How to become a millionaire in 3 years | Daniel Ally | TEDxBergenCommunityCollege

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

When most people say they want to be a millionaire, they're really saying that they want to spend one million dollars. Besides winning the lotto or inheriting money, you'll learn three key elements used by the most successful people who have ever lived. You'll not only be able to learn how to become a millionaire, but you'll learn the real reason of why it helps our society to alleviate poverty. This valuable session offers the solutions that you'll need to be successful for the rest of your life, whether you want to be a millionaire or not.

Daniel Ally became a self-made millionaire at the age of 24.
It all started when he realized that he was living far below his potential. After years of drug abuse and failing at life, Daniel was fed up. One day, he went to his local library and searched endlessly for truth. After discovering a few books, he decided to turn his life around. For many years, Daniel gave thousands of speeches, reached millions of people, and built successful companies, making Daniel a millionaire in the process. Search on the internet and you’ll find that TIME, Fortune, Business Insider, Yahoo, and other major publications have enjoyed Daniel’s work. He is also a top contributor on Entrepreneur Magazine. He is the author of two best-selling books, which can be found in 46 different countries in thousands of libraries. From billionaires in Boston to amateurs in Austin, Daniel has traveled to hundreds of cities, shaking hands and connecting with all kinds of people across the globe.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Today I want to talk with you
about a subject

that many people have been talking
about for a very long time.

And that subject is called "success."

Success means different things
to different people,

but what is success might mean to me
is different than what it may mean to you.

And what it may mean to you,

is different than what it means
to a kindergartner

who is just trying to get a star
on his homework assignment.

Or perhaps to a housewife,

who has been trying
to get her five kids in bed be 9pm.

Or maybe even a corporate executive

who's been working for his
or her corporation for 20-plus years,

and only wants to become
the CEO of their organization.

As you could tell,

we have so many different definitions
of this word success,

but the greatest definition
I can give you today is this,

"Success is all about self-expression."

It's about being who you want to be,

doing what you want to do,

going where you want to go.

Because when it comes to your life,

you are the boss, and you have a choice.

In fact, you are who you are today

because of all the choices
that you've made in your entire life.

But as we are growing up
we have a lot of people

who try to tell us
how to make these choices;

our parents, our teachers, our bosses,
our friends, even our neighbors.

They try to tell us how to live our lives,

what we should do, where we should go,

how we should walk, how we should talk.

But my question for you is this,

"If you're trying to be
what other people want you to be,

then who will be you?"

So the key to success is to stop
conforming to other people expectations,

and start performing
to your own level of expectations.

Is to believe in yourself.

Is to know that what you want
will eventually come to fruition,

as long as you believe it.

You see, you have to have faith,

and faith is knowing that what you want
will eventually come to fruition

as long as you believe it.

And if you feed your faith,

you will find often times
that your fears will starve to death,

because if you believe in yourself,

everyone else in the world
will believe in you.

Fortunately, for a long time,
I didn't quite believe in myself.

Actually, I used to be the kind of person

that mothers would often
warn their daughters about,

and fathers would tell their sons,

"If you keep doing
what Daniel Ally is doing,

you are going to end up
where Daniel Ally is going."

They had some credence
to what they were saying,

because as you can imagine,

your reputation really is
your best advertisement.

I really didn't have a good reputation,

because I was living
so far below my potential,

I was actually living
in my mother's basement.

By the age of 21,
I'd worked over 40 different jobs.

I got fired from more jobs
than more people had.

In high school,
I graduated second to last,

the last guy; well, he was in jail.

I was on drugs for eight years,
and I was confused.

I was broke, busted, and disgusted,

and I knew that I wanted to change;

the only problem was I didn't know how.

Can I see a show of hands
if you've ever been in a situation

where you wanted to change,
but you just didn't know what to do?

Well, we all have been there,

maybe we are there right now.

I discovered there are only three ways
that I can make a change in my life.

Three ideas I wanted
to share with you today

that can absolutely revolutionize
your life from today.

I know these steps work
because I've been able to do them myself.

By the age of 24,
I became a self-made millionaire.

I have been able to write three books
and travel to dozens of countries.

I now reach millions
of people with my work.

I believe that these three key principles
can change your life,

no matter how do you define success

whether you want to live to age 100
or even have a dozen kids,

or just have a house on the mountaintop
somewhere no one knows about.

These three key principles will help you
to realize the success in your life.

The first one is to read more books.

All the books in the world can help us
to solve all the problems in the world.

But the truth is that we don't have
to read all the books in the world,

because we don't have
all the problems in the world,

but we do have to read the books
that help us to solve our problems.

So, for instance, if you wanted
to learn about money,

you better be reading books
that talk about money.

Or if you wanted to learn
how to manage your relationships,

or to become a better communicator,
there are a lot of books on that.

What I am saying basically,

is there are libraries that are paved
with gold, and library cards are free.

Books are the tools
that release the heavens of your mind.

And leaders are readers.

If you want to succeed,
you have to read.

Most people in the world
read about one book every single year,

that book, I would suppose,
would be Facebook.

And before people even get up
and do their things,

before they drink their coffee
or read their paper, they read Facebook.

But the truth is that if you study
miscellaneous things,

you get miscellaneous results;

you become what you study.

What do you study,
and where is it taking you?

A lot of people come up to me,
and they say,

"Daniel, I don't really have time to read.
I have kids, I have work, I am student.

I already have so many textbooks,
I am doing so many things, I am too busy."

But if you don't have 10 minutes a day,

you're basically saying
you don't have a life.

We all have time to read,

we all have time to pick up a good book

and read for ourselves
so that we can learn.

