I’ve personally met and worked with so many people over the last decade. Do you want to know who the richest people were? Not the doctors or lawyers or engineers. It was always the people who owned their own businesses.

School life for students nowadays is so different from when I was a student. Technology is so entrenched in our lives now that even the educational system has tried to incorporate it. A lot of teachers used to tell their students to put away their phones in class, but now, there’s a movement of teachers who recognize that students (and adults) are on phones and technology ALL the time. And instead of fighting this (addiction??) they are starting to use apps and tech to keep their students engaged and interested. And it’s working. However, there are some crucial skills nowadays that can truly help students become a millionaire in life and are still not being taught to students in our schools. Now I know that success is defined differently for different people. But, financial freedom in life can help you focus on any other type of success you are seeking.

So, here are 6 skills that every student should learn if they ever want to become a millionaire in life:

Learn to make a website

It’s easier now than ever before to make your own website. I remember when I was a high school student we had to learn to make websites by learning html coding. You don’t need that anymore. With platforms like WordPress (which is what I used to make this website), making a website is as easy as drag-and-drop. You literally pick a theme that you like and place elements like images and text boxes wherever you want on your page. It’s so easy, old ladies are doing it. There are tons of great website platforms to choose from: The Best Website Building Platforms. As you build your website and make it better and better, you will pick up some small bits of coding stuff (usually through google or forum searches) that will help you make your website even better.

Why is this skill so essential? Almost every case of a person becoming a millionaire nowadays that I have read about and researched, involved that person having and building their own website.

For example: Joel Brown, Founder of addicted2success

Joel, a young entrepreneur, started his website with the intention of motivating, educating, and inspiring people to always strive for success in life. Over the course of a few years, his website reached over 57 Million worldwide views. He’s received multiple offers of millions of dollars for his popular website.

Once you learn the basics of building a regular website. You can tweak it a bit to make an eCommerce website. This is basically a website that is set up to sell stuff. Amazon and eBay are examples of HUGE eCommerce sites. However, regular people are become successful with eCommerce sites all the time. There are awesome eCommerce website building platforms that have made building an eCommerce site super easy. This really gives people a platform to sell their ideas and become successful.

For example: Mimi and Alex Ikonn, Founders of Luxyhair

They got the idea of selling hair extensions when they were getting married and Mimi had a hard time finding them for herself. They had zero knowledge of how to build a website. They used Shopify to create a simple eCommerce website. Right now they are making 7 figures, selling hair extensions.

Blogging

Learning to blog is probably the single most useful skill to have if you’re starting your own website. You can start a blog on a blogging platform, like Blogger, which is made purely to blog. Or you can create your own website and write your blog on there. Blogging is absolutely essential to display your personality, knowledge on the subject matter, and to differentiate yourself from all the other blogs out there. It also helps you improve your writing skills, which are transferable to all areas of your life. Blogging is also a way for any business to earn people’s trust. You probably visit many blogs on a daily basis. What do you do when you visit a website selling iconic shoes? You visit the blog section and about section to see who is selling them and if they’re actually knowledgeable about the shoes. Websites or businesses that don’t blog, tend not to do well.

There are so many bloggers who have become millionaires because of their different blogging styles and personalities: The Richest Bloggers.

For example: Let’s go back to Joel Brown from above.

Do you really think his website could have become so successful if he just put up pictures? No. For over 4 years, he consistently blogged about motivation and inspiration. In fact, he states that he didn’t achieve much popularity until he had written well over 700 blog posts. He wrote about his own personal opinions and experiences, as well as, his interviews with other people. People started coming to his website regularly to read what he wrote. They related to him. His writing resonated with them. And in time he became wildly popular.

Social Media

This is a skill that most kids are very familiar with (and more skilled in than most adults). This skill can be better described as social media marketing. There are many different types of social media platforms – some entirely visually based and some text based. For example, the most popular visually based ones are Youtube, Instagram, Snapchat, and Pinterest. Popular text-based ones are Twitter, Facebook, and Medium.

So why is this skill essential? It’s essential because if you do start your own website, business, or brand, you can get people to follow you on these social media platforms. Then you can let them know, for example, every time you write a blog post. If you just write a blog post and put it on your site, who’s going to know? Noone. You have to tell people about it. And growing your social media following is the best way to do it.

