A million dollars isn't cool anymore

"You know what's cool? A billion dollars"

My favourite movie line ever - The Social Network

I think about this phrase a lot nowadays, especially after Gary Vee shed light on how 20 years ago a million dollars was essentially a billion dollars if we take inflation into consideration.

20 years ago if you made a million dollars that was an astrnomical achviement. You are undisputeably the man in that scenario. Times have changed and with the playing field continuing to level: creating more and more opportunites to maximize wealth a million dollars no longer has the same scarity as it did before with 1.1% of the world's population currently being millionaires up from 0.6% in 2012

Now, don't get me wrong $1,000,000 is still today an amazing achievment, however as Justin Timberlake said in the scene below, just how big can we go considering we are only limited by our imagination and desire. Can we solve a problem so big it creates $1,000,000,000 yes you saw that right 3 commas, crazy right?

[Photo taken from The Social Network] watch here: Amazon

Mark Zuckerberg created "The Facebook" in his dorm room with a couple friends with the vision of just servicing some of the students in the market around him. Today the foundation of that software is worth over a billion dollars.

Technology has no limit and won't ever either

Growing up in an immigrant Nigerian home I was born entreprenuerial, I watched my parents strive each and everyday, working miracles to provide for what we needed. We lacked absolutely nothing growing up. Not me, nor my sister nor my brother which was an incredible feit because starting a new life coming from Nigeria to London could have resulted in a million different outcomes so kudos to them first and foremost

I quicky understood the value of money and how it could be used improve a life, from young my focus turned to maximizing my skills to yeild the greatest result. My biggest fear is to not realise my full potential, monetary gain is just a pleasant bonus. Typically I adopted the role of playground corner shop selling to teachers and students cold lucozades turning a profit. (revenues where the highest in the summer months)

As university started to loom on the horizon, I was considering what to study. I wasn't interested in any courses that weren't money generating. At the same time I was developing a love for technology I was using an iPhone at the time and I'd seen Steve Jobs present the iPhone.

I decided to study Computer Sciene

I was so inspired and immediately saw the potenital connecting power of technology. My focus turned to technology as creating in this space it was very clear to me that it had no ceiling

Passion for Mission

Facebook seems like a long shot and has been around for so long that I can't say that's what inspired the love for Unicorns 🦄 [a startup with a $1,000,000,000+ valuation] in me. The first unicorn I became aware of was AirBnb this is a special one for me becuase I can relate to the story of Brian so closely. Brian is also a design lead founder in a very much developer founder led market which makes sense. You want the head of the company to be able if necessary to fix what is broken. Brian's design led approach is very refreshing to me and evident in their product: AirBnB is one of the best designed products in the market.

Stay with me here, like literally picture this: a group of passionate maybe not totally stable people gather togther and create something, anything. That something they create solves a problem for one person initially, it might not even solve it wholely but it sparks something in that user, curiosity whatever it could be something happens. The user may even be the founder themselves. So you create something to solve your problem in the hope that Gary from down the road might benefit from it too.

Then something amazing happens, validation: it works 💡

These talented individuals then tirelessly "work" to improve and refine the product to service more people and/or solve more problems for more people. Work was in quotation marks because if it was purely work then I don't think we've have seen the sucess we've seen.

To reach $1,000,000,000 you must be passion led it must feel like a calling at that point an itch

a pain an obsession. Each to their own realtionship with their craft, regardless of what the implications are of these giants being created it doesn't happen unless it was supposed to.

When I was no longer ignorant about this possibility and having seen it being done I knew I had to get involved with the startup scene not necessarily to get rich but to be in an environment where the people we're chasing something and were constantly in growth mindset. I've been fortunate enough to have been surrounded by people in companies where growth has been a major aspect of their strategy. You don't need to be a venture backed startup to prioritse growth and solving more and more problems for your users through design and development.

Everyone should have a North Star

Just as in the bible when the three wise men looked for Jesus [Matthew 2:1-2] everyone must have somehting that they can use to indicate progress in their life. Tomorrow always has the potential to be better than today. That in itself is a north star, okay you've had a bad hour but what about the next three. Okay you've had a bad year, but what about the next? Even more pratically setting a goal and keeping yourself accountable has been so important for me

Examples of North Stars: - "I'm going to get to XXKG by June 202X" - "I'm going to make $X00,000 in revenue - "I'm going to complete X0,000 steps everyday - "I'm going to have a good relationship with my child" - "I'm going to drive my dream car - "I'm going to get the house of my dreams" - "I'm going to go to the gym X times a week"

Write down your North Stars, meditate on them day and night, make them all you think about and your decisions will start to refine you. You'll get closer and closer to the vision you have for yourself even if the vision is blury. You deserve to have someone in your corner everyday working on your dreams. I can't think of anyone better than you: 2 make that happen for yourself

[TimeStamp Sat 16th December 06:31 2023]

You might be wondering what gives me the cheek to speak like this? At the time of writing this blog I am a 28yr old Senior Designer and Developer who is not yet a millionaire so why even take in what I'm saying?

If I were you, I wouldn't bet against me

Aim for the stars, land on the moon baby!