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If I Wanted to Make My First $100K in 2026, I’d Do This

By Alex Hormozi

Summary

## Key takeaways - **$100K Felt Richest**: The moment that I felt the wealthiest in my entire life was when I had $100,000 in my bank account. That was the first big unlock for me as a person because before that, I was sleeping on a gym floor and doing math on whether I could afford groceries. [00:12], [00:21] - **Cut All Costs Ruthlessly**: We have to cut all costs so that we can take more risk. That means you don't eat out anymore for anything, clothing is what you have for the next two years, home is as cheap as possible like splitting a bedroom paying $300-400 a month, and ideally a paid-off clunker for your car. [00:57], [01:33] - **444 Split: Promote, Deliver, Build**: It's a 444 split: first 4 hours promotion because if nobody knows about your stuff they can't give you money, second 4 hours delivery to give people what you promised, third 4 hours building by curating and prioritizing opportunities for highest return. [05:03], [05:40] - **Maker vs Manager Time**: A maker is completely locked in building with no distractions and needs a completely empty calendar, while a manager interacts in five-minute chunks with no blank time. Block maker time first 4-6 hours, separate from manager time to avoid task switching killing productivity. [06:00], [07:08] - **111 Rule for Focus**: You want to sell one product or service to one avatar on one channel until you make $1 million. Pick one skill people already pay money for from business functions like content or outreach. [08:35], [07:46] - **Don't Increase Lifestyle**: Do not increase your lifestyle; I was making $20,000 a month but still splitting a room paying $400 rent because I needed cash to go big. You want to be rich, not look rich—this is about 100K in the bank, not revenue. [13:33], [14:03]

Topics Covered

  • $100K Feels Wealthier Than Millions
  • Cut All Costs to Stack Risk Capital
  • Separate Maker and Manager Time
  • Learn Via 10,000 Iterations
  • Bank 100K by Freezing Lifestyle

Full Transcript

$42 million in distributions, a $46.2 million exit, $106 million in a weekend.

Most people hear those numbers and think, "Oh, that's probably when he felt the richest." That's actually not the

the richest." That's actually not the truth. The moment that I felt the

truth. The moment that I felt the wealthiest in my entire life was when I had $100,000 in my bank account. That

was the first big unlock for me as a person. And the reason is before that, I

person. And the reason is before that, I was sleeping on a gym floor and doing math on whether I could afford groceries, right? And once I had

groceries, right? And once I had $100,000, that was when I stopped having to worry about tomorrow, right? About

paying rent, about paying dues, about paying my cell phone bill or paying my car insurance. You can't think about

car insurance. You can't think about your long-term vision if you're trying to pay rent, right? That's just real.

And so, in this video, I'm going to give you a six-step road map as clear as humanly possible to making and banking your first $100,000. If you're a big baller business owner, then you can skip

this one. But if you don't have that

this one. But if you don't have that yet, then this is just a pure give on my part of trying to help you get there.

The first step is that we have to cut all costs so that we can take more risk.

When I say all costs, I mean all costs.

That means you don't eat out anymore for anything. And if you're hungry, you deal

anything. And if you're hungry, you deal with it. And if it's not from a discount

with it. And if it's not from a discount grocery store, you don't buy it.

Clothing. Like what you have right now on your bag is everything you need for the next two years. Period. No

exceptions. just keep reusing it. Trade

or go to Goodwill. You go to work, you go home, and home is ideally with your family or worst case with another family also trying to make it and save. And

it's got to be as cheap as you possibly can. And I say this as somebody who

can. And I say this as somebody who lived through this. When I was beginning my journey, I was splitting a bedroom in a six-bedroom house with one guy just in that bedroom. As in like every night

that bedroom. As in like every night we'd stare at each other and I'd be like, "Good night, John." And be like, "Good night, Alex." And I'd blow out my candle.

