Yesterday, when talking about what it takes to be successful and what to do when you get there, I mentioned how making money becomes easier once you’re rich. I mentioned how numerous opportunities and revenue sources can come your way once you’ve established yourself. But today I’d like to talk about this concept in a bit more depth. First I want to talk about the whole “get rich quick” thing.
Getting rich quickly the way they say isn’t possible
As far as I know there aren’t too many ways to get rich quickly but here are some examples:
- You can be born into a wealthy family so that the minute you’re introduced to this earth you are loaded.
- You can win the lottery.
- You can get extremely lucky and achieve fame from out of nowhere i.e. Instagram or some other medium
- You can get extremely lucky and create a business that takes off within weeks.
- You can invest in something that grows exponentially and you did nothing to help it grow.
- You can make some kind of crazy bet that goes your way either in a casino or elsewhere.
And there are probably thousands of other ways you can “win the life lottery.” The point I’m making is pretty obvious. In order to get rich quickly from a starting point of something very minimal requires a ton of luck. So much luck that each scenario above has insanely low odds. We’re talking in the millions. As far as getting rich in the way all of the “gurus” and “experts” say on TV and on the internet? Let’s walk through some of these. You CANNOT get rich quickly in the following ways:
- Buying and selling real estate
- Selling products on Ebay or Amazon
- Creating an online course and selling it
- Writing an Ebook and selling it
- Starting a “Profitable Online Business.” What the hell does that even mean?
- Taking online surveys
- Starting a baby sitting service
- Starting a dog walking business
- Starting a landscaping business
Need I go on? The list you just saw above was deliberate. These are the exact kinds of items you’d see on a ton of “how to make extra money” lists online. And believe me, there are plenty more out there. We’re talking in the thousands. Fact is, it doesn’t matter what the business is you try to build. Whatever that business is will take a long time to flourish, period.
So how do you get rich?
Isn’t that the million dollar question that everyone is asking? I could get all existential on you and say “how do you define rich?” Personally I think that being rich has zero to do with money and all to do with quality of life. But let’s take that out of the equation and specifically focus on money. In order to get rich financially when it pertains to building a business there are a number of factors at play here but let’s go over a few.
- Expertise in a particular field AKA Skill set – If you’re going to get rich at anything you have to be really really good at at. To be in the top 1% then you need to have skill set that is in the top 1% of your field. How do you get there? Well, that part is honestly up to you but it won’t happen overnight. I’m not sure I subscribe to the whole 20,000 hours thing but it’s certainly a good place to start. Want to make a lot of money? Then have not only the right skills but better skills than just about everyone.
- Work smarter AND harder, no shortcuts – this too is going to take a ton of time. It’s difficult to learn how to work smart unless you become an expert in anything. An example of working smart is focusing on only the most important things that will grow your business. Everything else? Hire or outsource. Period. Only you can figure out what’s most important to your business. With regard to working hard, notice I didn’t say work a ton of hours. What I mean is put in 100% of your effort in the time you are working. Sure you can put in 20 hours a day to be proud of yourself but frankly I think that’s the dumbest idea in the world. Work hard at the right things. That might mean only spending an hour a day on them. Time is irrelevant when it comes to your actual work. Becoming rich has never been about putting in the hours, it’s about putting in the right hours. Scratch that whole notion of pounding the pavement 24/7. But at the same time, don’t be afraid to go 24/7 if that’s what the job requires. If you’re doing something that works and you know that doing it at 10 times the pace will get results quicker then either do it yourself or hire someone so you can scale.
- Patience – there are no substitutes for this. You must be patient. Nothing happens overnight. Like I said, unless you’re extremely lucky then starting from a virtual zero will not go to a million overnight. We’re talking at least 6 months of solid work and probably another 3-5 years before you have a shot at serious money.
- A little luck – I’m dead serious here. It sucks but it’s true. Sometimes you have to be in the right place at the right time. I’d like to believe we create our own luck. For example if you make 1000 outbound calls and do that in the right way, your chances of getting a new client are exponentially greater than someone who only makes one call. Often times the smarter we work the luckier we get. Still though, you’d be hard pressed to find a successful CEO out there who doesn’t have at least one story where luck came into play in the growth of their business.
Getting rich quickly comes easier once you are successful
So, is there a way to get rich quickly? Here’s what I’d say. There’s a way to get richer quickly. Once you’ve established that you’re an expert in your field, have all the necessary skills that beat out 99% of the competition and feel 100% confident that you know everything there is to know about your industry, then and only then will the get rich quick opportunities arise. I’ll give you an example in my own business. I have a few websites that do around 2 million monthly visits. One of the ways I make money on said websites is through advertising. But on occasion I’ll run into an ad partner who can provide higher paying ads. Literally overnight I can run into opportunities that pay me an extra $5K a month. Talk about getting rich faster right? Sure, but how long did it take me to reach 2 million visitors? See what I mean? As you grow in your field opportunities will tend to come to you more often and will provide money making opportunities that are 100 times easier than when you began your venture. So like I said, getting rich from a place of virtual zero takes a long long time, but don’t even think about getting richer faster until you’re well established. Even then it’s not that easy. Nothing is.
