Becoming a multi-millionaire doesn't have to be your definition of success
I recently read and responded to a post on Reddit from a young 20-year-old aspiring entrepreneur.
His question was this;
“Anyone here not looking to be a millionaire over night? I’m a 20 year old student working in a restaurant just looking to make some extra cash.”
He expanded with the following:
Hey all!
So I’m just wondering is there anyone else here that is in the same boat as me.While I think it’s great that everyone has big aims and dreams and on a not so good side that people are idolizing over everyone who can make a couple million bucks out of an idea – Im just a level below this at the minute.
A bit about myself perhaps to get this ball rolling:
- 20 years old
- Studying Marketing
- Work in a restaurant (have cash to invest)
- Not hoping to make millions
- Want to buy a new laptop before the Summer
- Travelling to China after being selected for an innovation academy by my university
- Get on very well with people, hence the waiter job.
- Can survive on about €600 bucks per month at the minute (car insurance, travelling to college, college loan repayments etc, nights out with friends).
- Hoping to move out in the next few years (Im sure my “real person” job with my degree will help with that).
- I enjoy a good side hustle, had a few over the years: reselling razor blades, buying cheap college books and reselling etc.
- Never really got into Iphone flipping (too expensive to put into a single product at once). And due to a shortage of proper yard sales in my country never really got the chance to go around to them and collect items that people were selling and resell them afterward.
Basically I’m not making millions per month and I was wondering is there anyone here that is making less than €1000 per month with their business / side hustle that would be willing to give some advice, I feel as if it would be better to aim for smaller objectives and goals so can build upon them before reaching for the stars immediately.
This is a common thread I see online for people just starting out in business and I bet a lot of people can relate to this person.
Not everyone wants to be a multi-millionaire.
Some people just want more time and enough money to enjoy it. I fit into that group as well. I’ve made over 6 figures for many years and i’m still hustling, learning and growing.
I simply just enjoy being an entrepreneur and I like to help others too.
For me, time is more valuable than money.
Here is the advice I gave him.
I think there are a lot of young entrepreneurs that need to hear that making $500-$5000 a month is just fine if that’s your goal and that is how you define success for yourself.
There’s nothing wrong with building a business that allows you to have a lifestyle that gives you enough time and money to enjoy it.
It doesn’t have to be a million-dollar business or even $100,000 business.
Success is how YOU define it.
If you are happy making $3,000 a month, it covers your bills and you have more time to enjoy maybe playing guitar or snowboarding or playing video games, then that’s success to you and that’s cool.
I have a couple of side hustles that make $100-$500 a month and some that make over $5,000 a month.
Some projects generate money from Google AdSense around content I’ve written and some are Amazon associate e-commerce stores and others are SaaS affiliate programs.
There are lots of little ways to make a little extra cash and there’s nothing wrong with just a little extra cash and not millions of dollars. I also do consulting work which brings in over 6 figures a year but takes up a lot of my time.
At 20 years old you could slowly build a whole bunch of little projects that diversify your income and by the time you’re my age, you’re going to have enough income to live off of. I wish I was doing this at 20 but the internet was not like it is today.
It’s your life design it the way you want.
You asked about how to start.
Here’s an example of a project you could start today.
Write a niche blog on something you’re passionate about.
Ask yourself…
What are my hobbies right now?
Is there a hobby that you can write about that actually has products you use for that hobby?
Let’s say you like model trains and you can write about that and it’s something you’re really interested in.
Create a blog on the WordPress platform called the modeltrainmaster.com or something.
Write a blog post a week for that niche. Write informational posts like how to set up your very first train set. Also, write posts that I more like product reviews like the 10 best train sets for first-time engineers.
Now you can monetize this blog with Google AdSense and you could also monetize your 10 best train set posts with product links to Amazon 
Do this for a year and you’ll have over 50 blog posts and you’ll actually probably start to make a decent income.
This is just one example of a simple side hustle you can do that we could probably actually make you closer to $1,000 or more a month.
Give it a year. You may find it hard to write 50 posts. Just do your best and keep iterating on it.
I have over 200 draft blog posts on my personal blog. I add ideas as they come up. Some I finish fast, others I come back to months later and work on them a bit more until they are ready to be published.
Depending on your niche, I would jump on social media as well if you want to build an audience.
Start an email list too and work at getting backlinks from other sites to help your SEO efforts.
In Closing
You don’t have to be a millionaire to be a successful entrepreneur. Even a simple project like the one I described to our young 20-something entrepreneur is a start.
If you are looking to start a million dollar business then check out this post on how to find your million dollar idea.
Here’s the original thread on Reddit.