1. How to Get Lucky
One day, when I was a teenager, I was playing basketball on a street court.
I made a 3-point basket, and one of the opposing players told me, "you got lucky."
I remember thinking, “Lucky? So why am I practicing then, if success depends on luck?” Sure, there's a certain amount of luck in everything we do.
But the best way to create opportunities is to practice and work. I started my first business in Australia when I was 28.
When I came back to France, the father of a friend, an entrepreneur who started from scratch, told me, “about your business in Australia, I think you got lucky.”
My ego didn’t like that. Still, it made me wonder if my success in Australia was due to luck. Around the same time, I started an online business. It took off quickly.
A few years later, I saw my friend's father again.
I said, “Georges, do you remember a few years ago when you told me that I got lucky with my business in Australia?”
He smiled warmly and answered, "yes, actually, I think you're a good one." Maybe I was lucky. Or maybe I wasn’t totally bad at what I was doing.
Mostly, I think my success was due to using effective functioning techniques and strategies. Let me give you an example.
In my life, I have created four businesses. All of them have been successful. Why? Because I use a simple rule that I'll give you in the second part of this book.
The press loves to make headlines like this: "New swimming prodigy," or "This entrepreneur floated his whole company on the stock exchange.”
But what we never talk about are all the years of work behind those success stories.
To get that medal, the new swimming prodigy had to train almost seven days a week for 15 or 20 years.
Fifteen or 20 years!
Everyone wants to succeed, but few people are willing to make the necessary effort.
But you know what? Those people who think that that success requires working yourself to death?
They’re wrong.
Here’s the real secret. You don’t need to drive yourself into the ground with work. You just have to do a little bit every day.
Working this way has allowed me to run multiple successful businesses and learn three languages.
By changing course by a little bit every day, you slowly but surely set your life in a totally different direction.
There are plenty of books on personal and business development that can help you progress. I’ve listed some of my favorites at the end of this book.
By reading a few pages a day, over time you’ll end up with more knowledge than most of the people around you.
And the best part? You don't have to read everything cover to cover.
Thanks to the 20/80 rule, we know that by doing 20% of the work we can obtain 80% of the results.
So, by reading only 20% of business books, you can know more than 80% of your peers.
Even better, you can find and study successful people who have already done what you want to do.
In 2006, I met an American friend in Paris who was working as a stylist.
She told me that in her “old life,” she’d had a classic (translation: boring) office job. I said, “But Christina, I don't understand, how did you become a stylist?”
She told me that she’d always dreamed of being one, even when stuck in an office.
One day on a whim, she sent an email to the stylist for Sex and the City to ask her for advice.
To her surprise, the stylist answered my friend and offered her an interview. For an hour she told her everything she knew about the job.
With the help of a friend, Christina was able to land a job for a commercial shooting. Then she got a second job and a third.
Within a few months, her career had launched. And that was before social networking...
Today, mass platforms like YouTube and Instagram make it insanely easy to follow successful people who are already living the life you want to live.
What’s stopping you from learning from them and putting in the work yourself? Do you see where I’m going with this?
It's easy to talk about luck, but dig a little deeper and you’ll probably find more concrete explanations for someone’s success.
Work. Be persistent. Study those who have succeeded.
As Thomas Jefferson said, “I’m a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more luck I have.”
So, let the lazy ones keep looking for their stroke of luck; we know that success is anything but.
2. How to make friends
At the beginning of my career, I started looking into personal development. The first book I read was Dale Carnegie's How to Make Friends.
The title might make you smile, but it's a classic for self-development. Plus it's short and easy to read.
In it, Carnegie delivers a load of tips and techniques that are genuinely effective – so much so that I think the book should be taught at college!
Here’s an example of how his advice worked for me.
In my first job, I had difficulties with a colleague who oversaw the network.
After taking a strong dislike to me, he started hindering me in my work by preventing me from accessing network resources.
I decided to use some of the techniques I learned in How to Make Friends to break the stand-off. Like this tip: listen to people.
Everyone likes to talk about themselves, but few people take the time to listen to others. By following this simple tip, you can bring value and be nice to anyone.
And it requires practically nothing from you. NOTHING!
Just listen to the person you’re talking to, and you create value out of nothing.
So, I stopped by my colleague’s office one day instead of walking past and asked him what he was working on.
I took the time to listen to him, and I saw that he was happy to talk to me about his work. In a few weeks, his behavior did a complete 360!
I was able to get my hands on resources at the network level, which allowed me to learn a lot and progress quickly in my job.
I had created value out of nothing. This experience was a revelation.
I thought, “if I can achieve such results by reading a simple book, what will it look like if I keep going?”
The second book I read was Influence and Manipulation by Robert Cialdini.
The techniques in it were fascinating because they were nothing extraordinary – just subtle ways to influence others.
But that's the difference between a yes and a no. Between success and failure.
