Can anyone make a million dollarsFrom Marvin Schulz, staff writer, Palm Beach Research Group: Cuenca, Ecuador.

I woke up to the cat meowing next to our room. My friend, Nicole, was still sleeping.

Wide awake, I began jotting down ideas. One of them was this: I want to make a million dollars in my 30s.

Nicole opened her eyes.

“Good morning,” I said, smiling. “I’m going to make a million dollars in my 30s.”

She looked at me, rubbed her eyes, and said, in a thick Brazilian accent, “Impossible.”

I grinned and started thinking.

Can anyone make a million dollars? If so, what does it take to make a million?

The Outdated Money Paradigm

I grew up in rural Germany. My family was middle-class. Every day, I sat in a dark public-school classroom.

Here’s what I was told:

Do well in school. Listen to your teachers. Study hard and get a degree. Better yet, get multiple degrees. Work hard in an office, and you’ll make a lot of money.

Fine, I thought. But one thing seemed odd to me…

In school, we only talked about making an annual income of $50,000-90,000. My teachers didn’t seem rich. I knew my dad wasn’t. No one in my life seemed wealthy… Yet, they all gave the same advice.

I had been fooled.

Can Anyone Make a Million Dollars?

Today, I know this:

Wealth doesn’t depend on school or a degree.

In fact, some of the wealthiest people in the world (e.g., Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, etc.) dropped out of school to follow their own ideas.

In a sense, school corrupts. It teaches us to think inside the box, and prepares us for administrative roles that make others money.

So, what does it take to get rich? Two things: service and value.

The number in your bank account solely depends on these two words. If you serve people what they value, you will be rich.

Consider Facebook. The social media giant serves over 1 billion people what they value: the opportunity to share their lives with others. Facebook is a 21st century problem-solver. So is WhatsApp. So is Uber.

Let’s look at a more tangible example.

Meet Amanda Hocking, a 26-Year-Old Millionaire

Hocking was employed as a group-home worker.

In her spare time, she wrote 17 young-adult fiction novels.

In 2010, she started self-publishing her work on Amazon’s Kindle platform. One year later, she’s sold more than 1 million copies, and raked in over $2 million from sales… making her a millionaire at age 26.

By March 2011, Hocking averaged 9,000 sales per day.

How did she do it?

Using Amazon’s platform, she found a way to give a lot of people what they value. A few years ago, vampire romance books were peaking in sales. Hocking fed the hungry audience exactly what they wanted to read.

You may ask: Can anyone make a million dollars by self-publishing e-books?

Our close friend, James Altucher, wrote an interesting article on self-publishing, available for free, right here.

For those who want to dive deeper, our Wealth Builders Club features the exact steps to authoring and publishing e-books in our Extra Income Opportunity essay No. 2, “Become an E-Book Author and Publisher.” For more information on the Wealth Builders Club, click here.

Meet Ryan, the 10-Year-Old Entrepreneur of “Ryan’s Bakery”

At the ripe age of 10, Ryan had a realization…

He would only feed his dog what he was willing to eat himself. Disgusted by the smell of industrial dog treats, Ryan set out to create a healthier, tastier alternative. He talked to vets, tested different flavor combinations, and experimented with shape and color.

Ryan’s first batch of homemade dog treats was a hit with Barkley, his adopted rescue beagle. Soon after, Ryan hopped on his bike to sell cookies to other dog owners in the neighborhood.

Just like that, Ryan’s Bakery was born.

Ryan now uses the Internet to sell his dog treats nationwide. His business has been featured on ABC’s Shark Tank.

How did Ryan pull it off?

Like Amanda, he found a niche. He used the Web to serve dog owners what they value most for their four-legged friends: quality food.

So, Can Anyone Make a Million Dollars?

There’s no cap on the value you can create—no limits to the services you can offer. If you serve a lot of people what they want, money will come your way.

Whether you sell 1 million books for $1 each, vend 100,000 packs of dog treats for $10 each, or paint a million-dollar picture, the amount of money you make always depends on two words:

Service and value.

P.S. If you’re like me, you might need some time to wrap your mind around this idea. For helpful information and more business ideas, consider test-driving our Wealth Builders Club. It’s filled to the brim with real-world wealth-building advice you won’t find in mainstream media.

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