I think after 5 years I quit but what's next?

[sparechange]

Nobody cares what you want, the market cares what it wants

 

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[thefreedomoption]

Hey man I feel you on the grinding without real results.Nobody can tell you if entrepreneurship is for you or not. It's a decision only you can make. I would advise pivoting . If your not seeing success dropshipping after a few years try something else, how many ventures/ swings at bat have you taken over the years?

For myself and many others here their is no other option . It's either unscripted or homelessness. I don't believe having your foot half out the door is beneficial at all. The question is could you really quit? Once you remove the blindfold it is very difficult to forget and go back to the normal life. The fastlane will always be there in the back of your head.Once you see the truth it is very difficult to live the rest of your days in a lie. whats your end goal? what does happiness look like to you? the dream life?

You sticking it out for 5 years is a indicator that you believe it can happen. Take that belief and run with it keep pushing and pivoting .The real question is when your an old man on his deathbed will you regret your decision to quit?

 

[Timmy C]

Let OP chill out.

Come back at the end of a month after he has done some thinking.

 

[LiveEntrepreneur]

View attachment 34520

Nobody cares what you want, the market cares what it wants

Yeah i know man its just been fustrating. Keeps getting more challenging.

 

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[LiveEntrepreneur]

Hey man I feel you on the grinding without real results.Nobody can tell you if entrepreneurship is for you or not. It's a decision only you can make. I would advise pivoting . If your not seeing success dropshipping after a few years try something else, how many ventures/ swings at bat have you taken over the years?

For myself and many others here their is no other option . It's either unscripted or homelessness. I don't believe having your foot half out the door is beneficial at all. The question is could you really quit? Once you remove the blindfold it is very difficult to forget and go back to the normal life. The fastlane will always be there in the back of your head.Once you see the truth it is very difficult to live the rest of your days in a lie. whats your end goal? what does happiness look like to you? the dream life?

You sticking it out for 5 years is a indicator that you believe it can happen. Take that belief and run with it keep pushing and pivoting .The real question is when your an old man on his deathbed will you regret your decision to quit?

Regret is something im worried. I cant predict the future but i try make decisions so i dont have regrets later. But its not that simple unfortunently.

Ive done about 4 ideas. And spent too much time failing to learn programming in the beginning because for some reason i thought i needed to learn it to get where i want to be.

 

[LiveEntrepreneur]

Maybe you need to get out of the dropshipping space and find something that will create some purpose rather than a means of just bringing in money.

Sometimes it takes time to find something that creates a fire in your belly. But it's an uphill struggle if you don't have something that excites you enough to make you want to get out of bed in the mornings. Time for some serious reflection I think.

I was thinking something like that. i did have some value bringing ideas to the market to solve a problem but its a problem which i havent even solved for myself lol let alone others.

 

[LiveEntrepreneur]

Where do you want to be?

What makes you think the product is the problem?

Sometimes it takes a while to hear the market echo. But if you're 100% convinced you're building something valuable, you can run on that energy while results might be visible months/years later. Especially if you're convinced this will bring you to your personal goals. If you're money chasing, trying to sell products that nobody wants to buy just to make a short term profit, you'll run out of energy very quick.

Where do you want to be in 1 - 5 - 10 years? What is your big hairy audacious goal? Why is it worth it for you? What steps would you have to take to get there? What steps can you take today to get you to where you want to be 1 - 5 - 10 years from now? What service/product could you offer that would create massive value for you customers? What problems can you solve, what needs can you fill?

I had the goal of being financially free by the age of 30. Had this goal since 18 yeara old. the reason i think the product os the problem because from research ive done and people on this forum they all say 99% of the time its the product.

 

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[LiveEntrepreneur]

I’m interested in what @eliquid and @Lex DeVille would say. @Almantas too.

Does getting market feedback motivate you? Like a heartfelt thank-you note from someone you’ve helped? I get those occasionally and they are super motivating and inspiring.

As for attention/self-motivation. I seem to go in cycles. I immerse myself in something for a week, come up for air, then immerse myself in something different for another week. Like full-on tinkering till the wee hours or consuming YouTube videos and podcasts - without realising time is flying by.

I then naturally get bored/tired of it (I liken this to coming up for air).

I then dive into one of my other 3-4 projects that I’m simultaneously working on and immerse myself in that for a week.

Each month I move each of those projects forward and it’s not the complete shiny object syndrome it seems. All the projects are related, and I try to get something achieved that can be left on autopilot till I come back to review the results.

Sure, it might look like I’m going round in circles, but I’m laying bricks each week and building my moat higher each month.

So this is how I naturally keep motivated and working each week. (Although I don’t think working till the wee hours is a badge of honour... I was just illustrating how I lean into what fascinates me.)


Oh, and I have a dozen or so clients which brings a lot of variety.

And I participate in the forum and a few Facebook groups as my “break” from work.

And I message a lot of people in my network which helps keep me going as well as sane.

Do you regularly communicate with people? Do you have a handful of comrades in arms that you’re chatting to daily?


What’s on your list of “things to figure out”? I’ve a big list still, and a lot of them are progress threads in the forum that I round-robin between rather than keep on plugging away at just one.

Well it does feel good when i give great customer service to customers. Usually they would blow up quickly after not recieving their product but id calm them down instantly after one email and they even they apologize for their behaviour lol. Even if i have to do a refund they seem happy in the end after the service thay was provided. Always a good feeling.

 

[LiveEntrepreneur]

Ive a

Thanks


Sound like it could be a few things.

1. Do you have realistic expectations? If it's to be richer than Warren Buffet, than maybe that's why your 1% is an unhappy movement.

2. How bad do you really want it?

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsSC2vx7zFQ


I know I would for sure be in the water, holding my breath and passing out. How about you? How bad do you really want it?

You ready to pass out from work over this? You want this more than air?

