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. END OF 1ST PART Another oversimplification states that we "just" need to gather 5,000 people to pay $17 a month for a 12-month subscription, or 250 people to pay $333 a month for a year. This is a stunt that 1% of entrepreneurs manage to achieve in 12 months starting from scratch. First of all, what is the subscription for? And how was the service developed? Is it an app? Apps are hard to code, slow to develop, expensive to launch, and tough to maintain. Most importantly, we live in a society where most people expect services to be free. We can count on the fingers of one hand how many subscriptions we pay in our lives. [[Netflix]]? [[YouTube Premium]]? [[Disney Plus]]? [[HBO]]? [[Spotify]]? What else? A gym we rarely visit? That's about it, right? So if selling products and enrolling users in subscriptions is not an option, what's left? Well, first of all, let me clarify: I'm not saying these goals are impossible, but I believe each is a long-term plan. It's not something we start in January and are ready to achieve by December. Some very rare examples can prove me wrong, but in the majority of cases, the journey is a bumpy road, and when the sail is set straight, then the numbers are just the confirmation of our overall direction. If we truly have an extraordinary product that people are willing to pay $200 to use, then we should not aim to sell 5,000 units, but 5 million. If we have a "killer" app on the market, we shouldn't aim to enroll 5,000 users, but 500 million. What I'm trying to say is that starting a venture with the intention of reaching a revenue goal of $1 million is not the right way to approach entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs are often in love with their products and totally addicted to their service. They can't sleep at night thinking of ways to improve it. Those entrepreneurs might occasionally set monetary goals for themselves, often in alliance with their CFOs, but most of the time, they are focused on building and deploying, rather than dreaming and counting. I have yet to see someone build the next big super app because they were inspired by a zero-to-$1-million video on YouTube. The underlying motivations are completely different in those that succeed. I also don't want to discourage those who currently have a job. The goal of becoming a millionaire is certainly achievable for you too. Often we see "YouTube Gurus" telling us that only entrepreneurs who work 20 hours a day can afford to become millionaires. This is not true. Especially for those in jobs offering bonus schemes, they can use their bonus to acquire wealth over time through stocks, real estate, or other appreciating investments. Lastly, being a millionaire doesn't necessarily make people happy. If you're holding a stable job and are happy where you are, with your old boring stability, don't quit your job because a YouTube video told you so. Instead, try to find opportunities to expand within your current job by adding more value to the organization.