how I plan to get rich (without selling my soul)

This isn’t a playbook for everyone.

It’s my map out of the matrix—through systems, software, and self-mastery.

Let me be honest, I want to get stinking rich. I want to buy Lamborghinis, big houses, and everything else that comes with wealth.

But I'm not delusional about the path there.

In this piece, I'm sharing it all—exactly what takes up 80% of my mental state, my energy, and time. This is my plan and hopefully, you might find it useful or inspiring for yours.

the moment everything clicked

When I was in high school, I was completely lost. I spent my time playing basketball, boxing, partying, playing music, and training at the gym—everything except studying.

I didn't see the point. Everyone kept asking what I wanted to do with my life, and I honestly had no idea.

People always say "do what you love," but when I looked at all the different fields of study, I couldn't figure out how to choose. All I knew was that I liked having fun.

Then one day I randomly picked up the book, “Rich Dad Poor Dad”.

Mind you, back then it was instilled in me that being rich was an idea not even feasible. You were either born into it or not.

But reading that book (through all its flaws) opened my eyes to the matrix.

It dawned on me that getting rich was actually possible.

Robert Kiyosaki gave a very simple formula that till today I believe is true and is one I follow:

First, understand the definitions:

• Assets = things that put money in your pocket every month (passive income)

• Liabilities = things that take money out of your pocket every month

Rich people buy assets, poor people buy liabilities.

The formula is simple—acquire assets that cover your lifestyle costs.

As such you can never achieve financial freedom just being in a job.

Technically, you could get a high-paying job, take a portion of your money, and buy assets that compound over time. But then you'll only get financially free when you're 50 or 60 years old, which is perfect for retirement planning.

But I want to be financially free in the next 5-10 years, not when I'm collecting CPF (Social Security). That's why I decided to start a business.

Find out what your lifestyle number is, then build passive income to cover it. The moment you have $30,000-50,000 coming in automatically each month, you're not necessarily rich by society's standards, but you're technically financially free.

The keyword here is not just the numeric value but automatically.

I'd consider someone making $10K/month "passively" more rich than someone making $50K/month working 12-hour days.

Anyhow, that was a game changer for me. I finally saw a clear path.

The problem? When you're middle class, you don't have money to buy assets.

So I decided I would build one instead.

Around this time, I was also watching movies like "Steve Jobs" and "The Social Network." These films shaped my approach to business and got me into technology in the first place. I realized that building innovative products and systems could be both my path to wealth and my form of creative expression.

For context, I'm born into a musician family so creative expression has always been a natural lens through which I see the world. Which brings me to my next point on how I see entrepreneurship—the art of creating assets.

a craftsman approach to capitalism

When most people think "entrepreneur," they picture someone who's naturally enterprising. A smooth talker. Someone who can network their way into any room and sell ice to eskimos. The kind of person who lives for the hustle and thrives on closing deals.

To be honest, while I've spent enough time learning to sell, that's not me naturally. I've built up that skillset more out of necessity than natural expression.

I believe I'm more of a craftsman, an artist than an entrepreneur.

I like to create systems, build assets, design things that work beautifully toward a goal. As such, I see entrepreneurship as my canvas—a way to create beautiful products and well-designed organizations that output greatness.

This is my form of art. This is how I want to express myself in the world.

The saving grace for me is that in today's world, it's very possible to get rich as a craftsman. Business, if we boil it down to first principles, is: build a great product people love and the selling becomes easy.

But here's the thing—being a craftsman only works if you can actually make money from your craft. So let me get specific about what that looks like financially.

what financial freedom actually means

Anyhow, back to our point of getting rich!

Let's define terms here. I think most people say they want to become rich, but the more accurate term is to be financially free.

And using Kiyosaki's formula, this is very achievable:

1. Define your lifestyle number

2. Create/buy assets (things that put money into your pocket without your exchange of time—passive income)

3. Repeat/optimize until the assets' cash flow > your lifestyle number

So let's say you're a single young guy with no responsibilities and you live in Bali. You kinda only need about $2K to live comfortably.

If you've created a business or own assets that give you $2K/month with minimal time exchange, you're technically financially free.

When you approach money-making from this lens, suddenly becoming "rich" becomes so much more achievable, eh?

Well.. I hope you’re starting get it…

You have to create an asset.

If you don’t have capital to buy one, one of the few best options is to create one.