I have some pretty big goals. Things don't always work out for me like I planned. Because of this I was up from 7am until 4am ( the next day ) working. I got 3 hours of sleep last night. I have a migraine and no time to be running my son some money while he is stuck in Poland today, but I did it and came back and doubled up the work I missed out on.

I didn't take a day off like my brother-in-law would have. I didn't tell my son I couldn't find the time to send him money or tell my clients/business partner I needed time off to run to the bank. I didn't lay in bed or get distracted from the pain behind my eyes.

I didn't look for another business idea because I couldn't make the one I am on not work. You just do WTF you gotta do.

No one is coming to your rescue, so you just do it.

I haven't eaten in 2 days. Not because I can't or because I didn't have the time.. I was working and forgot. FORGOT. You ever want something so bad you FORGOT to eat? I have and I do it all the time. It's how I started intermittent fasting. I didn't do it for my health, it's just what happens.

Is this bad for my health? Maybe. My goals are more important though. Kinda like the video on how bad do you want it. What are you ready to give up ( if anything ) to get that goal.

If it's only mild comfort like you're willing to give up a Saturday afternoon of drinking, you ain't going to get anywhere. If you're ready to give up everything you have ever known and ever will know to play the game, you might get somewhere with it.

Past that, I think you may be chasing goals instead of actually making them. Real goals that fit you. You need to read this about 30 times in the next week and find out what actually fits you and what you want and can do:

GOLD! - MINDSET - Not Fulfilled? Depressed? Maybe You Need An Alignment

I'm sticking my neck out here because I know that SOME people will consider this topic along the same lines of "action-faking", "passion following", and other guru life coaching BS. Yes this will be a massive post, covering several posts actually. It gets deep and gets into tapping emotions...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

And Facebook Ads? Losing $800 is nothing.

Facebook needs about 50 events in less than a week to start optimizing things for you. If you want conversions you need 50 conversions for FB to start to kick in. Seems like you got 50 ATC's which is nothing.

You need to keep losing money before you really know what you have.

I've spent $500k of my own money on FB ads recently ( out of my own pocket ) and close to $10m in client's money for FB ads in the past 12 months. If you got a decent product, good copy, and a process to collect money after the sale ( funnels ), you can make most things work.

Find a way to get those 50 conversions, but do all the other stuff I said above too

.

ACtually spent 20k on the business all up a large portion is fv ads also google ads. ive never been able to answer the question of how badly i want it because i dont know the answer. But these days it seems less and less.

I had a fb ads expert tell me the 50 conversions per week is not true and ita old news?

 

[Ocean Man]

Thanks


Sound like it could be a few things.

1. Do you have realistic expectations? If it's to be richer than Warren Buffet, than maybe that's why your 1% is an unhappy movement.

2. How bad do you really want it?

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsSC2vx7zFQ


I know I would for sure be in the water, holding my breath and passing out. How about you? How bad do you really want it?

You ready to pass out from work over this? You want this more than air?

I have some pretty big goals. Things don't always work out for me like I planned. Because of this I was up from 7am until 4am ( the next day ) working. I got 3 hours of sleep last night. I have a migraine and no time to be running my son some money while he is stuck in Poland today, but I did it and came back and doubled up the work I missed out on.

I didn't take a day off like my brother-in-law would have. I didn't tell my son I couldn't find the time to send him money or tell my clients/business partner I needed time off to run to the bank. I didn't lay in bed or get distracted from the pain behind my eyes.

I didn't look for another business idea because I couldn't make the one I am on not work. You just do WTF you gotta do.

No one is coming to your rescue, so you just do it.

I haven't eaten in 2 days. Not because I can't or because I didn't have the time.. I was working and forgot. FORGOT. You ever want something so bad you FORGOT to eat? I have and I do it all the time. It's how I started intermittent fasting. I didn't do it for my health, it's just what happens.

Is this bad for my health? Maybe. My goals are more important though. Kinda like the video on how bad do you want it. What are you ready to give up ( if anything ) to get that goal.

If it's only mild comfort like you're willing to give up a Saturday afternoon of drinking, you ain't going to get anywhere. If you're ready to give up everything you have ever known and ever will know to play the game, you might get somewhere with it.

Past that, I think you may be chasing goals instead of actually making them. Real goals that fit you. You need to read this about 30 times in the next week and find out what actually fits you and what you want and can do:

GOLD! - MINDSET - Not Fulfilled? Depressed? Maybe You Need An Alignment

I'm sticking my neck out here because I know that SOME people will consider this topic along the same lines of "action-faking", "passion following", and other guru life coaching BS. Yes this will be a massive post, covering several posts actually. It gets deep and gets into tapping emotions...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

And Facebook Ads? Losing $800 is nothing.

Facebook needs about 50 events in less than a week to start optimizing things for you. If you want conversions you need 50 conversions for FB to start to kick in. Seems like you got 50 ATC's which is nothing.

You need to keep losing money before you really know what you have.

I've spent $500k of my own money on FB ads recently ( out of my own pocket ) and close to $10m in client's money for FB ads in the past 12 months. If you got a decent product, good copy, and a process to collect money after the sale ( funnels ), you can make most things work.

Find a way to get those 50 conversions, but do all the other stuff I said above too

.

Jeez, I remember listening to that song every night in my car along with some other motivational speeches. That was maybe 7-8 years ago. Time flies...

 

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[Kevin88660]

I'll try not to bitch and moan on this thread but it's been about 5 years since I've started this journey I'm not even 1% to getting where I want to be. My most recent effort includes running a dropshipping store for a year learning some really great stuff about marketing and business probably the best experience I've had so far where I've generated over 150 sales (not much and at a massive loss) and I recently started another store where same thing except I was almost profitable among my facebook ad sets I've tested lots of products but nothing that has gotten me to a profitable stage.

