Dan Martell - 18 Tiny Habits That Made Me a Millionaire

00:00:00.000 The key to getting rich isn't about working past midnight every day to stay ahead of the

00:00:04.520 competition or having a three-hour morning routine. It's actually about forming micro

00:00:09.020 habits, tiny habits that compound over time and make getting rich easy. So I'm going to share

00:00:14.760 with you the 18 tiny habits to help me get rich and how you can apply them in your life.

00:00:20.200 Starting with tiny habit number one, look at your money daily. Every day I get a email for

00:00:26.220 all of my companies called daily cash report and it includes all the balances all the credit cards

00:00:31.900 all my accounts the transactions for the previous day because i want to get a sense of the heartbeat

00:00:36.780 of cash flowing through my businesses i want to be aware what you focus on expands if you don't

00:00:41.980 know how much cash is being generated in your bank account in your businesses then how can you give

00:00:46.380 it the right attention i call it the 24 hour rule you should be checking your money every 24 hours

00:00:51.660 don't hide from it don't pretend like you don't want to see it i don't want you to go to the atm

00:00:55.980 machine to find out you don't have enough money to pull money out because you're not aware have

00:00:59.820 the app on your phone check it often if you don't like the number make it better which brings us a

00:01:03.980 tiny habit number two value your time if you don't value your time no one else will you'll be upset

00:01:10.300 that people are taking advantage of you asking you to do favors and never returning it in the first

00:01:14.540 place rich people say no more than they say yes because a yes is a no to their future and a no

00:01:21.500 is a yes to their goals what do you want to create in the future it's actually okay to be a little

00:01:27.500 selfish to create a better scenario for who you are and what access to resources you have so you

00:01:32.060 can be richer so you can be more for people in the future which brings us a tiny habit number three

00:01:36.940 set clear goals when i started my first company that succeeded spheric technologies i read a book

00:01:42.220 called good to great and it said you have to have a vision for your life so i sat down and i created

00:01:46.380 division. Five years, five continents, 50 million in revenue, 50 people. I don't even know where it

00:01:51.540 came from. It sounded good. Did I get to that level in five years? No. Just shy though, and that was

00:01:56.600 the business that made me a multi-millionaire. What I had was clarity and focus. See, a goal

00:02:01.620 properly set is half complete. Most people just don't write it down. Without a deadline, that goal

00:02:07.100 is just a dream. So I use this thing called the rule of 300 to help me hit my goals. It's all about

00:02:12.240 having 100% clarity, 100% belief, 100% of the time. If you do that, you'll hit your goal.

00:02:18.120 Which brings us to tiny habit number four, review your goals daily. Every day I use triggers when I

00:02:24.260 sit at my chair in the morning, when I'm doing my morning routine, or I get in my car, or I come to

00:02:28.680 my desk at my office to remind me to review my goals that are on my phone. So it's literally

00:02:33.940 pinned at the top of my notes file, and they're my 12 power goals for the year. Most people set

00:02:39.100 goals and don't review until the end of the year and they realize either hit them or didn't hit

00:02:42.280 them. It's like business plans. They usually write them and then stuff them in a drawer.

00:02:45.460 I review my goals three times a day. The way I make it easy on myself is I just connect it to

00:02:51.080 a trigger. It literally activates this thing called your reticular activating system to help

00:02:55.820 you scan the world for opportunities to make that a reality. It's like when you're thinking of buying

00:03:01.160 a new car, let's say a red Volkswagen, and for the longest time you didn't see any other red

00:03:05.640 Volkswagens, all of a sudden you can't stop seeing them all over the place. Why? Your brain is on the

00:03:10.240 search of red Volkswagen so you'll see them all over the road. Which brings us to tiny habit number

00:03:14.680 five, automate your savings. My philosophy is very simple. I want to set it and forget it. I want to

00:03:21.080 make the decision when I'm feeling good about life and then never revisit it. Even though I live off

00:03:25.620 10% of my income, most people should follow the 50-30-20 rule, which is 50% of their income goes

