I'm a 25 Year Old Millionaire; Did Money Make Me Happier?

Hey everyone, it's Mike Andes here from Business Bootcamp podcast. And today I'm going to be talking about how I, at 25 years old, have multiple million dollar businesses and am a millionaire. And whether or not that actually has made me happier as I've built those businesses and made more money. Before we get today's show, a big thank you. Today's sponsor, which is Gusto, if you haven't already, go to gusto.combootcamp if you have employees and you run payroll and you want to offer benefits to your employees, definitely check this out. It's a very easy platform to be able to give those. Go to gusto.combootcamp for free 90 days. So the big question when people talk to people with a lot of money is, well, does it make you happier? And the long and short of it, if you want to just click off the video, is yes and no. And so let me explain. I really think that what really calibrated my level of my relationship with money was when I went to Africa When I was 18 years old, when I went to Africa at 18 years old, I went to Kalangrari Tigoni, which are the surrounding areas of Nairobi, Kenya. And when I was there for six weeks, I went to different orphanages and hospitals. And I really saw people that had nothing, absolutely nothing, being extremely happy. I saw kids that had been abandoned by their parents, thrown off of trains, thrown, thrown into fires, and completely not wanted by any human being as a child. And yet they were thrilled by the fact that they lived with 70 other boys and girls in a three bedroom house and one lady took care of them. And that when I would bring them bubbles or a soccer ball, they would be so thrilled, out of their mind. They'd keep them preoccupied for hours, if not the entire day. When I'd get them a one or two dollar gift. I started to realize that tangible things and stuff is not required to make someone happy. I think the biggest danger and the warning why I'm making this video is I remember being 12, 13, 14 years old, having that itch to make more money. And while I was in medical school and going towards my medical degree, I was still making money on the side mowing lawns and, you know, doing the wax on snowboards in the winter and selling food to golfers that went by like I did every possible thing to make money. That was the itch, that was the drive. And I remember when I was 18, 19 years old, starting Augusta Lawn Care and thinking like, man, if I could ever build the business To a million dollar company like that would just be incredible. And I could just travel the world and everything would be fine and great. And that was, in my mind, almost seemed like the finish line. That was the goal. That was what I thought would make me happy. And then that day came, and that day came and now we're doing multiples of million and there's multiple companies and there's probably 10, 15 times more employees than I had at that time. And so the question is, has it made me any happier? And the long and short of it is, no, it hasn't. It hasn't made me any happier. I don't feel like today I'm one dime's worth happier today than when I probably had a few employees, made a decent living and had probably more time on my hands. And so the question is, why do we keep doing this? Why do we keep running and driving and building businesses? I think there's a very clear distinction. The reason I'm making this video is because if you are a young person or you're wanting to achieve having a lot of money, you gotta remember that money can be a really bad treadmill on your way to happiness. You're trying to achieve happiness, you're trying to go for it, and you get stuck on a treadmill of going running and faster and faster and you're sweating and you're perspirating and you can literally faint and pass out and on your way to trying to become happy. And you never get there because the treadmill just keeps going faster and faster. And then when you build a million dollar business, well, I gotta build a $10 million business. Oh, now I've gotta have multiple businesses. Now I gotta have real estate, I gotta have stocks, I've gotta have this. I gotta have this car and this house. And all of a sudden you get wrapped up on the treadmill on your way to happiness. But you never get there. Because in my mind, money is a treadmill. It's something that as you grow and build your business, you'll constantly want more and more. Especially if you have that angst built into you because in your childhood there was maybe scarcity or you saw your home get lost. Money was contentious in your family. And for me, when I was raised up, we didn't have a lot of money. We were by no means poor, but we didn't have a lot of money. And that probably instilled something in me, like, I want to solve this issue. And I think there's a definite line that needs to be determined between being on that treadmill, never achieving happiness, but always wanting to make more money and increase the speed and increase the incline of the treadmill. Trying to get to somewhere where you'll never get. There's that. And then on the other side, I truly believe the thing that has made me so happy by having more money, it's giving me the resources to build really cool stuff. And that's what I love. I love building businesses and I really look at money as a tool to, to build those businesses and build the things that I care about and I'm passionate