How to Make a Million Dollars

http://www.marshallbrain.com/million.htm

by marcofloriano • 17 years ago

68 32 17 years ago

marshallbrain.com

xinsight• 17 years ago

i was going to summarize, but it's thin and we've heard it all before: work hard, solve a problem, etc.

gcheong• 17 years ago

I find it sad commentary on the state of our educational system that this might be news to the average student at Duke.

Tichy• 17 years ago

Most people know about the "work hard" part, but they try it within the system as employees. They somehow trust the system to reward them, if only they work hard enough. I think that is a part where education is still necessary, because I don't think the system really works for you.

flipper• 17 years ago

Yes it was thin, but it was pitched at college kids who may not have heard it before. Many of us got way past college before we read any of this stuff, regrettably.

j3fft• 17 years ago

It may be thin, but it's inspirational, and that can go a long way when you're starting something from scratch.

This post inspired me years ago when I was starting my own company and I still think about it today.

Thanks Marshall!

dpcan• 17 years ago

etc includes: pander to the young college crowd that's playing a ton of video games.

johnrob• 17 years ago

This was a good quote:

"All you can do after a failure is get up and try again. If you keep doing that, one of two things will happen -- either you will succeed eventually, or you will die. And if you die, then you won't care anymore."

steveitis4• 17 years ago

The easiest way is to simply find a way to make one dollar (anyone can make one lousy dollar), find a way to automate that (hire people, code something, yadda), and repeat a million times (assuming the original process is scalable).

Simple, and effective.

mattmaroon• 17 years ago

That sounds far from simple and totally ineffective. Finding a way to make $1 that scales to that extent is non-trivial, in fact it is probably harder than opening a successful restaurant.

Hiring people is out unless it could be repeated quickly (they charge an hourly rate that you have to fade) and if that's true, the minute you show someone how to do it they'll cut you out. Unless there is a barrier to entry, which generally means cost, in which case you probably already have a million dollars.

apgwoz• 17 years ago

Maybe the trick is to get people to make you money without them knowing that they are working for you. What if freerice.com was for profit?

steveitis4• 17 years ago

None of those steps are actually 'non-trivial'. My statement was meant to be sort of tongue-in-cheek. It's a true statement. It's also a gross over simplification.

This method has worked for me in the past, especially on the internet. Outside the internet however it's virtually impossible due to fundamental market restrictions.

rokhayakebe2• 17 years ago

Have you been able to do it? Not necessarily achieving 1M, but at least a 5 figure return over one year.

steveitis4• 17 years ago

Sort of. I built the business, but it got litigated away from me. Last valuation of it though was several million dollars.

Now I'm starting over, and I'll do it again.

scottjackson2• 17 years ago

You say "Steve, how can I be a millionaire and never pay taxes?" First, get a million dollars. Now you say "Steve, what do I say to the tax man when he comes to my door and says, 'You have never paid taxes'?"

Two simple words. Two simple words in the English language: "I forgot."

steveitis4• 17 years ago

Is that a quote from something?

I remember back in grade school when I asked my Mom what the penalty for not paying taxes was "Do they take you to jail or something?", and this simple fact dawned on me and me mother simultaneously.

scottjackson2• 17 years ago

It's an old Steve Martin bit.

http://snltranscripts.jt.org/77/77imono.phtml

(Video of it is a bit hard to track down, sorry)

rwebb• 17 years ago

i stopped reading at 10% for 42 years

mattlanger3• 17 years ago

> The whole point of creating a successful business, of course, is to have it generate money.

I like to think that the whole point is to make something awesome/memorable/useful/meaningful/worthwhile that also creates jobs and produces wealth.

ryanwaggoner2• 17 years ago

awesome/memorable/useful/meaningful/worthwhile

Nice thought, but that definition is so broad that only outright scams don't fall under its purview.

mattlanger3• 17 years ago

It's not the retrospective assessment of a business that's important here but the motivation that sets it in motion in the first place. Take a company like Facebook: those guys are really serious--almost evangelical--about the goal of making the world more connected; they also happen to be cornering a Google-size market in the process. Or think back to Microsoft before hating on them became so vogue: they had a mission to put a PC in every household which is a pretty admirable goal; it also happened to be the case that it was a damn good business move.

pkrumins• 17 years ago

Some day I will also have a million dollars. Then I'll write a guide on how to make a million dollars as well.

vaksel• 17 years ago

sure it's easy to create a business, but that just means there is more competition. For every Walmart, there were thousands of mom and pop stores that crashed and burned.

hyperbovine• 17 years ago

If I had a million dollars I think I would hire a graphic designer to craft me a presentation template that did not look like it came from the ass of PowerPoint, ca. 1998.

Otherwise, good slideshow :-)

joshstaiger• 17 years ago

Actually, this presentation has been around for a while. I remember reading this around 2005.

Not exactly 1998, but still :P

(http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.marshallbrain.com/mi...)

flooha• 17 years ago

It was thin, but the one gem that you don't hear very often is to approach being an employee as a way to learn how to successfully run a business, rather than a way to get a paycheck. Sound advice for entrepreneurs who, for whatever reason, can't yet take the plunge.

mattlanger3• 17 years ago

> approach being an employee as a way to learn how to successfully run a business

Or as is so often the case (and also a valuable learning experience) how to unsuccessfully run a business.

GavinB• 17 years ago

In America, starting a successful business is the surest, most controllable path available to you for making a million dollars in less than 42 years.

Sadly, this is just not true. Getting a high paying job (doctor, lawyer, MBA, programmer) and living well below your means is the easiest way.

There are lots of great reasons to start your own business, but they are not because it is "sure" and "controllable."

abijlani• 17 years ago

Start a business become a millionaire. It's like saying to a VC we just need to capture 1% of this $100 billion market.

c00p3r• 17 years ago

Borrow money from the FED. Buy a gold futures. Sell them next week. =)

Olivero• 17 years ago

Say I'm a college student with $70,000 available at this very moment with a networth of around $150,000, with zero debt. How would you turn it into a million? Hypothetically speaking.

How to Make a Million Dollars

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