6 habits that took me from $0 to $30,000/month by age 23

I'm 23 years old and just about like 4 years ago I was working part-time at a restaurant and I was making $6 per hour. I know it kind of like sounds scammy and maybe unbelievable for some of you, but this YouTube channel brings in $30,000 to $50K per month consistently every single month.

Today, I want to share with you the six mindset and habit shifts that allowed me to reach that point. I'm not going to waste your time with any vague advice; all of them are going to be based on my personal experiences and the things that I've been reflecting on quite often these days.

Okay, so let's start with the most important mindset shift, which is: money is not a goal, but it's a tool. So let's talk about money. Everyone is obviously obsessed with money, but most people have actually no idea why they're so obsessed with it. The harsh truth is that money is actually not the goal, and it never has been and it never will be. Money is just a tool; a tool that gives you options, freedom, and the ability to design the life you actually want.

But the problem is too many people never get to use money in this way because most of us are trapped in survival mode. Most of us are so consumed with worry about bills and scraping by that we don't have the bandwidth to think about what truly brings us joy, peace, or fulfillment. This is one of the things that I recognized once I started to make multiple five figures per month. I didn't understand why I wanted that money except the fact that I wanted to feel at peace.

I get it because when you're in that headspace, it's just much easier to think having more money will solve everything, right? But I realize that is actually very wrong. Because when we make money as the end goal, we start to obsess over it, and we let it consume our lives. It's something that I've done in the past, and I regret it because we work ourselves into the ground trying to keep up with other people, impress strangers, maybe even impress ourselves, and chase trends that we don't even care about.

We basically get caught in the never-ending race that honestly doesn't lead anywhere worth going and also is not going to satisfy us at all. I think most people don't know what they want to do with their own life if money wasn't an issue. I also didn't know that because I was so focused in survival mode that I never thought about the things that I was enjoying.

If that's the case in your life where you think, "Oh, if I would get more money, this, this, this," it's because your mind is stuck in constant financial stress, and your energy is focused more on surviving instead of thriving. Until you break out of that mindset, money will always own you, and it's not going to be the other way around.

You know, if you constantly are so busy running on the hamster wheel of survival mode, you will never have the luxury to think beyond that survival mode. You might be thinking, "Okay, so how do I treat money as a tool? How can I have that luxury?" The first step is really identifying your clear why. You need to know what drives you beyond just wanting more dollars in your bank account. It could be something meaningful; maybe helping your family or having the freedom to explore and travel the world.

But whatever that is, you need to first identify that, and you have to let that be your motivation. If your sole purpose is getting more money, then you will never own money; money will always own you. Because money should be used to facilitate bigger goals, not to sit there and make you feel secure or give you bragging rights, basically. But to get to that place where you can do that, you have to adopt an abundance mindset.

One thing you need to remember is that money is the fuel, and it's not the goal. One of the most transformative shifts you can make on your journey to financial success, in my opinion, is moving from a scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset. It took me such a long time to make this shift, but it’s so important, and I want you to pay attention to this because this change is not going to just alter how you think about money, but it fundamentally changes how you act, make decisions, and ultimately the results you get and achieve from life.

I realize that most people, including my old self, operate with a scarcity mindset. Let me be honest: it’s basically a losing mentality. If you're constantly worrying there's not enough money to go around, that the opportunities are slipping away from you, or other people's success somehow makes it harder for you to succeed, it might sound stupid, but you know, when somebody succeeds, you kind of feel like your pie of success is getting taken away, if that makes sense.

In this scarcity mindset, you're playing not to lose instead of playing to win. The scarcity mindset makes you more reactive and fearful. It convinces you to hoard your resources, save every single penny out of fear of the future, and avoid taking any risks that could actually lead to growth. When I used to have this mindset, I was thinking defensively. I was making more short-term decisions because I was too focused on protecting what little I had in my bank account.

You know, that mindset will keep you stuck in the same mediocre situation year after year because you are living in constant survival mode. You're only focused on scraping by; you're just trying not to lose, and that's not how you make money. So what is the difference compared to the abundance mindset? It's basically, in my opinion, everything. In life, including money, relationships, and health, everything.

An abundance mindset is a necessary mindset because it allows you to understand that money isn't some limited resource, but it's created, exchanged, and multiplied everywhere. When you have an abundance mindset, you start to see opportunities everywhere, and you start to think people are not getting rich because they’re lucky; they're more like trained to think in terms of growth and possibility.

