What Chasing Success Actually Taught Me About Freedom

98% of businesses never actually hit that million dollars a year. I felt like I had no other purpose, you know, like I felt something was missing within my soul to get to what I'll call true freedom. True freedom is— Hello everyone, James Blackwell here. We're going to be out on the roads again today. Today's video, I'm going to be talking about what making my first million really taught me about freedom. So let's get on the road and let's get started. Everyone thinks that making their first million is the finishing line, and I actually thought that too. But what it actually taught me has nothing to do about money. So in today's video, I'm going to break that down of what actually changed when I hit that milestone. When I look back before I made my first million and what life was actually like, to be honest with you, was actually quite stressful because I was sacrificing a lot in terms of relationship, even my health, in a stage of where I wasn't really going to the gym or eating as healthy back then. And I was just putting so much pressure on like trying to hit these 6-figure months in my agency and get to that first million liquid in the bank account. And when I look back at that, I realized I just put far too much pressure on myself on like a big goal when I should have been breaking it down into smaller increments. There is a lot of sacrifices as a business owner that you do make, and I read a stat recently that like 98% of businesses never actually hit that million dollars a year, which was like crazy to me. Like, you need to be in that 1 or 2% to even just break through 7 figures. And as hard as it is like running a business and actually just trying to sacrifice everything, trying to break through to that milestone is tough. When I first started my first agency over 11 years ago. I started with like a 10K credit card and loan, and those early days were very tough, you know, very lonely. I always go back to thinking like when I hit that first 100K in the bank account, that was the best financial feeling that I'd ever had, you know. I felt I was rich. I felt like it was good, you know, for a year without having to earn any more money. But then obviously breaking through to the million, it required different levels of skill set, different sacrifices. Needed a team. Ideally, like, you don't get there really alone. You need to start hiring a team, which is one of the hardest things and hardest skill sets that most entrepreneurs miss, is being able to attract talent and retain talent. And when I look back at, like, what was the key thing that was driving me with that, for sure it was money. I was driven by materialistic things. I always dreamed of owning a Rolls-Royce, which I'm in today, and buying the nice cars, having the nice watches, and having the nice homes, and all of these things. That was what was driving me. So you need to find your driver. Personally, I believe that when you're in the early stages to make your first million liquid, it's got to be financial. You know, a lot of people say, oh, I have this bigger goal of like, you're going to change a number of lives and this and that. Let's be real, like, you are in business to make financial freedom for you and your family first. That is the number one goal. So just be honest with that and make sure you can attach the outcome and the inputs that you need to make for that. When I hit that first million liquid in the bank account, I was like, I have made it now, I am actually a millionaire. Because a lot of people would talk about revenue figures, so you hit your revenue million a lot quicker than the liquid in the bank account because it's different when you've got ongoing, you've got team costs, business costs and financial costs and then tax and VAT and all of these things. So actually having like a million liquid is way different than being a millionaire on paper, you know, in terms of net worth or what the business has generated. So a lot of people will say they've generated the revenue, but have they actually kept that cash like liquid in the bank account before they deploy it? So I just remember that feeling of like, yeah, like you felt just free, you know, I felt like I could pretty much buy a lot of things that I wanted and and upgrade all of the nice things, the cars, the houses, the trips, the hotels, all of those things. But once you've got all of that, when you go from a million to 5 and then 10, obviously it is different feelings, you know, it's more numb as it were. I give all thanks and glory to God for that for sure. But then obviously that is when you can start to make changes of like, well, what is the impact in the world I want to make and in other people's lives? So then it's not just financial, you know, but definitely like to get to your first million, you have to be financially incentivized yourself in order to get there. And what changed immediately after for me I hit that million was just this sheer underlying confidence. So when I lost a client, didn't matter. I can put money to the problem, solve it. You hire more people in order to solve the problem. You're not stressed about if you have a bad month, for example, because it's like, well, it's fine, I've got a million, we are good for a good amount of time. So it just gives you this calm confidence and aura. You get less stressed, you worry less, and then you can start