
Ask HN: How to become a millionaire in 3 years? - babyboy808
As everyone else on the planet I'm sure, I would like to become a millionaire and within a tight time constraint: 3 short years. HN is a constant source of excellent articles, amazing intelligent advice and smart people, so how would you go about it? Saving, Stocks etc etc?<p>And also, please don't ask as to why I want to have a net worth of $1M and why I wouldn't just want to get 200k and live comfortably etc. I'm just interested in hearing people's thoughts about this idea :)<p>Thanks
======
pfedor
Get a job as a software engineer at a large company. Rent a small room, don't
own a car, don't eat out, don't go to Hawaii for vacation, whatever it takes
to save $250k in three years.

Then go to Vegas and put everything on red twice. (Metaphorically speaking --
I don't know if they'd allow a $500k bet in Vegas. But in the wonderful world
of contemporary financial markets, there are instruments to make any kind of
bet one might desire, and probably the house's cut will be even lower than in
roulette.)

The obvious downside of this strategy is that it only works with the
probability slightly less than 25%, otherwise you end up broke. But quite
frankly, I doubt other ideas presented in this thread (make something people
want, get on a TV show etc.) have better success rates. If there was a sure-
fire way of getting from $0 to $1M in three years everyone would be doing it.

If you're OK not only with ending up broke in case of a failure, but even
being in debt, then you can increase you odds of success even further by using
leverage.

~~~
charlesju
I like this method but just increasing the time span to 12 years. 100% success
rate.

~~~
BrandonM
I hope this post and the upvotes were sarcastic. Trying this method 4 times
means that you have a 68%* success rate. You'd have to try it 8 times to even
get to a 90% success rate.

* To calculate this, chance of success after 4 tries = (1 - chance of failing 4 times in a row) = 1 - 0.75^4 = .68

~~~
charlesju
I meant without gambling. Obviously 25% * 25% * 25% * 25% != 100%.

~~~
BrandonM

      25% * 25% * 25% * 25% != 100%
    

You're doing it wrong...