00:03:32.000 to what they need. 30% goes to what they want. And the other 20% should go to savings. What I do

00:03:37.320 pretty much every week is any extra cash in all of my companies get swept out, put into my hold

00:03:42.440 code, and then my hold code automatically invested in the portfolio I've already decided. So I either

00:03:47.300 do high risk stuff in private equity, or I do low risk stuff in index funds in the public markets,

00:03:51.860 but I don't want to think about it. I want to set it and forget it. Which brings us to tiny habit

00:03:55.920 number six, avoid bad debt. Bad debt is high interest debt. This is consumer debt, hard money

00:04:02.820 lending. I remember when I was starting off, I had to buy some furniture and I thought I'd be like

00:04:06.640 the cool guy and go get an apartment and finance a bunch of furniture because they said it would

00:04:10.520 cost me nothing, no interest payments for three years until it did. And that interest payment,

00:04:15.420 plus the fact that it took me a few more years to pay it off, cost me more than double of just

00:04:19.460 buying the furniture outright at the beginning. And did I need that at 20 years old? No, I was

00:04:23.920 being silly. Lenders have an incentive to take advantage of you. It's why most credit card

00:04:29.140 companies try to get you some kind of credit early on. I'm talking college campuses. It's wild. You

00:04:34.620 should only take on debt for things that can make you money. Think real estate, think business

00:04:39.640 investments, think investing in yourself where you can get an ROI by investing in the SME 500,

00:04:45.300 not the S&P 500. It's all about short-term leverage. Don't make other people rich off

00:04:50.540 of borrowing money from them.

00:04:51.460 Which brings us to tiny habit number seven,

00:04:53.680 exhaust the body, tame the mind.

00:04:56.400 At 11 years old, I got diagnosed with ADHD

00:04:58.780 and it messed me up.

00:05:00.520 I was taking Ritalin and Adderall

00:05:02.460 and all these pills that try to make me normal,

00:05:05.040 but I never felt normal when I was taking those pills.

00:05:08.020 I actually liked who I am.

00:05:09.280 What I had to do was figure out how to be me

00:05:12.020 without the medication.

00:05:13.540 A big part of that is going to the gym.

00:05:15.800 That's why I say every day I go to the gym

00:05:18.100 to work on my mind.

00:05:19.060 yes it has a physical value to doing that but if i don't go i can't think i can't focus i can't get

00:05:25.220 things done in my day which brings us to tiny habit number eight use your feed on social media

00:05:30.340 to feed your mind the other day my son's friend came over after school and he was asking me how

00:05:35.060 i deal with being distracted from things like girls and tiktok and i was laughing because i

00:05:39.220 said i actually scroll tiktok two hours almost every day the difference is what's on my feed

00:05:44.580 i like to use my social media to teach myself things to micro learn to use it almost like a

00:05:50.260 social university so what i do is i'll search for topics i want to learn about and then go look at

00:05:54.900 those videos and leave comments on the videos that are good and then adjust my feed that's how

00:05:59.060 i use my feed to feed my mind which brings us a tiny habit number nine read 10 pages a day the

00:06:04.580 other day i was at the gym and some kid asked me what's the number one habit millionaires have and

00:06:09.300 the truth is out of all of them i had to pick from it's got to be reading the reason why is that

00:06:13.940 nobody knows how to do the thing they're about to do the first time they do it. And the best way to

00:06:18.300 avoid all the pain of trying to do it through trial and error is to read books. My life was

00:06:23.540 built by books. I've read over 1,600 books. I actually did a video on it. You can go search

00:06:27.960 for it. But the whole premise is that every philosophy, idea, process, habits was all

00:06:33.960 inspired by other people much smarter than me that have lived a big life and mastered skills

00:06:39.000 and then we're sharing everything they learned

00:06:41.060 for 25 bucks and a six hour investment of my time,

00:06:44.560 I think it's the best trade in the world.

00:06:46.040 Which brings us to tiny habit number 10, wake up early.

