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

[AgainstAllOdds]

Notes on Blackhatworld:

That place will lead you into a spiral of chasing money via illegal means. Illegal businesses pay out at only a fraction of legal businesses. How many billionaire drug dealers are there that aren't in jail? None? Exactly.

However, it is a community observing once in awhile to be aware of the biggest scams going on: like how Twitter and Instagram were all built on bot accounts, and valued at insanely high rates because of their number of "users". With that info you could capitalize. Just have to read in between the lines to see how scumbags are pushing "businesses" forward.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Yeah that guy clearly should've done basic market research. I made that same rookie entrepreneur mistake of not doing market research too and spent 2 F*cking precious years of my life on a disaster project that had no market but I thought there was a market because "myself and friends + family like it!" ... led to nowhere and you see me selling it to my friend in the beginning of this thread. Funny how he flat out admits it halfway through his thread that "no I didn't do any market research, BUT I'm a car guy and I like it." *facepalm*

I do see parallels between his thread and my thread of 95% disagreement and 5% lukewarmness in the comments. It's obvious to me he's F*cking up and getting criticism for it. I don't think I'm F*cking up now but I'm definitely getting an equal or greater amount of criticism. But perhaps I am F*cking up and I will have to consider your comments to not be the whichride4you guy who is blissfully ignorant of his errors, but not for long once he learns that market research is necessary the hard way like I did and many entrepreneurs before him.

I will give my earnest effort to heed everyone's advice here and not learn it the hard way. Parts of it may be valid, other parts invalid. If I label valid advice as invalid and make more blunders, F*ck it, nobody's fault but mine and I will have to learn the hard way.

Look, it's clear you're young with some discipline issues. But it's also clear you're taking a lot of swings at the plate. And that's a great step because with each swing, you get better, you learn, and eventually, you start getting hits. To further the baseball analogy, much of the opposition you're receiving is we see you swinging at the wrong pitches.

Sometimes the problem isn't our effort, it's that our effort is focused at the wrong system or the wrong project.
Other times, we have the right project, but our effort is poorly focused.

Either way, we don't get the desired results.

Can you make some $$ dropshipping? And learn a lot too? Sure. You can also become a MLM distributor too and make $8/mo for the next year as well.

If you're going to work your butt off, make sure you're in a system that rewards better than a dinner at Olive Garden.

 

[GuestUser091]

Illegal businesses pay out at only a fraction of legal businesses. How many billionaire drug dealers are there that aren't in jail? None? Exactly.

I agree. As you all know by now because I put it at the beginning of my BHW thread, I was financially independent through crime at 16. Making about 2k per week working only 4 hours a week and having fun doing so. I proactively decided to stop and do legal businesses and it's been hard ever since. Crime is so fun and easy until you go to prison (luckily I never did). Legal business is 1000x harder.

And my thoughts regarding criminal rich people exactly followed yours. They all F*ck up and go to jail or are killed. The richest criminal ever was Pablo Escobar, around 30 Billion net worth. He led a life of constant paranoia, killing hundreds of people, and throwing his country (Colombia) into chaos until he was brutally assassinated in his home. The cost of easy criminal money is a low ceiling, an unstable floor, and constant paranoia. I experienced all 3 which is why I got out and went legal. The price to not feel extremely paranoid every time you here a police/firetruck/ambulance siren is priceless.

I disagree that Black Hat World is all illegal and crooked, it's basically the internet's biggest SEO and Internet Marketing forum with a large majority of it being perfectly white hat. I know and have been a part of actual illegal forums that would make BHW look like a church.

$8/mo for the next year as well

I'd like to correct the record because my wording must've been bad on this. I'm getting paid $300 a month, operating costs roughly $60, so $240 monthly profit divided by 30 days in a month equals $8 a day. Enough to live out of your car basically but not enough to starve like $8/month.

Can you make some $$ dropshipping? And learn a lot too?

When I find a niche that's working, there's many reason why it's beneficial to me and my customers to switch to a local fulfillment based model.
1. Cheaper wholesale prices-- buying 1 piece at a time at $4 is F*cking expensive when you can buy 100 pieces at $1.50 and fulfill them locally.
2. Faster shipping times-- 3-5 days vs 12-20 days dropshipping, you build better customer loyalty and brand value so the customers continue buying. Good for the customers and me.

Yeah I know there's a guy who said "I ordered 1000 pieces and it worked out!" Eh, it's not a risk I'm willing to take especially given my history. I ordered 1700 pieces for my last company, barely sold any for two years, and am now left shipping 1 of the 5 50lbs boxes to my friend in Poland 1 at a time and sold my company at a firesale price. It's all fun and games "yeah I'll just order in bulk and get them all for cheap!" until you get burned. I'm a bit scarred tbh so I'll stick to dropshipping until I find a good niche and know it's smart to switch over to local fulfillment.

