I became a cash millionaire at 27 years old, but if I had to start from zero at 18 and go from

broke to millionaire before 30, these are the exact choices I would make at every point in my journey.

Welcome to the Martel method. I went from rehab at 17 to building a $100 million empire and being

a Wall Street Journal bestselling author. In this podcast, I'll show you exactly how to build a

life and business you don't grow to hate. My bestselling book, Buy Back Your Time is out now.

Grab a copy at buybackyourtime.com or at any of your preferred online retailers.

The first choice I would make is college or no college. Here's the thing. The pros, you get to learn how to learn. I can't tell you how many people finish high school and they didn't learn the skill of learning. College is going to teach you that because it gives you creative freedom over the courses you get to pick. It also gets you access to incredible mentors. You know, when I think of like the professors and the other teachers I've

met at the college or university level, because they're going to be getting called by other

CEOs of companies saying, who are your top students and recommending the people in those classes?

And the truth is, if you go to college, you will come out with a higher pay. If you get the degree,

you get paid accordingly if you stay in that lane.

Not going to college? I mean, first off, you get to start the thing you actually want to do.

See, college is in many ways a reason to delay just doing. If you don't go, you get to start right

away. One of the big ones is the cost of college. If you look at the cost of college, it's gone up

five, six, seven times.

Guess what has not gone up accordingly? Your pay. And then finally, how does AI change college?

What if nobody needs it because AI is your co-pilot? It has perfect information and PhD level

knowledge to help you do anything you want. Is college really even needed? That could very much be true in the next 12 months, 24 months.

So if I was 18 again, my opinion, don't go to college.

I just don't think taking on debt and becoming a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer is a fastest way to a million anymore.

So now that I've decided to skip college and save myself four years of sitting in a class, it's time for the next choice. Getting a job or starting a business. So pros of getting a job. First off, jobs come with built-in mentors. You're going to be around other people that are doing the thing that I'm assuming you're going to start in the future if you want to start your own business. So you get to fast track your learning by getting paid to learn. The other one is structured skill building. If you go work at the right place, you're going to be put it maybe into marketing and then they're going to move you into sales and then you could go into operations. In four years, you might come out of there as a freaking weapon. The other one is that it's low risk. You're not putting your own money and time into something and hoping it works out. You're going to be learning the skills and somebody else is going to be paying you to do it. So it's a heck of a lot lower risk than starting your own thing. On the other side, we have starting your business. First off, unlimited income. You could literally get as rich as you possibly can get based on your skill level and the opportunity in the market, it's up to you. That is not true in a salaried position that you get when you do your own thing. Then you have unlimited upside, maybe relationships or do really cool projects or travel the world doing what you love to do. And the last is faster decision cycles. I can't tell you how soul-sucking working for somebody else can feel

if you're in the wrong place. When you're doing your own thing, guess what? You decide what you want to

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