Recently I had a product that had over 50 add to carts but no purchases (over $800 in profit lost) and I think it may be the product that is the problem but I'm not sure. But either way I've lost all energy to go forward. I thought a break is what I needed but I noticed no matter how many breaks I took, I would be back to square one.

I got a bunch of value providing ideas written down, but I get the feeling the same cycle would continue of no motivation, energy, etc. I don't know what to do next just looking for some advice if possible. While I don't feel like working on any projects at the same time when I don't it's affecting my quality of life much more where I'm bringing my personal problems to my workplace and it's affecting my mood and day. Starting to think have I just been on the wrong road the entire time?

Maybe just not drop-shipping?

There are many trends these days that are internet related.

-Content creation
-digital marketing
-software related to work from home trend

Take a break and start another war later. There is always another day.

 

[Timmy C]

Take some time OP.

I honestly think you need some self-reflection.

Think about your journey, relax, list what you have done, what hasn't worked, what you believe would have been a more effective strategy.

You most likely have all the answers if you ask yourself the tough questions, and take some time to mull it over.

You are at a point where I think procrastinating over what you have done will be beneficial.

 

[sparechange]

Yeah i know man its just been fustrating. Keeps getting more challenging.

I'm not saying entrepreneurship is easy, but it's easy. Get it? Refer to the last quote in my sig from MJ and think about it.

Sell a product or service that people want and you win the money.

Done deal.

 

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[AFMKelvin]

I'm in no position to tell you what to do next, but if you want you can PM me your store and I'll tell you what I think. I had miserably failed with 4 stores but I kinda changed my mindset in terms of eCommerce and finally things are starting to click ($6k last month with 20% profit. Not really a big achievement but after losing thousands of $$, it's something)

Can you tell us more about your mindset shift?

 

[Bearcorp]

Give yourself some credit, your ventures may not have been successful but you've had some experience out of this so far, more than anyone in the world thats never attempted anything, you've made sales, had paying customers... I agree with @Timmy C, take a break, relax and have some time out, refresh and get ready to go again. You already know you've been chasing money rather than trying to create value, so you're not quite on the money yet (no pun intended) but you aren't far away.

I thought MJ used to have a video on his You Tube of the analogy of a baseballer stepping up to the plate, maybe he still does I couldn't find it though. You have to keep swinging, its ok to rest your body and your mind, but then you have to get back on the plate. Could be the very next swing that gets you a home run, but you won't know if you're in the bleachers eating hotdogs and drinking beers.

 

[JByers210]

I'm not sure how the local, mostly offline business opportunities are in Australia (if you actually live there)... but check out how @Johnny boy and @GravyBoat are running offline service businesses and killing it.

I ran an ecom biz for a few years... I totally committed to my offline hustle this year and I've had more success and growth than ever before... it's not even close.

Something to think about.

 

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[sparechange]

Give yourself some credit, your ventures may not have been successful but you've some experience out of this so far, more than anyone in the world thats never attempted anything, you've made sales, had paying customers... I agree with @Timmy C, take a break, relax and have some time out, refresh and get ready to go again. You already know you've been chasing money rather than trying to create value, so you're not quite on the money yet (no pun intended) but you aren't far away.

I thought MJ used to have a video on his You Tube of the analogy of a baseballer stepping up to the plate, maybe he still does I couldn't find it though. You have to keep swinging, its ok to rest your body and your mind, but then you have to get back on the plate. Could be the very next swing that gets you a home run, but you won't know if you're in the bleachers eating hotdogs and drinking beers.

One of my favorite ones, I was playing some basketball with it playing on my iphone laughing so hard at his voice impressions It's this one

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDniLwHktXY

Baseball is an amazing comparison to entrepreneurship. You could fail and fail (bat .300) and hit ONE homerun that makes you millions of dollars

 

[sparechange]

For anyone struggling with mindset its mandatory reading or listening to Grant Cardones 10x and Felix Dennis's How to get rich book.

Besides TMF & Unscripted they are some of my favorites

 

[Bearcorp]

One of my favorite ones, I was playing some basketball with it playing on my iphone laughing so hard at his voice impressions It's this one

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDniLwHktXY

Baseball is an amazing comparison to entrepreneurship. You could fail and fail (bat .300) and hit ONE homerun that makes you millions of dollars

Thats the one! I didn't look hard enough

 

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[Simon Angel]

Well here's your problem, you managed to get some sales albeit at a loss and you've already given up (regardless of whether it's dropshipping).

Imagine if you stuck with it and eventually operated neither at a loss nor profit.

And after a few more tweaks and increase in your understanding - you'd be profiting.

Everyone trashes on dropshipping here (and it's not uncalled for) but I do have a friend who's doing 7 figures a MONTH. So since you did something as stupid as trying to START dropshipping in 2020 (you're about 4 years late) and you've already invested a good amount of money into it, why not just stick with it and allow others to help you once asked?

Post your store, Facebook Ads library and the product page so we can see what's up with your funnel and why you had 50 ATCs and no sales. I even asked if it's US traffic or from a third world country and you decided to ignore all of the above while your last few posts are just you feeling sorry for yourself.

What exactly is your goal here, to learn from your (costly) mistakes or to ditch everything because it's too hard and garner sympathy? Maybe you really aren't cut out for this.

 

[LiveEntrepreneur]

I'm not saying entrepreneurship is easy, but it's easy. Get it? Refer to the last quote in my sig from MJ and think about it.

Sell a product or service that people want and you win the money.

Done deal.

You mean it's easy in the fact it's easier than working a 9-5 for 40 years? That's the only thing i can think of.

 

[LiveEntrepreneur]

Well here's your problem, you managed to get some sales albeit at a loss and you've already given up (regardless of whether it's dropshipping).

Imagine if you stuck with it and eventually operated neither at a loss nor profit.

And after a few more tweaks and increase in your understanding - you'd be profiting.

