3 Secrets That Made Me a Millionaire in My Early 20s

It has never been harder to win at life as it has right now, and you might be asking why. The reason is very simple. Every single day, there are dozens of new things actively and intentionally frying our brain, killing our body, and killing our potential to success. Nowadays, the average person spends hours every single day bleeding their life force away, and it has never been easier to bleed yourself dry, getting stuck in a never-ending cycle of misery and despair. And unless we decide to make a change, we'll forever remain in that cycle and never escaping or realizing our true potential. So here are 3 millionaires' secrets and habits that have helped me go from zero to $10 million plus, 8 figures, in my mid-20s. But actually, wait, let's take a step back. You know, Charlie Munger has the rule of inversing what we want so that we do less of what will not get us to success. Because what we do not do is equally as important as what we should do. And the biggest advocate of this cycle is the very site that you are watching this video on right now. So the opposite of Millionaire Secret Habit Number 1 is the death scroll. Social media companies' jobs is to get you addicted to their site, you know, to spend hours at a time watching their content, making them money. You know, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok spend hundreds of millions every year building a site that traps you in this cycle. They even do lab tests to see, and you know, where dopamine is hit in your brain that makes us get addicted and keep scrolling on social media so that we can keep using them and they can keep getting paid by big advertisers like Coca-Cola, the more you spend time on the platform. Plus, social media is in the business of draining your potential, the very life force that keeps us moving. And it's your job to take the first step towards breaking this vicious cycle, because no one else will do it for you. And you're standing alone against the world, just as the 300 Spartans did thousands of years ago. And just like the blades were wielded during the battle, social media is a double-edged blade as well. When used without self-control and discipline, it controls your every move You become the puppet, subject to the will of the puppeteer. But on the other side of the blade allows you to cut through the vines holding back your potential. And social media can be used as a beacon to illuminate the path to your success. And the reality is that you're already using social media for its good. That is because you're watching this video and listening to me share with you this advice and talk. And social media allows users to gain unparalleled access to anything, you know, you could possibly imagine. It's the knowledge bank that contains infinite information than any library or college on earth. And this most important question to ask yourself when it comes to social media is, how are you using it? Are you using it as an escape from your imperfect life, or are you using it as a way to transform your life into something better? If you're spending hours at a time each day scrolling mind-numbing content, you're throwing your potential down the drain. And if that is what you want, that's totally fine. You know, you can give a man the key to their future, but you can't force them to unlock the chest. And technology and social media have the power to transfer intense amounts of information and knowledge and wisdom to you so that you can use it for your success. And if you take this first step, you'll find that your confidence, your productivity will increase exponentially. And all it takes is the first step, 'cause I know that you can do it, 'cause you are here using social media for its benefit. Instead of letting it suck you into the depths of its infinite deep ocean. And it will never be perfect. Everyone has slipped into this cycle before, including myself. And the key is if you have enough discipline and willpower to climb out of this hole that you've, you know, dug yourself into. And I know that I myself have been a victim of this cycle in the past. When I first woke up out of bed in the morning, you know, I'll check Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and the next thing I spend like 30 minutes in a deep rabbit hole of the algorithm feeding me, you know, crazy viral videos or breaking news and controlling my morning routine instead of the other way around. And when I first woke up, that's when you and my willpower is the strongest and highest. And we use that time where our energy is at its highest and creativity is at its highest to mindlessly waste on social media. You just give us a very bad start to the day. Or maybe the opposite, you come from a hard work and hard day at work. Maybe your boss yelled at you, you know, you got rejected by a girl. Maybe it's just one of these days where life decides to test you, you know, you spend an hour stuck in traffic on your way to work, you are late, your boss yells at you. Sometimes you need that relief of the mind-numbing scroll session, just like cigarette addicts are addicted to cigarettes to give them that puff of fresh air to prevent you from engaging in a more destructive behavior. Some days you need, you know, a distraction. And the issue is when this becomes a habit. If you're routinely scrolling for hours at a time every single day, I want you to take a look at yourself in the mirror, because if you want to make progress towards your goals and your dreams, you need to wake up and claim them. Because if you don't, someone else will. And if you want to go to the afterlife knowing that you have the potential to change the world, the potential to be the best version of yourself, to change the life of your loved ones, your family, but instead you spend your life wasted, mindlessly scrolling on social media. If you want to do something with your life, put that phone down, set a screen limit, you know, watch your screen time every day and do something more productive. Research shows that the average social media user spends 2.5 hours a day scrolling, and that's equivalent to 1 entire month in a year. So let's say you live for the next 30, 50 years, that's at least 3 to 5 years of your life minus scrolling on social media. So next time you catch yourself