Why I'm Dropping Out Of College

[Ben S.]

That's it. I'm done. I can't take sitting in class any longer. It's trash. Classes are trash. The system is trash. All for some useless trash degree.

"Yeah but you NEED a degree to be successful in life" my friends tell me...

1. You need it in order to get hired by someone ( But do I need one to hire someone?)
2. You need it for the connections you'll make ( So college is the only way to do this? Hmmm.)
3. It proves that you are dedicated and can see something all the way to the end ( HA! And creating and managing a business isn't a sign of dedication?)
4. You'll learn a lot and mature there ( Yes. Study what you're told during the week and escape into the drunk, partying nights of the weekend. For suuure.)
5. It's a good safety net ( Which you'll find yourself laying on, instead of working above)
6. People will respect you more and take you more seriously ( If a degree is how you assess somebodies intelligence or capability? I don't care for the respect of those people.)

I used to argue back. I stopped. Of course if you want to be a doctor, or engineer, or scientist, by all means, go to college. But if you want to become truly wealthy, stop wasting your time.

Im 19. Wrapping up my second year of college. I sit around the dinner table with my family. I spin the noodles of spaghetti around my fork. It's apparent. My mother has been working for 15 years at a job she hates. My father has a masters degree in Electrical Engineering. He worked for NASA. For JPL. Made military drones. Yet has been laid-off several times and unemployed for months at a time. Thankfully he works now. But I noticed something. Is it like this with everyone? They are not happy. The life is sucked out of them. No passion. No dreams. No goals. Just the same thing. Every. Single. Day.

It just blows my mind guys. We have one life. One huge opportunity. Why? Why the F*ck do we settle?

Why do we settle for anything less than our dream home?

Why do we settle for anything less than a classic Lamborghini Countach, Audi R8, and any other of our dream cars?

Why do we not nourish our bodies, and chisel our physiques into those of Greek Gods?

Mentally, spiritually, physically, we have so much room to grow. And yet so many choose to waste their lives to fit in and be average.

I want to see the northern lights. Get a skydiving license. Pass out drunk somewhere in Thailand. Run parkour across the rooftops of Brazil. Compete in MMA tournaments. Learn 3 languages. I want to help people. Inspire people.

You know when you reach the point where you simply can't do something a single second longer? Well, I reached that point with college. I've missed every class for the last two weeks. I stayed at home and read books on marketing instead. And guess what? I've learned more in that time than I have in my last two years of college. I'm done wasting my time.

Progress​

Here's what I am doing:

• Working 30 hours a week as an MMA instructor
• Expanding my eBay business (started this 2-3 months ago)
• Reading and studying absolutely everything I can on copywriting ( Bought 9 books, read 3 so far)
• Smashing the gym 6 days a week

Here's my short term plan:

• Go full time at my job and expand our MMA studio
• Grow my eBay business into at least 3k a month of net profits
• Become proficient in copy and freelance my writing
• Move out of my parents' house (if they don't kick me out first for dropping college)

I don't care if I have to sleep on friend's couches or in my car. 10 years from now, who knows what'll happen? But I sure as hell won't be at the bar on a Friday night, bitching about my boss with my coworkers.

Tomorrow I have my first class of this week. Let the dropping begin.

 

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[SBS.95]

If I can offer one piece of advice--big jolts of motivation (like the kick you seem to be on atm, right now this very second) won't help. The pictures of cars and dream homes and all of that is nice, but the daily grind is where all of that comes from.

Learning to love the grind is where it's at. Not trying to be a dick, this all just sounds pretty familiar to my mindset a few years ago. It got me nowhere.

 

[AgainstAllOdds]

-MMA job- Do your goals involve teaching MMA? If not then why stay there? 30hrs a week? Are they paying you some ridiculous amount of money for what you do? +$20.00-$30.00 an hour? VERY flexible hours? If not then you need to be looking to do something else for the time being. If your not going to school then you need to be working as many hours as you can to explode the Ebay business.

I disagree. Kid needs cash to grow the business, and create a safety net if his parents kick him out. Working 30 hours a week + 70 hours on his business is where it's at. He's doing it right for now. Just has to keep grinding.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I dropped all my classes today.

You said you lived at home? How are the parents reacting?

 

[Sean Marshall]

That's it. I'm done. I can't take sitting in class any longer. It's trash. Classes are trash. The system is trash. All for some useless trash degree.

It just blows my mind guys. We have one life. One huge opportunity. Why? Why the F*ck do we settle?

People settle out of fear. Plain and simple. The people you see living their dream lives are the ones brave enough (or dumb enough - like me) to actually go for it.

