My honest advice to someone who wants financial freedom - VoiceTube: Learn English through videos!

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Okay, so the other day I was sitting across from someone over dinner and this is a dude It was in his 30s and he was working as a school teacher And he mentioned to me that he wanted to become financially free He'd been following my stuff for a few years and knew that I talked about this sort of stuff and knew that I flexed about How much money I have and how big my business is and all this sort of stuff every now and then and he wanted advice on how to become financially free and I had a lot of things, you know We talked about a lot of things over over the dinner and then afterwards it just kind of got me thinking I get this question a lot Whenever i'm giving talks and stuff people will come up to me afterwards to have a chat and a lot of them will have this Goal of financial freedom and so I thought I would just do a bit of a hot hot Shall we say go on a little cup of tea?
Um, if you're watching this and you have the goal for financial freedom This would be my honest advice now just in case you happen to be new to the channel Then hi, my name is ali and I used to be a doctor I had a day job working in the uk's national health service earning about 40 000 pounds 50 000 a year And after doing that for two years I decided to take a little bit of a break from medicine to focus full-time on my youtube channel and my business And i've actually been documenting the journey of starting off as a medical student through to junior doctor through to full-time entrepreneur through to author I've also written a book i've been documenting that on this youtube channel for the last seven years So you can literally see like track the progress from when I was a cute little medical student with a gap between his front teeth Uh making almost no money to now kind of having a team of like 20 people and running my own business And i'm now in a position where I would consider myself to be more or less financially free And so I feel like there's potentially some useful things that I can offer to someone who wants to be in that position Okay, so point number one is that we should really think about why do you want financial freedom?
What does financial freedom get you that you do not already have because money is just a psychological and social construct Financial freedom is also a psychological and social construct.
What specifically?
Do you want that financial freedom will buy now in my case in the early stages of my journey when I had a day job There was something very specific.
I wanted I wanted the ability to go part-time The happiest doctors I knew were the ones who worked three days a week rather than six days a week And so I thought hey to maximize my chances of happiness and fulfillment Which is the thing I think we all want at the end of the day, you know I quite enjoy being a doctor but I can see myself not enjoying it if I had to do it full-time So I just wanted to have a way of making an extra few thousand dollars a month A few thousand pounds a month because that would buy my freedom to be able to work three days a week and not have to worry about like I really should take that extra shift because like Mortgage payments are a bit high today and cost of living crisis and all all of this sort of stuff to me Financial freedom meant buying my free time.
I felt like if I wasn't financially free then I would be almost by definition financially Chained to something and that something happened to be my day job This is the position that most of us are in we happen to be Financially chained to the thing that we do for work now for most of us that thing is one job For a single employer now, this is not necessarily a terrible thing There are plenty of people that I know who love their lives and are very happy and very fulfilled while also being proverbially Financially chained to a single employer various people in my team Are in many ways financially changed to me as an employer But various people in my team seem to really enjoy their jobs because the job comes with freedom And flexibility to an extent and they can work from anywhere and they do work that they think is meaningful Um, and it's just you know, good vibes.
Similarly a lot of people I know who work at startups Uh, not the incredibly high growth really stressful kind but you know A small company a bit of a lifestyle business also really enjoy their jobs and have a lot of happiness and fulfillment Even though technically they are financially chained to an employer so the reason i'm saying all of this stuff is because When it comes to this desire for financial freedom, we really want to understand why What are we going for here?
Is it that you want to be able to go part-time in your job?
Is it that you want to be able to quit your job altogether?
Is it that you want the lifestyle that you think rich people have?
Is it that you want a private jet?
Is it that you want a yacht?
Is it that you want a house with the mortgage paid off so that you don't have to worry about paying the mortgage?
Is it that I don't know you want to be able to take your family on four holidays a year and ideally fly business Like whatever the thing is everyone has different motivations for financial freedom And so it's worth figuring out what those motivations are And the reason it's worth figuring out what those motivations are is because financial freedom runs the entire gamut Someone can be financially free with two thousand dollars a month if for example you live in pakistan Uh, which is where i'm from and you're making I don't know three or four k a month usd You're going to feel pretty financially free If you're living in new york city or in palo alto or in central london and you're making three to four k a month You're going to feel like you're somewhat on the poverty line.
It just sort of depends right similarly if your Lifestyle costs if the sort of things that you would do if you had all the money in the world Don't cost a lot of money again You will feel financially free with a much lower amount of money If however the sorts of things you want to do if you had all the money in the world require Blowing large amounts of cash on yachts and dom perignon.
Is that an expensive drink dom perignon cristal?
I've heard of cristal whatever the like bossy whatever whatever these rappers buy if that is your idea of a good time You're going to need more money to feel feel financially free The thing to take away from this is that financial freedom is a feeling rather than a reality And we want to figure out What are the boxes that we would take that would give us that feeling and then once we have figured out those boxes?
We can reverse engineer How much money do we need to feel financially free?
It's not the only part of the equation There's also a good amount of inner work I know people who have tens of millions in the bank who don't feel financially free At that point clearly it's not about the money.
It's about the inner work But when I was sitting across from this chap over dinner Let's call him john and he said his goal was to be financially free and I was like, okay And in my mind we're going through all of this Psychological stuff was going through my mind to be like, are you sure that's the goal?
Like why is that the goal?
Like what's the real motive?
