AN anonymous 22-year-old online user—who, based on age and curiosity, may be a college fresh graduate—dared ask the good people of the Internet: “I want to become a millionaire by 35. How do I do this?”
The question was posted on the Q&A site Quora, and has garnered 34 answers to date. Top of which is from a certain Alberto Favaretto, a Hong Kong-based entrepreneur from Italy, who, in 2013, founded a leisurewear and travel bags company, called Very Troubled Child.
Favaretto presented 25 steps divided into two categories. First is a 14-point guide to “drastically reduce your expenses,” followed by another 11 tips to “drastically increase your income.”
The entrepreneur started off with a call to give up what any person can do without.
“Sell all the stuff you do not need [TV, Xbox, PlayStation, etc.], quit shopping for the sake of shopping, and do not smoke, drink alcohol, do drugs, etc.”
Favaretto’s first three steps may appear common in principle, but certainly not in practice. Not everyone has a strong grip on the difference between wants and needs. And even if one does, it takes discipline and commitment to observe that variance. Do you really need that dress for the office? Why purchase that big of a TV when you’re always out anyway?
What those opening answers try to achieve is to obviously establish the importance of having the proper mind-set in one’s pursuit to seeing multiple commas in his or her bank account. After all, it is the very question that the pointers were written to answer.
But what followed seemed so much more. Favaretto’s fourth step seems applicable to whatever pursuit, monetary or otherwise, and, especially in this day and age, would likely yield the same positive result every single time.
“Remove the Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest apps from your iPhone so that you can only access them via your desktop computer [you will automatically reduce your wasted time by at least 90 percent],” he wrote.
A 2017 data by www.socialmediatoday.com revealed that the average person would spend nearly two hours on social media every day, which equals to a total of five years and four months over a lifetime. According to the same data, that amount of time would be enough to fly to the moon and back 32 times, walk The Great Wall of China 3.5 times or climb Mount Everest 32 times.
Not a few people have experimented with social media withdrawal for a spell, and the outcomes often revolve around the word “refreshing”—a breathe of fresh air in a cluttered space that seems to be growing increasingly toxic by the day. Despite the trend, how many times have you caught yourself scrolling aimlessly on your timeline? Or closing an app only to open it immediately afterward without even realizing it?
Favaretto’s succeeding expense-reduction tips range from the basic, such as getting eight hours of sleep and qualifying the necessity of every purchase; to the bold, like getting a health insurance with above-average coverage and deciding against yearly smartphone upgrades.
Meanwhile, his 11-point suggestion for income accretion begins with studying Game Theory, or the widely applicable study of mathematical models of strategic interaction between rational decision-makers.
“I recommend you to start from [the book] The Joy of Game Theory: An Introduction to Strategic Thinking (I have no affiliation with the author and I do not profit from linking this book in any way): You will understand how in a market of naturally conflicting interests, game theory and strategic moves will allow you to think rationally and achieve oftentimes optimal results with much reduced effort,” Favaretto wrote. “This will be a critical advantage for you down the road.”
The rest of his road-to-a-million tips are chronological: study business niches en route to a well-paying job, strive to become an “essential” employee, invest, take on an extra work to kick-start a side business, grow that business and then focus on it.
“Sooner rather than later,” Favaretto wrote, “you will be a millionaire. The first million is by far the absolute hardest.”
Of course, none of this is a guarantee. But a little road sign in the middle of nowhere never hurt anyone.