This document contains a summary of 45 key lessons from the book "The Dream" by Gurbaksh Singh Chahal. Some of the main lessons include: surround yourself with people who want you to succeed; start a business providing an existing product or service but committed to being better than competitors; chase substance over money; own your mistakes and don't look for someone to blame; and success is about finding your passion and making it happen better than anyone else.

1. “The Dream -
Key Lessons
from the world’s
youngest self-
made millionaire”

2. Personal Details – “G”
$ Name: Gurbaksh Singh Chahal
$ Known as: “G”
$ DOB: July 17, 1982
$ Profession: American entrepreneur, author, TV personality, motivational
speaker, and self made multi-millionaire
$ Education Qualification: High School (drop out)
$ First Company: Started his first venture, ClickAgents (On December 15, 1998 at
the age of 16). Sold the company for $40 Million at the age of 17.
$ Second Venture: Started BlueLithium (on January 12, 2004 at the age of 22).
Sold the company $300 million in cash to yahoo on October 15, 2007.
$ Third Venture: formed gWallet, a virtual currency platform for social
media, in September 2009.
$ Website: www.chahal.com

3. The Dream
• This is the most interesting book on management
lessons and an biography, I have ever read.
• I have already recommended this book to everyone in
my network.
• In order to spread the key lessons from the book, I tried
to put them into this presentation.
Hope you will enjoy them, but
still recommend you to read
the book too!!!

4. Always surround yourself with people who want you to
succeed. That seems simple on surface, but when you
get out there, in the real world, you will discover that
most people are rooting for you to fail.
STAY AWAY FROM THEM”
Lesson 1
Source: www.stmarksonthemesa.org

5. Lesson 2
Whatever you do, wherever you are, never forget that
GOD IS WATCHING.
Source: Flickr

6. Lesson 3
People tend to think that in order to start a new
business they have to come up with something new
and dazzling, but that’s a myth – and it’s often
propagated by venture capitalists.
A company can be similar to the competition as long
as it has the right people and right leadership, as long
as IT IS COMMITTED TO BEING BETTER THAN ALL THE
OTHER PLAYERS.

7. • One don’t need to start a company with a new idea. In
fact, if you start with something that‘s too different,
people might have doubts about your untested model. It
might be a brilliant idea, and you model could very well
be ahead of its time, but if the investors can’t relate to it
there’s a good chance you‘re not going to get funded.
• It is advisable to work with something they understand,
then turn it into the model you envisioned in the first
place.
Lesson 4
• It’s a mistake to try to REINVENT THE
WHEEL when you’re coming out of the
gate. Start slow and steady, get to parity,
then innovate.

8. Lesson 5
Never do anything for money – or, at least, solely for
money. Of course, one want to make money, but if
that’s the only goal, it will adversely affect all of your
decisions. They will be colored by greed.
SO DON’T LET MONEY DEFINE THE BEGINNING OF THE
JOURNEY; MAKE MONEY THE RAINBOW THAT COMES
AT THE END.

9. Lesson 6
If you genuinely want something, don’t wait for it –
teach yourself to be impatient.
PATIENCE MAY WELL BE A VIRTUE, BUT IMPATIENCE
HAS ALWAYS WORKED BETTER FOR PEOPLE.

10. The biggest lessons come from
the biggest mistakes. Never put
yourself in a position of
vulnerability.
ALWAYS OWN YOUR MISTAKES
Lesson 7

11. Don’t tell people what they ask you, tell them what
they need to hear to FALL IN LOVE WITH YOU.
Lesson 8

12. Don’t chase the money. Chase substance.
If you have substance, the MONEY WILL FOLLOW.
Lesson 9

13. FIX THING BEFORE IT
BREAKS,
rather than don’t fix
it if it’s not broken.
Lesson 10

14. DON’T BE JEALOUS.
Jealousy is one of the most useless emotions on the
planet.
Lesson 11

15. Some people are like crabs. If they can’t get over the
wall, they will PULL YOU DOWN TO KEEP YOU FROM
CLIMBING OVER.
Lesson 12

16. • Most people think that they need to know exactly
what they want to do when they start a business,
but they’re wrong. If you go into something with a
very specific plan. You might be so focused on your
goal that you would not see the PROMISING
OPPORTUNITIES that present themselves as you
make your way along.
Lesson 13
•Take the blinders off. Look around. Don’t be
afraid to go off on all sorts of unusual
directions, since that’s where you might just
find the MOST INTERESTING – AND
PROMISING – OPPORTUNITIES.

