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Fear and Action-Faking in Entrepreneurship-- a 19 year old's guide to askholing.

BradD

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You can't help but appreciate the honesty in the thread lol

May I suggest weekly updates..? As much as it feels good to post that you did "something" every day- if you don't move the ball 1 day because of "x", no big deal. But taking the time to post about the # of bowel movements you've had after making your chili isn't helping anyone :frown:
 
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GuestUser4aMPs1

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@LordPhenny I don't understand how you're not scared shitless about being broke and homeless?
If this doesn't motivate you to work harder, I don't know what will. Maybe a rock-bottom "F*ck this Event (FTE)."

3 months ago I couldn't pay my rent.
Had to borrow money from a friend. Most embarrassing point of my life.
But, he had his money back and then some in a week.
Why?
Because I was backed into a corner.
I had no choice but to make something work.

It's clear that you haven't hit that point. yet

But you will.

And based on your actions (or lack thererof),
you will only make the pain of hitting rock-bottom worse.

Is that what you want?
 

GoodluckChuck

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Op, you're drawing a lot of fire but don't let it get you down. Use it. Keep doing what you're doing. Keep being honest with yourself and others and treat the advice you get here like the food that keeps you alive. Devour it and let it nourish you. Take it seriously. If you heed the advice it will keep coming. If you don't, it will dry up. We all start somewhere and you're starting now. At 19 you have some time yet before you will look back on zero days and feel regret.

Someday you might look back on your life and see a gigantic pile of zero days that got you nowhere. You will feel regret along with a fire that tells you to work your a$$ off because you don't want to repeat this exercise over and over for the rest of your life. It's a path a lot of people take.

With that said, I agree with what others have said. Go get a job! Sure, it's not Fastlane but it is real life! Save some money and learn some things about the real world. You can do your businesses while maintaining a job. The most valuable thing you will get from a job, besides relationships, is work ethic. Obviously you don't have it yet, and that's okay. Your ONLY goal right now should be to develop a work ethic. Some of us were lucky enough to have it instilled in us by our parents. The rest have to find it on their own, or struggle their entire lives.

When you read TMF pay special attention to the part about choices and habits. Making the same choice over and over makes it a habit. Habits become your lifestyle. Lifestyle determines your life. Try not to keep making the choice to put stuff off, sleep all day, etc. Because those choices will become your habits, and those habits will become your lifestyle, and your lifestyle will lead to a life you don't want to live.

You're lucky to have discovered this forum at 19. Use it!

Cheers
 

Envision

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Day 18 5/21/17
Current Goal:

PRIMARY: $100+/day profits by June 1st

Current Ventures:

-shopify dropshipping store
-a social media marketing company *(autopilot with no intentions of growing it)

Hours Worked on Business Today: 0 Hours

Earnings: $8
$8= monthly earnings from my marketing company

Approximate Summary of Today
-woke up at 11:30AM
-took the day off because I lost all willpower, not happy with it because there goes my goal
-went to bed at 7AM

Big Items for Tomorrow:
-add 9 more products to my site (w/end goal of somewhere around 45 total products on the site, currently at 9)
-continue optimizing my site for more conversions
-optimize Google Adwords for more conversions and lower costs

LMFAO
 
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Amon

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Day 18 5/21/17
Current Goal:

PRIMARY: $100+/day profits by June 1st

Current Ventures:

-shopify dropshipping store
-a social media marketing company *(autopilot with no intentions of growing it)

Hours Worked on Business Today: 0 Hours

Earnings: $8
$8= monthly earnings from my marketing company

Approximate Summary of Today
-woke up at 11:30AM
-took the day off because I lost all willpower, not happy with it because there goes my goal
-went to bed at 7AM

Big Items for Tomorrow:
-add 9 more products to my site (w/end goal of somewhere around 45 total products on the site, currently at 9)
-continue optimizing my site for more conversions
-optimize Google Adwords for more conversions and lower costs
dude for real you almost made me choke on my food like honestly someone sticky this thread gold
 
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GuestUser091

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You can't help but appreciate the honesty in the thread lol

Lol thank you, I'd rather be honest and have the thread get hated on/shut down than be dishonest to you all and therefore myself by pretending everything is fine and dandy.