on social media, just be mindful and intervene yourself to stop. So this leads me to Millionaire's Secret Habit #2: Delayed Gratification. This one skill is so important because it's the number one factor in determining how successful you will become for the rest of your life. More than IQ, you know, your work ethic, your resume, your passion, this is a skill when trained, allows you to break free from the rat race of life and explore life's possibilities, allowing you to achieve more than your wildest dreams. And the only way to get this skill is by training it, and training it today, right now. This skill was initially discovered as a key to success over 50 years ago, as its effects, you know, came from an unexpected source: marshmallows. In 1970, Walter Mischel started an experiment called the Stanford Marshmallow Experiment, which is now one of the most widely referenced studies in history, particularly for those interested in optimizing performance and fast-tracking success. And the study began by bringing each child, typically of the age of 4 to 5, to a private room, sitting them down in a chair and placing a marshmallow on the table in front of them. And at this point, the researcher offered a deal to each child. The researcher told the child that he was going to leave the room, and if the child did not eat the marshmallow when he was away, then he would the child would be rewarded a second marshmallow. However, if the child decided to eat the first marshmallow before the researcher comes back, then the child wouldn't get the second marshmallow. So the choice was very simple: one treat right now or two treats later. Initially, this study didn't have much significance, but what makes it so comprehensive is the data that followed years after. As the years Roll on the— researchers conducted follow-ups and tracked each child's life success, and the children who were willing to delay gratification and waited to receive the second marshmallow ended up having higher SAT scores, lower level of substance abuse, lower likelihood of obesity, better responses to stress, and generally better scores in a range of other life measures, including money and financial success. This study revealed the single most important factor to any success story. It's the ability to delay gratification for the promise or prospect and rewards in the future. This ability is what gives self-starters and entrepreneurs the ability to succeed. They know that in the short run they are choosing the harder road. Instead of working, they could be off drinking with friends or mindlessly scrolling through social media, but instead of choosing pleasure, they work, often which is hard, demanding, and yields little return in the short term. And they do this because they believe that by doing this, they will receive a bigger reward in the future, whether that is in a form of promotion, financial freedom, love, or any major external motivator. And this skill is a result of nurture, not nature. There's no one set of genes or code of DNA that results in babies inherently born with more delayed gratification, and this is great news for us because it means that this is a skill that we can cultivate and train over time and develop over the years of our life. The bad news is we need to put the work in to achieve it. It's not like we magically wake up and have the aha moment and suddenly have the ability to delay gratitude at will. But it's harder than ever to break this cycle and train delayed gratification because of the abundance of instant gratification resources that we have at our disposal. It has never been easier to get trapped in this cycle. Take the internet for example. It's a blessing and a curse as well. You can literally Google anything you can possibly imagine and get millions of results in seconds. And this means that it's extraordinarily easy to succumb to intrusive thoughts and to build bad habits. For example, if you're feeling down, you can always go and watch some porn with zero consequences, and no one's gonna tell you not to. There's nothing stopping you from masturbating, and there's plenty of research on the negatives of porn, including the decreased likelihood of us going out and meeting people who we might be potentially romantically interested in. In this case, you are taking instant gratification now, in turn, and sacrificing the potential of a bigger prize for tomorrow. This is the exact opposite of what you want, and it happens in every aspect of life, from physical health to eating healthier, to romantic relationships, to financial success that you're watching in this video. That, that's what I'm trying to convey to you. And every day you have the choice. You can scroll hours on end on your phone, get drunk with your friends, or you can choose to get your butt up and get moving. It's two choices every day you gotta make: sacrificing tomorrow for a better today, or sacrificing today for a better tomorrow. You can choose to take the route that I did, start a business, work my face off to turn my dreams into a reality, And sitting from where I am right now, it doesn't seem like this was a big risk for me to take at all. You know, I'm a multi-millionaire right now, but before that I was a broke college kid with a passion. You know, I could have chosen to go work for a classic 9-to-5 job. The instant gratification would be feeling of safety, stability, and a reliable income. But I chose to do things differently. I started my own personal clothing brand, multiple businesses after that, And for the first few months, you know, I made little to no sales. I was working my butt off day and night doing market research, reaching out to potential clients, customers, and sitting there thinking, what am I even doing in my life? And I can't count the number of times I lay at night, you know, in frustration and disappointment in myself, choosing this path and failing so many times, many, many times. I can't even count. I even considered quitting and instead pursuing a stable job. But sometimes, you know, some things just kept me going. I knew that if I stuck to this long enough, work hard enough, I would eventually make it. And I decided every day that I was doing what I was doing right now was for a bigger purpose and a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. I was willing