Forget dropshipping, I'm basically doing ecommerce.

 

[amp0193]

Well, whatever you do, actually do it.

Sure, you can make money dropshipping. You're going to have to work your a$$ off though. I think if you actually show in this thread that you're working, people will get off your case.

However, that hasn't been the case thus far.

 

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[Contrarian]

I agree. As you all know by now because I put it at the beginning of my BHW thread, I was financially independent through crime at 16. Making about 2k per week working only 4 hours a week and having fun doing so. I proactively decided to stop and do legal businesses and it's been hard ever since. Crime is so fun and easy until you go to prison (luckily I never did). Legal business is 1000x harder.

And my thoughts regarding criminal rich people exactly followed yours. They all F*ck up and go to jail or are killed. The richest criminal ever was Pablo Escobar, around 30 Billion net worth. He led a life of constant paranoia, killing hundreds of people, and throwing his country (Colombia) into chaos until he was brutally assassinated in his home. The cost of easy criminal money is a low ceiling, an unstable floor, and constant paranoia. I experienced all 3 which is why I got out and went legal. The price to not feel extremely paranoid every time you here a police/firetruck/ambulance siren is priceless.

I disagree that Black Hat World is all illegal and crooked, it's basically the internet's biggest SEO and Internet Marketing forum with a large majority of it being perfectly white hat. I know and have been a part of actual illegal forums that would make BHW look like a church.



I'd like to correct the record because my wording must've been bad on this. I'm getting paid $300 a month, operating costs roughly $60, so $240 monthly profit divided by 30 days in a month equals $8 a day. Enough to live out of your car basically but not enough to starve like $8/month.



When I find a niche that's working, there's many reason why it's beneficial to me and my customers to switch to a local fulfillment based model.
1. Cheaper wholesale prices-- buying 1 piece at a time at $4 is F*cking expensive when you can buy 100 pieces at $1.50 and fulfill them locally.
2. Faster shipping times-- 3-5 days vs 12-20 days dropshipping, you build better customer loyalty and brand value so the customers continue buying. Good for the customers and me.

Yeah I know there's a guy who said "I ordered 1000 pieces and it worked out!" Eh, it's not a risk I'm willing to take especially given my history. I ordered 1700 pieces for my last company, barely sold any for two years, and am now left shipping 1 of the 5 50lbs boxes to my friend in Poland 1 at a time and sold my company at a firesale price. It's all fun and games "yeah I'll just order in bulk and get them all for cheap!" until you get burned. I'm a bit scarred tbh so I'll stick to dropshipping until I find a good niche and know it's smart to switch over to local fulfillment.

Forget dropshipping, I'm basically doing ecommerce.

Against my gut instinct, I'm actually going to throw you a "like" for this one. Perhaps there is yet hope.

 

[G-Man]

I know and have been a part of actual illegal forums that would make BHW look like a church.

Nope. You're selling scrips from moms bathroom outta the basement. Pretty sure the old dude that passes the plate at church and did 3 tours in Vietnam is still tougher.

Give up on the internet tough guy bullshit and just do what you gotta do.

 

[MitchM]

So have you read MJ's book yet? Also Unscripted ... both of those books will arm you with the mindset for success. I actually think that they are exactly what you need to read right now and it would not at all be "action faking."

Honestly, if you are wasting hours a day watching the news and waking up at 4pm - I think you can manage it.

 

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[GuestUser091]

So I've gotten pretty far into The Millionaire Fastlane and I actually like it more than I'd expected. I'd like to give this forum another chance and achieve goal I set out to do on my 19th birthday. Albeit, trying out a bit of a different posting rhythm.

Let me respond to myself and what I said on May 24th about why I left:
1. "You guys don't know anything about dropshipping." -- My response: I don't really care. My work ethic is the bigger problem than my lack of ecommerce knowledge (for now) and I should be thankful for you guys pointing it out.
2. "You're not ready to engage in rational discourse." -- My response: I don't know why I thought that because a forum is prettier looking than a youtube comment section that it'd be any level above it in discourse. The internet is the internet. I expect to continue to get needlessly flamed regardless of what I do and that's ok.
3. "The Beginning of My Thread was a Trainwreck and made terrible first Impressions." -- My response: About the same as above. I'm not really going to go out of my way to correct bad first impressions. You guys can play the negative narrative and have fun with it. There's some legitamacy to parts of the negative narrative but some of it's so absurd it's funny. If you're not already aware of the prevailing narrative about me, here's a crash course. I'm everything you can possibly hate. I'm a stubborn, know it all 19 year old who wakes up 4PM every single day, works 1.5 hours a day, takes 6 days off a week, watches CNN for 4 hours each and every day, makes $8/mo working 12 hours/mo, makes chili for 5 hours every day, spends 2 hours at Costco every day, does crime 10 hours a day and is a tough guy for doing so, uses the word "ageism" so I'm very politically correct even though I voted for Trump but wait.. F*ck me because I voted for Trump. See, I'm just everything you can possibly hate and there's no way to spin it. Hitler, Mao, and Satan all in one package.