May I suggest weekly updates..? As much as it feels good to post that you did "something" every day- if you don't move the ball 1 day because of "x", no big deal. But taking the time to post about the # of bowel movements you've had after making your chili isn't helping anyone

Yeah, I might consider bigger intervals but right now I like daily. Also, I agree with you on the bowel movements/chili posting (I mentioned this a little bit above), I'm gonna just leave out everything that's not business related in my daily summaries (e.g. gym, errands, cooking food like chili that will feed me for 10 days, reading, etc) because business is really the only thing that matters and also it's a better read for you all.

@LordPhenny I don't understand how you're not scared shitless about being broke and homeless?
If this doesn't motivate you to work harder, I don't know what will. Maybe a rock-bottom "F*ck this Event (FTE)."

3 months ago I couldn't pay my rent.
Had to borrow money from a friend. Most embarrassing point of my life.
But, he had his money back and then some in a week.
Why?
Because I was backed into a corner.
I had no choice but to make something work.

It's clear that you haven't hit that point. yet

But you will.

And based on your actions (or lack thererof),
you will only make the pain of hitting rock-bottom worse.

Is that what you want?

Yeah that F*cking sucks dude. I definitely don't want to be unable to pay rent and humiliated like that. I have some decent short term ways of making money but I'm not pursuing those right now because my shopify dropshipping store will be a much longer term money source. Honestly, I could be making $500+ a week building out my marketing company by spending my days cold calling places to build websites for but it'll essentially be a job. Right now and for the next couple months, I have the luxury of time and money to think semi-long term but not like super crazy long-term like inventing the next Facebook or some hopeful moonshot. Shopify dropshipping for me is in a sweet spot of long-term potential, short-term gain, and low risk. If it's not making money in a few months and I'm desperate, my sweet spot will shift and I will have to do things with my marketing company that are more short-term to stay afloat.

With that said, I agree with what others have said. Go get a job!

See what I replied to UnrealCreative above regarding a job.



dude for real you almost made me choke on my food like honestly someone sticky this thread gold

Yeah, I shouldn't have taken the break day that soon. Last rest day was 4 days before that and my personal ideal would be every 7th day to take the day off completely. I believe there's a reason even the hardest worked jobs (factory workers in 1902, cars salesmen today) have atleast Sundays off and the reason goes beyond God/church. Even the toughest, most disciplined body builders need to take a day off once a week to not go to the gym because their body needs to recover and without it they actually lose gains. It seems like there's a natural healthy cycle of recovery and exertion to nature.

Ignoring the fact I took my rest day too early here, do you guys believe you can work 7 days a week 365 days a year with no consequences? It seems like most of the criticism I'm receiving is over my belief in occasional rest days so I'd like to address this head on.
 
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GuestUser091

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Day 19 5/22/17
Current Goal:

PRIMARY: 5+ hours a day of business work for 6 days straight (5/22-5/27)
AUXILIARY: $100+/day profits for a week straight by June 1st

Current Ventures:

-shopify dropshipping store
-a social media marketing company *(autopilot with no intentions of growing it)

Hours Worked on Business Today: 6.3 hours

Earnings: $8
$8= monthly earnings from my marketing company

Summary of Business Action Taken Today (Approximate)
-woke up at 4PM (due to my rest day that went out of control)
-added new several new products to my store after carefully searching through Aliexpress
-messaged my logo designer on Fiverr to improve my logo and messaged Aftership to fix my importing of shipments to their service
-made a new Facebook ad with a new targeted audience for a product I imported today
-going to bed now at 3:23AM