What are you hoping financial freedom will buy that you don't currently have etc, etc, etc But like it was pretty obvious in john's case that he had a job that he sort of enjoyed but didn't enjoy all the time He has kids and he would like ideally to be able to do what he wants To be able to spend more time with the kids to be able to go on holiday and not feel as if he's tied to A job that requires him to be at a particular location at a particular time every single day, which is fair enough And so I asked john the next question which is And this is the advice that I would give if someone's looking for financial freedom after you've figured out why you actually care about it What is the dollar amount that right now you think you need to feel financially free?
I guarantee that number will change as you get closer to it, but that's okay We'll just pick a number for now because it's useful to have a goal To aim towards and then in the process of working towards that goal We're going to shift the goal posts and that's actually totally okay In fact, I would say pause the video now and have a think What is the amount of money you need in income before expenses and all that stuff How much money do you need coming in every month to feel financially free?
Worth having a think about what is that number right now?
For me, I would have said oh man if I could have 5k a month coming in In passive income, I would feel really financially free Cool, so that's 60k a year By the way Once you've gotten to a point where you've made all this money and achieved the financial freedom Then you're going to definitely want a place to invest that money Which is where the sponsor of this video comes in and that is trading 212 Trading 212 is a fantastic app that I personally use that lets you invest in stocks and shares in a commission-free fashion In particular, they have a new feature that gives you 1% cash back Which will be allocated to your invest account for each deposit that you make in your ISA So any money you deposit into your ISA, you'll get 1% back on that money completely for free They also have a new debit card that helps you save and invest your money automatically Which is designed to seamlessly integrate with your trading 212 invest account and lets you earn interest on your uninvested cash In 13 different currencies, my goodness, the card is also free and there are no sneaky fees or subscription plans So if you've been looking for a platform to help invest your cash and that sounds up your street Then do please click the link in the video description and that will take you to this page Where you'll be guided on how to sign up for an account and if you use that link You'll also get a completely free share up to the value of 100 pounds So thank you so much trading 212 for sponsoring this video and let's get back to it My friend Lawrence Yeo has a great blog moretothat.com, amazing stuff, and he has a great article about this He talks about how as you become the sort of person who is able to make 5k a month in passive income your identity changes You learn new skills and you literally become a new person And so by the time you're getting to 3, 4 or 4.5k a month The sort of person you are is no longer content with just the 5k a month And so the goal becomes 10k a month or 20k or 50k or 100k or a million a month or you know Whatever the thing might be and again It's less about the money and more about what sort of person you are en route to becoming En route to being able to earn that sort of money.
So that was a bit of a tangent But the point is let's pick a number and let's then figure out What we need to get there.
So in the case of John I didn't want to overstep too much too much by turning this into a whole like business coaching session with John and so like You know what he said when I asked him what his number is He said oh man If I could have a million pounds in the bank In the next eight years, then I'd feel really financially free.
Now when he said that a million in the bank by age 45.
I was like There's there's more exploration that needs to be done here We need to untangle the reasons why like why is a million a special number for a lot of people a million is a really Nice round number because it's a million it feels like a lot of money All of this kind of thing and it absolutely is a lot of money but I suspect with a little bit more back and forth conversations if John and I were having a private coaching session we could have got that number down because We could have found ways for John to feel financially free even without a million in the bank And so there was a bunch of a bunch of things I was thinking on that front But let's just go with that.
Let's say That your goal for financial freedom is I want a million in the bank in the next eight years Okay, fine So then we want to reverse engineer that so how much money do we have to make each year?
Well million divided by eight is 125 000 now in order to have a million in the bank then that 125 000 presumably needs to be in savings and so like You actually need to be making let's say 250 000 a year in order to pay off all your taxes and all your expenses and stuff Or maybe should we say 200 000 in order to be left with 125 000 in savings So reverse engineering from this john needed 200 000 pounds a year In income in order to get to his goal of millionaire in the next eight years, okay, cool We've established that we need 200k This is what is called a goal and it's useful to have a goal, right?
Like, uh, warren buffett has a great phrase.
I think it's from warren buffett Which is you can do anything, but you can't do everything.
So there's like a zillion things that you can do right now Yeah, you've literally got infinite life possibilities but if you have a clear goal, then that narrows down your list of possibilities to Assuming you want to go for the goal to things that would help you get to the goal Now I have a kind of conceptual framework for this that I call gps Goal plan and system by the way Uh, this is the sort of stuff i'm teaching in my upcoming productivity course in my productivity lab Which is a new community for aspiring and ambitious entrepreneurs creators and professionals That'll be linked down below if you want to check it out productivity lab.com Anyway, gps stands for goal plan system i.e.
What is the goal cool?
What is the plan of how we're going to get to the goal?
And then what is the system for how we're going to stick to the plan now in this case?
Let's say the goal was two hundred thousand pounds in income every year again We can quibble all we like about the why behind the goal Should we really have the goal of millionaire in the next eight years?
Does it really matter who really cares etc, etc?
We can quibble about that all we like but let's let's just Take it as a given because there's so much quibbling that can be done with financial goals I I love quibbling with people about their financial goals, but like I'll put that off to the side So let's say we do have that goal of two hundred thousand pounds a year.
That's the goal.
Okay, cool Then we think what is the plan?
What is the plan that you are currently following And what is the plan that you need to follow to get to that goal?
Everyone is always following a plan whether they are conscious of it or not in john's case His goal was two hundred thousand a year But the plan he was following was being a teacher teaching in a secondary school in london and earning I suspect Somewhere between 50 and 70k maybe slightly less than that.
