revenue. So it covers everything from running targeted ads, optimizing a website to rank on Google, or GPT crafting viral content, analyzing campaign data to tweak for better results, uh, making YouTube videos to spread your message. Why it matters this year is you could have the best product or service in the world, but if nobody knows about it, you don't make a This year, digital marketing remains one of the highest skills for entrepreneurs because online attention is the currency of our kingdom. Just look at the numbers. Global digital ad spending is projected to hit $843 billion. Yes, with a B. Companies large and small are pouring money into Facebook ads, Google searches, TikTok videos, wherever their audience lives online. And they need experts who know how to navigate this landscape. The job outlook also reflects that demand. Marketing roles are expected to grow by 10% faster than the average for all careers. And in particular, there's surging demand for people skilled in areas like marketing analytics, content creation, and SEO, SEM, because every business wants to rank number one on Google and decode the algorithms of ChatGPT. The beauty of digital marketing is that it's practical and learnable. No MBA required, just practice, creativity, and keeping up with the trends. We're also seeing new frontiers like AI-driven marketing. Over 50% of businesses are already using generative AI to improve their operations. All this means that entrepreneurial marketers who stay sharp can out-hustle their bigger competitors. So in this year, if you know how to get the right message to the right people at the right time online, you basically have a license to print money. So how can you use it as an entrepreneur? Digital marketing is often the make or break skill that determines if you scale or if you stay stuck. And so if you master it and you can acquire customers on demand, you can enter new markets quickly. You can even build a personal brand that multiplies all of your opportunities. Take, for example, an online fitness coach who leverages social media marketing by mastering YouTube and Instagram. She grows her audience to hundreds of thousands and launches a fitness app that earns 7 figures online. Or think of a small local business owner who uses savvy Google search ads and SEO to dominate local search traffic, right? Their store goes from unknown to the go-to place in town. And these aren't hypotheticals. These things are happening right now all around us. Around us. As an entrepreneur, you can also sell digital marketing expertise. If you're great at, say, SEO or Facebook ads, you can freelance or start an agency. Businesses are eager to pay because they've seen the ROI. For every dollar spent on email marketing can yield $36 in return, as various studies have shown. So a skilled email marketer is worth their weight in gold. Another real-world use case: an entrepreneur growth hacked his startup by creating a referral program that went viral. So think Dropbox's free storage for referral strategy, acquiring millions of users without a massive ad budget. That's growth hacking in action. So digital marketing lets you scale up quickly. An ad campaign can reach millions of people overnight. A piece of content that catches fire can bring in floods of traffic. You're not limited by your local area, your storefront, and with analytics tools, you can measure every penny and double down on what works, like truly data-driven marketing. And the emotional side— it's pretty thrilling to see your business blow up because of a campaign that you created. The control is right here. It's in your hands. With consumer attention shifting every year— today it might be YouTube or LinkedIn newsletters, tomorrow who knows— entrepreneurs who have the skill will ride each wave and outpace their competition. Digital marketing and growth hacking are high-income skills because they directly drive revenue, and mastering them means you can virtually write your own success story in this digital age. So now you've got the customer's attention. Now we need to convince them to open their wallets. The next skill is all about the art of persuasion, and it's one of the oldest and most profitable tricks in the book. Skill number 4: persuasive communication and storytelling. Selling anything to anyone. So what is it? This is the skill of conveying ideas in a compelling way. So that's through sales pitches and marketing copy. Copy, or even everyday networking conversations. It includes sales and negotiation, right? Convincing a customer or partner to say yes. Copywriting, which is writing words that sell, from ads to landing pages. And storytelling, crafting a narrative that hooks people in emotionally. It's how to talk or write so people listen, trust you, and feel motivated to act, like clicking the buy now or signing a contract. Why it matters this year is no matter how advanced technology gets, the power of a good story and genuine connection never goes out of style. In fact, as automation rises, those human-centered skills become more valuable. This year's marketplace is hyperstimulated. Consumers see thousands of ads and posts a day, so the ability to cut through that noise with a resonant message is pure gold. 68% of consumers say that a brand's story influences their buying decisions. People remember stories up to 22 times more than plain facts. That's huge for entrepreneurs trying to build a memorable brand or pitch to investors. And yes, we see evidence