For example: This website. I blog whenever I can and then I let all my followers on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram know about it. Altogether, I have almost 5000 followers between all of my social media profiles. Every time I blog or put up study materials, I let all of my followers know about it, otherwise, no one would come to my website!

But, is there any point of having a social media presence if you don’t have a website or blog? Yes. There are so many young people on social media nowadays, who have MILLIONS of followers even though they have no website or blog. Having these many people listening to them gives them incredible POWER. Companies like Nike, Disney, and Microsoft will pay these types of people huge amounts of money to advertise their products to all those followers. This is a new way to advertise, reach, and influence millions of people. Just think about it. If you had the ability to influence, let’s say 50 million people with your words, wouldn’t that be insanely powerful? Enter PEWDIEPIE.

Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg (a.k.a. PewDiePie), has a gaming Youtube channel with nearly 50 Million subscribers. Let that number sink in for a minute and try to imagine just how many people that is. That is more than the entire population of Canada. Felix is just a normal guy who dropped out of an Industrial Economics University program and started a Youtube channel. His humorous personality and gaming ability led to rapid growth of his channel. He is now listed as one of the 30 most influential people on the internet. He’s bigger than most celebrities.

Here’s another example: Brandon Stanton, Founder of Humans of New York

You’ll notice that I linked you to his Facebook social media profile rather than his actual website. That’s because his Facebook profile has nearly 20 Million followers. He was just a regular guy, who lost his job and was living on unemployment checks when he started a photography project to take pictures of people around New York and try to tell their stories. His pictures and the personal stories of everyday people resonated with people so much that within three years his Facebook profile became incredibly popular. He’s followed by the biggest institutions (like NASA and Harvard University), the biggest celebrities, and even the President.

Learn to start a business

Starting a business is way cheaper and easier than many people think. Just incorporating this business (Exam Masters Tutoring Service) cost only about $80! I had to fill out a few forms, submit them, and boom, I had my own business! This is so important if you’re going to have your own website, eCommerce business, blog, brand, or social media presence. Once you form a business, you can more easily manage all the money you make from your skills. You will be better able to handle legal issues as well.

You also get so much satisfaction and fulfillment from knowing that you built something from the ground up and are helping people in some form or another. There are tons of great reasons to start your own business. It is probably the only way to attain financial freedom in life. I’ve personally met and worked with so many people over the last decade. Do you want to know who the richest people were? Not the doctors or lawyers or engineers. It was always the people who owned their own businesses.

Read blogs of successful and motivational people

This one might be a no-brainer, but, it still needs to be stated. Schools tell you to read books from famous writers. I would argue that although that’s beneficial, it’s more important to read books and blogs written by successful people in today’s constantly changing economy. The successful people that I have mentioned in this blog post, for example, are always blogging about how they became successful, what things they learned along the way, the mistakes to avoid, and tons more great advice and information that you will never get in school.

Write down ideas

Get into the practice of writing down business ideas or ideas on how to make money. This is really essential nowadays because of our increasingly competitive market. A lot of people have so much education and can’t find jobs related to their education. For example, a degree in Biology will not guarantee you a job as a Biologist or anything biology related anymore. However, you can start a biology blog or tutoring website to apply your biology knowledge. You can even write biology study books and guides. This gives you an avenue to make an income, be fulfilled, and reach many people. This is a huge paradigm shift in the world of education right now. We’re going from a “study this and you will become that” system to an “acquire knowledge and find creative ways to use that knowledge” system. Certain countries, like Singapore, who have already made this shift in their educational system, are seeing huge benefits from this. Singapore is one of Asia’s great success stories, transforming itself from a developing country to a modern industrial economy in one generation. You should research more about Singapore’s top-notch educational system.

Although the world has become so much more competitive, it’s easier now than ever before to make money, reach millions of people around the world, and become a millionaire. So many people are doing it every year. People like you and me; I’m not talking about celebrities here. The skills I mentioned in this blog post will help you for the rest of your life, whether you use them just for fun, to make a small side income, or use them as a full-time job.