00:06:49.600 A lot of people talk about getting up early,

00:06:51.600 but let me tell you why.

00:06:53.000 A lot of people sleep in because they stay up late.

00:06:55.340 What I do is I set an alarm to go to bed on time.

00:06:57.860 And that 5 a.m. club, that's cool,

00:07:00.140 but what you learn over time is 4 a.m. is even cooler.

00:07:03.020 And the reason why is between three and 6 a.m.

00:07:05.820 is where it's said to have the thinnest veil

00:07:08.600 to the spiritual realm.

00:07:09.980 So it's not just about getting up early to get work done.

00:07:12.780 It's also about being connected to your creator,

00:07:15.640 connected to the universe,

00:07:17.020 taking advantage of the inspiration and ideations

00:07:20.100 that will come to you at the quiet in the morning.

00:07:22.900 It's a beautiful thing.

00:07:23.960 Some of my best ideas have come from that.

00:07:25.980 Instead of setting an alarm for what time to wake up,

00:07:28.520 set an alarm for what time you go to bed.

00:07:30.240 When people see me get up at 4 a.m.,

00:07:31.920 they think it's impressive,

00:07:33.020 but it's not that impressive

00:07:34.000 knowing my alarm went off at 9 p.m to go to sleep i've been sleeping for seven hours which brings

00:07:38.880 us to tiny habit number 11 invest in your environment four years ago i was renting a

00:07:43.520 house and i was there for six months and the office had this beautiful window but it was

00:07:48.320 directly in the sunlight where i couldn't see anything and i decided within the first few days

00:07:53.120 to hire a sign company to come put a film over the glass and when my wife heard about it she thought

00:07:58.640 that's crazy why would you spend 1200 bucks to get the glass covered so that you can stay in

00:08:04.080 that spot and i was like i don't want to move my desk i like the energy of this space this

00:08:08.720 environment and i'm willing to spend 1200 so i can be in the energy of the vibe and it's funny i see

00:08:14.480 people make this mistake all the time they spend most of their time at their desk and they don't

00:08:18.880 have a great chair they don't have great monitors they have invested in keyboards they have invested

00:08:23.040 in the tools maybe it's a camera maybe it's the ring light whatever would make your work environment

00:08:27.760 feel fun is something I'm a big fan of investing in. Which brings us to tiny habit number 12,

00:08:33.200 follow one course until successful. That's what focus stands for. See, the richest people in the

00:08:39.100 world do one thing. They just do it for 20 years. They go all in and dedicate themselves to a

00:08:45.020 decade. They don't get distracted. They don't have three businesses with one making some profit and

00:08:49.460 the other two being unprofitable. They don't diversify earlier on because diversification

00:08:54.400 is divorce-fication. If you want to create wealth, you have to be concentrated. So don't be easily

00:09:00.140 distracted. Pick something and decide to be a master at it. Which brings us to tiny habit number

00:09:04.680 13. Protect your space. Words matter. What you hear matters. I'm a big fan of turning off the news,

00:09:11.280 cutting out toxic friends, curating my feed to show me opportunity and possibility. The end of

00:09:16.780 the day, the quality of your inputs will determine the quality of your output. You have to protect

00:09:21.940 yourself from the things you're being exposed to. Which brings us to tiny habit number 14.

00:09:26.580 Stop asking for money. There's this great pitbull song that says, ask for money, get advice. Ask for

00:09:32.020 advice, get money twice. And that to me is how I live my whole life. Most people are asking for

00:09:37.000 money from investors and friends and family. Why don't you ask for advice? And what happens is when

00:09:41.960 you do that, the person tells you all the things that would need to be true for them to be excited

00:09:46.500 about it. And you just get really good at agreeing with them. And next thing you know, instead of

00:09:50.560 just getting advice, you'll actually get money. Which brings us to tiny habit number 15, live

00:09:55.680 below your means. Being wealthy isn't a number, it's actually a ratio. When I was making 120k a

00:10:02.500 year at 25, I was driving a 15 year old car. I was living off of 30 to 40% of my income. Today,

00:10:09.100 I probably live off of just over 10% of my income. Why? Because it's not what you make,

00:10:13.880 it's what you spend. Broke people buy stuff, rich people buy things that make them money.

