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Random Chat, Thoughts, Posts, and/or Rants Thread

YanC

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View attachment 48977

Is anyone still taking these people seriously?
Another illustration that no one knows where the market is going, even so-called experts, or more generally what is happening tomorrow.

By the way, she and Wall Street don't really care that much whether stocks are going up or down, above all they just need to keep you playing the game: Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF has lagged the Nasdaq since 2018—while collecting over $200 million in fees
 
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MJ DeMarco

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It seems to be the end of virtue signaling as a business model.

I don't follow the news and generally don't scroll through Twitter. What has changed? Based on some of the ads and commercials I've come across, the model seems to be as ubiquitous as ever.
 

piano

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Build and got myself a new desk for my bedroom. I have my working room elsewhere, with a pc and everything, whereas my bedroom has no distractions at all and way more sunlight (!), so I'll be able to focus way more on reading, homework and thinking!

(for anybody interested, the desk is "Trotten" (bigger version) from Ikea. A hassle to build but big and plain white, which I like)
 

Rabby

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I will be doing some traveling this summer. Japan, Thailand, Cambodia, maybe some others. My curiosity draws me to old temples and shrines, Shinto, Ruesi/Rishi, and perhaps paradoxically, sushi.

They have let us out of our cages, now go see the world.
 
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rjdgreat

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My main takeaway:

In a way, you get what life has given you, and if what life has given you will not make you a billionaire, that's fine (and maybe it will!) but instead of focusing on what other people's unfair advantages are and how they're worth whatever they're worth, how about using the personal advantages you DO have in order to build the greatest business you possibly can?

Instead of going after businesses you do not have any insight in whatsoever, how about going after one where you DO have insight (where there is also a need)?

The book frames life as a deck of cards. They acknowledge the importance of hard work but moreso acknowledge that your life circumstances matter a lot too for what you will achieve in this life.

The reason Evan Spiegel was a billionaire by 24 is because of hard work.. AND because of a multitude of other advantages that he himself points his success at.

The unfair advantages they help you uncover are:

Money

Intelligence & Insight

Location & Luck

Education & Expertise

Status

And not only that, they tell you how to uncover ideas and how to efficiently bootstrap your company or get funding. They go over hypergrowth startups (startups that typically aren't profitable until $1Billion) and lifestyle businesses (a company like basecamp could be defined as a lifestyle business, even though it's worth many millions)

Overall, it's an absolutely outstanding book.

If you feel envy from others before reading the book, you won't after reading it, because you will realize that some things just are the way they are.

In the book they push the Reality-Growth mindset, which is a combination that takes you out of delusion but still encourages you to think big. By taking you out of delusion they mean focusing on variables and goals that you can control.

Saying you want to make 100 million dollars selling XYZ product is cool..

But do you have unfair advantages in XYZ that could get you the funding to grow that business to $100M?

Or realistically, do you have a unique insight in another area that maybe you can build a $20M business off of (maybe bootstrapped) that would be a better selection for you based on your unfair advantages?

It gets you thinking..

And if that hasn't convinced you enough - the book was recommended to me by @Antifragile
May I know who is the author of that book?
 

Private Witt

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I will be doing some traveling this summer. Japan, Thailand, Cambodia, maybe some others. My curiosity draws me to old temples and shrines, Shinto, Ruesi/Rishi, and perhaps paradoxically, sushi.

They have let us out of our cages, now go see the world.

Have a awesome trip! You are gonna love Cambodia and all the temples in Siem Reap, spent six months in Cambo ten years ago before the Chinese mucked it all up.

Here a Japanese anti-lazy video I just watched, good stuff.

View: https://youtu.be/YpltT-pRdEo
 

rjdgreat

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"environment is everything!" -MJ DeMarco

It's easy to "jump at the pool" if you're in the right environment and become a byproduct of it.

What's hard is finding the right "environment"
 
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Last edited:

BizyDad

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"environment is everything!" -MJ DeMarco

It's easy to "jump at the pool" if you're in the right environment and become a byproduct of it.

What's hard it finding the right "environment"

Start with getting the right environment...

...in your mind. ;)
 

Andy Black

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My worst articles go viral, and the articles I work very hard on get read by 5 people.
I spend more time replying. When I find myself saying the same thing over and over I create a thread, and link to it going forward. That way threads should already fulfill a proven need.

Ahem, I wrote about it here:

 
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Kak

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Some web developer needs to help this site organize their products.


They make a bang up product, and are well known among golf cart owners, but their site is awful.
 

StrikingViper69

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I was reading this book.

Not an easy read and most people will not resonate with it.
This entropy "argument" pops up all the time and is nonsense. At any point in a system, entropy can increase, aslong as the overall entropy of the system decreases.

The Earth interacts with the solar system (and even the universe), so aslong as entropy decreases in the solar system (or universe), it can increase on Earth (life evolving).

This book will explain thermodynamics properly.
Setting a goal doesn't mean the present is influenced by the future :rofl:
 

MitchC

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Some web developer needs to help this site organize their products.


They make a bang up product, and are well known among golf cart owners, but their site is awful.
It doesn’t even work on mobile wow
 
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Kak

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It doesn’t even work on mobile wow
That’s funny.