So let's say he's earning 50k just for the sake of argument John's plan Is getting is is on track to earning 50k a year in income.
John's goal is 200k a year in income.
Okay, cool We have established very clearly that there is a discrepancy between the goal That john has and the plan that john is following to get there So in your case, what is the goal that you have and what is the plan that you're currently following?
And no plan is also a plan for example in my case if my goal was to get six-pack abs and the plan that I was currently following was Eating burgers every day and never going to the gym and doing 500 steps a day clearly That plan is not going to get me to the goal of six-pack abs So when we notice in this gps model when we notice that there is a discrepancy between the goal that we say we want And the plan that we are currently following to get to that goal At that point we have to make a choice Do you want to change the goal or do you want to change the plan?
Because you can't have a goal.
I mean you can but like you are just setting yourself up for Unhappiness and misery if you clearly have a goal that you really want But the plan that you're following is not actually going to get you there So like let's try and align these things i'm all about living an aligned life You know aligning our the things that we're doing right now with like where we want to go in the future something to something I talk about in My book feel good productivity which is about how to do more of what matters to you without burning up And in a way that's actually fun and sustainable and meaningful.
You can check it out link down below So there's a discrepancy right between the goal and plan now I asked john this I said john It seems like we've got a discrepancy mate like between the goal that you say you want And the plan that you currently are following i.e being an re teacher in a school in london So which one would you like to change?
Would you like to change the goal or would you like to change the plan?
The answer is not obvious here If for example john really really really liked being an re teacher And loved his life and loved the fact that he has half of the year off on school holidays Where he can spend time with his family and do things in the house, etc.
Etc.
Great John might decide you know what?
I actually really want to continue being an re teacher and therefore i'm totally okay with changing the goal My goal is not going to be financial goal.
My goal is going to be a fulfillment goal I'm not going to worry about getting a million in the next eight years instead I'm gonna worry i'm gonna focus on taking care of my health and making sure I can show up With full presence for my family for my wife and kids and etc, etc That is totally fine.
If you find yourself wanting to change your goal.
I think that is amazing Because there is nothing more sad than working towards a goal and only finding out when you're close to it or getting there That actually the goal itself was not what you actually wanted You wanted something else Which is why i'm very bullish like whenever I kind of have these sorts of conversations with people and it results in them changing The goal I feel very happy because i've just saved you a ridiculously large amount of time and effort and pain because In one fell swoop you've decided to change the goal that you're working towards The goals that we work towards the goals that we choose to work towards are literally the thing that dictates our entire life Right because when you set a goal or set an intention That generally hopefully informs the actions that you're taking to work towards it and those actions Are what actually gives you your day-to-day experience of life?
It's not actually hitting the goal like whether or not your company is valued at 100k or a million or a billion These arbitrary numbers are not going to change your life The actions that you're actually taking day-to-day are the thing that changes your life and so If one person has a goal of hitting a billion dollar valuation for their startup And that causes them to burn the midnight oil and completely torpedo their health and their relationships to get there That person is going to be miserable compared to the person who for example had the goal of being able to make enough money to support their family and then the things that they were doing day-to-day were Kind of taking care of the physical health taking care of the mental health taking care of the emotional health Taking looking after their family showing up for the family and friends doing hobbies having fun That person would be way happier than the person who set the goal and then destroyed their life in order to get there So it's totally okay to change the goal if you want It's totally okay to not have the goal of financial freedom or to lower the numbers again for me The goal financial freedom meant 3 to 5k a month If I had 3 to 5k a month i'd get in passive income.
I've been over the moon I really feel financially free to me the whole obsession with 10k a month 100k a month million a month All that stuff only started coming further down the line I wouldn't say it's an obsession for me but Like there seems to be a lot of stuff on the internet about like hey, you know Get your first 10k get your first 100k You've got to be at least a millionaire by 20 or at least a decamillionaire by 30 and all this sort of stuff So I think all of this stuff sort of misses the point.
Yes.
There is value in financial freedom Yes, there's value in not having to worry about paying the bills But these arbitrary numbers are just arbitrary And if you can lower the bar for the goal If your goal is easier to hit then you're more likely to hit it And maybe in many ways you're more likely to enjoy the journey to getting there So coming back zooming out a bit We've established a discrepancy between the goal 200k a year and the plan which is currently getting them to 50k Do you want to change the goal or do you want to change the plan?
Which is it in john's case?
He said Hmm.
No, I want to change the plan because I want that goal.
So then it's like, okay cool Now we come to the interesting stuff And so I asked him Okay.
So what is your plan?
What's your plan for making 200k a year?
And he was like, okay Well, I guess I could invest in real estate.
I was like, okay How is investing in real estate going to get you 200k a year?
Because we because you're earning 50 right now You have very little free time and you want to use that free time to invest in real estate And that's going to make you an extra 150k a year for the next eight years reliably and he was like Hmm, like I could tell he hadn't really thought this through He was just plucking real estate because it's it's a thing that people have heard about.
Oh invest in property and you'll get rich it's like I was like, do you do you have like millions or Tens of millions sitting around waiting to be deployed in real estate as an investment.
He was like, no, obviously not I was like, okay, so real estate as an investment to get you to an extra 150k a year Probably not the way to go Probably and he was like, okay.
Yeah, you're right.
So what else could we do?
