0:02 You don't need to start a business to
0:04 become a millionaire. Most millionaires
0:06 in the US built wealth without launching
0:08 companies. They did it by growing a
0:11 career. From entry level to leadership
0:14 roles, I did the same. If your calling
0:17 is to be a founder, great. If not, then
0:20 this is your operator's manual. Seven
0:22 moves that can create real wealth from a
0:25 9 to-ive job. Here's our first move.
0:27 Pick the right industry. You might be
0:30 running an 80hour week, but are you on
0:32 the right track? Eric Schmidt once said,
0:34 "If you're offered a seat on a rocket
0:37 ship, don't ask which seat." The right
0:40 company in the right industry can help
0:42 you break barriers. Research from
0:44 Georgetown Center of Education found
0:47 that your choice of industry can impact
0:50 lifetime earnings way more than your
0:52 college degree. Even the smartest
0:55 surfers can't move if the waves aren't
0:58 there. Some industries reward you with
1:01 joy and fulfillment like nonprofit,
1:03 education, healthcare, and some reward
1:05 you with equity or other financial
1:08 upside. It's not always either or, but a
1:10 growing industry can change the shape of
1:13 your trajectory. You might be thinking,
1:15 what if I'm not in a growthbound
1:17 industry today? Does that mean game
1:20 over? Not even close. It just means that
1:22 that's the lever you haven't pulled yet.
1:25 Angela Duxworth started as a consultant,
1:27 then became a teacher, then a
1:29 researcher, then a professor, and then
1:31 an author, and that's when she hit it
1:34 big with her best-selling book, Grit.
1:36 And she was in her mid-40s by then. Jim
1:39 McKelby is another great example. He was
1:42 a glass blower teaching at Washington
1:44 University. He switched to fintech in
1:47 his mid-40s and became not just a
1:49 millionaire, but a billionaire. He
1:52 co-founded Square. So you can pivot all
1:54 the way in your 40s. I started in the
1:57 wrong function in the wrong industry.
1:59 Like most of us when I graduated, I had
2:01 no experience. I was scared of being
2:04 unemployed. So I just took the first job
2:06 that came my way. But over time, through
2:09 mentors, trial and error, and support
2:12 from a lot of folks, the path became
2:14 clearer. I was able to find my way to
2:17 the work that I loved in an industry
2:19 that still lights me up. I am sharing
2:22 this because when I started my career, I
2:24 remember feeling totally stuck. Now I
2:28 look back and think our early choices
2:31 don't sink us, they shape us. Remember,
2:33 there is always a second act. Don't give
2:36 up. Two action steps. First, wherever
2:39 you are today, run an industry fit
2:41 audit. You need to ask five questions.
2:44 Number one, is my industry growing
2:47 faster than GDP? Two, does it reward
2:50 innovation and risk-taking? Three, do
2:53 employees share in the company upside is
2:56 that the culture of that industry? Four,
2:58 are there clear advancement paths? And
3:01 five, how is AI going to hurt or help
3:03 the industry in the long run? Second
3:06 action item, speak with at least two or
3:09 three people in an industry or a company
3:11 that you find interesting and learn
3:13 more. Why did they pick that industry?
3:16 What do their paths look like? Where is
3:18 the momentum? Let's say you recognize
3:21 that the industry you are in today is
3:23 not a good fit for you. Well, that's
3:25 great progress already because most
3:27 people don't even ask these questions.
3:29 The industry that you're in today does
3:31 not define your future, but it might
3:33 delay it. So, that's why this is the
3:36 first move. Find the right industry fit.
3:39 Move number two, choose the right path.
3:42 Are you a specialist or a generalist?
3:45 Behind every great career is one of two
3:49 patterns, depth or range. David Epstein
3:51 wrote this great book called range where
3:54 he shows that in roles like product
3:56 strategy, business development or
3:58 general management where you need to
4:02 synthesize C patterns and align across
4:05 functions and teams. Generalists tend to
4:08 do very well. And meanwhile, roles that
4:10 demand deep expertise in domain
4:12 knowledge like neurosurgery or software
4:15 architecture or quant trading. That's
4:17 where specialists tend to dominate. When
4:19 you are thinking about long-term career
4:22 growth, here's a career evolution model
4:24 to keep in mind. Phase one foundation
4:28 years 0 to 5. Everyone start as kind of
4:30 a specialist. You need some real skills
4:32 to get hired and prove value. So in
4:34 first 5 years you have to build some
4:37 depth. Phase two is when you're going to
4:40 see the fork in the road. Years 5 to 10,
4:42 at this point, you have two options.