Big Items for Business Tomorrow:
-social media Sunday (plan my client's posts for the next 8 days, missed it on Sunday)
-test run another Facebook ad with another product and target audience
-add the rest of current Oberlo imported products into my site
-continue optimizing my site for more conversions
-optimize Google Adwords for more conversions and lower costs
 
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Imgal

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Was just looking back at your introduction post and you state:

1. Hat company with unique designs
2. social media marketing company
3. shopify dropshipping store

My monthly income is about $300-400 a month. I have about $5000 in liquid assets. I need to get a substantial income ASAP as I'm technically on a "gap year" before going to a very prestigious university (better than some Ivy League schools) and when I tell my parents "F*ck school" they will flip and completely cut me off.

You say you're now at $8 a month? This feels like a step backwards. What was it that cost you to lose the $292 extra dollars that you were making. What were you doing definitely then to you are now to have that additional income coming in?
 

Imgal

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-woke up at 4PM (due to my rest day that went out of control)

It is updates like this that a lot of us struggle with. Your rest day didn't go out of control. You decided not to work. At the moment I'm juggling a lot of family stuff, I'm studying to improve and learn new skills AND I'm putting in a full day of work. Would I like to spend hours sitting back doing nothing and just chilling? Yes, but will that get me any further in my business. Hell, no. It's going to leave me stuck not even in the slowlane, but parked over on the side of the road... a road that isn't necessarily going to still have that end destination available to me at the end of the day when I actually decide to show up properly.
 

AgainstAllOdds

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-woke up at 4PM (due to my rest day that went out of control)

:rofl: If this is a troll thread, then it's hilarious. If not, then you're seriously screwed. Honestly, you should look at joining the army or somewhere where discipline will be forced into you, because you're obviously not capable of disciplining yourself.

Ignoring the fact I took my rest day too early here, do you guys believe you can work 7 days a week 365 days a year with no consequences?

And no. But you can start at 2 hours a day.
 
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Longinus

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This avatar might fit better to your current (and probably future) status.

121210_PAN_Napoleon1812.jpg.CROP.rectangle3-large.jpg
 

The-J

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You're so preoccupied with playing business that you're not running a business.

Wanna play business while making some actual headway?

Hustle.

Get on the phone. Ring doorbells. Talk to people.

How many people have you talked to in the past month?

You have a 'marketing company' (sounds like you just run a bot to do social media posts). Sell THAT!

12 hours a month can be outsourced. You could pay Sandeep in India $10/hr to do the deliverables. Now you're making $10 per Sandeep hour. Your hours can be spent dialing people until you've got enough headway to live off of referrals alone.

Your life is my worst case scenario. You have nothing to lose.

Don't wanna actually put in work? I hear there's a spot open at your nearest combination KFC/Taco Bell.
 

MidwestLandlord

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Ignoring the fact I took my rest day too early here, do you guys believe you can work 7 days a week 365 days a year with no consequences?

Careful, you might get wealthy doing that.

Worst consequence EVER.

(I literally have 10-12 hours of work in before this kid even gets out of bed.)

Why did I read (skim) this thread? My God, what am I doing with my life???

:rofl:
 
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MJ DeMarco

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because business is really the only thing that matters

But it's not the only thing that matters...

What matters to you is getting up at 4PM, watching television, and doing everything else that doesn't move the needle.

You're playing dopamine games with your head to make you feel good by doing a lot of nothing.

-added new several new products to my store after carefully searching through Aliexpress
-messaged my logo designer on Fiverr to improve my logo and messaged Aftership to fix my importing of shipments to their service
-made a new Facebook ad with a new targeted audience for a product I imported today

Looks like about 40 minutes of work. What about the rest of the day?
 

The-J

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Careful, you might get wealthy doing that.

Worst consequence EVER.