------
onan_barbarian
Start with $5M. Invest in a bunch of Web 2.0 startups, preferably ones blessed
by Y Combinator. If you are lucky, you will still be a millionaire at the end
of it.

~~~
hajrice
+1 for making me laugh.

------
jasonlbaptiste
I'm going to go and replace 3 years with a "short time frame". Some things to
focus on:

\- Market opportunity- a million dollars isn't a lot in the grand scheme of
things, but it certainly is a lot if the market opportunity is not large
enough. Even if you put Bill Gates and Steve Jobs as founders in a new venture
with a total market size of 10 million, there is no way they could become too
wealthy without completely changing the business (ie- failing).

\- Inequality of information- find a place where you know something that many
undervalue. Having this inequality of information can give you, your first
piece of leverage.

\- Leverage skills you know- You can go into new fields such as say Finance,
but make sure you're leveraging something you already know such as technology
and/or product. Someone wanted to start a documentary with me. I said that
would be fun, but it would be my first documentary regardless of what
happened. There was a glass ceiling due to that. If I do something leveraging
a skill I know, I'm already ahead of the game.

\- Look in obscure places- We're often fascinated with the shiny things in the
internet industry. Many overlook the obscure and unsexy. Don't make that
mistake. If your goal has primarily monetary motivations, look at the unsexy.

\- Surround yourself with smart people- smart people whom are successful
usually got there by doing the same and have an innate desire to help those do
the same. it's the ecosystem that's currently happening with the paypal mafia
and can be traced all the way back to fairchild semiconductor.

\- Charge for something- Building a consumer property dependent upon
advertising has easily made many millionaires, but it isn't the surest path.
It takes a lot of time and scale, which due to cashflow issues will require
large outside investment probably before you are a millionaire. Build
something that you can charge for.

\- Your metric shouldn't be dollars- If you're going after a big enough market
and charging a reasonable amount, you can hit a million dollars. Focus on
growth, customer acquisition costs, lifetime value of the customer, and churn.

\- Get as many distribution channels as possible- There is some weird sense
that if you build something they will just come. That a few like buttons and
emails to editor@techcrunch.com will make your traffic explode + grow
consistently. It fucking won't. Get as many distribution channels as possible.
Each one by itself may not be large, but if you have many it starts to add up.
It also diversifies your risk. If you're a 100% SEO play, you're playing a
dangerous dangerous game. You're fully dependent upon someone else's rules. If
Google bans you, you will be done. Replace SEO with: App store, facebook, etc.

\- Go with your gut and do not care about fameballing- Go with what your gut
says, regardless of how it might look to the rest of the world. Too often we
(I) get lost in caring about what people think. It usually leads to a wrong
decision. Don't worry about becoming internet famous or appearing on teh maj0r
blogz. Fame is fleeting in the traditional sense. Become famous with your
customers. They're the ones that truly matter. What they think matters and
they will ultimately put their money where their mouth is.

\- Be an unrelenting machine- Brick walls are there to show you how bad you
want something. Commit to your goals and do not waver from them a one bit
regardless of what else is there. I took this approach to losing weight and
fitness. I have not missed a single 5k run in over a year. It did not matter
if I had not slept for two days, traveling across the country, or whatever
else. If your goals is to become a millionaire, you need to be an unrelenting
machine that does not let emotions make you give up / stop. You either get it
done with 100% commitment or you don't. Be a machine.

\- If it's a "trend", it's too late- This means the barriers to entry are
usually too high at this point to have the greatest possible chance of
success. Sure you could still make a lot of money in something like the app
store or the facebook platform, but the chances are significantly less than
they were in the summer of 08 or spring of 2007. You can always revisit past
trends though.

\- If you do focus on a dollar amount, focus on the first $10,000- This
usually means you've found some repeatable process / minimal traction. ie- if
you're selling a $100 product, you've already encountered 100 people who have
paid you. From here you can scale up. It's also a lot easier to take in when
you're looking at numbers. Making 1 million seems hard, but making $10,000
doesn't seem so hard, right?

\- Be a master of information- Many think it might be wasteful that I spent so
much time on newsyc or read so many tech information sites. It's not, it's
what gives me an edge. I feel engulfed.

\- Get out and be social- Even if you're an introvert, being around people
will give you energy. I'm at my worst when I'm isolated from people and at my
best when I've at least spent some time with close friends (usually who I
don't know from business.)

\- Make waves, don't ride them- There was a famous talk Jawed Karim gave from
youtube. He described the three factors that made youtube take off. I think
they included (1- emergence of flash, so no codecs required 2- one click
upload 3- ability to share embed). Find those small pieces and put them
together to make the wave. That's what youtube did imho. The other guys really
just rode the wave they created (which is okay).

\- Say no way more than you say yes- I bet almost every web entrepreneur has
encountered this: You demo your product / explain what you're doing and
someone suggests that you do "X feature/idea". X is a really good idea and
maybe even fits in with what you're doing, but it would take you SO FAR off
the path you're on. If you implemented X it would take a ton of time and morph
what you're doing. It's also really really hard to say no when it comes from
someone well respected like a VC or famous entrepreneur. I mean how the fuck
could they be wrong? Hell, they might even write me a check if I do what they
say!!!!! Don't fall for that trap. Instead write the feedback down somewhere
as one single data point to consider amongst others. If that same piece of
feedback keeps coming up AND it fits within the guidelines of your vision,
then you should consider it more seriously. Weight suggestions from paying
customers a bit more, since their vote is weighted by dollars.

\- Be so good they can't ignore you- I first heard this quote from Marc
Andreessen, but he stole it from Steve Martin. Just be so good with what you
do that you can't be ignored. You can surely get away with a boring product
with no soul, but being so good you can't ignore is much more powerful.

\- Always keep your door/inbox open- You never know who is going to walk
through your door + contact you. Serendipity is a beautiful thing. At one
point Bill Gates was just a random college kid calling an Albuquerque computer
company.

\- Give yourself every opportunity you can- I use this as a reason why
starting a company in silicon valley when it comes to tech is a good idea. You
can succeed anywhere in the world, but you certainly have a better chance in
the valley. You should give yourself every opportunity possible, especially as
an entrepreneur where every advantage counts.

\- Give yourself credit- This is the thing I do the least of and I'm trying to
work on it. What may seem simple+not that revolutionary to anyone ahead of the
curve can usually be pure wizardry to the general public, whom is often your
customer. Give yourself more credit.

\- Look for the accessory ecosystem- iPod/iPhone/iPad case manufacturers are
making a fortune. Armormount is also making a killing by making flat panel
wall mounts. Woothemes makes millions of dollars a year (and growing) selling
Wordpress themes. There are tons of other areas here, but these are the ones
that come to mind first. If there's a huge new product/shift, there's usually
money to be made in the accessory ecosystem.

\- Stick with it- Don't give up too fast. Being broke and not making any money
sucks + can often make you think nothing will ever work. Don't quit when
you're down. If this was easy then everyone would be a millionaire and being a
millionaire wouldn't be anything special. Certainly learn from your mistakes +
pivot, but don't quit just because it didn't work right away.

\- Make the illiquid, liquid- I realized this after talking to a friend who
helps trade illiquid real estate securities. A bank may have hundreds of
millions of assets, but they're actually worth substantially less if they
cannot be moved. If you can help people make something that is illiquid,
liquid they will pay you a great deal of money. Giving you a 20-30% cut is
worth it, when the opposite is making no money at all.

\- Productize a service- If you can make what might normally be considered a
service into a scaleable, repeatable, and efficient process that makes it seem
like a product you can make a good amount of money. In some ways, I feel this
is what Michael Dell did with DELL in the early days. Putting together a
computer is essentially a service, but he put together a streamlined method of
doing things that it really turned it into a product. On a much smaller scale,
PSD2XHTML services did this. It's a service, but the end result + what you pay
for really feels like a product.

