How this UK entrepreneur went from $18,000 a year to a net worth of nearly $18 million

Antoine Dixon-Bellot had his first job right after his undergraduate degree in digital broadcast media and a Master’s in digital film and animation. He worked with a corporate production company doing motion graphics and editing work for clients like Suzuki and British Telecom.

“Having a media or film degree, it’s very, very hard to get real experience and paid work,” he told the Business Insider. “So I found myself lucky enough to get an opportunity to work.”

But his job paid him a little under $20,000 a year and after settling his rent, bills, food and transportation, he had little left for the month. Dissatisfied with his salary despite an increase of $1,000 per year, Dixon-Bellot decided to quit his job in search of better opportunities elsewhere.

In a short period, Dixon-Bellot built four successful companies which are collectively worth $2.6 million. He also has a portfolio now that’s worth about $15 million, according to the Insider.

Here is how he made it.

When Dixon-Bellot started his entrepreneurial journey, he was working as a wedding videographer while building his own video production company, Mastermind Media. In order to get more money to invest in Mastermind Media, he took up a new full-time gig doing motion graphics for another post-production company. The money from this gig helped him to fund his personal needs like food, rent and other bills.

After saving enough, he bought his own equipment and started making more profits from his business. Eventually, his net worth grew bigger.

Today, besides Mastermind Media, Dixon-Bellot also “earns money from CineHouse (a film equipment rental company), Cinescope (a film lens company), and a property portfolio that consists of both residential and commercial spaces like his own film studio East London Studios (which he sometimes rents out to other film companies),” according to the Insider.

Dixon-Bellot also makes money from real estate. He owns 32 different properties, both commercial and residential, worth about $14.9 million, according to the Insider. He invested in real estate because he wanted to have an income stream that would be more passive than his film companies, he said.

Even though he increased his income, he also lived below his means until recently when he started buying luxury items.

“I could have done this years ago, but I decided to stay humble in terms of my spending because I was busy buying cash-flowing assets [rental properties],” he explained. “I built the [passive income] in order to pay for the lifestyle that I knew would be a lot more luxurious.”