that storytelling and communication translate to better results. Marketing campaigns built around a narrative can boost conversion rates by 30% or more. On the sales side, companies are actively looking for leaders with strong social influence and communication skills. Even the World Economic Forum highlighted leadership and social influence as a top skill for the future. Why? Because a person who can rally a team, win over a client, negotiate a profitable deal, they are invaluable. Also, let's talk money. Jobs like sales executives or copywriters are often high paying because they directly bring in revenue. A top performing tech sales rep, for example, can earn a 6-figure base salary plus another 6 figures in commissions. Copywriters who crack the code of persuasion are similarly rewarded. Many freelance copywriters charge $100+ an hour and businesses happily rapidly pay because one killer sales page or email sequence can generate hundreds of thousands in sales. Words are powerful, and this year, those who can wield that power expertly will find that it translates into serious income. So how can you use it as an entrepreneur? You're always selling, not just your products but your vision, your brand, even selling yourself as a trustworthy partner. Persuasive communication turns this into a superpower. Mastering storytelling means you can craft a brand narrative that makes customers feel something and remember you. So for example, instead of just saying, uh, our shoe is comfortable, you share the story of a customer who, thanks to your shoe, ran their first marathon pain-free to honor a loved one, right? Now you're not just selling a shoe, you're selling inspiration, you're selling identity. That's the difference that makes people lifetime fans. On a more practical side, entrepreneurs skilled in communication, they'll just close more deals. So imagine you're negotiating with a supplier or an investor. If you can clearly articulate your value and persuade them effectively, you'll likely get better terms, maybe tens of thousands saved or gained in one conversation. If you sell services or high-ticket products, strong sales techniques like consultative selling or solutions-based selling is key. Today's customers expect you to understand their needs and tailor your offer. Being able to do that can literally double or triple your closing rate. So for example, you can monetize a skill by offering freelance copywriting or sales consulting. Consulting. Great copywriters are in short supply, even with AI writing tools around, because someone has to give the AI the right emotional direction. Businesses will pay top dollar for emails and ads that actually convert. One excellent sales page can be worth millions to a company, so paying a writer $10,000 a craft, it is— it's a no-brainer for some companies. Skilled copywriters routinely earn over $150,000 a year once they built a reputation. And don't forget content creators and influencers. They are essentially storytellers 2, turning authentic communication into followers and income from ads and sponsorships or product sales. Emotions drive decisions, and if you can tap into emotions with genuine communication, you can drive decisions in your favor. So this year, mastering persuasive communication and storytelling isn't just a nice to have. It's often the difference between the business that just fizzles out and one that actually becomes a phenomenon. We've covered brains, data, marketing, charm. Our final skill might not sound as glamorous, but it's a massive moneymaker in today's world. It's all about protecting the wealth that you're building, and it's an area where demand is exploding. Skill number 5: cybersecurity and data protection. Guarding the digital goldmine. Okay, so what is it? Cybersecurity is the skill of keeping data, software systems safe from hackers and breaches. It's being the digital bodyguard for businesses. This includes understanding how to prevent attacks. So think malware, phishing, ransomware, knowing how to plug vulnerabilities in networks or websites and making sure that companies follow best practices. So sensitive information like consumer data is not stolen or compromised. It's deeply technical for those who specialize, but at a high level, it's very learn-by-doing problem-solving field and you don't need a PhD to get good at it. Just solid training and experience and a curious mind. Data protection goes hand in hand. So think dealing with proper handling and compliance, like the laws of the land. So for an entrepreneur, having cybersecurity skills means that you can both protect your own venture but also potentially offer security solutions to other people as a business. So why does it matter this year? One word: risk. As businesses digitize every aspect of their operations, the risk of cyberattacks have skyrocketed, and so have the The average cost of a single data breach hit an eye-watering $4.9 million globally. So for a small or mid-sized company, that kind of hit can be fatal. That's why firms are desperate for cybersecurity expertise and why it's become a high-income skill, high-demand skill. We're in a situation where there aren't nearly enough cybersecurity pros to go around. The global cybersecurity workforce is millions short. One recent study showed about 4.8 million million cybersecurity roles are unfulfilled worldwide. There are millions of openings and not enough people with the skills, a gap that widened by 19% in just one year. So