~~~
petercooper
Love this post, but I'm going to argue against one of your points:

 _If it's a "trend", it's too late_

I disagree. In fact, if something is a trend, it's a guarantee that a market
(of some kind) exists and it can save you a lot of time and research. Most big
markets have large numbers of high value competitors and they're not all
pioneers. Indeed, most companies with significant turnover were not pioneers
in their field - they came in with "me too" products that merely improved upon
the existing popular ones before they became too entrenched.

The trick is to get in when something _becomes_ a trend but before the
_masses_ realize it's a trend and you have hundreds of competitors making
similar improvements to the core products and services as quickly as you are.
As well as being my belief, it's one of the core tenets of Michael Masterson's
tackily-named (but a great read nonetheless) "Ready, Fire, Aim: Zero to $100
Million in No Time Flat."

With your reference to the App Store, I suspect you might agree with this, but
have a different idea of what a "trend" is. I consider the App Store and
developing iPhone apps to have been a trend in late 2008, not long after the
earliest developers were starting to share revenue/sales figures, but _before_
the masses had figured out it was going to be a giant cashcow. Now developing
iPhone apps is just "what you do" rather than a _trend_ , IMHO.

~~~
jasonlbaptiste
That point could really be a post all by itself and it certainly varies
situation to situation. Semantics + defining "what's a trend" also play into
it. There's mass market everybody knows about it trends and then there's
emerging trends. The mass market trends ones are the ones to avoid like you
said.

The good thing is what you said: market exists. There's money there, just make
sure it isn't all taken up already.

~~~
Terry_B
My problem so far has very much been that all of my ideas and efforts have
been towards big, pie in the sky, breaking new ground type things. And of
course, they usually don't get finished.

I've been trying to get far more disciplined in looking for the more
practical, boring problem/solutions that follow market trends etc.

