Tai Lopez

Tai Lopez (born on April 11, 1977) is an American entrepreneur, investor, motivational speaker, and online personality based in Los Angeles, California. Since the summer of 2015, Tai has pervaded the internet with ideas and philosophy in achieving the good life.
Recognized for his influence in the field of self-help within the online business sector, Lopez initiated his path by utilizing Facebook as a marketing instrument as far back as 2008. His recognition surged following the circulation of a viral YouTube video in 2015, which was shot in his garage. In this video, he fervently championed the value of intellectual enrichment through books, contrasting it with material opulence like Lamborghinis. In 2016, Lopez extended his insights via Entrepreneur.com, expressing his support for emerging platforms like Instagram stories and Snapchat. He underscored their noteworthy impact, positioning them as significant tools for aspiring influencers, trailing only behind YouTube in terms of influence.
His contributions led to his recognition by Forbes as one of the Top Influencers in the Technology/Business category in 2017.
==Early Life==
Tai Lopez was born and raised in Long Beach, California with his mother and grandmother; his father was in prison growing up.
At 6 years old, he started his first small business was when he was 6 years old selling cherry tomatoes for his mother. After not being able to sell many of them, he opened a lemonade stand and earned a lot more.
==Personal Life==
Tai Lopez is a college drop out. He is a former worker at GE Capital. He is an owner of a nightclub business in Hollywood. He went on to become a Certified Financial Planner. He worked in the world of finance before becoming a founder, investor, Keynote Speaker, adviser, and mentor to more than 20 multi-million dollar businesses.
Lopez has a Youtube channel with more than 1 million subscribers, and more than 1 billion views. He currently lives in Hollywood Hills.
Tai claims he reads a book a day. He shares the books he reads on a daily book club platform that reaches more than a million people, making it one of the biggest book clubs in the world. 
Since making his presence known throughout Los Angeles amongst celebrities, he has been able to document his outings and activities often presenting a theme to his viewers related to self-improvement and success.
After reaching millions of viewers on all of his social media platforms, he has also connected with other experts in their own field such as celebrity trainers, yoga teachers, and so on, and practices with them, learning their techniques in the process. 
He enjoys playing basketball and collecting sneakers which he shares on social media. 
He also practices MMA with several prominent trainers.
As a teen, due to the immense amount of gang activity in his neighbourhood, he found it difficult to make friends. By the age of 16, he opted to gain knowledge and better his life. He began reading about Aristotle’s teachings on Nichomachean Ethics, particularly on the notion of how to live a happy and satisfying life. He wrote a letter to his grandfather - a scientist - seeking advice on the secret to living life, alluding to Aristotle's "Good Life." His grandfather responded saying that he could not help him because the modern world was too advanced for him and that one could never find answers from just one person. He said:
"Tai, the modern world is too complicated. You’ll never find all the answers from just one person. If you’re lucky, you’ll find a handful of people throughout your life who will point the way."
His grandfather sent him boxes of books for him to read on the subject, Tai began devouring through them.
After dropping out of college, much of what he would set out to do for the next ten years of his life consisted of steering himself towards finding the meaning of the "Good Life". Reading the books that were passed down from his grandfather, inspired him to continue reading until he decided he wanted to meet the people that he was reading about. And, after working odd jobs, he saved up enough money to travel to about 51 countries in an attempt to meet such authors. During his travels, he worked in a Leper colony in India. 
After returning to the United States, he lived with the Amish for over 2 years; he milked cows, along with other tasks. Tai has often shared the valuable experiences he had being with the Amish people.
After deciding to leave the work he was doing, he found himself broke without a place to live. He later moved in with his mother's mobile home in Clayton, North Carolina. With $47 in his pocket, he decided he wanted to learn how to turn that money into more money. Sleeping on the couch ordained by his mother, he thought about whether he had failed as someone with no college degree, money, or skills. 
Tai grabbed a yellow pages from the kitchen and inspected the finance section, and found a man named Mike. He decided to pay him a visit since he had the biggest ad in the section. He dressed up as well as he could and visited Mike. Tai told him that he is willing to work for free if the man teaches him and mentors him in what he knows about business and finance. The man agreed, and a fresh start in Tai's journey in learning further about his road to the Good Life ensued.
==Professional career==
Tai's initial growth in wealth came from his ownership in Elite Global Dating, LLC which he became an owner of around 2007. Now he does business mentorships online, inner circles, conferences and runs his "67 steps program". He also runs a podcast “The Grand Theory of Everything”.
In January 2015, Tai delivered a TED Talk at a United Business Institutes event. Entitled, "Why I read a book a day (and why you should too): the law of 33%," Lopez talks about how acquiring knowledge and ideas about the world by reading a book a day guides one to achieve the good life. He tells the story about his journey and how he maintains his passion for reading books as a way to leverage living in the modern world. 
In his 67 Steps Program, Tai simplifies the process of personal profit in his lessons as a way to be set free and create opportunities that can lead to a higher philosophical understanding of the "Good Life". The program is web-based with video lessons that are 30 minutes to an hour long. There is an interactive community of people where the individual posts and journals about the questions. Other users can make comments and also encourage each other.
Social Media Marketing Agency 2.0 is a training program that teaches how to start your an agency and get clients. The program consists of all of Tai's recent tactics for the major social media platforms, along with email and phone scripts designed to help grow a client base. The Social Media Marketing Agency 2.0 training program takes 4 months and also includes live coaching calls and access to past calls.
As of the publication by Protos on 16 August 2023, Tai Lopez's involvement with RadioShack had come to an end, marking a significant transition in his career. The article discusses the details surrounding his departure and sheds light on the evolving landscape of his professional endeavors in the crypto space.
==Career on YouTube==
In the early summer of 2015, Tai had placed a video ad on YouTube that targeted a massive audience. The video consisted of Tai showing off his Lamborgini inside of his garage as well as a giant bookcase covering the entire wall, filled with books. Tai gives a message about the dichotomies of material wealth and knowledge utilizing the luxury vehicle and the wall of books as examples. The ad drew a massive audience curious to find out more about Tai and the message that he is giving. He attracted both haters and fans since.
In an interview with Vice, Tai says the following about the message his attempting to provide his viewers by using a luxury car and giant bookcase with books: 
"I think it has an important message... it looks like it's about me showing off Lamborghinis, but that's what I call 'interruption marketing.' We see about a minimum of 2,000 ads a day in the modern world... I had no idea people would find it this interesting."
The video helped Tai expand his ideas and has since created a following where he was able to introduce his "67 Steps Program". The ads were viewed more than 60 million times. 
==Controversies==
Since the release of "Here in my garage" videos and ads that he has placed around YouTube about his mentorship in finance, knowledge, and so on, Tai has received criticism around the internet as a con man and scam artist for the portrayal of wealth.
There's also the skepticism from people who see Tai's transparency in his own personal life as a disingenuous act. Others have also deemed that his net worth, the mansions, and the luxury cars are not his real assets.
==Influences==
During an interview with Brad Lea, Lopez shared that his 3 books for success are Shut Up And Listen! by Tilman J. Fertitta, Evolutionary Psychology by David M Buss, and Total Recall, the biography of Arnold Schwarzenegger. He shared that he considers Tilman J. Fertitta to be his mentor.
==In the media==
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== References ==
Category:American entrepreneurs
Category:American investors
Category:American motivational speakers