Zeekie
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Disclaimer 1: I'm probably as young as you. I'm a broke college student who, being completely honest, will probably not succeed in life. This is just the synthesis of around a year or so of deep research into finances and what makes success. This is as much a guide for myself as it is for you. In other words, I don't know anything, and this may not work. If you decide to follow any of this advice, please deeply consider this.
Disclaimer 2: I WROTE THIS THREAD AFTER A TON OF RESEARCH, BUT MIND YOU, IT IS LONG AND IT'S ABOUT BORING STUFF LIKE ACTUALLY HAVING A JOB AND YOUR FUTURE. IF YOU DON'T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT BEING ANYONE IN LIFE, PLEASE SKIP IT. IT'S NOT WORTH YOUR TIME AND YOU'LL NOT GET PAST THE FIRST POINT BEFORE COMMENTING "DNR". This is about seeing success by the time you're at the very least 30. If you don't ride with that, keep living your teenage dreams and worry about the future later.
Disclaimer 3: If you actually believe you're the next Zuckerbergh or whatever, keep living your fantasy and don't bother reading this guide. Don't wanna piss of any egos delusional, this is about being realistic and achieving success for the average individual. You'll DEFINATELY not start a successful business or startup now, but you do you, go escape 9-to-5, be your own boss or sum shit, don't be a sheep.
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Money is the most important thing in life, PERIOD. It's not looks, it's not your height, it's not health. It's money. Why? Because money can buy all the things I previously mentioned and more, or at the very least help you maximize them. If you have money, you pretty much have anything in life, which is why it's so important to treat it as your number 1 life priority.
My goal with this guide is to provide a realistic and comprehensive roadmap to financial success regardless of your career objectives, current socioeconomic status, or skillset. This works universally with a high likelihood of at the very least making you financially free, if not ultra-wealthy.
FOUNDATION
Before we get to anything, you need to have a base understanding of how shit is. You're probably not going to get rich. I'm probably not going to get rich either, but we're trying to maximize your chances here. And the way you maximize those chances is NOT by gambling your money away. So, starting a baseless business, gambling on particular shares, starting an online store, or god forbid buying crypto is not going to be something you remotely consider, assuming you're trying to follow this guide step by step.
"But why though?" Because it's stupid. Low-effort, high-reward doesn't exist, the only people who succeed at this do it by a miracle of God. And for every miracle that occurs, 30 more tragedies happen. You're pretty much bound to be a tragedy. That's the simplest way I can put it.
20% of businesses fail in their first year, 50% fail by the fifth year, 70% are gone by the next decade, and 90% are gone past that period. Meaning only a mere 10% of businesses ever survive. Why? Because young (or old) people starting a business often go into over-saturated markets where success is volatile, and even if they don't, they usually go into fields where they have little to no expertise. The only businesses that succeed which aren't a stroke of pure luck are made by people who deeply understand an industry by working for a long time within it, meaning that they have connections, knowledge of the industry's flaws, and therefore the ability to create a product people actually want to invest in.
Let's not even get started on trying to out-wit the market by buying particular company shares and expecting them to skyrocket in value, thinking you're Warren Buffet or some shit. YOU'RE NOT THAT GUY, PAL. You are 100% going to lose your money because the market fluctuates in unexpected ways. I'm not even gonna bother mentioning crypto ever again in this thread because buying crypto is bullshit no one should get involved in.
Here's the no-bullshit answer: I don't care what Alex Hormozi or Graham Stephan suggest you do. It worked for them because they were at the right place, at the right time, and already had a very particular set of skills to succeed in their field. You're likely not that. Financial content creators like this, even if they have the best intentions in mind for you, prey on you through the concept of "survivorship bias," which occurs when people focus on individuals, groups, or cases that have passed some sort of selection process while ignoring those who did not. Just because this guy on TikTok made millions by buying dickcoin or whatever and is now suggesting you buy this brand-new coin, doesn't mean you should follow his advice!
That said, how do you even succeed in life? The answer's simple, but deeply boring and uninspiring. Forget all the talk about "become your own boss" or "drop out of college", you're just going to end up under a bridge and without any money for hardmaxxing. You need to study like crazy through high school, get into the best university possible, get into a good field, get into a good job, and then figure shit out from there. Yeah, exactly the same shit your parents probably did. But bear with me, these are just the foundations, and that's exactly why they're powerful: because the foundations never fail. They're the most secure way to ensure success anytime, anywhere.