I just find it so hard to do because it doesn't excite me as much, even though
I know there is so much opportunity out there.

~~~
petercooper
Perhaps an example of how "small" a trend can be could excite you enough to
look out for things that are "bite sized" enough to try.

I'm pretty deep in the Ruby world. A trend that has emerged (and is almost
becoming a cliché) over the past 18 months or so is selling Ruby related
screencasts. Peepcode started selling screencasts about 3 years ago but no-one
followed on in a serious fashion for quite a while (until Peepcode "proved" it
could work, I say).

Now, there are at least 7 - 8 unique vendors of Ruby related screencasts I can
think of. None are Peepcode scale at all, but I've seen sales figures and know
that some of them, at least, have done reasonably well. Even the people behind
the more humble attempts are happy, see: [http://codeulate.com/2010/03/how-to-
sell-a-hundred-screencas...](http://codeulate.com/2010/03/how-to-sell-a-
hundred-screencasts/)

Now, "Ruby screencasts" is a _crazily_ tiny niche. Not only is "programming" a
tiny niche in the world of business, "Ruby programming" is a MINISCULE niche
in the world of programming.. and Ruby programming screencasts is ULTRA CRAZY
MOLECULAR LEVEL TINY!

If people have picked up on a trend in such a miniscule market and are making
money with it, that's says, to me, that there are _millions_ of teeny tiny
niches in which you can start to perform very simple "tests" that make money
and which, ultimately, could lead you to that million dollar concept or
market.

Picking up on these teeny, tiny "trends" can be tricky, but is a lot easier in
fields you're already absorbed in. If I had to pick out some trends just from
reading Hacker News recently, these seem like a few areas someone could make
some bucks in now/soonish: node.js consultancy/screencasts/books, Posterous
theming, Flash-to-HTML5 tools/consultancy/screencasts/books, non-college
oriented compsci education.

~~~
kiba
I somehow got myself in producing open source video games for freelancing
cash.

I first got my starts by trying to blog about video games. Then I started a
wiki which I bootstrapped off my own saving. Now it produce maybe 20-30 bucks
each year. Not a whole lot, but I bootstrap my way with that money in addition
to programming work that I started working.

I am hoping to go back in automating the maintenance of my wiki and create new
sites in that niche to generate a bigger income, which then will be used to
bootstrap other sites.

The way I figure it is that for each domain, I only need to make about 15
bucks to be profitable. Basically, they serve as buffer money used to fund new
mini-ventures.

~~~
cliveholloway
I hope you missed a "k" after that 20-30 and 15...

~~~
ekanes
"k" and "bucks" are rarely used together, so I think kiba means dollars. While
the amounts might be small to you, be careful of putting it down - everyone
has to start somewhere, and better to be _excited_ to be making anything at
all than depressed that it's not much.

------
lisper
My advice: forget the deadline. Imposing a deadline on a result that is
largely beyond your control will serve no constructive purpose. You should
only set deadlines on things that are within your power to control, e.g. I
will finish X by time Y. But putting a deadline on the market to respond is
just silly.

If you want to be a millionaire, here's the procedure:

1\. Pick an activity that you think will make you a millionaire within a
reasonable time frame.

2\. Engage in that activity for that time frame.

3\. Are you a millionaire? If so, you're done. If not, figure out what you did
wrong in step 1 based on the information you acquired while engaged in that
activity. (Often this turns out to be some kind of mistaken assumption about
market dynamics, sometimes about your abilities.)

4\. Iterate.

This procedure is not guaranteed to terminate. But it does tend to converge.

~~~
megablast
Yes, but picking a deadline means that you put a time limit on the effort, and
have a good guide on when you should just give up. If it is not working for
you, you should give up and try something new, but when you are involved
heavily in something, it can seem like the payout is just around the corner.

~~~
nostrademons
You have way more information on whether the effort is likely to succeed when
the deadline rolls around than when you initially set the deadline. If the
payout really _is_ just around the corner, it's silly to give up on it just
because an arbitrary deadline rolled around.

I found it's much better to establish firm _hypotheses_ when I begin a
project, and then as I plan out the project, make sure that the hypotheses
will either be validated or falsified along the way. If the premises under
which I began the project have been proven false, _then_ it's time to quit and
do something else. But if all the premises hold yet it just takes twice as
long to do everything as expected (which is fairly typical), it's worth
sticking with it until the end.

~~~
megablast
Yes, well of course. But you can get yourself into the situation where the
payout always seems to be just around the corner, when get into the sunk-costs
trap.

The deadline should give you a change to step back and properly evaluate your
situation at a specified time, hopefully with some external help.

------
Anon84
"Start by being a Billionaire" \-- Sir Richard Branson, on how to become a
millionaire in the aviation industry)

~~~
bvi
Ok. So how do you become a billionaire?

~~~
sliverstorm
Enter the stock industry as a multi-multi-billionaire.

(Of course, you already ruined my entrance:

"How do you make a small fortune in the stock market?"

"Start with a large one." )

------
cellis
Looking for incredibly boring, yet painful problems in industries like
healthcare, oil/gas, real estate, and ecommerce.

Build a solid product using .NET or Java. Charge massive consulting fees and
hire some slick salesmen.

I know several people who got rich doing this, but they were straight up
businessmen, and thrived on solving boring, yet lucrative problems.