By creating an asset, it means starting a business.

So that is the conclusion we have to reach.

the cash flow strategy

Now that we've established we need to start a business, we're optimizing for cash flow, valuations all that come later.

My strategy is to achieve financial freedom first—building automated assets that generate $30,000-$50,000 per month in income. That's my safety net. From that foundation, I can take the big risks needed to build something truly massive.

If we use Kiyosaki’s definition, the measure of your networth is whether your “stuff” takes money out of your pocket (liabilities) or brings money in (assets) every month.

To that point, the timeframe is on a month to month basis. We want biz ideas that optimize for cashflow.

Cash flow is what comes in every single month—your MRR (monthly recurring revenue). We want to get that amount high enough such that after paying expenses and costs, we have enough left over to pay ourselves.

And that payment to ourselves needs to be higher than our lifestyle number.

At that point, you've created a cash-flowing business. This is what we're optimizing for.

indie hacking and the company of one

Okay cool, now that we've established that we're going to build a lifestyle business to become financially free, how do we do it?

There's probably a million ways to do so, but I can only share my way—at least the way I'm tackling it.

My strategy focuses on finding micro problems—something that causes real pain for a specific group of people—and solving it exceptionally well.

I'm not trying to solve huge problems for everyone. I'm looking for verticals that are big enough to be profitable but small enough that I can create specialized solutions. The riches really are in the niches.

Here's how I think about it…

build the biggest small thing you can build.

Most people, when they think about starting tech companies, always think of trying to create the next big thing. But it's really about building the next big small thing—building the biggest small thing you can build because we're optimizing for freedom, not ego.

Even if your ultimate goal is to build a massive conglomerate, you have to start with one niche and dominate it completely. Become a monopoly in that small space, then slowly expand. Peter Thiel taught this principle in "Zero to One," and it's become foundational to how I think about business.

I named this section indie hacking because of the scrappy, anti-corporatist approach.

It's also the way the new world is shifting—the barrier to entry is so much lower than before, and the costs of starting a business aren't as much.

You do not need an office to build an asset that brings financial freedom. You don't need a team of 100 to build an asset that brings financial freedom.

Some of the best businesses are those who've done more with less—who have efficiency in their organization.

Notable mentions include MailChimp and 37signals.

Speaking of 37signals, this brings me to my next point…

why I avoid VC money (for now)

I'm not against venture capital conceptually, but I am against thinking it's the only way to build a business.

I'm heavily inspired by Jason Fried and DHH from 37signals. Their book "Rework" aligned perfectly with my philosophy: bootstrap, focus on profitability, build sustainably.

Taking VC money means answering to other people's timelines and definitions of success. It means optimizing for their metrics instead of your vision.

Remember, we're optimizing for freedom here. It's rather counterproductive to give up that freedom in pursuit of freedom.

I want the freedom to execute my own ideas on my own timeline. I'd rather be funded by customers than investors—people who pay because they get value, not because they're betting on potential returns.

This approach means I can optimize for profits and sustainability instead of growth metrics. I can build something I actually own and control completely.

The moment you take VC money, you're playing their game by their rules. And their game often involves burning cash to grow fast, then hoping to find a business model later. That's not my game.

Now just as a quick observation, the more I studied these bootstrapped companies, I noticed a trend where most of them start out as service-based businesses first. They start an agency or sell consulting services to use that to fund their cashflow and then build a product around that.

Another observation that I’m extremely bullish on is getting your funding from customers first. Many people start their business with this sequence

Build → Demo → Sell

When the smarter way is to

Demo → Sell → Build

This means SELLING FIRST.

Get people looking at your prototypes and paying you money SO THAT you can build your product. With today’s AI tools, you can vibe code a solution and help people visualize the promise of a future complete product.

This minimizes your chances of building a product nobody wants.

But given, you need the marketing/sales skills to be able to pull this off too. So… skill issue which also means, the ball is in your court this is very solvable.

the three pillars

To build financial freedom, you only need to think about three things and execute on them well.

We don't need to create something entirely new—just master these three pillars:

Traffic: How you capture people's attention and eyeballs, essentially generating leads. This is about getting the right people to know you exist. Whether it’s through cold emails, paid traffic, or JVs.

Conversion: Your approach to converting these eyeballs into actual money. In other words, your sales process. Whether you do a 2 step sales call approach, a video sales letter, a product led growth approach, you need a way to turn attention into sales.