talent shortage is actually the number one obstacle companies face in securing their systems. This kind of supply-demand mismatch is exactly what drives up incomes for those who have the skill. So companies have even started to prioritize this in budgets because they simply cannot afford the alternative. Companies without adequate security staff end up paying on average $1.76 million more per breach due to slower response and damage control. But just beyond like corporate IT departments, every entrepreneur with an online presence needs at least basic cybersecurity savviness. Cyber threats this year are more sophisticated. Yes, hackers are using AI too. So on top of that, customer trust and regulations require more solid data protection. You don't want to be that startup that leaked user data and lost credibility overnight. So from ransomware attacks, shutting down hospitals, to small businesses getting scammed from phishing. The threat is universal. This urgency is driving a huge market for cybersecurity products and consultants. Global spending on cybersecurity is rising every year, tens of billions of dollars annually, as businesses effectively say, please take our money and keep us safe. If you can step in with the skills to do so, you will be richly rewarded. So as some evidence, top freelance cybersecurity experts report rates of $200 to $300 an hour, and experienced security security consultants can make over $500,000 a year by serving multiple clients. So it's no surprise that when the stakes are this high, companies are willing to pay for peace of mind. So how can entrepreneurs use it? If you're building your own company, cybersecurity skills are like an insurance policy and a selling point. You can save a ton of money by implementing security measures yourself instead of hiring some expensive firms and avoid disaster that could derail your business. But also being more security-minded from day one can be a competitive advantage. You can use that in your marketing. Customers and partners will feel safer dealing with you. So for example, e-commerce entrepreneur who knows how to secure their payment systems and protect customer data not only avoids costly breaches, but can market their store as ultra secure, which gains more customer trust and extra sales in an era of privacy concerns. On the other side, cybersecurity is also an amazing service and a business opportunity. Security. So given that huge talent gap, you could start a consultancy or freelance as a virtual CISO, as Chief Information Security Officer, for multiple small companies that can't afford one in-house. They get your expertise part-time, you get a hefty paycheck. Some entrepreneurs are launching cybersecurity startups. So whether that's, um, developing a niche security software tool or you're offering specialized training, there's even demand for things like ethical hackers who companies pay to test their defenses. We've seen solo consultants charge retainers in the thousands per month per client just to be on call for security incidents. And with new data privacy laws popping up all the time, like Europe's GDPR and others, businesses are scrambling for guidance, which is another avenue for advisory services you could offer if you're well-versed in compliance. So the key point is this: threats are growing and talent is scarce. If you equip yourself with this skill, you become part of a highly sought-after elite group of people. Not only can you command higher fees because preventing a multimillion-dollar breach is essentially worth a high payout, but you also carry the confidence that you can protect the empire that you're building too. In a time where a single hack can wipe out years of effort, the entrepreneurs who understand cybersecurity will safeguard their wealth and even turn security into a profitable service for others. It's truly a high-impact, high-income skill for today's age. So each of these 5 skills— AI integration, data analytics, digital marketing, persuasive —communication and cybersecurity hits the sweet spot of being practical, learnable, and immediately valuable this year. They align with the biggest technology shifts and market needs that we are seeing right now. AI is everywhere. Data is the king. Online growth is non-negotiable. Human connection still seals a deal, and security underpins it all. The best part is you don't need a fancy degree to get started with any of these. There are YouTube videos, videos, boot camps, online courses, communities for each skill that you can start learning right now. Entrepreneurs who invest time in mastering even one or two of these will position themselves to generate wealth in the short term. We're talking within a year or two, not decades. And it's all backed by trends and numbers that I've already cited throughout this entire video. The market is hungry for these abilities. So ask yourself, which of these skills speaks to you right now. The entrepreneurs getting rich this year aren't necessarily the ones with the most funding or the fanciest ideas. Often they're the ones who have the right skills at the right time and execute relentlessly. Now you know 5 of those right skills. It's time to choose, learn, and leap. Here's to your success, because this year might be the year your hard work and high-income skills make you the next great success story. Now let's learn how to actually get rich from nothing. Talent has absolutely nothing to do with why some people get rich and you do not.

