So many things are running through my head...

[Rufoskyline]

negative thoughts like not making it. I'm currently on Fox Web School. Easily getting distracted on social media like getting into crypto instead, doing real estate, going to casinos, reading more books and so much stuff lol. I don't know why it feels like there's a better idea than the one I'm on right now when I don't have any ideas. I think this is just part of the road less traveled and it should be tedious otherwise it would violate the entry commandment. Does this resonate with you?

 

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[piano]

If you think about stuff like Crypto, it's statistically stupid to do.
Everybody does it and you have so little control and provide absolutely ZERO value to the world.

Business on the other hand is self-induced luck, something which MJ talks about in Unscripted too iirc.

What do I mean by this?

Let's imagine 50 MJ DeMarcos tried to get rich again:

25 try fastlane and 25 try crypto or whatever.

23 MJs in the fastlane department became rich again but only one MJ became rich with crypto.


As to your other concerns, just keep going man. You'll never accomplish anything if you just keep changing camps.

If you seem to not like the idea of web design, reassess your whole situation and try to find out if you're not sabotaging yourself.


Also quit social media!
I think we have many threads about this. Use the aMAziNg search function.

 

[Oso]

negative thoughts like not making it. I'm currently on Fox Web School. Easily getting distracted on social media like getting into crypto instead, doing real estate, going to casinos, reading more books and so much stuff lol. I don't know why it feels like there's a better idea than the one I'm on right now when I don't have any ideas. I think this is just part of the road less traveled and it should be tedious otherwise it would violate the entry commandment. Does this resonate with you?

The issue with entrepreneurship is it opens your eyes to the real world. It takes away the mystery of what's behind the scenes and not only puts it in your face, but makes you responsible for its outcome. The most appealing aspect to "the slowlane" is the "security" it provides. Or rather, the illusion of "security."

Entrepreneurship doesn't come with that "security." To me, it sounds like you're beginning the realize this path requires real work and a legitimate time commitment. It sounds like you're searching for an easy answer. We get that a lot with new people here. A lot of new people come here with the mentality of "if the first thing I try doesn't work, then obviously that means this is all a scam, a lie, etc., and they're just people who were born into wealth." The best approach to have with entrepreneurship (imo) is to view it as a compounding time investment.

The more time you put into entrepreneurship, the more you naturally learn. The more you naturally learn, the more skills you have. The more skills you have, the more problems you can solve. The more problems you can solve, the more cash flow you can generate. The more cash flow you can generate, the more you can reinvest into a business. The more you reinvest into a business, the quicker your cash flow doubles, triples, quadruples, etc. The quicker your cash flow doubles, triples, quadruples, etc., the quicker you can reach your exit.

The only thing stopping you at this point is committing to an avenue. You say you're in Fox's Web School. I'm guessing that means you paid for it? If so, why would you pay for something only to then turn around and look for other things to do? This is the behavior that will ultimately lead you to wasting time, thus accomplishing nothing.

Instead, fully commit to the course, and use the course to determine whether or not web design is something you'd like to continue pursuing. If it is, land clients, level up your tech skills, etc. If not, then move onto the next thing. You're overthinking the "what can I try?" stage. It isn't that serious. All you care about in the beginning is A) helping someone with something, and B) turning that "help" into landing a paying client.

Cheers.

 

[Antifragile]

The best approach to have with entrepreneurship (imo) is to view it as a compounding time investment.

GOLD right there.

you paid for it? If so, why would you pay for something only to then turn around and look for other things to do? This is the behavior that will ultimately lead you to wasting time, thus accomplishing nothing.

Typical behaviour for 99.9% of the population. Buy a book and read page 1-5, then “pause” forever… buy another and another…

People sign up for this forum, try web design, copywriting or whatever else that fails every CENTS commandment and 5-10 years later still struggle.

It’s really nobody’s fault. Entrepreneurship is hard work. And it takes a long while to become good enough to become excellent at something (even leadership, no one is born with skills!). Few stick to one thing long enough to become good, let anole excellent. Social media makes it look like trading meme coins makes millionaires … grass is so much greener on that other side. lol.