Some updates since I've been gone:

• sold my dropshipping store I spent May working on for $350. The niche was fidget toys. I saw the Google trends going down and the fad fizzling out so I decided to sell ASAP. The fidget toy/spinner fad is fizzling out I believe because kids are getting out of school. Whatever, it was a good first start into product sourcing ecommerce.
• started up a new dropshipping store for general ecommerce. Really looking to find a the right niche I can build out into and make a long term project. The general dropshipping store will allow me to find it.

In Closing
Someone suggested earlier to not post daily. I think I'm going to implement this suggestion and start out by posting on here every two days and see how that goes. Might need to spread it out more, who knows. Whatever, I'm going to take this thread to its completion by success of financial independence or thread death by landfill/ban. I'll expect to get flamed more with funny gifs of stickmen doing pullups while typing with their feet but I don't really care. I'll be listening to you regardless as well as will the people who read this thread who are interested in achieving financial independence in their own right and seeing the struggles, both real and psychological, in achieving it. Let's re-begin... starting tomorrow with my two day post.

 

[Sully1994]

So I've gotten pretty far into The Millionaire Fastlane and I actually like it more than I'd expected. I'd like to give this forum another chance and achieve goal I set out to do on my 19th birthday. Albeit, trying out a bit of a different posting rhythm.

Let me respond to myself and what I said on May 24th about why I left:
1. "You guys don't know anything about dropshipping." -- My response: I don't really care. My work ethic is the bigger problem than my lack of ecommerce knowledge (for now) and I should be thankful for you guys pointing it out.
2. "You're not ready to engage in rational discourse." -- My response: I don't know why I thought that because a forum is prettier looking than a youtube comment section that it'd be any level above it in discourse. The internet is the internet. I expect to continue to get needlessly flamed regardless of what I do and that's ok.
3. "The Beginning of My Thread was a Trainwreck and made terrible first Impressions." -- My response: About the same as above. I'm not really going to go out of my way to correct bad first impressions. You guys can play the negative narrative and have fun with it. There's some legitamacy to parts of the negative narrative but some of it's so absurd it's funny. If you're not already aware of the prevailing narrative about me, here's a crash course. I'm everything you can possibly hate. I'm a stubborn, know it all 19 year old who wakes up 4PM every single day, works 1.5 hours a day, takes 6 days off a week, watches CNN for 4 hours each and every day, makes $8/mo working 12 hours/mo, makes chili for 5 hours every day, spends 2 hours at Costco every day, does crime 10 hours a day and is a tough guy for doing so, uses the word "ageism" so I'm very politically correct even though I voted for Trump but wait.. F*ck me because I voted for Trump. See, I'm just everything you can possibly hate and there's no way to spin it. Hitler, Mao, and Satan all in one package.

Some updates since I've been gone:

• sold my dropshipping store I spent May working on for $350. The niche was fidget toys. I saw the Google trends going down and the fad fizzling out so I decided to sell ASAP. The fidget toy/spinner fad is fizzling out I believe because kids are getting out of school. Whatever, it was a good first start into product sourcing ecommerce.
• started up a new dropshipping store for general ecommerce. Really looking to find a the right niche I can build out into and make a long term project. The general dropshipping store will allow me to find it.

In Closing
Someone suggested earlier to not post daily. I think I'm going to implement this suggestion and start out by posting on here every two days and see how that goes. Might need to spread it out more, who knows. Whatever, I'm going to take this thread to its completion by success of financial independence or thread death by landfill/ban. I'll expect to get flamed more with funny gifs of stickmen doing pullups while typing with their feet but I don't really care. I'll be listening to you regardless as well as will the people who read this thread who are interested in achieving financial independence in their own right and seeing the struggles, both real and psychological, in achieving it. Let's re-begin... starting tomorrow with my two day post.

Many people here want to see you succeed, Don't lose sight of that. That being said, also remember this: people want to be entertained. Lord knows I've visited this thread for it. If you're going to post a progress thread, make it interesting and engaging. I know you can write, so it's clearly not outside your capability.

If I posted a bland daily list of things I was doing to "advance my business", this forum would forcibly separate my jaw and take a steaming shit into my mouth. And I would deserve it - because that list would serve no one on this forum except me. People ( even entrepreneurs) want to be inspired, educated and entertained - not read grocery lists.

