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Early Life and Education
Nikk grew up in Selma, California and showed an interest in investing and business from a young age. When he was 18-years-old, Nikk Legend moved to New York for college to study business. After getting recruiting by every Ivy League and being the first person to go to college in his family he chose Cornell University.
Two weeks into college Nikk’s life was turned upside down. His best friend passed away and he “had an awakening where he realized that this life can be short and felt he had to make the most of it.” This thought stuck with him every single day, haunting him whenever he felt he wasn’t achieving to his real potential.
Later that year he experienced a terrible sports injury – he broke his rib, got 19 stitches in his lip and eventually was put in crutches for 8 months after a torn hamstring surgery. Despite the excruciating pain, he held on by remembering that he had to “make the most of every opportunity and committed to making the most of life”.
The recovery was difficult. He was in terrible pain and discomfort, and felt totally hopeless at points when he literally couldn’t move his body without assistance. The crazy part… Nikk was moments away from having the biggest breakthrough of his life – and he didn’t even know it yet.
“I find the people that become my best students, they always are at their breaking point right before they are ready to learn. Sometimes it takes pain and hardship to realize that a change is necessary.”
Nikk’s life was about to change forever. It was during his recovery from this injury that Nikk first learned about investing , business and trading, by stumbling upon some books on the subject.
He was totally fascinated by the subject of investing and trading immediately. Nikk like many others thought it was tough to get started investing, complicated, or required a lot of money – but as he read more and more books on the subject he realized a way he could make a huge contribution to the world. Nikk decided he would learn how to become the most effective teacher, make investing easy to learn, and find a way to teach people how to start with very little capital and still get incredible results.
Within a year he’d found some top traders and learned from them, and starting making profits on his own. Nikk realized his real purpose and burning desire that drove him was to do something big that could impact as many people as possible, and shift the economic landscape of the world. He still holds this purpose today, and it’s apparent in every single thing he does.
To hone his skill of investing and realize his dream of teaching others, Nikk decided to drop out and focus full-time on making this dream a reality. He was making big profits now and very consistently, but it wasn’t about his own success – he needed to find a way to make it simple and teach others how to make big profits too.
“When you hear the word ‘investing’ many people are instantly turned off. They think it requires a lot of money to start, or it’s complicated, or that they aren’t smart enough. This is all false data and limiting beliefs, and my mission is to help break through those in my new students and teach them to get results fast.”
By starting with a small group of his closest friends and family, Nikk began teaching his exact skills and strategies as an experiment. Sure enough, the results started pouring in. He was surprised by how fast he was able to teach his first students how to make big profits. One of his top students from the early few was actually his own brother, Jon.
And here’s where it gets crazy.
Nikk realized he was on to something. Once his friends and family started seeing profits and changing their lives, Nikk decided to open his education up to the world. He created his own Academy and began offering courses to the public. As students poured through the doors begging to learn his secrets – Nikk consistently worked on improving his craft and making his education better.
Now Nikk spends his time running his Academy from his Beverly Hills office, helping others make profits, and investing his time and money back into his own education so that he can be the best teacher possible.
‘Can you tell me the story of your prior successes, challenges, and major responsibilities?
Wow! Where do I even begin? Well it all started with how I grew up. My family was lower middle class, and I always wanted more out of life. I didn’t have the money, connections, or powerful friends to get me jobs and opportunities – I had to go out into the world and take them for myself.
Like so many others I was sold the dream of “go to school, get good grades, and go to a good college.” So in high school I focused on escaping my small town in California and making it to the best college possible. And I actually did it! I got accepted to an Ivy League school and immediately packed up all of my belongings and moved there.
But here’s the crazy part…
Many people would say I “made it” but what I realized when I arrived at Ivy League was this: the classroom, even the best classrooms in the world, didn’t have the education I needed or wanted. I wanted to learn how to make money and be financially secure for life. I wanted to donate to causes I supported, help my family, and even enjoy some of the luxuries of life by having a lot of money. College wasn’t going to get me there.
So I dropped out. And as luck would have it, I found one mentor who would go on to change my life forever.
My Dad told me about a huge entrepreneur who was hiring. He was worth hundreds of millions (now billions) and his name was Grant Cardone. I immediately dropped everything and drove directly to his office (it was over 2000 miles away across the country) and interviewed for a job. I knew Grant had the information I needed because he’d built an incredible real estate and investing portfolio, and had made tremendous amounts of money in the process.
He was a very successful serial entrepreneur, but more importantly he had the right perspective on money and taught me the right mindset to handle it, control it and expand it.
Well, he must have like me because he offered me the job. And after a year of working my way up to a sales and marketing consultant in the company I felt it was my time to leave and pursue my goals. I made a commitment to learn how to day trade and wanted to build my own company in the process.
If you’re reading this right now, the big takeaway is that you need to find someone that has what you want – and do everything it takes to get around them. Learn from them. Study them. All of the most successful people on earth have mentors that push them and help them achieve more. Grant did that for me, and what he taught me about how to handle and control money has changed my life totally. I’ve used all of his principles and more in building my company – and most importantly, I’ve been able to teach so many people how to do the exact same!
‘Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?’
Great question! Life can be tough, and I know a lot of my students (myself included) have gone through some VERY tough times financially. To be honest there’s been points where my bank account was negative, I was sleeping in my car, sleeping in my office and I wasn’t sure how I was going to pay my bills. The overwhelming and hopeless feeling of credit card debt and bills piling up was exhausting and terrifying.
I thought about giving in. Not paying my credit cards, giving up on the dream, the lifestyle that I wanted. I would look myself in the mirror and feel so unhappy because I had a vision of who I wanted to be and what I wanted to have out of life, and I felt like I was letting myself down. It was one of these exact moments where I realized I needed to make a change. I simply decided I would make my dreams a reality, and decided that NOTHING would stop me – no matter what!
You’ll hear some crazy successful people, hundred millionaires and billionaires, talk about how it all starts with your mind. When you have debts, worries, and bills it’s very easy to get consumed by the negativity and pressure of the situation. The funny part is though, the world’s most successful people usually always have a crazy story of hardship – and then an even crazier success story once they overcame the odds.
Do whatever it takes to be successful. Even if the walls are closing in on you and you feel hopeless and trapped, I guarantee you will be able to get through it and create the life you want. I’ve helped so many people make profits from scratch, and I’ve even experienced this first hand. It’s time to take control of your life!
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