 What's happening guys? So when you visualize a rich person in your head, there's probably a few things that you think of. You might think that the person inherited all of their money from their parents, or maybe they got a high-paying job from family connections. Or maybe they won the lottery or got incredibly lucky. I'm rich! And then the few people that came from nothing and they're self-made got there by being ruthless. Why make trillions when we could make... Billions? Or maybe they were just in the right place at the right time and they got rich overnight on a lucky investment. What?! But when you really look into it, the truth is that statistics show that none of these things are true. And in this video, I'm going to go over the top five ways that people actually become rich. But before we get into that, never forget that the true way to get rich, because it's really good karma, is to always remember to smash the like button. Smash! Against Bath and Shield. So I did a ton of research for this video. I went over hours and hours of different studies and surveys and all kinds of things to find the five most common paths to actually getting rich. And most of this list is based off of the two Thomases, Thomas Stanley and Thomas Corley, who have studied the habits of millionaires for decades. And two really great books I recommend are Rich Habits, Poor Habits, and The Millionaire Next Door. So number five on this list is going to be virtuosos or top experts in their field. So when I was studying millionaires, this made up about 7% of the overall total amount of self-made millionaires. And this one is a little bit broad, but it basically is made up of people who are at the top of their field and whatever they do. For instance, you could be a knowledge-based virtuoso such as a doctor, a lawyer, or someone with a PhD. Now this takes a very long time. For instance, becoming a medical doctor will take eight years of studying and then usually like a three to seven year long residency. So that's like 15 years of your life before you start making the really good money. If you become a PhD, you're going to have to conduct original research and then defend your research in front of a committee of experts. It's also extremely expensive. A lot of doctors, for instance, will go $300,000 in debt and they don't start making good money until they get into their mid-30s. So this definitely isn't the path for everyone, but if you're someone who's very book smart, for instance, this might be a really good choice for you. You just need to make sure that you know what you're getting yourself into before you commit to this path. So let's say, for instance, that you decide you want to be a medical doctor. Well, this is one of the best ones on the list just because this is a path that's already been paved. A lot of the other ones on this list, you have a very low chance of success. But when it comes to being a medical doctor, the path has already been paved, you kind of just have to put the time and the work in. And if you're someone who's just very naturally book smart, maybe you have a photographic memory, for instance, you can leverage your natural abilities to make a really good income. This is sort of like the nerdy equivalent of being a professional basketball player if you were born with genetics that are going to make you freakishly athletic and seven feet tall. It's a tough, expensive and very long path, but eventually it will lead you to the promised land. Now the other type of virtuoso that's in this category is more of a skill-based virtuoso. And this is someone who devotes themselves to many years of deliberate practice in order to master a particular skill that a lot of people value. You could say that professional athletes, consultants and also high-level freelancers could fall under this category. You could also say that authors, artists or people who are at the top of their field and they write books or manuals on how to get better at whatever they do could fall under this category as well. Basically, anybody that specializes in something that a lot of people are willing to pay good money for. So depending on what you specialize in, this one could take a lot less time than the knowledge-based virtuoso takes because you don't have to go through, you know, 15 years of med school in order to start making money. But on the other hand, it's a lot harder to prove yourself and you don't have the same credentials that you would get in the other path. Overall, I think the virtuoso has the second easiest path to becoming rich out of all the ones that are on this list. But I think the upside isn't as high as most of the other ones and it'll also take a lot longer. Number four on the list is going to be a big company executive. This one comes in at about 18% and it's all about climbing the corporate ladder. And there is a ton of money to be made in big corporations if you are someone who has the skills to make that corporation even more money. Now, this could go all the way up to being a CEO of a company, but it doesn't have to actually get that high. Depending on which company you work for, you could easily get rich just by becoming a vice president, for instance. An example of this is Jeremy Burton made nearly 10 million a year working for the global data company EMC. But a lot of the times this isn't all about the salary that you make. A lot of the wealth that you build working for these big companies is going to come from stock compensation. And by that, I mean, along with your salary, you'll likely get paid out stock for the company as well, which incentivizes the workers to work even harder. This is a win-win situation for everyone involved, and it tends to make executives work harder and do a better job. But that's kind of the downside of going this route is you're probably going to be working somewhere between 60 and 80 hours a week. There's going to be a lot of traveling. You're going to be working during vacations and holidays. And this also means that if the company struggles for whatever reason, you are also going to struggle. There's also a lot of politics involved in a position like this. Everybody's going to try to climb up the ladder and get to those high positions. So they're going to want to take credit when things go well, and they're going to want to blame others when things go wrong. You also have to spend a considerable amount of time and effort networking with other people who are in your field. Now, in order to stand out in a big company like this, you want to establish yourself as an expert in something. Whatever you're an expert in, you want that to be a very important thing that a lot of people need. You want to become the person that whenever they have a problem with that particular thing, they always come to you and you always have the answer. If you do this, you're going to be completely invaluable to your company. They'll never fire you and chances are other companies will probably fight for you as well. Now, on average, this path takes an average of about 22 years to get a net worth of around 3.4 million. That's pretty solid and it would lead to you being able to retire in your 40s. Overall, I'd say this is probably the second hardest path in order to become wealthy, but I think it's a really good option for certain types of people. Now, you can work for a really big established company. That's probably the best choice, but if you want to, you can also try to work for a startup. That way, there's more risk involved, but also chances are there's more