For the record, I dropped out of college and I turned out just fine. After I started my own business, I hit 5-figure months just after my first year. Then my wife said she wanted to live on a tropical island. So that's what we did. For 2 1/2 years.

It's real man. You can do it. Don't listen to anyone who says you can't do it (even here on the forum). Just keep yourself accountable. Use the forum. Don't be one of those 19 year olds that gets excited and then fizzles out. Be the dude that buys the lambo. Prove all the naysayers wrong.

That's enough rah-rah for now.

Bottom line - just make it happen. Forget everything else.

 

[Vance]

I never went to college. Hell I barely graduated High School with my 2.1 GPA. I was bored to tears in school. I did however embrace "self-education" at the age of 19 and have never stopped. Now three successful businesses later I should finally hit a 7 figure income this year.

It wasn't me not going that led to my success though, as I took job after job and worked my a$$ off from my first job of pumping gas (for you youngsters yes that used to happen. My first customer was none other than Jason Robards. Pretty cool we ended up having great conversations every Saturday morning), which I lied about my age to even get. Then every job thereafter, the great, the good, and the crappy, all led me to who I am today. I made sure I was #1 in every job I ever took and I wouldn't change a thing. Including the several years it took me to get here.

My point is, you have a LONG way to go. The journey is absolutely worth it, but in this day and age I see too many people who think they'll just drop everything, start selling products online and within 5-10 years they'll be rich. It does happen sometimes, but I'm here to echo one of Jim Rohn's most famous sayings....

"It's not what you get, it's who you become along the way." When you finally get there you realize it's not about the money at all, it's about the character you've built up over a very long period of time. To be successful and financially independent, you have to have done many things over a long period of time to deserve to be successful and financially independent. I hope you make it!

 

[Ben S.]

Update 5 (continued): Selling On Amazon
​

There was a time when selling on Amazon was easy.

You'd find a high margin product without too much competition. You'd find what reviewers had complained about. You'd link up with a supplier on Alibaba and see if they could fix whatever issues the product had. You'd place a sample order. If things looked good, you'd place the bigger order. You'd take killer photos and blast away competition with your superior copy. Then you'd give away 100+ units "in exchange for an unbiased review"

POOF! Overnight (relatively speaking) you've got more reviews and a higher ranking than established sellers in your niche.

Such was my mindset when I placed my first order with Taiwan. The product is in the outdoors/fitness niche. Here are the analytics I pulled from Amazon and my competitors:

Average Selling Price: $33
Sales Per Month (among the top 5 sellers): 650
Cost Per Unit Landed: $12
Amazon's FBA fees: $8
Estimated Profit Per Unit: $13

Interestingly, a majority of the sales are going to one seller in particular. He's got over 115 reviews, while the other listings have no more than 50. Other than the reviews, he has a pretty poor listing. Lacking images and good copy.

My plan? I figured I'd take WAY better photos. Write a WAY better description. Improve the product by waterproofing it and offering a limited warranty. And I'd give away 100 units to be right on his level with reviews.

So I placed the order. $9,000. I took loans from friends and family to make up for what I couldn't afford.

This was three months ago. Taiwan gave me a ridiculous lead time, but they had by FAR the best quality product. My order is finally arriving within the next week.

Going deeper...

I did some more research while waiting for my inventory. I found a product that paired very well with the Taiwan product. I decided to create a full set and sell it as a variation on the same listing that I'll be creating for the first product. I sourced this set with a Chinese manufacturer.

More money...

$8,000 to be exact. But my margins on the this full set will be closer to $20 per unit. The lead time for this is actually 1 month. So it should arrive around the same time as the Taiwan order. Now I'm $17,000 deep and getting 1,250 units within two weeks. Super pumped!

Here's the thing though...

Amazon changed.

Surprise surprise. If it sounds too good to be true, it is. In the three months that I was waiting for my inventory to come in, Amazon made a couple announcements.

1) No more incentivized reviews.

2) New FBA sellers cannot send in inventory until January. (After 4th quarter)

What this means for me is two things:

Firstly, I will have to find a 3rd party fulfillment center, OR drive to the post office every day to fulfill orders.

Secondly, I cannot easily generate reviews any longer. And no reviews = no sales. Now every review I get has to be organic. How am I supposed to get organic reviews when I'm stuck on page 12 of an Amazon search because I don't have any reviews?

It's a cache 22. With only one solution:

I have to drive outside traffic to my listing.

Product Launch Plan​

I plan on doing a product giveaway. I will give away three items related to my niche.

1) High ticket item- $150 value
2) My product set- $50 value
3) My product alone- $35 value

I will market this by running Facebook ads to people interested in my niche. The ad will say something like, "Win a FREE ______ ($150 value)". Clicking on it will take people to my landing page. This will have more information, as well as the 2nd and 3rd prizes.