Phase 1 (16-21)
This is the first stage of the plan, and definitely the most important. If you fail at this one, forget anything I said. Start gambling and pray to God you win something so you can go to the next steps.
There's a phrase that I like very much, but I don't remember who I heard it from. It went something along the lines of, "You make as much money as you're valuable, and your value is determined by your skills, your expertise at them, and how much time you put into working." If you want to make more money, you have to make yourself more valuable. And to make yourself more valuable, you either have to work more, become better at what you do, or know how to do other stuff. So logically, if you want to succeed in life, you have to leverage the period of your life where you're young, full of energy, with a lot of time, and have financial help from your parents and family.
Skills: As I explained previously, you need skills that make you valuable. Valuable skills depend on your career, so knowing the symptoms of Herpes is pretty useful if you're a doctor, but not too much if you want to be a lawyer. If you already know what career you want to get into, then great. You should know what skills you need to develop and can start working on them TODAY. If you don't, or even if you do know what skills you need, you want to maximize your chances of success regardless of the field. There are foundational skills for success that you need no matter what. These skills are:
Education: You need a degree, I said it. It's also not supposed to be fun. You have fun when you're outside of work and can enjoy your money. Be as miserable as you can while working and studying if that ensures you're rich. You work because you want to become someone in life, you want the status and the money, not because you want to have a "passion", that's bullshit for broke people. Therefore, you need to pick the degree you will get NOW. And if you're already going to college and not studying one of these or a career with high pay (Medicine, Computer Science/Software Engineering, Engineering, Law, Pharmacy, etc. - Please research which one aligns better with you), THEN SWITCH MAJORS ASAP. Capitalism doesn't give a FUCK about your passions. Don't study dumb shit that doesn't pay. Also, you will only get a bachelor's. Only consider a master's or PhD later in your career and if you believe it will benefit your future prospects. Don't get higher education believing that it will make people want to hire you more. No, you're just gonna be an overqualified homeless dude with a lot of debt.
So, if you're in high school, perfect. You need PICTURE PERFECT GRADES: A+, A+, A+, and a GPA at the very least above 3.5, aim for 3.9. You will also start a "spike" and do 1-2 extracurriculars relevant to your desired career. And whatever extracurricular it is, if it's a club for example, make sure to be exceptional at it, meaning you either start the club, become the leader, or try to scale as high as you can in the social hierarchy. Your spike project should also be career-relevant. If you have a spike, good grades and extracurriculars, and a decent paper, you will probably get admitted into a good college. Aim for the best one, bonus points if they offer a full scholarship. Aim for ones inside your country and even outside. EVERYWHERE IS ON THE TABLE AS LONG AS IT'S PRESTIGIOUS. I'm from the Dominican Republic but I managed to get into a VERY good Italian university. You think I cared about my friends here? You think I cared about my family? HELL FUCKING NO, I WAS OUT OF THE COUNTRY AS SOON AS I KNEW. Your success is above EVERYONE ELSE. If you don't get into a good college, you're not in a good spot. It's not that you won't get a job or anything, but it will certainly be easier if they see "Harvard" in your application form.
While you're in college, please do internships and get any job experience such as freelancing, even if it's unpaid. Jobs don't wanna hire people who have no job experience. So even if you have to work your ass off for someone in college and not get a single dime for it, DO IT. Beg people if you have to, but do internships, get as much job experience as you can. This job experience also extends to starting a failing business. I talked a lot of shit about starting a business because they'll most likely fail, and that's true, but this is exactly what you might consider doing while in college. Of course, this is highly field-dependent so it may not apply to everyone. If you're becoming a doctor, you simply cannot put up a hospital and start practicing without a degree because you're going to jail. But if you're a computer science major, you can definitely try to start up a SaaS and be the next Zuckerberg. Let me reiterate: you WILL likely fail, but this is valuable experience that will carry you later on.