What are some other plans to get to the goal now?
I really like a um model from alex homose about this He was the first person I had to talk about this which is Once you have set yourself a goal and you have figured out where you currently are So you've got the goal which is over there and you've got where you currently are which is over here Once you figure that out You just need to figure out what are all of the different plans or paths that take you from a to b now If you don't know what those plans are or what those paths are you have a knowledge problem If you do know what those paths are But you're not executing on them.
You have an execution problem crucially in john's case.
He did not have an execution problem He actually had a knowledge problem.
He could not tell me What are some viable paths to get from 50k to 200k?
He just did not have the knowledge and I think this is an underrated aspect of This whole like making money financial freedom entrepreneurship type space A lot of people say things like you don't need to learn anything You just need to execute you just need to take action and I I agree to an extent There's a thing in all this stuff, which is the law of equal and opposite advice Which is that one piece of advice that works for one person the absolute complete opposite advice Could be the thing that works for someone else So some people are in the mode of consuming too much information and never taking action But some people Don't consume enough information to even know what actions to take in the first place And this is the position that john was in so in your case You're watching this hopefully because you're someone who wants financial freedom or you're just interested in seeing Huh, I wonder what he's gonna say about the topic But imagine your goal and imagine the plan that you're currently following Could you tell me what are 10 different options for you to get to that goal?
What are 10 different viable options for you to get to that goal from where you currently are to getting to the goal?
If the answer is yes Then you pick one of them and you pick the one that has the best chance of success and you test it out But if the answer is no if you can't name at least 10 different paths that will get you there You have a knowledge problem.
You don't know enough to know what you don't know You don't know enough to be able to chart the map forward.
This was john's case He was like, okay, I could do real estate investment.
Okay, we've established that doesn't work He was like, okay, uh, I guess I could start some sort of business I was like, oh, okay interesting.
What sort of business would you like to start?
I'm like because my eyes lit up when he said start some sort of business because generally a business is often like Starting and growing your own business is often A way better way of getting rich Than working for someone else.
There are very few jobs that will get you to financial freedom provided The goal is high enough in terms of monetary values, uh monetary value But there are plenty of businesses that can get you to financial freedom.
So starting and growing your own business I think is a very reasonable Default for if you want to be financially free you lean towards starting and growing your own business.
Sure I was like, okay, what sort of businesses do we start here?
And he was like, okay, I guess I could start a tutoring company This is an absolute classic any every smart person I know who Has been to university lands on the idea of I could start a tutoring company because they realize oh I could teach kids who are studying for their exams.
I could teach university students I could mentor people and getting into university It's like a thing that we're all very familiar with but I think personally starting a tutoring company It's bad business for various reasons Generally, it's it's it's hard to make a lot of money when you're selling to consumers It's not impossible, but it is hard where it's very easy to make a lot of money when you're selling to businesses but most normal people don't think about selling to businesses because that's just kind of weird like what what do you mean selling to Businesses like what and we're all so familiar with thinking like consumers because we are consumers We are normal people and so we think about selling stuff to normal people like ourselves Well, okay, like let's say tutoring agency.
I was like, okay, cool Let's say you start a tutoring company How might that make you an extra 150k a year in your spare time?
And he was like, well, I guess I could open a tutoring center And I guess I could charge 10 pounds an hour per student.
And so I was like, okay, that's like an extra Basically 15k a month cool So how many students would you need to get an extra 15 000 pounds a month and kind of did the maths and it's like Okay, damn, I would need 1500 students a month paying 10 pounds an hour assuming they were doing one hour a month in order to get that money I was like, okay, cool What if they were doing like four?
What are we doing an hour a week now?
It's like, okay, cool Now I need like 500 students who are paying me 10 pounds to do an hour a week 500 students is a lot of students.
How are you going to find 500 students?
How are you going to stick them in a center?
Is it going to be zoom?
Is it going to be real life?
And it's like We start to get into all these things.
How are you going to facilitate them?
How are you going to you know, these are kids that we're talking about so we're going to have to think about freaking hiring x number of teachers for every one kid and suddenly we eat into our margins and all of a sudden this becomes a real Total freaking nightmare of a business to run if you're trying to do it in your spare time Because this guy had a job and so we're like, okay starting a tutoring business Maybe not the thing What else could you do to make that 150k and then he threw out a few other ideas Oh, I suppose you know um I I know a lot about like Safeguarding which is this thing that schools have to do if like a child says something that like implies There's some sort of child safety concern Then the person who's in charge of safeguarding has to report it and log it and stuff and he was like, you know Ali, you've got online courses.
Could I teach an online course about safeguarding and I was like Thankfully, I don't have to say anything because the guy sitting next to me was like bruv No one's gonna buy an online course about safeguarding like no one cares and I was like, yeah pretty spot on no one cares Other than people who are literally in that job title in schools, but they already have the training So like would be again really hard to make that business work and then it was black like clearly He just didn't know what are the options like?
How do you even theoretically make 200k a year or make 10k a month or 15k a month from a business?
He just had absolutely no freaking idea.
This is very normal This is something I see a lot in people that I speak to which is that there is this like broad Goal of I want to be financially free.
I want to make money and stuff And then they have absolutely no idea what the map or the terrain even looks like to get there, you know for john I suspect the only exposure he had to entrepreneurship was watching like dragon's den On tv when he was younger or maybe watching the apprentice on tv when he was out He was younger dragons and it's like the uk version of shark tank if you're familiar with shark tank These are like entertainment shows rather than actually business education type shows He probably would have would have said okay.