People can enter into the contest by providing their email. They can boost their odds of winning if they like my company Facebook page or share the contest on their own Facebook page. If a friend actually joins, they get even higher odds of winning!

Im currently looking into using Gleam.io, which automates a lot of the contest process. Alternatively, I may just set up a landing page with Leadpages, since I feel it would convert better. The only drawback is that I would have to do a lot of the contest process manually.

I also plan to reach out to relevant bloggers and influencers in my niche and ask them to promote my contest. I'll give them my product for free in exchange for their post. I may even write a guest post on their blog if they're okay with it.

I plan to run the giveaway for two weeks.

The goal: Collect leads! Ideally, I'll get at least 1,000 relevant leads. My reach goal is 3,000 leads.

Once the two weeks are over, I'll announce the contest winners via email and on my Facebook page.

Here's the cool part. Most people will NOT win. That's why I will offer everyone who entered the contest 30%-35% OFF my product and provide a coupon code. They will be able to get this discount by buying from my Amazon listing and using the code.

This will bring a TON of outside traffic to my listing. Im hoping it will generate enough reviews for my product to be competitive, and generate traffic within Amazon.

That's my plan for now! I'll go more into depth as I start executing on this plan. I'll be a lot more active here from now on. Great for holding myself accountable. Let's goooo!

 

[Runum]

I hope you set the world on fire, teach us all how it's done.

You still have a lot yet to learn and some of it is going to be painful.

I agree, you got to learn to love the grind. Keep us posted on your milestones.

Good luck.

 

[Paul David]

That's the house the minecraft creator purchased from under the noses of jayz and Beyoncé. Tremendous.

Sent from my D5803 using Tapatalk

 

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[Bananas]

I was thinking about going on Amazon, but I have dedicated so much time to figuring out eBay that I stubbornly want to make it work. I have to find what I'm doing wrong here. Would you suggest switching over to Amazon before I get too deep into the eBay game?

@Ben S.

I run businesses. One of them is on eBay. I will tell you my biggest regret. The stupidest move I made during the past decade plus...

I didn't set up on Amazon.

Why?

Because I was doing great on eBay.
Because Amazon was somewhat gated in certain categories.
Because I didn't want to learn another platform.
Because I didn't want to deal with UPCs.
Because I didn't like their product descriptions.

What do these things have in common?

Laziness. I was lazy. I was a lazy, stupid, fool.

Now I am on Amazon. I am making a shit ton more money than I was before. I do not even have as many products on Amazon as I do on eBay. Yes, I had to pass some gates. More gates have come down in the past year, too. Yes I had to learn another platform and figure out UPCs for products I invented. Yes, I had to learn how the website worked and how to write my descriptions.

Worth it.

 

[Ben S.]

Progress Update 3: Getting Very Pissed. Then Getting Slightly Less Pissed. Yet Still Remaining Pissed.

F*ck this.

Staring at disbelief at the check in my hands. My boss at my MMA job underpaid me. He paid me insultingly low. I worked a little under 85 hours last month for his studio. How much was my check for? $900.

Yeah. Thats barely $10.60 per hour. God damn I wanted to quit the instant I saw that check. So I put in tons of extra hours to cover for an employee (who was only supposed to be on vacation for 2 weeks, but ended up gone for the whole month). And I'm rewarded with a deduction of over $5 an hour? Hell no. Luckily I had to wait for Monday after getting my check Saturday. I would have been a lot less rational...if I didn't have the weekend to think about how to handle it.

Today I came in to talk to him before my shift. No accusations. No anger. Just a simple question: "Hey, I got this check and I was wondering if you may have made a mistake?" He felt that he hadn't. So this was intentional? (Steam coming out of ears) To make a long story short, he apologized and agreed to pay the difference. Got a second check for $365. My current hourly? $15. Hence remaining pissed. I know jobs I can take where I get paid $15 to sit in a coffee shop and occasionally deliver food every couple hours.

I would have quit and given him a two weeks notice if it weren't for the main reason I'm working this job: To gain experience to launch a marketing business. And here I have complete control over all aspects of building his business. Including funding. So, briefly, here's what's happening:

My Three Wives​

I'm a cheater. I'll admit it. One simply isn't enough. I need three. I know I know. I'm violating MJ's rule of committing to one thing. But they all seem so necessary and connected. As it is, I have three goals that I am dedicating all of my waking hours to:

1) MMA Studio Expansion
2) eBay business
3) Studying Copy

I'm starting to see how this is ineffective. But I feel like I can manage. Time will tell.