to take on more bigger risks and start really growing your business. It definitely makes you feel more free for sure, but it definitely makes you feel also that as you level up, a million's actually not a lot of money. Like actually you do need a lot more in order to eventually retire or to make a bigger impact. You're gonna need more capital. It just motivated me more in order to get to the 5 million, then the 10 million and so forth. What really surprised me most once I hit the million threshold was that I just had more options. I had more options of where I wanted to go and live next. So I remember that was just before I went to Dubai. And I moved to Dubai for just under 5 years. That just took me to the next level of getting to the 10, you know. Like, the first 100K is the best feeling ever. The first million is pretty much the hardest, and then the next 5 is a bit easier. Then going from 5 to 10 is just easy because you've got everything down and you've got all of the skill sets. You've been a multimillionaire, you've proven it. You've got the right business model to offer. You know how to hire and fire a team and build a culture. You know how to grow, you know how to sell, you know how to market. You've built your personal brand. So once you've got all of those core fundamentals and basically took care of your family, you've got the nice things that you want. So once you're in that position, that's why after the first million it's a lot easier to get to the 5, and then easier on there to get to the 10, and then from 10 to 20 to 30, which is the journey I'm on now. It definitely is easier. There's levels, and it just depends on what more sacrifices you want to make in order to get to the level. Once you get there, then you know that business is just a game, and it's just digits on a dashboard, and it's just like how far you want to go up the the levels. I thought back then that the freedom was like once I got to a certain goal, I wouldn't work anymore and I would just chill on the beach, read books in the sun, have cups of coffee, and everything would be just simple. But I realized that the real freedom now is just the freedom of choice of what I want to work on, on my businesses. Businesses are growing. You never want to retire. There's just nothing to do, you know. Like, I've had times when I've had a few days off It's nice, but I couldn't do that forever. You want to go on a bigger mission. So freedom, when I was getting the first million, then the 5 and 10, I was thinking, well, that's great, I don't have to work again. But it's not what you really want. You still want to have a mission as a purpose, like your number one goal is your mission in life and to have a true purpose. You want to be fulfilled. You see all of these sports personalities, like once they retire from boxing or whatever it is, they get depressed. So the great thing that you've got as an entrepreneur is you've got a skill set that you can get better and better at over time. And you can be in business till you're like 70, 80, 90, like Warren Buffett. But it's just a different freedom. You can tell people to get lost whenever you want. You don't have to deal with people that you don't want to deal with anymore. If you don't want to come in the office or do any work on a certain day, you don't have to. If you don't want to deal with a certain client that is annoying you or is annoying your team, instantly refund and just eliminate them. So it just gives you more freedom and more choices of what you want to do instead of the time freedom. So like once you buy back your time, it's like you don't want to just sit around and do nothing. You just work on more leveraged projects that you like to work on in your business, more strategic things. So when you hit the first million liquid, it does give you a certain freedom, but it does also make you realize how far away you are from the other goals. Because once you get one, you want to get to 5, then you want to get to 10. That landmark is just like a medal or a trophy that you've won. And then it's just like the next level of the game to get to what I'll call true freedom. True freedom is that you could retire tomorrow with the liquid net worth, and if that's invested in a stock portfolio of 7% to 10% returns, you can live off a 4% withdrawal. If you had $10 million and you lived off $400K a year, it's easy. If you had $5 million and you lived off $200K a year, you could do that, for example. So it's just making sure that the million was the first landmark, but there's more that you need to get to, to have what I'll call true Freedom. And what had to change in my business for me to feel actually free was again, just buying back time. Like looking at everything I do in the business, in each department, do I have the right team for that? And if problems start to come to me, making sure that, well, I don't want those problems because I wanted freedom and making sure you've got the right team in place to be able to handle that. And as you scale your business, the hardest skill to learn is can you scale in the right way that it's simple?. And it requires not many layers of management, not much friction of deliverability. So for example, having a simple offer, a simple sales process, a simple fulfillment process, like everything at scale. Once you get to $100K months, then $200K, then $500K months and beyond, it's like having that skill set of