These Business Lessons Made Me a Millionaire In My 20's

By the age of 21, I quit my two jobs. By the age of 23, I made my first million. By the age of 27, which we are at right now, I just turned 27, we are deep in the millions, making over half a million a month from our, this is from one business, let alone all our businesses. And here are some life and business lessons that I have learned along the way that I'm gonna share on this Dubai traffic that we're in before I go home. So let's go. The first lesson that I had to learn is I don't wanna save money. I wanna always reinvest my money, especially someone in their 20s where I don't have kids. I'm gonna save money, of course, because you never know what happens in business, but I'm gonna save just enough for me to live off in a couple months, but all my money's invested, whether it's in real estate, whether it's in other investments, like crypto, I've done crypto for a very long time, but of course I understand crypto, that's why I can get to invest in crypto without feeling like it's risky. Whether doing the most important two things, which is investing in your business, hiring people that will help you scale. I literally pay money, videographers, editors, directors, assistants, CEO, copywriters, people that I know will help me get to three million a month, four million a month, because you gotta understand that you can get to some levels, you can make a million by yourself, but then to scale bigger, it's impossible to do it on your own. You need a team, and I understood that at a young age, and this is why I am extremely, extremely okay with spending a lot of money to hire people that are better than me in business, that will help me scale way faster. The second thing that I also invest a lot in is myself. I am the biggest asset ever, so I make sure if I am the biggest asset, I invest in myself. We want a man to invest in us all because he knows my value. How about you invest in your own self because you know your own value? I know my own value, and I want, as a appreciating asset that goes up continuously every single year, I appreciate, I'm the best stock ever. There is no stock, there is no crypto, there is nothing that can beat the appreciation, the upward trend, the bull market that I am in. I am the bull market, I am the appreciation, so I make sure I invest in myself. Programs, courses, masterminds, events, books, mentors, guys, you cannot go to new levels with the information that you know today. To scale to the next level, you're probably missing a lot of information, sometimes even just one piece of information that will help you get to the next level. Number two, which this might sound like, are you okay, ma'am? I keep taking bigger risks every single year. Every single year, it's like, what crazier thing can we do? What crazier business can we launch? What crazier moves? I never wanna be comfortable. If you guys know what has been happening for the next month, you might look at me like, wow, Fnani, you do so many big things. Yeah, but these things give me butterflies, aka an anxiety, because they're all new, and I'm human too, I still have fears. Yesterday, I got a call, I'm speaking at a huge event in the US in front of 30,000 people, and they called me and they're like, you're the youngest we've ever had on stage, especially as a woman. We usually don't have a lot of women, we have more men. He's like, you're speaking before a couple of billionaires, so they're gonna be backstage listening to what you're saying. No pressure. I just like, the pressure's on. I'm nervous now, like what? I literally for a second was like, why did I agree to this? I know it's gonna be a phenomenal speech, because I'm gonna make sure it's gonna be a phenomenal speech, but now I just added more pressure, a bigger risk of me performing at the highest, spending more time, becoming better speaker, presenter, and that's just a risk. Now, besides that, we launched businesses that we didn't know how we're gonna do, traveled to places, we met people. Literally, I just take the biggest risks every single year, because I know it's either gonna be the craziest failure that's gonna teach us the biggest lesson that will get us to $100 million, or it's gonna be a great risk that will pay off massively. And both are welcome, both are fine. Number three, buying liabilities isn't always a bad thing. Some businesses buying liability, AKA a nice car, AKA a nice house, AKA a nice watch. Now, some might argue it's an asset, depends. It's not always a liability. We live, and this will come from, you know, Afnan, your sister, right? I'm not the coach right now, I'm y'all sister. In this world, people judge. Are we right or are we right or right? They judge a book by its cover. We are surface-level human beings, unfortunately. Now, I like nice things, and I judge people by what they have. Not judge them as in human beings. I'm like, oh, how much money they make? Let me see what car they drive. What house do they live in? What watch they're wearing? Depending what business you're in, I'm in the business of helping people. So number one, they need to know that I have value, but number two, people love seeing nice things that you have in order for them to believe that you actually make money, unless you're gonna give them receipts of your bank account and access to your bank account. How else would they see it? So yes, I'm buying the craziest purchase of a car that literally costs the price of a house in literally a couple weeks. And some people's like, Afnan, why would you waste your money? That's an asset to my business, because perception is everything. You get access to rooms. You get respected by richer people when you are at their level, and I have to understand that. Now, whether, oh, this is superficial, oh, you either play the game by the rules or cry about it. And one thing about me, I'm not gonna cry about it. I'm gonna play by the rules and win the game, always, because if it takes me buying a car that is the price of a house for people to know that I am successful, then so be it. Another lesson was I love exposing myself to new levels of wealth, to luxury, to business class, first class, because here's the thing. The first time I purchased business, it was like $4,000 one way, and I was like, oh my God, I literally worked so hard. And at that time, I was making money, but I was like, I worked so hard to make that 4,000, because 4,000 is someone's monthly wage. Now, I was making it in like a week at that time, so it was like still a week of my hard work. I bought that business class ticket. I sat there. I got the full experience. You board in the airplane before everyone. You get special treatment, because they don't treat the economy like business. That's for sure. Take it from me. I'm telling you, it's not the same. But then, now, that just made me wanna work harder, because I understood, well, I don't wanna go back to economy, because I experienced how amazing. I tasted, I smelled, I sat in an amazing environment. I