Look! If you read 10 minutes a day,
for 30 straight days,

that is one book a month.

One book a month, in 12 months,
is 12 books a year.

You can do in one year
what most people do in five years.

Talk about not having time.

We all have time to read.

Remember, readers are leaders,

and the only way
you can succeed is if you read.

My second suggestion

is about getting around
the best individuals you can.

We're the sum total of five people

in which we surround ourselves
with the most.

We earn the same income,
we go to the same places,

we do the same things,
we think the same thoughts.

And if you were to look
at your five closest friends,

you've got to ask yourself
this one question,

"Who are my leaders,
and where are they taking me?"

In other words,

"Are my leaders taking me
to the place I'd most likely want to be?"

If the answer is no,
then you need new leaders.

You need people who are inspiring,
people that can help you,

lift you up to the goals that transcend
your own possibility and your thinking.

You have to realize your goals,

and you can only do that
by getting around the right people.

Many of us have what I like
to call "defult friends".

Default friends are basically people
that we see around the neighborhood,

people at the grocery store, the gym,
the mall, at church, at work,

everywhere we go.

These are people
that we naturally befriend

as we start to gain
their trust and acceptance.

And what tends to happen is,
if you are a highly ambitious person,

and you have really high goals,

a lot of these people
can help you reach your goals.

So you have to look outside,
you have to search for people.

I'll give you an example,

I had a friend, his name was John,
and he was actually a plumber,

and his father and him
had a pretty successful business,

at least it seemed like it.

So I asked John,

"I want to start a business,
what exactly do you think I should do?"

John pulled me to the corner and said,

"Daniel, I don't think
you want to start a business,

98% of businesses fail
within the first three years."

Then he proceeded to tell me about
all the reasons why I couldn't do it,

and why it won't work.

He told me how was so hard
working over 100 hours a week,

how hard it was to manage payroll,

and why the recession was holding him back
from getting more clients.

As he told me this, I became
a little discouraged, a little dejected,

and I went home, and I thought about it.

When I get to my journal,
I usually reflect,

and I wrote down in my journal,
"The 98% of statistics are made up."

Including that one.

You have to realize that no one's opinion
of you can become your reality.

And in order to change your reality,
you've to change your mentality

and the people you surround yourself with.

You have to get yourself
around people who can help you,

people that are smarter than you,
people who have gone further than you;

people who know what you need to do
to get to that next level.

The truth is that the people
that you are looking for

are also looking for you,
but you have to find them.

Sometimes, we surround ourselves
with strangers and family members

who tell us what we can't do,
they limit us.

A lot of people have the right intentions,

but often times,
they provide the wrong directions.

In other words, they want to help us,
but they just don't know how.

So get around people who can.

A lot of people ask me,
"Daniel, how do you find these people?"

It is easy.

If you flow step one,
which is to read more books,

you'll find that in the back of the book
there is the "About the Author" section.

What I used to do
is I used to reach out to the authors.

Thankfully, we live in a new millennium

which allows us to get on
their social media, their websites,

and so we can have
a conversation with them.

We can change by actually understanding
what it is that they teach.

And if we ask enough questions,
we can make great progress in our life.

Remember that people you're looking for
are also looking for you,

so get yourself around those people.

My last and final suggestion
is to set higher goals,

because goals make you stretch,

they help you to become
more of who you are.

And in this enormity of conformity,

so many people don't know
how to set goals,

they get confused about the process.

A lot of people use
New Year's resolutions,

but the problem
with New Year's resolutions

is that the person often
tries to do too much, too fast.

Let's say Doug wants to stop smoking.

On December 31st, he says, "I'm done."

January 1st, "I'm clean, never again."

He hasn't created a plan of action
to achieve his goals,

and therefore, it isn't reasonable.

Bucket list is something else
that people do,

and usually, when someone
creates a bucket list,

they're giving themselves too much time.

There is no urgency, and most of the time,
they don't write their goals down.

So, "What do you suggest?"

Well, I am glad you asked.

What I do suggest for you
is to write your goals down.

I believe that a dull pencil
is better than a sharp mind,

and to impress your subconscious mind,
you have to write your goals down,

so that you can hold this steadfastly
to who you are.

I have this method
I teach all around the world,

that's called, "The 20 Idea Method".

Basically, what you do,

is you select one overarching goal
that you would like to accomplish,

analyze 20 ideas
correspond with that particular goal.

Let's say, for instance,
you wanted to be a better public speaker.

What are some things you can do?

Well, you could watch TED talks,
like you are now,

you could practice your speech,
look in the mirror to challenge yourself,

you could read the dictionary every day.

There are so many things you can do,
but could I come up with 20 ideas?

The answer is, "Yes,
I can come up with a 100 if wanted to."

Imagine if you did this
in every area in your life:

financially, for promotions,
for your family,

and you wrote your goals on every day.

You would be able to accomplish
so many things in your life.

We have everything we need
in order to succeed,

but we have to take the things we have
to get more of the things that we want;

from the cars that we drive,
to the clothes that we wear,

to the food that we eat,
and the people that we meet.

In this depository of diversity, we have
everything we need in order to succeed,

But we have to believe.

When you believe in yourself,

you will find that everyone in the world
will believe in you.

And you also have to think big.

When you think big,
you will do big, and you will win big.

Well, B-I-G is actually is the 3 ideas
that I want to share with you today:

B -- the books that you read,

I -- the individuals that you meet,

and G -- the goals
that you set for yourself.

Books, individuals, and goals:
that's all you need to accomplish success,

because when you think big,
you will do big,

and you will win big, my friends.

Thank you.

(Applause).