The Only Skill You Need to Make Money in 2026
If you want to make more money this year, there’s one skill that, if you master it, will easily make you more money than mastering sales, marketing, or AI ever could. And I’ve been able to master this skill over 30 years in business by going from a broke 24-year-old to now building a $100 million a year AI venture studio and getting opportunities daily that I never thought were possible.
The Skill Is Building Relationships
The skill is building relationships, and it can make you a ton of money. But there are four reasons why you need to master this skill that, if you understand, will almost guarantee your success.
Reason Number One: Steel Sharpens Steel
What I think people don’t invest enough in is relationships. I flew 3,000 miles to go meet somebody I care deeply about for 28 minutes.
Even seeing Lewis, like he’s a very old friend. I’ve known Lewis for 12 years. You know, he just had his twins, and he’s somebody I adore and like. Look, if he wants to do the pot, I’d love to. And I just want to see Lewis. You know, Rob’s the same thing. It’s like last time I saw Rob, we were supposed to hang out for an hour and talk about his new software company.
And 4 hours later, we forgot to go to dinner and, you know, talk like two college friends that hadn’t seen each other in a while, right?
The best relationships are the ones where you feel like you’ve got a lot to learn, and also you can contribute to the ways you make money. The skills you have get multiplied immediately when you build the right relationships.
Learning and Supporting Each Other
I have so many stories that it’s hard for me to choose which ones I want to share. Someone who we really like consuming their content is a guy by the name of Taki Moore. And I know that you’re quite close with him, one of my best friends.
I have a lot of love for Taki. I wouldn’t be teaching people if it weren’t for Taki. As a software guy, I’ve always built software companies. I’m a software guy. And then the best relationships you can have are people that not only can you learn from, but you can also support.
I brought Taki in 8 years ago to just help me formulate the frame. Like, I didn’t know any of that stuff, the IP stuff. How do you do the YouTube stuff and all that? About two years ago, Taki hired me as his coach.
That’s hilarious. But you need to understand our relationship. Like we’re homies. I mentioned him in my book. Like steel sharpened steel. Like, we’re still like these two school kids just being like, “Hey bro, what are you up to? Look at this.” And like we just banter.
Reason Number Two: It Pays to Be Intentional
See, most people treat relationships like it’s a soft skill. It’s something you do, like a nice-to-have. It’s not. The relationships you have shape who you become, whether you realize it or not.
What I’ve always admired about Lewis is that it took me a while to appreciate and actually double down on is the personal brand. Lewis was one of the first people to hire a professional photographer to do photography for his website 10 years ago. We’re walking around Toronto, and we can’t go a block without him getting stopped.
I like people who bring different perspectives. I’ve always been pro-photos and New York City with that guy. I was like, you were early, man. People had blogs. It was like templates, and then Lewis launches his blog, and it’s like, all right, bro, are you a pro model? What are we doing here, man? It’s like a lifestyle shot.
People come into your life to show you what’s possible. I know you do that for everybody who follows. That is what you’re here to do.
God-Sized Goals and Turning Points
So I’m hanging out with him. This is not long ago, maybe four years ago. And we’re talking, and I’m just blown away by him at his event. He’s just such a great person, and I asked him, I said, “How do you do it?” You know, he goes, “Oh, it’s I didn’t, I didn’t know I’d do any of this.”
And then he tells me something that just shifted everything. And he talked about the biggest impact. He says, “I have goals that are God-sized goals.” And they’re so big, they’re beyond my ability to know how to do them. And they’re so big that it’s the ceiling of his floor.
How did that impact my life? Oh, I was under-indexing. I was thinking small. I didn’t have God-sized goals.
It was a core moment that I realized that happened to get me to the point where I can have this conversation to then take the brakes off.
Lewis and I have known each other since 2009. Two guys are still figuring it out. And I watched him for 15 years build the school of greatness, write the books, build the brand, the mission.
He didn’t do that by being the smartest person in the room. He did it by being intentional about who he was learning from. That’s literally the premise of this entire show. That’s the master skill in action. It’s not a single lesson. It’s that the right relationship compounds across everything you’re already building.
Reason Number Three: There Is a Real Cost to Not Investing in Relationships
Do you think there’s an actual cost to not investing in relationships?
Yeah. The wrong people will take you out faster than any other decision in your life. Being with the wrong person at the wrong place at the wrong time can get you thrown in jail.
That’s in a life context. In a business context, the person who’s always getting sued, guess what? Give it enough time, and you’ll be on the receiving end of that. The people around you set the invisible ceiling on what feels normal. So, if everyone in your circle thinks 200,000 is crushing it, guess what? 200,000 feels like enough.
Most people aren’t surrounded by bad people. They’re surrounded by limited people.
The Power of High-Performing Circles
Think about that. I can’t think of a better example of that than when we were in Dallas at the book meetup in this awesome warehouse filled with literally millions of dollars of supercars with a bunch of CEOs and high performers who didn’t feel limited.
At that event, there was a 12-year-old boy who came up to me at the very end to ask this cool question. And I know for a fact that being in that circle is going to make him money, not cost him.
The question he asked is, if you’re 12 years old and you want to be successful, what would you focus on for the next 12 months? The fact that he asked that question is a reason why he’s going to win.