Well, I guess I need to do an mba maybe Oh, but I can't afford an mba and beers are so expensive blah blah blah.
There's clearly a knowledge issue here There's a knowledge issue because he does not know what are the possible paths to get from where he is to where he wants To be great And so the next thing I asked john was okay, john, you know It seems like this goal of financial freedom is really important to you, right?
It was like yeah, it's really important to me I was like, you know, how long have you been thinking about this?
It was like i've been thinking about it for years, you know I tried to start a tutoring business back in the day, but then it didn't work.
I didn't have time Oh, so you so you have tried to start a business, but it just didn't work He was like, yeah, it just didn't work and then I was like, okay cool So like, you know, we we've established that like, you know Maybe when we want to do some sort of business to get there and it was like, yeah Then I asked the question I asked john just out of curiosity How many books have you read about making money and he was like, uh None And I was like, how many books have you read about starting and growing a business?
He was like none And then I was like, okay.
No, that's all good How many podcasts have you listened to that are about making money or starting a business?
And he was like, oh, I don't really listen to podcasts.
Okay, that's fair enough So let me get this straight john You have a goal of financial freedom And you want this thing for some reason which is to make a million in the next eight years Which requires you to make 200k a year which would put you in the top 0.1% of earners in the uk or something like that You have this goal that you say is really important to you because it Will buy you financial freedom to spend more time with your family and be able to do what you want But you have never once read a book or listened to a podcast or watched a video About anyone teaching you how to get to that goal What's up with that?
And he was like shit Like i've never i've never thought of that and I was like, yeah, it's all good man Like most people don't think of this thing because we don't view making money as a skill the example I said to him was like, you know I went to med school in case you didn't know and in order to get into med school You have to jump through a bunch of hoops You have to have done chemistry and biology and maths and like at gcc or a level and pass your exams with flying colors And blah blah blah blah.
You have an interview of work experience The only people they let into med school are people who already have that groundwork that foundation Because they know if you just rocked up to med school without any of that They'd have to spend freaking years teaching you the absolute basics before you can even get started with the medicine thing So if you were trying to train to be a doctor, you wouldn't dream of never reading a book about it Or never watching videos about it or never attending a class about it You would just think like obviously in order to learn the skill of being a doctor I have to go to med school and I need all this groundwork and then I have to put in a lot of work To get the knowledge and then once i've got the knowledge I can then apply it by trying to practice on patients It's kind of the same thing with entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship and making money is a skill if you want to earn 200k a year It's a skill I For the record have the skill of being able to earn 200k a year I can almost guarantee that as long as I retained my mental faculties If I were to lose everything overnight I would be able to make 200k a year within within a year because i've got the skills Because the skills making money are a very specific type of thing the skills of entrepreneurship But most people don't think like that They don't realize this thing is a skill and it is a thing that you have to learn You wouldn't dream of trying to be a surgeon without learning stuff and then applying it similarly This thing of I want to be financially free I want to start a business I want to make millions, but i've never once read a book or listened to a podcast or watched a video about it It's a bit sus um, and so I said this to john And I was like, yeah, what do you think of that?
And he was like, yeah, um That's a good point So where do you recommend I start and I was like, oh glad you asked Uh, where should I start and I gave john a reading list and I was like, hey, I can hey man I can I can give you a reading list, you know If you just read these four books and listen to these few podcasts I guarantee you'll just massively get a firmware update in your mind Like, you know how your iphone updates itself every now and then or whatever?
It's like it's like that It will give you a firmware update which will then allow you to at least see the map because right now you have a goal And you have your current starting point, but you have no idea what the routes are to getting there and reading these books or and or listening to these podcasts will Fill it fill in the blanks.
It will give you more of a sense of what's the map And then once you know what the map is at that point you can decide Okay, is this a thing that I seriously want to pursue or is this a thing that I don't want to pursue?
Which is fair enough But right now we just had no idea what the map even was and then other people around me on the table because this was Like a birthday party.
Everyone else was like paid attention to be like, oh, you know Can I have that reading list as well?
Because everyone was sort of listening in send me into this conversation to see like, huh?
This guy wants to get rich.
I kind of want to get rich like what's going on here?
And so these are the four books They're linked down down below in the video description and I actually have videos about Two of them in case you want to watch the videos, but you should read the books as well Do not be one of those people that's like, oh, I don't need to read a book I don't believe in reading books.
I'm just going to watch the video No, you're trying to be financially free for god's sake like you're trying to enter the top one percent If not more like you have to read the books.
It's just really freaking dumb if you don't read the books anyway Um, those four books are number one the millionaire fast lane by mj demarco video number two million dollar weekend by noah kagan number three 100 million dollar offers by alex hormozy and number four dot com secrets by russell brunson That is my personal recommended reading list for people who want to get started with entrepreneurship.
I think those books are all amazing I recommended these Four books well three of them because million dollar weekend only came out recently to a friend of mine nine months ago This friend wanted to quit his job in management consulting He's working in london and he wanted to make money on the internet and so he and I had a coffee I was like, wait, how much money do you want to be making?
It was like 10k a month.
I was like great.
Have you read any books about business?
He was like, no, what should I read?
