How to deal with aggressive financial goals?

[KFleury]

Has anyone else done the Dreamline Worksheet and come up with goals that are fairly large for the first six-month exercise?
My TDI for my starred items alone is $274,733.50. I'm not saying it can't be done...there are plenty of companies in the world pulling that in...but the "how to" thoughts are kind of stumping me. Thoughts?
One note: While I appreciate and respect the input of all members, please do not respond by telling me to simply lower my goals. That's unacceptable to me. I've settled enough in my life, and I'm done. Thanks! ;)

[Merlin]

So you're asking us how to make $100,000,000 per year in profit?

1. Start a business with a single product that is developed in a good niche.
2. Market the hell out of your product, become a guru in the field, and stay focused.
3. Repeat with new (associated) product, or expand your product into a new niche. It's easier this time because you've done it and you have a customer base. As guru status grows, make friends with smart people and implement their ideas.
4. Rinse and repeat. I'm sure you'll get there if you stay focused. FYI, there are days when Bill Gates sells over $100M in MSFT shares. Also note that there are over 441 private companies in the US with revenues over $1B/year. See: http://www.forbes.com/2008/11/03/largest-private-companies-biz-privates08-cx_sr_1103private_land.html

Side note: I've been through the 'I want to make $100M per year' phase - and I arrived at the conclusion that once I was making $1M+ per year, 80+% of the things I want in life would be easily accessible to me. So I'm shooting for that, and we'll see where I want to go from there.

[officer_dibble]

I'm so tempted to reply to this in Southpark fashion:

Post on forum
????
$100m/year profit

The easiest way to make $100m a year within six months is to have many times that amount already.

I can't think of many people who've started from scratch and made that kind of money in six months (perhaps the YouTube founders?). But finding people who have and finding out how they did it is probably a good start.

Breaking down your goals into sub goals may help. What do you need to achieve by next week, tomorro, in the next couple of hours.

But don't leave it too long - your 180 days or so are already ticking. You are going to have to get some serious momentum behind you and start thinking in minutes if you are going to accumulate that kind of dough that quickly.

BTW I doubt any niche which is currently being exploited can be further mined for $100m/year within six months - you will it hard to wrest $100m+ profit from someone who already has the mindshare of their existing customers in that time. I think you are probably looking for something which meets either a need which hasn't been spotted yet or to invent a new one.

You are probably wasting your time on this forum though as I seriously doubt anyone who has managed it is posting here (or even if they are they probably won't respond to your post as that kind of advice is probably worth serious cash and they will only provide it for free if they somehow like you).

[KFleury]

No, not at all. Have no use for that. Just want to do it once. :)

[KFleury]

Suspect you are correct on many fronts. Many of your conclusions are similar to my own. Was hoping to find like-minded people. I cannot be the only person whose Dreamline seems insane. Ah, well.... :)
Thanks for posting.

[DaveinHackensack]

Have you considered trying to marry a billionaire?

[officer_dibble]

Suspect you are correct on many fronts. Many of your conclusions are similar to my own. Was hoping to find like-minded people. I cannot be the only person whose Dreamline seems insane. Ah, well.... :)
Thanks for posting.

I doubt you are - but someone generating that kind of money in six months from scratch may be a once a decade event. It doesn't necessarily mean it's impossible of course but you need to be mixing in very different company and copying what they do.

This kind perhaps (millionaires are not good enough for you):

http://www.forbes.com/2005/10/24/cz_lk_getrichquickslide.html

The fastest billionaires seem to take around 4 years and seem to be mostly dot.com peeps (eg founders of ebay, Amazon etc). The youngest billionaire - who didn't inherit the money - seems to be Sergey Brin of Google (8 years to billionaire status).

http://www.forbes.com/2005/03/09/bill05land.html

I shall be fascinated to hear if you achieve it and what the details of your dreams are to warrant such an income.

Edit: Dave's advice is good. Harder if you are a bloke though - there are fewer female billionaires.

You can find a list of the eligible ones on this page:
http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/11/worlds-richest-people-billionaires-2009-billionaires_land.html

Good luck!

PS. Remember to look me up when you have made it. You can buy me a meal in the London restaurant of your choice when you are next in the capital.

[DaveinHackensack]

Officer Dibble's examples are good ones, and they illustrate a couple of paradigm issues with your TDI. The first is that pretty much no one earns that kind of money as income. The super rich don't think or work in terms of TDI; they are owners, not freelancers, and they think in terms of equity.

The second is that I am pretty sure not one billionaire filled out Tim's TDI worksheet (or one similar to it) and used it as a guide to get where he is now. People who make that kind of money generally aren't motivated purely or even mainly by money; it's a different mindset.

The way most people make real wealth (i.e., the kind of money that means your great grandchildren will be born wealthy) in this country is by building real businesses. Not by selling e-books about how to pick up women, but by building businesses with sustainable competitive advantages that are scalable. I would recommend reading Mark Cuban's posts on how he started his business. One thing you'll notice from his posts is that he was living his life full speed before he had any money.

[liam75005]

I would just reply 2 points :

"Doing the unrealistic is easier the doing the realistic"

"What we are looking at is not to build the biggest business on Earth but a business that bothers us as little as possible."

If you choose the muse way, you might not make a million straight away, due to the structure of such a business. On the other side, nothing prevents you from trying to build a real empire.

Good luck with it all !