4:45 Option one is step. Double down on
4:47 whatever you're doing and become the
4:50 go-to expert in that specific task or
4:52 role. This often leads to faster
4:54 promotions and higher compensation.
4:58 Option two is range. Use your base to
5:00 branch out across functions. You're now
5:03 on a generalist path. It is slower to
5:05 ramp initially, but it has a much higher
5:07 ceiling later on. Phase three,
5:10 accelerate on the path you've chosen. If
5:12 you are a specialist, go even deeper and
5:15 command premium rewards. If you're a
5:18 generalist, go broader, go higher
5:20 towards strategy, synthesis,
5:23 integration, and leadership. What you
5:25 want to avoid is getting stuck in that
5:29 mushy middle called the career fog zone
5:32 where you're not deep enough or broad
5:34 enough to cut through the fog. Let's say
5:37 you're not sure yet about which path to
5:39 take. Well, that's normal. Many of us
5:41 don't have it all figured out by our
5:45 mid30s or even our early 40s. The point
5:48 isn't to have all the answers. It's to
5:50 keep asking the right questions.
5:52 Wherever you are in your journey, take
5:54 the next step. Here's the action plan.
5:56 Talk to someone who is 5 or 10 years
6:00 ahead of you and who has chosen a path.
6:02 A generalist and a specialist. Talk to
6:05 both types and ask them how did they
6:08 decide? What helped them grow? What do
6:10 they still focus on improving? Some
6:13 careers are like tunnels, others are
6:15 like bridges. Either can work if you
6:18 build it with intention. Your third
6:21 move, build your performance engine. We
6:23 think about careers in terms of our
6:25 daily commute, but it's more like an F1
6:27 race. If you want to win, you need a
6:30 high performance engine. Our careers are
6:33 not just about us driving on a scenic
6:35 route. There are lots of folks driving
6:37 on the same track, right? Trying to get
6:40 ahead, hairraising turns, super high
6:42 speed, brutal competition, lots of
6:44 crashes. One good framework to
6:46 accelerate your career in my experience
6:50 is RPM. Anyone who is aspiring for a
6:53 high growth, highreward career should
6:56 monitor these three gauges. Reputation,
6:58 production, mastery. If you want to
7:00 accelerate, you have to rev all of them
7:03 up. Mastery. This is your edge. Not your
7:05 degree or your title, but the work that
7:08 you do when nobody's watching. that
7:12 extra 1% that others will skip, but you
7:14 won't. You've probably heard so many
7:16 stories about all these elite
7:18 performers, like Tiger Woods waking up
7:22 at 6:00 a.m. for workouts, 1,000
7:24 contacts with golf ball every single
7:27 day, relentless focus on his short game.
7:29 That's what mastery is about. Whether
7:32 you are after depth or range, you have
7:35 to work really hard to make it look
7:38 really easy. The second reputation.
7:40 Reputation isn't about being liked. It's
7:42 about being trusted when stakes are
7:44 high. That's what others remember about
7:48 you. As Warren Buffett said, it takes 20
7:50 years to build a reputation and 5
7:52 minutes to ruin it. As you get into
7:54 senior positions, you realize that no
7:57 matter how shiny your resume is, your
8:00 reputation will matter even more. Third,
8:02 production. Here's the math. We have to
8:05 produce 10x more value than what we
8:07 capture. We don't get to make a million
8:10 until we have created $10 million in
8:12 value for someone else. What's your
8:15 action plan on revving up your RPM? At
8:17 the end of every week, you can ask
8:20 yourself, one, who did I help when I
8:22 didn't need to? Number two, what extra
8:24 value did I create for others? And
8:27 number three, what did I work really
8:29 hard to learn? Try to move the needle on
8:32 all three gauges every week. And if
8:33 you're already doing some of this
8:36 machine tuning, congrats because that
8:38 means you're watching your other drivers
8:40 in your rearview mirror. Keep working on
8:43 your RPM. Keep driving forward. Move
8:46 number four, get closer to the customer.
8:49 Proximity is power, but most of us
8:51 misunderstand what that means. Sometimes
8:53 when you feel you're underpaid, you
8:55 might be too far from the customer. When
8:58 Uber was doing its IPO, as the story
9:01 goes, every big investment bank was
9:03 fighting for a piece of that business.
9:05 One managing director at a large bank
9:08 did something very simple but smart. He
9:11 drove as an Uber driver for a couple of
9:13 weeks, talking directly to passengers
9:15 and learning about they liked and what
9:17 they didn't like about Uber. The board
9:20 and the CEO at Uber chose his bank. The
9:23 bank collected $40 million in fees.
