Be a Contrarian: How to Build Wealth, Connections & a Life You Love
Entrepreneur and investor Tai Lopez shares why the best time in history to change your life and build wealth is right now. Speaking to a live audience, Tai reveals how thinking differently from the crowd, building authentic relationships, and combining modern tools like AI and crypto with real-world connection can unlock massive opportunities.
He tells stories of self-made millionaires and billionaires—including a 21-year-old who built a $120M company in just 90 days—and breaks down the practical principles that anyone can apply:
Why being a contrarian gives you an edge How one key relationship can double your net worth The 80/20 rule for balancing positivity with realistic thinking Why networking in person still matters in the digital age How to enjoy the journey while building your empire
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women. Are men hitting on you as much as
they used to or are men like getting too
shy?
Too shy. Eight years ago, women were
complaining that men were too forward.
And now men are too shy. You know what
that means? Men, remember what Charlie
Mer said that if it wasn't for the
stupidity of other people, you wouldn't
be able to get rich. Men, when all the
other men get shy, if you do the
opposite, women are going to be like,
"This is a dude I would never normally
date, but he's the only [ __ ] guy who
talked to me, so he got my number."
Here in my garage.
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All right. Who's here for the first
time? Who's been here before?
who's never been here.
This month I was busy so I did a small
party. Last time I had the whole pool
and I was like
I've been in Sweden for a while. So cuz
this is going to be my last party of the
summer. So I wanted to say a couple
words. We had a two-day mastermind. So
who was here from the mastermind?
I just interviewed a guy this morning.
It's the best time in history if you
want to change your life, make money. I
had a guy who started in three months
ago. He didn't have a company. He
started Culie three months ago, 90 days
ago. He got valued at 120 million in 3
months. He's 21. Who here'd like to make
a 100 mil in the next 90 days.
Hey, no other time in history they'll
tell if you listen to the news, they'll
tell you that the world's falling,
everything's bad, and there's a lot of
truth. There's always a lot of bad, but
you get what you focus on. So don't
forget to focus on the crazy stories. In
the past, if you wanted to be wealthy,
you had to be born in the right family,
in the right country, in the right
class. Now you have people just if you
can pick yourself up, think on your own,
move fast, know a little bit of AI,
crypto. Anybody here make some money in
crypto?
I was uh in Europe and a guy showed me a
wallet. He had 850 million of stable
coins in one wallet. And that guy in
2015 was selling ebooks for like two
bucks a piece. So never give up. Took
him seven years to make 800 million
bucks. So who moved to California for a
dream? Anybody?
Who whose dream was to become famous?
Don't lie to me. There should be hands
popping up everywhere. Who came here to
become famous and you hit it? Now you're
pretty famous. You're famous.
Ted built a big company. Everybody
remember MySpace. And by the way, you
know, I was telling you your story, Ted.
One of the way a group of guys built
MySpace. Ted's one of the guys. And one
of the ways they did it was doing events
and parties like this. In the AI world,
don't forget, humans are going to crave
authenticity in person. And so, you can
always go opposite of the rest of the
world when the world is just doing AI
stuff. If you can do AI but combined it
with real people meeting. Who here
sometimes gets sick of just looking at
the phone wants to just meet somebody?
Women are men hitting on you as much as
they used to or are men like getting too
shy?
Too shy. Eight years ago women were
complaining that men were too forward
and now men are too shy. But you know
what that means? Men, remember what
Charlie Mer said? He said, "If it wasn't
for the stupidity of other people, you
wouldn't be able to get rich." Men, when
all the other men get shy, if you do the
opposite, women are going to be like,
"This is a dude I would never normally
date, but he's the only [ __ ] guy who
talked to me, so he got my number." And
what I was going to talk on just for a
second, I'll let you go so you don't
have to hear me talk, but um just the
power of being a contrarian. A
contrarian is somebody who doesn't care
what the sheep of the world do. And most
people are built to be sheep. The world
is going to go to people who do the
opposite of everybody else. So, if all
your friends drink a ton, go a month
without drinking. If all your friends
watch the news and complain and talk
about stuff, go a month without watching
the news. Just like wean yourself off
mainstream society, because for the last
10,000 years, society's been making
mistakes and just a few people find
their way. And so, be a contrarian
number one. Number two, you get what you
think about a lot. So, try to reframe
things. But I'll tell you this, it is
possible to be too positive. I like the
80/20 rule. Be pessimistic 20% of the
time. That'll keep you from making big
mistakes. Do it early in the morning
when you wake up. Who here sometimes
stays up late at night keeping
themselves up stressing. All you got to
do, it's okay to stress. Do it in the
first two hours you wake up when your
brain is resilient. I have a rule. I got
a a truce with myself. I got it packed
late at night. No matter how bad
something is, I will not think about it
till the morning. So, make a truce with
yourself. 80% of the time, most of the
day, you'll be positive. 20% in the
morning, think of the worst case and how
you're going to avoid it. And the third
thing is you're one human relationship
away from doubling your net worth.
