How To Live A Comfortable & Fulfilling Life (Without Being a Millionaire)
You don't need millions of dollars to be happy.. do this instead
When I started out in the agency space of entrepreneurship, I had plenty of false perceptions
I was going to outsource everything I didn’t want to do myself
I was never going to focus on money again
I was going to be making $20,000/mo with ease
The reality is much more complicated than I thought it was
While those goals are achievable, they did not come from a place of alignment
I had no actual direction in my life..
Which brings us to the topic of being a millionaire
It sounds amazing, sure, but is it necessary?
Most of the time, not really
All human beings desire riches
Its engrained in our evolutionary instinct
Riches = Resources = High Probability of Survival
So naturally, being a millionaire puts you in a better place than if you were not a millionaire, right?
Financially, sure, but mentally you wouldn’t be much different than a successful artist
You need to create things because you want to create them, instead of creating things to become a millionaire
Being a millionaire shouldn’t be a life goal (it used to be mine as well)
It sounds amazing, but its often based in a false perception of reality
You don’t want to be a millionaire, no..
You want the resources to live a life worth living, doing what you love doing
Btw, my book’s pricing is going from $23 to $30 due to a chapter update
Its a masterclass on young adult relationship psychology, including how to build connections with highly influential individuals online (who can give you all kinds of opportunities)
If you want to grab it before the price increase, you can get it here
As I was saying, it’s not an uncommon occurrence for millionaires or billionaires to be genuinely unhappy people
Not that you will be, but resources are only on the second level of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
What this means is, if you have a bunch of money, it has been scientifically proven that you are unlikely to have good relationships or life fulfillment
This is exactly why people like Elon Musk has so many family problems
True, he’s not chasing riches, but what he did do is neglect the other areas of his life as a result of the hard work he put in
If you look at this graph, you can clearly see that having resources does not mean all your needs are met, because some can only be achieved through further reflection and personal development
You should instead aim to live a fulfilling life, that checks all these boxes
This gives you the opportunity to pursue creative ideas, maintain and nurture healthy relationships, have more than enough money for housing and safety, while working the hours you want to work, and not the hours you’re forced to work, in order to survive
I recently saw a guy in his 20s sell his company for about $38,000,000
And you know what happened? He posted on social media that now that he has all this money, he’s feeling depressed
Being a millionaire won’t solve all your problems (only low level ones when it comes to actual happiness)
There will always be another problem to solve in the needs hierarchy, that money won’t help you solve
Your goal shouldn’t be to be a millionaire
Its to do this: “I want to turn my creative ideas into sources of income (that I love working on), replace my 9-5 with them, and only work 4 hours a day, so I can prioritize the other areas of my life as well”
To do that, you don’t need to be a millionaire (big shocker)
And you know the best part? You can be a NON Millionaire, and still never worry about the bill at any place you visit (you don’t even have to look at it)
There are two types of people who think they want to be a millionaire:
The person who knows nothing about business, and doesn’t realize what being a millionaire even really is. The mindset, the skills, the expertise, the journey
The person who’s already laid out every desirable path they want to take, and determined that becoming a millionaire aligns with every potential path
The person in number 2 is already aware what its going to take to achieve their life goal, and that being a millionaire coincidently, is on the same path
You should NEVER start a business with the intention to become a millionaire
At first you’ll be fine, but with time you will grow more and more tired of the work you’re doing, because the reason you’re doing it was never based on real purpose
"What a man can be, he must be. This need we may call self-actualization.” Abraham Maslow
Now we’re getting into the important stuff.
To live a comfortable and fulfilling life, you need to make at least $15,000/mo in profit
That’s not even close to being a millionaire, but it checks every box you need to pay for almost anything (unless you’re paying for things that are purely luxury based)
This article assumes you’re not driven by material gain, and you don’t buy stuff you have no use for in the long run
You HAVE to let go of your ego for you to properly implement what’s in this article
Now it’s time to go over the 3 things you need to have to make this work
1 - Be A Creator, Not A Consumer
If you spend every waking moment of your life serving others before you serve yourself, you will never live a fulfilling life (no matter how much money you make)
Because Creators and Consumers are different
Consumers prioritize their 9-5, and consume media, products, and services, to deal with the anxiety that comes with prioritizing their job
Creators create a path of their own, sell their expertise, and understand that their time spent ≠ what they get paid
The biggest lie most people believe, is thinking that if they spend more time on something, they deserve to be paid according to that time
That’s not how economics work online
If I build a website for a consultant of 8 figure company, and it takes me 4 days to build his website, I can charge that person $10,000-$30,000 for my service
But if I built it for a local joint in a third world country, even if its exactly the same quality, I can charge maybe $150-$300 for it
Both took exactly the same amount of time to make, yet one made me obscenely more money
If you want to make a lot of money per month, you need to either solve thousands of average earner’s problems a month, or solve a few rich people’s problems per month
And believe it or not, the amount of time you spend developing these methods, should not be a lot of time
The more time you spend making that money, the less efficient you are
So your best course of action is developing a system that works, and it needs to work every day
But first there’s something you need to keep in mind
2 - Your Status Is Attached To Your Location
Everyone and their mother dreams of visiting Vegas, or America
Its seen as one of the greatest countries in the world
And the middle east is just as attached to their location as American citizens are
But the reality is that Americans live in one of the, if not the highest cost locations on Earth
If you live in America, and you make $1500/mo, you’re 100% struggling
If you make that much in my country, you’re basically rich
So naturally, by changing your location, you change your status
If you earn $15,000/mo in America, that’s great!