The lessons I learned from these books have been with me ever since.
When I started my business on the Internet, I connected with as many people who had already succeeded in this field as I could.
I’d invite them out to eat and try to establish a relationship of trust or friendship with them.
And it worked! By the following year, I had an army of affiliates for my first launch and we made
€550,000 in sales in two weeks. Let that sink in.
Reading these books isn’t just a nice bonus. It’s essential for anyone seeking professional success, whether as an employee or as an entrepreneur.
I also recommend Robert Greene's 48 Laws of Power.
If you can’t get through it all – because it is hefty – just read the summary of each chapter. That's more than enough.
Now you might be thinking, “I haven't even finished this book, and he's already given me three more to read! I'm never going to get through this...”
Well, stop right there. Don't put pressure on yourself!
Start by reading How to Make Friends. You can do it in a few hours, so there's no excuse.
Just by reading this book, you’ll know more about the topic than 80% of the population – if not more!
You’ll have plenty of time to read the other books. There's no rush. Just remember: do a little bit every day.
3. How to learn any language in 5 minutes a day
I took German as a second language in college – my mother’s idea. I HATED it.
Two years later, I started English classes. That was when I knew for sure – I despised formal foreign language learning.
When I started working, though, I noticed that the most successful people (entrepreneurs, senior managers) could speak English.
I decided to bite the bullet and learn it myself – but not in a class. I was in no hurry and instead tried to practice a little bit every day.
A friend gave me a grammar book, so each day I’d read one lesson and do the exercises in my head. It took 10 minutes at the most.
I also started looking up lyrics for English songs I liked and would watch English movies and TV shows with subtitles. When I went out in Paris, I’d talk to Americans I ran into.
After a while, I became the one they called at work when there was a foreign client on the phone. Who’d have thought?
Not only was I happy with my progress, but I found I was enjoying the process. I felt like I was discovering a culture, and I got to enjoy movies and TV shows.
Then in 2006, I went to Mexico.
That brought on another revelation: I was not attracted to Latin culture at all. I did, however, fall in love with the people, the landscapes, and the music.
When I came back to France, I started to learn Spanish the same way as I’d learned English: a few minutes a day, finding ways to make it enjoyable, and improving my interest in the culture. This eventually led me to Colombia in 2010, where I met my wife.
Following our move to Portugal in 2015, I learned Portuguese using that same method. Why should you care about this?
Because there are no downsides to knowing a foreign language. NONE. So, let’s recap:
You don’t have to commit to an expensive, time-consuming course with loads of homework to learn another language.
You just need to:
- Do a little every day, persistently.
- Find ways to make it enjoyable (music, movies, websites on subjects you are interested in, phone apps). Be curious and find what works for you!
- Learn the basics of grammar. It won’t be the most fun part, but a little every day keeps things simple and gives you a foundation to build on.
4. How to earn more money
One day when I was a young employee, I came across a used book called How to Make More Money.
It was a short book.
The two main tips in it were: learn English and become a sales representative.
It makes a good point. Each profession comes with an average income – it’s pretty useless to hope to become a millionaire if you are employed at City Hall.
Working in sales is a solid way to earn a higher-than-average income if you don't have a prestigious degree. Still, this line of work isn’t for everyone.
My advice is to be curious.
Look around and see how much other people earn.
Seek out niches – little known activities or small companies where it is possible to earn more.
Or, you can supplement your regular income with flexible jobs like real estate or freelancing. I have a friend who used to deal in second-hand goods in order to buy second-hand video games, which he then sold individually online and make a nice profit.
The bottom line is, there are no limits. You just have to be curious and resourceful. In my opinion, though, the best money-making option is to start your own business.
With my own business, I pay myself a salary of €2,500 per month. My real estate income nets me an extra €3,000 per month.
And then there are my company’s profits. Currently, with €100,000 of turnover per month, my company makes €25,000 in profit. That adds up to €300k of profit per year.
My goal is to reach €100,000 of monthly profit.
That kind of money would be about as attainable as the moon if I was still working for somebody else.
I don't have a boss, no set hours, and I don’t have to go to a stuffy office.
So, what do you need to start a business of your own?
First, have some money saved. €5,000 or €10,000 is the minimum to start without pressure. If that seems impossible, think again!
Start by deducting your fixed expenses from your monthly salary. Then, take out what you want to save (when I was an employee, I put away €300 per month).
Divide whatever’s left by 4.2, and it’ll give you your weekly shopping and leisure budget. If it feels like a struggle, embrace it! Adversity is the mother of creativity.
There are always economical solutions out there.
For example, if you've spent your entire budget, you can still stream movies at home, go for a walk or play sports.
Make tasty food at home and invite friends over.
Take the opportunity to visit your parents or relatives you haven't seen in a while. Never forget – some make excuses, and some find solutions.
Believe me, if you want to make money, you have to be in the second category. Part Two: How to Get Free
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