If someone is coming from a wealthy family, yes, they are lucky, but in my opinion, the biggest factor is the abundant mindset they have. Most people are scared and trying to think short-term, while wealthy people and wealthy families think in terms of opportunity and growth because they have this abundance mindset.

When you adopt an abundance mindset, your actions change because you don't waste time being bitter or envious of people who are winning. You don't whine about how the system is unfair or how the world is unfair, blah blah blah. Instead, you figure out how to play the game better. You become willing to invest in yourself, whether that's through education, networking, or developing skills that will pay you more in the future.

It can be anything, but you start to not be afraid to spend money on things that have the potential to multiply your income in the future. Because when you have an abundance mindset, you know that playing it safe is not going to get you anywhere, and it's actually not safe at all; it's just a slow way to lose. I don't want you to mistake this with reckless optimism, to be honest, because the abundant mindset isn't just about being delusional or pretending you're rich.

It's more about understanding that money follows value. So if you can create some sort of value in life, something that people want, and solve actual people's problems, money will come. That is the mindset; it's not that you're chasing money, but you're more like, “Okay, I'm going to create value and money will follow that.” It's more about having the confidence to calculate risks, knowing that you can recover from setbacks because opportunities are endless, and knowing how to create those opportunities.

When you have this abundance mindset, it also means that you're not fixated on short-term goals. You basically start to think bigger and more in the long term, and you start to build systems that can generate income without you directly trading hours for dollars. You understand the power of leverage; it can be using technology, content, or investments to multiply your impact.

You understand that even if you lose money right now by investing in yourself, you can make that money back by creating opportunities for yourself. You get more strategic about where you put your energy, time, and attention towards because you know that time is your most valuable asset and not money. Money can always be made, and you are confident in that because you have the abundance mindset.

But when it comes to time, it cannot be made again, so you are highly protective of that. Most people are protective towards their money but not towards their time, even though it should be the other way around. I realize that wealthy people always prioritize time when it comes to money. They have this abundance mindset.

Basically, I feel like most of us have a scarcity mindset towards money, which is fair enough; it makes complete sense. But in my opinion, if you want to get out of that mindset and if you want to change your mindset, the first thing we need to do is really stop blaming the external world: politics, government, location, whatever you have, and start working on your internal framework.

Because the way you think about money and opportunities defines the moves you make. I just realized that perfect conditions never exist, and you're not going to find success by waiting for perfect conditions or hoping someone will come save you because the world isn't fair, and it will never be. Nobody's going to save you, so we need to first accept it and ask ourselves, “What can I do to start building something valuable today?” Because waiting and complaining is not going to get you anywhere.

We need to start seeing money more as a skill, which is something that you can learn, practice, and get better at. Yes, it does take work; it's not like, “Oh, you get an online course and suddenly you're a millionaire.” It takes getting out of your comfort zone and doing things that 99% of people aren't willing to do because if you want to be in that 1% of mindset and wealth, you have to think differently and act differently. You have to have the discipline to keep pushing forward when it's hard.

So how can you get the abundance mindset towards money and stop having a scarcity mindset? It's by our next mindset shift, which is working on scalable things and using leverage. When you start to do this, you naturally get out of that scarcity mindset, and it's going to be much easier for you to adopt the abundance mindset.

Before I explain this, I just want to clarify the very harsh truth about wealth, which is the world is never fair, and it’s never going to be. Think about it: doctors spend years in school and hours and hours and hours of practice, and they save lives, work insane hours; yet a YouTuber or a content creator can earn more in a month than a doctor makes in a year. It sounds ridiculous, and it sounds unfair, but that’s how the system works.

Money doesn't reward effort or social value; it rewards scale and leverage. Understanding this will allow you to see money more as a tool in a systematic way because you can sit around and complain about how unfair life is, or you can learn to play the game. A favorite quote of mine says, “Don't hate the player; hate the game.” If you want to win, you have to understand and work with the system, not against it.

In my opinion, accepting this reality is very harsh, and you know it made me really sad, but it actually gives you power because it lets you make more strategic decisions instead of emotional decisions about how you make money and how you earn. So what is exactly scalability and leverage?

Scalability is basically when your work has the potential to reach a limitless audience and generate income. The hours you put in; for example, if you are a content creator like a YouTuber, you know if you make one video, it has the potential to reach millions of people, right? Even after you post that video, even years after it, it can still generate views and money.