But if you earn that much in India, you’re in the top 1% of earners, out of a 7th of the entire world’s population
See how changing your location, you can go from average high earner, to multimillionaire status, overnight?
So if you are earning $15,000 in America or some other high cost country like Europe for instance, your best course of action would be to become a citizen of a third world country
And no, just because its a ‘third world country’, it doesn’t mean its inferior
Costs in Bali Indonesia are pennies compared America, yet its one of the best places to go to if you’re a digital nomad
IF you’re capable of letting your false perceptions about first world countries go, you can move to a third world high functioning country, and build an entire digital empire from your computer screen
Every country has its downsides, but it all depends where you live in that country
So once you reach $15,000/mo, move your partner and children to a third world country with the same quality of life arrangements (like Bali), and you’ll pay WAY LESS, than you would in a “first world country”
Go where the currency is weak, and you can use internet money to elevate your status to regal, overnight
You, your family, or your children will never need to worry about money, ever again
And if you raise them correctly, they won’t have to when they grow up either
You understand the two vital lessons when it comes to creator economics, now we get into how you’re actually going to reach $15,000/mo by the end of the next 18 months
3 - The Strategy
First lets go over the numbers
To get to $15,000/mo, you need 3 clients at $5000, per month
Or 100 sales of a $150 product per month
Or 1 client at $5000, and 67 sales on a $150 digital product, per month
Or let’s say your product costs $30..
You’d need to make 500 product sales per month
Or 250 product sales, and 2 clients at $3750, per month
So how do you pull this off?
You’re going to need 3 things:
A Product
Traffic
The more traffic you have, the more conversions you have
The more conversions the more sales you make and clients you close
The more of those you have, the closer you are to your goal
To build a product you need to solve a problem, package the solution using a software like Gumroad, then market the product
Solve the problem for yourself, solve the problem for other people, take the solution and turn it into a Done For You service
Take the process you follow when delivering the service, and turn it into a course
1 product = 1 course = 1 high ticket service
The next thing you will need, is traffic
You can either use your own traffic (if you have a large audience), or you can borrow traffic
Affiliate marketers, course collaborators, paid marketers, growth tactics
Basically anything that will increase the amount of views or impressions on your social media posts, and anything that will get people with a lot of impressions to give your posts or products more attention
Get really good at doing this, and you can make thousands of dollars with almost no followers (I made $3000 with 150 followers doing this in 2021)
Is this going to be easy? No way
You’re going to struggle, and struggle, and struggle
But that’s part of the process
It will take months of trial and error where you’re figuring out how to get more site visitors
And this is assuming you understand how to build a landing page that actually makes people want to buy the product
The main principle to follow here is this:
You get sales, according to the amount of impressions or views you get
You turn impressions/views into site visits
Then you turn site visits into people who click on the cta (buy button)
Let’s say you’re focusing on 1 client at $5000, and 67 sales on a $150 digital product, per month
Here’s how you can pull this off
Gain the skills required to sell a $5000 service
Get results with the service
Turn the process you follow to deliver on the service into a product
Assuming you close 3 out 100 prospects per month, you need to send 100 DMs a month to people in your target market
Is this just going to work perfectly? No, it won’t (why would it?)
Entrepreneurship is figuring out what works and what doesn’t
You might need to send 500 DMs a month, or change the platform you’re sending DMs on
This article isn’t about DM frameworks that produce results, its about giving you a realistic roadmap to live the life you want, without being misguided by the ‘millionaire’ idea
If you stick to this stuff, and you can close 1 client at $5000 for a high ticket service like landing page building, website building, sales page copywriting, or any high ticket skill, you’ve already made 1/3 of the money you’re looking for
But I cannot stress this enough, you have to build an audience
Making money without an audience is great, but if you dont prioritize building an audience, your peers will run laps around you 18 months later (I’ve been there)
So build an audience, learn in demand skills, deliver results with those skills, turn the processes you follow into products, and build a brand around those skills
If you’ve been following me for a while, you know I’m serious about being nicheless
This means once you achieved your goals with this direction, you can move on to other high ticket skills, and expand your products + services in a new direction
If you follow everything in this graphic for the next 18 months, you WILL start making serious amounts of progress (and money)
The most important skill to pull all of this off? Relationship management
If you can manage high quality relationships, this entire process will be much easier
That’s it for today
(I know I was pretty late on this article but I had university work to finalize)
No more studies so the business is the main priority now, so look forward to regular articles every week, including all kinds of other content
Like, subscribe, share - Cheers, Ian
PS: In the nearby future I’m adding more content to my book “Relationships Simplified”
I’ve talked about building a network on multiple occasions, but I’ve yet to tell people the process I follow to make it happen (except in 1 or 2 of my courses)
This content update will teach you how to build an online network with people who have large amounts of influence (influence you can leverage to make money, sales, and let work opportunities find you)
If you want to grab my book before the price increases from $23 to $30, now would be the ideal time to do so