~~~
bosment
Any pointers on how to find these incredibly boring, yet painful problems in
industries?

~~~
BrandonM
Talk to people. Work in those industries. Be ever-vigilant for inefficiency.
Et cetera.

------
grandalf
In parts of Africa you can set up a artesanal diamond mine with a shovel and a
strainer. Spend a few weeks there finding diamonds, then smuggle them back to
the US and sell them. Document this whole process on video, then sell the
rights to a documentary and do a book deal when you get back.

Estimated time to completion: 4 months.

~~~
ZombieCoaster
how do you not get arrested after publicly admitting you did something
illegal?

~~~
adbge
You move to a country that doesn't extradite to the USA. I hear Myanmar is
nice this time of year.

~~~
hyperbovine
Whoah, no need to delve quite so far into fascism. The list of countries which
do not have an extradition treaty with the USA is longer than most people
think
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_extraditi...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_extradition_treaties))
UAE is probably your best bet if it's a developed nation you are after.

------
SandB0x
1) Get on a reality TV show like Big Brother.

2) Do something _ridiculous_ that will get you in the news. Leave your dignity
at the door.

3) Get a publicist and milk your infamy for a couple of months.

~~~
Terry_B
You forgot the sex tape.

~~~
mkramlich
I'm pretty sure that's covered by his (2).

~~~
Terry_B
No, I think it's moved on from ridiculous and just become a mandatory step at
this point.

------
chrisbennet
Why? Why do you want to be millionaire? A little introspection and self
knowledge might lead you to your real goals more directly.

I've always been wildly successful at my goal - which was to be happy.

~~~
mkramlich
Being happy won't buy a car, a house, health care for you and your family,
happy won't buy vacations or trips (though they in turn _do_ buy more happy &
health), etc.

Happy is good. Wealth + happy is even better. :)

~~~
rane
I personally don't think happiness works that way.

[http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy.h...](http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy.html)

------
ErrantX
> How to become a millionaire in 3 years?

I've said this before: statistically speaking you are highly unlikely to
achieve this.

In fact in my experience those who set out to earn discrete amounts in a
discrete time with _no idea how to do it_ are those most unlikely to achieve
it.

The truth hurts.

Others have said that setting a deadline is a good idea; which it usually is.
Here is just limits your scope - very few things can earn you an initial
$1Million in 3yrs, and most of them rely on luck or a lot of skill (and if you
have that skill why are you here asking the question).

With that out of the way there are sure fire ways to make a million:

\- work in corporate of finance positions, you can be on $100K+ in a few years
with minimal effort and on bonuses shortly after. By living frugally you can
earn $1Million in 5-8years no problem

\- find someone willing to "invest" $1 Million in you. Making another $1
Million with that is fairly easy if you are smart.

But, ultimately, I think this falls well into the category of _pipe dream_ :)

~~~
nobutyestoo
Asking is a strong way of pursuing things. If you are able to ask yourself and
others like you then you are doing it right. Don't be afraid of those who
think that this is impossible. Ask yourself how to avoid thinking that it is
impossible as a first step to make it possible.

~~~
ErrantX
> If you are able to ask yourself and others like you then you are doing it
> right.

Maybe. In a _very_ small number of cases. Most of the time it is people either
a) struggling to come up with ideas or b) trying to figure out a way to solve
their dream with minimum effort.

> Don't be afraid of those who think that this is impossible.

It's not technically impossible. But setting out to make $1Million in 3 years
is _generally_ a non-optimal approach.

I'm a realist in the sense that I figured out a long time ago that truly
impossible goals are worthless and, generally, counter productive. Here's an
example of how to fix that; one of my long term goals is to go into Space.
This is technically feasible now, but to do it I'd need a few million $'s - so
that's a good hack, I can work to achieve my goal through some means and the
money should be incidental to that. But it is _not_ limiting because I may
find another way to achieve this goal without the cost.

------
far33d
Get a job on Wall Street. If wealth is the only goal, that's the easiest way.

------
clark-kent
First thing you need to do, is determine how much income you want to be
making. Are you happy with $1M net worth (in stocks and real estate) or do you
want to make $1M USD annual income. I would rather have $100,000 monthly
income than a $1M net worth on paper.

I am not a millionaire yet. I would like my annual income to exceed $1M. I
don't care much about net worth.

Once you determine how much income you want to make, you can then decide how
you are going to do it. Best way is a startup in a sizable market. Just my
thoughts.