Everyone trashes on dropshipping here (and it's not uncalled for) but I do have a friend who's doing 7 figures a MONTH. So since you did something as stupid as trying to START dropshipping in 2020 (you're about 4 years late) and you've already invested a good amount of money into it, why not just stick with it and allow others to help you once asked?

Post your store, Facebook Ads library and the product page so we can see what's up with your funnel and why you had 50 ATCs and no sales. I even asked if it's US traffic or from a third world country and you decided to ignore all of the above while your last few posts are just you feeling sorry for yourself.

What exactly is your goal here, to learn from your (costly) mistakes or to ditch everything because it's too hard and garner sympathy? Maybe you really aren't cut out for this.

I ran the business for a year. I spoke with a facebook ads expert my niche was very limited and said there weren't many products to choose from and the ones that i did test weren't profitable. Sorry about not answering your question wasn't on purpose just alot of information. but yes the traffic was from the U.S.

I knew I started my business for the wrong reason but I was getting desperate to make some progress.

I've learned from the mistakes I've made but my goal at this point I'm not sure.

 

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[LiveEntrepreneur]

I saw someone comment about how the whole hustle culture is toxic. My definition of hustle culture would be something to the effect of: The typical internet youtube guru who brags about how he works 80 hour weeks, has 3 businesses and is launching a 4th, and preaches to never stop hustling. He says jobs are for losers, and if you work one youre just another rat in the race. Lock your self in your house, work hard and grind.

At least thats what I've subscribed to the last 5 years or so.

What are you doing for an income right now? Maybe you should really think about what interests you career wise. Are you interested in sales? Marketing? Cars? Guitars? Guns? Beer? Video games?

Maybe you should get another job/source of income in a field that you're interested in, so that you can see some of the issues within the industry. In other words, Domain experience.

I know that for the past 5 years of my own journey (funny enough we started around the same time), I always thought that getting a job to get experience was giving up on my entrepreneurial dreams. It's not. Especially if you're young and don't have a bunch of financial obligations.

It can be hard to see opportunity when you're in the same rut at the same job every day.

Or maybe you can freelance with your skillset of marketing. I was doing dropshipping for a few years, and I know that I have a ton of experience with direct response marketing. Maybe you can help businesses in your area with their FB and google ads.

It sounds to me like you're frustrated, probably because you have really high expectations from all of the internet gurus who brag that they became a millionaire at 22. Then you think "shit, i'm 31 and I've been doing this for 5 years, why am I not as successful as this kid?

I don't think that you shouldn't be an entrepreneur. I just think you need to get reinvigorated somehow. Make a change in your life, wether its where you live, your job, your business, something.

It also sounds like you're just so fixated on making this work, that youre getting burnt out. Try to do at least one fun and/or new thing per week to break up the monotony. It'll also help you refresh your mind so you're not as frustrated/burnt out.

I was re-reading what you wrote and there is some truth to

It sounds to me like you're frustrated, probably because you have really high expectations from all of the internet gurus who brag that they became a millionaire at 22. Then you think "shit, i'm 31 and I've been doing this for 5 years, why am I not as successful as this kid?

I think there was always a part of me when i was younger that said "shit, these guys are killing it at 23 and have their life sorted I want to be like them, anything less I don't consider an accomplishment"

 

[OneLife]

Can you tell us more about your mindset shift?

What most people do when they try dropshipping is they "chase winning products" that they see on some spy software/fb feed/guru's video about "SELL THOSE 30 PRODUCTS NOW"..

Now although you can obviously succeed with some of these products if you're doing a good job with the other aspects (your offer, store, your marketing) - it feels like trying to run outside with a blindfold.

Instead of chasing winning products, create winning products. Start with your target audience first, (pick your niche) then learn about them - what their pains are, what keeps them up at night, how do they talk, what they are already buying etc.

Then once you have a basic understanding of your target audience, you find solutions for them - products that can not only solve their problems, but also that fill the criteria for successful 'potential' products. (Good quality, has some kind of a 'wow' factor, good margins etc etc)

That's in a nutshell.

 

[Andy Black]

What most people do when they try dropshipping is they "chase winning products" that they see on some spy software/fb feed/guru's video about "SELL THOSE 30 PRODUCTS NOW"..

Now although you can obviously succeed with some of these products if you're doing a good job with the other aspects (your offer, store, your marketing) - it feels like trying to run outside with a blindfold.

Instead of chasing winning products, create winning products. Start with your target audience first, (pick your niche) then learn about them - what their pains are, what keeps them up at night, how do they talk, what they are already buying etc.

Then once you have a basic understanding of your target audience, you find solutions for them - products that can not only solve their problems, but also that fill the criteria for successful 'potential' products. (Good quality, has some kind of a 'wow' factor, good margins etc etc)

That's in a nutshell.

Nice. As discussed here:

• [Article Discussion] - The "Audience First" Strategy

 

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[Burton]

Hey man, I'm pretty sure I understand what you feel and I want to show you part of my journey with some insights so you should understand that it is what it is if you picked this lonely, narrow road.

Let's start with that I was still working shitty jobs two years ago like pizza delivery man, warehouse worker, and so on. I dropped twice from college, I knew it's not a good place for me but my family pushed me to play with that anyway. I didn't even think entrepreneurship might be for me as I was told life is about getting a degree and working in a corporation. Everything has changed since I read TMF for the first time and joined this forum in mid-2018.

This is what I have tried during the previous two years:

Consultancy (success) - I started with this one after leaving my warehouse job. I learned to program myself and after a few months found a company that I could work for. It's still a thing I do on a daily basis but as a one-man-army. I'm self-employed and I help startups from across Europe with their apps developments. In addition, I'm having a good results with providing my services and making really decent money as for my country's standards. What shocked me this year the most was that one venture-backed startup from the marine industry replaced their CTO who had ~12 years experience with my services.

