The million dollar plan nobody taught me at seventeen.
I started with a squeegee, a bucket, and a bad attitude.
Seventeen years old. Knew nothing. Thought I knew more than everyone.
That attitude cost me more than customers. It cost me time. And it cost me freedom. Time and financial freedom. The two things I wanted most were the two things I was throwing away by being the smartest guy in every room I walked into.
It took me years to learn what nobody told me back then. A million dollars isn’t one big swing. It’s built like cleaning a skyscraper. You don’t stare up at a thousand windows. You clean the next pane. Then the next one. And one day you look up and the whole building is shining.
Let me walk you up the building.
Step 1: Know Your Why.
Before you clean a single window, you have to know why you’re climbing.
Without the why, you’re sailing a ship to a port you’re not even sure you want to land at.
Most people chase a million because they’re envious of the stuff. The $20K Rolex. The M8 BMW sitting in a five bay garage attached to a 10,000 square foot house. That’s nice. But do you actually want that? Or do you want the freedom a million dollars can buy you?
And if your why is F U money, you picked the wrong reason. Spite runs out of gas.
If you don’t care about cars, don’t pretend you want the Porsche 911. Know it. Whatever you want, whatever you dream, make that the reason.
My why was simple. I wanted to earn a million, own assets worth a million, and have a million in the bank. Your why will be different from mine, and that’s ok. Just know it, because your why is what drags you out of bed on the cold mornings.
Step 2: Aim Past The Million.
Here’s a trick I’ve used my whole life. Aim higher than the goal.
Why not $1.5 million? Why not $5 million? If you aim high and come up a little short, you still blow past the target you actually needed. Now you’re fired up to go after the next big one. You create a win-win with yourself.
Step 3: Do The Math.
This is where most dreams die, so let’s be honest.
Say you work for someone and make $75,000 a year. You get wildly disciplined and save half of it. That’s $37,500 a year. Stuff it in the bank and it takes you almost 27 years to hit a million.
Now be real. Most people save closer to 10%. Even if they invest it and it grows at a solid rate, that road is about 35 years long.
[CHART: The Road to $1M on a $75K Salary]
Do you want to eat ramen noodles and skip every vacation for three decades to get there? Me neither.
When you do the math, you’ll find what I found. To get to the million, you’re more than likely going to need a business.
Step 4: Be Tenacious, and Be Diligent.
This is where the climb gets steep.
You need a level of tenacity that exceeds anything you’ve ever known. And with that tenacity, you need to be super diligent about what you earn and what you save. That’s the discipline that gets you to the promised land.
As you stack your cash, store it somewhere you can’t touch it without feeling some serious pane. High interest savings accounts. Investment accounts. Put the money behind glass. You can see it. You can’t grab it. Use that to your advantage, especially if you’re weak in the discipline department.
Step 5: Invest in You, and Build a Business.
This is the big money saver and the big money maker. These two steps are the key to the whole building.
The more you invest in yourself, in skills training, in sales, in financial wisdom, the more you set yourself up to hit your goal. Never forget about YOU. You’re the driver. Your discipline and your wisdom will produce more for you than any account, any stock, or any paycheck ever will.
And a business is the ladder. A paycheck lets you clean one window at a time. A business lets you put a whole crew on the building.
Step 6: Check Your Numbers Every Day.
Write your goal down. Look at your numbers daily. Yes, daily.
A good window cleaner doesn’t wait until the whole building is done to check for streaks. He checks every pane. Are you hitting your targets, or coming up short?
And don’t get discouraged. Some days you win and some days you lose. The trick is to win big on the good days and lose small on the bad days.
Your Turn.
Seventeen-year-old me paid for his attitude with time and freedom. You don’t have to.
You don’t need to see the whole building today. You need your why, your target, your numbers, and the next window.
Know your why. Build the path. Invest in you. Watch your numbers every single day.
So take these nuggets and go get your million.
Keep Shining,
Gabe Salinas
This article is for educational and motivational purposes only and is not financial advice.