Phase 2 (21-25)
Finally out of college, time to actually enter the financial ecosystem. Here is your Bible:
The second phase of the plan focuses on landing yourself a job as an overcompensated employee. Do you know how the majority of Fortune 500 CEOs got to their current position? It was through climbing the corporate ladder. We luckily managed the first step already: College. Every single non-founder Fortune 500 CEO has a college degree. And even the 76% of founding CEOs (which are only 21, yes, only 21 CEOs of the most profitable companies in the US actually started the company themselves) have college degrees. So yeah, just in case you weren't considering college, you have to. That's not a suggestion, it's a MUST if you want any chance of becoming wealthy in life. We also handled that in the last step, but you just can't reiterate it enough: It's not enough to go to college, you have to go to a good college too. 10% of Fortune 500 CEOs went to one particular school: Harvard. If you can get your hands on a juicy Ivy League, or any internationally acclaimed university, GO THERE.
Anyway, yapping much about college, just wanted to get that point cemented. Now, getting a job. You have 2 routes here which, of course, depend on your career:
Good heavens, you actually survived through it! You're under 30 and have an executive role at a good company. Now's an amazing time to get a Master's. YEAH, I dogged on getting a master's and being an overqualified bum, but this case is different. You need to get a Master of Business Administration (MBA), bonus points if you can get your company to pay for it. It is gonna be grueling to have to go to college again while you're working, but it's a task that's completely worth it for two reasons: Connections and Skills. Basically, all Fortune 500 CEOs have an MBA, at top universities, of course. The skills you learn in this graduate program are VERY important for your future, but what matters the most aren't the skills you gain themselves but the people you meet. Both when you're getting a Bachelor's and your Master's, hopefully at good universities, you NEED to meet people. Connect with the highest value people in your circles as often as you can. Again, your network is your net worth. So, even if you don't get into a good school for your undergraduate degree, you definitely have to get into a good school for your MBA. If you don't get into Harvard-level shit for your MBA, just keep living the 9-to-5, you'll do better that way. You're probably better off than most people in the world anyway. In order to maximize your chances, let me reiterate: work hard in your company, brand yourself properly, and study hard for the many tests you'll have to do (like the GMAT).
Phase 3 (25-30+)
You made it! Congratulations
. You got into a good company, have a decent salary and position, and got your MBA? Perfect. Now's the time for you to decide whether you actually want to be rich or just want to have financial freedom. Those are very different things, and by this point in your life, you probably should already know what you want. Do you want to be filthy fucking rich? Like Elon Musk levels of rich? Or do you want to keep your good job, keep climbing, and maybe one day, once the CEO steps off, you get picked? Or even if that doesn't happen, you have a solid job and should have some basic diversified investments.
If you just want to live a good and normal life, just stop reading here. Continue doing what you're doing, continue investing, get a wife, start a family, and whatnot. You already won. Now's a good time to start saving for retirement. This is also around the proper time when you should start doing cosmetic surgeries. Make it work with your job by taking your vacations. Make sure to have a good excuse for why you're suddenly 4 inches taller and why your nose is no longer crooked.
But I know you... You're a greedy little bastard. Being a normal citizen isn't enough for you. YOU WANT REAL FUCKING MONEY. Mind you, if you go through this, you'll go through actual hell for a couple of years: stress, forgetting about relationships and general enjoyment. You may even risk everything you spent so many years building. But the potential gain is definitely worth it. This is the moment in your career where you should consider starting a business. And you know that it has good chances of success because you now have the experience, the MBA, the connections, the money saved up, and the industry knowledge to pull it off.
Conclusions
So, about how to build a successful business, I know very little. Definitely looking forward to taking some entrepreneurship courses and buying a few books. I don't feel like I'm fit to give any advice in that area. It is very field-dependent anyway, so any advice you can get is very "generalized" and non-specific. That's not bad, but you know, it takes knowing the industry to make a good company, knowing what products are actually needed. However, of everything else I've said in this thread, I'm 100% confident. This IS the way to maximize your chances of success in life, and potentially reaching a very high-income if you're good and dedicated enough.
You never know what luck life may throw at you, so I'll keep trying to maximize my chances.
Hope anyone finds this thread useful and appreciates it. If you're young, 15-16, or even someone around your 20s like me, please start to take your future seriously. Start now and enjoy later. You're gonna be old whether you like it or not, so why not set yourself up for success now?