MMA Studio Expansion
​

It's been around a week. So here's what I've done for my first wife:

1) Typed out a 16 page plan for expansion. ( I would post the PDF of it here but I would have to move this to the Inside.) Here are the categories:

• Relocation (includes sketched blueprint of the new location, as well as things to buy)
• Current Customers
• Promotional Video
• Curriculum
• Class Structure
• Extras (Ways to boost monthly revenue with events, trips, movie nights, etc)
• Merchandise
• Projections
• Marketing Plan

2) Established my hourly pay and reduced my hours to 13 per week
3) Scheduled a discussion of this plan with my boss for tomorrow

Here's where I am clueless...obviously this plan will take immense hours out of my day. So I need some sort of compensation arranged tomorrow. Hourly does not seem appropriate because there's no real way of tracking the hours I work at this plan. A retainer does not seem appropriate because I have no qualifications. I may be naive but I truly feel that I can double his business. You know what he said to me today? "One day you'll take this business over." Ha! Very far from my intentions. But it indicates to me that an equity deal may be very possible. So what will I ask for? 10% equity. If I can DOUBLE his business within 6 months, I feel that asking 10% isn't too big an arrangement. (Especially considering everything else on that plan which is unrelated to clients)

Now my long term plan which stems out of this is the following:

Within 6 months I will reach my goal of doubling the MMA Studio's Business. I will have a 10% equity arrangement and a glowing piece for my portfolio. This ideally would amount to around $1,500 of passive monthly income. Perhaps a referral from the owner to other businesses who may be interested. From there, I will make similar arrangements with other brick and mortar businesses. Upon this rock I will build my church. This will give me the money to move out of my parents' house.

eBay Business
​

My second wife hates me. I think she's getting jealous of the attention I've been giving my first one. Here's what I've done:

1) Sold out of my 5 samples of Product 1. Discussed with the factory. Placing my first larger order of 50 units, with a couple OEM sample versions with my logo for the next order.
2) Realized that my other 4 products were poor choices in oversaturated markets. I'm dropping the price to get rid of them.
3) Bought tons of cheap items to build up my eBay feedback score. (Currently sitting at 11 feedback 100% positive. Woohoo.)
4) Ensured Product 1 has an optimal listing. All listings were very well done from the get-go however. I already did keyword research for the title. I used decent copy in the product description. I took professional photos with a homemade light box and GIMP. So not many changes to be made.
5) Learned to ship professionally through screwing up. God.. my first package compared to the ones I send now...I wrote the address in permanent marker on my first ones. Now I'm printing labels. And sending a personal letter with each shipment to build a good customer relationship. It has humorous copy and tips for how to use my product in the best way.
5) Looked into making an Amazon listing @Bananas suggestion. Tomorrow I have no MMA shift and will do this.

My plan as of now is to perfect Product 1. It is in the fitness niche. I am personally into fitness. So? I'm creating an eBook to include for free as well as a physical product add-on. Then I will begin to actively market it. I'm thinking of using direct mail marketing, which I've heard so many great things about in the copy books I'm reading. No idea how this works but I'll figure it out.

Studying Copy
​

As usual, I am reading my copy books. Here's the list and what's done (Blue is completed):

• • Scientific Advertising
  • Cashvertising
  • No B.S. Direct Marketing
  • The Boron Letters
  • How to Write a Good Advertisement
  • Tested Advertsing Methods
  • The Lazy Man's Way to Riches
  • 7 Steps to Freedom
  • The Robert Collier Letter Book

I am half way through with the Robert Collier Letter Book. After I finish all of them, I will return to annotate every single one. At the same time, I am USING what I am learning for my first two wives. I plan to look into freelancing as well.

Conclusion
​

So with everything on the table, my time is pretty divided. This isn't mentioning my 3:30 alarm and 5 AM gym seshes. But I consider these part of a good morning routine and essential to stay focused and balanced. I will update after tomorrow's meeting with my boss. Thanks all for the inspiration and help!

​

Let's go!

 

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[Envision]

Update 5 (continued): Selling On Amazon
​

There was a time when selling on Amazon was easy.

You'd find a high margin product without too much competition. You'd find what reviewers had complained about. You'd link up with a supplier on Alibaba and see if they could fix whatever issues the product had. You'd place a sample order. If things looked good, you'd place the bigger order. You'd take killer photos and blast away competition with your superior copy. Then you'd give away 100+ units "in exchange for an unbiased review"

POOF! Overnight (relatively speaking) you've got more reviews and a higher ranking than established sellers in your niche.

Such was my mindset when I placed my first order with Taiwan. The product is in the outdoors/fitness niche. Here are the analytics I pulled from Amazon and my competitors:

Average Selling Price: $33
Sales Per Month (among the top 5 sellers): 650
Cost Per Unit Landed: $12
Amazon's FBA fees: $8
Estimated Profit Per Unit: $13

Interestingly, a majority of the sales are going to one seller in particular. He's got over 115 reviews, while the other listings have no more than 50. Other than the reviews, he has a pretty poor listing. Lacking images and good copy.