I was like read these three books millionaire fast lane 100 million dollar offers and dot com secrets This was before million dollar weekend came out that is now added to my list of recommendations And he read those books and he took action And after he read even just the first one after he read the millionaire fast lane He said to me I think it was in real life But yeah, he basically said to me I can never have a job ever again Now that I've read this book because I now realize what I was missing If there is just one book on that list that I would recommend for everyone.
It's the millionaire fast lane It's long you can listen to it on audible if you want It just gives you a real sense of what's the map of how to get rich how to become financially free But now this friend who read those books and took action on them nine months later is making 35 000 a month from a software business 35 000 a month within nine months from a software business.
These results are atypical.
This friend is very smart This friend takes action He read he did the things that I taught him to do because he was like, okay.
All he knows is shit I'm, just gonna do the things that ali tells me to do and he just executed That was me 35k a month freaking insane He's able to quit his job completely able to make him 35 000 a month in within nine months because he took action Just saying so we've got these four books There are also three podcasts that I would recommend all of them are actually incidentally Interviews that i've done because i've interviewed entrepreneurs and business coaches and stuff and I ask the sort of questions that people always ask me about how to make money And those are my two interviews with dan priestly and my one interview with robin weight And I would add to that list if you're looking for more podcasts My interview with nicholas cole and my interview with cody sanchez I will link all of those on the deep dive youtube channel down below.
It's very easy If you have not yet read those four books and listen to these three to five podcast episodes And you are trying to make money on the internet and you don't know where to start and you're trying to be financially free You're just like like just do that.
It's such an easy first step I'm, not asking you to take action million dollar weekend actually by noah kagan His first step is to take action.
I'm not asking you to take action.
I'm just saying just read the stuff Just consume the information It will give you a map Think of it like studying for a test in school.
If you vibe with my channel, you're probably pretty you know Somewhat studious and just like genuinely think of this as like, you know I'll a this guy who I kind of follow the youtube channel of who's gotten rich from doing this stuff Has given me like recommended reading and recommended watching i'm just going to read and watch and take notes If you just did that, I guarantee you're going to have a massive massive massive firmware update in your brain that will Hugely help you on the journey to financial freedom if you refuse to do those then you're not going to make it But that's fine So those are that's the recommended reading and recommended listening It's just easy groundwork easy groundwork that you can do to fill in the map again The law of equal and opposite advice if you are the sort of person who has already read loads and loads of stuff about starting A business including those things and you have not taken action.
This advice does not apply to you You need to just freaking take action So read million dollar weekend and take action based on what Noah Kagan tells you in that book but If you're like john and you just don't have the right information in your head You need to read these books and listen to these podcasts to then get the right information in your head to become to at least Know what the map is to become financially free and then john said Man, i'm gonna read these books.
Oh But I don't have time to read.
How do I how do I have the time to read?
I've got a job and i've got kids.
I was like, okay in fairness john I don't have kids so like but you know, so take whatever I say with a pinch of salt But john come on If you got all these inaudible, could you find half an hour in your day to listen to audiobooks?
And he was like, oh, yeah, I was like Why don't you do that?
And he was like, oh, I just I don't know I'm, just i've never really listened to an audiobook I was like, what do you do on your commute to school when you kind of walk slash take the train to school every Morning to teach.
Oh, and he was like, oh, um, I just listen to music.
I was like good cool How long is your commute?
He was like, oh, yeah half an hour each way great So we have an hour a day of commuting time which instead of listening to music you could listen to the audiobooks or the podcasts Would that work?
He was like, yeah, like great Fantastic.
Um, it's not that hard.
Everyone has time in their life to be able to listen to audiobooks I agree if you have a super busy life, etc, etc You might not be able to find the time to read even then I think everyone can find half an hour before bed Or wake up half an hour earlier to read in the morning because books are game-changing But you can always find time to listen to audiobooks while doing the dishes while doing the laundry while going about your day While at the gym while commuting to work in your lunch break There's always time to listen to audiobooks if this is the sort of thing you care about.
There's always time And this is literally the easy stuff.
All i'm saying is asking you to do is to consume some information It's worth recognizing that the vast vast vast majority of people in the world are not financially free I gave a talk at the london school of economics the other day and also another one at the how-to academy Both talks had about 300 people in them And I asked a question at the start who here would consider themselves financially free?
And like one person in the audience put his hand up and that guy was a guy called matt who I knew who Was sort of my guest at the event and he's built and sold businesses for tens of millions Then I asked the audience like how many people aspire to be financially free and every single hand went up of 300 people 299 were not financially the vast vast majority of people in the world are not financially free If you would like to be financially free your goal is something extraordinary It's something atypical It's like the vast majority of people in the world who play football are not professional football players who do it for a living If you're trying to be financially free you're gonna you're you're in that in that category you're where you're trying to go for something that's actually that very few people have and if you won't even consume the freaking information because you can't find an hour in your day to listen to some audiobooks like You're not gonna make it.
It's just not gonna happen and that's okay But if if it's not your goal, but if it is your goal and it's not gonna happen then like come on Um, you know our business does about half a million.
Well, yeah about half a million dollars a month ish We're trying to get to a million a month.
We're trying to get a 10 million a year basically and so Every day I consume literally hours of audio in terms of videos and podcasts and audiobooks usually at double speed From people who are making more money than I am people who are further ahead in the entrepreneurship game the sort of youtube channels I watch sam ovens ravi abuvala alex.
Hormozzi.
Layla.