Product: Of course, you need a product. Something valuable to sell these people. This comes from understanding micro problems and solving them so well that you create a moat around the experience.

Naval Ravikant talks about productizing yourself, and this is key. The product itself should be somewhat aligned to you as the founder. Your background, your skills, your natural interests—these become your unfair advantage.

For me, that's combining marketing expertise with systems thinking and automation. I'm not trying to become something I'm not; I'm leveraging what I already know and naturally gravitate toward.

That's it. Master traffic, conversion, and product (aligned to who you are), and you essentially one step closer to having an asset for financial freedom.

Most people overcomplicate business, but when you strip everything away, it's these three things working together in harmony.

Finding one proven traffic source, one proven sales process, and one proven product, that repeatedly produces revenue > your cost of operating the 3 pillars should be your entire focus. And this is one of the hardest part.

It’s the whole process of startups finding product-market-fit.

So keep working, keep building, and find the proven three pillars for your biz idea. You only need one working for each pillar.

Once you’ve done that… congratulations! You’re very well on your way to reaching financial freedom.

But that’s just the first step.

Even after you get these three down, missing this next part could make your life a living hell.

the automation advantage

Here's where most people get stuck—and it's the most critical part.

I've seen countless entrepreneurs find their traffic source, nail their conversion process, and create a product people love.

They're making good money, maybe even hitting their financial freedom number.

But then they realize they're working 12-hour days, answering customer emails at midnight, manually processing orders, and essentially buying themselves a very expensive job.

At that point, they might as well just get a regular job—at least that comes with benefits and weekends off.

This is why automation isn't just nice to have—it's the most important part of building true financial freedom. Creating financial freedom requires automating your business so you can work on it, not in it.

Naval Ravikant identifies four forms of leverage: labor, capital, code, and media. In the AI age, we have unprecedented access to code and media leverage without needing massive teams or capital.

This is one of my biggest skill sets. I specialize in creating internal tools, SOPs and using AI, to automate business processes (I call it the companyOS).

And with recent technological improvements, automating operations has never been easier.

Once you've found product-market fit with your three pillars, the automation advantage is where you systematize everything:

How do you automate the traffic part? Marketing systems, content creation workflows, lead generation processes.

How do you automate the conversion part? Sales funnels, email sequences, customer onboarding systems.

How do you automate the product part? Delivery systems, customer success processes, support workflows.

My approach starts with technology and AI automations first, then automate everything else with people. When you create enough cash flow, you have capital to deploy. When you build systems and content, you have media leverage. When you automate intelligently, you multiply your capabilities without multiplying your headcount.

This is how you scale yourself rather than just scaling your business. And this is what turns a high-paying job into a true asset.

where's the ambition?

Awesome so with all that above, you’d have an asset that brings you financial freedom

But for those who are in it to “conquer the world”

I know what you're thinking: "This sounds like you're settling for small. Where's the ambition?"

Think of it this way…

If I can't drive a Ferrari (succeeding with moonshots), the worst case is driving a BMW (what my lifestyle business provides). Either way, I'm not walking.

Anyone who knows me personally would actually agree that I'm one of the most ambitious people they know. But I'm also very intentional in my approach.

I'd argue that this strategy is actually one of the most ambitious ways to approach business. Why? Because this approach gives me a firm foundation from which I can take big bets and high risks.

Most entrepreneurs are gambling with everything they have. I'm building a safety net so I can take even bigger gambles.

When I talk about ambition, I'm really talking about being able to express myself fully and take ideas that seem far-fetched and actually make them work in the real world—manifest them into reality.

When I say "conquering the world," I mean achieving true freedom for yourself. The world being yours—your time, your choices, your creative expression. That's what this whole plan is really about.

As I mentioned earlier, I see entrepreneurship as my canvas and art form. The ambition isn't just about making money but about creating things that matter, solving problems elegantly, and pushing the boundaries of what's possible—the money just becomes a scoreboard for how well designed what I’ve created (the biz) is.

With that said, I'm not trying to shoot rockets to space, I’m aware enough to know what I like and my limitations too lol

Now, don't get me wrong - I want to be stinking rich.

But I also value other parts of my life that are equally important. I know there's a price to pay to become the absolute best in business, but I'm self-aware enough to know that's not a price worth paying for me.