But Mr. MidwestLandlord, I wanna do this Fastlane stuff so I DON'T have to work! MJ said trading time for money isn't Fastlane! I'm a Fastlaner boi I don't work! F*ck work! I wanna break freeeeee
 

scottmsul

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Approximate Summary of Today
-woke up at 11:30AM
-took the day off because I lost all willpower, not happy with it because there goes my goal
-went to bed at 7AM

Sounds like you need to cultivate your work ethic into a habit (as MJ would say, work on your process). At the very least you need some sort of routine, I recommend getting up at the same time every morning/going to bed at the same time every night. After I quit grad school, but before I got a job, I was working about 6 hours every day applying to jobs or working on side projects, but I had a routine where I never skipped days. Something that helped for me was working out of coffee shops, the change of scenery was enough to cultivate a habit (coffeeshop = work). Also don't underestimate diet + exercise, it helps to have a lot of energy.
 
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Joe Cassandra

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Day 17 5/20/17

Big Items for Tomorrow:
-add 9 more products to my site (w/end goal of somewhere around 45 total products on the site, currently at 9)
-continue optimizing my site for more conversions
-optimize Google Adwords for more conversions and lower costs

You're only 19, which is fine because you have time. But, it sounds like you live a pretty cushy life. There's obviously no urgency anywhere. At 19, I didn't even know what 'starting a business' was. I wanted to be a CFO for some Fortune-500 company because I thought that's what 'success' was. It wasn't until I sat down in my cubicle on Day 1 of my first accounting job out of college (age 23), that I realized i made a big mistake.

I then wasted 4 more years 'playing business' like you're doing right now.

There's plenty of peeps here older than 19 nagging at you not because you're doing everything wrong (it's part of learning) but because many (including myself) wished we found this forum and how to work for ourselves at a MUCH earlier age. Sure, you can become an entrepreneur at any age, but wouldn't you want freedom by the time you're 40 than 80?

------------------
Ok, you have these same 'BIG' items every f&$%# day. They are obviously NOT BIG ITEMS. Big items are...umm...CLOSE THE PROSPECT I'M TALKING TO AT 2PM THIS AFTERNOON.

To make any sales, you need urgency. To sell yourself on the fastlane (and I'm not there yet, but self-employed at least), you need to create urgency ASAP.

Getting a crappy job would be the first step to show you what will happen. Getting an accountable partner would be next. One where you put money on the line: "Jack, if I don't do X by June 30, you can cash this check."

-went to bed at 7AM

Quote from How I Met Your Mother: "Nothing good happens after 2am."

If you were actually working, okay. Still, working late into the night isn't good as it probably takes 2x as long to do things. Mornings are proven to be the best time to get things done quick.

So if you're up late partying, watching TV or porn, that's your first goal over any business stuff. Get rid of it.

When your body is tired, your 'impulse' side of your brain kicks in leading to junk food, obesity and other unhealthy pleasure activities.

Make this your priority first or else the rest will never work.
 

Ika

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I respect your courage to keep posting despite knowing what comments will roll in. Keep it going.
And look back at it in a few month and smile about how far you've come.

First:
You need to fix your sleeping cyle.
Pick one time to go to wake up and one to go to bed. Now use these times every single day.
Start small - if you wake up at 5pm every day it's unlikely you will be able to wake up at 6am for longer than 1 week.
Just pick a time for this week.
Next week, go to bed 1 hour earlier and wake up 1 hour earlier.
Repeat until you've reached a time you are comfortable with.

Second:
You need to fix your work.
Are you sure you are working focused for 5h? Or are you inventing tasks to hit that 5h mark?
What is the one thing that will move your business forward the most? What will eliminate other tasks and make others really easy?
Do that the first thing in the morning after your morning routine (an ice cold shower helps).
From what I've read, adding 15 new products won't help if you haven't sold any of the exsisting 10.
Creating Graphics, Contents etc might now help that much either.
Just start running Ads. Keep going. If you suck at it, use the profits to hire a professional to fix the money leaking holes. Or ask someone starting out on the fastlane forum.
Don't focus on making 100€/day.
Focus on making 100€ at all.
It will force you to be more focused and faster.
 