I heard a few times from my old friends something like "You got lucky with this". Well, I think the same but I created that luck for me by failing a lot and trying, and trying, and trying... I knew nothing about programming when I started out and I struggled a lot to learn it on my own. I was having a hard time hearing I'm not born to be a programmer when I was trying to find my first job. I felt bad when I tried to expand my consultancy to a bigger business and I failed.

What can be strange for you is that I don't like doing it. I had to start somewhere so I picked what was interesting for me and what might lead to another thing (it did). I'm definitely not a good fit for freelancing or building a consultancy business because it doesn't fulfill me. But now it gives me the flexibility and more money than I need to cover my monthly expenses so I'm in a perfect spot to try something else. That's why I treat it as a success.

Flipping cars from the US (failure) - even that it made me the most money it's still a failure for me, let's find out why. Briefly, I was already sitting on some cash from my programming hustles, and I wanted to multiply that somehow. I had a possibility to learn this and that from my dad about flipping cars (he was doing the same but with cars from Europe). I got into partnership with a transport company from New Jersey and the second one from Bremerhaven (later Rotterdam). They do all the work that needs to be done to transport a car from auction place to my home in Poland. As for repair damages it wasn't a big deal because I was using my dad's connections to fix them, in addition, I always targeted cars with small damages. I knew that the more expensive a car is the bigger profits are so what I did? Yeah, I took a 120k PLN loan and wipe out all of my savings to buy the first car which was almost brand new BMW M3 with "undercarriage damages". There was info on the auction site that the engine starts but there were no images of the damage itself so I thought "well, it is probably something with suspension". And it was but that's not all. It was true that the engine starts but it occurred to be broken. I think that car might be running without oil because there were just a few screws and a piece of plastic from the oil pan. In addition, the gearbox was broken as well. To sum up, I lost about 60k PLN on that deal and had some problems later on because I didn't tell the guy who bought it that the engine and gearbox were replaced. It wasn't fair but I just wanted to make any money back.

Did I quit? No, I said let's try one more time but I found a guy who can check the car damages and documents in detail before the auction starts. I started importing a bit less expensive Audi cars firstly, then I jumped to more sports ones and I was able to sell most of them with really good profits even before I get them to Poland. I have way more money than I needed - and that was a problem.

My brain got really f*cked up. I started to live above my means including expensive trips, clothes, exhausting parties with drugs, cars, going to restaurants and paying for everyone with me, and so on. I thought entrepreneurship and making decent money is about that, well it's at least on Instagram. There was a moment where I was sitting on 4 sports cars at a time, I was so stupid that I came to an idea - let's buy a Rolex (every entrepreneur should have a Rolex on his hand right?) and I did it. But I bought an Omega watch as well because I got a discount by buying them together. And you know what's funny? I bought them from a guy who wanted to sell mostly everything he had because he went bankrupt with his company due to doing the same stupid shit I was doing.

What's the end of that? I started to hate that business and my lifestyle, I also jumped into to some troubles because at some point I imported too many cars and I couldn't sell them all, I started borrowing money from random people because banks didn't want to give me more credit. I was exhausted mentally and physically, I was depressed and I became anxious and nervous because I was thinking about what everyone else will think about me if I lose what I have and go back to where I was. Fortunately, I was able to sell mostly all of the imported cars including my ones, and pay off the credits and loans from other people. I still have mental problems from that time, I think mostly from drugs and the stressful end of that business. However, I got a good life experience from that and I have learned a lot. Maybe not about business but about what I truly want in life.

By the way, I'm not fully out of that business but I don't invest my own money in it, it's not for me. What I do is I help my friends to make money by doing that (I share my connections and experience) and I sometimes organize the whole process of importing a car to Poland for a small commission (just for my friends as well).

Luxury car rental company (in progress) - I got into this because of my previous hustle. Why? Firstly because I started to notice that quite a lot of people asked me if they can rent one of my own cars, secondly I saw a growing trend of car rentals in Poland. I was still fixing my life at that time so I got into partnership with a lot older friend who is running a quite big transport company in Europe. We started by renting out my own cars and one of his cars. And it was the first failure, never rent a car that you paid in cash for when you are just starting a rental company, especially with luxury or exotic cars. It makes no sense because you will pay more for insurance, your warranty may not include some of the stuff and you will need cash to grow it. That's why I started to sell my cars one by one and I sold the last one about a month ago. During that time I ordered brand new Mercedes A45S and Mercedes CLA45S which I wanted to lease and there is the second failure. Due to the coronavirus outbreak, my business partner had problems with his company, basically with payments for company cars. I wasn't aware of it as he didn't tell me about that. It led to a situation where I can't get a lease for ordered cars because of his shares in our rental company and his problems. To sum up, I'm waiting for him to fix all the issues in order to get back to business.

As you see there are always some problems but what is great about that venture is that I uncovered a need for something else.

Travel mobile app (failure) - I started it with a guy I met on this forum. He had an idea I had the skills to build it up. Unfortunately, we started from the end, I mean from coding instead of researching, reaching out to potential customers and so on. After a while I had some doubts, he had as well and we together came to the conclusion that we did it wrong and finally we quit the project.

It seems there are no outcomes from that short hustle but they are, and they are big for me. As you read above I don't enjoy freelancing or consulting types of business in the IT world. However, I realized I enjoy building my own software solutions and I already can code almost everything I want so why not try in that field?

What is my focus now?

As I mentioned I uncovered a need during my luxury car rental hustle which is a software product. In addition, I found out that I really enjoy building my own software solutions while I was failing to build a business around a travel mobile app idea. These two hard experiences led to what I'm doing right now and I eventually know what makes me fulfilled and around what I want to build my Fastlane business.

Now, do you see the relationship between my hustles?

