 One of the common questions we get in the comment section of this channel is are you rich yourself? This question makes a lot of sense since we talk a lot about money on this channel. If I talk a lot about money and entrepreneurship, it doesn't make sense that someone wants to know if I'm rich, right? Well the answer to that question is this, I'm rich according to my definition of wealth and that raises another big problem. For example, what is the definition of wealth and who is rich? I need to tell you a story to reveal what I think about this subject. You see when I was growing up as a boy in a poor household, I noticed that most people are slaves of money because they do what they hate several hours per day and still don't have any money. So I decided that I was going to try and be a free man. Then my definition of financial prosperity becomes do what you extremely love and earn a little more than enough to take care of your needs. I achieved this goal when I was around 30 years old. Now the problem you might have with me is to want to know how many millions is my net worth but don't bother yourself about that as it doesn't matter to me at all. What matters to me is to have more than enough money to take care of my needs and to do what I extremely love doing and by that standard I'm wealthy. Now that you know that I'm wealthy. How did I do it and what sacrifices did I make to achieve my dreams? That's what I'll be sharing with you in this video and before we proceed let me make it clear that I'm not speaking against the Bill Gates and Warren Buffets of this world. I'm not speaking against being a billionaire or even a trillionaire. I'm only telling you about my philosophy about money. So let's get into today's business. Books are boring. So are herbs. I'm a Nigerian and I grew up in a village. In the village where I grew up, whenever you're sick, the default medicine is a herb. I don't know which part of the world you are or whether you even know what herbs are but it's simply the mixture of various leaves that I believe to have medicinal value. Needless to say herbs are usually very bitter but whenever you're sick you have to take herbs so that you could recover from your malaria or any other illness. For most of us who are adults books are the perfect representative of the herbs because books are boring. For me the first sacrifice I made when trying to become wealthy is that I read a lot of books. Reading books has a way of changing the way you see the world and what you think is possible. Between the ages of 17 till 30 I read hundreds of books about entrepreneurship, money, relationships, psychology, marketing, public speaking and a lot more. Even today I read one book every week because my life depends on God and books. Growing up in a community where poverty is everywhere it was my reading habit that made me believe in the possibilities that I wasn't seeing around me. Herbs are bitter but they heal sicknesses. Books are boring but they change lives. Read books if you want to change your life. Yes it's not easy to read especially in the world where there are too many interesting things going on on social media but that's why I call it a sacrifice. Go against the norms. Immediately as I started reading the way I saw the world started changing and the way I thought started changing. I no longer believed in what most people believed and because of that I became the black sheep of my family. If you want to go far in life you must have the courage to go against what most people believe is right. For example, everybody in the community where I grew up believes that the best goal to pursue as a young person is to figure out how to get a job in a big company. I thought that the opposite is the right goal. Why not build a small company? Isn't it better to build a small company than to work for a big company? Walking against everybody is tough because we're humans and we need love and approval of others to remain alive but sometimes you just have to make the sacrifice of being lonely and that is what I did. I read to act. I know a few people who read books but only a few of them ever stand up to take action after they acquire knowledge. For these people, knowledge is to make their head bigger and I get it. Knowledge is sweet. It makes you feel good to know what most people don't know and it's even sweeter if you can find a few people to argue with to prove that you have deep insights but it's a waste of your time. For me, I learn not to know but to do. I don't know any single human who is as proactive as I am when it comes to getting out and trying things. Yes, I don't know anyone who feels as much as I did too but that's the sacrifice I'm talking about. If you want to play safe, you can do that by following the tested formula but I assure you that you'll never achieve anything extraordinary until you dare to take action. Would you fail? Absolutely yes. You'll make mistakes and fail but guess what? You'll become smarter and smarter until you become successful. Use people and let them use you. Some time ago, I read a book that your network determines your net worth and you better believe that. You see, who you hang out with determines who you become. If all your friends are poor, you'll be poor and I don't want to interpret this to mean monetary poverty instead I mean ambition poverty. If your friends don't think big, if they don't have a positive view about life, if they complain or make excuses, don't deceive yourself to believe that you can be their opposite because none of us can. Now, where the sacrifice lies is that you must be willing to say no to wrong and negative people and make further sacrifices to say yes to the right people because you need the right people to be used. I mean used because that's what it is. You must have people around you whose knowledge and experiences can be useful for you as you move through the difficult journey of life and you have to be conscious about making these people your friends and keeping them. This requires sacrifices. You'll have reasons to give up. Don't. I love to tell people that I fail in the business world for eight years because that's a crazy thing to imagine. I mean eight bloody years of struggle, eight crazy years of rejection, eight terrible years of mistakes and failures but I was too stupid to turn back. If this is not a sacrifice, I don't know what else is but that's what you have to do to achieve your dreams. I have no doubt you'll have reasons to give up. Life will maltreat you. Life will crush you. Life will frustrate you. Life will nearly disown you. Your ability to hang there and keep fighting is the only asset that will make you win. In summary, let me encourage anyone out there who's trying to achieve something worthwhile with their life. Be a warrior and learn the rules of the game you're playing. Make a sacrifice to read and learn. Say no to the TV and social media if need be. Say no to useless meetings and parties if need be. And when you learn, you'll be courageous enough to take action. Yes, the next thing that will happen when you take action is that you'll make mistakes and fail. You can cry but never give up. Don't forget, life won't give you anything until it gets you to pay for it. If you like this video, you might like to join our new motivational channel. We call it Hunt TV. Look at the description box to join the Hunt TV. We love you.