Everything about that was true minus the candle. And pro tip, if you sleep with a

candle. And pro tip, if you sleep with a fan on your face, it you can't hear anything. So, you know,

anything. So, you know, if you have to deal with it, that's one way to do it. But I had roommates that I sp I I was paying like $300 $400 a month for a very long time while I was beginning my business and started to

actually make real money and I still stayed there. Now, the next thing is

stayed there. Now, the next thing is going to be your car. So, if we think about expenses, ideally a paidoff clunker is the best way to go. If you

can't, you want it to be as cheap as humanly possible, but ideally just pay off your car so you don't have to think about it again. All right, so that covers your food, your car, your shelter. And the reason that this is so

shelter. And the reason that this is so important for us to basically stack up this cash flow because you're working and making money, but right now you're probably spending all of it. So it's

like we need to make this, we need to decrease it from the downside so we have this cash flow, this fluff that we can start spending and reinvesting in getting more skills, which I'll talk about in a second. All right, real

quick. If you're on this path to your

quick. If you're on this path to your first 100K, I want to make it faster and easier for you. So, this uh these books, I had 3.6 million of these books that were donated by other entrepreneurs.

These books I'm personally donating. And

so, if you are on the path, you can get all three of these books for the like nothing basically uh for just covering the shipping. So, I think it's 16 or 17

the shipping. So, I think it's 16 or 17 bucks all in for all three hardbacks shipped to you plus a 30-day trial of school. to actually use this stuff and

school. to actually use this stuff and have the tools to apply it in. All

right, so it's like it's the best thing.

We call it the business backpack. It's

literally everything you need to get started uh online. I'm not promising you're going to be a zillionaire. I'm

not promising you make $100,000. I'm

just saying it's a great great way to start and it's the best. It's one of the most valuable things I could possibly give you. Um and the 16 bucks I still

give you. Um and the 16 bucks I still literally lose money. I lose like 50 cents on that. So yeah, like do it. And

again, special thank you to all the entrepreneurs who donated the books because we're doing our best to give them out. Now, we have to cut all of our

them out. Now, we have to cut all of our time costs. Step two is save time. And

time costs. Step two is save time. And

so, if you work a 9 to-ive job, this is kind of just the reality of it. Your 9

toive job is not killing your dreams. All right? So, just stop subscribing to

All right? So, just stop subscribing to that. You're wasting the two 4-hour

that. You're wasting the two 4-hour chunks of the day that you do have available to you, which is your 5 to9 in the morning and your 5 to9 at night. So,

what you want to be doing is instead of just like mindlessly doom scrolling through life, right? Instead, you're

like, "I have four hours before I have to go to work." Right? Now, if you work remotely, even better because you be more efficient with it. If you're not remote, then it might be three and a half hours or you just wake up earlier.

And I also say this as someone who did this, right? The reason that this whole

this, right? The reason that this whole like I wake up early in the morning became a thing for me was because that was the only time I could get ahead. And

so, I I very much believe in Kobe Bryant's perspective on this, which is like if everyone else is is, you know, going to practice, he's like, "Well, if I do two extra practices today, I'm going to move forward three times faster." And so, one is we got our money

faster." And so, one is we got our money back. Two, we got our time back. Now

back. Two, we got our time back. Now

that we have our time back, we need to minimize the distractions in that time period because focus is achieved not through addition but subtraction. When

you remove everything else that doesn't matter, focus is what's left. Now, if

you happen to be just if you're on your path right now, so like let's say that you have you're you're not at job. So

you you started a business, but it's not making as much as you want and you don't have the 100k in savings. Let me just give you the simplest formula that I had. It's kind of like the 2.0 version,

had. It's kind of like the 2.0 version, which is a 444 split. So if you're at 9 to5 then you got 5:00 to 9 and 5 to 9.

If you don't have a 9 to5 during the day that you got to go to then I like to do 4 hours of promotion first thing I do when I get up is let people know about my stuff because if nobody knows about your stuff they can't give you money.

