How to Get Rich (without luck, talent, or a trust fund)

0:00This little black book right here is

0:01very important to me. It has all of the

0:03rules of money and they're very simple.

0:05They're not that complicated to learn,

0:08but once you do, you can actually start

0:09to stack cash. I was in my 20s and I

0:12really didn't understand how to make

0:13money. I was trying hard, I was working

0:15hard, but I really wasn't getting

0:15anywhere. And once I learned the rules

0:17of money, I started to understand, "Oh,

0:19that's what I'm supposed to be doing."

0:21So, the next 15 minutes, I'm going to

0:22tell you exactly what these four rules

0:24of money are, what I did to go from

0:26broke to ended up making my first

0:27million at age 30, and then being worth

0:29$30 a few years later. And I was an

0:31idiot. I was running around with a fork

0:33and I was sticking it into different

0:34outlets. I was learning my lessons the

0:36hard way and I want to save you a lot of

0:38years and a lot of pain by just telling

0:40you what I did and what actually works.

0:43So, if you're somebody who today you

0:45don't love where you're at financially,

0:46maybe you're not financially free, and

0:47you want to get to that magic number,

0:48you want to get a million dollars liquid

0:50in your bank account, well, this is the

0:52video for you. I'm going to tell you the

0:53four money rules.

1:02Rule number one, you need one

1:04money-making skill. Money-making skill

1:06is a very specific term here. So, when

1:07it comes to building wealth, there's

1:08really only four money-making skills.

1:10You need to pick one of these. The first

1:12one is selling, so this is persuading

1:14people, marketing, closing deals. The

1:15second one is making, which is products,

1:17apps, websites, videos, books. The next

1:19one is designing, so if you having a

1:21really great taste, understanding form

1:23and function, like a Steve Jobs type.

1:25And the fourth is hunting. So, selling,

1:27making, designing, hunting. Hunting is

1:29spotting opportunities. It's finding

1:31great real estate deals or angel

1:32investing or figuring out the right

1:34stock to buy. You need to pick one of

1:36these skills and master it. Pick the one

1:38that's of most interest to you. Now,

1:40mastering it is the hard part. So,

1:42you're going to need to do it every day.

1:44And the way to do that is, let's say you

1:46want to learn sales, right? Selling is

1:47the is the master skill, the

1:49money-making skill you're trying to

1:50learn. You need to go to a place where

1:51selling is what they do. It is how they

1:54make their money. And when you get

1:56there, you're going to get a job and you

1:57might start at the bottom of the totem

1:58pole and you what you're going to do is

1:59you're going to look around and you're

2:00going to ask, "Who's the number one

2:01producer? Who is the number one sales

2:03person here?"

2:04Your job is to go sit next to them and

2:06then double their input. So, if they're

2:08making 100 calls a day, you're going to

2:09make 200. You're not going to be as good

2:11at the calls as they are, but you're

2:12going to double the input. If they knock

2:13on 50 doors, you do 100. You get the

2:15idea. And you're going to sit next to

2:16them and you're going to study what they

2:17do. You're going to observe the

2:19difference between what they're doing

2:20and what you're doing.

2:21And then you're going to double it every

2:22single time. That's what you're doing by

2:24day and at night, you're reading books,

2:25you're watching videos, you're obsessing

2:27over the art of selling. So, your 9-5 is

2:29where you get your practice reps and

2:31then your 5-9, 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.,

2:33that's where you get ideas on how to

2:34improve. I got to be friends with Mr.