Wherever you're at in the world, you
know, Elon Musk had his PayPal mafia. He
had there's 23 guys. And wealth and
success requires allies. The biggest
myth of entrepreneurs is you're going to
be in the shower, you come up with a
genius idea. That genius idea, you take
it, you patent it, you trademark it, and
the next thing you know, you're made a
billion. That's not how the actual truth
goes. The truth is Elon Musk was a
successful young dude. He went, he found
23 smart people. They kind of lived in a
house together. As iron sharpens iron, a
friend sharpens a friend. So, you need a
friend that'll like push you. And if you
can find that one person, maybe they're
here. Try to talk to some strangers.
Don't talk to somebody you wouldn't
normally talk about. That's what I mean
by being a contrarian. If you're like,
you know, athletic, try to find the
least athletic person here. They
probably built a skill to compensate for
the fact that they were bullied in
school. They're probably an AI genius or
something. So, be contrarian. Find one
person and then be a loyal friend. I was
talking one of my friends was here super
loyal as all of you become successful
which I hope everybody does. I've been
on the journey a while. I've had my ups
and downs. I've been super successful
and then I've hit plateaus and stuff.
The most important thing and they
Harvard did a study and they study for
50 years people outside of Harvard just
like mainstream society. What was the
number one thing that made people live a
long life old and die happy? What do you
think it was? You think it was money?
That's warm. You think it was money?
You think it was love?
You think it was What do you think it
was? Deep relationships with other
people. Money is good cuz you can keep
score. You know, if you're doing well.
But at the end of the day, for me, money
is just a tool to, for example, I just
had a family reunion and I I didn't grow
up with money. So, I flew in 25 of my
family members and cousins and people,
they don't have the money. The best use
of money, use it, do your annual
reunion. First time you make your first
million dollars, take 50,000 of it, fly
in all your old family you haven't seen,
your cousin. I met my one of my second
cousins for the first time ever. But
also don't forget about the friends. I
invite certain friends to my family and
I introduce them. We're not blood, but
there's a friend that's closer than a
brother. So, first million, buy a farm,
little piece of land, raise your kids on
a farm, not in Beverly Hills. And then
make your money here, but have a little
farm. And then after you buy the farm,
you spend 50 grand a year, fly everybody
in, Cape Coast ties, and then no matter
how wealthy or not wealthy you become,
you're going to win. And here's my last
warning to everybody. One of my private
clients, people I've mentored a lot of
people that have become wealthy
billionaires. And so one of my private
clients who went from rags to riches.
I'm talking incarcerated poor and he
just became a billionaire and he sadly
died last week. Young too, like 40. And
so all the money in the world doesn't
matter if you don't enjoy it a little
bit. So don't when you're trying to
build your empire, dude, he had a wallet
with 500 million in Bitcoin. I saw and
that was when it was Bitcoin was at
$50,000.
So I it just reminded me like, oh [ __ ]
he finally hit that monetary goal of a
bill and he died within three months of
it happening. So time Waits for no man
on the rise. Some of you are still on
the rise. You haven't hit it. better
enjoy all the rides because even if you
get to the end, you might die. So enjoy
today. You never know in the modern
world. I don't mean to be pessimistic,
but I just mean it's a good wakeup call
for me. I was like, "Fuck, man."
Well, Bill, yeah, I'm not going to kill
you. I didn't kill him.
But anyway, enjoy the party. And uh I'm
going to shoot a quick snap and say
everybody say everybody, let's do this.
So the next time I meet all of you, yell
out some kind of goal that will be
fulfilled by the next time I see you.
Next time I see you, what will what goal
will be have fulfilled?
What do we got? Say it. Come on,
Luna. Luna.
Luna. But what's the goal?
Okay. Next time I see you, can you
design my house?
She going to design. What about my farm?
My farm needs more design help. All
right. Say to all the people around the
world cuz I got a lot of followers in
South America. It's winter there right
now. So say
summer in California, baby.
[Applause]
All right. Have fun. Good night.