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Under-Dog

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You're playing business plain and simple you have no sense of urgency. "Woke up at 5, woke up at 3, etc..." Who even does that? It's clear you don't want it bad enough at this point. You keep making up these tasks to keep you busy to make you feel like you are being productive so you can keep your idea of playing business. You need to snap out of that and start building simple routines so maybe you can discipline yourself into actually getting sh*t done. I used to play business and action fake as well.

One day it hit me "I keep saying I want this successful business yet I'm not doing a damn thing about it" I started building simple routines:

  • Stop hitting the snooze button
  • Started making my bed every morning
  • Just simple crap that I was able to make a routine and discipline myself

Believe it or not it starts to make a difference! I'm working a 9-5 putting in about 55 hours a week then I take my a$$ home and work on my "business" because I got tired of FAKING and now it's time to take action.

First thing I'd do is stop waking up so late and stop pissing off so much time into tv. Money lost can be regained, time lost you'll never get back.

You can add 100 products to your store and pat yourself in the back after but guess what? Doesn't mean a damn thing if you can't get a single sale
 

Imgal

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I commend @Ika on setting out some really clear steps for how @LordPhenny can grow from here. It was a much more proactive response than mine which I will admit come more from a point of frustration.

I have the luxury of time and money to think semi-long term

I was about to say that the above quote illustrates the main problem here, but as I read over it I don't think there is a problem. We're all trying to jump in and help believing we can see where Lord Phenny is going wrong on finding the solution to his problem, but this statement actually shows something else.

There isn't a problem. Personally, the statement makes me uncomfortable because there is a lot I want to achieve with what I'm doing and I don't believe I do have the luxury of time to sit back for a while and feel safe the opportunity is still there. I can't say I'm living on the poverty line either, but I also don't think I can sit around "semi-long term" and not start to have an issue keeping a roof over my head and my family support. In fact, I know I can't.

Many of us are struggling with this thread because we're running businesses that need to make money. Lord Phenny obviously doesn't need that right now which makes this a hobby, not a business.. and I mean no offense by that. If I had all the money in the world I'd be so good with something making me $8 because that wasn't the point of it. If I was only making $8 and I was all in on business success.. I wouldn't be chewing my finger nails... I'd be down to my knuckles having chewed off my fingers from the stress of it all.
 
G

GuestUser091

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This avatar might fit better to your current (and probably future) status.

121210_PAN_Napoleon1812.jpg.CROP.rectangle3-large.jpg
'

Hahaha, God bless Napoleon in Russia.

Oh well, I give up, you all beat me and proved I'm a vagrant with my "lazy" 6-8 hour work days. The glorious crown of honor "action faking" and "action fake" and the silly comments today were the last straw to what I've been considering for a few days now. Guess I should've posted this in a forum that knows a bit more about dropshipping so they could understand that what I'm doing is actually work. There's a few leverage points in dropshipping, and as much as many of you would've wanted me to cold call my way to 100 dollars a day (and I'm not against cold calling), that's just not what you do in dropshipping. I'll lay it out for you.

The work involved in dropshipping is 4 things:
1. learn/improve your ad making skills
2. make more ads
3. optimize your store for conversions (e.g. choosing products, UI, UX, etc)
4. drive traffic

That's it, there's literally nothing else to it. This is all I've been doing for 6+ hours a day and I'm getting needlessly and without any real benefit to anyone lampooned for it. Which leads me to believe that you guys just have a poor understanding of how dropshipping works so you think that me doing work for it is F*cking around.

I'm moving the thread over to Black Hat World where people have actual experience in dropshipping and will be able to advise me beyond the inane, because it has gotten to that point. I can't even reply to your criticism because it's sorta ridiculous and would take a long time to explain due to everyone's lack of a basic understanding of dropshipping. It's funny, I made a progress thread while doing my cold calling business (the one I sold to my friend at the beginning of May) in Black Hat World and now I made a thread where I'm doing a dropshipping business here. Eyy got some things mixed around. In both cases I got silly comments where people didn't really have a grasp of what was going on, but now I'll finally have it right.