The second 4hour chunk is delivery. So

you give the people that gave you money what you promised them. The third 4hour chunk is building. So this is building the future. Figuring out what to do next

the future. Figuring out what to do next and how to do it. This is a combination of two things. It's going to be the curation of opportunities. Like what are all the things that are out there? I

have to see them, find them. And then

the second is the prioritization of those. Okay, there's 10 things I could

those. Okay, there's 10 things I could do. This one thing is going to get me

do. This one thing is going to get me the highest return. This is what I'm going to prioritize my time and money towards. So big picture, you promote,

towards. So big picture, you promote, you deliver, and you build. That's what

you do with your time. Now, regardless

of what job or business you have, if you want to save time, you need to understand this concept, which is understanding whether you are a maker or a manager. A maker is when you're in the

a manager. A maker is when you're in the build mode. This is when you're

build mode. This is when you're completely locked in. You're like, "No distractions. I have to go learn stuff.

distractions. I have to go learn stuff.

I have to go write copy. I have to go edit videos. I have to go make content.

edit videos. I have to go make content.

I have to go build this template that I'm going to sell to my customers."

Whatever. Manager is when you're interacting with other people. Now, that

could be client calls, that could be team calls, it could be vendor calls, any kind of conversations that you have to have. Slack messages, whatever. The

to have. Slack messages, whatever. The

thing is is that managers, their perfectly productive day is no blank time, right? It's five minute chunks and

time, right? It's five minute chunks and you're just trying to have as many touch points and decisions as possible. A

maker, a perfectly productive day is a completely empty calendar. So, I don't know if you're anything like me, when I look at my calendar, I truly have nothing on it. I feel one, this immense sense of relief, and two, this huge amount of energy of possibility like

what big thing can I get done today? And

that's when I really move the ball forward. And I'm telling you like the

forward. And I'm telling you like the the life hack of all hacks, a single habit that has changed my output was having my first four to six hours of my day to myself. So when you're in that

maker manager decision mode, I like to block at the micro level my day is maker time manager time and then keep them separated because the biggest killer of productivity is task switching, right?

So if you're trying to make and then you're slacking and then you're making and then you're texting, you're you're screwed, right? So instead, you just

screwed, right? So instead, you just have to put the blinders onto your makeup period. And then when you're in

makeup period. And then when you're in the manager period, it's like, go for it. Just be distracted and know that

it. Just be distracted and know that that's like the rest of your day is screwed. And I accept that. Like for me,

screwed. And I accept that. Like for me, Mondays are my day that I'm a manager.

And the rest of the week, I try to do my absolute best to be a maker. Now that we have the money saved up and we're still we got some cash, we drove down our living expenses. We drove down our time

living expenses. We drove down our time expenses. So we have free time and we're

expenses. So we have free time and we're organizing it well and we're focused and productive during that time period. What

do we do with the time? Three, which is research a skill that people already pay money for. And this is a key part. what

money for. And this is a key part. what

you want to do, especially if you're like, I need to make more than I am right now. Go find what people are

right now. Go find what people are already paying for, right? So on a B TOC side, it just looks you look at all the things that a business does, right? So a

business gets advertises. So they make content, they do outreach, there's the funnel building process that's associated with that. All of those things, each of those are skills that on their own you could go build yourself a

million dollar plus business off of.

Just one of those. And so that's just on a B2B side as an example. On the B TOC side, here's a very easy hack. Just

print out your credit card statement or your bank statement and look at what you actually spend money on. So just think when you're selling to consumers, I'm going to give them time back that they otherwise wouldn't have. And for

business owners, you're giving them money that they otherwise wouldn't have.