I always look at IQ and, and talent as sort of representing the, the horsepower of the motor. But then in terms of the output, the efficiency with which the motor works, that depends on rationality.

The problem is entirely skill set. It's not that you're average, it's that you don't have a skill set. I do think that we should all challenge ourselves to be self-aware and try to figure out the talents, and then if we're lucky that those talents match something we're interested in doing, we have to go pot committed to that. Wealth is simply the result of doing the exact same boring, highly effective habits every single day until you win. What you're describing is often sometimes called a keystone habit, and the idea is you do one thing and it ripples into other areas of your life.

Every single qualification for Success success is acquired through habit. At your age, you know, you will have the habits 20 years from now that you decide to put into practice today. So I just suggest that, that you, you look at the habits you admire in others, or the behavior you admire in others, and, and make those your own, uh, habits.

If you rely on random bursts of motivation instead of building these habits, you will completely fail at every business you try to start.

People form habits and habits form futures. If you don't deliberately form good habits, then unconsciously you form bad ones. I took various people that I really admired and I took some of the qualities that I really admired in them and I'd write them down. I wasn't going to be like them, but I was going to develop a couple of these qualities or habits. Aristotle said that 95% of everything everything you do is the result of habit. So the rule is: form good habits and make them your masters.

Let's look at Warren Buffett. He did not build his massive wealth by guessing stock prices or relying on natural talent. He built it by using the most boring habit imaginable. He spends 80% of his day just sitting alone in a quiet room reading 500 pages of financial reports and books. He started from scratch and used this exact daily action to compound his knowledge until he became a billionaire. The magic is always in the boring repetition. Now you might be thinking, Evan, I don't have time to sit in a room for 8 hours a day, and I definitely do not have money to invest. But that's exactly the point. You do not need money and you do not need 8 free hours. You just need to build the right small habits that take $0 to start. And today I'm going to show you exactly what those 5 daily actions are so you can start building real wealth right now. Habit number 1: Reprogram your environment. So you are a direct reflection of the information that you consume every single day. If your bank account is at $0 right now, your current environment is perfectly designed to keep you exactly where you are. You cannot expect to build a massive massive financial empire while you listen to negative news and hang around people who constantly complain. You must take strict control over the voices that you allow into your head. Every morning you have a distinct choice. You can scroll through social media and feel terrible about your life, or you can intentionally put the voices of massive success into your ear. So I do this practice every morning. I call it the Believe Walk. I do not wake up feeling naturally like I want to go off and conquer the world. I wake up and I'm tired and I could think about the overwhelm of my day ahead. So I go outside, walk for 15 minutes, and intentionally put a video of a famous entrepreneur on while I'm going outside. I listen to their stories because I need their belief. I want their ambition to completely take over my mind. And the science actually really backs this up. The American Psychological Association published a massive report showing that constantly consuming negative media increases your stress levels and and completely kills your motivation to act. So you have to cut the negativity out of your life today. Unsubscribe from the channels that make you feel small and defeated. Start your day with a video or podcast from someone who forces you to think bigger. Take the Believe Walk Challenge with us. Once you fix your daily environment, you will finally have the mental energy to take action. But energy alone will not make you wealthy. You have to actually move. And the fastest way to do that That is what I will show you in the next habit. Habit number 2: Build instant momentum. Perfectionism is just a fancy word for fear, right? You're just afraid. Waiting for the perfect business plan or the perfect camera gear will completely keep you broke forever. Getting rich from $0 requires you to build the daily habit of taking messy, uncomfortable action. The biggest thing you're missing right now is just momentum. The very first step is always the hardest step to Take. take. You just need to start moving. When I started this YouTube channel, I was a shy, introverted kid from Toronto. I sucked on camera. I made 350 videos before I could even watch myself without feeling completely embarrassed by myself, by most of my content. Most of those early videos got very few views, but I built the daily habit of hitting record anyway. I expected to suck at the start, and that one habit of every day showing up with imperfect action is exactly what built this empire. Taking