{"id":12401,"date":"2016-11-18T21:09:12","date_gmt":"2016-11-18T21:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=12401"},"modified":"2016-11-18T21:09:12","modified_gmt":"2016-11-18T21:09:12","slug":"what-i-learned-after-banking-my-first-million-dollars-by-neil-patel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=12401","title":{"rendered":"What I Learned After Banking My First Million Dollars by Neil Patel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><code><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- www.deltanewsroom.com --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2163942495525027\" data-ad-slot=\"1411897411\" data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/code><\/p>\n<p>To some people, that phrase might sound like the height of arrogance, privilege, and disregard, but hear me out.<\/p>\n<p>I know many entrepreneurs who hustle hard. They\u2019re in the game for one reason: the money. They want fast cars, big yachts, and private jets.<\/p>\n<p>There are others, normal hard working people, who yearn for the big break \u2014 a chance to stop worrying about bills, and start enjoying life.<\/p>\n<p>This is normal. After all, who wouldn\u2019t want to earn more, own more, and have it all?<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m fine with that. Keep hustling. Keep pressing on. Keep giving it all you got!<\/p>\n<p><code><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alternativeadvert.com\/show.php?z=30&amp;pl=11613&amp;ad_type=59&amp;rl=180\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/code><\/p>\n<p>But what happens once you \u201carrive?\u201d What happens when you finally earn that first million, when you see the seven-figure number in your bank account, and when you achieve your goal?<\/p>\n<p>I, too, wanted to become rich. I gave it all I got. I worked insane hours, made risky decisions, and hustled like my life depended on it.<\/p>\n<div id=\"article-0-inread\" class=\"inread ng-isolate-scope inread-active\">\u00a0Eventually, it happened. I \u201cmade it.\u201d I banked a million bucks, and I experienced what it\u2019s all about.<\/div>\n<p>This is my story \u2014 how I made a million bucks, and what I learned.<\/p>\n<p><b>I had a passion for money.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>When I was a kid, I was always looking for ways to make money.<\/p>\n<p><b>My first entrepreneurial failure gave me my biggest break.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>While I was scouring the Internet for six-figure jobs for high school juniors, I realized something.<\/p>\n<p>I used job boards to find openings. As I did so, I thought about the business model of these job boards. These sites must be making a killing! Many of these job boards were trading on publicly traded markets for hundreds of millions. Employers pay massive amounts of money to post a job opening.<\/p>\n<p>Heck, I could make a website like this. This was my million-dollar idea! It would be easy!<\/p>\n<p>My plan was simple:<\/p>\n<div id=\"article-0-inread\" class=\"inread ng-isolate-scope inread-active\">\u00a0<strong>Step 1:<\/strong> Make my own Monster.com.<\/div>\n<p><strong>Step 2:<\/strong> Earn millions.<\/p>\n<p>So I did just that. I built a job board site, and waited for the cash to flow.<\/p>\n<p class=\"vp-topper ng-binding\">Cash did not flow. Nobody visited my website.<\/p>\n<p>My million dollar plan was missing one thing: marketing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo problem!\u201d I thought. I\u2019ll pay a marketing firm, and get people to visit my website.<\/p>\n<p>I had a few dollars coming in from my Knott\u2019s Berry Farm job, so I used it to pay a marketing agency. They ripped me off big time.<\/p>\n<p>Sure, they were happy to take my money, but they didn\u2019t do anything to bring me traffic. I even tried a couple more marketing agencies and got zero results. I had stumbled into the scammy world of online marketers.<\/p>\n<p>Since I had thrown all my money away, I had to do the marketing myself. I sat down at my computer and taught myself the basics of Internet marketing.<\/p>\n<p>It worked. My marketing efforts starting bringing people to my job board website. But still, the money wasn\u2019t pouring in like I hoped it would.<\/p>\n<p>Eventually, the job board site went belly up. You won\u2019t find it on the Internet today.<\/p>\n<p>Now, however, I had a valuable skill: Online marketing.<\/p>\n<p><b>My next attempt at making money was more successful.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>I had a solid failure under my belt. And I had a new skill.<\/p>\n<p>Although I was still in high school, I decided to take a few college classes. I wanted to finish college in half the time. The first college class I took was Speech 101. Since Internet marketing and search engines were on my mind at the time, I delivered a speech about it.<\/p>\n<p>One of my fellow students heard my speech about online marketing. He introduce me to his boss, and the company decided to use my services.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s when I landed my first job that gave me real money. The job paid $3,500 a month, which was serious cash for a high school kid.