Disclaimer 2: I WROTE THIS THREAD AFTER A TON OF RESEARCH, BUT MIND YOU, IT IS LONG AND IT'S ABOUT BORING STUFF LIKE ACTUALLY HAVING A JOB AND YOUR FUTURE. IF YOU DON'T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT BEING ANYONE IN LIFE, PLEASE SKIP IT. IT'S NOT WORTH YOUR TIME AND YOU'LL NOT GET PAST THE FIRST POINT BEFORE COMMENTING "DNR". This is about seeing success by the time you're at the very least 30. If you don't ride with that, keep living your teenage dreams and worry about the future later.
Disclaimer 3: If you actually believe you're the next Zuckerbergh or whatever, keep living your fantasy and don't bother reading this guide. Don't wanna piss of any egos delusional, this is about being realistic and achieving success for the average individual. You'll DEFINATELY not start a successful business or startup now, but you do you, go escape 9-to-5, be your own boss or sum shit, don't be a sheep.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Money is the most important thing in life, PERIOD. It's not looks, it's not your height, it's not health. It's money. Why? Because money can buy all the things I previously mentioned and more, or at the very least help you maximize them. If you have money, you pretty much have anything in life, which is why it's so important to treat it as your number 1 life priority.
My goal with this guide is to provide a realistic and comprehensive roadmap to financial success regardless of your career objectives, current socioeconomic status, or skillset. This works universally with a high likelihood of at the very least making you financially free, if not ultra-wealthy.
FOUNDATION
Before we get to anything, you need to have a base understanding of how shit is. You're probably not going to get rich. I'm probably not going to get rich either, but we're trying to maximize your chances here. And the way you maximize those chances is NOT by gambling your money away. So, starting a baseless business, gambling on particular shares, starting an online store, or god forbid buying crypto is not going to be something you remotely consider, assuming you're trying to follow this guide step by step.
"But why though?" Because it's stupid. Low-effort, high-reward doesn't exist, the only people who succeed at this do it by a miracle of God. And for every miracle that occurs, 30 more tragedies happen. You're pretty much bound to be a tragedy. That's the simplest way I can put it.
20% of businesses fail in their first year, 50% fail by the fifth year, 70% are gone by the next decade, and 90% are gone past that period. Meaning only a mere 10% of businesses ever survive. Why? Because young (or old) people starting a business often go into over-saturated markets where success is volatile, and even if they don't, they usually go into fields where they have little to no expertise. The only businesses that succeed which aren't a stroke of pure luck are made by people who deeply understand an industry by working for a long time within it, meaning that they have connections, knowledge of the industry's flaws, and therefore the ability to create a product people actually want to invest in.
Let's not even get started on trying to out-wit the market by buying particular company shares and expecting them to skyrocket in value, thinking you're Warren Buffet or some shit. YOU'RE NOT THAT GUY, PAL. You are 100% going to lose your money because the market fluctuates in unexpected ways. I'm not even gonna bother mentioning crypto ever again in this thread because buying crypto is bullshit no one should get involved in.
Here's the no-bullshit answer: I don't care what Alex Hormozi or Graham Stephan suggest you do. It worked for them because they were at the right place, at the right time, and already had a very particular set of skills to succeed in their field. You're likely not that. Financial content creators like this, even if they have the best intentions in mind for you, prey on you through the concept of "survivorship bias," which occurs when people focus on individuals, groups, or cases that have passed some sort of selection process while ignoring those who did not. Just because this guy on TikTok made millions by buying dickcoin or whatever and is now suggesting you buy this brand-new coin, doesn't mean you should follow his advice!
That said, how do you even succeed in life? The answer's simple, but deeply boring and uninspiring. Forget all the talk about "become your own boss" or "drop out of college", you're just going to end up under a bridge and without any money for hardmaxxing. You need to study like crazy through high school, get into the best university possible, get into a good field, get into a good job, and then figure shit out from there. Yeah, exactly the same shit your parents probably did. But bear with me, these are just the foundations, and that's exactly why they're powerful: because the foundations never fail. They're the most secure way to ensure success anytime, anywhere.