2:36Beast over the last few years and he's

2:38today the number one YouTuber in the

2:39world. Every video he puts out gets

2:41hundreds of millions of views and he

2:42showed me and he told me, he's like,

2:43"Dude, at the age of 12, I decided my

2:45skill was going to be making YouTube

2:47videos in his case." So, he he wanted to

2:49be a maker. He wanted to make YouTube

2:50videos. And every day he would open up a

2:53dictionary and he would flip to a

2:54different random word. Whatever word he

2:55got, he had to force himself to think of

2:5720 video ideas using that word. Not all

3:00of them were good, but he would force

3:01that muscle of idea generation cuz for

3:03YouTube videos, the idea, the concept is

3:05the number one thing. And then he would

3:07go try to make that video and he would

3:08suck at it and he'd have a crappy

3:09thumbnail and a crappy lighting, crappy

3:11audio. And each day he would try to make

3:13one of those things better in between

3:15every video. It took him like, I don't

3:17know, 100 plus videos before he even got

3:19to 10,000 subscribers, before he started

3:20making any money off this thing, but he

3:23mastered the art of making videos.

3:25Warren Buffett is another example. He

3:27was a hunter. Hunting was the

3:28money-making skill he chose. And if you

3:29ever, you know, learn about Buffett,

3:31you'll learn that Buffett used to take

3:32the entire Moody's manual, so a 4,000

3:34page book. And I'm not talking about

3:36like a Harry Potter book. This is a

3:374,000 pages of just corporate

3:38financials, essentially. And he would

3:40read it cover to cover and he was all he

3:42was looking for was a single stock that

3:44he thought was mispriced, high value,

3:45low price. Over his career, he's looked

3:47at, you know, literally hundreds of

3:48thousands of businesses and in his most

3:50recent shareholder letter, he said, "All

3:52of my success I can boil down to making

3:54about 12 good investing decisions." Just

3:56that out of hundreds of thousands of

3:58things he looked at. He became a master

4:00hunter. So, you want to master one of

4:02those four money-making skills and

4:03that's a path to millions. If you master

4:06two of them, that's a path to billions.

4:07So, if you look at a Steve Jobs, he had

4:10designing and selling. He was one of the

4:11greatest design minds, had great taste

4:14in design, and then he also had the

4:16ability to tell great stories and be

4:17extremely persuasive and come up with

4:19marketing campaigns. Elon Musk, he has

4:21making and selling and that combo of

4:23sort of like, I can build and I can

4:24sell, is one of the most overpowered

4:26combinations you can have. Because you

4:27don't need to become the top 1% of

4:29anything. That takes a lifetime to

4:31become a true master. What you need to

4:33do is become top 20% at two things that

4:36are not common. So, for example, an

4:38engineer who's good at marketing. You

4:40find a lot of engineers

4:41and you don't need to become the best

4:42engineer, but you need to become an

4:43engineer who's pretty good at

4:45engineering and pretty good at

4:46marketing. That's rare enough and you

4:47are super, super valuable. So, your

4:50money-making skills are the foundation

4:52of your ability to make money, not just

4:53once, but anytime you wish. It's like a

4:55money button you can put and push at any

4:56given time. So, focus on skills before

4:59you focus on wealth. All right, rule

5:00number two. Don't rent out your time,

5:01own equity. What people get wrong is

5:03they take the skill they learned and

5:05then they get hired for it. And then if

5:06they're good at it, they get promoted

5:08for it and they get a raise for it and

5:09it sounds like, "Well, I guess I'm

5:10moving in the right direction. I'm

5:11getting rich." Actually, you're moving

5:13in the complete wrong direction. As

5:15Nassim Taleb says, "The two most

5:16addictive things in the world are heroin

5:18and a monthly salary." You do not want

5:20to get hired to provide services where

5:22you're trading your time for their

5:24dollars. Renting out your time is not a

5:26path to get rich. Even the people who

5:27rent their time out at a high price,

5:29right? A lawyer, $1,000 an hour, they

5:31cap out. You know the rich lawyers?

5:33They're all partners in the firm,

5:34meaning they own equity in the firm,

5:36meaning they get a cut of other lawyers'

5:38work, not their own. So, how do you own

5:40equity? Well, two ways. Either you're

5:42going to invest, but you don't have the

5:43cash to do that, maybe. Uh or you're

5:45going to start a business.

5:47So, then the question comes, what kind

5:48of business should you start? How do you

5:49take that money-making skill and turn it

5:51into a business? There's three things,

5:53three words to know. They all start with

5:54the letter C. Code, content or capital.

