The #1 Skill for Achieving Financial Freedom

If I can teach you a single skill that can transform your life, move you out of the financial struggles, and get you closer to financial freedom, what skill do you think it would be?

Money management, self-discipline, investing, or entrepreneurship?

The answer is none of the above. The single most important skill that I would teach you is how to sell.

I have realized that creators such as artists, musicians, and writers rarely make decent money.

Even though they have the best talent and skills on this planet to create the most beautiful and inspiring stories, art, and music, they still can’t sell their ideas and make people buy them.

That’s a problem with our educational system; they seldom teach us how to promote our product, earn money and have a decent life as creators.

I was a designer and artist myself, and I know how hard it’s to make money out of selling your art. Luckily, I wasn’t hungry, not because I was talented, but because my family helped with the bills.

Not until I decided I was done creating and wanted to make more money.

My father had the same experience, and he tried to teach me the same lesson, but I wasn’t listening because I was so stuck in my head.

Who Earns the Most Money?

When I was eight, my father owned a small chocolate factory, and although we were relatively wealthy, we wouldn’t make the most money.

Most of my father’s friends and clients were retailers and wholesalers.

They sold our products and other brands’ products; they import from India, China, Pakistan, and the rest of the world.

Then sell these products to people in the other half of the world and earn profit. Those people were making the most money.

They had little to no physical assets; they did not have to be stuck with a single product or make a product.

They only had to travel to a few exhibitions and research what people wanted, then come back and showcase similar products and make sales.

When I lived in Shanghai, I made the same mistake in my early days as my father.

I was a creator; I fell in love with my artistic passion and even made some sales selling art and design-related products.

However, at the end of the month, I was left with no extra money and was exhausted from the work I had to put in to make a below-average income.

Most of my Chinese friends who were financially independent were striving.

I remember how around 2014, China was booming, and people were making money like crazy.

What pissed me off was that I couldn’t make as much money as they could. I was offered the same opportunities, but I couldn’t understand how to leverage that opportunity during that time. Now I see it!

The people who made the most money were street smart; they were good at communicating with people and recommending products.

They didn’t bother to create; they just found what was working, then went out and sold the heck out of it, and now they are financially independent.

Selling Isn’t Evil

Many people shy away from selling and marketing because they think it’s evil; that’s nonsense.

Do you think that the bottled water that keeps you alive or the shoes you wear at an important event isn’t marketed excessively by the best marketing agencies to make more people buy them?

For the economy to grow, everything you pay for is sold by someone to someone else.

You and I are no different; both of us are a part of a global economy; One of us should sell something that the other need or wants; I decided to be the seller, and so should you.

Let’s forget a bit about financial independence and talk about you.

First, you deserve a decent standard of living regardless of what you do.

Second, even if you create great stuff, it doesn’t hurt or devalue your talent if you sell other creators’ products.

And last, selling is helping; it’s not lying, manipulating, or pushing people toward outcomes they don’t want or actions that don’t benefit them.

Please tell me if I’m wrong; if I suggest an effective and healthy diet program for someone looking to cut extra pounds and gain confidence while I make a commission from the seller.

Do you find that pushy or unethical?

I just helped someone to be more confident and made some money to keep me motivated and help other people as well.

There are many unethical sales and marketing people, but you are not one of them. You help and offer value, and that’s an honorable thing to do.

How to Learn to Sell “the Easy Way”

Marketing and selling now are much easier than fifteen years ago; thanks to the internet, you can sit behind your computer, find a problem that people want to solve, develop a small audience, and sell products.

I do it all the time, even if I don’t need the $10 commission from selling Amazon ebooks. It’s a habit, and I don’t feel shy or ashamed of it. Neither should you.

You can start a blog, a YouTube channel or a TikTok live stream, and then create content about a problem people want to solve.

Connect with people, start a conversation, and then refer products to them throughout your content.

The more you invest in the relationship with your audience, the more you can sell them and the more money you can make.

If you don’t like to go social, you can build a simple website with an attractive offer, drive paid traffic, and earn a commission; deals websites do it all time.

To learn to market, you don’t have to buy an expensive course or read a hundred books; marketing is much simpler than you think.

The people who make six to seven figures online have mastered the following skills:

1. Think about connecting people with things they need or desire, and those things don’t have to be necessarily your products.

2. Instead of being only a creator, be a connector and creator; seek opportunities to create content that connects you with more people.

3. Build a habit of recommending a single product/service/book for every three posts you make as an affiliate, and mention that you are taking a commission if they buy.

Use this disclaimer template if you need:

“Disclosure: Some links below are affiliate links. At zero cost to you, I will earn a small commission if you click through the link and complete a purchase. Thank you for being supportive!”

This will teach your audience from day one that, besides your valuable content, you also have to earn money so you can keep creating.

4. Study or copy how other marketers craft their offers to suggest or sell a product.

5. Get comfortable promoting and selling other creators’ stuff, then you can sell your creations.

Once you master the skill of earning more money through marketing and sales, you don’t worry about budgeting or the economy anymore.

You can always find what people want, sell it to them, and make more money.

People with financial independence enjoy life at its best, not because they are the best creators, but because they put their egos aside, don’t shy away from selling stuff people want, and make the most money.

That’s all!