Phase 1 (16-21)
This is the first stage of the plan, and definitely the most important. If you fail at this one, forget anything I said. Start gambling and pray to God you win something so you can go to the next steps.
There's a phrase that I like very much, but I don't remember who I heard it from. It went something along the lines of, "You make as much money as you're valuable, and your value is determined by your skills, your expertise at them, and how much time you put into working." If you want to make more money, you have to make yourself more valuable. And to make yourself more valuable, you either have to work more, become better at what you do, or know how to do other stuff. So logically, if you want to succeed in life, you have to leverage the period of your life where you're young, full of energy, with a lot of time, and have financial help from your parents and family.
Skills: As I explained previously, you need skills that make you valuable. Valuable skills depend on your career, so knowing the symptoms of Herpes is pretty useful if you're a doctor, but not too much if you want to be a lawyer. If you already know what career you want to get into, then great. You should know what skills you need to develop and can start working on them TODAY. If you don't, or even if you do know what skills you need, you want to maximize your chances of success regardless of the field. There are foundational skills for success that you need no matter what. These skills are:
- Rhetoric: Rhetoric is pretty much the ability of persuasive speech and writing. It is ESSENTIAL for conflict resolution, negotiation, and sales skills. I don't need to explain why any of those are important for your success, right?
- Charisma, Emotional Intelligence & Communication: Being someone people feel comfortable around is important. You want to be someone likeable who can easily charm but isn't sticky. You have to lick EVERYBODY'S ASS and be unproblematic and non-controversial unless it is strictly necessary and will bring you a gain, or if not doing it will bring a negative (such as decreased social status or letting people walk over you). In general, try to have as many people as you can on your side.
- Network & Public Relations: "Your network is your net worth," they say, and it's fucking true. I have friendships which I don't even enjoy, but I maintain them simply because those people offer me value, be it help with studies, or they have wealthy parents, or they know someone I'd like to know too. Be as psychopathic as you can when it comes to relationships. Be cool with everybody, but throw away relationships when you see that they start to become harmful to you, no fucking buts. EVERYBODY IN YOUR LIFE SHOULD SERVE YOUR GOALS. IF THEY DON'T, DISPOSE OF THEM, gently. Equally, it is okay to be fake and try to befriend people simply because they have a good social status, because they have connections, money. This also, of course, extends to a boss or a professor, if someone calls the shots, you want them on your side. Equally, this applies to romantic relationships, mentorships, friendships, etc.
- Sales & Marketing: No brainer. Knowing how to sell and how to advertise a product is essential in any market, no matter what.
- Financial Literacy: No brainer too. You need to know how to manage your money and not blow it away on stupid shit.
- Attractiveness: This is looksmax.org, of course I had to mention this one. Hotter people are on average more successful, that's not a surprise.
Education: You need a degree, I said it. It's also not supposed to be fun. You have fun when you're outside of work and can enjoy your money. Be as miserable as you can while working and studying if that ensures you're rich. You work because you want to become someone in life, you want the status and the money, not because you want to have a "passion", that's bullshit for broke people. Therefore, you need to pick the degree you will get NOW. And if you're already going to college and not studying one of these or a career with high pay (Medicine, Computer Science/Software Engineering, Engineering, Law, Pharmacy, etc. - Please research which one aligns better with you), THEN SWITCH MAJORS ASAP. Capitalism doesn't give a FUCK about your passions. Don't study dumb shit that doesn't pay. Also, you will only get a bachelor's. Only consider a master's or PhD later in your career and if you believe it will benefit your future prospects. Don't get higher education believing that it will make people want to hire you more. No, you're just gonna be an overqualified homeless dude with a lot of debt.
So, if you're in high school, perfect. You need PICTURE PERFECT GRADES: A+, A+, A+, and a GPA at the very least above 3.5, aim for 3.9. You will also start a "spike" and do 1-2 extracurriculars relevant to your desired career. And whatever extracurricular it is, if it's a club for example, make sure to be exceptional at it, meaning you either start the club, become the leader, or try to scale as high as you can in the social hierarchy. Your spike project should also be career-relevant. If you have a spike, good grades and extracurriculars, and a decent paper, you will probably get admitted into a good college. Aim for the best one, bonus points if they offer a full scholarship. Aim for ones inside your country and even outside. EVERYWHERE IS ON THE TABLE AS LONG AS IT'S PRESTIGIOUS. I'm from the Dominican Republic but I managed to get into a VERY good Italian university. You think I cared about my friends here? You think I cared about my family? HELL FUCKING NO, I WAS OUT OF THE COUNTRY AS SOON AS I KNEW. Your success is above EVERYONE ELSE. If you don't get into a good college, you're not in a good spot. It's not that you won't get a job or anything, but it will certainly be easier if they see "Harvard" in your application form.
