I made > $1M more than once. For me it's always been building projects/startups and eventually exiting. I repeated the cycle and got lucky enough a few times.

I made > $1M more than once. For me it's always been building projects/startups and eventually exiting. I repeated the cycle and got lucky enough a few times. Interestingly, I always managed to get some kind of liquidity event for each of my projects. This is important IMO. ALWAYS try to get paid. Don't just "shut it down". Each liquidity event added at least a digit to the price. For example, I sold my first business when I was a teenager for 4 figures. Then sold a side project for 5 figures, then sold a business for 6, and then 7 figures. I always became more ambitious with my goals and I find that the learnings of each venture helped me move up the ladder to the next one. So don't get discouraged if you make just $500 or $5000 with your current project. Just use it as a stepping stone to the next one and try to figure out what you could have done differently for a 10x or 100x outcome. For example, for my 6 figure exit business, one of my biggest mistakes was that I focused on a market that was way too small with little room for growth (product was entirely in French, and it wasn't as easy as translating it to grow the market size). I made sure to never make this mistake again. I made other ones instead :)