- I was a simple guy working shitty jobs,
- Somehow I came across MJ DeMarco books and I joined this forum,
- Motivation from MJ books led me to start a programming job and become a highly paid consultant later on,
- Money from my programming jobs led to flipping cars hustle,
- Despite my hard times because of my stupidity when flipping cars, I was able to uncover another need in the car rental industry and I still work on it,
- I met a guy because of this forum which gave me an idea for an app business that we failed but I eventually found something I enjoy doing and I know I want to build my Fastlane business around that,
- Thanks to the car rental hustle I uncovered a need in that industry that I can solve with software. I already know that I like creating my own software solutions so I'm going to pick that idea and work on that.

What I want to really show you is that without my failures and struggles I won't be where I'm today. I will probably still struggle about what I want to do and around what I want to build my "lifetime" business. I will not know what I like to do and where I can provide value. It all takes time and effort, it will not be easy at all.

There are a few advises for you:

Do not chase money - it doesn't work at all, trust me. In addition, what's the point of chasing money when money will not make you happy. In my case, it made me exhausted and sad because of my stupidity. If you are driven by the money I'm sure you will not get it. Find one thing where you think you can provide the most value to others and stick to that no matter what.

Act small - showing off won't help you in finding happiness and you will not be remembered by doing it. Despite my failures, I still sit on some good money, I sold almost everything I bought during previous years and I feel a lot happier than I was. Mostly because I don't have to care about shitty things and I can focus fully on building my Fastlane business and how can I provide value to others.

Remove all social media from your life - unless you use it for your business. I mean really, you don't need that bunch of bullshit and fake entrepreneurs and it will make it harder for you to achieve it. Try to avoid as many distractions as you can.

Find a mentor - or somebody you can talk to about entrepreneurship stuff. It really helped me and big thanks to @Longinus . Man, I will not be there today if not your insights, lessons, and advice. Including some good time driving my cars together lol.

Take care of your mental and physical health - take it to your heart, you can achieve everything if you have good health. My struggles led me to mental problems and you really want to avoid that. I'm sure you don't want to have intense brain fogs for a few weeks while all your doctors say they don't know what's going on because all of the blood tests and neurological checks are good.

To sum up, keep it up. Fail and try again, there is no other way. And like I always say:

Money without knowledge makes you stupid,
but knowledge without money will make you rich eventually.

Good luck!

 

[Vadim26]

I will make a guess on what the problem is, either:

1) you don't have clear goals;
2) your life outside of entrepreneurship suck.

Regarding point #1:

It sounds like you are waiting for some event to happen after "quitting". What is it?
Why do you want to quit?

You have tried for 5 years and failed. So what? Did you lose a lot of money? Lost time?
You will live with years of regret forever, knowing in the back of your mind - you could have succeeded in business and lived a different life. There's no going back once you know there's something better than a normal job.

Why do you want to be an entrepreneur?
What are you going to do after "making it"?

I ask myself every month/year - why do I do what I do to make sure I am on the right track.
Why do I want to have my own business..? Every time I have the same reasons. It's ingrained in me.


Regarding point #2:

I don't subscribe to the whole hustle culture by working 24/7/365 and purposely avoiding any fun activities. It's not fun.

Do you feel burnt out and have not seen friends in a while?
Do you have a group of friends to hang out with?
How's your relationship with your family?
Do you have a supporting girlfriend?

Aim to have a kick-a$$ life where you progress every day before succeeding in business.
Don't wait for it to magically transform after.

...

You don't have to answer any of these questions here.
Something for you to ponder upon.

 

[LiveEntrepreneur]

Hey man, I'm pretty sure I understand what you feel and I want to show you part of my journey with some insights so you should understand that it is what it is if you picked this lonely, narrow road.

Let's start with that I was still working shitty jobs two years ago like pizza delivery man, warehouse worker, and so on. I dropped twice from college, I knew it's not a good place for me but my family pushed me to play with that anyway. I didn't even think entrepreneurship might be for me as I was told life is about getting a degree and working in a corporation. Everything has changed since I read TMF for the first time and joined this forum in mid-2018.

This is what I have tried during the previous two years:

Consultancy (success) - I started with this one after leaving my warehouse job. I learned to program myself and after a few months found a company that I could work for. It's still a thing I do on a daily basis but as a one-man-army. I'm self-employed and I help startups from across Europe with their apps developments. In addition, I'm having a good results with providing my services and making really decent money as for my country's standards. What shocked me this year the most was that one venture-backed startup from the marine industry replaced their CTO who had ~12 years experience with my services.

I heard a few times from my old friends something like "You got lucky with this". Well, I think the same but I created that luck for me by failing a lot and trying, and trying, and trying... I knew nothing about programming when I started out and I struggled a lot to learn it on my own. I was having a hard time hearing I'm not born to be a programmer when I was trying to find my first job. I felt bad when I tried to expand my consultancy to a bigger business and I failed.

What can be strange for you is that I don't like doing it. I had to start somewhere so I picked what was interesting for me and what might lead to another thing (it did). I'm definitely not a good fit for freelancing or building a consultancy business because it doesn't fulfill me. But now it gives me the flexibility and more money than I need to cover my monthly expenses so I'm in a perfect spot to try something else. That's why I treat it as a success.

Flipping cars from the US (failure) - even that it made me the most money it's still a failure for me, let's find out why. Briefly, I was already sitting on some cash from my programming hustles, and I wanted to multiply that somehow. I had a possibility to learn this and that from my dad about flipping cars (he was doing the same but with cars from Europe). I got into partnership with a transport company from New Jersey and the second one from Bremerhaven (later Rotterdam). They do all the work that needs to be done to transport a car from auction place to my home in Poland. As for repair damages it wasn't a big deal because I was using my dad's connections to fix them, in addition, I always targeted cars with small damages. I knew that the more expensive a car is the bigger profits are so what I did? Yeah, I took a 120k PLN loan and wipe out all of my savings to buy the first car which was almost brand new BMW M3 with "undercarriage damages". There was info on the auction site that the engine starts but there were no images of the damage itself so I thought "well, it is probably something with suspension". And it was but that's not all. It was true that the engine starts but it occurred to be broken. I think that car might be running without oil because there were just a few screws and a piece of plastic from the oil pan. In addition, the gearbox was broken as well. To sum up, I lost about 60k PLN on that deal and had some problems later on because I didn't tell the guy who bought it that the engine and gearbox were replaced. It wasn't fair but I just wanted to make any money back.