9:25 That's not the only reason they got the
9:27 deal, but the board really appreciated
9:30 that the managing director took time to
9:32 understand the customers and hence
9:34 understand the business. Everyone
9:36 obsesses over proximity to the corner
9:39 office, but not as much as proximity to
9:42 customers. Every dollar in your paycheck
9:44 and your CEO's paycheck is driven by one
9:47 thing, right? Customers decision to keep
9:48 buying your company's products and
9:51 services. The closer your work is to the
9:53 customer, the more leverage you will
9:55 build. Internal roles like finance,
9:59 operations, and HR matter a lot as well.
10:01 And you don't have to be in sales to
10:03 influence revenue. If you are a
10:06 financial analyst, you can unlock
10:08 insights that help your company grow
10:10 deeper relationships with your best
10:13 customers. What if you are in IT? You
10:16 can build some internal AI tools that
10:18 accelerate deals. So, these are all
10:21 moves that directly impact the company's
10:23 bottom line because proximity to
10:25 customer isn't just about money. It's
10:27 about understanding the business at its
10:29 fundamental level. Here's the action
10:32 plan this week. Map exactly how your
10:34 role impacts the customer. How far are
10:36 you? How will you bridge that distance?
10:40 Find one small tangible project that
10:42 gets you closer to the customer, closer
10:43 to the revenue, even if you have to
10:46 volunteer for it. No matter where you
10:48 are in the company, you have more
10:50 influence than you think. Your
10:53 contributions can always move the
10:56 needle. Next is move number five. Make
10:58 asymmetric bets. This type of risk can
11:01 change your entire career trajectory.
11:03 Sometimes if you want to grow, you have
11:06 to gamble. So what is an asymmetric bet?
11:09 This is a bet where your upside is high
11:12 and your downside is just your bruised
11:15 ego or something. years ago I uh
11:17 interviewed for a company that I deeply
11:20 deeply admired. It was a long intense
11:23 process like 10 to 12 interviews and the
11:25 hiring manager who was the senior vice
11:27 president built great chemistry with me
11:29 throughout the process. Even the
11:31 president of the company, who was my
11:33 last interview, bonded with me during
11:36 the interview, and it was great. And I
11:38 walked away thinking, "Yeah, I did
11:41 pretty well." But days later, the SVB
11:43 called and he said, "We'd love to hire
11:46 you, but the budget is $20,000 below
11:48 what you make today." And that was a big
11:51 pay cut. And I almost walked away. But
11:54 then I realized that this was my
11:56 asymmetric bet. Even though I was super
11:59 nervous, I called the president
12:02 directly. Heart pounding and all, and I
12:04 said, "I truly believe this company will
12:06 redefine the industry. Pay me less if
12:09 you have to, but we shouldn't let
12:11 $20,000 stand between us." And he
12:13 thought for a while, and he said, "Yep,
12:16 you're right. Let's make it happen." And
12:18 I got hired. Of course, they paid me
12:20 $20,000 less in salary, but they
12:22 sweetened the deal by giving me a little
12:24 more equity. I share this not to
12:27 highlight any brilliance on my part. I'm
12:29 not someone who always gets it right. I
12:32 fail more than most. My downside was
12:34 manageable. If he said yes, I could
12:36 afford that pay cut because I was single
12:38 at that point. And if he said no, well,
12:41 I'm happy making $20,000 more every
12:43 year. But the upside was enormous. A
12:46 careerchanging opportunity in a company
12:48 that I deeply believed in. And in fact,
12:51 that company did redefine the industry
12:54 and achieved a historic exit 4 years
12:57 later. Here's one framework to help you
13:00 assess the asymmetric bet. It's a 2x2
13:02 matrix. One, what's the worst that could
13:04 realistically happen? Two, if that
13:07 happens, can I recover from it in 12
13:10 months? Three, what's the best possible
13:13 outcome, the upside? And four, is the
13:15 upside at least five times bigger than
13:18 the downside? And now the action step.
13:21 Identify one or two asymmetric bets that
13:24 you can take this quarter or this year.
13:27 It might be as small as pitching a bold
13:30 idea or even asking your manager how you
13:33 can be more successful or as big as
13:35 looking at another company or another
13:38 industry. Sometimes you have to remind
13:40 yourself that you already have more
13:42 courage than you think. If you're
13:44 seeking out videos like this one, then
13:46 you're in the top tier of people who
13:48 have that growth mindset, right? And for
13:51 someone like you, the biggest risk might
13:54 just be not taking that asymmetric risk.