The fact that you asked a question is all I need to know. I’m buying his stock. The good news is—you’ve already made it.
Pressure’s off. If you’re trying to optimize it, get around other people like the people in this room.
There’s a reason why everybody drives to come here instead of doing something with their friends, watching a sports game, going to a bar, or just deciding to lie down and scroll. They didn’t do that. They showed up for this room. So, the people in this room are self-selecting, being driven, motivated, having vision, and want to be better. That’s rare.
But dude, you’re 12. I want you to be so rich. Every adult in this room wonders why they sat on their hands instead of going all in on it. Cuz trust me, they will. Most people’s mind is baked at 27. So, if you’re above 27, you have to work harder. He’s 12. He’s perfect. The malleable.
So, dude, get in there. Be the guy they all turn to for advice, and you’re going to crush life.
Reason Number Four: It’s Not Who You Know, It’s Who Knows You
Networking used to be cold emails, awkward events, and picking brains. The truth is that it feels like work. It’s exhausting. It’s slow. You waste a lot of time, and it doesn’t scale.
Networking now is simple. Make content, add value, and relationships and opportunities come to you.
The Supercar Warehouse, that’s Tactical Fleet in Dallas, Texas. And the reason we were there is that the owner reached out. So, we’re flying into Dallas for a speaking thing.
This guy on Instagram messaged me. He’s like, “Hey man, I see you’re coming to Dallas. Need a drive.” And I look at his profile. It’s a supercar dealership. And I’m like, “Uh, I’m I think I’m good, but what do you got?” He’s like, “What do you like?” I said, “I like a Rolls-Royce with a Mandarin orange interior.”
He goes, “I actually have one of those.” I said, “Bet. Pick me up at the airport.” And he rolled up on the tarmac, and that’s how I met Chris.
Every DM from someone who wants to work with you, that’s your platform doing the networking while you sleep.
Think about it. Did the effort to post a video that’s being seen by 14 million people? Is it any different than 140? No. You put it out. You didn’t chase the next relationship. It came to you not because of who you know, but because of who knows you.
How Opportunities Come to You
At the end of every year, I always look at my goals, and then I write down relationships that I would love to create that would help the goals. And I wrote Rob’s name on there.
I don’t know Rob. Obviously, I had a few mutual friends, but I wrote his name down. I’m in my office one day, and I get a text message. Hey Dan, it’s Rob Deard. I’m like, shut up.
If you don’t know who he is, he’s the founder of Street League skateboarding, and you’ve probably seen him on TV shows like Fantasy Factory, Ridiculousness, or Wild Grinders. On top of being a 20-time world record holder, he also runs a venture studio where he’s building an app called existence.io.
He read your book, and it really helped me with my software. And then he said, in that book you mentioned buyback your time, and I’m a time guy. So then I read that book, and then he reached he texted me. He said, “I got your number from a friend, so if you’re ever in LA, let me know.”
I’d love to chat.”
I recorded a video right away and said, “Hey Rob, thanks for reaching out. I’ve got a skateboard behind my desk—I used to skate, so it feels natural to me.”
I’ve known about Rob for two decades, and then one day the tables turned because of the content, and he reached out to me. So now, when I’m in LA, we always get together. He inspires the out of me, man. His brain is awesome.
Invest in Relationships with Time and Money
My favorite story is to tell you that you would come all the way out there. And that’s what it feels like when you get it right. You lose track of time. You forget dinner, you walk away thinking, “We need to do that again.” That’s what happens when the right people find you.
But here’s where most people stop. They get the connection, and they don’t invest in it.
Invest in your relationship with time, yes, but put some money behind it. Buy the plane ticket. Show up for the event. Host the dinner. Invite the people. Put yourself out there actively, intentionally.
You’ve got to put people on your goals list because the relationships that will change your life don’t maintain themselves. You need to keep choosing them again and again.
Reinvest, show up, be there.
Showing Up Fully Changes Everything
I used to keep relationships almost transactional, right? Surface level because it was safe. I curated how I showed up. I didn’t disclose too much. But when I started showing up fully, showing up as me, and then organizing my own trips, hosting my own dinner, flying across the country just to be in the same room as somebody to celebrate them because I admire them.
The quality of relationships and the opportunities that came from showing up that way completely changed.
Having John as somebody that I can message and text and ask for life advice, it feels like I’m wearing a cape. It gives me a superpower because I can be bolder. I can take a risk because I have him as a buddy.
The Power of Genuine Investment
Some things you just can’t plan for. You can’t engineer them. You can’t time them. They only happen because you take a chance and you invest in a person genuinely, consistently, with no specific outcome in mind.
And then one day, that relationship might hand you something you could have never prepared for.
The book writing, stay right with it because man, those are markers. Those are markers in your life. And the more that you put those markers down, it starts to compound in a different way. It really does.
John is my spirit animal. He’s written 92 books. He is the goat. He has more energy than most 18-year-olds. He’s smart, kind, and sometimes a bit too generous with others.
The people who are going to win are the ones who understand that their relationships, who know them, how they’re talked about, their personal brand, being out there is the highest form of leverage.
Make sure that people are the number one investment you make this year outside of AI.