like keeping things simple that won't require too much mental baggage for you to handle all sorts of different things that come at you as a business owner. So that is the skill set that you learn for the freedom. Like when you move forward, most founders complicate things in their business and The hardest skill is like keeping things as simple and as frictionless as possible. When you hit the million, do relationships change? Well, yes, like people see you slightly different because I feel like when you've proven yourself to be a millionaire, then there is— it's a certain skill set. You're one of the few percentages in the world that did that. Some friends will fall away, they'll get jealous. That's just totally part of it, you know. And then everyone else wants to be your friend, you know. You get introduced to more people, people want to be around you more, and you build like a higher level business friendship group once you've got a million liquid. That's like sort of the entry ticket into the millionaire status and the millionaire rooms that you can be in, the mastermind rooms that you pay to be in, and the friendship groups and the relationships that you build with other successful entrepreneurs. And one thing that I found after making money was my faith in Christianity and Jesus Christ. So I was contemplating this the other day of like, would I have found it without the financial success? And, and I don't know. I realized like my journey was actually very tough at the start as an entrepreneur. You know, I had a lot of stress and anxiety early on, and I feel like God showed me that struggle to really appreciate the money now, which is why when I've acquired this wealth, I appreciate it. I know how hard I had to work, how much I've sacrificed, and that was a blessing from God, which is why I'm so thankful for everything that he's given me and the skill set, the knowledge base, the wisdom is all from him. And I feel like the financial success he's given me, because he's shown me the sacrifices you have to get through as an entrepreneur, as a founder, and then it puts you in a strong mindset in order to give back and what your bigger mission and purpose is. So I want to spread God's word a lot more and I want to make a bigger impact. And how I can do that in the entrepreneur circle is probably what God has blessed me towards. And I wouldn't have been able to make that impact if I didn't have the financial success, because I couldn't advise other entrepreneurs entrepreneurs on success, as it were, because the only thing you can measure success on in business is financial. Yes, there's obviously health and wealth and family and love and your faith, but in terms of like monetary success, you have to prove yourself. So I really feel like I probably wouldn't have found the faith how I did now without the journey that God put me on. And everyone's on a different journey for sure. And I'm just forever grateful that when I made all of that money and I felt really empty in Dubai, I felt like I had no other purpose, you know, like I felt something was missing within my soul. And that Definitely when I came to God and found my faith in Christianity, Jesus Christ. This was almost 18 months ago now, and it just fills you up with a longer purpose and it just gives you this peace in your heart that you are on the right track and you know that so much is possible now with the Lord at your side. What would I wish someone had told me before hitting the first million would have been that it is probably a lot harder than you think, but the hard times don't always last, that you've just got to keep pushing through. You've got to keep growing, you've got to keep evolving, you've got to keep the discipline, the daily habits every single day. And that is one thing that a lot of founders get stuck at, the $20K to $30K a month mark. I know this because I help many agencies that are trying to block that, and it's more mental shift of like not having a bigger purpose, not really like pushing their goals, their daily habits, their daily disciplines. But I think that if someone just told me earlier that I just needed to push through and it'll be okay, because you do get stress when you're not hitting that mark. It does take longer than you expect. Like, you're not going to make your first million liquid within 12 months, for example. It's going to be very rare that you're going to do that because you have to build the muscle and the skills of hiring the right people, going through ups and downs in the business, changing your business model slightly, but then staying disciplined and keeping things simple. So I think it was long and short at the same time, but just having a lot of faith that you will get yourself there. And probably just like knowing that again, like investing in mentors or just being around the right type of people earlier would have helped as well. So getting out of your local environment and into something that is outside your comfort zone. That was what making my first million taught me about freedom. Really keen to hear yours. So if you've actually been on that journey, let me know in the comments and what the lessons were that you've learned. And if you're interested in scaling your business with offshore remote assistance so you can buy back more founder freedom and feel free book a call in with one of our team in the link below, and I'll catch you on the next one.