<\/p>\n<p>While working that job, I found out just how much my skill was worth. I was pulling down $3,500 a month for myself, but my services helped the company earn $25 million in extra revenue!<\/p>\n<p>This made me think. I was making millions of dollars for other people! If I could start a company, I could make millions for <em>myself<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>It was time to start a business.<\/p>\n<p>My sister\u2019s boyfriend (now my sister\u2019s husband), Hiten Shah, and I went in together and founded an Internet marketing company.<\/p>\n<p><b> M<a href=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Patel.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-12402\" src=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Patel-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"patel\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Patel-225x300.jpg 225w, http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Patel-768x1025.jpg 768w, http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Patel-767x1024.jpg 767w, http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Patel.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a>ade my first million. And I lost my first million.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The money started coming in. We were gaining incredible referrals from my previous employer, and getting amazing results for our clients.<\/p>\n<p>We took the money, invested some, saved some, and tried to branch out into other businesses.<\/p>\n<p>By this time, I was in college \u201cfull-time.\u201d What this meant was that I spent all my time trying to grow our new businesses. I only showed up for my college classes when I felt like it (which wasn\u2019t often.)<\/p>\n<p>I was driven by a single goal \u2014 make a million bucks.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- www.deltanewsroom.com --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2163942495525027\" data-ad-slot=\"1411897411\" data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p>I was absolutely crushing it with my business, but I wasn\u2019t drawing a salary for myself or enjoying the money.<\/p>\n<div id=\"article-0-inread\" class=\"inread ng-isolate-scope inread-active\">\u00a0That\u2019s when it happened. At age 21, I had achieved my goal of making my first million bucks.<\/div>\n<p>It hardly registered with me. Money had begun to lose meaning. What was money, but just a bunch of numbers, invoices, payables, and accounts?<\/p>\n<p>Around then was when I made another big mistake. It cost me a million bucks, and almost threw me out of the entrepreneurial game.<\/p>\n<div class=\"vestpocket\">\n<div id=\"vest-pocket-container-0\" class=\"article-vp-wrapper ng-scope standard\" data-track=\"3\">\n<div class=\"vp-inner ng-scope\">\n<div class=\"box-overlay\">\n<h5 class=\"ng-binding\">What&#8217;s More Important &#8212; Your Work, Or Your Life?<\/h5>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>With an ill-conceived business plan and an immature investing decision, I flushed a million dollars down the toilet.<\/p>\n<p>But thankfully, I recovered. In less than a year, I made back all the money that I lost. And kept making more, and more, and more.<\/p>\n<p><b>I started to live like a millionaire \u201cshould.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n<p>When you spend your entire life chasing money, you eventually stop and think, \u201cOkay, what\u2019s the point of all this money?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I knew the point. Or at least I thought I knew the point. The point was to enjoy it, right? I spent twenty years chafing against my middle-class existence. Now I could rise above it all and truly enjoy life.<\/p>\n<p>Nice stuff would make me happy, right?<\/p>\n<p>I started enjoying nice stuff.<\/p>\n<p>I leased a helicopter to get me where I wanted to go.<\/p>\n<p>I chose the best seats on airplanes.<\/p>\n<p>I lived in a luxury hotel. It was super expensive, but it was also convenient and helped me stay productive.<\/p>\n<p>I became enamored of expensive watches, and so I started collecting them. One of the Patek\u2019s I bought cost $100,000.<\/p>\n<p>I bought clothes \u2014 nice clothes. Spending a few thousand dollars on a sweater or a pair of shoes was no big deal. Besides, it made me look wealthier. Just my briefcase cost more than $3,000.<\/p>\n<p>Food? Why not go for the best? I didn\u2019t mind spending several thousand dollars for a meal at Jo\u00ebl Robuchon.<\/p>\n<p>I experienced luxury accommodations at a whole new level when I bought an apartment overlooking the Vegas Strip.<\/p>\n<p>I was surrounded by the benefits of my hard work.<\/p>\n<p>I had some of the nicest things that money could buy.<\/p>\n<p><b>None of it made me happy.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>I was experiencing all the things that money can provide \u2014 the clothes, the accommodations, the transportation, the jewelry, the food.<\/p>\n<p>But none of those things were deeply satisfying.<\/p>\n<p>Sure, it felt good at first. I could casually hand over my Amex Centurion Card and spend more than a thousand dollars on one Tom Ford shirt.