People don't care what we do on a day to day basis . They care about what we can do for them. So ask yourself, what can you do for your customers? What can you do for the people of this forum? Forget financial independence. Forget how can I marginally scale up to making "x" dollars a day?

Focus on others, and you will be blown away at how quickly things change for you .

Keep fighting!

 

[GuestUser091]

That being said, also remember this: people want to be entertained. Lord knows I've visited this thread for it. If you're going to post a progress thread, make it interesting and engaging. I know you can write, so it's clearly not outside your capability.

A lot of the problem is that by nature, hard work is F*cking boring and repetitive. Hollywood is a big lie, the character goes from 0 to 100 in the span of an hour. Very entertaining (I like Scarface too), but nonetheless a lie. In reality, hard work is the boring, unflashy, daily bullshit you grind out for 0.001% progress per day for days on end. I think it will be entertaining for newbies when they come here, see dozens of pages, read the first page and then skip to the end when I'm making boatloads of money.

Nonetheless, giving you guys an entertaining thread and not going full autism having no regard for my audience has been in the back of my mind so now that you brought it up I'll make a greater effort to do so.

 

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[GuestUser091]

Day 20 6/4/17 and Day 21 6/5/17

Current Goal:
PRIMARY: Work 5+ hours/day for 5 days (6/4-6/8)

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

Hours Worked on Business 6/4: 7 hours
Hours Worked on Business 6/5: 6.25 hours

6/4’s Earnings: $8
$8= monthly profits ($240 monthly/30 days= $8/day) from my marketing company
6/5’s Earnings: $8
$8= monthly profits ($240 monthly/30 days= $8/day) from my marketing company

Summary of Business Action Taken 6/4(Approximate)
-Woke up at 5PM on 6/3 (yes, sleep schedule completely f*cked up)
-sent the June calendar updated and social media report to my client. Also asked for referrals because why not.
-learned more from ecommerce experts and finessed my general ecommerce site to the point it was ready to sell products
-set up what I think is going to be a great converting ad. But who knows as 1/10 ads just fall flat and completely fail.
-worked out a deal with my friend and a company to split some software costs (related to my SMM company)
-went to bed at 2PM
Summary of Business Action Taken 6/5 (Approximate)
-Woke up at 12AM
-tried to figure out why my fb ad wasn’t converting well
-prepared a product and made another facebook ad
-made 2 audiences and prepared another product
-going to bed now at 6:38PM

Grade for 6/4:
80%, B-. A decent day. I do like that I wasn’t manically flying from one thing to another and having no focus as this is a root of a lot of action faking/dopamine spiking. Overall, my focus was surprisingly good and I was aware what my goal was most of the time.
Grade for 6/5:
85%, B. A decent day. Had a few hiccups after making the poor decision earlier last week of selling my $1000 worth of bitcoin I saved up at the latest correction at 2140/btc. Sat in my bed depressed af as I see everyone super bullish and saying it’s going to 5k and shit, watching the charts climb past the last correction. F*ck it, it’s out of my hands and a total distraction at this point.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

hard work is F*cking boring and repetitive.

I still do work that is hard, boring, and repetitive. At least you know it's a part of the process and success is not all wrapped up in "do what you love" with a cute little bow.

from my marketing company

I don't understand, how can you own a marketing company and you don't know how to market it? (As indicated by the 1 client.)

Can you go into details on what exactly this "marketing company" is? Social media?

 

[GuestUser091]

I don't understand, how can you own a marketing company and you don't know how to market it? (As indicated by the 1 client.)

Can you go into details on what exactly this "marketing company" is? Social media?

It's a digital marketing company (social media, email marketing, and web design). And the whole 1 client thing not as hypocritical as it appears.

I can cold call 20 business a day, get many clients, and be happy... but working dozens of hours a week with no end in sight. Not fastlane. I used to have more clients but I've let my lead generation wither because I realized it's essentially a job and I see no reasonable way for it to make me my first 5 million dollars. I see ways to expand it but they'll mean I'll be stuck in one city, dealing with employees all day, and essentially working til I'm old and grey. Tell me one marketing agency owner who isn't stuck in some office and forced to work his business like a job and perhaps I'll reconsider.

I could get creative and hire people virtually and also raise my pricing plus spend years upgrading my marketing knowledge to expert level but the trouble I'd have to go through to do all that to reach 5 million dollars will be much higher than just going down the road I'm taking now with ecommerce.

 

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[DesignerOne.]

I see no reasonable way for it to make me my first 5 million dollars.

Honestly, If you're doing it for money, that's the wrong mindset. That needs to be a side-result of what you strive to achieve. You actually have to change that mindset and focus on GIVING VALUE. If you check out unscripted , MJ mentioned that "cash/money" does not belong in your vocabulary.

