How To Get Ahead Of 99% Of People (Do This Now)

What's big, guys? It's Graham here. So, there seems to be this recent trend on YouTube of how to get ahead of 99% of people. Some of them, I'll admit, are wildly genius and insanely insightful, while others seem like a chat GBT inspired list to the most generic buzzwords that you could possibly think of. Like, if waking up at 4:30 in the morning, meditating, and going to the gym were all it took to be successful, everybody would be doing it. But that's obviously not the case, which is why I wanted to share my own thoughts about what it actually takes to get ahead of 99% of people since I have experienced it firsthand.

I was able to buy my first property at 21 years old, earn my first million by 26 years old, and build a network of channels with now more than a billion views and 6 million combined subscribers. So, here's exactly what's worked really well for me right after you hit the like button and subscribe for the YouTube algorithm. How is that for a transition? If it worked, hit the like button. Okay, okay, I'll stop. Let's begin.

First of all, Mark Manson really said it best. He said, "Above all else, if you want to get the results that most people never get, you have to be a contrarian." Meaning, you need to go against the grain and take the approach that most people won't. What does that entail exactly? Well, consider that deep down, most of us are driven to be a part of a group. This is why people look to others for approval, are driven by these unspoken social norms, and for the most part, do the same things, operate the same ways, and believe in the same philosophies as the people that they surround themselves with.

In the caveman days, these behaviors were often rewarded as a survival mechanism. It meant that you weren't too loud to attract predators, you didn't behave recklessly to alienate yourself from the tribe, and you didn't stand out too much to risk your own life. But today, even though we're wired the same way, we haven't yet adapted to a society that doesn't present the exact same dangers, which leads me to what's called the "Tall Poppy Syndrome."

See, to be a contrarian, you're gonna stand out a lot. Like, it's not normal for somebody to practice golf for 13 hours a day, bet their life savings on an electric car while they run out of cash, or take apart computers for fun at 13 years old. Most people wouldn't want to face the social pressure, ridicule, or criticism that comes along with being different. But if you want to stand out, you have to be comfortable with becoming the tall poppy. This is a phrase said to have originated in 400 BC when an emperor asked the best way to keep control over his people. But instead of receiving an answer, he walked through the fields and watched as every tall piece of wheat was cut down and leveled to the exact same height.

The takeaway was that a prominent ruler would cut down anything or anybody that stood tall enough to become a challenge, and today that still very much applies. It becomes almost like self-preservation to hide yourself within the crowd, not to do anything too much to stand out and be cut. But this is completely wrong. Today, our best innovations and advancements come from people who aren't afraid of being the tall poppy, who ignore the outside noise and go with the path that they deem to be correct.

Although the truth is that so few people do this. In fact, Keynesian economics found that the majority of people follow and imitate group behaviors instead of independently coming to their own conclusions. In fact, it went so far that people randomly follow crowds because they believe the crowd is better informed than they are, and this type of group think needs to be challenged if you're going to stand out from the 99%.

Mark Manson also goes on to a second point that I really agree with, which is that not only do you have to be different and stand out from the crowd, but you also have to be right. I mean, let's face it, contrarian ideas are often contrarian for a reason. Like, college dropouts on average make less money than someone with a bachelor's degree. 50% of businesses fail within the first five years, and 80% of day traders lose money within the first year. Collectively, it helps to have all of this data at our fingertips so we could learn really quickly what's likely to work and what doesn't.

But at a certain point, it's up to you to take the leap of faith and be correct about it. Just take Google in 1999. No one thought that they would succeed. In fact, the founders were so doubtful that their idea would work that they tried to sell their entire company for a million dollars and failed. But they pushed through, and now they're one of the most valuable companies in the entire world. Or look at Steve Jobs in 2007. He came up with the radical idea to combine the iPod with a mobile phone. At the time, it was ridiculous, and many people thought it would fail. But now, it's one of the best-selling products in the world.