5:57So, code is like making a website or an

5:59app. I'll give you an example. My friend

6:01was a designer. He used to make $200,000

6:03a year as part of a design agency. He

6:04was a employee, he was making a good

6:06living and he was designing websites for

6:08clients. Client walks through the door,

6:09asks for something, he would design it.

6:11Well, he figured out he needed to turn

6:13his skill into a product or a business.

6:16And so, he quit his job and he started

6:18making Shopify themes.

6:20Um so, he would make a theme and he

6:22could take that same theme and he could

6:23sell it to 2,000 different customers.

6:25And by the way, he didn't have to go and

6:27hand sell it to them. He would be asleep

6:29and they would be coming to his site

6:30finding a library of themes and they

6:32would buy one. And now he pulls in 2

6:34million a year of cash flow. He lives

6:36half the year in Bali, half the year in

6:37Japan. He is living his dream life

6:39because he understood the rules of

6:41money, how to first make create a

6:43money-making skill, design, and then how

6:45to turn it into a business because he

6:47doesn't want to rent out his time, he

6:48wants to own equity. I'll give you

6:49another example, content. Let's take um

6:51someone who's pretty big at content in

6:52the business world, this guy named Alex

6:54Hormozi. He took his master money-making

6:55skill, which is selling, and he turned

6:57it into videos, YouTube videos, books

6:59and courses. His last book launch he

7:01just did it about a month ago. His last

7:03book launch sold 3 million copies and

7:05with all the add-on courses he added to

7:07it, he made $100 million in a single

7:09weekend. $100 million as one guy because

7:11he understood that he didn't need to

7:13sell his time in hourly chunks of

7:15consulting, he needed to turn it into a

7:17business. The last example is capital.

7:18So, what does capital mean? Well, this

7:20is really for the skill of hunting,

7:21usually, but it can be used for any any

7:23of these. So, this is where you want to

7:25take the money-making skill you have and

7:27you want to use it uh in the art of

7:28investing. Uh my cousin did this. So, my

7:30cousin had a job making six figures, but

7:32he was sick of it. He didn't want to

7:33report to the office, he didn't like all

7:35the politics, he didn't like the boring

7:36meetings. And so, he quit his job and he

7:37decided, "I'm going to learn the art of

7:39hunting multi-family real estate." So,

7:41like apartment buildings. He spent two

7:43years mastering that skill under

7:44somebody else who had been doing that

7:46for a decade. So, he went and he learned

7:47and he looked he identified the highest

7:49output person and he doubled their

7:51inputs and then he left to do his own

7:53deals. And in his first year doing his

7:55own deals, they bought about $40 million

7:57of real estate using down payments or

8:00their equity from other investors who

8:01were happy to give him a cut because he

8:02was doing the hunting. He was finding

8:04the killer deal, the deal that would

8:06perform above market, that had a good

8:07margin of safety. He became a great

8:09hunter and he translated that into a

8:11business using this method of capital.

8:13So, takeaway here is if you only rent

8:15out your time, you'll never get off the

8:16treadmill. Equity is the way. All right,

8:19rule number three. And this is the

8:20hardest rule of all of them, okay? You

8:22ready for it?

8:23Four letters.

8:25Wait.

8:26Uh you can't plant a seed in the soil

8:30and then the next day come dig it up and

8:31scream at it, "Why aren't you growing

8:32yet?" Right? That's not how a plant

8:34grows. You need to water it, you need to

8:35give it sunlight and you need to wait.

