Want To Be Rich? Don’t Start A Business.

As soon as I left school, I started my first business, which made me a multimillionaire and gave me the life I’d always dreamed of. This statement isn’t just false; it’s pretty much impossible. The trouble is, many people who want to get rich are buying into this narrative because it’s so widespread on the internet. Why? Because it sounds much easier than the reality. If you want to get rich but don’t want to put in the hard work, then I’d recommend buying a lottery ticket and crossing your fingers, as it’ll probably be more effective. Don’t get me wrong, I did make my millions from starting successful businesses.

However, I didn’t just jump straight into a business idea after reading a “Top 10 side hustle blog.” So when I say you have little to no chance of starting a successful business straight out of school, I’m not trying to crush your dreams. Quite the opposite—I want you to save your valuable time and start building the skillsets you need to succeed. So if you want to become rich, then listen up because if I were in your position, I’d follow these six steps.

Step one, find your natural talents. I hate the saying, “Follow your passion.” What if your passion doesn’t have the ability to make you money? Or even worse, you just don’t have one? It feels like one of those overused self-help sayings that doesn’t actually have any real substance. Maybe people are drawn to advice like this because the general population seems obsessed with the idea of living a good, balanced, and happy life. This, of course, is an admirable goal.

However, a starving artist struggles to make money and rarely has any of these things. My passion was to become an RAF fighter pilot, but as soon as I found out I needed glasses, that dream went out the window. I could have continued down that path and wasted valuable time. However, I decided to park that passion for later in life when I had enough money to complete my pilot’s license and fly planes for fun. I made this choice because to be truly happy, I believe you first need to fix the money issue, as never having enough can lead to so many more problems down the road.

I can tell you this: the journey to making substantial money isn’t an easy one; otherwise, everyone would be doing it. You just have to be very honest about what you’re actually good at. Ray Dalio, owner of the world’s largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Capital, says that you have to “find your game,” and I couldn’t agree more. I remember trying my hand at a lot of different things, such as door-to-door fish sales, being a shop assistant, flipping cars, and teaching people how to fly radio-controlled helicopters. From this, I identified that I had a natural talent for dealing with people due to my strong social skills. From then on, I really leaned into anything that relied on me speaking face-to-face with customers, as I knew I could make sales that others could only dream of.

Think about the things that you’re good at, and if there are a few common skills that connect them all, those are your money-makers. At this stage, you should only be focusing on these skills because it’s much easier to get ahead improving on those rather than starting from scratch with something completely new. You can use these natural skills to fix your money issues and then from there start improving in other areas.

Step two, dedicate everything to a job. I know it’s become very trendy to want to escape the matrix. It’s even got to the point where people are quietly quitting their jobs. This means they’re doing the bare minimum and keeping all their energy for their side hustles. Although I understand the thinking behind this, doing the bare minimum is something that should never be celebrated. That is the type of mindset that ensures you’ll never be successful because the way you do the small things is the way you’ll do the big things. When I was working as a carpenter, I’d have days I just hated, but I knew a sour attitude wouldn’t get me anywhere. Even a job like this can give you the opportunity to practice important skills. I learned woodwork, technical design, quoting, and customer service.

I always believed in the phrase “Work to learn, not to earn.” When I worked in a factory, I would always ask questions and try to figure out how it all worked. This later came in very handy when I was traveling the world looking for the perfect place to manufacture my own products, as I knew what I was looking for. My experience as an assistant in a radio control model shop helped me learn sales, communication, and organizational skills that I’d later train to my employees in my own shops.

In your current job, try to understand why things are the way they are without trying to argue or question your boss. By looking just a little bit deeper, you can find there’s a reason why pretty much everything is the way it is. If it’s good, keep note of it. If it’s bad, also keep note of it. I’ll explain why later.

Step three, nurture your contacts and your image. These two really go hand-in-hand because if you don’t have a good image, then the people you want to connect with won’t want to be your friends. It’s harsh but true. We often make a quick assumption about a person, right or wrong, after meeting them just once. Nowadays, due to social media, you don’t even have to meet someone to have an opinion on them. So how you present yourself in person and online is very important. Think about some of your favorite YouTubers.