Once you start really giving value and helping out others, value will return to you tenfold. Think of it as karma. What goes around comes around.

Pick one thing, and stick with it, see it through to the end, don't keep changing what you're doing until you decide that this can't go any further and learn from your mistakes then adjust. If it succeeds, awesome, now go do the next thing!

You don't fail, you learn so follow the steps below for the fastlane
Step one: learn 2:adjust 3:learn 4:adjust 5:learn 6:adjust 7:SUCCEED!

Repeat Steps 1-6 as many times as needed. I think someone else actually posted a longer "STEPS TO THE FASTLANE" like this somewhere. Maybe MJ? I'll look around or someone else can link it.

 

[GuestUser4aMPs1]

I see ways to expand it but they'll mean I'll be stuck in one city, dealing with employees all day, and essentially working til I'm old and grey.

I'm curious to see where you got this picture in your head.
Based on what you've said, you're assuming that's the case based on a series of beliefs.

...but what if it were different?
In other words, is this belief useful to you in achieving your goal?

This belief assumes there's no way of separating you from the business. Working "in" the marketing business instead of working "on" it.
But what if you were able to break down every last process involved in your business and put the proper people in place to execute those processes?

In a recent podcast interview here (Meat at 31:33), even MJ mentioned his hands were in too many aspects of his business, which lowered his company valuation.
The problem of "being" the company doesn't just apply to non-fastlane businesses. Fastlane is just as susceptible.

Reading "The E-Myth Revisited" will help give you some perspective into this problem.
You'll also learn you don't need to be the expert here. Just enough to manage people and examine results.

Cheers, hope it helps

 

[SquatchMan]

It's a digital marketing company (social media, email marketing, and web design). And the whole 1 client thing not as hypocritical as it appears.

I can cold call 20 business a day, get many clients, and be happy... but working dozens of hours a week with no end in sight. Not fastlane. I used to have more clients but I've let my lead generation wither because I realized it's essentially a job and I see no reasonable way for it to make me my first 5 million dollars. I see ways to expand it but they'll mean I'll be stuck in one city, dealing with employees all day, and essentially working til I'm old and grey. Tell me one marketing agency owner who isn't stuck in some office and forced to work his business like a job and perhaps I'll reconsider.

I could get creative and hire people virtually and also raise my pricing plus spend years upgrading my marketing knowledge to expert level but the trouble I'd have to go through to do all that to reach 5 million dollars will be much higher than just going down the road I'm taking now with ecommerce.

Gary Vaynerchuk owns a marketing agency with 3 locations and 600 employees. I don't think he is stuck in one city and he probably makes more than 5 million a year. Hell his payroll is probably way higher than $5 million/year.

Gary V also has crazy work ethic and you don't. So I don't see you making $5 million from anything unless you win the lottery or sue a corporation.

It sounds like you're looking for a very short work week (4 hours maybe?)...without first putting in very long weeks. Good luck with that.

Edit: And what time could you even cold call if you wake up at 5PM? 4AM?

I also don't understand this obsession with 5 million dollars. It's just a number and it's not like you get any award. What about 4,334,321? 4,890,456? 3,656,332? Those are all life changing amounts.

Will your life suddenly be complete at 5 million dollars?

Edit: Just checked out GaryV's channel. He's in Ghana at the moment haha.

Also, this video reminded me of you (I don't even watch GaryV or anyone on YouTube, but someone told me it was a good video)

 

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[Joe Cassandra]

but working dozens of hours a week with no end in sight. Not fastlane. I used to have more clients but I've let my lead generation wither because I realized it's essentially a job and I see no reasonable way for it to make me my first 5 million dollars. I see ways to expand it but they'll mean I'll be stuck in one city, dealing with employees all day, and essentially working til I'm old and grey. Tell me one marketing agency owner who isn't stuck in some office and forced to work his business like a job and perhaps I'll reconsider.

This is a bad mindset people have and shows they don't fully understand what "Fastlane" is.

I'm a freelance copywriter, I work for myself. Yes, not fastlane. But, guess what I am learning:

- How to work for myself
- How to overcome failure with no Plan B
- How to sell
- How to make money without the need of a "boss"

Your mindset is normal for those who've never been self-employed. You're thinking you're shrewd for thinking 10 steps ahead...but, when you're making $8/day, you're doing the wrong thing.

It's like people who want to start a business and they're reading about "How to hire/fire employees"... in the beginning, your goal is to learn how to make money, not worry about "fastlane" or not.

Perhaps MJ won't agree...but, after 4 years of 'action-faking' with businesses that made $0...now I wake up working for myself with more money in the bank than I ever had as an employee. Now, I'm more confident than ever (and wiser) that I could start any business I want tomorrow.