Your work is not directly tied to the hours you put in. Once you make that video, it can indefinitely get views, and it can also potentially make indefinite money. If you would compare this to a traditional job, like being a doctor or a lawyer, your income is directly tied to how many hours you work or how many clients you see unless you have a practice and other people work for you.

The thing that causes that is scalability because scalability breaks that limit. The other factor is leverage. Leverage is basically multiplying your efforts using tools, technology, or it could be even people. It can mean using social media to reach a massive audience, promote whatever product or services you have, or it can be building software that automates tasks or outsourcing parts of your business so you can focus on high-impact activities.

Leverage is basically more about working smarter instead of harder. For example, you know, because I'm a YouTuber, I'm always going to give YouTube as an example. I can reach millions of people worldwide just with one single upload, and I'm not necessarily bound by geography or restricted to how many hours I work in a day because that’s leverage and scale in action.

That’s why, for example, YouTubers are able to make more money than doctors. We have scale and leverage on our side. So if your goal is to make more money, you have to think in terms of scalability and leverage. Because if you would go to any millionaire or billionaire, they're not doing jobs where they're trading their time for money directly.

Yes, everyone trades their time for money, but you know, it’s not like you get paid hourly. There is a way to multiply that because there is scale and leverage. If you actually want to make more money than you want right now, then you need to build something that scales. Whether that’s an online course, an app, a website, maybe a YouTube channel, or maybe some sort of business—sig, it can be anything.

If you have that, your income can be limitless because it's not tied to the hours that you put in. So if you're working on something, you need to ask yourself, "Am I stuck in a model where I have to keep trading my time for money, or am I building something that can make money while I'm sleeping?" If it's the former, you need to think about how to introduce scale and leverage into your work.

I'm not saying that you need to quit your job right now if it’s unscalable, but think about ways that you can make it more scalable. You know, it could mean automating part of your business or maybe starting a side hustle that can scale, etc. etc. There are so many ways to do that.

You might be thinking, "Okay, but then why are scale and leverage so important?" It’s because money flows to those who solve problems. For most people, it's not about how hard you work or how respected you are, but it's about how many people you can actually help with or how far your work can reach and impact them.

Basically, the more people you help or reach, the more wealth you can generate. Yes, in my opinion, the system is really unfair, but fairness is not going to pay our bills anyway. I think accepting this is very important. We should always work towards fairness in our society, but it will never be. If you want to thrive financially, you need to stop wishing for the world to change but actually change yourself and adapt to the world.

Because if you want to play the game of wealth, we need to play to win. Let's talk about working smart and not just working hard. If you're trying to do everything, you're going to fail most of it. Okay? I just realize that most successful and wealthy people know about this, and that's the reason why they approach activity differently.

They basically don't spread themselves thin across dozens of tasks, and instead, they double down on a few high-impact actions that deliver the real results. You know, I just realized that in our society, it's really normalized to hustle and try to do everything right—like get your health, wealth, relationships, and everything you have in your life right—but it's actually quite impossible, especially if you're working at a 9 to 5.

If you have kids or other responsibilities, it’s always going to make you feel like you are falling behind something. I was feeling the same thing too. You know, I was trying to take care of my family, I was trying to grow my YouTube channel, I was trying to take care of my health and maintain social relationships, etc. etc.

But when you try to do everything all at once, you actually become mediocre at all of them, if not fail at them. One practice that I introduced into my life to make more money and also be more efficient is asking myself every single morning, “If I could do just like one thing in my life today, what would it be? What is the most important thing that I can focus my energy and attention on that can move the needle?”

This is basically thinking and applying the 80/20 rule, which says that 20% of the inputs result in 80% of the outputs. So when it comes to business, health, wealth, music, or whatever hobby you have, there's always this 20% of core areas that you need to focus on. If you get that right, the other things will follow.

So basically, if you also want to make money right now, you know you’re probably working 9 to 5, you have family, you have other responsibilities; instead of trying to get everything done—whatever business you’re working on—focus on the 20% and try to identify the 20% that is going to move the needle for you. Focus on that. Put your attention into that.

Every single day, if you're doing something, you need to always ask yourself, “Is this the 20% of whatever I'm focusing on?” Let's say you're working out. “Is this the 20%?” Or let's say you're trying to eat healthy. “Is this the 20% that I'm focusing on?” Shifting your mindset towards this 80/20 rule allows you to start doing less because you start to say no to most things, but you also start to get faster results than other people.