They all have something that makes them stand out. For me, it’s my old age and, of course, my wisdom. Take your strengths from step one, and try to find a way to show them off when you meet a new person, and leave an imprint in their mind. After failing to qualify for the Helicopter World Championships in Austria in 1993 and being absolutely devastated. I devised a plan to make sure that I made an impact. I noticed a loophole that would allow me to attend as the team coach. Once I secured my place, I loaded my model helicopter with a secret weapon. After the final competition, I executed my plan. I flew the first-ever model helicopter firework display.

Everyone was in awe. The helicopter flipped, and soared through the sky, followed by a glittering trail of sparks and explosions. I was featured in many newspapers and TV shows, leading to me making a bigger impact than any of the competition winners. I was even asked to sign multiple autographs. That was before selfies were even a thing. Two years later, I qualified for the World Championships in Japan. Everyone already knew my name from that breathtaking night. You’ve gotta be straight with yourself. The world out there is too hard for you to be soft. A better way of being great is to go out there and practice the things that will make you great.

Rather than telling yourself over and over in the mirror, “I’m great,” I’d say having proof is much better. You don’t have to be great at everything, but the reason most men are so invisible nowadays is that they’re too afraid to take risks for fear of standing out. In this era of distraction, social media, and quiet-quitting, it’s easier than ever to stand out by excelling. However, it’s also important not to be too self-absorbed. Most people are more interested in themselves than in other people. Becoming genuinely interested in others can take you a long way in business and friendships, even though it may seem like a waste of time.

Step four, identify improvements and write them down. Remember how I said to write down the stuff that was good and not so good about whatever business you’re working in? Well, here’s the thing. A lot of people who go into business do so because the last boss they worked for was a complete idiot. At least that’s kind of what happened to me. Businesses are all about solving problems, but the funny thing is businesses have tons of their own problems.

Whenever an issue comes up and your boss has to hire some outside help, keep a note of what the problem was and how it was solved. I saw all the problems in the radio control model shop I was working in. Such as not meeting customer demand with certain products, a poor location, and inexperienced staff. I later used this information to start a chain of model shops that absolutely dominated the market. This is the same idea behind hiring a mentor or paying for consultants. However, this way, you are actually getting paid while gaining the knowledge.

Step five, test your fixes with a side hustle. Starting a business is scary. It often means taking risks and putting in lots of time and money upfront without any guaranteed returns. That’s why it’s so important to start with a side hustle. Before starting my own range of radio control models. I made sure to stock everything in my shops to get a real handle on what actually sold and why.

One of my friends actually went one step further. He wanted to start an e-commerce store but couldn’t afford to take any risks as he had very limited money. He had the greatest fear of being left with unsold inventory. Then he had a brilliant idea. What if he tried to sell a product he didn’t have? He first tested this out with resistance training bands from China. But instead of buying them and having them shipped over, he just listed them for sale. When the orders came in, it gave him proof that the product was sellable. So he refunded all the orders and decided to buy the product after he knew he could sell it. He was able to test so many products using this approach.

One of the most important parts of the testing process is measurement. What gets measured gets managed. That’s the reason why elite athletes always measure their stats. There’s this idea now in startups called the minimum viable product or MVP. The CEO of a gaming business coined the term. Basically, they had the rough idea for the game. But left the details on the path of development largely up to the feedback of the users. What was once a very scrappy and buggy game ended up becoming pretty amazing by just listening to the feedback and making constant improvements. Testing your idea could be as simple as just asking users what they think of it in a Discord or a subreddit.

It’s worth remembering, though, the opinions of those that matter most are the ones that buy your product. And you won’t know who those people are until you start selling on a small scale. Often you’ll find that 80% of your results are due to 20% of your side hustle. This rule applies to many more things. Such as 80% of traffic accidents are caused by 20% of drivers, 80% of wealth is controlled by 20% of the population, 80% of a company’s productivity is due to 20% of its employees, and there are many more examples.

They did it by delivering value to a huge number of people through a business. So when you’re analyzing the results of your side hustle, try to see if you can identify the best parts of what you’re doing, the top 20%. Then ask yourself how you can do more of it on a larger scale and reach more people. If you’re looking for inspiring side hustle ideas. Then you can watch this next blog here, but don’t click on it just yet. Make sure to subscribe if you want to grow your wealth. Okay? I’ll see you over there.

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