Any business can become a fastlane business. But, even MJ's business didn't start out Fastlane. He worked like a dog for years.

 

[GuestUser091]

Pick one thing, and stick with it, see it through to the end, don't keep changing what you're doing until you decide that this can't go any further and learn from your mistakes then adjust. If it succeeds, awesome, now go do the next thing!

Essentially what I'm doing.

Reading "The E-Myth Revisited" will help give you some perspective into this problem.

Read like 80% of it, have two hours left of it on audio. Good book, all about systemetizing shit.

Gary Vaynerchuk owns a marketing agency with 3 locations and 600 employees. I don't think he is stuck in one city and he probably makes more than 5 million a year. Hell his payroll is probably way higher than $5 million/year.

Gary Vee also started out busting his a$$ doing none other than ecommerce for his dad's wine business for a decade+. There's a lot of reservations I have about expanding my marketing business and one of them is that I really don't have much digital marketing experience under my belt that would warrant me the expert level fees to hire employees and build an organization. Gary Vee didn't get to his level of marketing expertise by just starting a marketing company as his first business, no he built an actual business then went to helping building others.

I think building my marketing company further would be like the equivalent of a 21 year old life coach.
"So, what have you achieved in life to warrant you coaching my life?"
21 year old life coach: "Well, I became a life coach and have a bunch of clients!"

I'd rather not consider seriously scaling my company until I have something I say I built successfully with my marketing techniques (like an ecommerce site which I'm working on now).

 

[GuestUser091]

Day 21 6/6/17
Current Goal:
PRIMARY: 25 hours of work on business between 6/4 and 6/8

Current Ventures:
-a general shopify dropshipping store
-a social media marketing company *(essentially a job, no intentions of growing it)

Hours Worked on Business Today (breaks not included): 3.75 hours

Earnings: $8
$8= monthly profits ($240 monthly/30 days= $8/day) from my marketing company

Summary of Business Action Taken Today (Approximate)
-woke up at 1:40PM

-did all the accounting for the past 2 weeks

-did the social media planning for the next week

-30 minutes in an ad copywriting course

-saw that one of my fb ads was completely f*cked up, the link in the ad wasn’t even leading to the product page on website, rather, the friggen homepage. Facepalm

-figured out how to get my products and their variants to import from shopify to facebook. YES! I wanted to do this so bad because I think I can get some killer sales with this, now I FINALLY figured it out.

-went to bed at 3AM

Big Business Items for Tomorrow:
-fix my current ad campaigns and add 1-3+ more with new products to test

-figure out what to do with my Instagram niche accounts

Day 22 6/7/17
Current Goal:
PRIMARY: 25 hours of work on business between 6/4 and 6/8

Current Ventures:
-a general shopify dropshipping store
-a social media marketing company *(essentially a job, no intentions of growing it)

Hours Worked on Business Today (breaks not included): 9 hours

Earnings: $8
$8= monthly profits ($240 monthly/30 days= $8/day) from my marketing company

Summary of Business Action Taken Today (Approximate)
-woke up at 2:50PM (Need to investigate why I slept 3 hours past the alarm, to all your joy)

-fixed my current campaign ads and made them sexy converting machines. Also, did a nice split test on a few. Spending $25 a day on adspend across 4 adsets so I should hopefully get mofo sales now.

-found an interesting, but possible oversaturated niche that I’m gonna enter anyways and see if it works. Set up a test ad split test for that.

-going to bed at 6:26AM now

Big Business Items for Tomorrow:
-set up 3 new product campaigns

 

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[CareCPA]

I've been following this thread to see how it ends, I'm hoping it ends in massive dropshipping sales for you and you prove us all wrong.

Just to clarify, have you sold any drop-shipped products yet? I see a lot of ad testing, but no mention of conversion rates to sales.

 

[amp0193]

What value are you giving by drop-shipping from Aliexpress?

Selling people stuff they otherwise would never know about.

sold my dropshipping store... The niche was fidget toys.

I lost it when I read this.

Really? Fidget Toys is something that people would otherwise never know about?


In your next shop, niche down and stay away from the trends that everyone and their grandma is well aware of.

Be a leader, not a follower.

 

[GMSI7D]

Perhaps MJ won't agree...but, after 4 years of 'action-faking' with businesses that made $0...now I wake up working for myself with more money in the bank than I ever had as an employee. Now, I'm more confident than ever (and wiser) that I could start any business I want tomorrow.

.

yes , authors Robert Kiyosaki and Eben Pagan says that the road should be

employee---> self employed for a few years ---> business owner--> investor

trying to jump from employee to business owner right away is very risky because the mindset is totaly different


this is like saying to a random private in the us army :

" look, we decided that you are now a General. you are in charge of the united states armies. good luck "

what will happen ?

a disaster

we need a gap.

