Things You MUST DO if You Want to Become RICH! | Dan Lok | Top 10 Rules

I got rich when I started valuing my time. Most people never get rich because they never value their time. You have to understand the world revolves around value. You don't need to be ready to do something. You don't have to get it right. You just have to get it going.

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What's up, Believe Nation? It's Evan. I believe in you, and this is This channel is designed to be part of your daily success routine. So let's get your motivation to a 10 and get you believing in you. Grab a snack and chew on today's lessons from a man who went from immigrating to Canada as a 14-year-old with no money and without knowing English at all to failing at 13 businesses before finding his first success, becoming the king of high-ticket sales, and one of the highest-paid consultants in real estate. He's Dan Lok, and here's my take on his Top 10 Rules of Success, Volume 8.

Enjoy.

Also, if you wanna know what Dan Lok and other successful entrepreneurs have to say about building unstoppable confidence, check out my 254 Confidence Series where every day for the next 254 days, I will send you a morning video for free to help you build your confidence. The link to join is in the description below.

After you practice martial arts, you develop this natural self-confidence. Not cockiness, but you develop this natural self-confidence.

Okay, let's kick it off with rule number 1, be a macro thinker.

Number 1, smart entrepreneurs, they never micromanage. Now I want you to imagine back then when you are starting your business. Now I remember when I was starting my first few businesses, I was a control freak. Where I was the king of micromanagement. I wouldn't know all the details because in the beginning of your career, your business career, you are doing everything. You are the one man, one woman show. You are selling, you are closing, you are doing the invoice, you're doing the marketing, you're meeting with people, you are doing the fulfillment, you're taking a phone call, you're dealing with the receipts, right? And you are trying to make sure everything don't fall apart. You're talking to everybody and you have to micromanage because that's what you need to do. But after a certain point, that behaviors, even as you grow, stay. Because that's how you know, that's what it takes to grow a business. I gotta know everything, I gotta micromanage. But then what happens is as your revenue grows, you will hit a glass ceiling. And that behavior as a rugged individualist, as a control freak, does not serve you if you want to go to the next level. You have to let go. Now you can no longer manage in a small details kind of way. You cannot micromanage anymore. So smart entrepreneurs, you have to learn, and we know we are macro thinkers. What we need to do as a smart entrepreneur is we need to figure out exactly where we are going. What's our vision? That's your job. You figure out the vision, number one, and number two, you now recruit and hire talents to help you that you know they have the capabilities and have the right attitudes, the right culture to help you to execute that vision. That's number 2. And number 3, you as a leader, very important, allocate the resources, the capital to execute that vision, to help your team execute that vision. That is it. That is it. When you are micromanaging, you cannot do that. Because you're too close to your business. You gotta step back and think about the big picture. What is the vision? Who do I need to have on my team to execute this vision? And how do I allocate my resources that will help them prioritize, that will help my team to execute that vision? And that is it. So small entrepreneurs, we don't micromanage.

Rule number 2, provide more value.

You have to understand the world revolves around value. So if you understand the world revolves around value. The business of making money is nothing more than a value and value exchange. Once you realize that, that is how money works and that's how the game works. So what we do is we trade our time, if you're an employee, our products or services, our expertise as an entrepreneur, right? Our skills, we trade that and exchange that with other people for money. What it means is the more value that you could provide, the more money people are willing to trade you with it. It's that simple. So instead of just focusing on, I wanna make more money, I wanna make more money, being all desperate and all panicking, what you focus on is instead of becoming a person of success, become a person of value. If you wanna make more money, The question you have to constantly ask yourself is, how could I be a person of value? How could I become more valuable? How do you become more valuable to the marketplace? Once you understand this, money is not an issue because the marketplace is always, always willing to pay good money for good value. And you notice people who don't make a lot of money, people who are struggling or people making minimum wage, they are easily replaced. Replaceable. This is someone working at a restaurant, a waiter, waitress. Maybe they good, they do very good job, they work very hard, but if they leave or the boss, the manager fires them, they could be easily replaced. When you could be easily replaced, you are not very valuable. The more difficult you are to replace, the more valuable you are. That's the secret that will guarantee if you'll be broke or you'll be rich.

