5 Truths That Made Me a Millionaire at 22 There is no work/life balance. You need to dedicate yourself to the work. You need to be all in.
By Timothy Sykes •
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
One of the reasons I am fortunate enough to get to do what I loved and teach students each and every day, is because I found a great deal of success in penny stock trading at a young age. By the time I was 22 and graduating from college, I had turned around $12,000 of Bar Mitzvah money into $1 million, all from penny stock trading. So many of my students turn to me for help because they too want to find this type of success.
One of the greatest things that came from me making all of this money at such a young age is that I made a lot of mistakes along the way, and I learned from these mistakes. When I started trading, I was just a teenager with no idea of what I was really doing. If there were mistakes to be made, I was going to make them. Now, I can pass the insights I have gained from my own setbacks on to my students, in hopes that they can not only make their own million, but that they can do it faster, younger and better than I ever did.
While I did make a lot of mistakes, I also stumbled upon a lot of great tips that really guided me and lead me to my success. Here are five of the best tips that I learned along my own journey to becoming a millionaire by age 22.
1. Go where the money is.
It is really that simple. Back when I first started and when I first became a millionaire, the stock market was the place to go and was in a bubble. Now it's all about social media.
Related: From Washing Cars to Running a Multi-Million Dollar Empire
2. Age is just a number.
Age really means nothing. In fact, when I was a college freshman and just a teenager, I made $100,000 in one day. It had nothing to do with how old I was. If you have the skills and the knowledge, then your age, or your fancy and expensive degrees mean nothing. If you have the skills and the knowledge, then you have everything that you need to succeed.
Related: 4 Tips From a 26-Year-Old Who Built a $10 Million Consulting Business
3. Preparation is key.
Whether you want to call it preparing or studying, you need to be willing to put in the time and do your homework. For me, it meant putting friends, family and other areas of my life on hold. I wanted to be an expert, so that is where I dedicated all of my time. Everything else took a backseat.
Related: The 4 Attributes You Must Develop to Achieve Everything You Want in Life
4. There is no work/life balance.
You need to dedicate yourself to the work. This doesn't mean you have to completely abandon everyone and everything in your personal life, but it does mean that you need to be all in. I learned at an early age that if you want extraordinary monetary gains, you can't be half in. You can't just try to fit trading into your life like an after thought. Unfortunately, this is what most people do. They assume that they can just do a little trading for a few hours a day on the side and they will automatically start making millions. This isn't how it works. You need to be all in.
Related: Is Sex Killing Your Success?
5. Don't just do it for the money.
It may sound like a funny tip to come from a college student who just made a million dollars, but it is something that I really did learn at a young age. If you are only motivated by money, you are going to hit a ceiling and you are going to limit your potential. If you really want the sky to be the limit, then you need to be willing to challenge yourself and see what you can do with your knowledge and skills. Money is just the reward for your journey. Think about it this way and your experience will be much more fulfilling.