~~~
chc
This got downvoted, but I think it's pretty insightful. If you're wiling to
live in abject poverty, just work any six-figure job and you will be a
millionaire in under a decade. If you want it in three years, make sure the
job pays more than $300k.

------
waivej
Don't make something people want. Instead take away a problem that people
don't want to deal with. The uglier and stinkier the problem, the better. Then
price very high and look for markets where people have more money.

~~~
ojbyrne
Can you name some ugly, stinky problem that we haven't already farmed out to
the third world?

~~~
tjmc
Visited the Gulf of Mexico lately?

~~~
ojbyrne
Which brings up something I was wondering about. BP is compensating Americans.
Are they compensating Mexicans, Guatemalans, etc...

~~~
tlrobinson
From the maps I've seen (e.x.
<http://www.google.com/crisisresponse/oilspill/>) it doesn't look like the
spill is anywhere near any country except the US yet.

------
jacquesm
Find something in one field and apply it to another.

Disciplines tend to put up barriers to knowledge flowing in from other
disciplines, if you are 'cross domain' you can easily capitalize on that.

Becoming a millionaire in three years seems 'doable', after all it's only 300K
per year or thereabouts, that's a little over $900 per day. You have to factor
in taxes though, and that's where the catch is.

------
henryw
gotta love the ambition. here's a possible plan:

1) develop a skill, ie code a lot

2) try out a bunch of ideas quickly and find one that can make you rich.
ideally, you want to find out if an idea will or will not work asap, ie 1 to 4
weeks. expect this to take many trials, like 10+. it doesn't matter when one
don't work, you'd gained experience. the key is to find out quickly and not
waste your whole 3 years on it.

3) when you find that one that works, juice it like no other.

4) get rich or [keep] trying

~~~
babyboy808
Number 2 is an interesting point, thank you!

------
ww520
What do you have to start with? \- Your talent? \- Your experience? \- Your
capital? \- Your connection?

Once you have a good assessment of yourself, we can talk.

------
tgoing
Great question. I believe that almost everyone here in HN is trying to reach
the same goal.

I don't have $1M, but can't imagine that you would reach this goal (I suppose
of having $1M available, meaning that you paid already your apartment and car)
without learning how stocks work.

I would say that you should learn do be "one day trader" first, and once you
master that you could start investing in the long term, with a portfolio of
stocks, bonds and other investments.

This is how I imagine that one could have that sum of money. Anyone agree?

------
norswap
This I wonder : are there many millionaire who planned to become a millionaire
? Or is it just something that happens to people who pursue other
(healthiers?) goals ?

------
vessenes
If you are starting with '0', or even say 50k, you have one option: get lucky.
There are no legitimate (meaning non-lucky, legal) investment returns
available that will get you to $1mm in three years. Sorry!

Time honored 'get lucky' options that make you look brilliant:

1) Options trading

2) Buy highly (say 100%) leveraged real estate just before a boom

Now, let's say you have no money, but great social capital: awesome trading
skills, and good connections, we can add an option:

3) Become a trader, running other people's money. Make good money.

Now let's say you have awesome entrepreneurial skills, good social capital,
and no money. We can add an option:

4) Buy a business with other people's money, taking a smallish cut. Grow the
business / tart it up for sale. Sell it.

There is a very rarely successful variant on this, which is 'buy someone's
idea, and build it out and launch it with other people's money.' This is
called doing a startup. Think of it as 4a. For most people, it's equivalent to
just getting lucky.

Now, let's say you're hot and super sexy, and you have a thing for the older
guys/gals. We can add what is pretty much the final option if you aren't going
to inherit:

5) Marry it.

------
fjania
Make enough money so you can save $333,333.34 each year.