My plan? I figured I'd take WAY better photos. Write a WAY better description. Improve the product by waterproofing it and offering a limited warranty. And I'd give away 100 units to be right on his level with reviews.

So I placed the order. $9,000. I took loans from friends and family to make up for what I couldn't afford.

This was three months ago. Taiwan gave me a ridiculous lead time, but they had by FAR the best quality product. My order is finally arriving within the next week.

Going deeper...

I did some more research while waiting for my inventory. I found a product that paired very well with the Taiwan product. I decided to create a full set and sell it as a variation on the same listing that I'll be creating for the first product. I sourced this set with a Chinese manufacturer.

More money...

$8,000 to be exact. But my margins on the this full set will be closer to $20 per unit. The lead time for this is actually 1 month. So it should arrive around the same time as the Taiwan order. Now I'm $17,000 deep and getting 1,250 units within two weeks. Super pumped!

Here's the thing though...

Amazon changed.

Surprise surprise. If it sounds too good to be true, it is. In the three months that I was waiting for my inventory to come in, Amazon made a couple announcements.

1) No more incentivized reviews.

2) New FBA sellers cannot send in inventory until January. (After 4th quarter)

What this means for me is two things:

Firstly, I will have to find a 3rd party fulfillment center, OR drive to the post office every day to fulfill orders.

Secondly, I cannot easily generate reviews any longer. And no reviews = no sales. Now every review I get has to be organic. How am I supposed to get organic reviews when I'm stuck on page 12 of an Amazon search because I don't have any reviews?

It's a cache 22. With only one solution:

I have to drive outside traffic to my listing.

Product Launch Plan​

I plan on doing a product giveaway. I will give away three items related to my niche.

1) High ticket item- $150 value
2) My product set- $50 value
3) My product alone- $35 value

I will market this by running Facebook ads to people interested in my niche. The ad will say something like, "Win a FREE ______ ($150 value)". Clicking on it will take people to my landing page. This will have more information, as well as the 2nd and 3rd prizes.

People can enter into the contest by providing their email. They can boost their odds of winning if they like my company Facebook page or share the contest on their own Facebook page. If a friend actually joins, they get even higher odds of winning!

Im currently looking into using Gleam.io, which automates a lot of the contest process. Alternatively, I may just set up a landing page with Leadpages, since I feel it would convert better. The only drawback is that I would have to do a lot of the contest process manually.

I also plan to reach out to relevant bloggers and influencers in my niche and ask them to promote my contest. I'll give them my product for free in exchange for their post. I may even write a guest post on their blog if they're okay with it.

I plan to run the giveaway for two weeks.

The goal: Collect leads! Ideally, I'll get at least 1,000 relevant leads. My reach goal is 3,000 leads.

Once the two weeks are over, I'll announce the contest winners via email and on my Facebook page.

Here's the cool part. Most people will NOT win. That's why I will offer everyone who entered the contest 30%-35% OFF my product and provide a coupon code. They will be able to get this discount by buying from my Amazon listing and using the code.

This will bring a TON of outside traffic to my listing. Im hoping it will generate enough reviews for my product to be competitive, and generate traffic within Amazon.

That's my plan for now! I'll go more into depth as I start executing on this plan. I'll be a lot more active here from now on. Great for holding myself accountable. Let's goooo!

This is incorrect.

-Stop focusing on reviews - they don't factor into sales to the extent that you think they do

-I was selling on Amazon without incentivizing my reviews when it was allowed and I was killing off my competitor's because my product was better. If your product is better you will do fine.

-If your parent's/grandparents have a college fund for you - you should use it to actually go to college. Believe it or not it will help you and if you dont have to go into debt for it there's literally no reason you cant work on your business and go to school.

-When you are driving traffic, do it to collect emails but dont send the traffic to the listing because this will tank your conversion rate. Feed them native content (articles/reviews) that include your product through a drip and upsell them by including discounts/incentives within the content.

- You better hope to god you figure out how to pay back the $17k you borrowed plus the interest if they charged you any. I would never borrow money on a product that hasnt shown sales history and I would never borrow money without knowing how I was going to pay it back.

-Have you run a P&L (other than the short description above) on your 17k order for the inventory costs, shipping from manufacturer/into amazon, ad spend, FBA fees, etc to determine your margins and how you can pay back the money and keep purchasing more inventory to not lose your momentum on Amazon?

Entreprenuers dont take risks, they take calculated risks - there is a huge difference and from the explanation I've read from you, I would say you took a risk without calculation or proof with money you dont have from people who matter most.