Reality is that we all know what we should do. Some then do it and succeed. Others find excuses and accomplish nothing. Then blame someone or something else (like bad luck trading meme coins).

100% with you and your advice: stick with one thing, become excellent. Otherwise you stand no chance against competition.

 

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[Oso]

Typical behaviour for 99.9% of the population. Buy a book and read page 1-5, then “pause” forever… buy another and another…

People sign up for this forum, try web design, copywriting or whatever else that fails every CENTS commandment and 5-10 years later still struggle.

It’s really nobody’s fault. Entrepreneurship is hard work. And it takes a long while to become good enough to become excellent at something (even leadership, no one is born with skills!). Few stick to one thing long enough to become good, let anole excellent. Social media makes it look like trading meme coins makes millionaires … grass is so much greener on that other side. lol.

Reality is that we all know what we should do. Some then do it and succeed. Others find excuses and accomplish nothing. Then blame someone or something else (like bad luck trading meme coins).

100% with you and your advice: stick with one thing, become excellent. Otherwise you stand no chance against competition.

You know, it's interesting to me. I've been around/obsessed with/riding motorcycles my entire life. I've always recognized and admired the "1%'ers." Mostly because of the "screw society and everything it stands for" mentality.

As I grow older, I realize that in a lot of ways, being an entrepreneur is akin to being a "1%'er." In order to play this game of entrepreneurship, you have to be willing to take the path that 99% of society refuses to. You have to be, think, and act like the literal opposite of what's instilled into (most of) us since birth.

I believe life is simple. You either have the balls/vaginal fortitude (for the women out there) to chase what you want, or you don't.

Cheers.

 

[Black_Dragon43]

People sign up for this forum, try web design, copywriting or whatever else that fails every CENTS commandment and 5-10 years later still struggle.

But isn’t it true that pretty much whatever you pick as a complete beginner almost always will violate CENTS?

The opportunities that don’t violate CENTS are simply unavailable to someone standing still.

Getting a job violates CENTS.
Freelancing violates CENTS.
Starting most businesses you can start as a beginner violates some of CENTS — necessarily. Even the fact you can start it as basically a retard is a violation of entry already!

Therefore go ahead and violate CENTS with confidence? Lol

I would never have come across the opportunities I did, had I not started as a direct response copywriter. And to be frank, in direct response there isn’t much competition. And I say this honestly — I’ve worked with over 200 writers over the last 12-13 years. And I know just TWO who are good direct response copywriters. Everyone else sucks. It’s a very hard skill to master.

 

[Antifragile]

But isn’t it true that pretty much whatever you pick as a complete beginner almost always will violate CENTS?

The opportunities that don’t violate CENTS are simply unavailable to someone standing still.

Getting a job violates CENTS.
Freelancing violates CENTS.
Starting most businesses you can start as a beginner violates some of CENTS — necessarily. Even the fact you can start it as basically a retard is a violation of entry already!

Therefore go ahead and violate CENTS with confidence? Lol

I would never have come across the opportunities I did, had I not started as a direct response copywriter. And to be frank, in direct response there isn’t much competition. And I say this honestly — I’ve worked with over 200 writers over the last 12-13 years. And I know just TWO who are good direct response copywriters. Everyone else sucks. It’s a very hard skill to master.

Yes, as a complete beginner you need experience, not CENTS.

The problems I see:
1. Some businesses are far less likely to ever meet CENTS than others. Why not up the odds of success? You may be the exception, but not the rule. Most copywriters make next to nothing!
2. Some people aren't complete beginners but quit on their good experience to gain some "new" experience.
3. Way too many people quit too early to gain any experience at all.

None of this is rocket science.

 

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[Andy Black]

negative thoughts like not making it. I'm currently on Fox Web School. Easily getting distracted on social media like getting into crypto instead, doing real estate, going to casinos, reading more books and so much stuff lol. I don't know why it feels like there's a better idea than the one I'm on right now when I don't have any ideas. I think this is just part of the road less traveled and it should be tedious otherwise it would violate the entry commandment. Does this resonate with you?