I just realized that most successful people that we admire aren't busy for the sake of being busy; rather, they are highly focused. When I started doing this, I would ask myself every single day what the most impactful action I could take would be. I basically stopped wasting my time on stuff that didn't matter that much and started seeing massive gains in terms of my business and in terms of my YouTube channel.

It allowed me to have that laser focus that I really needed, and that brought the biggest change. I see every single day most people focusing on irrelevant things, let’s say whenever they're trying to grow their YouTube channel or their online business. What you need to do is really focus on that 80/20 rule and apply that into every single aspect of your life.

By narrowing my focus and doubling down on that 20%, I was able to cut out the noise and get more done without burning myself out. It's not really about doing less, but about doing the right things more effectively. If you're looking for ways to apply the 80/20 rule when setting up your own online store, you might want to check out Build Your Store.

It's great for cutting out those time-consuming tasks so you can focus on what really matters. Build Your Store is an AI-powered Shopify Builder that sets up your online store without needing to be a tech genius or spending hours on design. What you do is you just input some details, and their AI handles the rest. Boom, your store is ready to go.

What’s great is that it also handles the important stuff you don't want to think too much about, like for example finding a supplier for your products or getting all your store policies in place and making sure everything's compliant. It’s all set up so you don't have to get bogged down with legal details or hunt for suppliers. It also means you can focus on the 20% that actually drives your business forward, like marketing your products or building relationships with your customers instead of getting stuck in the setup phase.

One of the key steps is the AutoDS integration, where you will choose from a range of suppliers, whether it's print on demand or other options they provide. Once that's done, your store is pre-loaded with products and all the necessary pages. And because it's free to start, you don't have to worry about burning cash while you're still figuring out what works. It’s perfect if you're trying to keep costs low but still want a professional-looking store.

You don't have to juggle a bunch of different apps or tools because it's all in one place. If this sounds like it might save you some time and stress, check out the link in the description below. You know, another concept related to the 80/20 rule is treating your life more like seasons because the focus that you have currently isn't always going to be the same.

I think understanding that took me a lot of time, but you know, there are going to be phases where you're focused more on making money, maybe building relationships, losing relationships, maybe building your family, or maybe focusing more on your health. Whatever you focus on during that period of time, you need to ask yourself, “Is it the thing that I really want to focus on right now?”

Because you can't do everything at once. If you try to chase every single goal that you have simultaneously, you're either going to get burned out or you're not going to make real progress on any of them. So if you're watching this video and if you think building wealth is your current priority right now, and that's the 80/20 in your life right now, it's going to need sacrifice.

You might need to scale back on some social events or maybe some hobbies, and we need to accept that. Or maybe if you're in a health-focused season, you may need to slow down on the career side and dedicate more time and energy into your physical and mental well-being. I'm not saying that if you want to get rich, like, say no to everyone and don’t focus on your health; it's not like that.

But it’s about having your priorities set so that your business and everything around it works to support that. Another important mindset shift that I had is never complaining but always problem-solving. You know, if you would talk with your friends or your co-workers, I feel like complaining about your life, talking about the bad things, the things that annoy you, became such a norm that I absolutely don't like.

Because in my opinion, when you start complaining about your life, you sort of say that you are not in charge of change and you're not in charge of power. You basically say that whatever happens in life, you accept that and you complain about it. I'm not saying that you shouldn't share bad things that happened in your life with other people. In my opinion, sharing our problems and struggles that we have is one of the best ways to regulate stress.

But it's not about complaining; it’s more about sharing and talking with another person about what you can do about it. I think complaining is easy and relatable to other people, but it's not going to get you anywhere, right? If you train your mind to view challenges as opportunities, you can sharpen your skills. This kind of mindset helped me become a very good critical thinker and problem-solver, and it also helped me a lot with my depression.

It shaped my way of thinking and basically shifted my mind towards the notion that every single problem, every single challenge in life can become a business idea. Actually, every problem has a solution, and if that problem doesn't have a solution, it's not even worth worrying about.

Instead of complaining, you know, instead of wasting your time, you can take that time and spend it into solving that problem. For example, I can literally apply that in my life; there are so many weird gadgets that I use. For example, this wrist rest, because I don't like the angle of this chair's wrist rest and it gives me bad posture, so I got this thing. A lot of people ask me how I find these weird products.