reward because they're going to give you more stock equity in the company and they might even give you a partnership. And this is a really great option for you if you're somewhat business savvy and entrepreneurial, but you're not the type of person that wants to go out on your own. You're someone who enjoys having structure in your life and you want to be the one that's making some decisions, but you also want other people to kind of point you in the right direction. And this is unlike the next one on the list, which is going to be an entrepreneur where there's no one telling you what to do. You just have to be self-directed and figure everything out for yourself. Number three on the list is going to be a type of entrepreneur, which is going to be the small business entrepreneur. Now, I'm actually going to split this one into two different categories. This comes in at about a 51% split with entrepreneurs, meaning 51% of millionaires got that way by becoming an entrepreneur. However, I'm splitting it into two different ones and there's no way to really tell which one creates more. And I think this one is the third hardest path, which means it's also the third easiest path. It's kind of right there in the middle and that is the small business entrepreneur. So this could include opening a real estate agency, starting a chain of restaurants, starting a plumbing business, or maybe you start a business that transfers things or manufactures stuff, or maybe you start a bunch of nail salons or boba shops. The big point here is that you're starting a company with a business model that's already established and proven. You're not trying to disrupt an industry or anything like that. And a lot of the time, this isn't going to be a very sexy business. You're not going to be changing the world. You're not going to be making a billion dollars. You're not going to be saving the dolphins. But a lot of the times businesses like this are really overlooked because everybody else is chasing the shiny object. They're trying to become the next Elon Musk or they're trying to become an Instagram influencer. And this is more about starting a practical business that solves real problems that tons of different people are having on a day-to-day basis. And the way that a lot of people break into this is they start their own business from scratch. They get a loan in order to start the business or they buy an existing business. And I think a really great example of this is one of my favorite fast food restaurants, which is in and out. It started off as a small business, just one single shop in Irvine, California. And now it's expanded all across the West Coast. Now, most of the times small businesses like this are not going to become multi-billion dollar companies like in and out did, but there's a really good chance that they can become multi-million dollar companies. Number two on the list is going to be the other type of entrepreneur. And again, I'm splitting this into two, but this comes in at about 51% of total millionaires. This is the second type, which is the dreamer entrepreneur. Now, generally speaking, they're going to have a smaller chance of success than the one we just talked about. But on the other hand, their upside is much higher. If you follow this route, you could potentially make tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars early on in life. But like I said, the chances of success are very low and even the internet's favorite business icon and meme Lord had this to say about starting a business. Starting a company is like eating glass and starting into the abyss. This is without a doubt the most difficult way of getting rich, but it also has the highest upside. This combined with the small business entrepreneur did come in at about 51% of all millionaires on the list. So this is the most likely way of becoming wealthy. Starting a new blockchain, creating the next YouTube, disrupting the finance industry like Robin Hood. These are all hot. These are the types of businesses that can truly change the world. And I also group into this group newer types of business models that offer a certain lifestyle. You can save the turtles. You can live a laptop lifestyle. You can be a famous Instagram influencer. This is the type of business that a ton of people would really gravitate towards because it seems so sexy. And because of that, there's going to be a ton of competition. This group also had the highest average net worth at about 7.4 million and it didn't take them nearly as long to get there as well. However, many things are going to suffer. There's going to be a ton of financial stress, generally relationships with your significant other friends as well as family members. All of those things are going to suffer. Overall, this is still a great option for certain types of people, but don't forget this is without a doubt the most difficult path on the list. You have to be willing to work ridiculously hard. We're talking 80 to 100 hours a week. You have to be self-directed and you have to be willing to put yourself through a ton of pain with no end in sight. Number one on the list and this one came in at 49% of all of the people who became wealthy is the saver investor. Now this one is my favorite one on the entire list because it's not only the easiest one, but it's also the most flexible. And what I mean by that is it's very flexible because it can be paired with any of the other ones on this list. You can become a doctor, a lawyer and also be a saver investor. You can become a vice president of a company and also be a saver investor. You can also start a small business or a super hot business and at the same time save and invest on the side. And really there's no excuse to not be in this category because it's the most common path to wealth. It's really easy and it doesn't limit what you can do in any way. But I recommend diversifying your money across the entire market and not just investing in whatever the hottest stock is. If you open a Roth IRA at 18 years old, for instance, you invest $500 a month. By the time you retire, you're going to have over $3 million. Let's say you start a job at 22 years old and you watch some of my other videos and you realize that, you know, in order for you to be the most happy, you need to make about $75,000 a year and your company offers a 5% 401K match. By the time you retire, you're going to have over $3 million. You can also go the path of getting a bunch of rental properties or you can diversify your money across the entire market using index funds, which is my favorite way of investing. And if you do that, you'll probably retire with over $10 million. And there's so many stories out there of janitors and secretaries getting rich from investing even though they had a low income. And the best thing about this one is literally anyone can do it. It doesn't matter what kind of background you come from or what kind of job you have. It doesn't matter if you're an entrepreneur or maybe you're just kind of a chill, relaxed person that wants to have a nine to five and then come home and do whatever you want. It really doesn't matter. Anyone can build wealth by investing properly. I think you can probably tell that this one is my personal favorite on the list, but go ahead and check out my other videos right here. I made them just for you. Smash the like button, hit the subscribe button, ring little notification bell and then comment down below any thoughts on this video or ideas for other videos. Thank you so much for watching and bye for now.