While you're in college, please do internships and get any job experience such as freelancing, even if it's unpaid. Jobs don't wanna hire people who have no job experience. So even if you have to work your ass off for someone in college and not get a single dime for it, DO IT. Beg people if you have to, but do internships, get as much job experience as you can. This job experience also extends to starting a failing business. I talked a lot of shit about starting a business because they'll most likely fail, and that's true, but this is exactly what you might consider doing while in college. Of course, this is highly field-dependent so it may not apply to everyone. If you're becoming a doctor, you simply cannot put up a hospital and start practicing without a degree because you're going to jail. But if you're a computer science major, you can definitely try to start up a SaaS and be the next Zuckerberg. Let me reiterate: you WILL likely fail, but this is valuable experience that will carry you later on.
Phase 2 (21-25)
Finally out of college, time to actually enter the financial ecosystem. Here is your Bible:
- Max your 401(k) or equivalent employee contribution.
- Buy inexpensive, well-diversified mutual funds such as well-chosen target-date funds.
- Never buy or sell individual securities. The person on the other side of the table knows more than you do about their stuff.
- Save 20% of your money.
- Pay your credit card balance in full every month.
- Maximize tax-advantaged savings vehicles such as Roth, SEP, and 529 accounts.
- Pay attention to fees. Avoid actively managed funds.
- Make financial advisors commit to a fiduciary standard.
- Save a small portion of your income to an emergency fund, meaning 6-9 months of living expenses in case anything goes wrong. You don't touch this money.
- Invest in insurance.
The second phase of the plan focuses on landing yourself a job as an overcompensated employee. Do you know how the majority of Fortune 500 CEOs got to their current position? It was through climbing the corporate ladder. We luckily managed the first step already: College. Every single non-founder Fortune 500 CEO has a college degree. And even the 76% of founding CEOs (which are only 21, yes, only 21 CEOs of the most profitable companies in the US actually started the company themselves) have college degrees. So yeah, just in case you weren't considering college, you have to. That's not a suggestion, it's a MUST if you want any chance of becoming wealthy in life. We also handled that in the last step, but you just can't reiterate it enough: It's not enough to go to college, you have to go to a good college too. 10% of Fortune 500 CEOs went to one particular school: Harvard. If you can get your hands on a juicy Ivy League, or any internationally acclaimed university, GO THERE.
Anyway, yapping much about college, just wanted to get that point cemented. Now, getting a job. You have 2 routes here which, of course, depend on your career:
- Early Startup: If you get lucky and through college connections you manage to get involved with a promising startup, maybe the next Google, and you actually have faith in the project, get in early and pick up stock in the company. Even if you don't get to CEO or a very high position, you will be very well off if the startup actually succeeds. For instance, the average net worth of Microsoft's first 10,000 employees is over 3 to 10 million dollars, meaning you will not have to work another day in your life if you get there. Mind you, this strategy is very risky. Not every startup is a success story, and you should probably know that from college. So be very confident in the startup if you decide to go this route, unless you want to end up with stocks of a worthless and bankrupt company. Target businesses from brilliant people you knew at college, with around 1000 employees and good backing from an equity firm. If you're not a genius, just latch onto someone who is! Make sure it's also an industry with high growth potential, meaning tech, finance, or medicine.