But don't get overwhelmed with the zillion things that you can that you can learn there. Pick one. And so I have a a

learn there. Pick one. And so I have a a a 111 rule, which is you want to sell one product or service to one avatar

on one channel until you make $1 million. That's it. So we saved our

million. That's it. So we saved our money. We saved our time. And then we

money. We saved our time. And then we researched the skill that people are already paying for today. That leads us to number four. Spend time learning. All

right. So first of all, it's important they understand what learning is if we're going to say what it means. So I

say this because a lot of people spend their time trying to learn or sitting in front of a computer or listening to podcasts or whatever but it doesn't actually change behavior which ding ding ding that is the definition of learning

which is same condition new behavior. If

you're in the same condition meaning you're in the same bedroom you're looking at the same computer and what you're doing every day is not changing you are not learning. So use that as a simple slip test for understanding

whether the content that you are consuming is valuable. if you cannot translate it or the person who's teaching you whoever it is me or anyone into what do I do now. So there's this

big thing Malcolm Gladwell talked about 10,000 hours is this common theme which is it's not 10,000 hours but 10,000 iterations. And the reason I like that

iterations. And the reason I like that framing is because it assumes that you will fail and it assumes that you will get better as you learn. Right? It is

that 10,000 iterations is a proxy for feedback loops which means that if you do something and you get no feedback it's virtually impossible to learn. So

when we were doing stuff in the real world, a lot of times the real world will give you a feedback loop, but you post a piece of content, nothing happens. That is still feedback. It's

happens. That is still feedback. It's

that it sucked, right? But you can still get better. The fastest way to learn

get better. The fastest way to learn skills is to find somebody who's really good and hire them 101. Fastest way to learn skills. I still did this in my

learn skills. I still did this in my early days even when I barely could afford it. So when I say I learned with

afford it. So when I say I learned with first-party data, I give you a handful of examples, but this is a do this instruction list. So number one, you

instruction list. So number one, you have to do a lot of volume in order to learn, right? I can't just have one

learn, right? I can't just have one sales call recording. I have just one comment that I try and learn from. I

have to have lots of comments that I have to aggregate. I got to put them together. Number two is that I analyze

together. Number two is that I analyze the top 10%. So, what are the top 10% of sales calls? What are the top 10% of

sales calls? What are the top 10% of content? What are the the top 10, you

content? What are the the top 10, you know, customer service resolution uh you know, person? What are what are what are

know, person? What are what are what are these top 10% outcomes? What do they have in common that the other 90% don't have? And you can apply this to any

have? And you can apply this to any subject matter that you're trying to learn. So, that is step three. You

learn. So, that is step three. You

analyze the difference. Step four is you figure out the most important details like the eyes, like the feet, like the whatever. And this is this is where a

whatever. And this is this is where a lot of people struggle is that they they don't know which part is important. And

that's part of learning is that you're like, there's six differences. I don't

know which one was the reason. So you

start trying them one at a time. It just

is what it is. And so then the final step is avoid the mistakes that the 90% is making uh that are keeping them at the bottom and do more of the stuff the top 10%. And you just continue to do

top 10%. And you just continue to do another 100 repetitions. Look at the top 10. Try and make the next hundred look

10. Try and make the next hundred look like those 10. And do it over and over again until people are like, "Man, you're so good at this. you must be a natural. And that is fundamentally how

natural. And that is fundamentally how you learn any skill. We saved our money so we could get aggressive. We saved our time so we'd have time to to actually do the work. We researched which skills to

the work. We researched which skills to learn. Then we spent our time actually

learn. Then we spent our time actually learning and we went walk through exactly what those 10,000 iterations look like. So what do we do now? Step

look like. So what do we do now? Step

five is you spend the money in the right places. So I think of this in three

places. So I think of this in three bigger buckets. You've got tools, you've

bigger buckets. You've got tools, you've got implementation help, and then you've got trial attempts. So think about that as like where am I going to spend this time and money? Because you actually have to do this in order to get out.

Like if you're if you're just like, "Okay, I'm saving my time. Save money."

You're not going to get to 100K, right?

Like you have to do stuff too. So for

tools that might mean that you might buy a software or two, right? That might

mean like a CRM or a landing page thing or school. It's nine bucks a month. Like

or school. It's nine bucks a month. Like

chill. All right. Um to get started, right? Because for you to like the

right? Because for you to like the alternative is you could try rebuild the entire thing. Yeah. or you could just

entire thing. Yeah. or you could just like go to grab a tool that's already there. Save yourself some time. So

there. Save yourself some time. So

that's what kind of tools looks like.

