patrikpapec
New Contributor
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2022
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Hi everyone,
I'm 19 years old, and I'm currently facing a bit of a dilemma and would love to hear your thoughts and advice. To give some background, I'm in a pretty solid position, but I’m unsure about the next steps in my journey. Since I was 14, I've been consuming tons of YouTube videos, courses, and books across a wide variety of topics—everything from building websites, copywriting, affiliate marketing, email marketing, setting up tracking, social media, … I've seen good success at the beginning - made few ca. k€ - but over time I got stuck in the "consuming" phase without much implementation.
Now, fast forward a few years, and here’s where I’m at: I moved out from my mothers home (Munich, Germany) when I was 17 and now live together with my girlfriend (3 years together with her) in another city (near Frankfurt, Germany). I’m now 19 and in the third year of an e-commerce apprenticeship which has practical (working 8-5 for a company, and doing all the work normal employees do) and theoretical part (theory from the school) of it in 2 months work, 2 weeks school cycles. For the practical part of things: I’ve switched companies twice due to financial issues with my employers.
The first company I have worked for was, a performance marketing agency. There I learned how to build landing pages, manage ads (I've spent over 250k on fb, google, … ads for clients), write copy, and manage teams, scrape, automate tasks, … I left the company because we have struggled a lot with a cashflow after some interns conflict of the partner agency. My second company, where I was a Online Marketing Manager - kind of crazy if you think about it - let me dive deep into Google Ads and landing pages as well. They were selling Garage doors - dropshipping them from poland to germany and making like 800€ profit per sell. Btw. I have never thought something like that can work that well especially because they had trashy store (nothing like shopify, or other alternatives). Unfortunately, they took on too much debt for build a hotel. Sadly then COVID hit, war in ukraine started and inflation went through the roof and they had really bad times financially so that was the reason why I decided to change company once again. Current company I work for is a boot strapped start up, (3 years old) and this year we will make over 120m€, and in total ca. 180m€. The company is e-commerce brand that sells pergolas 5k-15k on shopify, internationally. I’m now the Influencer Marketing Manager and also manage SEO for multiple countries.
Right now, I work full-time there, Monday to Friday (8 to 5), and I’m earning 900 euros a month, which isn’t ideal. I get another 300 euros from the government. My living cost I keep really low, bcs I have minimalistic personality. So at the end of the month I have ca. 300 euros to spend on my business (tools and few simple outsourcing tasks). Now I know, the current situation I am in is not the best. I do not have a lot of time and I as well don't have much money. I’ve even considered quitting my apprenticeship, which has one year left, but I’m torn on whether I should. I know MJ is completely against school, and I’m not convinced either, since I believe I could land a normal job with the skills I’ve developed, or even better build something myself and make more money. If anyone has any advice on that, I’d appreciate it.
So, what’s the issue? Well, here’s where my dilemma lies:
Alongside my formal training, I’ve done various side projects, including some web design. I had some limiting beliefs that everybody obviously knows how to build a website themselves and that they will never pay me for it but after posing in few fb groups and providing some value now I can consistently get every day 10 people which are ready to pay between 500 and 1000 for a website. This is not a lot and could technically work if I would outsource the work on upwork - I know some guys there which can build AMAZING websites on webflow / framer for 150€, which somebody would pay in germany 5k for. Those are hard to find but yes, they do exist.
My problem with web design is that it isn’t scalable, at least not in the way that aligns with the Fastlane mindset. Sure, I could find higher-paying clients willing to spend €1,500 or €2,000 on a website, but that’s still not going to give me the kind of scalability @MJ DeMarco talks about. There’s still a lot of time invested in client management, project management, and sales calls, …
On the other hand, I’ve been getting pretty good at automation and AI tools. Recently, I’ve been thinking about leveraging these skills to build something more scalable. I’m considering a model where I set up multiple Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, Snapchat, Twitter, and YouTube accounts (50 or more). These accounts would all push traffic to a sales page selling infoproducts—things like e-books or courses for a specific niche and specific pain points from that niche.
Creating this kind of content is almost really cheap, especially with my ability to automate the entire process using APIs and AI. With a €300 monthly budget, I can easily scale to manage more accounts, and the content would automatically be adapted to each platform.
The products I’m thinking about selling are PLR (private label rights) e-books, or AI-generated e-books, along with licensed courses that I could buy from Udemy and resell on my own sales page. The price point would be in the €100 range, not high-ticket like many gurus push.