small daily actions physically changes your brain structure. A famous psychology study published in the European Journal of Social Psychology proved that practicing a small daily behavior turns it into an automatic habit over time, so it completely bypasses the need for daily motivation. Stop overthinking your grand master plan. Find the tiny 2% difference that you can make right now, today. Send one single email, Record one bad video, write one rough page. Just build the momentum. Habit number 3: Turn your pain into purpose. You do not need to invent a crazy new technology to get rich. The most profitable business ideas come directly from your own personal struggles. Your true purpose always comes from your deepest pain. The people who make the most money in the world are simply the ones who solve the biggest problem problems for other people. So if you want to know exactly what businesses start with $0, look at the hardest thing that you have ever overcome in your own life. You are uniquely qualified to help the exact person that you used to be. So I struggled horribly in my first business. I was making $300 a month and I felt completely alone. I wanted to quit. I told my business partner one day that I wanted to quit. I survived that deep pain and now my life is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs so they do not have to struggled the same way I did. You can look at Oprah Winfrey. She survived extreme poverty and childhood trauma. She did not hide from her painful past. She used her deep understanding of human suffering to build a massive media empire focused on empathy and healing. She turned her absolute darkest moments into her greatest financial asset. So every single day, you can ask yourself, how can you serve someone else who is currently facing the pain that you already beat? When you wake up every day trying to solve a real problem problem for real people, the money will naturally follow. But you still need a proven strategy to execute your purpose. This is exactly where the fourth habit changes everything. Habit number 4: Model the greats. Trying to figure everything out on your own is a massive waste of time. Whatever you want to achieve, somebody else in history has already done it. You do not have to guess, you just have to model success. The biggest mistake you can make right now is looking at a billionaire today and trying to copy their current daily routine. You must copy their rise, not the result. You have to study exactly what they did on day one when they had $0, just like you. When I was failing in my first software company, I didn't know what to do. I called my partner. I told them I quit. It was one of the worst nights of my life. And so I looked at a successful software entrepreneur to model. Model. I picked Bill Gates. I said exactly how he got his very first client when Microsoft was just a tiny startup in a dusty garage. I took his exact strategy, applied it to my own struggling business, and landed my first deal that completely saved my company. Psychology calls this process observational learning. Albert Bandura published a famous theory called the social learning theory. He proved that people learn new behaviors the absolute fastest simply by observing and imitating others. So pick your ultimate hero, or at least pick someone who's done the thing that you want to do. Find out what they did when they were completely broke. Practice the habit of copying their beginner actions every single day. So you now have the environment, the momentum, the purpose, and the model. But there is one final daily habit that will hold everything together when times get incredibly tough. Habit number 5: Audit your belief system. Lack of belief is the biggest problem in the entire world right now. You can have the best business model and the perfect mentor, but if you do not believe you can actually win, you will self-sabotage before you even start. Building wealth from $0 requires you to practice extreme self-belief every day. When the people around you tell you that your idea is crazy, you have to be the one who stands strong. You have to borrow belief from your heroes until you can generate it for yourself. So think about exactly who you were 10 years ago. You are an absolute impossibility right now to your younger self. The things you have survived and the things you have accomplished will completely blow the mind of the younger you. You have to apply the same logic to your future. Dr. Carol Dweck from Stanford University spent decades proving that your core belief about your own potential directly dictates your financial success. People who practice a daily growth mindset actually rewire their physical brain to overcome massive failures and build wealth. So every single day you must consciously train your mind to reject doubt. Trust that the ideas that come to you when you feel bold are the right ones. Your daily belief is the only engine that will drive you from $0 to absolute financial freedom. Your time is now. So take the tools from today and start building your legacy right now. Do not let fear keep you trapped in a financial situation position you hate. Make today count by taking one tiny step forward. Your future wealth depends entirely on the choices you make today. To learn the 10 money traps that are keeping people 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.