From zero to 1 million (Part 1)

In January, YouTube bombarded me with videos produced by various influencers promoting the challenge: "From zero to $1 million in 12 months." Some were bold enough to declare "in 30 days" in their video thumbnails. As a chronic skeptic, I decided to click on a few to write an article for the readers of the Oman Observer on whether the advice given in those videos is worth trying, or if it's plain nonsense.

This article is divided into two parts. In the first part, I will describe what's wrong with the basic assumptions. In the second part, I will share my recipe for gathering wealth over time, without necessarily beating the 12-month deadline or aiming for $1 million specifically.

Right off the bat, it's clear that almost all of these YouTubers don't really mean zero as in actual zero. They are mostly shooting their videos in professional studios, with equipment worth thousands of dollars, in the comfort of their beautifully decorated homes. Some have the intellectual honesty to admit that they are not starting from zero.

Especially those with a decent following seem to know that they will collect a generous check from YouTube every month. Others are plainly dishonest, ignoring their existing resources as a starting point, but thankfully, they seem to be the minority.

Don't get me wrong. Challenging ourselves to reach higher goals in life is a good thing. What I disagree with is the modality. Becoming a millionaire is a journey, made of learning experiences and mistakes. Reducing it to something that anyone can learn from a 10-minute YouTube video is paradoxical. Also, setting a specific timeframe is not ideal, in my opinion.

We have 12 months in a year because Roman Emperors Julius and Augustus wanted to slot in the best summer months for themselves — talking about a long-lasting legacy — otherwise, there would be 10 solar months, and each calendar would have a different counting system, beginning, and end. So, my non-YouTuber advice for those wanting to become millionaires is not to time it over a man-made construct for measuring time, but rather to use your own pace. As with everything in life, the value is in the journey to the goal, not in the goal itself.

Some YouTubers begin their videos with an oversimplified table to compute what's really needed to reach $1 million. For example: Sell a $200 product to 5,000 people or a $2,000 product to 500 people. I find these oversimplifications frankly hilarious.

They don't differentiate between revenue and profit. If you paid $100 for the $200 product, stored 5,000 pieces in a facility costing $3,000 a month, promoted the business with $2,000 a month in ads, hired an accountant at $1,500 a month, and added bills, utilities, transport, shipping costs, refunds, bank fees, taxes, and all the rest, it would be really hard to keep $250,000 of the whole million.