~~~
patrickk
It doesn't have to be $333,333.34 if you know how to invest. Or pick a high-
interest savings account if you don't :)

------
inmygarage
"Be so good they can't ignore you- I first heard this quote from Marc
Andreessen, but he stole it from Steve Martin."

I'm pretty sure this is also a reference to Ender's Game.

------
dmurko
It's funny how a lot of people say it's not possible, though there are
hundreds of thousands of people on the internet who've done it (and I don't
mean just exceptions).

For example: affiliate marketing and the whole internet marketing scene is
making teens millionaires. I've been in London on this guy's conference:

<http://www.georgemontagubrown.com/>

He's become a millionaire in 2 years, starting when he was 17. Sure, he is
somewhat "special", but I've been following internet marketing and there are
15 year olds that are making 5k$ /month just with affiliate marketing.

You think you're at least as capable as 15 or 17 year old? I sure think I am.
Though there is a bitter taste to it all - the above guy made 100k$ with a
method, then he sold the method to the public and made himself a millionaire.

Browse a little through IM scene and you'll see it's a totally different
world. But it might not be your cup of tea. ;)

~~~
ashconnor
You wasted your money going to his conference.

He is obviously playing on the get rich quick mentality that many people seem
to possess.

------
adrianwaj
Work at a startup on a founding team. So not as founder or cofounder, but
person #3 or #4. If the startup sells for $20M then you've made $1M, assuming
equity of 5%.

You'd have to prove to the founders that you're on their level, in passion and
a combination of domain knowledge, contacts or skill/intelligence/talent, and
that you're willing to go the long haul.

Why not do a startup yourself? Risk, time and momentum.

If making a million is like reaching the top of a building, you'll have to
start climbing stairs. Find some people that have already created an
escalator, and then with them create an elevator.

These are some YC Startups, <http://workatastartup.org/> but you could just as
easily go through crunchbase (eg the new additions) or something similar (a
launch blog) to see what excites you.

------
switch
Your desire to not answer the question on why you want the money, your
choosing a relatively ambiguous goal (millionaire), and the rather short time
frame (3 short years) makes it really difficult to answer the question.

How many million exactly would you want? what are '3 short years'? Would you
be willing to put in 5?would you be willing to put in 10?

What would you do after you had this money? Is it conceivable that you could
make your millions doing what you 'dream' of doing right now instead of
waiting for after you've made your money?

Why do you have such a weak way of putting it - 'just want to hear people's
thoughts about the idea'?

Are you committed to it or not?

Final question - Would you like to make a ton of money without working hard?
actually that should have been my first question.

Unless you start asking different questions you're setting yourself up for
failure.

------
paolomaffei
I don't want to become a millionaire but if there's one advice I can give you
is stop reading HN and JFDI

------
johnl
I would not even think business, takes longer. Think infomercial. For example:
That star wars sword thingy was just a flash light on the end of a plastic
tube and made the guy a million so I heard.

------
rameshnid
Wall street is the only way. If money is the goal, then LEVERAGE is important.
The highest leverage given to a mans brain today is the Wall Street. In every
other endeavor you have to personally do a lot of things right to even dream
of the same leverage.

But I guess, if u get the other things(Jason covers all of the things that I
can come up with) maybe technology offers a similar leverage.

------
Alex3917
If all you care about is making a million dollars in three years, just
franchise three or four restaurants.

~~~
starkfist
You would need to already have a million dollars to qualify to franchise three
or four restaurants.

~~~
Alex3917
Yeah, but it doesn't have to be your money.

------
nobutyestoo
You could make a web game that guarantees someone to be millionaire in 3
years. You have to make the game in such a way that you will be the one to get
the price. That is you must be able to plan de game and how to take control of
it.

Some hidden seed can be the initial advantage to win.

------
jagjit
Do something you like. Life is too short not to spend on stuff that makes you
happy. I believe chances are stuff you like will also pay you reasonably. 3
years is a long time to waste chasing a million dollars doing something you do
not like.

------
hariis
In the first year, save up 100K. In the same year, learn Options and Futures
Trading from Pros and Paper Trade religiously for the first year. If you do
well there, then start with real money in the second year and see how far you
go.

