In this motivational monologue Marcel Fernandes recounts how, after watching a 1990s Jim Rohn seminar in 2019, he adopted the mindset of a “serious student” and transformed his life from a poor upbringing in a third‑world country to a self‑made millionaire in his twenties. He stresses the importance of questioning inherited beliefs and parental advice, focusing on personal development rather than merely working a job. Marcel outlines concrete actions: watching the Rohn video, reading a curated list of books (the Bible, Think and Grow Rich, How to Win Friends and Influence People, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, Rich Dad Poor Dad), building a personal library, and committing to continuous study and skill acquisition. He contrasts working on oneself (which creates value and wealth) with working on a job (which only sustains a living). Throughout, he uses personal anecdotes—his parents’ low‑wage jobs, moving to Dubai, his library—to illustrate the shift from scarcity mindset to abundance. The video ends with a direct call to action for viewers to decide now to become serious students and start their own personal‑development journey.
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Be a serious student. Be a serious student. You know, back in 2019 when I first met my mentor Jim Rohn, I saw this 4-hour-and-a-half-long seminar he did in the 1990s. I watched this video on YouTube and I was fascinated. I was fascinated. This is a personal development seminar that Jim Rohn did in the 1990s, right? And it's available for free to watch. It's on my YouTube channel. You can search it or just search YouTube, you know, Jim Rohn Best Life Ever. Jim Rohn. Jim Rohn. I saw that video first in 2019. 5 years later, I became a millionaire after watching that video, after applying everything he told me to do, you know. But why did I do that? The reason is I was a serious student. You got to be a serious student. You got to be serious about your life. Don't just let life pass, pass, pass. Don't just go through the motions. Be a serious student. Question the things you believe in. Question the things you were taught. You know, my life started changing once I started questioning these things, started questioning why I was taught what I was taught. You know, I started questioning, is the path that my parents told me to go through the correct path? Do they have the success I want? You know, I was born in a poor third world country to poor parents. My dad was a Domino's Pizza delivery boy. My mom was a maid, you know, cleaning houses for a living. And I was able to become a self-made millionaire in my 20s. When I was in that situation, I used to think, you know, Do my parents have the life that I want? The answer was, of course not. And so if not, why in the hell should I listen to them? Now you must, of course, respect your parents, right? You must honor your parents if you wanna live long, right, according to the Bible. But you don't have to listen to their advice. Honoring your parents means accepting them for who they are and loving them for who they are. That's all that honoring means. It doesn't mean listening to their advice and blindly following their advice. Doesn't mean that, right? So I started questioning, was the things that I was taught correct? And the answer was no. And so I started going after the truth. What is correct? How do I change my life? How do I get rich? How do I make more money, right? When I was in that situation, all I wanted was to get rich. I wanted to leave that situation of scarcity, financial scarcity, mindset scarcity, health scarcity, all types of scarcity, right? Spiritual scarcity, relationship scarcity. I just wanted to leave that scarcity. And the reason I wanted to leave that scarcity is I didn't want to live that anymore. I didn't want to follow my parents' path. And maybe you're in that situation. You don't want to follow your parents' path. And what you need to do in order to not follow your parents' path is become a serious student. So the moment I watched that video in 2019 by Jim Rohn, I became a serious student. I decided to follow everything he said, the books to read, what to study, what to do, how to think, how to act, how to walk, how to talk. I went through that seminar, I bought the books, I read them, I started going through some positive changes in my life, in my habits. Everything changed for me. 5 years later, I became a millionaire. How about that, right? But that only happened because I decided to become a serious student. You must be a serious student. Does your library reflect that you're a serious student? Marcelo, I don't even have a library. Well, Here's my little library here. I just moved into a new apartment here in Dubai, so I got my books here, right? Got my books there. I still didn't, you know, and I had so many other books that were, that I left in Brazil, but I had my library. You know, you ever notice that every house over a few million dollars has a library in it? Why do you suppose that is? Does that tell you something? Does that educate you at all? Well, you might say, Marcel, I don't have few million dollars to buy a, you know, house with a library in it. Well, take some books and put it in your closet and call it your library and start acting intelligent. Start showing, reflecting that you are a serious student. Read the books, books that changed my life: the Bible, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker, Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. Jot those down. Jot those down and buy those books now. You don't need to wait till tomorrow, till next week, till next month, till next year. Success starts with action. Success starts now. Decide, decide right now to become a serious student. And if you'll make the commitment today to become a serious student and you'll decide right now, Marcel, I'm going to be a serious student, you're going to read the books, you're going to go through the challenges, you're going to go through the personal development journey, you're going to go through the setting goals, through the planning, to achieve those goals. You're gonna go through this whole scenario that I went through, this whole journey. And if you work hard enough, you study hard enough, you work harder on yourself and not on your job, right? That's also a key philosophy. Work hard on yourself and you can make a fortune. Work hard on your job and you can just make a living, right? So work harder on yourself than you do on your job. Read the books, develop yourself to the max, develop new skills, become more valuable. The more valuable you become, the more money you make. Become a serious student. This is, this is, this is something that's gonna change your life forever. It changed me absolutely forever. The moment I decided to become a serious student, my life was never the same. Never the same. I just decided to become a serious student. Decide today and become a serious student. Love you, bye.