That's a bad spot to be in and if I were you I would get a job ASAP to begin paying off that loan so you can keep the money in your business for more inventory

 

[daivey]

lol

MJ can you make a counter on the right of the website that counts all the people that said they are dropping out collage?

 

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[Ben S.]

You said you lived at home? How are the parents reacting?

There was no explosive "Get out of this house!" reaction. Luckily my parents are very understanding. However my mother insists that I at least get an A.A. degree from my Community college. I looked up the requirements and found that I would have to complete 5 more classes (16 more units) and to get an Associate in Science Business Administration Degree.

I don't think it's worth it. 16 units is a LOT of time. But at the same time if I chose not to do it, I will very likely have to leave my house. I do have plenty of time to decide. Next semesters classes don't begin until mid August. Until then, I'll hustle my a$$ off.

 

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[Ben S.]

Progress Update 2: Solid Plans
​

I am grinding. I've been waking up between 3:30 and 5 AM for the last couple weeks. Yes, even while I was in school. Now with a good chunk of "free time" it's easy to waste it. I'd consider myself very disciplined, but you can't argue with human nature. You remember Parkinson's Law? The time it takes you to do the things you need to do will expand to fit the time you have to do them. So I have a daily schedule:

• Wake up at 3:30 AM
• Eat and hit the gym while listening to business podcasts
• Meditate
• Begin 4 hours of working on "The absolute ONE THING I can do TODAY to achieve my long term goal." as well as other priorities
• 2.5 hours of Copywriting study (school substitute)
• Work 3:30 PM to 8:30 PM
• Asleep by 9:30 PM

I get a good 6 hours of sleep, which seems to work for now.

MMA Job​

You know how MMA is a "badass" "tough" sport? This studio isn't like that. Our primary students are children aged 3 to 13. What does this mean? I do not market to the kids, I market to the parents. And oh boy is there a huge market! Now, I haven't given the MMA much thought yet, because my priorities are in my eBay business and learning copywriting. Here are some jumbled thoughts:

My job as an MMA instructor pays...eh. $16.50 per hour. Which amounts to a little under $2k monthly. I believe I am providing enough value to ask for $17 an hour. I will do this soon. In fact, for all I do I should be getting paid WAY more. HOWEVER, I am not working it primarily for the hourly pay. I absolutely hate the idea of trading my time for any amount of money. So why? This will be the first business I use my copywriting skills for. Being a small business, I work with the owner (my boss). He has given me full permission to market his business however I like. I am re-designing the website. I am managing the Facebook page. He also offered me a bonus for any new members I bring in. Weather this is a percentage of their monthly payments, or a one-time bonus, I do not know. Essentially, this job is a HUGE project for me to work on. I will blow up his business, and learn TONS in the process.

• We are changing locations very soon. This means everything is NEW. Except for our students and a few pieces of equipment (punching bags, target gloves, etc). I will help source all of our new equipment, and get everything running.
• I will use Direct Marketing to build a better relationship with our current students, as well as pull in new students.
• I currently run a fitness class for the older students. Aged 16 and above. Some have asked me if I can personally train them. I don't have time, but it is a definite option to make extra $$$ on the side. My boss doesn't mind.
• I will create a new promo video, complete with go-pros in a Jiu Jitsu match, and an overhead drone during kids classes
• I will collect testimonials from very happy parents (We really do change their rowdy kids for the better)
• I will create tournament events, with entry fees to up our monthly revenue

I could be asking for more pay, but I want to show my value first. After results start coming in, then I will make better pay arrangements. My boss mentioned a partnership, or that I even take over eventually. I don't want this. It'll tie me down to a brick and mortar business. Ultimately my exit strategy is making a small equity agreement and occasionally assisting in marketing for the studio. If he gets around 100 members at our $200 monthly charge, a 2% revenue agreement should bring me a nice $4,000 monthly.

eBay Business
​

Nothing has changed. Still 5 products up. Still only 3 of one product has sold. I'm doing something wrong. I believe feedback is a huge part of my issue. I have 100% positive feedback but only 11 feedbacks. Today I will dedicate most of my time to finding what I'm missing here.

Copywriting​

I ordered 8 books. Currently reading "The Robert Collier Letter Book." The ones in blue I have finished:

• Scientific Advertising
• Cashvertising
• No B.S. Direct Marketing
• How to Write a Good Advertisement
• Tested Advertsing Methods
• The Lazy Man's Way to Riches
• 7 Steps to Freedom
• The Robert Collier Letter Book

Lets go!

 

[Rudynate]

For what it's worth . . .

I have an old friend, a unique guy. He dropped out of high school, didn't finish his last year, and ran away from home.