Hormozzi russell brunson dan martell I'm listening to a book called blue ocean strategy at the moment, which is like a strategy business book Uh reading a book at the moment called ready fire aim Which is a business book when people get into my car and like audible auto plays Or a podcast auto plays or a video auto plays and it's like a double speed and it's like a business video People are amazed like whoa.
Hey, how do you?
Retain all that information or like how do you even understand what they're saying?
And like how do you retain it and like why are you listening to this stuff?
i'm like I mean, I can see why you question why i'm listening to this stuff but I have a goal of getting our business to 10 million a year and I think I know what the plan is to get there and so I am executing on that plan But at the same time I think it's always useful to consume information from people around From people who have gotten there and seeing what they say and you know, I started off listening to things at one time speed Then I moved it to 1.1 then 1.2 then 1.3 and over time you can actually train your own listening speed So now me having an hour of time to listen to audiobooks actually Helps me consume two hours of audiobooks instead Which is just useful if i'm trying to exploratory Explore a particular area and i'm just trying to fill in the map.
There's reading for exploration and reading for exploitation This is more like reading for exploration If i'm reading for exploitation if i'm like if I found the one book like 100 million dollar offers And i'm taking action on it Then I will slow down and take notes and do the follow the thing and do it properly But what i'm asking for john and for you is to just read for exploration It doesn't matter if you do it first.
It doesn't matter if you do it while doing other things You're just trying to roughly fill in the map.
That's the whole idea It's like if you're playing tennis at a particular level If you want to get to the next level you need to either hire a coach Who will take you to the next level or play with people who are better than you because yeah That's how you get to the next level similarly with business if you're currently making zero Money, you need to read content from people who are helping you get to 10k a month Once you're making 10k a month you then switch to the 100k a month content Once you've done that you switch to a million a month content, you know all that kind of thing And at a certain point, you know There's stopped being books and stuff written about things So you start having to go to masterminds and events and talk to people and get coaches and stuff It's like everything in life There are levels to every game that we're trying to play the game of becoming financially free via making money through a business Is a game that has levels and if you're currently level zero Read the stuff that i'm recommending to get you to level one.
That's what I would say to john That's that's what I would say to you if you're still with me in this in this video There are a few other things that I would say to someone who's in this In this list that I would say to john.
I didn't say this stuff to john, but I would if john happens to be watching this video, um Another major thing is sort your life out Like if you want to be an entrepreneur think of yourself as an athlete an athlete It's it's not just about what they do on the field It's also a lot about what they do off the field athletes Don't just show up and then be like, oh, you know I can just destroy my body and the rest of the time to be successful as an entrepreneur You also want to have the rest of your life together You don't want to sacrifice your life for the sake of your business So you want to take care of your health?
You want to take care of your relationships?
You want to make sure you've got some hobbies?
You've got to make sure you've got some time for relaxation the health thing often comes first my friend Sahil bloom has a phrase which is that there is no such thing as a loser who wakes up at 5 a.m And works out if you're currently not taking care of your health Make it a priority It's not that hard to wake up an extra half an hour early and go for a run or to wake up an extra hour early And do a workout the energy that that gives to your life is energy that you can then apply to your day job and to your business and to Your friends and family and just generally it's very very good for you If you have energy rather than if you're like a bit of a slob The other thing I would say is stop wasting your time watching tv and stop wasting your time scrolling on social media Especially if you have a day job and you're trying to be an entrepreneur Yeah, you're like an athlete.
Would you want to waste that time watching tv?
Or do you want to waste that time scrolling social media?
When you could be investing that time into reading books about business or working on your business.
This is I there's gonna be people in the comments being like fuck this guy toxic productivity hustle culture Yeah, fine toxic productivity hustle culture if your goal is to have a healthy balanced life Where you get time to watch tv and scroll social media in the evenings amazing.
That's fantastic But if your goal is to be financially free And the plan that you're following requires you to watch tv for a couple of hours a night and scroll social media for two hours A day, you're not going to make it and so like we either change the goal or change the plan if you're one of these people who cry toxic productivity at the Thought that i'm telling people to stop wasting the time watching tv and like scrolling social media Your goal is probably not financial freedom and that's okay i'm not trying to tell you what goal you should have what i'm saying is that if you do in fact have the goal of Becoming financially free and wanting to make a lot of money in the case of john Wanting to make a million over the next eight years.
That's actually quite a big goal and Extraordinary goals require extraordinary inputs watching tv for a few hours and scrolling social media for a few hours every day Is not one of those things especially if you say that you don't have time to read or listen to podcasts You know go for a walk instead get the steps in and do And while listening to an audiobook that will help you level up your business Like that is the thing that I would say if someone genuinely wants to be financially free That would be my honest advice How much time are you actually wasting in your life?
That are doing things that are not taking you to any of your goals If your goal happens to be to watch all of every film disney has ever made three times over great Amazing.
You've got a goal and you're sticking to the plan But if the goal is not that then don't waste your time watching tv.
No, that would be my my humble Two cents on that front.
I would also say use your day job to your advantage There is no law of physics that says you're not allowed to work on your side hustle while you have a day job Don't tell anyone in my team that I hope they're not watching this video But back when I was a doctor there were always times Quiet moments in the day in those quiet moments other people would be scrolling social media and watching youtube videos in those quiet moments I would be on notion planning out my next video or I would have my little notebook with me sort of sketching out what like the Architecture of our database was going to look like or like I would have my ipad with me and I would be thinking Okay, cool.