13:56 Move number six, master the financial
14:00 forest. Salary fills your bucket drip by
14:02 drip. Investments and equity make it
14:05 overflow. Think of finance as a dense
14:08 forest filled with winding paths and
14:11 hidden traps and buried gold. To
14:14 navigate it, you need a map and a lot of
14:16 discipline. And by discipline, I mean
14:18 sticking to three core principles.
14:21 Principle number one, avoid acting rich
14:24 too early. When I hit my first six
14:27 figure salary package long back, I
14:30 didn't upgrade my lifestyle. I upgraded
14:33 my savings rate. My wife and I stayed in
14:36 the same modest apartment in Boston and
14:39 drove the same beat up secondhand Honda
14:42 Civic. It wasn't always easy, but in
14:44 hindsight, it turned out to be one of
14:46 the smartest moves we made. Principle
14:49 number two, automate with systems. Most
14:52 of you already know this, but we all try
14:54 to save what's left after spending. But
14:57 the best strategy is to flip it, right?
15:00 Have a savings target and spend whatever
15:02 is left. Our financial success is driven
15:05 by our habits, not our hopes. Automate
15:10 your savings. 10%, 12%, 20%, whatever
15:12 you can afford as long as they are
15:14 consistent. It is smart to make the
15:17 system become your willpower. And
15:19 nowadays, tools like Betterment and
15:22 Wealthfront make it easier than ever to
15:24 build that system. Principle number
15:27 three, negotiate everything. The company
15:29 CareerBuilder did some research and
15:32 found something interesting. 70% of
15:35 hiring managers expect the candidate to
15:38 negotiate salary and somehow a lot of us
15:40 shy away from it for no reason. There
15:42 are so many great books on the art of
15:45 negotiation. One of my favorite is the
15:47 book called Getting to Yes. If you're in
15:51 tech or biotech or finance or any growth
15:53 industry, you should take one extra step
15:56 and also negotiate your equity. Learn
15:58 about how companies are valued, what
16:00 their current valuation is. So, if you
16:03 ask, they'll tell you. Think of equity
16:05 as a partial ownership because that's
16:08 exactly what it is. It makes you feel
16:10 like you're fully aligned with the
16:12 long-term success of the company. Two
16:14 action items on equity. First, carve out
16:16 some time and learn about the world of
16:20 equity. Learn about ESOP awards, RSUs,
16:25 ISOs, NSOs, terms like vesting schedule
16:28 or strike price, change of control
16:30 provision. The more depth you have, the
16:32 better you can negotiate in the long
16:35 run. And second, schedule a meeting with
16:37 someone who has negotiated equity
16:39 successfully. Learn how to think about
16:43 the tradeoffs between salary and equity.
16:46 And now our seventh move. Meditate to
16:49 monetize. Your most important meeting is
16:51 not on your calendar. You might be
16:53 thinking, "Come on, man. I'm trying to
16:54 make millions. Why are you talking about
16:57 meditation?" But here's the insight.
16:59 Harvard Business School study found that
17:02 employees who spend just 15 minutes at
17:04 the end of the day. Reflecting on their
17:07 work performed 23% better than their
17:10 peers. Reflection cuts through noise. It
17:12 sharpens your strategic thinking. It's
17:14 not self-help, it's self-scaling. And
17:17 now with Gen AI tools, you can
17:19 supercharge that habit faster and
17:22 sharper than ever before. The cost of
17:24 intelligence is literally approaching
17:26 zero. The real advantage knowing what to
17:29 focus on. Block 15 minutes at the end of
17:31 each workday. Ask yourself three
17:33 questions. What did I move forward
17:35 today? What did I learn? What matters
17:37 most tomorrow? That is the most
17:39 important meditation you can do for your
17:43 career. We all admire people who start
17:45 companies. And starting a company can
17:47 offer you a lot of autonomy, a lot of
17:50 control. There's a lot of upside and
17:52 it's not the only path. Industries like
17:56 software, cloud, biotech, finance, law,
17:58 medicine, pharma, accounting, sports,
18:01 and entertainment create millionaires
18:04 every year. The magnificent seven
18:07 companies alone have produced tens of
18:09 thousands of millionaires. Employees who
18:11 built wealth without starting their own
18:14 businesses. I hope these seven moves can
18:16 help you build wealth as an employee. If
18:18 you want to learn more about excelling
18:20 at work, check out my video on
18:22 communication skills to help you
18:24 communicate like a leader. And remember,
18:27 you are already on the right path. Keep
18:28 going. I'll see you next week. Thank
