App Millionaire Success Story | Chad Mureta

One night in 2009, Chad Mureta,

 a real estate agent from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina was driving down the interstate in Charlotte, North Carolina on his way back home from a basketball game. It was his first vacation day in two years.

As he drove, with just his thoughts for company, his mind drifted to earlier in the evening when he observed others at the game happily socializing, and realized something was seriously amiss with this own life.

Eighteen-hour days at his real estate office had taken its toll: he was miserable, disconnected from family and friends, and with the housing bubble-bust, his finances were in dire straits.

I need to make a change, he thought, but how? 

In the very next instant, out of seemingly nowhere, a deer crossed his path and in an attempt to avoid it, his car hit a median and flipped over four times.

Two lives came to an end that night.

The deer died on impact and while Chad did survive, his old life, as he knew it, was over.

Chad’s Life Update

You’ve probably never heard of Chad Mureta before, but chances are you’ve used one of his apps – Emoji [the app that gives you access to funny, smiley faces] and FingerPrint Security Pro are just some of his creations that have been downloaded, in total, 50 million times.

But Chad isn’t the regular tech geek who slaved away in his dorm room: for one, he doesn’t have the technical skills, and, he really did start his multi-million dollar app empire from his hospital bed.

While recovering from his accident in hospital and in excruciating pain, doctors told him that it was a miracle he survived, but his dominant arm would need to be amputated.

“That’s when I lost all hope. In my mind, at that moment, there was no reason to live – I had lost everything. I didn’t know if I was going to get my arm back, didn’t have anything to look forward to. I thought life was bad before the accident, and now this…”

How then did Chad Mureta go from 6 months in hospital and another 6 months at a rehabilitation center, $100,000 in debt with medical bills, to making not just a full recovery but millions in just over two years?

“The universe has an interesting way of showing up when you ask for it,” he says now.

“The day before my accident, in the mail I got an iPod for the first time – it was a gift from my ex-girlfriend and actually it arrived several months late. So, I took the package along with me on my trip. The day of my accident, in Charlotte, I saw a Best Buy, and it was a spur of the moment decision. I thought, I have this iPod, maybe I could exchange it for an iPhone. I had never thought of apps before.”

As it turned out, Chad’s iPhone was the only thing to survive the accident.

“When I was in hospital with my clothes cut in a million pieces, there was my iPhone next to me with 12 percent battery life. And then my friend visited me in hospital and showed me an article about this new gold rush – apps.”

It was a serendipitous moment: with his mind at its lowest point, it all came together. “I have this iPhone here, I got an opportunity,” he told himself.

But there were a few obstacles, least of all his lack of capital to fund any new venture.

Creating an app empire from his hospital bed

“I had no real computer experience. To this day, I don’t like being on the computer. It’s hard for me to type. I couldn’t stand that. But, I saw it being a new opportunity that could work out.”

During his first few days in hospital, while in a highly medicated state, he noticed ER doctors going through his iPhone. He started to think about phone security. Later, with hours to wile away as he recovered from operation after operation to save his arm [doctors would eventually put his arm back together with a titanium rod], he passed the time by downloading apps, playing around with them, studying what worked, what didn’t.

“I stared at this phone and looked at these apps and started to understand why they were successful.  I started reverse engineering their success – their marketing, the way they were doing things, and asked myself why I would download them.”

Soon, he hit upon an idea for a fingerprint security app that he sketched out on a piece of paper with much the same simplicity as a child’s stick drawing (he had to use his less dominant arm), and passed it over to a developer he’d found online.

With no coding and technical experience, he recognized that his strength was being the creative and business mind behind the venture. “I realized that I could be the business owner and outsource the development and design to others; that I didn’t need to reinvent the wheel and teach myself these new skills.”

The quote he received for development of his app idea was $1,800 – money he didn’t have, so he asked his step-dad whether he could put it on his credit card.

“It was a total ‘Hail Mary’ shot.”

In less than three months after conceiving his idea, the app was submitted to the App Store.  “I had no idea what I was doing. It was a complete surprise it did as well as it did.”

In the first month Chad made $12,000, recouping his initial investment several times over.

“I thought, wow, okay there is hope. This is great. This is amazing. Game on! I’m gonna take this to a whole new level.”

Within six weeks, he had six more apps in development.

The Fingerprint-Security app meanwhile, would eventually go on to make $620,000 for its creator, before he sold it on.

Two months after launching his company, one of his apps averaged $30,000 a month cash flow. Later, the company’s income reached $120,000 in one month.  In two years, he created and sold three app companies, raking in millions.

“Life can be a magical carpet ride and it can change in just a moment,” he says. “One single thing can change everything.”

Chad credits his success to having a game plan. “80% of business is the psychology of the business owner and 20% is the skillset. If you have the psychology, you can get the skillset.”

As with anything in life – whether you want to create a successful app or business, to make the giant leap from nothing to something requires a few fundamentals. Get this right, and you’re almost assured some level of success.

1. Get your Psychology Together

This is key for anyone who is at a particularly low point and wants to turn their life around.

While recovering in hospital, Chad devoured motivational and inspirational books such as Tony Robbins’ Get The Edge and Tim Ferris’ Four Hour Workweek.  This helped him change his thought patterns from someone with no hope to someone primed for success. “When you shift your core beliefs, you shift your outcome,” he says.