don't wanna downgrade. I always wanna upgrade. So that pushed me to make even more money, to be more disciplined, to be more dedicated, and so on, so forth, to actually achieve all that wealth. So expose yourself to luxury. It will just push you to make a lot of money, because once you see it, you cannot unsee it. That's what you wanna do. You wanna see more things so you can be exposed. That's the best thing ever that you can do. Now, this applies if you are in the building stage. If it does not make me money or it makes me better, it is a distraction. And that can go to friends. That can go to family. That can go to hobbies. It can go to so much, because when you are in a season of I wanna achieve so much, that half the world have not achieved, more than half, more than 98, not even 95, 98% of the world have not achieved what you wanna achieve. So that will require extreme dedication, extreme being different, extreme uncomfort, for you to get there, because if all these people could not figure out, how would you be able to figure out without being an outsider, an outliner? So I had to be very strict with who I let in, what do I do every single hour of the day, especially in the building scene. Now, once you have the wealth and it's chill, then you can do whatever you want. Time is everything. And what you do with that time is what separates the rich people and the poor people. It's that simple. We all have 24 hours. You just gotta start doing better things with your 24 hours that will make you a million dollars. It's that simple. Another thing that I have to be aware of is I track my money daily. Not in an obsessive way, but I'm aware what comes in, what goes out. I'm not nonchalant. No matter how many millions we've made, we still know exactly where our money goes to. I was like, what's happening, brother? Why, why, why is everyone driving so like this in Dubai? Holy. Back to what I was saying. I am aware with our decisions, our money decisions daily. How much money did we make? How much money did we spend? How much money does everything cost? If you live nonchalantly, you'll also make money nonchalantly, and that's not a good thing. And that is just a quote by Afnan Khalifa that you have to, you have to take my word for that quote. Another lesson is I spend like my future self would, not my current self. Sometimes I'm like, can I afford this right now? But I'm like, you know what? I have to spend it, even if it's gonna hurt my little heart and my little bank, but spending it will make it normal for me to spend that much money, especially investing in yourself. And then you're gonna do everything in your power to make that money back multiplied 10X. I spend exactly how the future me, the hundred million dollar Afnan would, and you should do the same. Now don't go in depth for nonsense. I'm talking about investing in yourself and believing that you will make it happen. Look, even when I was in Canada, guys, when I was paying rent four years ago, I was making like 20, $25,000 a month cashflow. Now I had money that I've made from investments and so on and so forth, but cashflow. And to me, I only like spending from the cashflow because it keeps coming. I was paying rent like $6,000. What was I like 22 years old? That to me was like pushing it. It's like, why do I need a place that expensive at a young age? And in Toronto, that's not normal. I spent it, it became normal. Now we pay even more here in Dubai and we eventually made more money because we felt how much like, okay, a lot of money spent on a house, of course, that's totally fine. And I think that gives you like belief that money is just paper because it really is. The people you eat dinner with can make or break your bank account. Who do you chill around all the time? If they are, and I'm gonna say it very bluntly, if they are not more successful, if they are not more richer, if they don't have the life that you want, you're gonna end up downgrading your life, downgrading your results subconsciously to fit theirs. This is why you wanna spend the most time with people that are more successful than you. I'm not saying don't spend time with like your family because they're broke. That's not what I'm saying. Who do you spend the most time with? Be very, very selective. The last lesson that I learned was every time I wanted to do something new, I understood that I'm gonna be stupid for a little bit and I'm gonna look stupid, I'm gonna feel stupid because it's something new. But I understood that every single person in this world, that's the starting point for you to get success. No one starts perfect at anything. Whether it's public speaking, whether it's being great at business, whether it's being a great leader, whether it's investing in the financial markets, you have to feel and look stupid before you master something. And if you stomach that pain, that embarrassment of feeling and looking stupid long enough until you do something so many times repetitively, for you to master it, that is probably the number one differentiator between successful people and non-successful people. They can stomach that uncomfort of looking stupid and the rest cannot. So these are some lessons that I've learned. Are you flirting with me or my money? Which one? Are you a gold digger? That's what men call girls. Are you a gold digger? No one ever called me gold digger because usually men that have money, they're gonna not say you're a gold digger. They're gonna understand like, of course. Of course, spoil yourself. Broke people be like, are you a gold digger? There's no gold. I'm digging ashes at this point. I'm digging your ashes. So some practical tips on how can you get around people that are more successful and make more money than you? Because let's be real. They don't wanna chill with you. You have to pay for access. You have to pay for proximity. That's the only way they're gonna give you access. So don't be cheap with that because that will be the one separator that will help you make a lot of money fast is when you pay for access. Some people get lucky, but most people don't. So my number one advice is pay for communities. Pay for programs. Pay to get a mentor, a coach that you can talk to one-on-one even if it hurts your bank account because I've done that. I've spent over $200,000 in programs, coaches, events, masterminds, one-on-ones. Look where I am. You think any 27-year-old woman that is immigrant that had broken English did not think that she is that good at really anything. So many limiting beliefs could get here without all of that? No, impossible. But these are some lessons that have changed my life and I hope they change your life too. Let me know in the comments which one of these lessons you felt the most and you're gonna start implementing, not tomorrow, yesterday. With that being said, guys, let us know in the comments what you wanna see next and let's make a million dollars, all of us, because what else are we gonna do in this life besides making a million dollars? Bye, guys. Bye.