For example, I also have this board where you can write whatever you're working on, and you can set an alarm or a timer, which is a visual thing. Most people tell me, “Where do you find these weird products?” The way that I find them is that whenever I'm encountering a problem, it can be small or big, I always ask myself how I would solve this and how I would create a product out of this to solve this problem.

Because if you are experiencing that problem, it means that a lot of people in the world are also experiencing the same issues, whether that's small or big. Then I would think about a product or service that I can solve that problem with. After I come up with it, I then think about how I would name it, and then I basically go online and find these weird things that most people don't use—these niche products.

The more I started doing this, it actually allowed me to see any sort of problem in life as an opportunity and come up with a business idea. Nine times out of ten, there’s always already someone who created a product and built a business around it. The only thing that I do is buy that thing. If that thing is not good enough, I think, “Maybe I can turn this into a business.”

That’s literally the way that I did for my Notion ADHD template. You know, I was diagnosed with ADHD, so I listed out all the problems that I had in my life when it comes to productivity and ADHD. I bought a bunch of products, tried them, but didn’t like them that much. To solve the issues I had, I created my own ADHD template and I'm selling it.

If you're interested, check it out. Not to plug it, but I just want to give an example. I listed down all the common problems I had with ADHD, and I solved them with my own product. That’s how you think. You basically start to see challenges as opportunities. If there’s a product, you buy it; if there’s not a product, then you create that if you have the resources, time, and energy that you want to allocate to it.

If you think it causes overconsumption—yes, in my opinion, it does. If you don't want to do that, the point is not to buy every single product that can solve your problem, but more so to train your mind into thinking in that problem-solving way and sort of experimenting with it. So every single time if I have something that annoys me, I just see it as more of a challenge and an opportunity that I can solve, and that honestly gives me joy to be honest.

Because I know that every single problem I have in life, I can solve it; it just makes me more positive towards life and also allowed me to change my mindset around money. I think this really brings the last mindset shift that I had: the courage to be disliked. You know, you need to have the courage to be disliked. You need to have the courage to not please everyone around you.

You need to set your priorities right, believe in yourself that you are able to do this. Money is abundant; you have everything you need. You’re prioritizing, you’re putting all of your energy and attention into what matters, and you're cutting off the fluff. If someone is not a priority, you're not going to act like they are your priority.

Yes, it takes a lot of courage to be really open about who you like, who you don't like, who you care about, and who you don't care about. Most people, including my old self, didn't have that realization. Also, clarity and directness of, “Okay, you are the person that I love, and I’m going to prioritize.” I’m going to focus on my business, I'm going to focus on my health, and I'm going to say no to everything that does not align with that.

Shifting towards that mindset is really difficult. I still struggle with it, and I still feel like sometimes I’m missing out on things, but when I see the real progress in my life priorities, every single time—like 10 out of 10—I’m really satisfied with everything I’ve done in the past, and I'm not regretting any choice that I made.

These are the mindset shifts that really helped me get out of that trap and transform my life. It might sound too maybe cheesy; maybe it might sound too bragging for some, I don't know. But these are the real lessons that I learned along the way that really changed my mind and shifted my focus towards things that matter, and the results followed. It really worked for me; obviously, it might not work for you; everyone’s different.

I think 99% of the people who are watching this video aren't going to change anything about their lives anyway, but I still share it for the 1% of people, and you might be that one. If you want to change your life, if you want to change the financial situation that you're currently in, then you need to act differently, think differently, and behave differently.

Every single action you take is a choice. You choose every single day who you want to become, what kind of lifestyle you want to have. Accepting that and following towards that is the first step, and every decision you make, whether that's big or small, shapes who you become. If your daily actions don't align with the person you want to be, no wonder you're not living the life you dream of, right?

So we need to start taking responsibilities for every choice we make. I'm not saying that suddenly you need to quit your job and start a business and become a millionaire or anything like that. But every single day when you wake up, you can ask yourself, “What is the one thing that will help me get closer to my goals of maybe making more money?” You know, it could be learning new things; it could be trying new things; it could be reading, listening, or applying the lessons that you learned, whether that's small or big.

You can make intentional changes every single day. So if you’re going to bed every single day and asking yourself, “Did I give my best?” and if that answer is yes for every single day for the next 12 months, then yes, you will be able to make more money. It’s as simple as that. There’s nothing emotional about it.

If you have the skills and if you create the opportunity, you can make money; that’s it. Thank you for watching, and I really wonder what you think about my mindset when it comes to money. Do you agree? Do you disagree? Let me know.