He ended up in Phoenix and started taking martial arts lessons. He progressed so quickly that before long he was teaching martial arts.

He taught himself to speak Russian, fluently.

He taught himself to play the piano. He's never had a lesson in his life and is able to play virtuoso-level pieces beautifully.

He became a whiz at IT and made piles of money in various IT-related businesses and consultancies.

In spite of all of that, because his formal schooling was terminated so prematurely, there are all these peculiar gaps in his background. I've known him so long that I'm used to it, but I used to be astonished at the things I had to stop and explain to him because he had never learned them. There was a whole body of knowledge, that we take for granted that anyone would know, that he didn't know.

He tried to brush it off - but I could tell that he was embarrassed by it and felt like he had missed out.

 

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[Ben S.]

Update 5: Back From the Dead
​

Hey all. I'm still alive. Im sitting on a couch on the balcony of my apartment in Santa Barbara, California. It's pretty cold out here. But the air is clear and it's a beautiful night.

Disclaimer: The following is a recap of what's been going on since I last made a post. If you want to know what I'm doing NOW, read the following post.

It's been a crazy 7 months or so. I had to put my head down and get to work. For anyone who's followed up to this point, thank you. I'll briefly sum up these past few months. Here's the highlights:

1) Firstly, I have long quit my job as an MMA instructor. As great as it was, I really had enough of it. You can only have little kids fart on you from a top-mount so many times. My boss wanted me to take over his studio eventually. But it's just not something I'd be interested in.

2) Shortly before quitting MMA, I started working for a wholesaler who was looking to expand his business onto Amazon.

He hired me to write the Amazon description copy, take product photos, and launch his products. Awesome! Why? Well, I learned TONS about selling on Amazon. Almost every moment of down-time was spent listening to podcasts about selling on Amazon. Not to mention, working for someone forced me to take action. No education loop, since I had to show results.

All was great until he insisted that I do the product research as well, and find him good products to sell...Ha. I might as well do the whole thing myself then. Screw getting paid $10 an hour.

So I did. I quit. And that's what I'm doing now. (More about that soon.)

3) I moved out of my house. I won't lie. I'm incredibly fortunate.

My parents and grandparents saved a decently large amount to go towards my college fund. After some discussion with the parents, we agreed that I could move out to Santa Barbara (right by the University here) to complete the classes I dropped from my community college. I'm taking these classes now at the Santa Barbara City College. I don't plan to pursue university education until I'm successful with my first business. Rather my parents want me to at least have the classes done, which are necessary for transferring to a university. In the meantime, my parents are paying for literally everything.

And I hate it.

Don't get me wrong. I'm incredibly grateful. But the idea that I'm still completely dependent on them for everything pisses me off. Rent? Parents. A couple pairs of jeans? Parents. Food? Parents. Gas? Parents.

BUT...On a more positive note, it's incredible here. The amount of resources available is amazing. The gym is 5 minutes away by skateboard. The beach is a 5 minute walk away. There's a 7 story library with a view of the ocean, where I can work in silence. I can sit in on relevant/useful university classes, for free. I won't get credit for them of course, but I want the lessons more than the points. There's no shortage of clubs or unique people either.

The way I see it, its not what you have. It's how you use what you have. And given how lucky I am, there is NO EXCUSE for taking it easy. It has been a crazy change of perspective though. It goes like this:

Students finish their school stuff. And party or hang out with the remaining free time.

I'm basically living among college students, but don't really participate in any of the things they do. This has made me a lot more aware of how lonely things can be. It was easy to hustle when I lived at home and didn't really see what I was missing out on.

Any free time I have goes to working on my business. And staying in on the weekends to work, while I can literally hear partying going on in the streets makes the loneliness sting just a little more. I've found myself questioning my decisions several times. Can I balance things? Should I be having more fun while I'm young? Will I regret spending these years like this?



And then I went to a Lamborghini dealership a couple days ago. And guess what? All of those questions seemed to magically disappear.

 

[Ben S.]

If I can offer one piece of advice--big jolts of motivation (like the kick you seem to be on atm, right now this very second) won't help. The pictures of cars and dream homes and all of that is nice, but the daily grind is where all of that comes from.

Learning to love the grind is where it's at. Not trying to be a dick, this all just sounds pretty familiar to my mindset a few years ago. It got me nowhere.

Completely agreed. The flashy cars and homes are the event. The grind and the process is what makes them. I understand this. As it is, I am loving it. But maybe this isn't even close to how hard the grind will become...

As I see it, I'm like a baby deer. Wobbly legged and barely able to stay standing. Yet full of the dreams of prancing around in green pastures. I'm not going to delude myself. It'll suck at some points. It's easy to say "I'm ready for anything that's coming." Until I have to face it. So I won't waste my breath talking about it. I'll let my actions do that.