00:10:18.500 If you want to be wealthy, don't buy things that you don't need to impress people you don't like.

00:10:23.260 Which brings us to tiny habit number 16, give back to your community.

00:10:27.140 I learned a long time ago at 17 in rehab that I can only keep what I give away.

00:10:32.320 If I want sobriety, I have to help other people be sober.

00:10:35.460 If I want to be rich, I got to help other people be rich.

00:10:38.100 If you want abs, guess what?

00:10:39.680 Go help other people get abs.

00:10:41.560 See, when you have that abundance mentality focused on other people and being of service,

00:10:45.980 you will create the opportunities in your life

00:10:48.180 to get those results.

00:10:49.360 Most people are running around with scarcity.

00:10:51.280 You wanna be there with expansion.

00:10:53.140 So share your things.

00:10:54.240 If you have a nice house, invite people into your home.

00:10:56.340 If you have nice cars, please share your fricking cars.

00:10:58.660 I have a neighbor that's got a beautiful car

00:11:00.440 that never sees the light of day

00:11:01.920 because he's worried he's gonna curb his rims

00:11:03.900 or somebody's gonna lean up against it.

00:11:05.580 And that thing has not brought anybody else joy

00:11:07.880 except for him from a selfish point of view.

00:11:10.000 You wanna be the person that brings smiles

00:11:11.640 on other people's faces every day.

00:11:13.440 Which brings us to tiny habit number 17,

00:11:15.560 reflect on your achievements. Oftentimes when I'm feeling doubt or I'm not certain about my

00:11:20.900 decisions or I've got a big meeting, a big keynote I got to give and I'm just not feeling it, I go

00:11:25.760 back to a thing called my achievement list. And this is a list of all the accomplishments I've

00:11:30.160 had over the years, no matter how small, from my very first kickflip to my first exit. I've listed

00:11:36.180 them and I review them because the energy of those moments reminds me what I've accomplished in the

00:11:41.200 past what I'm capable of doing and when I'm sitting in this low energy self-defeatist mindset I want

00:11:47.600 to go back to those moments where I've won because massive success is built on tiny little wins and

00:11:53.480 that's how we build momentum when you're in momentum you can't be stopped the hardest part

00:11:57.940 about winning is getting back into momentum if you're not feeling it you need to use your

00:12:02.620 achievement list to get that energy going it's like a rocket when it takes off it uses 90% of

00:12:08.440 all the fuel to just get out into orbit. Once it's in orbit, it can maintain your achievement

00:12:14.460 list can help you stay in that momentum. So you don't ever come back down to earth and you stay

00:12:19.160 flying high, which brings us to tiny habit. Number 18, be blissfully dissatisfied. I got this language

00:12:25.420 from my coach, Ed Milet, because he believes that you can achieve and have a lot and be grateful for

00:12:31.200 that stuff. But in the same moment, be dissatisfied with the fact that you know, you're here to do

00:12:35.820 more. I think about this all the time when people are like, how much money is enough? And I'm like,

00:12:39.800 what are you talking about? As long as I'm here, I'm breathing and my heart is into the work to

00:12:44.220 create for other people. I'm going to wake up. I'm going to create. I might have an attachment

00:12:48.560 to the result, but I'm definitely involved in the creation. I just believe if you're listening to

00:12:53.680 this, that you're here to do something more with your life, that you're here to do something

00:12:56.980 massive with your life, that you're here to create something special. And it doesn't matter how big

00:13:02.480 that is if you're getting up every day you might as well go build something so if you want to learn

00:13:06.440 the seven skills of the top one percent click the video and i'll see you on the other side

Dan Martell - April 02, 2025

18 Tiny Habits That Made Me a Millionaire

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