7 Lessons I Picked up from a 22-Year-Old Multi-Millionaire
Sharing Iman Gadzhi’s journey and what I have learned from his YouTube channel.
Iman Gadzhi was born in post-soviet Russia and raised by a single parent, his mum. His Dad was an abusive alcoholic who disappeared from his life before he was born.
Due to poverty, Iman and his mum were forced to move to the UK, where he was mostly raised. In the UK, his mum got re-married to a wealthy man who gave them a good life.
However, this new-found comfort was short-lived when Iman’s stepdad cut them off. They were back to ground zero, and they were forced to live on government welfare.
Fast forward to today, Iman Gadhi is a 22-year-old multi-millionaire who has achieved financial freedom for himself and his mum. He currently resides in Dubai and travels around the world living his best life.
Iman’s story could easily be classified as one cliché rags to riches story.
💸 Iman’s pursuit of financial freedom
Living on government welfare, Iman was too broke to even afford a book. Yet, he was bent on pursuing personal development.
He spent most of his time at the library reading books for free or buying second-hand books because they were cheaper.
What I find truly inspiring about Iman Gadzhi was that he documented his entire journey to financial freedom on YouTube. Any viewer can always go back to see his humble beginnings and be inspired by how far he has come.
Iman started his channel back in 2015 as a 16-year-old, who pursued personal development and building a successful online business. For 7 years, Iman Gadzhi constantly uploaded videos and only saw his YouTube growth explode in 2022.
💼 Iman’s business empire
Iman made his first few dollars online by offering promotions and flipping Instagram accounts. After a period of 9 months working on this source of income, he soon realized the business was getting saturated with newbies and decided it was time to move on.
He got to work on IAG Media, a creative agency that created photo & video content for businesses, in addition to managing their social media accounts. He landed his first contract with a football club for £300/month.
Iman later pivoted to selling Facebook Ads services to clients and outsourced most of the work to contractors. He has worked with brands including Oura Ring, Kevin Rose, FuroSystems, and many more.
A few years later, Iman started another business under the brand name, Grow Your Agency, an online course where he teaches people everything he knows about growing a Social Media Marketing Agency (SMMA). Most of the profits from this business go into building schools in Nepal, with the aim of transforming education in the region.
Iman also ventured into the fashion industry by starting a bespoke clothing line, Gadzhi, which focused on merging comfort with style.
His businesses (mainly IAG Media) brought in enough cash flow to cover his expenses and build his nest egg (investment portfolio) for financial freedom.
After scaling IAG Media to 7-figures and earning little from his fashion brand, Iman decided to close down these two businesses and channel his focus on a bigger project. This is what he wants to do even though he need not work another day in his life.
His main focus now is building Agency Navigator — a software company for agency owners — with his business partner. According to him, the goal is to grow and scale this to hit the 9-figure mark.
✍️ 7 Key Lessons
It’s been about a year since I first came across Iman Gadzhi’s YouTube channel, and I have been a big fan ever since. I have learned a lot from him and I’ll be sharing 7 of these lessons here:
[1] Document your journey
I first came across the idea of documenting your journey online from Gary Vaynerchuk, and I always kept this idea somewhere in the back of my mind.
Then I came across Iman’s YouTube channel and saw how well he exemplified this piece of advice. With this, Iman can look back to see how far he has come. Posting his journey online also contributes to his credibility and serves as an inspiration to others.
This really encouraged me to do my best to share my journey and progress online.
[2] Dream big
I didn’t realize this in the beginning but watching Iman’s channel forces me to set very high financial goals.
Every once in a while, he also shares a vlog-style video which I thoroughly enjoy. It pushes me to work hard on my goals so I can enjoy the comfort, travel, autonomy, and freedom that come with building online businesses and achieving financial freedom.
[3] Self-improvement is important
Iman has reinforced in my mind the importance of self-improvement.
In his early stages, Iman read at least 1 book a week. He mentions that he adopted a ‘Zen beginner’s mind’, which means he implemented what he learned without really understanding why.
This has contributed significantly to who he is today and recommends that everyone who wants to achieve success should do the same.
[4] Invest in at least 1 high-income skill
For Iman, he picked up the following high-income skills in his early stages:
- Copywriting
- Social media growth
- Photography & Videography
These skills formed the bedrock of establishing his creative agency, IAG media, which later became a social media marketing agency.
“Even if you don’t know how a high-income skill will help you in the future, just learn it regardless.” — Iman Gadzhi
[5] Not all businesses are created equal
Leverage your high-income skills to solve business problems.
We are paid in direct proportion to the size of the problems we solve.
According to Iman, an online business is one of the best businesses to get into because it gives you all of the following if you do it right:
- Financial Freedom
- Location Freedom
- Time Freedom
To make the most money from an online business, it is best to solve a problem that directly impacts revenue (Eg. Offering Paid Ads services). An alternative could be generating measurable results (Eg. Increasing no. of leads, increasing traffic, …)
[6] Increase your income
Iman is a big believer in exploding your income to achieve wealth.
Rather than cutting back on expenses, it is best to channel the same energy into building a cash-flow business.
[7] Invest
It does take money to make more money, and having a cash-flow business serves as a foundation for building a strong investment portfolio.
Once Iman was able to build his pillar cashflow business, IAG Media, he channeled the money into the following investments:
- Luxury watches
- Cryptocurrency
- NFTs
- Real Estate
Investing is one of the most passive forms of earning an income, and this is the ticket to financial freedom.
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