8:36Let the thing actually grow. Because if

8:38you're doing what I've said, right? You

8:40have developed one of the four

8:42money-making skills. You have not just

8:43developed it, you've spent two years

8:45really grinding and mastering it. Then

8:46you have turned that into a business

8:48that you own equity in. Well, now

8:50getting rich is actually inevitable, but

8:51inevitable is not the same thing as

8:53instantaneous. So, the bad news is, yes,

8:56you're it's going to take trial and

8:57error, it's going to take a couple years

8:58for you to get it all figured out. But,

9:00the good news is you only need to get

9:01rich once in a lifetime. Once you get

9:04rich once, as long as you're not, you

9:06know, totally an idiot, you're going to

9:07blow it all, you can just let that

9:08compound from there. So, the secret here

9:11is you have to be willing to wait. Now,

9:13waiting doesn't mean just sitting around

9:14doing nothing. The phrase I heard that I

9:16love best is comes from Naval. He said,

9:18"Be impatient with action and patient

9:21with results." That combination,

9:23impatient with action, patient with

9:24results, is a killer unbeatable

9:26combination. I would never want to

9:27compete with somebody who was like that.

9:29And that's a good test for if you should

9:31become that person.

9:33P.S. Before I go to the next one, if

9:35you're liking what's in this video and

9:36you actually want the notes from this,

9:37the team has actually written everything

9:39down from this video, so you don't have

9:40to write it down yourself. You can get

9:41it, it's in the description below. All

9:43right, let me keep going.

9:44The final rule, rule number four.

9:46Proximity is power.

9:49Even though I told you to wait, you know

9:50that good things take time, you're still

9:52going to hate waiting. I hated it,

9:53you're going to hate it, too. The good

9:55news is you can actually speed up the

9:56result. How? You can make the plant grow

9:58a little faster. And the way you do it

9:59is

10:00you move. Literally, you move. So, if

10:02you want to be a tech founder, you need

10:04to move to San Francisco. If you want to

10:06make movies, you go to LA. Now, it's not

10:08that you had to do it, but if you want

10:10to increase your odds and you want to go

10:11faster, that's what you would do.

10:13Because proximity is power, meaning you

10:15want to be as close as you can to the

10:17white-hot center of action. You want to

10:18go join the network of people who are

10:20doing what you do. You want to be around

10:22people who have the same dream as you,

10:24who are in the same game as you. Maybe

10:26they're a little bit ahead and they can

10:27share what's going on. Maybe they're

10:28right where you are and you can all go

10:30grow together and learn from each

10:31other's mistakes so that you don't have

10:32to learn every single mistake the hard

10:34way yourself. And when I say move, I

10:36don't just mean move to the city. I mean

10:38you move to a house with as many

10:40like-minded, smart, ambitious,

10:41interesting people as you can. When I

10:43moved to San Francisco, I moved into a

10:45house with six other tech founders who I

10:47didn't know. And they weren't the best

10:48roommates, and the bathrooms were

10:49stinky, and all that good stuff. But the

10:51more important thing was I was around a

10:53group of really smart, ambitious people

10:55chasing the same dream as me. And those

10:57became great friends, those became

10:58connections, those became, you know,

11:00warm introductions to investors. You

11:02don't know exactly how it's all going to

11:03play out, but you're creating the luck

11:04for yourself. You learn faster. It's

11:06like osmosis. Just being around them

11:08will make you think a little

11:09differently, work a little differently,

11:11you know? If you hang out with a bunch

11:12of broke complainers, you'll become one.

11:14If you hang out with a bunch of killers,

11:16you will level up, too. There's a cliché

11:18that's been around for a long time, you

11:20know, you're the average of the five

11:21people you spend the most time with.

11:22Well, it's a cliché, but it's true. It's

11:24been around for a long time for a

11:25reason. So, if you want to change your

11:26life, change your zip code. I'll tell

11:27you a little story. I was 24 years old.

11:29I was living in Australia trying to

11:31start a startup. I wanted to be an

11:32entrepreneur.

11:33Um and I went to a local meetup for

11:35other founders. I thought I should get

11:36around some other founders. And at the

11:38meetup, they one week they asked me,

11:40they said, "Hey, will you be the keynote

11:41speaker? Will you do the the talk this

11:43week on stage?"

11:44And I think I was supposed to be

11:45flattered, but no, I was horrified. I

11:47was like, "Me? 24-year-old dumb me?