Rule number 3, find great partners.

Be very, very careful who you select as a partner. You cannot do a good deal with a bad partner. I've had a few relationships in my life, and the ones that are good, they are very, very, very good. We have a good relationship, we made a lot of money together, we create a lot of success together, but the handful that are bad, they hurt me, Tremendously. One bad partner that I had actually had to, to a point where we were fighting, he stole my customers and I had to actually shut down the company and start a new one and clean up everything that I have. I set up a new entity, walk away with a lot of money just because of the bad partners that I had. So a good partner is great, but you cannot do a good deal with a bad partner. In fact, I would rather do an okay average deal, but with a great partner. Because with a great partner, we're resourceful, we collaborate, we mastermind, we work together, and that, I mean that, we can turn any bad deal into a good deal.

Rule number 4, stop saying someday.

The one word that holds you back from success is exactly that word. That word someday. You see, unsuccessful people, they say someday. Someday I will take that vacation. Someday I will pay off that debt. Someday I would quit my job. Someday I will start that business. Someday I would be able to provide for my family. It's always someday and someday. Think about in business, if you say to yourself, someday I will get that customer. Someday I will close that sale. How much money have you made? Zero. None. I want you to look at your calendar from Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. I want you to look at your calendar. Where is someday? It doesn't exist. It is a made-up thing that we do to procrastinate. There is no someday on your calendar. It doesn't exist. So unsuccessful people, they use someday. Successful people use today. Today is going to be the day. Today I'm gonna take action. Today I'm gonna make it happen. Today I'm gonna close that sale. Today is the day that I'm gonna make shit happen. I'm gonna get shit done. Write this down. Procrastination equals poverty. Procrastination equals poverty. You see, unsuccessful people, it's always, "Oh yeah, I'll do it later. I'll do it tomorrow. I'll do it someday." Successful people, we say today. You see, when you use the word someday, why is it so destructive? It's simply this. When you use the word someday, you might think it makes you look noble. On the outside because you are putting off your dreams, your goals, right? You're making a fucking excuse because somebody's saying, well, someday, because I am not ready. So someday I will do that later. And someday never comes. And you'll never be ready. You don't need to be ready to do something. You don't have to get it right. You just have to do it. To get it going. You do not have to get it right. You just need to get it going. It doesn't exist. It makes you look noble on the inside. When you think and you lie to yourself that it is the responsible thing to do, that I'm not ready, I don't want to take any risk, I don't want to take any chances, when it is the most selfish and irresponsible thing that you can do to yourself and to your family. It doesn't exist. Eliminate that word from your vocabulary. Either say, you know what, I'm gonna do it today, or I'm not gonna do it.

Rule number 5, don't expect support from others.

So what do you do when others don't support you in your life? It reminds me of the story, this fisherman, and he goes out there to the sea and he would catch these buckets of crab. And one man walks by and sees that he's got this bucket, right? And there's no lid. And the man is asking this fisherman, well, if when you catch different crabs, aren't you afraid that why don't you have a lid on the crab's gonna crawl out? And the fisherman's like, yeah, if I have one crab, that one crab will crawl out. However, if I have a bunch of crabs, no, I don't need to worry about it because they will make sure that any single crab tries to crawl out, the other crabs will pull that crab back in. Right back down with where they are inside the bucket. That's the theory, the story of the buckets of crap. Guess what? You have a lot of crap people in your life. They try to pull you down, they try to drag you down, they try to keep you where you are today. They don't want you to get out of that bucket. Now why is that? You have to understand, if you are seeking validation, you're seeking approval, you are waiting for someone else's permission where, yeah, you know, it would be nice, I wanna accomplish all these great things, I wanna do these things and I want to create all these things, I wanna achieve all these goals, but oh, but the people around me, they just, they don't support me. So fuck what? Don't expect them to support you. That's not their job to support you. If you need their emotional support to do what you do, you don't have what it takes.

Rule number 6, listen to your customers.