to push through consistent obstacles and delay my gratification for a bigger prize, which is financial freedom. And the biggest breakthrough I had was that I know the effort and work I put in today, I wouldn't see it for the next, you know, 1, 2, 3, even 5, 10 years. And there's a delayed long-tail effect to the things I'm doing today, you know, for my work, career, success. And that's what keeps me going every single day. So this leads me to millionaire habit and secret number 3, which is not having a passive mindset throughout life. There's an old adage saying that there are only 3 types of people in this world. The first is those who make things happen, the second is people who watch things happen, and the third is people who wonder what happened. In life, your worst enemy is not the world, it's not the government, it's not your parents, not your ex, not your boss. Your biggest and only enemy is yourself. And in life, there are two types of games: finite games and infinite games. Finite games are games such as chess, a round of Fortnite, in which there are only three options: you win, you lose, or it's a tie. And in finite games, you either make it or you don't, and the only way to make it is by being better than someone else, which is your opponent. And for games such as solitaire, you know, your opponent is yourself. But with infinite games, it's much more complicated. It's an infinite game where there's no start and no end and no finish. There are no opponents, you know, there's no winning, there's only playing. And in infinite games, there's no one set course of action. Just because another player succeeds doesn't mean you lose, and it doesn't affect you at all. Life is one of these games, and the only goal of an infinite game is to keep playing for as long as possible, for the only way to lose is if you quit or stop playing, which means death. As long as you have skin in the game, your goal is not just to play but to thrive and to improve and just keep getting one step closer to your dreams, and to once you have them, you know, hold on for your dear life. Because you achieve your dream doesn't mean that someone else can't achieve theirs. In this game, your only enemy is yourself, so start taking accountability for your actions. The same scenario happens way too often. You know, you bomb a test, you get rejected from your dream girl or guy, you can't seem to gain muscle no matter how hard you try. In all these situations, you can either blame the world or you can take accountability. And instead of blaming, you know, genetics for your slow progress or the professor for not teaching right, take a second and think about what you could have done differently. If you think in terms of others and blame the world for your own circumstances, you have an external focus of control, an external locus of control. You believe that external factors control your life and that they are the reason you fail. And of course, if you believe in this, you might as well just end it all and quit right now, because at the end of the day, it doesn't matter, right? It wasn't your fault because, you know, you have no control of your life. Everything that happened to you wasn't in your control, and there was nothing you could have done. And I do not believe this at all. Thinking this way will only lead you to one place, and the same place that you're standing right now— the same room, the same clothes, the same goals, you know, the same life. And the passive mindset is the worst habit of all of them, because once you start taking control of your own life and start taking responsibility for your own actions instead of blaming the world, you would see an immediate shift and paradigm shift in your entire life. When you have an internal locus of control, you become powerful, you know, because suddenly the world isn't cursing you, and suddenly you have the power to make a change instead of letting the world plot your course of life for you. Placing the blame and accountability on yourself is the key to success because when you have the power, you become the master of your own fate. You have control and you control where your life leads. Now you can think back to why, you know, you bombed that test. Maybe you're out partying instead of studying. Maybe you didn't get enough sleep. Whatever the reason is, you gotta identify it, the root cause of your failure, so that you can fix it. And this is how You can start making progress by making mistakes first, and sometimes so badly that it might seem impossible to get and rebound from them. But by learning from each and every mistake, you know, God doesn't judge you based on how far you are, but how far you have come. And personally, you know, I've made many, many mistakes in life that I wish I could rewind the clock and not make them. I wish I could have done things differently, but I understand this is the imperfection of life that I just gotta accept. And each day is a brand new day, a new opportunity and chance for us to make our life a bit better. And yes, it's true that a lot of things happens outside our control and external forces, like, you know, the family we were born to, our education, you know, our country, a lot of luck, fate, and fortune, you know, that's outside of control. It matters, but I'm not going to cry about things that I can't control, and I'll just focus on things that I can control within my grasp. And whenever I have a crisis in my business, for example, all I can do is hope and make a hope and prayer to God that things outside my control will be in my favor. But whatever it's within my control, my grasp, I sure as heck will do my best to make it happen at my best possibility. And once you conquer these 3 millionaire habits, you know, you see that life would open a lot of opportunities and doors for you, and you know how high of a potential you can climb. Because the only way to open these doors is by taking the first step. The seed of growth that has been planted in your mind, and it's now your job to nurture those seeds into trees. And if you ever doubt your own potential, know that I'll be here supporting you every step of the way. So I hope these 3 millionaire secrets and habits, or what not to do, would be a game changer for your life, and subscribe for more videos like this, and I'll see you on the next one.