After you get in, here comes the hard part: work like crazy, work harder than others around, outlast the other employees, hope the company succeeds, get good connections with the founders or top investors, and pray you get promoted quickly, maybe even scale to CEO of the company. Good job! You're now rich. - Established Company: This is the more secure option, but you will probably be past your prime youth by the time you actually get rich from this. In this case, it's not enough to own stocks when the company is worth very little and hope to get to top roles, it doesn't work because the company is not fresh and small. Aim for a company with good business pedigree. The primary objective through this route is getting to an executive-level role as fast as possible. That's gonna take doing DAMN GOOD WORK, and maybe dirtying other employees a few times. You need to be able to market yourself properly to become a top name in the industry, social media is a good way to do this. Social media or other forms of personal branding can make it a lot easier for you to jump between jobs as you skip up the corporate ladder. Internal promotions are slow and difficult to get in most large companies, so you're better off switching employers every 2 years, UNDER ONE CONDITION: that you get a better opportunity than you have now. It would be stupid to switch jobs to a place where you get paid the same and have no extra benefits. Only consider job switching if you actually get a good deal that will allow you to scale further. If you do a good job at marketing yourself in the industry, you're more likely to walk into an interview where the recruiter already knows you or something good about you.
Good heavens, you actually survived through it! You're under 30 and have an executive role at a good company. Now's an amazing time to get a Master's. YEAH, I dogged on getting a master's and being an overqualified bum, but this case is different. You need to get a Master of Business Administration (MBA), bonus points if you can get your company to pay for it. It is gonna be grueling to have to go to college again while you're working, but it's a task that's completely worth it for two reasons: Connections and Skills. Basically, all Fortune 500 CEOs have an MBA, at top universities, of course. The skills you learn in this graduate program are VERY important for your future, but what matters the most aren't the skills you gain themselves but the people you meet. Both when you're getting a Bachelor's and your Master's, hopefully at good universities, you NEED to meet people. Connect with the highest value people in your circles as often as you can. Again, your network is your net worth. So, even if you don't get into a good school for your undergraduate degree, you definitely have to get into a good school for your MBA. If you don't get into Harvard-level shit for your MBA, just keep living the 9-to-5, you'll do better that way. You're probably better off than most people in the world anyway. In order to maximize your chances, let me reiterate: work hard in your company, brand yourself properly, and study hard for the many tests you'll have to do (like the GMAT).
Phase 3 (25-30+)
You made it! Congratulations
. You got into a good company, have a decent salary and position, and got your MBA? Perfect. Now's the time for you to decide whether you actually want to be rich or just want to have financial freedom. Those are very different things, and by this point in your life, you probably should already know what you want. Do you want to be filthy fucking rich? Like Elon Musk levels of rich? Or do you want to keep your good job, keep climbing, and maybe one day, once the CEO steps off, you get picked? Or even if that doesn't happen, you have a solid job and should have some basic diversified investments.If you just want to live a good and normal life, just stop reading here. Continue doing what you're doing, continue investing, get a wife, start a family, and whatnot. You already won. Now's a good time to start saving for retirement. This is also around the proper time when you should start doing cosmetic surgeries. Make it work with your job by taking your vacations. Make sure to have a good excuse for why you're suddenly 4 inches taller and why your nose is no longer crooked.
But I know you... You're a greedy little bastard. Being a normal citizen isn't enough for you. YOU WANT REAL FUCKING MONEY. Mind you, if you go through this, you'll go through actual hell for a couple of years: stress, forgetting about relationships and general enjoyment. You may even risk everything you spent so many years building. But the potential gain is definitely worth it. This is the moment in your career where you should consider starting a business. And you know that it has good chances of success because you now have the experience, the MBA, the connections, the money saved up, and the industry knowledge to pull it off.
Conclusions
So, about how to build a successful business, I know very little. Definitely looking forward to taking some entrepreneurship courses and buying a few books. I don't feel like I'm fit to give any advice in that area. It is very field-dependent anyway, so any advice you can get is very "generalized" and non-specific. That's not bad, but you know, it takes knowing the industry to make a good company, knowing what products are actually needed. However, of everything else I've said in this thread, I'm 100% confident. This IS the way to maximize your chances of success in life, and potentially reaching a very high-income if you're good and dedicated enough.
You never know what luck life may throw at you, so I'll keep trying to maximize my chances.
Hope anyone finds this thread useful and appreciates it. If you're young, 15-16, or even someone around your 20s like me, please start to take your future seriously. Start now and enjoy later. You're gonna be old whether you like it or not, so why not set yourself up for success now?
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