Did I quit? No, I said let's try one more time but I found a guy who can check the car damages and documents in detail before the auction starts. I started importing a bit less expensive Audi cars firstly, then I jumped to more sports ones and I was able to sell most of them with really good profits even before I get them to Poland. I have way more money than I needed - and that was a problem.

My brain got really f*cked up. I started to live above my means including expensive trips, clothes, exhausting parties with drugs, cars, going to restaurants and paying for everyone with me, and so on. I thought entrepreneurship and making decent money is about that, well it's at least on Instagram. There was a moment where I was sitting on 4 sports cars at a time, I was so stupid that I came to an idea - let's buy a Rolex (every entrepreneur should have a Rolex on his hand right?) and I did it. But I bought an Omega watch as well because I got a discount by buying them together. And you know what's funny? I bought them from a guy who wanted to sell mostly everything he had because he went bankrupt with his company due to doing the same stupid shit I was doing.

What's the end of that? I started to hate that business and my lifestyle, I also jumped into to some troubles because at some point I imported too many cars and I couldn't sell them all, I started borrowing money from random people because banks didn't want to give me more credit. I was exhausted mentally and physically, I was depressed and I became anxious and nervous because I was thinking about what everyone else will think about me if I lose what I have and go back to where I was. Fortunately, I was able to sell mostly all of the imported cars including my ones, and pay off the credits and loans from other people. I still have mental problems from that time, I think mostly from drugs and the stressful end of that business. However, I got a good life experience from that and I have learned a lot. Maybe not about business but about what I truly want in life.

By the way, I'm not fully out of that business but I don't invest my own money in it, it's not for me. What I do is I help my friends to make money by doing that (I share my connections and experience) and I sometimes organize the whole process of importing a car to Poland for a small commission (just for my friends as well).

Luxury car rental company (in progress) - I got into this because of my previous hustle. Why? Firstly because I started to notice that quite a lot of people asked me if they can rent one of my own cars, secondly I saw a growing trend of car rentals in Poland. I was still fixing my life at that time so I got into partnership with a lot older friend who is running a quite big transport company in Europe. We started by renting out my own cars and one of his cars. And it was the first failure, never rent a car that you paid in cash for when you are just starting a rental company, especially with luxury or exotic cars. It makes no sense because you will pay more for insurance, your warranty may not include some of the stuff and you will need cash to grow it. That's why I started to sell my cars one by one and I sold the last one about a month ago. During that time I ordered brand new Mercedes A45S and Mercedes CLA45S which I wanted to lease and there is the second failure. Due to the coronavirus outbreak, my business partner had problems with his company, basically with payments for company cars. I wasn't aware of it as he didn't tell me about that. It led to a situation where I can't get a lease for ordered cars because of his shares in our rental company and his problems. To sum up, I'm waiting for him to fix all the issues in order to get back to business.

As you see there are always some problems but what is great about that venture is that I uncovered a need for something else.

Travel mobile app (failure) - I started it with a guy I met on this forum. He had an idea I had the skills to build it up. Unfortunately, we started from the end, I mean from coding instead of researching, reaching out to potential customers and so on. After a while I had some doubts, he had as well and we together came to the conclusion that we did it wrong and finally we quit the project.

It seems there are no outcomes from that short hustle but they are, and they are big for me. As you read above I don't enjoy freelancing or consulting types of business in the IT world. However, I realized I enjoy building my own software solutions and I already can code almost everything I want so why not try in that field?

What is my focus now?

As I mentioned I uncovered a need during my luxury car rental hustle which is a software product. In addition, I found out that I really enjoy building my own software solutions while I was failing to build a business around a travel mobile app idea. These two hard experiences led to what I'm doing right now and I eventually know what makes me fulfilled and around what I want to build my Fastlane business.

Now, do you see the relationship between my hustles?

- I was a simple guy working shitty jobs,
- Somehow I came across MJ DeMarco books and I joined this forum,
- Motivation from MJ books led me to start a programming job and become a highly paid consultant later on,
- Money from my programming jobs led to flipping cars hustle,
- Despite my hard times because of my stupidity when flipping cars, I was able to uncover another need in the car rental industry and I still work on it,
- I met a guy because of this forum which gave me an idea for an app business that we failed but I eventually found something I enjoy doing and I know I want to build my Fastlane business around that,
- Thanks to the car rental hustle I uncovered a need in that industry that I can solve with software. I already know that I like creating my own software solutions so I'm going to pick that idea and work on that.

What I want to really show you is that without my failures and struggles I won't be where I'm today. I will probably still struggle about what I want to do and around what I want to build my "lifetime" business. I will not know what I like to do and where I can provide value. It all takes time and effort, it will not be easy at all.

There are a few advises for you:

Do not chase money - it doesn't work at all, trust me. In addition, what's the point of chasing money when money will not make you happy. In my case, it made me exhausted and sad because of my stupidity. If you are driven by the money I'm sure you will not get it. Find one thing where you think you can provide the most value to others and stick to that no matter what.

Act small - showing off won't help you in finding happiness and you will not be remembered by doing it. Despite my failures, I still sit on some good money, I sold almost everything I bought during previous years and I feel a lot happier than I was. Mostly because I don't have to care about shitty things and I can focus fully on building my Fastlane business and how can I provide value to others.