So, the real question I’m facing is this: Do I go with the web design route, where I already have proven demand but no scalability, or do I go full force into this automated content and infoproduct model, which could scale but comes with its own risks and uncertainties?
The barrier to entry is low for creating ai content. The advantage which I have over most people doing this manually, is that I have automation and some programming skills (wanted to go in ethical hacking before) which allow me to now build one page but 50 pages in the same time, giving me obvious adeventage.
I mean the model on its own is really good and with the combination of that kind of scalability + info product (good margins) + list (emails and phone numbers) a person can use this to sell and profit a lot.
But at the same time I am wondering is this the way MJ would do it. I mean here I am missing control (bcs. algorithms of social media platforms are changing all of the time. btw. the content would be automatically adopted and spread over 7 platforms so in that way I am minimizing my risk) and barrier of entry is low (low cost for AI tools, and Gurus pushing this model)...
And does something like this have exit potential? Myb… because it is not personal list, has a list and audience, …?
I’ve always heard successful people say to focus on one business, but in this case, replicating the system across multiple platforms would take little additional effort. I’d love to hear your thoughts—what’s the smarter path?
My main goal right now is to make a lot of money, but not just for the sake of having money. Once I reach that point, I want to use it to do something positive for society, something that isn’t necessarily tied to making more. I realize, though, that I need to first improve my own situation before I can help others. I also want to support my family and eventually start one of my own, which is another reason why I need financial stability.
I believe there’s a lot of untapped potential in automation and AI. Especially here in Germany, I see that many people are still asleep when it comes to this trend. They struggle with automation, which gives me an edge. That’s why I’m wondering if this is the best path for me to take. It seems like a fast route to financial success.
At the same time, I know I could help a lot of people along the way. For instance, I could buy and sell PLR books, but there’s also the option of partnering with experts to make the content even more valuable for others. I see many possibilities, but I’m still unsure if this is the right approach.
What I’m looking for is feedback from those with more experience. Should I pursue this path, or should I use my skills and network to build a large company? That doesn’t really align with my vision, though. I’d rather work alone or with a small, efficient team, like what @MJ DeMarco talks about in his books. My end goal is to make an exit and be financially independent. I don’t need money for material things—it’s just a tool to gain freedom.
Thank you so much to everyone who has taken the time to read through this. I’d appreciate any tips or advice you have. And please excuse my English, as I’m not a native speaker.
I'm 19 years old, and I'm currently facing a bit of a dilemma and would love to hear your thoughts and advice. To give some background, I'm in a pretty solid position, but I’m unsure about the next steps in my journey. Since I was 14, I've been consuming tons of YouTube videos, courses, and books across a wide variety of topics—everything from building websites, copywriting, affiliate marketing, email marketing, setting up tracking, social media, … I've seen good success at the beginning - made few ca. k€ - but over time I got stuck in the "consuming" phase without much implementation.
Now, fast forward a few years, and here’s where I’m at: I moved out from my mothers home (Munich, Germany) when I was 17 and now live together with my girlfriend (3 years together with her) in another city (near Frankfurt, Germany). I’m now 19 and in the third year of an e-commerce apprenticeship which has practical (working 8-5 for a company, and doing all the work normal employees do) and theoretical part (theory from the school) of it in 2 months work, 2 weeks school cycles. For the practical part of things: I’ve switched companies twice due to financial issues with my employers.
The first company I have worked for was, a performance marketing agency. There I learned how to build landing pages, manage ads (I've spent over 250k on fb, google, … ads for clients), write copy, and manage teams, scrape, automate tasks, … I left the company because we have struggled a lot with a cashflow after some interns conflict of the partner agency. My second company, where I was a Online Marketing Manager - kind of crazy if you think about it - let me dive deep into Google Ads and landing pages as well. They were selling Garage doors - dropshipping them from poland to germany and making like 800€ profit per sell. Btw. I have never thought something like that can work that well especially because they had trashy store (nothing like shopify, or other alternatives). Unfortunately, they took on too much debt for build a hotel. Sadly then COVID hit, war in ukraine started and inflation went through the roof and they had really bad times financially so that was the reason why I decided to change company once again. Current company I work for is a boot strapped start up, (3 years old) and this year we will make over 120m€, and in total ca. 180m€. The company is e-commerce brand that sells pergolas 5k-15k on shopify, internationally. I’m now the Influencer Marketing Manager and also manage SEO for multiple countries.