Some things I regret about this thread:
1. Putting my age. I've always known people are all a bit ageist, I am myself. If I saw a 12 year old trying to make money I'd unknowingly put a bit of the blinders on and perhaps make some criticism that wasn't really relevant/helpful just for the sake of it because F*ck that kid, he's 12 and doesn't know all the shit I know. I wouldn't even treat the kid seriously or trying to engage in a rational conversation which is starting to show a bit here.
2. Having a trainwreck of a start. It's all about the first impressions, my first posts were nonsense and lazy as shit. F minus days. I will admit, you guys helped me get out of that so I could have some A minus, B plus days, but hey first impressions stick and you were obviously prone to see "1.5 hours??? F*ck THIS KID" and then unconsciously/unknowingly go in here and say that even my good days were shit. Not your fault.
3. Doing it on Fastlane-- I don't see anyone giving me advice on dropshipping except "it will take a year to build an ecommerce store". Yeahh no. And the ignorance of that comment alone tells it all. The extent to the lack of dropshipping experience on here is very apparent. But I don't hate Fastlane, I actually like it a lot, some great motivated people on here. But posting an Internet marketing journey thread on Fastlane is like posting a yoga progress thread on a bodybuilder's forum. Bodybuilders won't really understand it and will view yoga through the lens of bodybuilding saying, "WHAT?? YOU DON'T TAKE CREATINE BEFORE YOGA WORKOUTS ARE YOU KIDDING ME???" Not the bodybuilders' faults, it's actual the yoga practitioner's fault for posting on a bodybuilding forum. Yoga and bodybuilding are both exercise, but then again, ehhh not really related beyond that.
4. Posting parts of my daily schedule beyond business work. (e.g. making that delicious chili you all love <3, going to the gym, reading, etc)

What I'm Trying to Accomplish with Journey Threads
1. A record for myself
- nice to see what I was doing when I'm far past it
2. An account for others- other people might like to see someone achieve a goal (e.g. financial independence) and get inspired by it
3. Accountability- when people provide me reasoned critiques they're very helpful to agree with or engage in a reasoned debate if I disagree. But when they stray from that into lala land, then eh a bit annoying to respond to ignorance and correct basic realities.

So that's my last word. I have no quarrel with any of you, no more than I'm upset over the weather and change of seasons. You all are what you are, mostly ignorant of dropshipping, unconsciously ageist, prone to having first impressions stick. You're all also very motivated, highly driven to succeed big, and way beyond mediocrity which I do appreciate a lot and is why I was attracted to this forum in the first place. You're not bad people, just the wrong people I should be sharing this type of progress thread with right now. Perhaps I will come back down the road and make another progress thread that I think is more fitting to this forum. For now, if you give a shit, you can continue following my journey to financial independence with the same username on Black Hat World.

Cheers,
Lordphenny

“I don't count my sit-ups; I only start counting when it starts hurting because they’re the only ones that count.” - Muhammad Ali

/thread
 
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Imgal

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I have no quarrel with any of you, no more than I'm upset over the weather and change of seasons. You all are what you are, mostly ignorant of dropshipping, unconsciously ageist, prone to having first impressions stick.

I don't recall that you asked for any advice at any point on dropshipping? You said it was a Progress thread. I'm sorry that you feel that we were all so harsh towards you. If you read back through the comments though the majority are trying to help you and at each stage I've taken that what you're trying to say is true - that you are wanting to grow and improve. First impressions have an impact, but all of us get things wrong. There are many here that have given me a harsh word or four because of how I've come across in some posts (and rightly so). It didn't give the best impression of me, but with time I hope I have and will act to show people how I've grown from it.

If you want help, start a new thread. Highlight what you've discovered through using the forum to find previous answers and then structure the questions you want help with. People are willing and wanting to help if you let them. Did I want to write a thread saying I went from doing well to being a pathetic waste of space for the last couple of years? No. Did I like it being reinforced and not patted on the head? No, not really... but I needed it.

