 I've told you this story a few times, but good stories deserve to be repeated. So here it is again. At age 17, thereabout, I borrowed a book from a friend. The title of the book is The Maximum Achievement, written by Brian Tracy. Somewhere inside this book, I read a statement that went on to change my life forever. And that statement is, if you want to achieve what you've never achieved before, you have to become who you've never become before. The statement sounds so simple, yet for many years, I always remembered it and I changed the way I see life. You see, life is garbage in and garbage out. What you throw in determines what you get out. Though we all have fantasies and dreams about how we wish to get things without enormous sacrifices, it's what it is. Fantasy, do you want a new result? You have to become a new person. And that usually means that you'll have to deny yourself certain things. Einstein said, insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. Insanity is when you're willing to get something out of life but you're not willing to give up anything in return. Below are seven things I gave up to have the kind of life I have today. If you're new here, consider subscribing so that you won't miss other interesting videos like this. The love of my family members I am a Nigerian and in the culture where I grew up, your tattoo to your family is forever. You don't get to a particular age and let go of your family members. If you are as unfortunate as I was to be the youngest member of the family, then everyone else wants to tell you what to do with your life, even when you're 30 years old. My life's plan was not in my head so when I announced that I had a different plan, it was a disaster for me. The plan everyone had for me is to become a PhD holder because a degree is a God in my country, until recent times. At some point in my life, I had to decide whether I'll continue enjoying the love of my mother, father, and my family members or go after my dream of building a business. I decided for the latter and as a consequence of that decision, I went through years of trauma because almost everyone in my family is waiting for my absolute crash and they won't support you because they want their prophecy to come to pass. I don't know the part of the world you are but I assure you, someone very special to you is going to kick against your dream. That may be your mother, your father, or your friend. You'll find yourself in an emotional crisis. Should I listen to my mother to make her happy and our relationship fine or should I follow my dream and get my precious mother to disown me? I cried many nights and I'm still shedding tears as I write this script. It was a painful moment for me and the only reason why I could go after my dream is that I knew all of my life was made up of it. Letting go of my dreams means letting go of my life. I would rather let go of my most precious relationships than to let go of my dreams and that was it. The Social Media Noise I was once a Facebook junkie who spent as much as 45 hours every day on Facebook. I woke up one day and deleted my Facebook account because I was not just wasting my time, I was losing my mind expecting likes and comments from the people who don't even care about my existence in the universe. Social media is like alcohol. It's not a scene but it is the best friend of scene. Social media can be the best thing that has ever happened to you just as alcohol can be good for you if taken moderately. However, like alcohol, social media is greatly addictive and before you know it, you spend hours and hours scrolling through other people's photoshopped lives. I don't mean that you should stop using social media. For instance, some people claim that YouTube is a social media. I don't see YouTube as a social media because I've built the entire company around YouTube. I sell my company's products via YouTube and I have a media company that makes good money on YouTube. I also use WhatsApp to communicate with a few important people in my life. The only sacrifice I've made is the cut of the noisy and wasteful part of the social media. Do you have a business? Promote it on social media and spending several hours doing that will be an investment. Are you just posting your photos to expect some likes and comments? Maybe you should give that up for something more productive. The negative friends One day, when I was around 19, I sat down and made a list of all my friends. Then I asked myself, with what I know about these people today, which of them is going somewhere I want to go in the future? I discovered that most of my friends were not serious about their lives. They believe that my country is doomed and one of them even dependent on the inheritance from his wealthy father. My father is poor, so there is no way I could be a friend with someone who is dependent on what to inherit from his father. I got rid of my negative friends and only kept about three friends who are crazy about life. Yes, if you want to get rid of the negative people in your life, you'll just have a few friends. But that's fine. Today, I have less than five friends I love to spend time with and I think I'm fine because hanging out with negative people will ruin your life. Think about the contagious disease. That's how human habits and mindsets are. You can't sit down with an Ebola patient and hope to escape having Ebola. You can't hang around negative people and somehow hope to remain positive. Sometimes, these negative people are your family members and it could be painful to avoid them. But you have to do just that. For instance, I love everyone in my family but I don't sit down with them to discuss anything worthwhile. I could never share my dreams or goals with them because I know what they will tell me. The TV My philosophy about life is this. If something is very interesting, it has to give me money or help my dreams in some way because interesting things are very addictive and getting addicted to something that's not helping my life's dream is the same as destroying my dreams. The problem I have with the TV is that it is very interesting. Having such an interesting box in front of me is a great temptation but don't let me sound like I'm holier than you are here because I am not. All of us now have a TV right in our hands which is our phone and every week when I get the report of how many hours I spend on my phone the previous week, I ask myself what and what did I spend those hours doing? If I can figure out that 50 to 60% of the hours I spend on the internet are productive then I can forgive myself even though I watched Jimmy Camel, Rachel Maddow and other news and entertainment videos. My message here is about balance. Don't allow anything to own you. Consume entertainment to get entertainment. Don't make entertainment your work. The love of shiny objects Being rich in our world today means having several millions of dollars, Rolex watches, Ferraris and the biggest mansions. While I don't think those things are sinful, I try to become truly wealthy by not living for the flashy objects. I've always used ridiculous phones. For example, the phone I'm using currently costs me about $150. No designer clothes and no fancy anything. I try to be utilitarian and what that means is that I buy things I need, other things I like. This makes life a lot easier for me because I don't have to run after the latest iPhones or Rolex watches which probably won't add anything to my level of happiness. Our luxury is what most people define as riches. I think the real riches are when you don't have to let your possession determine your self-esteem. Again, I'm not holier than you because I get tempted and fall for the temptation to look big sometimes but I seriously know that my true wealth lies in my ability to say no to whatever I don't need. The instant gratification When I had my first breakthrough in business, what I told myself is, keep living like a poor man and over the years I've made it a commandment to leave as though I'm earning 20% of what I'm truly earning. If your business gives you $10,000 a month, you'll do your future a great favor if you can figure out how to live like you earn $2,000 or $3,000 a month. That's called delaying gratification. If you like a new car and you have the money to buy it, look for how to double that money and wait till you double the money before you satisfy your lost. That's how to be smart with money. Parties Parties Parties In my country, Nigeria, a party is a big thing. You have to blow a big party if you're getting married, naming your child or doing your father's burial. So many people waste a ridiculous amount of money just to impress others that they have the money they don't even have. So when we gave back to our child, I named her in the hospital and whenever anyone came to visit us, we simply told them the name of the child. This is a taboo in my culture and everyone thought that I was crazy but I didn't see how organizing a big party will make me or my wife happier than we were. What I saw is the amount of money we'll waste which I'd rather use to employ one more person for my company. Let me end this video the way I started it. If you want to achieve the results you've never achieved, you have to be willing to give up what you've never given up before. We love you.