My Goal

Thanks heaps for your advice c3po

Regarding the business: I'm going to apply for an ABN and register the business name soon, and start advertising. Hopefully we'll have some clients lined up in the not-too-distant future.

I've been reading ALOT in regards to wealth creation in general, and talked to some successful investors. I feel like i've definitely gained alot of insight into the investing world, and I'm DEFINITELY ready to dive straight into it

Any advice or constructive critisicm is still welcome. Hope to hear from some of you as my journey to become a Teen Millionaire continues!

 

Hey mate!

I am blown away at what I have read of your dream!

I am 18 and I only turned this year, when I was 17 I had the EXACT same dream as you! To become a millionaire by 20. I am looking into many different ways to make money and I've got a few ideas floating around which might help me make it but it's going to be hard work.

Do you live in Adelaide by any chance?

There's this one business opportunity, which, depending on how well you work it, can make 6 figure passive income and some people have doen it within 18 months.

PM me if this interests you. I am only new to it but I will try and help as much as I can.

It's amazing to find someone with the same dream as me because everyone at my age who I have spoken to thinks I am crazy for even thinking I will make it.

I wish you all the best in your dream as I believe you, aswell as me, can do this if we really work hard!

Good Luck

 

Hiya,

IMO, $1M in three years is achievable for anyone who *believes* that they can, and takes *action* to get there.

Often I have seen that if someone tells you, 'No, you can't do that', it is more likely that they are justifying to themselves that *they* cannot do what you are looking to achieve. Constructive criticism and help in identifying potential hurdles are always helpful. Negativity, not so much.

So, good luck to you, mate. I'm 22 now. I've been in your shoes, and made some very nice progress since. One of my closest mates has a tattoo on his arm, something along the lines of Aude aliquid dignum; Dare something worthy. He's doing alright for himself these days, too.

It may not be easy. But, this does not mean that it cannot be done.

Cheers

James.

 

Hi Teenmillionaire,

Good planning, a firm belief and hard work will get you there. I had the same goal two and a half years ago.

July 2005 I started reading books etc. February 2006 and 30+ books later I sat down and wrote my business plan. It was a 10 year plan however it is broken into 3 parts. Feb06 – Feb09, Feb09 – Feb12 and Feb12 – Feb16.

The first 3 year plan was to clear personal debt of 140k and finish with $1m net. I have about 7 months to go and have past the 700k net mark and have no personal debt. I have enough funds to start and finish one more project and with CG on current investments I believe I will pull up short by about 150k.

While it does not look like I will achieve my short term goal I still feel very satisfied with my current position.

It can be done you just need to think big and plan.

Good luck
Wayne

 

hi mate
i am also a young kid seeking millions
i am 16 years old and i make my money through importing
i was just wondering are u at school and do u agree with the statement that u cant learn too be rich at school
this is why i am thinkin of dropping out, working full time and investing all my money

whats your opinion on this thanks

dane

 

Hi Dane

Great to hear theres one more person out there with the same dreams as me
I agree you can't learn to be rich at school, BUT you can learn some neccessary skills that will get you there a lot quicker.

At the end of the day, it's your choice whether you stay in school or not. Just make sure your decision is what is best for you.

- TeenMillionaire

 

thanks mate

what kind of skills are u talking about as i am in yr 10 and nothing has come along so far
and are u still in school

P.S
are u in melbourne??

 

Lots of different skills.

For example, I did I.T. in year 10 and now I know how to make a website. This has helped me alot as most of my business ventures have been online ones
Also, I do accounting, which had a few periods on investing

Yes, im in Melbourne.

Feel free to add me on msn is you want to chat.
[email protected]

- TeenMillionaire

 

Here's a site where people post ideas up: WhyNot? Idea Exchange

Maybe you can get some ideas there.

My recommendation is learn to be satisified with little. He higher you reach, the harder you fall.

CRC Error claims you should do what you love, not necessarily helping others. Maybe Alan Bond likes what he does. Maybe those social workers don't like what they do.

Given that stress causes heart disease and given that I have seen friends who work hard and then die of heart attacks in their 30s, I now try hard to reduce stress.

But financial independence does not necessarily require 1 million dollars. Obviously the cut-off point is subjective but people need to remember that higher return usually comes about through higher risk. The problem is that most people are blind to the risk and only truly appreciate it after they fail. In our modern financial system, risk is tranferred from those unwilling to take it to those willing to take it. Many of those taking risk are completely blind to the pain that comes taking on this risk. The subprime property crash we see today is a good example of this blindness to risk. Investors look at yields on subprime property securities and purchased like crazy, unable to understand just how risky these securities were. Now we have a massive stock and property market crash and massive develering.

 

Norak makes a worthwhile point there. Studies have actually been done on the relationship between wealth and happiness. What they've found is (and obviously we're talking generalisations here) that personal happiness tends to increase as your income increases up to about $100k pa. Obviously the less you earn then the harder it is to get by - you have to buy crappy cars, miss out on holidays, live in cheaper housing, not indulge in luxury goods, worry about bills, etc.

At around $100k people have financial freedom, in that you know that you can pay any bills that come along, you can afford a reasonable house, buy good food, drive a reliable car, and have enough left over for savings and luxuries (unless you're a complete idiot, of course). Most people would be happy with this.