When I think of this, Henry Ford's quote comes to mind. He allegedly said, "If he asked people what they wanted, they would say a faster horse," and I think that very much applies here. To be a part of the one percent, not only do you have to do something different than what most people are doing, but you also have to be correct about it, which is a very tall order. Just consider that under every giant success are thousands of failures, like Google Glass, electrified water to cure headaches, or Season One of Cooking with Paris.

The point being, not everything is going to be a hit, but when you combine a contrarian idea with being correct, magical things begin to happen. And that's what's really helped me. For instance, in 2008, I was faced with the reality that I wasn't going to college. In my world, this was socially unacceptable. My parents had expectations to be going to college; all of my friends were accepted to great universities, and there I was with bad grades and nowhere to go. But deep down, I just knew that school wasn't for me.

So, instead of spending four years and tens of thousands of dollars following the same path as everybody else, I decided to get my real estate license. I still remember the condescending remarks from friends' parents. I received a lot of pushback from people who were telling me I was making a big mistake, and pretty much everybody discouraged me from taking an unconventional path. But I ignored the criticism, and I went for it during one of the worst housing crashes in history, and that was the best decision I had ever made. Within nine months, I sold my first house as a real estate agent for 3.65 million dollars. By the time I was 20 years old, I was making over a hundred thousand dollars a year, and instead of spending it all, I saved everything, which led to my next contrarian success.

See, by 2011, the real estate market was horrible. California had the most foreclosure filings in the country. Prices were in a consistent free-fall; entire counties were filing for bankruptcy, and I thought it was a pretty good time to buy a home. From my perspective, prices had fallen to a point where they were just too cheap to buy. Like, it didn't make any sense that homes were selling at a hundred thousand dollars that had a replacement value of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

In those cases, it literally would cost more to replace that wholesale cost than you could buy on the open market, and I knew that was not gonna last. It was at that point that I began making offers pretty much every day, and whenever I could get my hands on, I was making these offers sight unseen while they just sat on the market with no activity whatsoever. I was also told numerous times just to wait a little bit longer because shadow inventory was expected to hit the market and decimate values even further. But I had the confidence that even if the market did go down, it's still a good price to buy, and I did.

I sunk my entire savings into buying three foreclosures and fixing them up, and today they're all worth over 500% more than what I paid. After that, I continued the exact same strategy of buying dilapidated homes and fixing them up, and by the time I was 26 years old, I had a net worth of over a million dollars. Oh sure, I don't doubt that there was also an element of luck that played into it, too—being at the right place at the right time to take advantage of an opportunity that I recognized because I spent 12 hours a day working in real estate non-stop for years.

But had I just gone with the crowd, waited a little bit longer, and played it safe, there's no way that I would be here today without getting those initial deals that gave me such a huge leg up later on. Or there's a more recent one, YouTube. Look, ever since I was in high school, I loved watching YouTube videos. For me, it was my version of television, and I constantly envied the type of person who had the confidence to share their thoughts on the topics that they found interesting. But deep down, I genuinely believed that I couldn't do that; no one would want to watch me. I shouldn't even try; it's pointless.

But around 2016, something just clicked, and I thought to myself, "You know what? If I don't do it now, I'm gonna look back at this and regret it." So, I may as well just give it a shot because if I don't do it now, I'm never gonna do it. That's when, in December of 2016, I posted my first YouTube video from my iPhone without any experience filming or editing anything ever in my life. And once I clicked publish, I was hooked. From that point on, I began to notice that there was a huge lack of videos on YouTube on the topics of saving money, credit cards, real estate investing, personal finance, building wealth—you name it; the list goes on.

Virtually no one was talking about anything money-related because, frankly, it was vlogs and pranks that were getting the most attention. But I just had a feeling deep down that if I was interested in these types of topics, most likely other people would be too. And in hindsight, I was right. I shared all of my experiences buying real estate, building my career, breaking down my income, sharing my life, and diving into the aspects of money that I wished my friends would be interested in talking about. My strategy was to try to combine the entertainment aspect of a typical YouTube video with the subject matter of a traditionally boring educational topic that did incredibly well.

All of that is to say that when it comes to standing out, going against the crowd, getting ahead of the 99%, and being right, there's a few universal qualities that I have noticed, and this is what they are, in no particular order.