<\/p>\n<p>But then it felt like no big deal. The thrill was gone. It got kind of boring, actually. What was happening? Wasn\u2019t this what I had worked so hard for?<\/p>\n<p>I realized that my entire life goal \u2014 rising from my middle class environment and making millions of dollars \u2014 didn\u2019t satisfy me at all.<\/p>\n<p>After making my first, second, third, etc., million, here is what I learned:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Money comes and money goes.<\/li>\n<li>You can easily lose money.<\/li>\n<li>Money itself doesn\u2019t provide happiness.<\/li>\n<li>The things that money can buy do not provide happiness.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What good is money, anyway?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Experiencing wealth has taught me something, even if it didn\u2019t make me happy.<\/p>\n<p>I learned about the source of true happiness.<\/p>\n<p>Not everyone will have the same experience. For me, however, I learned that happiness comes from things other than money.<\/p>\n<p><em>Friends and family.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Money can\u2019t buy friends and family. When I earned millions of dollars, my parents were there. When I lost millions of dollars, my parents were still there.<\/p>\n<p>I can hold on to my friends, even without money.<\/p>\n<p>No matter how rich or poor I am, I can always gain joy and satisfaction from my relationships.<\/p>\n<p><em>Less stuff.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"vp-topper ng-binding\">Stuff stresses us out. When I decided to get rid of my stuff and live as a minimalist, I began to enjoy life more.<\/p>\n<p>Luxury items come and go. My Patek watch could get cracked, and my Dolce sunglasses might get scratched. Stuff doesn\u2019t last.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019d rather own less and live more.<\/p>\n<p><em>Experiences<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Money can buy experiences. But the life experiences that provide the most joy aren\u2019t yacht ownership or swanky Mediterranean resorts. Simple vacations with loved ones can bring ten times more joy than an exotic cruise.<\/p>\n<p>Going to see a local museum or attraction is an experience that can provide just as much meaningful memories as spending an extravagant weekend at a casino.<\/p>\n<p>My favorite experiences have been the ones that cost very little money \u2014 experiences with family and friends.<\/p>\n<p><em>Helping others<\/em><\/p>\n<p>When I bought a $100k watch, I felt nothing. No joy. No satisfaction. No happiness.<\/p>\n<p>But when I donated money to charity or built a school for underprivileged kids, I felt everything. I felt excited. I felt joyful. I felt alive. I felt like I was finally using my money for its intended purpose.<\/p>\n<p>Closing the deal on my multi-million dollar luxury condo hardly gave me a smile. But when I paid for someone\u2019s college tuition, it brought a smile to their face. And that smile was priceless.<\/p>\n<p>I began to use my money for meaningful things \u2014 building schools, paying for other\u2019s medical treatments, and contributing to disaster relief.<\/p>\n<p>I used to be passionate about spending money on myself. I thought that, somehow, I would finally experience fulfillment and joy. However, my most joyful spending experiences were when I spent money on other people.<\/p>\n<p>Making my first million wasn\u2019t as thrilling as I thought it would be. The more money I made, the less it really mattered.<\/p>\n<p>What I learned after banking my first million dollars was that happiness isn\u2019t found in the money at all. Instead, happiness is found in helping others change their life. Best of all, you don\u2019t always need to make or spend money to help others.<\/p>\n<p>Source: http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/<\/p>\n<p><code><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- www.deltanewsroom.com --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2163942495525027\" data-ad-slot=\"1411897411\" data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/code><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alternativeadvert.com\/show.php?z=30&amp;pl=11613&amp;ad_type=59&amp;rl=180\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To some people, that phrase might sound like the height of arrogance, privilege, and disregard, but hear me out. I know many entrepreneurs who hustle hard. They\u2019re in the game for one reason: the money. They want fast cars, big yachts, and private jets. There are others, normal hard working people, who yearn for the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":12402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[3287],"class_list":["post-12401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society","tag-neil-patel"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Patel.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-3e1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12401"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12403,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12401\/revisions\/12403"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}