17. Being cheap is good for the
company and for the
stakeholders, but don’t be too
cheap.
NEVER BE CHEAP WITH YOUR
EMPLOYEES. If one of them is a
rock star, pay him or her a rock
star salary.
Lesson 14

18. • Failure is not an option. Anyone who even enterains
the idea of failure is already doomed. Whenever you
set out to do something, large or small, you have to
believe in your heart that it’s going to happen, and
you have to keep moving toward the goal.
Lesson 15
• It’s really all about forward movement –
like riding a bicycle. If you’re standing still,
it’s not easy to keep your balance, but if
you’re moving forward, there’s nothing to
it. That holds true for business and for life.
So KEEP MOVING FORWARD.

19. Learn to move on when it’s
time to move on. Bite the
bullet. Let go. START FRESH.
Don’t look back. It’s not as
easy as it sounds, but make
the effort – it’s worth it.
Lesson 16

20. DON’T LOSE YOUR MORAL
BAROMETER.
•Lies and obfuscation might
give you short-term success,
but they make for very
unstable relationships.
•Never compromise your
morality. We all need to live
by a moral code.
Lesson 17

21. CRITICISM is the best form of
discipline because it makes you
look at yourself.
Lesson 18

22. If you’ve got nothing to
hide – and you should
never have anything to
hide – DON’T SWEAT
THE PROCESS.
Lesson 19

23. He who knows when
HE CAN FIGHT AND WHEN
HE CAN NOT,
will be victorious.
Lesson 20

24. • If the company had $200 million in the bank, money it
could have been investing in manpower, products and
technology – but everyone was so risk-averse that they
refused to touch it. When you have $200 million in cash
available, you should be doing something with it, not
simply enjoying the interest you’re collecting.
• The interest on that chunk of change for the company’s
operation, and then some, of course but it wasn’t
growing the company. Instead, the company was
stagnating.
Lesson 21
SITTING ON YOUR MONEY IS NOT A
STRATEGY; IT’S AN ABSENCE OF
STRATEGY.

25. LISTEN TO YOUR HEART.
We tend to do well at
things we love, so find
something you love – or
learn to love what you’re
doing.
Lesson 22

26. Forget noble motivations. Success comes from wanting
to win, so you’ve got to want it bad – you really need
that killer instinct. At the end of the day, no matter
what they say, it’s not about how you play the game,
but about winning.
WINNING IS NOT EVERYTHING. IT’S THE ONLY THING.
(Vince Lombardi, American football coach)
Lesson 23

27. ADJUST YOUR ATTITUDE.
Without the right attitude, you’ll
never succeed. You have to
believe in yourself, often to the
point of madness, because until
you prove yourself the only
people who believe in you are
your parent. If you have any
doubts, get out now.
Lesson 24

28. FIGURE OUT WHAT YOU’RE GOOD AT. Very few of us
are gifted, so we need to work with the gifts we have.
If you’re five-foot-two and you love basketball, let me
be the first to tell you. Its’ probably not going to
happen (but don’t let me to stop you.)
Lesson 25

29. TRUST YOUR GUT.
We are complicated creatures.
That inexplicable feeling you get
sometimes – well, it tends to be
right a lot more often then it is
wrong. Try not to over analyse it.
Some mysterious inner you is
trying to help by pointing you in
the right direction.
Lesson 26
Yes Yes
Yes
NO