Have an abundant mindset

* “Take baby steps. Work on developing a winning mindset – there are opportunities out there. If you are making ends meet, your mind goes to scarcity and you don’t see opportunities. And even if people do see the opportunities, they may feel they don’t have the money or time.”

* “There are always things you can do to create the life you want by making sure your mind is positive, by understanding that things can change in a moment.  The technology right now is incredible – you can do one thing and change your blue print.”

* “Where you are and where you want to be – be consistent in closing that gap. The happier you are, the better you will be conditioned to attract what you want to attract.”

Make positive affirmations a part of your daily routine

Every day for one hour at a time, Chad would practice positive affirmations.  He’d say over and over to himself that he was an app millionaire – before he even had a successful app on the market.

“I’d say my incantations – whatever I wanted, I would say it as if it was real.”

Well, we know how that worked out…

Know your why

* “Show me people with a big enough reason why they want to accomplish something, and I can assure you, it’s only a matter of time before it becomes a reality.”

* “You need to remain constantly motivated, you need the juice, because when you hit a wall, you’ll keep going back and find a way to figure your way around it.”

* “Whenever I came across a barrier, I would smash it out like a ninja. I would say ‘No, I’m going to make money. I’m an app millionaire. And I’m not going to let anything get in my way.’ That gave me the strength.”

2. Understand the Market

* Let the market guide you to the idea. The marketplace will tell you what’s hot. “A lot of people who want to develop an app, have the idea that leads. They think, ‘I have this idea that’s going to be incredible or I’m going to invent this.’  And it should be the complete opposite.”

* Learn from the marketplace: “With the App store, you already have the market intelligence: you have the data in front of you, so you know what works. Go in, grab, reverse engineer or get familiar with apps, what works and how to add our own flavor to it.”

* “The more time you spend with apps, the better you’ll understand the common traits of successful apps and what users are looking for. The more you think like the customer, the greater your success will be.”

* “You need to become an app addict if you want to be a successful supplier,” says Chad. He still regularly downloads the top 20 apps and studies them closely.  “This mindset has been the lifeblood of my success.”

* Another major tip for aspiring appreneurs: “Do a lot of market research before you share your idea – most people rush in too fast.”

3. Don’t Hate. Emulate.

In other words, see what the successful ones are doing and then try to find a way to do it better.

“Some of the greatest app ideas are improvements on an existing app or a twist on an old idea, taking it in a fresh, new direction,” says Chad.

Emoji, one of his most successful apps, downloaded 20 million times, was developed by applying this very principle.

“First, I took a close look at what the market offered and downloaded all the major emoticon apps. I liked what I saw, but noticed that there was a lack of variety and limited functionality. I wondered how I could improve upon these existing apps, given that the Emoji keyboard had a limited number of emoticons that couldn’t be increased. I was also curious how profitable these apps could be if they were only being used once.

I kept brainstorming until it hit me. I couldn’t add more emoticons to the Emoji keyboard, but I could include unlimited emoticons within my app that people could send as images via text message or email.

I created an app that not only enabled the Emoji keyboard, but also contained an additional 450 emoticons within the app itself, which could be shared via text, e-mail, Facebook, and so on. The app was used constantly since users had to return to the app to send an emoticon.”

 4. Strive To Form a Mastermind Group

There is some wisdom through the ages behind this. “All the so-called geniuses,” wrote Napoleon Hill, “probably gained their reputations because, by mere chance or otherwise, they formed alliances with other minds, enabling them to ‘step up’ their own mind vibrations.”

Perhaps counter-intuitively for any start-up entrepreneur, Chad reached out to his potential competitors (other indie developers) and formed bonds. “I sought out people who were better than me and offered value in a different way [this worked both ways]. This was a huge component of why I was successful.”

“It’s like having a work out partner – it really elevated my game.”

5. Cultivate A Healthy Body And Mind

“If you want a lesson in success, start with the right ingredients. Living optimally is a fundamental building block to your success,” he says.

Chad starts his day by drinking a very potent ‘athletic greens’ juice, which he says gives him all the nutrition that his body needs – and also gets out the acid, and puts his body in a state of alkalinity.  He then jumps on a rebounder, which he says works with his immune system to get the toxins out and all the good stuff in. “It sounds hippy-ish, but this ensures I am performing at a good level before I start my day.”

As a result, he feels more refreshed, and has more energy. “And the better I’ve felt emotionally and physically, the more I manifested an incredible network and life.”

Life has come full circle for the former stressed out, financially strapped real estate agent. He’s now living the life of his dreams, doing what he loves while earning an easy income. “I work in a virtual world, earning real dollars. I’ve hiked in the Australian Outback, trekked with Aborigines across the desert, hiked the Rocky Mountains, got certified in solo skydiving, heli-skied in Whistler, saw my favorite team play in the NBA finals from courtside seats, and most important of all, learned not to take so life so seriously.”

And to top it all off – the ultimate honor? Sharing the stage with, and being interviewed about success strategies by the man whose books inspired him at his lowest point in hospital – motivational guru Tony Robbins.

“It’s been an amazing journey. I have rediscovered myself. I finally understood what it is to get out and see the world. Now I can contribute. And give to others. I look at everything differently now.”

Sources Via : Forbes