I'd rather be a millionaire with a six-pack than a billionaire with a giant gut. I want to stay balanced—have a family, train martial arts, keep my body as a weapon. Money is the scoreboard, but it's not the only game I'm playing.

Selfishly, all I really want is to optimize for flow states. I find myself losing track of time when I’m so compelled to the task at hand and the creation towards a goal is what does that for me.

What I enjoy is to create beautiful systems, products, writing, stuff. To have my visions and ideas come to life and to have others find value in my creations. I also love learning, engaging my curiosity and using that as fuel for my own creations.

They say we’re created in the image of God. And at it’s core, God is a creator. We’re created to be creators.

All that said, building a lifestyle biz is that first step of building something small that pays for a good life while giving me the learnings and skillsets— acting as the trampoline to launch into bigger more ambitious projects (conquering the world).

the multiplication plan

Speaking of building bigger paychecks and real wealth, building a lifestyle biz is inline with this optionality.

Build automated business → scale and optimize → sell for multiple of annual revenue → use proceeds to fund bigger ventures → repeat.

Each cycle increases both capital and capabilities. Each successful business becomes proof of concept for the next one.

Though, I'm not building businesses to flip them.

I'm building businesses I love that happen to be scalable and sellable.

The automation gives me options—I can hold onto cash-flowing assets or sell them to fund bigger ambitions.

This is where the automation becomes crucial. A business that runs without you is a business someone else will pay a premium for. That's how you turn cash flow into serious capital for your next venture.

This is exactly where my unique skill set becomes valuable—combining systems thinking with technology to create automated, scalable businesses.

If you're an entrepreneur with your three pillars but now you’re looking to automate so you can turn it into an asset, we can discuss systemizing and automation strategies, happy to talk shop.

https://makersguild.io/

my current reality

I'm not there yet, obviously. I'm still building, continuously developing my coding skills, refining my writing, testing ideas.

Naval Ravikant put it perfectly: "Learn to build, learn to sell, and you'll be unstoppable."

I'm a marketer by trade—I understand copywriting, funnels, and scalable selling systems. That's my foundation for selling. Now I'm continuously building on my coding skills, getting technically capable enough to execute ideas from zero to one without waiting for permission — especially with vibe coding.

I don't need to become a full-stack engineer, my partner handles that but I just want to demonstrate vision and validate markets myself, then bring in production-level talent for scaling.

To do this, I've set up weekly exercises and practices to build mastery in the two foundational skills I believe matter most: creating great products (coding) and communicating value (writing).

At the same time, I'm actively building my business, applying these skills in real time, learning through execution.

But I know where I'm going. This path aligns with who I am—someone who prefers creating over convincing, building over pitching, systematic progress over dramatic pivots.

I do believe too that projects I'm working on now have the potential to become much bigger than lifestyle businesses if I so choose.

the steps concluded

Let me break this down into simple steps for you:

1. Recognize your lifestyle number - How much do you actually need to live well?

2. Decide to create assets (since most of us can't buy them yet) - This means starting a business

3. Find a micro problem you can solve exceptionally well - Something that's a natural expression of yourself

4. Master the three pillars - Find one traffic source, one conversion mechanism, create one product. Keep it simple.

5. Work on these three things until you're making enough money to cover your lifestyle number

6. Automate everything - Turn your business into a true asset that works without you

From there, you have financial freedom. You have an asset generating passive income.

Not everybody wants to hit moonshots after that, and that's perfectly fine. I personally do, but I need to hit financial freedom first. The biggest payoff for most people reading this is simply achieving financial freedom itself.

Here's the mind shift that changes everything: people always talk about "I want to be rich, I want to be rich," but it's not really about being rich—it's about being financially free.

When you become specific about what that actually means, suddenly becoming "rich" becomes so much more achievable. The number gets smaller, the path gets clearer, and the timeline gets shorter.

You could do this. This is how I'm doing it.

You don’t need a million dollars to be rich.

You need one great asset that works harder than you do.

That’s the plan.

Let’s see if it works.

P.S. This is my hypothesis. I’m still early in the game, and I might be wrong. But this is the clearest path I’ve found so far. I'm happy for this to start a dialogue, especially with people who are already way past where I am and can shed light on what I might be missing.

And once again, the ideas shared here is primarily for the average person, the indie creator. Not the one who wants to build the next billion dollar company. But well if you are, I personally believe you’ll greatly benefit from following this playbook too.