 

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[GuestUser091]

Just to clarify, have you sold any drop-shipped products yet? I see a lot of ad testing, but no mention of conversion rates to sales.

Yes, I've had sales. About $100 in April at the beginning of the fidget toys trend before it got saturated. I was also running my first business at the time which I sold to my friend at the beginning of May. Now I'm full into ecom.

I've been following this thread to see how it ends, I'm hoping it ends in massive dropshipping sales for you and you prove us all wrong.

Will gladly have fun doing so.

yes , authors Robert Kiyosaki and Eben Pagan says that the road should be

employee---> self employed for a few years ---> business owner--> investor

Interesting advice. Never was an employee unless you count the hundreds of hours I spent doing community service as penance for my criminal activities.

 

[GuestUser091]

Day 23 6/8/17
Current Goal:
PRIMARY: 25 hours of work on business between 6/4 and 6/8 --SUCESSFULLY COMPLETED (yesterday actually put me above 26 hours)

Current Ventures:
-a general shopify dropshipping store
-a social media marketing company *(essentially a job, no intentions of growing it)

Hours Worked on Business Today (breaks not included): 0 hours

Earnings: $8
$8= monthly profits ($240 monthly/30 days= $8/day) from my marketing company

Summary of Business Action Taken Today (Approximate)
-took the day off, passed my “25 hours in 5 days” target yesterday so I took the needed break

Big Business Items for Tomorrow:
-fix my current ad campaigns and add 1-3+ more with new products to test

Grade for the Day: F (25%) It was a semi productive day off, read 12% more of The Millionaire Fastlane , studied some history. Less debauchery than usual on my days off but still bad because I didn’t really do anything.

Day 24 6/9/17
Current Goal:
PRIMARY: 30 hours of work on business in 5 days (6/9-6/13)
AUXILARY: Start at least 2 new Facebook product ad campaigns a day for 4 days (6/10-6-13)

Current Ventures:
-a general Shopify ecommerce store
-a social media marketing company *(essentially a job, no intentions of growing it)

Hours Worked on Business Today (breaks not included): 8.4 hours

Earnings: $8
$8= monthly profits ($240 monthly/30 days= $8/day) from my marketing company

Summary of Business Action Taken Today (Approximate)
-woke up at 3PM
-was so distressed and eager to make progress that I started working as soon as I got out of bed
-relaunched a new version of an old product campaign, last chance to make it work on a product I really think should be selling
-launched a new product and ad campaign that I think might be killer (but then again, I think almost every product I launch is a winner so who knows, only the market knows)
-watched a fair deal of ecommerce videos and advice. I’d say 70% of this was productive, 30% perhaps a bit overboard and action-faking.
-going to bed now at 2:56AM

Big Business Items for Tomorrow:
-set up 2+ new product campaigns

Grade for the Day: C- (70%)—It was a decent day, not terrible by any standards, but just below average to what I find acceptable. A bit of action-faking and lost focus by the end of the day. I started a new product campaign so that’s good. But I really think I should be able to launch atleast two new products and ad campaigns per day. I’ve been hesitating a little because the adspend without sales is a bitch, but F*ck it, everyone is saying you should expect to blow about $1000 of money to get your Facebook ad “education” through failed campaigns and such.

 

[GuestUser091]

Day 25 6/10/17
Current Goal:
PRIMARY: 30 hours of work on business in 5 days (6/9-6/13)

Current Ventures:
-a general shopify dropshipping store
-a social media marketing company *(essentially a job, no intentions of growing it)

Hours Worked on Business Today (breaks not included): 0 hours

Earnings: $8
$8= monthly profits ($240 monthly/30 days= $8/day) from my marketing company

Summary of Business Action Taken Today (Approximate)
-nothing

Big Business Items for Tomorrow:
-no plans made

Grade for the Day: F (10%) lost the day to a pit of documentaries ranging from about Ted Kacynski (read half his manifesto too) to news to various other political documentaries/speakers. The only remotely productive thing I did was read the Facebook meme page of a college I could go to for like a week, just to see the culture of the place. Horrible and terribly offputting, would rather go to prison.

Day 26 6/11/17
Current Goal:
PRIMARY: 30 hours of work on business in 5 days (6/9-6/13)
AUXILARY: Start at least 2 new Facebook product ad campaigns a day for 4 days (6/10-6-13)

Current Ventures:
-a general Shopify ecommerce store
-a social media marketing company *(essentially a job, no intentions of growing it)

Hours Worked on Business Today (breaks not included): 0 hours

Earnings: $8
$8= monthly profits ($240 monthly/30 days= $8/day) from my marketing company

Summary of Business Action Taken Today (Approximate)
-nothing

Big Business Items for Tomorrow:
-no plans made

Grade for the Day: F (0%) Did nothing productive today. Watched everything ranging from Alex Jones to Christopher Hitchens interviews/biographical documentary to Richard Spencer speeches to a documentary on Saddamn Hussain to a documentary on the rise of Hitler to a 3 part documentary on the rise of neoconservatism. Went full academic/victimologist.