Once you start going over $100k though, what come out of the studies was that happiness does not necessarily increase and in fact often decreases. The reason being is that all the extra income does is buy you a better class of stuff - maybe you drive an Audi A4 instead of a Commodore, or fly to the U.S. or Europe for holidays rather than Bali. And the extra work required to get those higher levels of income, and the stress that comes along with it, offsets any enjoyment you'd get from that higher class of stuff. You get caught in the cycle of chasing that next pay rise to keep up with the Joneses, because achieving a yet higher class of stuff is the only thing you've got left. It's possible to earn $100k while working 'regular' hours, especially if it's split across two incomes. But earning $150k will almost inevitably involve a sacrifice of some sort, such as working longer hours or taking on more responsibility (ie, stress).

 

Firstly, good on you - dream and plan realistic goals and you will reach them...I think the best piece of advise I could give is to do something you love and are passionate about and you will succeed.

Richard Branson is a great inspiration of mine, read his book "screw it lets do it" (or "screw it, just do it"...something like that)

Good luck!

 

Thudd, I find this statement to be myopic. Sure if you are an employee, you're going to have to either have a role with great responsibility or long hours in order to take home that $150K pay cheque.

I know loads of successful business owners on the other hand, who work on their business rather than in it, having employees and managers that are paid those sorts of figures (in most cases even less) to take on all the stress and responsibility of the day-to-day management. They balance work and life quite well (work 'normal' hours) and take salaries of $150K+.

You dont have to sacrifice in order to have a high income - you just need to be above average, have good ideas and hire people that are smarter than you.

Teenmillionaire, PM me if you want to chat about ideas and raising funds to take them to market.

 

I'd bet my bottom dollar that the vast majority aren't under the age of 25, because success in most things in life comes down to a simple formula of:

Success = Working Smart x Working Hard

Now the thing about people that are under the age of 25 is that they lack experience, and experience is a BIG part of "working smart" side of the equation, so earning more than 90% of the working population, whilst being more inexperienced thatn 90% of the population puts a lot of under 25's well behind the eight ball.

Of course this is a very simplified version of how to obtain success, you could add tons of other variables (but they are rarely more influencial than those two) but for the vast majority of cases these are the two biggest influences.

For a great majority of the population all they will really ever have is "working hard" because they are just not wired so that they are able to "work smart". Intellengence is just like any other part of genetics, some people have the genetics that allow them to do the 100m sprint in under 10s, others no matter how much training they do will never get under 13s.

 

Hi Chris

Success = Working Smart x Working Hard


The formula above says nothing about age, just 'smart'. You've assumed "working smart" means YOU need experience and with age comes experience.

While I accept your formula to hold value, I think you could define "working smart" as having smart people to assist or work for you. (Sure you take on more cash flow risk, but if you have a golden idea and you are passionate enought to run with it, fork out the necessary capital (or get investors on board) and pay the necessary costs for those smarts in order to build your success)

Unlike running a race where its really just up to you and your own ability, no such rule exists in running a business - get the best and 'smartest' people available for the job to do it. That my friend is working smart

Have a good one

 

That is indeed working smart, though there are a lot of people out there that aren't smart enough to even do this.

Also being an average joe that employs a workforce of smart people doesn't work in the long run, because at the end of the day the smart people you employ will realise they would be better off working for themselves rather than you, and if you hired them because they were smarter than you it is only a matter of time before they beat you at your own game.

So from my perspective business is just like running a race, it is a combination of natural abilty (working and being smart) and amount of training done (working hard).

 

Just a little update on this thread. I know that it's over a year old by now, but, I've actually hired TeenMillionaire to work for me. He'll be working full time in one of my companies once he's finished high school in a couple of weeks.

And, I believe that based on his progress, increased knowledge, and overall development to date, let alone his plans for moving forward; he will achieve his goal.

 

thanks for the update, please keep us updated in the future as well

 

It's great to see that there are young people with such entrepreneurial drive! If there is one area that is critical to the success of reaching targets, it has got to be drive. Unfortunately, it's also one of my personal weak points.

One of the ways I find I get amped is to read how other people did it, and one of the best you can get is Gary Vaynerchuk's excellent book, Crush It! If you're reading this thread wishing you had the same fire as TeenMillionaire, then I urge you to check out this book.

 

I know this is an old thread, but still: Empire of wealthy IT entrepreneur Daniel Tzvetkoff collapses with $80m in debt - Business news, business advice and information for Australian SMEs | SmartCompany

Apparently he went under. Not sure if there has been another update since then.

 

Teenmillionaire

I have read this thread with a lot of interest.

Firstly, congratulations, teenmillionaire, firstly for your interesting thread, and also for your updates on your progress, it has made fascinating reading.

I am a lot older than you, and was when I first started investing. However, I also had a lot of negative feedback from the plans that I had (which were not quite as ambitious as yours, might I add!!!)

When I first started buying IP's in the mid 90's, everyone I knew was negative. 'What are you doing, you'll bankrupt yourself', 'you're crazy, nothing is happening with the market'. By the time I had 7 IP's (this was in Perth, 2000), the prices were going crazy & I quadrupled my profit in 3 years. Yes, it was more luck than design (I didn't know the boom was going to happen)- but who knows what's around the corner? I haven't done too badly in the GFC, either.

I guess what I'm trying to put across is that you should always believe in yourself, and you'll always get the people who want to employ the 'tall poppy' syndrome & try to drag you down, even if they think their motives are for the best for you. The only one who knows what's best for you, is you.

I wish you all the best & I believe you'll achieve your goal. Don't worry if the time frame goes over your original goal- I believe you'll get there in no time with your attitude and drive.