I Got Rich at 17. 4 Years Later, Was I Happier?
Getting rich at 17 gave me the runway. At 21, I finally learned how to fly.
At 17, I achieved everything I’d been working towards for years.
I had more money than I’d ever imagined.
four years later...
I realized money wasn’t the destination.
It was the beginning.
I’m constantly dreaming about starting up my YouTube gaming channel. I always wanted to be a YouTuber.
But I really didn’t have any concrete reason.
Until, I saw my mother coming home from work exhausted every single day.
She would leave the house at 4:30 am when it’s dark, and come back home when it’s darker.
Every time she would come home from work, I would tell her.
Mammi, I love you. I promise when I’m 18 you never have to work again!
She must’ve thought…
How is my twelve-year-old son going to do that? But I really believe him.
…
Always smiling even when she was tired from work.
I’m taking a year off before high school to seriously commit to YouTube.
Going through school to help my mother would take too long…
I’m studying thumbnails, making all kinds of videos.
I didn’t know how I would build a sustainable gaming channel to retire my mother.
I just kept on uploading…
But after months, I checked my analytics…
277 Subscribers.
What am I doing?
What if it doesn’t work out?
Why isn’t the channel growing?
I’m thinking that maybe I should just go back to high school, now I’ve probably wasted one year. One year where my mother has to work longer.
At least with a degree, even if it’s slower—I can get some money.
…
But after one year of doing YouTube full time, something happened.
The channel started doing better and better…
I’m literally pumping out videos.
I’m literally getting carpel tunnel from working so hard.
But I’ve never been happier, I could see the face of my mother every time another video would do well.
I’m spending 14 hours working some days.
One and a half years later, I had gone from making almost $0. To my first $10K. At 17 years old, in March of 2023.
I had dropped out of high school because I believed I could make a proper business out of YouTube.
I continue to work though, because I can’t retire my mother on just a months of proof.
I need to be able to have a system to make $10K a month.
Then I can actually retire my mother.
…
A few months later at 18—I hit my first $25K month with my YouTube gaming channel.
It was almost unbelievable.
And now, it has made almost $600,000
My mother’s face that day is the best thing I’ve ever experienced.
Thank you, Alex. I’m so incredibly proud of you.
…
I almost forget, that I wasn’t doing this for the money.
I was doing it to buy back freedom for my mother.
…
This is it, how can life be any better?
I have the perfect job, with my family happy.
And I can just be happy and free now.
I genuinely believed happiness was waiting on the other side of success.
Money changed my life.
I bought the house we lived in.
My mother never had to worry about bills again.
I could work whenever I wanted, from wherever I wanted.
Money solved almost every problem I thought money could solve.
A few years later, I’m working on my gaming channel again.
But after finishing the video,
I go back to bed.
I watch YouTube Shorts.
I scroll for hours.
Hours would disappear.
Then I’d look at the clock.
Another day had gone by.
And I couldn’t even tell you what I’d done.
I would publish a video every 5 days. But only work the last day or two.
I’m just wasting time until the next upload…
Months would pass by without anything changing
…
I’m watching people younger than me making millions of dollars.
How are they doing so well? I also want those cars.
Maybe I should do that business?
I should go into drop shipping, then I can make more money.
…
No no, I love my job. I should just do this forever.
…
What if my gaming channel dies? How long can I do this for?
I love my gaming channel, but I always feel like I want a deeper connection with my audience.
I’m just making entertainment videos, but I really don’t know my viewers.
My worth from people comes mostly from my video ideas…
And after years… I’m starting to slowly run out of video ideas…
…
I started becoming really sad every time a video would perform bad.
I would come up some mornings and my mother would ask
What’s wrong, Alex
?
I would just say, it’s just one of those days.
But I staked my whole life on my gaming channel.
…
I start feeling a bit empty,
Somehow thinking that I should just do this, but my heart keeps telling me something else.
I loved making gaming videos.
But I couldn’t shake the feeling there were many parts of myself I’d never explored.
But it’s so comfortable, why do I need to change?
I barely work and I make boatloads of money.
I should just keep watching movies, watching youtube shorts…
…
I stopped living to grow…
and started taking the freedom I had worked so hard for…
for granted.
I’m constantly trying different businesses, somehow I feel like I want something more.
I have all the freedom and time to start a new business and grow. But I don’t know…
I don’t know what to do…
…
Then something happened I couldn’t solve by working harder.
I went through my first breakup.
It forced me to stop distracting myself.
For years, whenever life felt uncertain...
I’d work.
This time...
Working didn’t fix anything.
…
For the first time in years...
I wasn’t trying to become more successful.
I was trying to understand myself.
That’s when I started reading.
That’s when I picked up the piano again.
That’s when I started going for walks.
Not because they would make me money...
But because I genuinely enjoyed them.
…
Okay… Now I’m actually going to work on something that I love to do, that I can do for decades.
I don’t know what that is yet, but I will start something.
And whatever happens, I know I’ll try my best, and trust that I find my way through life.
…
At 21, I then stumbled on this business and other ventures.
And I actually think I’ve never been happier than right now.
Looking back...
Becoming rich at 17 wasn’t the destination.
It was the runway.
…
It took years after retiring my mother…
And feeling lost because I thought my worth only came from my work.
But I was able to finally find what I loved to do…
The piano…
The gym…
Chess…
Reading…
Spending more time with friends and family…
Building businesses that align more with me…
Learning everything that I want to, without financial worry.
…
At 17...
I thought I’d reached the destination.
Looking back...
it was only the runway.
Money gave me freedom.
Freedom gave me something I’d never had before.
The chance to discover who I wanted to become.
Getting rich at 17 gave me the runway.
At 21...
I finally learned how to fly.