30. DO YOUR HOMEWORK. BEFORE YOU START
ANYTHING, make sure you know exactly what you’re
getting into. Ignorance is dangerous. What you don’t
know can and will hurt you.
Lesson 27
Source: www.mrsfredashistory.com

31. Be frugal. The only person YOU NEED TO IMPRESS IS
YOURSELF, and you’ll be impressed by success.
When it comes to staffing your company, however,
don’t be frugal. Find the right people for the right jobs,
and pay them what they’re worth. We all love and
need rock stars.
Lesson 28

32. DON’T EXPECT PERFECTION from yourself or others,
but never stop striving for it, and try to inspire others
to strive for it too.
Lesson 29

33. LEARN TO LISTEN. Everyone has an opinion, and
everyone is entitled to an opinion, and even wrong-
headed opinions can open your eyes to things you
might otherwise have missed.
So listen, even to people you disagree with – and may
be to them more than others. Then process what
you’ve heard and have the courage of your convictions.
Lesson 30
Source: www.zazzle.com

34. Own your mistakes. At the end of the day, every
decision you make, even if it was inspired by misguided
advice, is your decision.
Lesson 31
NOBODY WINS WHEN YOU
START LOOKING FOR
SOMEONE TO BLAME.
Let it go. Keep moving.
Forward movement is
everything.

35. Never lose sight of the competition.
While you’re playing, someone else is
working and catching up, so learn to
play with one eye on the competition.
YOU’RE NOT GOING TO BE ON TOP
FOREVER.
Lesson 32
Source: ww.rblewis.net

36. DON’T PROCRASTINATE.
Procrastination is just
another work for wanting to
fail. If you’re not hungry
enough, if you’re too lazy to
move forward, you’re never
going to get anywhere.
Lesson 33

37. Don’t’ do anything by half measures. Remember:
MEDIOCRITY IS FOR LOSERS.
Lesson 34

38. ALWAYS NEGOTIATE FROM A POSITION OF STRENGTH.
If you need something from the other guy, you’ve
already lost. People want what they can’t have.;
become the thing people want.
Lesson 35
Source: www.salestrainingeearning.co.uk

39. EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED.
If you’re ready for anything,
you’ll still be unpleasantly
surprised – but at least you’ll get
through it.
Lesson 36

40. PERCEPTION IS REALITY.
What they see is more important
than what is, so show them what
they want to see and tell them
what they want to hear.
Lesson 37

41. Don’t get emotional.
LOGIC AND EMOTIONAL
DON’T MIX.
Lesson 38
Source: mountcope.wordpress.com

42. BE FEARLESS.
The road to success is paved
with failures. If you’re afraid
to fail, you’ll never succeed.
Lesson 39
Source: schoolnet.gov.mt

43. PICK YOUR BATTLES.
The fighting never really
ends. Don’t let the
meaningless skirmishes sap
your strength; you are in
this to win the war.
Lesson 40

44. Grow a thick skin – a very thick skin. People will
question your ability to succeed and the loudest
among them might make you doubt your own talents,
so you’ll need a thick skin to drown out the noise.
THE SILENCE WILL HELP YOU FOCUS ON YOUR
OBJECTIVE, AND YOU WILL PREVAIL.
Lesson 41

45. TAKE CHANCES. Without risk, there is no reward. But
make sure it’s intelligent risk.
Only a fool bets against Tiger Woods (until it is time to
bet against Tiger Woods)
Lesson 42

46. When you commit, you really have to commit.
BECOME UNSTOPPABLE AND DON’T QUIT.
Lesson 43

47. There is no need to reinvent the
wheel.
You simply need to find out that
CAPTURED YOUR IMAGINATION,
and then you figured out how to
do it better than the next guy.
Lesson 44
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/terva/2072247720/

48. SUCCESS IS REALLY ABOUT MAKING IT HAPPEN.
It’s about dreaming. It’s about finding that one thing
you love above all others and then figuring out how to
do it better than anyone else.
Lesson 45