First Million ATM Checks

Jesse Itzler shares a story about his excitement checking his bank balance daily after selling his first company for $1.5M at age 27.

"I had a million and a half dollars. I would go wake up at 8 and go to the ATM. I would get my printout of my balance. Then I would wake up the next morning and be like 'Are you kidding me? I have 300 more dollars than I had yesterday and I was sleeping!'

I'm like 'I'm going back to bed! Stop making me have money in bed!' My partner convinced me to take all $1.3 million that we both cleared after taxes and reinvested it to get exclusive deals. We reinvested it in the business and actually made the business a lot bigger and got our earn out.

But I had no idea how to manage money. My parents never talked about money - my dad owned a plumbing supply house, my mom raised 4 kids. I had no relationship with money. When I got money, I didn't know how to save it, how to spend it, how to use it, how to act around it. I was very immature around new money and I lost it because I didn't know anything about it. Fortunately I was able to bounce back through having other successful businesses."