Implementation. This is where you can buy courses, you can buy uh communities on school if you're looking to to learn anything. You can uh get tutoring, which

anything. You can uh get tutoring, which I'm a huge advocate of. And for some reason, this is like fawn out of vogue.

Um but if you can get someone to just give you oneonone help, my god, it's so valuable. Um the next is trial attempts.

valuable. Um the next is trial attempts.

So that means like, okay, I want to start running ads. Okay, great. Well,

you got to spend money on ads. or like,

hey, um, I want to start, you know, making content. You're going to have to

making content. You're going to have to spend money on maybe some of the editing software that goes with that. Like, of

course, there are free things and be as cheap as possible, but accept that some of these things are kind of minor investments that will give you huge leverage on your time. So, the last step, and the whole point of all this is to just increase your active income.

People look at the billionaires, they're like, "Oh, they live on passive income."

What people miss is that most billionaires who are self-made made their money from making money, meaning they had active income. They had monster active income that they could deploy.

Like you get rewarded for the risk you take on. You cannot take any risk on if

take on. You cannot take any risk on if you have no time and no money. So you

need to go take go find that risk.

Create something that you can put at risk so that you can get rewarded for it. And we do that through increasing

it. And we do that through increasing our skill sets and our active income.

And so you're like, okay, well those are the five steps. What's the last step?

Number six, do not increase your lifestyle. All right. I I know guys who

lifestyle. All right. I I know guys who are making $40,000 a month and made it for years, great sales guys, and spent every single dollar. I've got multiple friends who didn't start saving money until their 40s and they were like, "Oh

my god, I can't believe I I just like live that way." Right? You want to be rich, not look rich. Right? This is

about 100K in the bank, not 100k in revenue. Everything minus food and

revenue. Everything minus food and shelter is your profit. I say this is once things started working out for my gym, my first gym. I was making about $20,000 a month in income personal. I

was still splitting the room, paying $400 a month in rent because I was like, "Well, dude, I need to say like my goal was not to stop at $20,000 a month. I

was like, I want to go big and I'm going to need all this cash to open a new location, to learn more stuff, to attend more conferences, all of this stuff cuz I wanted to learn. And so, basically, the day that you stop spending money on

learning is the day you decide that you do not want to make more. And so,

zooming all the way out, the six steps to getting your first $100,000, you got to stop spending money so you have money to spend on the right stuff. You got to stop wasting time so that you have time

to invest in the right stuff. What stuff

do you invest in? Number three is you have to research. You got to pick. You

got to look. And the best way to look is not to risk it on something that you don't know, but find stuff people already spending money on. The fourth is now that we know the thing that we're going to focus on, we're going to eliminate all the other distraction.

We're going to spend all our time learning. Number five, the money that

learning. Number five, the money that you do have, you want to spend on tools, implementation, help, and attempts, trying it, and failing. And then

finally, once things actually start working, you never get to the 100K in a bank account just by increasing your income. You also got to not let your

income. You also got to not let your lifestyle take back over so you can finally bank it. And the reason this is so kind of near and dear to my heart is that when I had the first 100k was the first time that I mean I remember looking at Leila and I was like we did

it. I said we could do nothing and [ __ ]

it. I said we could do nothing and [ __ ] off for three and a half years and it was crazy cuz like I think about that now right two people $100,000 in savings three years and I wasn't think about it in terms of investments or anything like

that. I just knew that I didn't have to

that. I just knew that I didn't have to worry about rent. I didn't have to worry about food. And that was when I was able

about food. And that was when I was able to really start thinking long term. And

so I want as many people as possible to get that point because many of you have bigger dreams than that. But you can't get there until you pass this checkpoint. Like it's Maso's hierarchy

checkpoint. Like it's Maso's hierarchy of needs. Like until you're you're not

of needs. Like until you're you're not thinking about food and shelter, it's amazing to want to change the world. But

if you got to pay rent tomorrow, you got to pay rent tomorrow, right? And so this is the plan to help you do

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