11:49I haven't done anything. If I'm the

11:51smartest guy in this room, I'm in the

11:53wrong room." So, the next week I

11:54literally packed my dad's bags, I bought

11:56a one-way ticket to San Francisco with

11:57no plan. I didn't even have a place to

11:59stay. But I knew that I needed to get

12:02around people who were smarter and um

12:04just, you know, the most ambitious,

12:05smart group of people that I could who

12:07all had the same dream as me. So, let's

12:08recap. If you've done these four things,

12:10you've picked one of the four

12:11money-making skills, and you've done

12:13your 2 years mastering it. You then

12:15don't rent out your time and fall down

12:17the career trap of getting hired and

12:18getting raises. You take that skill and

12:20you start a business based on code,

12:21content, or capital.

12:23Then you wait, and you're impatient with

12:24your action, but you're very patient

12:26with your results. And lastly, proximity

12:28is power. You speed up your development

12:30by moving to the white-hot center and

12:31getting around like-minded people.

12:33Well, congratulations. You have flipped

12:34the odds. Uh the best advice in the

12:37world is to take actions that would make

12:38it absolutely unreasonable for you to

12:40fail. Let's take an another example,

12:42weight loss, dieting, right? I've been a

12:44type of person who's tried many diets,

12:45failed many times. And I think that's

12:47pretty common. I would say that dieting

12:49probably has a failure rate of 80 or

12:5190%. Let's pretend with your diet you

12:53just decided to do four things right.

12:55You made four decisions. So, you ate

12:57clean whole foods, high protein, you

12:59exercised daily, and you slept well.

13:01If you actually did those things, and

13:02you did the weight process where you let

13:04it let it unfold, it is now actually

13:06unreasonable for you to not lose weight,

13:09to get into great shape. You have

13:10flipped the odds from 90% failure rate

13:13to 90% success rate. And that's what

13:15we're going to do in the world of

13:16business and getting rich is we've all

13:18heard the stats, right? 90% of new

13:19businesses fail. Well, that's true.

13:21Startups, individual business ideas do

13:23fail, but founders don't. If you keep

13:25going and you really learning is how,

13:26you follow the four rules I just told

13:28you, you will not fail. I'll leave you

13:30with the Steve Martin story that always

13:31inspired me. Steve Martin, the great

13:32comedian,

13:34he wanted to learn the banjo. And when

13:36he was young, he started learning the

13:37banjo, and he couldn't tell the

13:39difference between a C chord, a G chord,

13:40and his teacher was like, "Yeah, let me

13:42not going to lie, it's not like you have

13:43a huge natural talent for the banjo."

13:46And he was getting frustrated and

13:47impatient because he wanted to be great

13:48at something. He wanted the result, but

13:50it wasn't happening, and it didn't seem

13:51like he was naturally like on track to

13:53get there.

13:55But he he made a little mindset shift.

13:56He said, "You know what?

13:58Instead of trying to be great at the

13:59banjo today, let me just make a

14:00decision." He said, "I'm going to play

14:02the banjo for 40 years because I can't

14:04imagine that somebody who's been playing

14:05the banjo for 40 years still sucks at

14:07it." And just by taking that long-term

14:09time horizon and understanding that he

14:11could flip his odds of success from um

14:13probably going to be one of those guys

14:15who tries it, doesn't happen for him,

14:16and I give up to

14:18well, if I just stuck with this for 20,

14:2040 years, I think I'd be great at it.

14:21And by the way, it never took 40 years.

14:23Within a decade, Steve Martin uh Steve

14:25Martin actually won multiple Grammys for

14:27his songs where he's playing the banjo.

14:29He changed his mindset around the banjo,

14:31and years later is actually winning

14:33Grammys for it. And so, this is the

14:35formula. This is the way. I hope you

14:37take this. I hope you be successful with

14:39this. I have nothing but love for you. I

14:41really rooting for you. And so, if this

14:43was helpful, leave me a comment below,

14:46and maybe I'll do a follow-up video with

14:47a little more detail. But these are the

14:48high-level the four money rules.