🚀 The Principles and Strategies to Make Your First Million Dollars Online
Are you tired of living paycheck to paycheck? Do you dream of achieving financial freedom and becoming a millionaire? In this article, I will share with you the principles and strategies that I have used to make my first million dollars online and become a multi-millionaire.
📝 Table of Contents
1. Believe That It Can Be Done
2. Find the Right Friend Group
3. Have a Clear Purpose in Mind
4. Persistence is Key
5. Take Action
Believe That It Can Be Done
The first step on the path to becoming a millionaire is to actually believe that it can be done. Your day job will never make you life-changing money. A day job will allow you to make just enough to pay the bills and maybe go on a yearly vacation or two, but that's it. The only way to make enough money to change your life is to start a business or a side hustle.
Now, most of you don't know this, but I actually wanted to start an online store for a very long time, but I didn't believe that I had the knowledge to make it happen. Back in the day, I knew nothing about websites, finding suppliers, or how to generate traffic and sales. But then one day, I had lunch with one of my friends, and he casually showed me his website where he started selling his photography prints online. When I asked him how he did it, he surprised me by saying he threw up his site in a weekend by using free open-source software.
The lesson here is that if you don't believe in your own abilities, then follow someone who has done it all before. Today, this is easier than ever, and you can find influencers on YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram. There are people everywhere who've accomplished what you want to do, and I promise you none of this business stuff is rocket science.
Find the Right Friend Group
The second step on your path to becoming a millionaire is to find the right friend group. My first million-dollar business was an online store that sold handkerchiefs online. On the surface, it sounds like a dumb idea, and all my friends thought I was an idiot. Even my mom thought it was a bad idea to sell handkerchiefs online, but this business now brings in seven figures per year.
It took me about six years to hit the million-dollar mark, and if six years sounds like a long time to you, it's because I was hanging around with the wrong people during the early years. My friends would come up to me and say, "Hey, what's up Steve? How's the hanky business?" in a very derogatory tone. Early on, I would lie and say, "Hey, it's doing all right," but deep down, these comments always made me doubt myself. They made me feel stupid for doing what I was doing, and it's hard to become a millionaire when there are doubters all around you.
Here's the thing about your friends: they might have good intentions, but they will always have doubts about something that they haven't done and try to talk you out of it. It's not like these friends of mine were dumb; they were all Stanford, Harvard, and MIT graduates. They just didn't believe that an e-commerce store could make money. So rule number two is to ditch all the naysayers. It's hard enough to start a business as is, but it's much harder when other people are filling you with negative thoughts. Basically, you need to find a community of like-minded people.
Have a Clear Purpose in Mind
The next step to becoming a millionaire is to have a clear purpose in mind. Simply wanting to make a million bucks just isn't good enough. You have to have a "why." For me, I hesitated on the sidelines to start my business early on because my life was too comfortable. Why rock the boat when I already had a job that was paying the bills? All that comfort went out the window when my wife became pregnant with our first child.
If you have a clear goal and purpose for wanting to change your life, it's going to happen. For you, maybe it has nothing to do with your wife wanting to quit her job. Maybe you hate your job with a passion and need to quit. Maybe you want more freedom to do what you love or hang out with the people that you love. Maybe you just need to change now. Whatever it is, find the fuel to give you the motivation to start your first side hustle.
Persistence is Key
The next key to becoming a millionaire is persistence. People often ask me whether they should create a business plan before they get started, and I always say, "Hell no." I've never written a formal business plan in my life, and I can say this with 100% certainty: things will never go according to plan with your business.
One of the luckiest things that ever happened to us was getting on the NBC Today Show. The people over at NBC found our website by luck because we ranked number one on Google for handkerchiefs, and they wanted some products to feature in their Christmas shopping episode. But this NBC feature didn't happen until we were already six years into the business. Had we decided to close up shop before then, we never would have gotten this incredible press opportunity.
Similarly, we got really lucky when my brother-in-law got a job at Google in the ads department, and he was able to show us how to get set up and running with Google ads. Today, Google makes up about 20% of our sales. Looking back, I can't tell you how many good things happened to our business just because we stuck around. You have to be persistent in order to succeed, and as of this recording, we've been selling hankies for over 16 years, and I've been running my blog over at mywifecooterjob.com for 14 years. Longevity matters.
Take Action
The final and most important rule to becoming a millionaire is to actually take action. Over the years, I've had over 5,000 students in my Create a Profitable Online Store course, and ironically, my most successful students have been the ones who don't do as much analysis and just jump right in.
If you have to choose, you should always err on the side of action versus analysis because analysis is only going to get you so far. There are so many variables in business that are impossible to predict ahead of time. Just feel confident that no matter what the obstacle is, you'll find a way to overcome it, and that, my friends, is how you become a millionaire.
🎉 Highlights
- Your day job will never make you life-changing money.
- Find a community of like-minded people.
- Have a clear goal and purpose for wanting to change your life.
- Persistence is key.
- Err on the side of action versus analysis.
❓ FAQ
Q: Do I need to have a lot of money to start a business?
A: No, you don't need a lot of money to start a business. In fact, some of the most successful businesses started with very little money.
Q: How long does it take to become a millionaire?
A: It varies from person to person, but it usually takes several years of hard work and persistence.
Q: Do I need to have a college degree to start a business?
A: No, you don't need a college degree to start a business. Some of the most successful entrepreneurs never went to college.
🌐 Resources
- Bumblebee Linens: https://www.bumblebeelinens.com/
- My Wife Quit Her Job: https://mywifequitherjob.com/
- Seller Summit: https://sellersummit.com/