You see, you don't have to be the marketing genius. Your customer is the marketing genius. They will tell you what they want. They will tell you what they like, and they would also tell you what they don't like and what are they willing to pay for. They vote with their wallets. That's the best bet. You see, most entrepreneurs, they spend so much time working on the thing or making their thing better, but they don't spend enough time listening to the customers. Is this even what they want? Did they tell you that that's what they want? Are they giving you feedback or are you building something that nobody wants? And that's how most entrepreneurs fail. Now you might say, well, Dan, what about Henry Ford when he invented the car, Ford Motors, right? What about back then? You know, he said, If I was to ask what my customers want, then everyone would say faster horses. Well, there's exception. If you are selling and you're offering some kind of disruption technology, that's a different story because then you're anticipating the needs of the marketplace and you are essentially creating your own market. I'm not talking about that. That's a very small percentage of the entrepreneurs. For most entrepreneurs, we are more tapping into the existing needs. The existing desires that people already have. And we're tapping into that. That's how we make most of our money. So smart entrepreneurs, we never stop listening, paying attention to what our ideal customers want and what they need.

Rule number 7, value your time.

Rich people, we value time more than we value money. Poor people, they value money more than they value time. Value time. And that's why if there's something with my Bentley, an oil change, or I gotta go do something or fix the car, I'm not gonna do it because it's not worth my time. My time is much more valuable. I have other activities that I could do that could bring in more money. Now you may be saying that, well, easy for you to say, you're Dan Lok, you've got money, of course you could do that. That is not true. You might be thinking, 'Cause you are rich.' That is not true. I got rich when I started valuing my time. Most people never get rich because they never value their time.

Rule number 8, don't be arrogant.

Once I started learning and I started having more success and making a few dollars, I was, I was becoming more arrogant. I was becoming more, you know, that I felt I was invincible, that, oh, now I'm so smart, look at me, and I have all this money coming in, and I was way more successful than all the people around me, right? And I thought, you know what, my shit doesn't stink. I thought I was the man, right? And invested in a bunch of companies. Well, guess what? 10 companies, all of them lost money, not one of them made money, and wasn't so invincible, invisible anymore, and that got me into quite a bit of trouble. So that's what I would say. Don't be arrogant, get out of your ego, be humble, stay humble, be open-minded. You can learn something from everybody.

Rule number 9, use the DIG concept.

Let's say this year, and you say, you know what, Dan, I have a certain financial goal, an income goal. Maybe you want to make $50,000, $100,000 a year, $200,000 a year. Half a million dollars a year, or you know what? You say, this is the year I'm going to make a million dollars a year. Whatever your goal is. Let's take simple math. $100,000 a year. Let's say, let's make it even simple. $120K, let's take $10K a month. $10,000 a month. That's your goal. So don't use the New Year resolutions concept. Here's the concept I talked about in my book, F.U. Money. You can go get the book from Amazon. But I'm going to teach this to you right now. And that's the concept of DIG. DIG, it stands for daily income goal. Daily income goal. So let's say you take $10,000 a month and you break it down, you divide it by 30 days. Each day you got to make about $340-somewhat. Let's just round it up, $350. That's your DIG, daily income goal. Goal, $350 that you need to make every single day if you want to hit $10,000 a month. Now I want you to think about this. When you get up in the morning, the first thing that comes to your mind, the first question you have to ask yourself is, what am I doing today that will make me $350 today? What do I need to do? What do I need to focus on? What are my objectives? Am I hitting my daily income goal? What does massive action look like? What would Dan Lok do? Ask yourself those questions. Guess what? If you're not hitting your daily income goal, you are not hitting your weekly income goal. You're not hitting your weekly income goal, you're not hitting your monthly income goal. If you're not hitting your monthly income goal, you're not hitting your yearly income goal. You don't need to wait till December and you look at a calendar and say, oh, you know what, I screwed up. I am way behind. I'm nowhere near making $100,000. What is going on? I know exactly what's going on. You are not hitting your daily income goal. You can look at your progress every single day. What am I doing today to hit my daily income goal? Oh well, I'm kind of, I'm not doing anything today. Well, Then don't blame and don't bitch when you're hitting your goal. Oh well, you know what, today I'm excited, I'm fired up, I've hit my income goal. You know what, not just that, I exceeded my daily income goal. Instead of $350 a day, I hit $500 a day. Good for you, good job. That means you have that $150 buffer extra. That's good, doesn't mean tomorrow you're like all slack off and slow down. It means, okay, I've exceeded my goal. I exceeded that today. 'Cause there's some days maybe you hit it, there's some days you don't. You gotta average it out. Tomorrow you get back into it, wake up in the morning, what am I doing today? What am I gonna do today to hit that $350? And what do I need to do every single day to accomplish my daily income goal? The concept of DIG, isn't it much more powerful than some New Year resolutions?