Remove all social media from your life - unless you use it for your business. I mean really, you don't need that bunch of bullshit and fake entrepreneurs and it will make it harder for you to achieve it. Try to avoid as many distractions as you can.

Find a mentor - or somebody you can talk to about entrepreneurship stuff. It really helped me and big thanks to @Longinus . Man, I will not be there today if not your insights, lessons, and advice. Including some good time driving my cars together lol.

Take care of your mental and physical health - take it to your heart, you can achieve everything if you have good health. My struggles led me to mental problems and you really want to avoid that. I'm sure you don't want to have intense brain fogs for a few weeks while all your doctors say they don't know what's going on because all of the blood tests and neurological checks are good.

To sum up, keep it up. Fail and try again, there is no other way. And like I always say:

Money without knowledge makes you stupid,
but knowledge without money will make you rich eventually.

Good luck!

Thanks man. Great story also

 

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[LiveEntrepreneur]

I will make a guess on what the problem is, either:

1) you don't have clear goals;
2) your life outside of entrepreneurship suck.

Regarding point #1:

It sounds like you are waiting for some event to happen after "quitting". What is it?
Why do you want to quit?

You have tried for 5 years and failed. So what? Did you lose a lot of money? Lost time?
You will live with years of regret forever, knowing in the back of your mind - you could have succeeded in business and lived a different life. There's no going back once you know there's something better than a normal job.

Why do you want to be an entrepreneur?
What are you going to do after "making it"?

I ask myself every month/year - why do I do what I do to make sure I am on the right track.
Why do I want to have my own business..? Every time I have the same reasons. It's ingrained in me.


Regarding point #2:

I don't subscribe to the whole hustle culture by working 24/7/365 and purposely avoiding any fun activities. It's not fun.

Do you feel burnt out and have not seen friends in a while?
Do you have a group of friends to hang out with?
How's your relationship with your family?
Do you have a supporting girlfriend?

Aim to have a kick-a$$ life where you progress every day before succeeding in business.
Don't wait for it to magically transform after.

...

You don't have to answer any of these questions here.
Something for you to ponder upon.

Hey man. My life does suck outside entrepreneurship because i hate my job and each day i get angrier at myself for losing my previous job and having lost 2 years working at my current job when i could of had a better one 2 years ago but i made the mistake of not accepting a job offer.

In regards what im going to do after making it i wanted always to help others achieve what i achieved and also focus on my other goals.

Reason i want to quit is im worried im on the wrong road and not seeing any results after years. You start to question yourself "is this for me?"etc.

I dont feel burnt out after not seeing friends i used to love staying at home and being productive but recently i feel like i need to get out im wasting my time being at home. Getting bored being inside all the time. Also i go out as a way to escape my problems.

Relationship with family is ok they dont really support anything i do lol. they only look at things from their perspective. No its pretty bad from a support point of view. If they dont like it they won't even attempt to understand it.

No supporting gf but would be pretty good to find someone in the entreprenurial game. Though thats pretty hard to come by, maybe at a networking event.

 

[ZF Lee]

Does getting market feedback motivate you? Like a heartfelt thank-you note from someone you’ve helped? I get those occasionally and they are super motivating and inspiring.

On a more technical POV, if you are writing sales copy or even getting up a one-liner USP, market feedback is pretty much the bread-and-butter.

You can either go do a survey or do review mining, but even then you need to have a plan for both of them.

I'll give you an example:
A recent capstone unit asked my group to study competitors for a night lamp.
And then come out with a plan for a better product.
I KNEW college students won't know how to pull out all stops to check out competitors and the consumer reviews. So I took an hour or so to look at two.

Some SmartSleep product from Phillips, and another from Panasonic.
I went to Amazon and looked at the 3-stars reviews. (4-5 star reviews don't tell much besides the DESIRED visions of consumers met).

So even though the competitors had 60% 4-5 star reviews, the 3-star reviews were already grousing over common pain-points:

"I needed to muddle through 2 menus and 3 buttons just to turn the night lamp on!"

"But when I wake up, the alarm light indicates that it's been on for an hour! I haven't found a mode to wake deep sleepers like myself. ”

"Light.... It's not bright. Even at the max, you need to sleep very close. The first few mornings it didn't even wake me up at all."

These are pain points I had no idea folks complained about a simple night light!

While it's possible to pour out pain-points and customer lingo from yourself if you are a user of the product itself, I think it's better to look outside the shell.

Quit and get a job at Mcdonalds and keep dumping money into facebook ads and a dropshipping store with alixpress products, maybe sanj modha can help you out with that

Or start a real business that operates under CENTS and a productacracy? Some dude in Arizona wrote a couple books on it, forget his name..........

Stop chasing money?

Facebook ads is a weird machine.
The last time I worked with a telehealth client to write liners for Facebook copy, I found out firsthand I had to write the angles as broad as possible, so as not to trigger 'negative' keywords (e.g. medical terms like pregnancy or gynaecology) and to not seem intrusive to Facebook viewers.

For me, that really felt like bullshit. It was as if Facebook was more interested in keeping businesses mum rather than bringing valuable solutions to its users.

Anyways, I wrote 2-3 ads copy versions for multiple offers, and somehow their Facebook guy ran with it, hit lots of audience groups, and got like a 3.2-3.5 ROAS for weeks, with a few 4 ROAS days.

Which I couldn't believe, as he started off with RM300 adspend (which is not very large) per product, and further increments in budget were like double of it, as far as I remember how our exchanges went. And the photos were very plain. No flashy motion-addons or banner or anything else.

Then later, when I visited their 2-3 competitors' Ads Library, I saw they weren't even running any ads at all...

So I guess lots of businesses tried the FB thing, got burnt and then hopped out of it. Which means depending on the niche, there might be next to little competition?