This forum might feel harsh - I know I've run and hidden from it in the past, but it's not cruel. It is one of the most supportive places out there. If you really want to grow and succeed then take the thread as what it is - people wanting to help. I promise you it will be worth it.

If not, we all wish you the best at BHF.
 

Waspy

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OP finally confirmed it. This is a troll thread.

EDIT: And hasn't see @PTP thread. Who, if I remember correctly is 18 making F*cking bank. The only person with age prejudice is you, thinking age matters.
 
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Sully1994

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Here's a question, do you even give a shit about this Shopify drop shipping store? Do you believe that the products you sell are so beneficial to your future customers that you would go door to door and tell complete strangers about them?

That's the level of passion that it takes to keep you going through the thousands of obstacles you will face on your journey to success.

Seriously ask yourself this question. If the answer is "no", and you find that this is just an easy way to make hands-free passive cash, then you're better of cutting your losses now and starting something you give a damn about .

And for the freelance writing, check out @SinisterLex ' s thread on copywriting. While it's certainly not the best platform, Upwork is a good place to start. it'll be a good vehicle for you to make some consistent cash with.

Don't get discouraged, keep fighting.
 
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The-J

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For now, if you give a shit, you can continue following my journey to financial independence with the same username on Black Hat World.

Proof that OP doesn't actually care about providing value but just wants to make the easiest money possible
 
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MJ DeMarco

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Darn, a money chasing troll is leaving because he hasn't been validated making $8 for the last 8 months ... how will we survive?

Well, we survive only until 4pm when the OP wakes up.

Glad I didn't spend any time in this thread convincing "4pm boy" that his dropshipping empire is dead on arrival.

Not surprised he threw out an "ism" as well -- racism! Ageism! Sexism! This is what happens when your education comes from CNN and liberal arts colleges.
 

UncommonWay

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Yeah I know, I'm not really working nearly as much as I need to. 0-2 hours a day whereas I probably need like 8-10 hours a day to get anywhere. A lot of my addictions to watching politics are getting the better of me. I'm working to destroy this tendency towards addiction by socializing more, going to meetups, and possibly building a mastermind group. Willpower alone is shot.
Watching politics is absolutely useless when it comes to reaching your goals. I used to spend a few hours a day reading about politics, news, tragic events, and the like, while bemoaning the fact that I hadn't "gotten my business going". The reality is that I was wasting time that I can never get back, and tricking myself into believing that I needed to know what was going on in the world.

The truth is, anything that is outside your circle of influence (stuff you can't change) should be outside your circle of concern. You can't really influence politics, not without a lot of time and money, so why worry about it?

So, how to stop worrying about it? Decide that it's beneath you, and doesn't matter, and then cut it out. I now have a list of websites that I will not go to, because I know they are black holes that will suck away my time and attention. Any news site, unless it's directly related to your ecommerce goals, is beneath you.

I'm at the point now where, when people at work talk about news, politics, etc., I steer the conversation away from that or make excuses for why I have to leave the room. My cubicle neighbor loves to bring up the latest tragic event, or the latest political bombshell, and so far I've been nice about it but I'll have to get less nice if she doesn't cut it out.

Another reason you need to cut out this politics and other distractions crap is that it not only sucks your time, but it poisons your mind. How can you focus on making your world a better place by providing value to others, when all you read about or listen to tells you that the world is a horrible place that is getting worse by the moment.

You can't change all that shit that's going on out there. You can't stop the wars, or the political scandals, or the genocides, or any of it. So cut it out of your life as if it were a cancerous tumor in your brain. And then, use your extra time and attention and positive mental energy to actually go and do some stuff that will improve your future.

I speak from experience, and I'm not all the way there. I still waste time and feel regret, but I'm getting better. Please, make the decision today that you'll stop faking action and start making it happen.

/Rant over
 

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