Self-made is somebody who has not given success but has to take it himself. He did not inherit the fortune, instead he had to build lucrative companies to get to where he wants to be. Nobody is completely self-made i.e., almost every successful individual had help in their journey. There is a noticeable difference between people who start from scratch, on their own and build versus those who have had some doors pre-open for them. It is quite impressive how one person can go from zero and build incredible things worthy of praise.
Steps to become a self-made millionaire
Most of the things become accessible because of the internet, access to the global market thus resulting in the influx of cash in the middle class. If previously geography plays a decisive role in your success, it will no longer be an excuse. A laptop and an internet connection is the minimum barrier of entry in this race. Big factors like education, infrastructure, access to capital, desire, IQ, EQ, and even luck all play a major role in this.
You have to follow a certain structure that defines the direction towards your goal. Here are some steps that can guide you to become a self-made millionaire
- Start super early
The sooner you start the bigger the advantage you have because you have to learn the most valuable lessons of the business. Even a couple of years are required to identify the business that has a chance of success. Then with hard work, it will take roughly 5-7 years for your business to mature. If you are a teenager, your time is now. If you are older than that you just have to push yourself harder to achieve your goal. You have to enter this struggling stage as quickly as it is legally possible.
- Finding your goal
When you are starting, you simply don’t know how to start so the easiest way to get started is by identifying a shining light in the distance. If you want to achieve your goal, you must first define what that goal is precisely. Experienced people suggest that the easiest way to do this is to find people who are living the lifestyle you desire for yourself. Once you do, you will have your starting position and direction.
- Educate yourself constantly
Study books, interviews, documentaries, case studies, analyze other people’s businesses, analyze how other successful people behave, and then emulate everything you learn. Fortunately, nowadays quality information is cheap or even free so study the self-made successful people as these people got to where they wanted to be by following a set of steps and by doing things differently than others.
Your job is to identify as many of these things they do which lead them towards success. Take yourself seriously and invest in books, audiobooks, and anything that builds up your skill set. The quicker you can build skills in your inner portfolio, the sooner you will be able to leverage them to accelerate your growth. In this phase of your life, you need to master the fundamentals. If you want to be rich you first have to study the rich.
- Learn how to apply the rules
Break down the life of successful people to understand how practically they apply their rules. These rules or principles are fundamental building blocks on which these people have built their life. These are the crucial differentiators between them and everyone else. Look at how they act, how they behave, what they do, how they think, how they look at life, how they set goals, or what their habits are i.e., anything that can be translated back to you. Successful people have a whole plan for their success.
- Apply the rules
Emulate successful people to the best of their ability and adopt their habits. If they wake up early try to wake up early and try to follow their working hours. Success is a mental challenge as it might be hard physically to wake up and exercise early daily as your mind gives up before the body does. The goal is to get your mind and body used to the motions. It will help you to tackle the problems in front of yourself more smartly.
- Build a milestone system
Goals are medium-term objectives that are just out of someone’s current reach. You will never seem to achieve it thus breaking it down into milestones is such an important part of the journey, it helps you keep track of how far and how quickly you are moving. A million-dollar is no longer a lot of money, it’s just a mental milestone you need to pass to move into real money territory.
- Fail quickly but keep moving
You will fail and this is the fact. You are too early in your journey, you don’t have enough knowledge or skills, you don’t understand the markets or the consumers well enough and you don’t yet have people to guide you or save you. Resilience is key i.e., the only way to become a self-made millionaire is to absorb as much information as possible and transform it into actionable wisdom. Don’t be afraid to fail and don’t give up if things don’t go your way. Learn, adapt and overcome. Every time you are faced with a challenge, the market is testing your ability to perform. Failure is not the goal but is the part of the journey.
- Focus on hard work
Sacrifice your social life and work at least 80 to 100 hours per week. Working 40 hours a week is a survival income i.e., it will keep you fed and warm but it does not bring that lifestyle you are working for. So the time you put in over that goes to your success. Building a solid business will require you to put it way above everything else. It will take so much energy, so much drive that there simply is no room for anything else. This is the price you have to pay to escape mediocrity.
Relationships, family, and sometimes even health will suffer in the process and there is still a massive chance that you are not going to make it. This is why most people never do as they are not willing to pay this high price
- Build and grow your first successful business
In the first few years, you learn a lot, you study success in many forms and you understand how the market is changing. In these years you have to identify businesses that are within your reach and take that idea to the market. Initially, you have to put a lot of work into yourself then you start bringing people in gradually. Once money starts flowing in, you can start making moves to expand your business. You test different strategies and different products, some work and some don’t. You need to learn from such experiences and excel. It might take years. The temptation to spoil yourself is stronger and stronger than ever but remain disciplined. You have to reinvest everything into your business and it continues to grow.
- Leverage your newfound success to meet influential people
On the road to success, you come across many people with the same motivation and determination to achieve something big in their life. Although you are doing your own thing you share a sense of brotherhood with such people as the struggles are somehow the same. They understand your struggles and become your network. Some of them may become your business partner, some may become mentors and some can’t open certain doors for you on the way towards success.
Thus, the power of this network is massive. They will help you to navigate your life, help you to expand as they have contacts of their own, and guide you with their experiences. In this way when smart minds come together and help each other, they can creatively solve problems related to different aspects of the business. The network you build around yourself will determine how quickly you move through wealth levels.
- Sell and reinvest in the business
You start with almost nothing and after years of hard work, determination, and sweat you establish a business that is quite valuable. It’s time to let it go, people rarely earn a millionaire status from their first business. As you progress in the business community you need more money to tackle the big issues and more people to trust you enough to give that money. Selling your first business is like building a past performance portfolio. It depicts and makes an impression on people that you can take an idea and execute it flawlessly until completion.
As you move into this new business you will find things are quite different as compared to previous experiences. The stakes are higher and you are now competing with the more professional people. The only way to compete with the big boys of the industry is to be creative. You can’t have a network like them so your best leverage is your creativity and latest technology. Be creative and unique to excel in the business market and never stop, keep expanding your business to new levels.