~~~
gxti
thinkorswim is an excellent broker for this specifically -- they not only have
an excellent options trading platform, but you can sign up for free and
papertrade with a 15m delay. It's all Java-based so it works great on Linux.

That said, don't force it. It takes talent and dedication to beat the market.
You will probably fail. I lost quite a bit of money trading single options,
but I never traded money I needed and never borrowed money that wasn't closely
guarded so I came out unscathed. I still suck but without a doubt a few people
reading this post can succeed.

------
Tichy
Move to Zimbabwe.

~~~
poundy
This was a brilliant idea but unfortunately they no longer use Zimbabwean
Dollar anymore, instead the economy has fully moved to USD (now they are
legally allowed to do so).. Previously you would get paid in billions..
Zimbabwe's $100 billion banknote could buy you 3 eggs on its release date.

~~~
Tichy
Ah, too bad :-)

------
ct
One way is not by working for someone else ... unless you get very very lucky
and the company is the next Google and IPOs.

<http://www.marshallbrain.com/million.htm>

------
nobutyestoo
If you are able to convince others that you know the secret to become
millionaire in 3 years, you can sell it to yours readers and do it real. You
can bet that you will get 1 million in 3 years.

------
iamelgringo
Make something people want.

~~~
mkramlich
Yes and to refine that notion:

* make a $1 priced thing that 1 million people want

-or-

* make a $1 million priced thing that 1 person wants

~~~
alexitosrv
make a thing of $1 of _profit_ that 1 million people want

make a $1 million of _profit_ selling a thing that 1 person wants

~~~
mkramlich
thanks, but yes, that was assumed, and speaking in rough terms to convey the
core idea ;)

------
slater
Why three years? IMHO, you're focussing on the wrong part of it all.

~~~
babyboy808
Good question.

But why not 3 years?

As we all know, let's say if we are given an assignment for college to do and
we are given a week to complete it, almost always, I will start the assignment
about 3/4 days into the week and then as the deadline looms closer, the real
work happens! So in answer to your question, if I said 10 years, I would be
focused on 10 years :)

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_Law>

~~~
nandemo
The analogy doesn't hold. The problem is not so much that your school
assignment is 1 million times easier. There's also:

1) There's not such a huge variation in the time necessary to complete an
assignment. Your professor knows that some people can finish it in a couple of
days but others need a whole week. But it's much harder to estimate the time
to get $1M.

2) You can finish a school assignment on your own. Assuming you have access to
the necessary resources (books, net, etc) it depends only on you. You don't
need any luck to finish it. But to get rich you need favorable market
conditions, meeting the right investors, hiring the right people, the
government not screwing you up, etc, i.e. "luck".

------
SamReidHughes
1\. Devote your life to golf for 3 years. 2\. Win the 2013 U.S. Open.

~~~
Tichy
Ah, but it is generally accepted wisdom that it takes 10 years to become
really good at something.

~~~
biosoup
not 10 years but 10 000 hours of practice

------
shalmanese
Start with 10M, become an angel investor with 9M of it.

------
Rantenki
Steps:

1\. Learn to come up with your own ideas.

2\. ...

3\. Profit!

~~~
donaq
2\. And then a miracle happens.

~~~
donaq
Really? No one's seen this?

[http://blog.stackoverflow.com/wp-content/uploads/then-a-
mira...](http://blog.stackoverflow.com/wp-content/uploads/then-a-miracle-
occurs-cartoon.png)

I'm not positive on this, but I think my comment's parent was actually
referencing it.

~~~
mindviews
No, this looks like the Underpants Gnomes formulation.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnomes_(South_Park)>

------
shareme
A slightly different approach:

!. Marry Warren Buffet

2\. Divorce Warren Buffet

But all kidding aside, 3 years is too unrealistic..

Most do it in 5 to ten years..that is Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Steve Jobs, etc

------
ddemchuk
Come up with your own Acai Weight Loss Rebill with good affiliate payouts and
connect with a network. You're going to be beat up with chargebacks and
product manufacturing issues, but you can make a million dollars a week if you
get enough affiliates.

