My Rich Nerd,
Someone asked Shark Tank’s Barbara Corcoran: "What's the fastest way to become a millionaire?" Her response:
“Take money out of the equation. Find one thing you do really well. Practice until you have no competition. The money comes automatically.”
That advice goes against almost everything social media tells us. We're told to stack as many side hustles as possible: dropshipping, day trading, selling feet pics, and whatever new hustle got invented 14 minutes ago. TLDR: More/sexier is better.
Don't spread yourself too thin, you're a person, not a Super Saiyan.
The boring, unsexy, and most effective path works. Getting really good at one thing compounds exactly like money does. NYT Best Selling Author James Clear did the math on this: if you get 1% better at a skill every day for a year, that's 1.01³⁶⁵ , which works out to 37.8x better than where you started. Do that year after year and you'll be untouchable.
This has worked for me as a software engineer and a content creator. Need proof? Here’s the very first TikTok video I made. It sucks (and man, it’s cringey). However, 1000 videos and millions of views later, I feel much more confident on camera, and I was able to quit my job to do this full time.
Many members of the Rich Nerd community have also followed this rule. They are making serious money as real estate photographers, RV and solar salespeople, and even teaching people about the Mean Value Theorem (because they have honed their craft).
I'll leave you with an illustration to ponder from Greg McKeown's book “Essentialism”
This deserves to be framed in place of the Mona Lisa.
Talk soon,
— Your Money Senpai, Imran
P.S. If you have a second to reply, I'd love to hear: what's your top skill?
