Successful entrepreneurs have to master many skills, but arguably the most important is the art of self-discipline.

If you’re a small business owner chasing that set-for-life exit, imposing a military-like morning routine will help you develop the transferable skills needed to achieve success in your entrepreneurial journey. 

Developing an optimised routine is about living like a millionaire before you are one. And who better to copy than those who have already found fortune and fame in their respective fields? 

Here’s how you can start your day in line with the famous faces from the worlds of business and beyond.

04:00 – Wake up early

The first thing you’ll want to do is maximise the amount of time you have in your morning by setting your alarm for an early start. 

Starting your day pre-sunrise is a common behaviour habit of the rich and famous. The famous 4 a.m. club, as it has been dubbed, is followed by many top CEOs and entrepreneurs in an attempt to awaken before the world has woken up. 

Apple CEO Tim Cook is a well-known member of the 4 a.m. club. Sources suggest he wakes between 4 and 5 a.m. before spending an hour replying to emails before everyone around him has risen.

04:15 – Stretch

Stretching is receiving a lot of positive PR at the moment, and rightly so. While a morning gym session has long been a part of many people’s daily routines, stretching and yoga have recently accompanied this.

Swapping weights for the downward facing dog might not see you burn quite as many calories, but will leave your muscles feeling looser and injury-free ready to attack the gym later in the day.

04:30 – Coffee

If stretching has received strong PR in recent years, coffee has been on the receiving end of many a negative story. As they say, too much of anything is a bad thing but starting your day with a kick of caffeine might be just what your body needs to shake off that early morning grogginess. 

Jim Carrey, Ivanka Trump, and John Grisham are just a few famous faces who have all spoken about starting their day with a morning coffee.  

05:00 – Workout

A staple of most mornings for highly successful people. Dwayne Johnson, Kim Kardashian and Jennifer Lopez all start the day with a morning sweat. For Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, this can be as early as 3:30 a.m. 

While we’re not advocating getting up quite that early, finding time to fit in a morning workout will provide you with many benefits later in the day. 

Some benefits of a morning workout include:

• Improved focus throughout the day
• A more positive mindset
• Better decision-making
• Improved sleep quality 

“Morning is an important time of day, because how you spend your morning can often tell you what kind of day you are going to have.” – Lemony Snicket

06:00 – Healthy breakfast

If you’re committing to a 5 a.m. workout, rewarding yourself by putting some calories back into your body post workout is only right. While it might be tempting to cook up some fluffy pancakes and drown them in maple syrup, this isn’t the disciplined, millionaire lifestyle we’re going for.

Breakfasts of the rich and famous contain a little more green. Think avocado, spinach, and kale, paired with an iron-boosting smoothie full of green goodness. If your morning gym session focuses on weight training, add some scrambled eggs to your morning meal to give those aching muscles the protein they’ll be crying out for.

For those wanting to bulk like a millionaire, The Rock has even been known to add sirloin steak to his breakfast plate.

06:45 – Read the news

By now you should be bright eyed and bushy tailed. But endlessly scrolling junk content on TikTok and Twitter will soon put a stop to that. Instead, get yourself in work mode by keeping up with what’s going on in the world. 

Rather than reading about the latest Hollywood cheating scandal, inform yourself of beneficial, intellectual news. Tailor your social media algorithm to serve up content around topics like investment, debt advice and politics. 

Even better, take a leaf out of one of the world’s richest man’s books. Jeff Bezos has spoken about reading the newspaper while he sips his morning coffee, far better than getting your news through an eye-straining mobile device when you’ve just woken up.  

07:00 – Get to the office first

The last few hours will have set you up perfectly for the day ahead. Now it’s time to feel the benefits of your ultra disciplined morning. Get yourself to the office before your co-workers and finish off any lingering tasks from the day before.

If you’re a small business owner, use this time to crack on with any individual tasks like replying to emails and preparing for meetings. This way, you’re free to put out any fires that inevitably flare up throughout the day.

It can be hard to plan out your whole day, and what happens after 7 a.m. can often be in God’s hands! But your first two to three hours of the day can be copy and pasted to almost every single morning. This is where you can instil a disciplined, optimised routine that sets you up perfectly for the rest of the day.