about and the things that I want to change in my community and in the industries that I work in. I currently work a lot in the landscaping and lawn care industry. I'm very passionate about changing this industry and I can't do that without money. So money is the tool by which I am able to make change and that makes me incredibly happy. So does it make me happier? No. But does it make me happier? Yes, because it gives me the resources and the tools to be able to make changes in my industry, my community, for my family or whatever else. The thing that you are wanting to make an impact on, Do I work less today? No, I work a lot more. As I'm recording this, it's past 1:30am and I will get up early and tomorrow we have franchisee training. It's a lot of work. But the reason I'm making this video today is you've got to get clear as to why are you getting the money? Why are you wanting to build the million dollar business? Why does it seem so appealing to have a car or the house? What are you doing that for? Is it for external validation? Is it for pride sake? Is it for ego? Is it to prove someone wrong? I feel like a lot of those things are very temporal. Or going for the car or going for the house or getting the next big thing, the big purchase will not make you happier. But if there's something inside of you that wants to build, wants to achieve and want to make money a tool for you and your family to build a better future and make changes in your community, your industry, your business and your employees lives, I feel like that's a worthy and noble cause worth fighting for, worth giving sleep up for, having risk for. Because the treadmill of business is the fact that as you build your business bigger, there's more risk. You build a million dollar business now guess what? If something goes wrong, you could lose a million dollar asset. If you put a lot of money into assets like real estate and the Stock market. You almost get more anxious in one way because I could lose that. That could go away. There could be a market crash tomorrow. It's up, it's down. Real estate, good, real estate, bad. Eviction moratorium. I can't hire people. Cost is going up. That's stressful. There's a lot of stress. People have mentioned the fact that I have look like I'm going bold. Probably true. The past year has been extremely difficult. Going through Covid, going through growing the businesses, going through pains of just trying to hire more people. And the thing that stresses me out the most is when my building businesses causes stress on the team and the people that I hire that I hate, that there's a lot of irresponsibility that comes with the money that you get. But I wanted to make this video because if you are 14, 15, 16, 19, 20 years old, or maybe you're 40, 50, and you're like, I want to become a millionaire. Build a business. I'm going to go for it. Ask yourself why? And are you running towards your why? Is it achievable? Is it going to actually make you happier? Because I've seen someone with people with nothing be extremely happy. And I've seen people with so much hate life, hate other people, and only want to live for themselves. I don't have a lot of stuff. I drive a $6,000 car. It's a Honda Accord 2010. Has a 170,000 miles or so on it. It's falling apart. It's burning oil right now. It's a company vehicle. I live in my office. I don't have a lot of things because I've realized that those are not what's going to make me happy. My money. Getting those things will not make me happy. For some people, it does. And knowing that is going to be the thing that brings you a lot of joy and gives you the fuel to keep burning on building your business and making more money, because it does make you more happy. And as the end result. But if you're willing to build businesses, if you're wanting to make changes to your industry, changes for your financial future, of your family, it's not always gonna be all the stuff. It's not gonna be the things. It's not gonna be the external validation that other people give you. It's gonna be what comes from that deep inside validation and joy and fulfillment of being able to make impact in other people's lives. Today, one of our franchisees, on one of our coaching calls, our monthly coaching calls, he was able to go 67% year over year growth from last month, last July to this July. I was extremely happy and fulfilled by that, knowing I had a little piece of that, a little part of that. I played a part in that. And he said he went from 38,000, I think 57,000 in monthly revenue from last July to this July. And he said, this is the first time I feel like I have stuff on the schedule and I have a good business with a calendar. I know how far I'm scheduled out and I'm organized and. And I know that's 99% him and the work that he's putting in with his team, but I feel like I have a little tiny part in that. And I don't think I could have done it without money and investing into the franchise and building the systems and building the website and pouring a lot of money into it, and we still lose money every single month. And people ask me, why do you do this?

It's because of the fact that having the money that I now have, I can do those things and I can build that business and I'm able to make impact on. On the people I love, the industries I love, and for my family in the future. I'm Mike Andes, Business Boot Camp Podcast. We'll see you tomorrow.