Right now, I work full-time there, Monday to Friday (8 to 5), and I’m earning 900 euros a month, which isn’t ideal. I get another 300 euros from the government. My living cost I keep really low, bcs I have minimalistic personality. So at the end of the month I have ca. 300 euros to spend on my business (tools and few simple outsourcing tasks). Now I know, the current situation I am in is not the best. I do not have a lot of time and I as well don't have much money. I’ve even considered quitting my apprenticeship, which has one year left, but I’m torn on whether I should. I know MJ is completely against school, and I’m not convinced either, since I believe I could land a normal job with the skills I’ve developed, or even better build something myself and make more money. If anyone has any advice on that, I’d appreciate it.
So, what’s the issue? Well, here’s where my dilemma lies:
Alongside my formal training, I’ve done various side projects, including some web design. I had some limiting beliefs that everybody obviously knows how to build a website themselves and that they will never pay me for it but after posing in few fb groups and providing some value now I can consistently get every day 10 people which are ready to pay between 500 and 1000 for a website. This is not a lot and could technically work if I would outsource the work on upwork - I know some guys there which can build AMAZING websites on webflow / framer for 150€, which somebody would pay in germany 5k for. Those are hard to find but yes, they do exist.
My problem with web design is that it isn’t scalable, at least not in the way that aligns with the Fastlane mindset. Sure, I could find higher-paying clients willing to spend €1,500 or €2,000 on a website, but that’s still not going to give me the kind of scalability @MJ DeMarco talks about. There’s still a lot of time invested in client management, project management, and sales calls, …
On the other hand, I’ve been getting pretty good at automation and AI tools. Recently, I’ve been thinking about leveraging these skills to build something more scalable. I’m considering a model where I set up multiple Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, Snapchat, Twitter, and YouTube accounts (50 or more). These accounts would all push traffic to a sales page selling infoproducts—things like e-books or courses for a specific niche and specific pain points from that niche.
Creating this kind of content is almost really cheap, especially with my ability to automate the entire process using APIs and AI. With a €300 monthly budget, I can easily scale to manage more accounts, and the content would automatically be adapted to each platform.
The products I’m thinking about selling are PLR (private label rights) e-books, or AI-generated e-books, along with licensed courses that I could buy from Udemy and resell on my own sales page. The price point would be in the €100 range, not high-ticket like many gurus push.
So, the real question I’m facing is this: Do I go with the web design route, where I already have proven demand but no scalability, or do I go full force into this automated content and infoproduct model, which could scale but comes with its own risks and uncertainties?
The barrier to entry is low for creating ai content. The advantage which I have over most people doing this manually, is that I have automation and some programming skills (wanted to go in ethical hacking before) which allow me to now build one page but 50 pages in the same time, giving me obvious adeventage.
I mean the model on its own is really good and with the combination of that kind of scalability + info product (good margins) + list (emails and phone numbers) a person can use this to sell and profit a lot.
But at the same time I am wondering is this the way MJ would do it. I mean here I am missing control (bcs. algorithms of social media platforms are changing all of the time. btw. the content would be automatically adopted and spread over 7 platforms so in that way I am minimizing my risk) and barrier of entry is low (low cost for AI tools, and Gurus pushing this model)...
And does something like this have exit potential? Myb… because it is not personal list, has a list and audience, …?
I’ve always heard successful people say to focus on one business, but in this case, replicating the system across multiple platforms would take little additional effort. I’d love to hear your thoughts—what’s the smarter path?
My main goal right now is to make a lot of money, but not just for the sake of having money. Once I reach that point, I want to use it to do something positive for society, something that isn’t necessarily tied to making more. I realize, though, that I need to first improve my own situation before I can help others. I also want to support my family and eventually start one of my own, which is another reason why I need financial stability.
I believe there’s a lot of untapped potential in automation and AI. Especially here in Germany, I see that many people are still asleep when it comes to this trend. They struggle with automation, which gives me an edge. That’s why I’m wondering if this is the best path for me to take. It seems like a fast route to financial success.
At the same time, I know I could help a lot of people along the way. For instance, I could buy and sell PLR books, but there’s also the option of partnering with experts to make the content even more valuable for others. I see many possibilities, but I’m still unsure if this is the right approach.
What I’m looking for is feedback from those with more experience. Should I pursue this path, or should I use my skills and network to build a large company? That doesn’t really align with my vision, though. I’d rather work alone or with a small, efficient team, like what @MJ DeMarco talks about in his books. My end goal is to make an exit and be financially independent. I don’t need money for material things—it’s just a tool to gain freedom.
Thank you so much to everyone who has taken the time to read through this. I’d appreciate any tips or advice you have. And please excuse my English, as I’m not a native speaker.
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