And rule number 10, the last one before a very special bonus clip, is believe.

Whatever your mind can conceive, you can achieve. But sometimes what if you don't have that belief yet? What if you're just getting started? What if you haven't built up that confidence? I remember years ago when I was just getting started and I was already running my own one-man advertising agency. And one time I was having lunch with my mentor Alan, and after lunch I was driving back to his place. And in the car, I was asking him a question. Now, at the time, my English name was actually Daniel. Daniel, so it's Daniel Lok. So I was asking him, Alan, I'm thinking of changing my name. And he said, well, what do you want to change it to? And I said, you know, my name right now is like Daniel, and it's okay, but it feels a little, I don't know, it feels a little young. I want a name that has just a little bit more punch and maybe sounds a bit more mature. He said, okay, so what are you thinking? I said, I'm thinking of shortening the name to just Dan. And he paused, he said, okay, so Dan, like Dan Lok. I said, that's right, Dan Lok. I think it's kind of punchy, it's got that oomph to it. And he was sitting in the passenger seat and he did this motion, he said, Dan Lok. He said, I could see that. I said, what could you see? He said, I could see C. Dan Lok Live, big banner in a big conference. I said, what? He said, that's right, that would look good, it's got impact, it's impactful. And I'm like, I don't see that, I'm just simply kind of changed my name to be a little bit more memorable, how could you see Dan Lok live? This is way before I was even doing any kind of public speaking. I was just very much like an introvert and writing copy, right? Hiding behind my computer. See Dan Lok live, a big conference, what do you mean? See, he saw something in me that I didn't see. He believed in me, my mentor believed in me more than I believed in myself. I didn't see the possibility, I couldn't believe it. I couldn't even see that, but he saw it. So sometimes in life, maybe you don't have that belief in yourself. That's okay, I didn't have that belief in myself. But don't underestimate when you have someone believe in you more than you believe in yourself. I tell my students all the time, I said, I believe in you more than you believe in yourself. And if you don't believe in yourself yet, that's okay. Borrow my certainty so you can go on and develop your own belief. And someday, maybe, maybe you can use that belief to achieve what you want.

Now I've got a special bonus clip from Dan on how to have an entrepreneur's mindset that I think you're gonna enjoy. But before that, it's time for the 3-point landing questions. Time to move from just watching another video to taking action in your life or business. And if you're feeling feeling bold, leave your answers in the comments below. Here we go. Question number 1, where do you need to value your time more? Number 2, what do you need to stop saying someday to? And number 3, how can you provide more value for your customers?

Number 1, it is your mindset, a proper mindset. Now, when I say about mindset, exactly what do I mean by that? I'm talking about your beliefs, your attitudes, your ideas, your insights, your belief about business, your belief about entrepreneurship, your belief about employees, about team building, your belief, having that proper mindset, that entrepreneurial mindset is the foundation if you want to build a successful business. You see, most people, they want to build a successful business, but with an employee mindset, that does not work. You have to have The proper entrepreneurial mindset. Hi, this is Dan Lok. If you're a fan of Evan's work, if you want to know exactly how to model my success, I want to invite you to join me for a special online training. All you have to do is click on the link below. You can join me for absolutely no charge. So click the link below and I will see you in class.

If you want more Dan Lok, check out the top 50 rules video I made on him. The link is right there next to me. I think you'll enjoy it. Continue to believe and I'll see you there.

If your life stinks, it's your fault. We take responsibility for all action. Oh, money is not that important. Money doesn't buy happiness. Oh my goodness.