Number one, you have to be obsessive. When it came to my career as a real estate agent, it was all I did—12 hours a day, six to seven days a week, consistently for years with a smile on my face because I enjoyed it. The same thing also applies to when I was investing in real estate because when I wasn't working with clients, I was browsing other properties and making offers. I read every single book I could possibly find on real estate investing. I talked to clients about their strategies and any advice that they had learned. I'd oversee other people's renovations for free just so I could see how they operated, and I think it goes without saying I applied that same neuroticism towards YouTube as well. To me, this type of obsession is required if you're going to get insanely good at something because without it, you're going to get burned out, you're not going to have a competitive advantage, you're going to let things slide, and someone else who is willing to put in the work will eventually run laps around you.

That's why you should start by asking yourself: What would you do for free? Chances are any good idea is not gonna make money from the very beginning, and if you could start with a passion, you'll probably continue it long enough to eventually make money from something that you just naturally enjoy.

Second, play to your strengths. I truly believe that all of us are naturally gifted to the point where you have an unfair advantage over everybody else. To some people, that could be athletics, video games, teaching, history, math—the list goes on. I guarantee there is a topic out there that you're more skilled at than everybody else, and when you find that, lean into it. For me, I naturally enjoy personal finance. I love saving money. I enjoy seeing progress, and any business seems like a money-making opportunity that's just begging to be put together. But when it comes to sports, I'm horrible.

But I can focus; I'm incredibly consistent; I'm easily self-motivated; I'm excited to learn. If I can combine all of those aspects into a career, I have that unfair advantage. Find out what you're good at because I guarantee it's something.

Third, you have to act on opportunity. You know the saying that you could lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink? Well, I think that applies here. Some people have all the resources in the world, unlimited capital and endless potential, but somehow they keep ending up short. Ultimately, when an opportunity comes up, it's up to you to take the shot because I'll tell you, opportunities are not around forever. You usually have brief moments where you could go for it, and if you don't, it's gone. Not to mention, everything massive really just comes down to a few good decisions. Like, had Bill Gates decided to quit after starting his first company, he would have never met Paul Allen. Had Honda not pursued engineering, he never would have made his own motorized scooter, which later turned into the Honda brand we know today.

Even though there might be a lot of forks in the road, the more choices and opportunities that you go for, the higher the likelihood that one of them will pan out. Now we could do some rapid fire.

Fourth, always show up early. I gotta say, I'm shocked at how simple this one is, but for some reason, people have such a difficult time showing up on time consistently. If you want any opportunity, always be early and never keep the other side waiting. Take this seriously. And no matter what, don't be late. Ever.

Fifth, don't complain. Complaining accomplishes nothing; it's wasted energy. Instead, you should always just focus on the prize. In self-help, there's this quote that you attract what you focus on, and if you're constantly just focusing on the negative, that's what you're going to get more of. The way I see it, you can reframe just about every situation to have some good in it.

For example, if a client shows up late, that's an opportunity for you to practice patience. If a deal gets canceled, well, you could learn how to prevent that in the future. If you make a mistake, well, that's an opportunity to grow and improve. From my perspective, everything that comes your way is there to make you a better, stronger, more resilient person, and when you're able to think this way, the world just becomes your oyster.

And finally, six, be consistent. It's said that people overestimate what they're able to do in a year, but they underestimate what they're able to do in a decade, and I found this to be incredibly true. Just like you can't expect to go to the gym for a week and be totally jacked, you can't expect to do something for a few weeks and see any noticeable difference. Most likely, it's going to take you years, and you're gonna have to slug through it every single day, whether you like it or not, without any guarantee whatsoever.

If that sounds good to you, then congratulations! I have a feeling that you have a chance at reaching the top one percent. But let's also be real; you gotta be a bit crazy to want to put yourself through all of that. So with that said, you guys, thank you so much for watching. As always, feel free to add me on Snapchat and Instagram, and don't forget to hit the like button and subscribe; it helps with the channel tremendously. If you found this helpful, that's all I ask for. So, thanks so much, and until next time.