What I've learned from being an Academic/Victimologist the Past Two Days
-habits, goals, and progress are extremely fragile. Do the right thing to keep them intact.
-time pressure is good. I thought I got a time extension for the date I needed to be financially independent by (~ plus two months). I won't go into the details but I realized that taking that would be lazy, full of shit, and uncool. I'm focused on making the original deadline that has made me hustle so much as of recent.
-keep focus on what you want. It's easy to get distracted and discouraged, but focusing on your end goal gives you the why for everything and leads you to act.
-if I don't care to read books about it, I probably shouldn't be watching documentaries about it. TV/documentaries don't require you to uphold attention as much as reading does thus is easier to consume unimportant stuff through the medium. It's weird with me because I'm not watching some goofy TV show for entertainment and wasting my time doing that, instead I'm wasting my time watching shit people would say is like "healthy to watch". There's no social stigma about watching BBC documentaries on Saddamn Hussain's rise to power and the life of Ted Kacynski, in fact, it's often encouraged (for the masses atleast). Plenty of social stigma surrounding laying on the couch watching Family Guy and playing Halo. But in the end, both take time away from business. As a side note, I call anything I watch (documentaries, political pundits, whatever) "watching TV" even if I'm watching it on my phone on Youtube precisely because I want to reverse engineer that stigma into what I'm doing. I'm basically a centrist in political belief but I just find the power struggles of politics/history so entertaining and interesting. After a while, I get sick of it (like eating too much cake) and quit. My identity is sorta split in a Dr. Jekyll Mr. Hyde manner where the highest version of myself is working on business, building systems, providing value and the lowest version of my self is an academic/victimological spectator. Out of all the great men in history, I identify most with Marcus Aurelius, the philosopher king, cognizant of the inner/outer world but also a beast in action. I don't know if I will be able to completely kill the alter ego of the academic in me, but I have to mitigate it and direct it to beneficial means so it doesn't become cancerous. If I truly care about neoconservatism, the history of pirates, etc, I should atleast be able to muster the sustained attention required to read books about them. And if I can't read, I don't need.

 

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[scottmsul]

Summary of Business Action Taken Today (Approximate)
-nothing

Big Business Items for Tomorrow:
-no plans made

My God, too lazy to procrastinate.

 

[Argue]

 

[KeepGoin]

Do you want to be scolded here? You seem to have self-awareness underneath it all.

I'm trying to understand you.Do you really know what you need to do deep down and is this entire thread just an action fake? I can't judge you as a person because I have no right to. But maybe you need to forget these updates and work on your mindset. There is a book I've been reading with that exact title dr. carol dweck. Perhaps give it a read. I'm in your position with terms of commitment and it has helped me.

 

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[ZeroToOne]

You know, I'd actually like to see something come from this thread, since you seem to be persistently posting and it would be a hell of a turn around. Your energy seems horribly misdirected though.

Current Goal: PRIMARY: 30 hours of work on business in 5 days

read 12% more of The Millionaire Fastlane

watched a fair deal of ecommerce videos and advice. I’d say 70% of this was productive, 30% perhaps a bit overboard and action-faking.

I was reminded of the following post, and I'd recommend reading the whole thread (or re-reading it if you've already gone through it before):

Don't read. Do something. Hit the pavement yo.

Do one thing every day that gets you closer to acquiring a customer.

No customer=no business. People seem to miss that concept quite often.

Forget my mental masturbation threads and try to get ONE customer.

Things you DON'T need to do to get ONE customer:
1. Create a logo
2. File for an LLC
3. Buy a fancy suit
4. Read books

Things you DO need to do to get ONE customer:
1. Sell
2. Follow up
3. Sell
4. Follow up
5. Sell

 

[Dunkafelics]

@LordPhenny I read through most of this thinking it was a GOLD post lol.

Take it from a guy who wasted a lot of years being a wantrepreneur, you need to really determine if this is for you and that you really are built to do this at this stage of your life right now.

You have a ton of amazing individuals here who want to help you and also want you to avoid the mistakes we've all made.

You are making $8 a day. Eventually that nest egg you've built up will dry up and you will be hurting for funds if your situation does not change.

It is okay to get a job my friend for the time being. Keep working on your business ideas and keep pushing hard. I look at your posts and really don't think you've had that "f you" moment where you want this over anything else.