Matan HazanovManaging Partner, Enigma Ventures · Founder | VC | Podcast Host | I can help you raise money

Going from $40k/Year Salary to $500k Business

21 May 2025 · 1 min

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1:21

This is a first-person segment from a YouTube video ("Going from $40k/Year Salary to $500k Business") in which the creator (Matan Hazanov) recounts a turning-point anecdote: he saw a contract whose value exceeded his entire yearly salary and required only about four-to-five hours to fulfill, which prompted a mindset shift. He continued working for that employer for about six more months, then went out on his own; roughly four to four-and-a-half years later he was closing deals larger than that contract value. The anecdote is presented as the pivotal moment that made higher earnings seem attainable and changed his career path.

Questions this video answers

About four to five hours.

About six months.

Approximately four to four-and-a-half years.

Chapters

But I saw the value of the contract, and I realized it was going to take me about four to five hours to execute on everything that had to get done to fulfill that contract. But the value of the contract was more than my entire yearly salary. Wow. And when I saw that I wasn't jealous of him, I was super inspired. I was like, I'm in the wrong position because I'm doing all the work. I'm the talent in, you know, actually creatively executing this. But at the end of the day, I'm not getting in. I'm just in the wrong position. Like, there's someone above me that. That's in the right position. So how can I do more of what he's doing to get to that place? And so I continued to work for him for, I think it was about, like, you know, six months after that. But it was a complete mindset shift because I just learned that that was available. And I think when you're so used to, you know, the corporate structure and the way that everyone tells you you're supposed to do things, you don't even know that that's available to you, like, to make that amount of money in a few hours was. Was beyond what I could even comprehend, ever. But having had that experience, that really inspired me to go out and to do this by myself, because I was like, I can get contracts like that. And now, I mean, four years, four and a half years into this, I'm closing deals significantly higher than that value of that contract. So it's just so cool to me to realize that, you know, back then I was like, that number was so, so huge to me. And now, you know, that's just a regular sale that we make. So that was definitely a big turning point for me.