I read this in an upsell to Perry Marshall's excellent book "80/20 Sales & Marketing":

Whenever you're about to make a change in your life your lizard brain panics and tries to distract you. It would rather stay with the life it knows.

So when you're working on something and get the urge to do something different, see it as your lizard brain recognising the work you're doing will make a difference ... and double down on it with glee.

 

[Black_Dragon43]

Yes, as a complete beginner you need experience, not CENTS.

The problems I see:
1. Some businesses are far less likely to ever meet CENTS than others. Why not up the odds of success? You may be the exception, but not the rule. Most copywriters make next to nothing!
2. Some people aren't complete beginners but quit on their good experience to gain some "new" experience.
3. Way too many people quit too early to gain any experience at all.

None of this is rocket science.

Good points. I’d say most everything make next to nothing. Gaining a skill isn’t easy. Most copywriters make next to nothing because they have next to no skill. Why would they get paid? The same will most likely be true if that copywriter moves to another field.

The truth is that most people are incredibly lazy and have incredibly low standards. It’s like, there’s this guy working for us, who is trying to copy our business model. But he can barely do a small part of the work for one single client — and even that with difficulty. What chance does he have? Zero. Instead of trying to copy the business model and get clients himself he’d be better off developing the discipline of actually doing a small part of the work well and being someone you can count on.

I think the critical things are:
1. Don’t be in an industry that’s shrinking. Say newspapers. You’ll make it virtually impossible trying to swim against the stream.
2. Preferrably be in an industry with few competitors. You would think this has to do with barriers to entry — but I disagree. I’ll give you an example of a business I was involved in: recovering money owed to Amazon FBA sellers because Amazon lost their products, their products were damaged, there were customer returns and so on. Basically analyze their financial reports, identify the opportunities, file the claims, get the money back. Around 3% of revenue can be returned and on average you’d get paid 20% of the money you recovered. Now anyone could “enter” this industry. All you needed was a laptop and some discipline. Back when we entered it there were 10 competitors or so in the industry though. If you sent 100 cold emails, you’d get 3 clients. It was piss easy to make money. Now approx. 8-9 years later, there’s 100s of competitors.

So the only reason these industries don’t have high competition is because people aren’t aware of the issues. So how could they compete? The only reason why I became aware of the issue back then, is because when I was still freelancing, someone hired me. And as soon as I saw the biz, I was like “F*ck, this is the easiest, best way to make money that I’ve ever come across”.

It’s not hard to make money when you have opportunities like that. The only such equivalent opportunity I came across is my current business, and only because I was already doing it for my first agency.

But that’s what you need. If you can find a little-known business like that, you can easily become rich. The above two opportunities are super crowded today, they’re no longer good to get started in. I wouldn’t start my business today if I was starting from scratch, I can guarantee you that. The only reason I keep going is because I already have a very very strong foundation, and incredible social proof / reputation.

Let’s take another industry: web design. I wouldn’t become a web designer because it’s so F*cking hard to sell the damn thing. There’s so much competition, and websites are easy to make today. I’d much rather be a copywriter, because copy is much easier to sell — it really does make you more money. Whereas web design makes money by a very circuitious way, therefore hard to sell. The Amazon recovery biz made money straightforward… it’s like do you want an extra $5K in your pocket in the next month? Hire us, and you pay after we recover it, you don’t even need to pay from your pocket. That’s it. Deal closed. That’s how “hard” it is to sell.

Now compare with web design. “Ughh yeah, we’ll make this $5K website and you’ll get more sales” — that’s a joke. HOW will I make more sales is terribly unclear and depends on thousands of other factors.

I’ll add one more criteria:
3. The ROI should be direct and a no-brainer, like the Amazon business above.

If you meet all 3 criteria above, and you execute well, you’ll be insanely rich in a short amount of time. CENTS in my eyes is more about sustainability than generating fast wealth — CE are all about how sustainable that opportunity is. But CENTS if you truly apply it is HARD — will take you a longer time.