How do I want to design my thumbnail for my next video?
That sort of thing back when I was in medical school and built my first business again in between lectures Rather than just like screwing around and in the evenings sometimes rather than going clubbing I would be coding away and building the products and stuff while also trying to maintain a social life and trying to be broadly healthy I didn't really manage on the health front, but I managed to maintain the social life because for me I realized I don't I'm, not really a party kind of guy To me, it's more fun sitting in the library with my friends while i'm coding away and we're all working Than it is to go to a nightclub So it's like you can always use the moments in the day in your day job to be able to make progress on the side hustle You know in your lunch breaks instead of scrolling instagram You can read a book on kindle on the kindle app on your phone, you know all that kind of stuff There are always ways to use your day job to your advantage Everyone has days off everyone has annual leave you can use your annual leap to your advantage as well Like again, everyone always is like, oh, yeah, how do you do this shit with a full-time job?
It's like a full-time job is not in fact a full-time job A full-time job has lots of periods of downtime.
You can use those periods of downtime and use those to your advantage Surround yourself with other people doing similar things This whole thing that you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with is 100 true It's absolutely true So john If you're watching this or wherever you are Who are the five people you spend the most time with and do they average you up or do they average you down?
As it relates to your goals I'm, not saying you must cut out all your friends out of your life I'm saying it's worth finding ways to surround yourself with people who are trying to do the same thing one of the interesting things that i've noticed over the years is that Anyone who spends a lot of time with me ends up getting rich it just sort of happens uh Like anyone who's ever lived with me has ended up starting their own thing on the side for some of them The thing has grown and then they've decided that actually I don't want to don't want to take this all the way But for some of them the thing has grown and they've decided to take it all the way and now they're now They're rich or financially free For a lot of friends of mine who talk to me about this stuff They are starting businesses and growing those businesses just being around me And people like me in a non-grandiose way helps nudge you in the direction You know the stuff you want to do, you know i'm mates with chris williamson He's an absolutely jacked podcaster He lives in austin if I lived in austin and hung out with chris every day I would be jacked because I would just take the gym more seriously If I hung out with people who were really into yoga I'd be more flexible if I hung out with people who were really into jujitsu I'd probably have solid jujitsu.
I hang around with people who want to make a lot of money and my team uh, and so It just sort of happens.
So surround yourself with people who are doing the same thing.
How do you find those people again?
If you can't figure that out, you're not going to make it It's not that hard.
You've got the internet like you can find groups of people that meet up You can host dinners host entrepreneur dinners for people who are on the same level who are also trying to get to 10k a month Whatever the thing might be but it's not just about physical people It's also about the content diet that you consume If 100 of the content you were to consume like for at least an hour a day was all about Entrepreneurship and how to make money you would end up learning the ropes of entrepreneurship and how to make money pretty much by osmosis Obviously, there's no substitute for real life interactions with real people But like the content diet also plays a big role in this and the final thing I would say is that If you're serious about this financial freedom thing, you're embarking on a very long journey It takes a while to get there And when you get there, you'll realize that actually the journey was what mattered in the first place So what I would say is along the journey try and have fun Make the process feel good Don't neglect your health and your relationships because those are more important things than financial freedom But the journey to financial freedom is absolutely exhilarating.
It's like playing a video game Playing horizon forbidden west.
It's like it's like a video game I don't like the goal is not to complete the game The goal is to have fun along the way just like you know The goal of a musical symphony is not the climax the goal is to enjoy the symphony to enjoy the time the goal of a dance is not the Finale the goal of the dance is to enjoy the dance Similarly the goal of financial freedom if you've gotten to the end of this video is not in fact financial freedom It's choosing a goal that you feel is worthwhile and working towards it while enjoying the journey So I would say if you are watching this then whatever stage of life you're at you actually have the ability To become financially free if you want it If you don't want it, that's a different question But if you want it the information is there and you can take action on the information you can make it happen I would just say along the way Recognize that you want to enjoy the journey it's like playing a video game where the video where the points of the video game or Is real money that you can cash in for like cool holidays and like a nice apartment and like experiences and stuff It's just really really cool.
It's an absolutely exhilarating journey and I love being on that journey.
I'm continuing on that journey Why do I have the goal of getting our business from 5 million to 10 million?
Because why not?
It's the next level of the video game Why do I play horizon forbidden west on very hard difficulty rather than on story mode or on medium?
Because it's a bit more of a challenge and it's a bit more fun I don't play on ultra hard because that to me is too much But right now for me very hard difficulty is like, you know, it's good It's a good sweet spot But once I get really good very hard now i'm going to stop playing games on ultra hard It's like it's the same stuff at the end of the day I know entrepreneurs who are making hundreds of millions a year and the thing that they're doing every day is Pretty much the same as what i'm doing every day Are you sitting on a laptop most of the time thinking about vision and having meetings with their team?
The work always stays the same It's just that the levels the level of the video game and the level of difficulty changes, which is kind of fun It's part of video game It's an exhilarating journey that you can be part of if you have it as a goal Then just make sure that the plan you're following and the system you're using to stick to that plan Is a sensible that is the advice that I would give someone who wants to be financially free if you're interested in learning more There'll be stuff in productivity lab link down below and i've also linked all of the stuff the books the podcast the resources The videos i've made on the topic this playlist over here Is in order the videos and podcasts that I recommend on your journey to financial freedom So thank you so much for watching.
Have a great day and see you in the next video.
Bye