TJ's Journey from Nothing

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I come from a rough background. Poor, abandoned by family, bad friends, moving all over, etc. It took me quite some time to get to where I am today.

Now that I've gone this far, it's only natural to keep going and fulfill the dream of having my own business/businesses. In fact, I wouldn't have it any other way. I have a few friends who love talking about this stuff and say they really want to do it, but I can tell they don't have the motivation. Not saying all people with rich parents are this way, but it makes sense when if I go broke I'm homeless, but when they overcharge credit cards to $6,000 in debt they go live with their parents and get nursed back to health. It's almost an advantage to have no padding or someone to rescue me.

I joined here not too long ago when I was really aching for some money, so my first posts probably seem erratic and desperate, erring on the side of "get rich quick" and not offering anything of real value.

I more stable now and have been hustling on the side of my 50hours a week of a few jobs to get to financial freedom.

My First Goal is to own a business that can support me enough to quit working for someone else.

My Second Goal is to have this business give me freedom of location and be something I truly enjoy working on.

Wussy Steps I've taken so far:
-Read tons of books
-Started a blog to detail my progress

REAL Steps I've Taken:
-Started hustling items I don't need/other people don't want on Craigslist and KSL (awesome Utah classifieds site)
-Working for free for an entrepreneur whom I admire and has accomplished what I want
-Tried to start a mobile car washing business, posted it up, then realized it was the worst ad I've ever made (will link later)
-Building a relationship with someone who has a ton of resources, money, etc. Eating dinner with him tonight.
-Signed up for a week in Vegas with a bunch of successful people
-Signed up for Tropical MBA with the Lifestyle Business Podcast guys and am going to the Phillippines this October
-Had an idea and instead of researching it, playing with it, instantly emailed successful entrepreneur who said he was relatively bullish on my idea.

NEXT Steps:
-Write a sales letter for my product and see if it actually sells
-Continue free work, connecting with entrepreneurs, and hustling random items on the side.


I'm glad to say I'm actually moving forwards. After my job today I shipped a product and made $30 profit off it, a guy is coming to my house in 23 minutes to buy two guitar pedals from me.

I'm meeting with a guy tonight to eat dinner. I'm going to set a deadline for my sales letter and have him keep me accountable.

 

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Selling My Guitar Pedals at the Price I Bought Them For

I had two guitar pedals that I paid $65 for 5-7 years ago. I threw one of the pedals up on Craigslist for $10 and had someone call me up.

When I went outside, I showed him the pedal, then when he was going to buy it I thought, "wait a minute, he doesn't even know if it works and he's going to buy it?"

I asked him if he wanted to try it out first, and he agreed.

I took him up to my Apt, plugged in my sexy guitar to my sexy amp and let him play around on it. I left the room so he didn't feel pressured into anything.

When I came back, he said he loved it (which any pedal would sound good on my guitar and amp). So I let him play a few other pedals. He asked if I was selling my chorus.

I acted like I really didn't want to sell it, but agreed that I'd consider it. When he asked me what price, I knew that it was always better to get them to say it first, so I told him to make me an offer. He said I would have to tell him a price.

So I said, instead of making up a price I'll look up what they are going for on Ebay. On ebay you could get them for $50 new, and mine was pretty used. Brand new from stores, however, they can go for around $100.

I asked him if he was thinking of buying from a store and he said he had considered it, so I knew he knew the price of $100. I told him that they were going for $50 on eBay sort of dissappointed and he jumped on it.

I went into my room, got the box out then realized that it still had the sticker on it that said I bought it used for $50. So I fumbled around for a bit to rip off the sticker then brought it out.

The whole sale felt good. I had let him play around with the pedals and I worked with him on the price. I showed him eBay prices so he knew exactly what he was getting into, then settled on the price.

All in all it felt good to get the price that I paid for those pedals 5-7 years ago.

I have another guy coming at 6:00 to buy two other pedals at the same price I bought them as well.
All I do is have really great, detailed pictures of them on Craigslist, link to youtube videos of people using the pedals, then let them play on them when they get here.

 

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Random Opportunity Leads to Free $180

One day I was walking out to my car after work thinking about Entrepreneurship, seizing opportunities, etc. when I saw an old lady throwing away some boxes that looked brand new.

I was about to get in my car, then thought to myself that I might as well ask what she is throwing away.

They were brand new printer cartridges. They were throwing them away because they had bought a new printer and they weren't compatible.

So I said I would take them. Worst comes to worst I could throw them away at no loss.

I took them home, looked them up on eBay and they were going for $45 each. I had 6 of them (2 others of a different brand but I'm not sure I could sell them).

I threw one on there at $29.99 with free shipping, there were 4 bids and the price ended at $44. I went to USPS today and shipped it for $12. Before eBay taxes that's $32 for 10 minutes of work (2 minutes for placing the ad and 8 minutes driving to post office a block away at a time when there is no line).

I'm not sure what eBay takes out of it, so that could be considerably less, but it still felt like a win to seize an opportunity that anyone else would have passed up.

 

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How I Started Working for Free for a Successful Entrepreneur

There's an entrepreneur who I really admire. I figured one day, what the hell, I'll try and work for him for free.

I sent him an email and he didn't respond. I sent him another email, he asked what my skills were, so I said that I didn't have any concrete skills but that I could learn really fast. He didn't respond.

I posted a post up on his blog that I loved his work and that I would be willing to work for him for free, just to push someone up who is doing amazing things. Other people started commenting that that was awesome, and he contacted me again.

He gave me an assignment to transfer a spanish translation of his book to Adobe InDesign and create an eBook.

I had no idea what I was doing but accepted it. I found a slow day at my 50 hour a week job and worked on it for 8 hours while I was there, figuring that shiznit out. Finally got, sent it to him, now just need to make a few changes and resend it.

He now wants me to find a product for him on Alibaba and said that he will be willing to give me mentoring or advice if I need it. I haven't asked for ANYTHING yet, and I won't until I help the living shit out of him.

He is also going to be at the conference in Las Vegas and said to look out for him so he can meet me.


Basically what I did was:
-Showed appreciation and said I wanted to help him purely to push someone up higher who is doing awesome things
-Was persistent
-Completed the first task to show I was trustworthy and not a dumbass
-Continued to accept assignments

Obviously I hope that this will eventually lead to me getting some really good advice and direction later on, but I also accept that might happen. If anything I now know how to publish and make an eBook, am going to see how he works and thinks, and am going to start tinkering with Alibaba.

 

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