They are a big deal in the golf cart world. Goes to show you a solid product and a good reputation clearly trumps website quality.

Still, this doesn’t help. They could be better very easily.

It’s a Shopify for crying out loud. Sort the products into categories and add a way to search by golf cart model they only make things for like the 4-5 most popular carts. It’s not that difficult.
 

MitchC

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That’s funny.

They are a big deal in the golf cart world. Goes to show you a solid product and a good reputation clearly trumps website quality.

Still, this doesn’t help. They could be better very easily.

It’s a Shopify for crying out loud. Sort the products into categories and add a way to search by golf cart model they only make things for like the 4-5 most popular carts. It’s not that difficult.
I just emailed them offering to fix it, hopefully they didn't just get 50 other emails from the forum. Let's see what they say.
 

Kak

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I just emailed them offering to fix it, hopefully they didn't just get 50 other emails from the forum. Let's see what they say.
Tell them they should send yours truly a free storm body kit for an EZGO TXT for noticing the inefficiencies. ;)

In all seriousness, I hope you land it, make some money off of it, and make it better.
 
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rjdgreat

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marketing is just playing with customer/clients worldview, is it not?
 

Antifragile

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That’s funny.

They are a big deal in the golf cart world. Goes to show you a solid product and a good reputation clearly trumps website quality.

Still, this doesn’t help. They could be better very easily.

It’s a Shopify for crying out loud. Sort the products into categories and add a way to search by golf cart model they only make things for like the 4-5 most popular carts. It’s not that difficult.
Maybe the owners are the same age as the players of golf? You know, 85 years old and still use paper catalog to order their golf carts?

I know your profile says you are in your 30s Kak, but let’s face it … your posts say you are a young golfer, like 70 ;).

:rofl:
 

Kak

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Maybe the owners are the same age as the players of golf? You know, 85 years old and still use paper catalog to order their golf carts?

I know your profile says you are in your 30s Kak, but let’s face it … your posts say you are a young golfer, like 70 ;).

:rofl:
At least I’m not a spandex wearing road blocker.
 
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Antifragile

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At least I’m not a spandex wearing road blocker.

You have every right to be upset, I was just hydrating the weeds …
IMG_0158.jpeg
 

Kak

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Lately, I have been thinking more thoroughly about what attributes I’d look for in an acquisition target company.

Something like a disorganized mess of a website, like madjax above, fits that bill pretty well. They’re clearly leaving money on the table.

Everywhere else on the internet and in physical B&M dealerships they have to cut someone else in. Whether it be a retailer that only paid them a wholesale price, or Amazon, where seller fees are quite enormous and amount to a wholesale revenue for you anyway. Your own website is a place where you get to own the customer and make a full retail margin.

Almost instantaneous improvements like this can make acquisition entrepreneurship so much easier than a startup. They have a good following. A good reputation. A great dealer network. And a way to make it worth more than you pay for it right away.

For a company like this, I’d estimate the website improvement alone being worth mid six figures a year. How long does it take most people to build a mid six figure a year company?

Now, what is a retail multiple in todays market? 4x minimum? Probably more like 6x? Add $500k a year of earnings with a website overhaul and you have made $2-3 million in equity with a ~2 week long project.
 
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Fox

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LOL - GoDaddy takes 60 euros for this nonsense service.
Screenshot 2023-05-29 at 15.45.26.png
 
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Patryk.

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msufan

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I don't follow the news and generally don't scroll through Twitter. What has changed? Based on some of the ads and commercials I've come across, the model seems to be as ubiquitous as ever.
I suspect that @Kak was referring to the negative impacts felt by businesses like Anheuser-Busch (Bud Light fiasco) and Target, who are facing huge blowback from their trans/Pride promotions.
 
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morbius13

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I finally developed sufficient skills to earn some greater sums online, and that's where another problems come in. I'm underage and I have unverified PayPal account, so when they ask me for verification all my funds will be blocked.

My parents probably won't let me open an account in their name. Or even if they did, I need to withdraw funds from PayPal straight to my bank account, and I don't know if it's allowed to have a different name on PayPal and on bank acc to which funds are withdrawn (I can't withdraw to my parents bank due to law in my country).

I thought of creating custom checkout page on my website using Stripe, but here again, my parents won't allow me to use their ID and photos.

Do you guys know some alternatives? I'd appreciate any help.
 

MJ DeMarco

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My parents probably won't let me open an account in their name.

Can you simply explain that you want to get a job and need a way to get paid?

Parents are usually onboard with their teens getting jobs.

Frame it as a "job" and you'd like to get experience and earn money for some of the thing you enjoy, lessening their burdens.

Turn your parents into an ally, not an obstacle and an enemy.
 

Dockid

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I made a wordle clone last year. Added a list containing a couple of thousand obscure words to make it harder. I made the game have a screamer that would pop up when you won, just like scary maze game and it sent it to my friends. They found it funny and I left it alone.

A couple of weeks later I removed the screamer and replaced it with a popup to allow you to play again and I shared it on reddit and product hunt. The posts got around 20 upvotes and I forgot about the website.

Just checked the websites analytics yesterday and its being played over 700 times a month. Kinda cool.
 

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