 

[Ben S.]

Progress Update 1: Drop That Bitch On Her Head Like Bang
​

I dropped all my classes today.

This was after I went into my 8:30 AM accounting class this morning. Sat through the lecture. The topic was F.O.B. (Free on Board) for shipping products. Interesting... I learned about this when starting up my eBay business.

I feel lightened, and honestly more true to myself. It's a weight off my shoulders. I'm shedding societies' rules. I feel like it's so important to get rid of the BS in our lives that gets in the way of what we want. I sure as hell won't use Calculus 2, or Music Appreciation. So why waste time? More than time, why be inauthentic to myself? I am making it a goal to avoid wasting time on things that do not provide direct benefit.

Now heres what I've done:

MMA Job:

• Spoke with my boss and he agreed to keep my 30 hour weekly schedule, as opposed to my previous 11.5 hour schedule. (I have been covering for a co-worker on vacation)
• I am re-designing the website for our studio and will be in charge of marketing. We are switching locations within the next couple months, so lots of work to do.

eBay:

• Currently have 5 products up on eBay. These are all my sample orders. The ones that sell best will be re-ordered in a larger quantity.
• Sold 3 units of one product in the last 10 days. The rest are not selling so far.

Copywriting:

• Reading "The Robert Collier Letter Book"
• Copying at least 2 letters that Halbert recommended per week

Lets go!

 

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[GrayCode]

As I see it, I'm like a baby deer. Wobbly legged and barely able to stay standing. Yet full of the dreams of prancing around in green pastures. I'm not going to delude myself. It'll suck at some points. It's easy to say "I'm ready for anything that's coming." Until I have to face it. So I won't waste my breath talking about it. I'll let my actions do that.

And I'm the badass lion that is going to eat your wobbly standing baby deer a$$ alive.

Just kidding. I wish you luck and I am interested in hearing your progress.

 

[relentlessaction]

Congrats on the change.. Do know, there are only a few who will succeed. However, if you are willing to put in the time and have a mouth piece to talk yourself into something. You will most likely succeed. It's definitely easy to outwork/outshine average folks.

I never graduated and probably wasted who knows how many years (5+) half a$$ trying to graduate when I knew, I would never... But you tend to listen to the normal people around you. I simply didn't want to put in the work to graduate because my mind was in trying to build a business.

Your success is accumulated to all those days which you busted your a$$ and you absolutely didn't want to push through or do anything or had major doubt.

I was able to talk my way into a full job in IT. I'm now 3 years in and doing about $70-73k/year. It's decent considering most of all my peers are all college grads and even more so more college grads who make less. But at the same time there are non-college grads just like me in the software engineer spectrum who pull in $100-$140k per year. So I've been working my F/T job + my side business.

Just put in that hard work and always think about how you can catapult any sort of leverage you can. You do have to start somewhere.

After starting my F/T job, within 6 months I ended up starting another business - Ecom. It's been at about $14-$20k/gross sales per month now and within the last year has made a pretty penny which I have saved most of it. Current business is about 25-35 products.

The goal is to build 2-3 more ecom sites which are less products. These will be 2-8 products each and will have a ceiling cap of about $1-$20k/month and barrier to entry should be about $500-1k/mo plus money spent on facebook ads.

I'm most definitely looking into quitting within the next 6 months and/or before summer starts in 2-4 months. I'm hoping to get another business making $2-4k/month before I actually quit.

In the past for the life of me when I had no job. It would be tough to work on the business and/or build something 24/7. Now, perhaps as I'm older it's all I want to do. So I feel now is the best time to quit my job and focus on what I want to do on a daily basis. I will be hustling harder though and trying to make a bigger impact on my monthly income.

Best of luck... Doing the MMA thing should be a great learning experience. I would try and document it and perhaps you can re-create that strategy for other similar companies or any companies for that matter. Charge a flat rate fee, implement the changes and show the owner/marketing staff how to keep it going.

The real key though is to offer massive value - We can't truly become really rich until we can successfully exchange (people's money) for our (value) from thousands if not millions of people. Most of these odd things I see most people do are simply just easier ways to live versus the standard 9 to 5 lifestyle.

To make $1 million, $5 million, $10 million, $50 million requires a much deeper strategy.

Unfortunately, I'm not there yet. I do think that climbing the ladder as well for your own business is part of the process but that's what I think and assume.

My goal is to build that $20-40k/month cash flow to be more then I need to live and then to focus my efforts on building that $20 to $50 million/year business. Would be great if anyone else had more experience in building $50-100 million/year businesses.

 

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[Jeremy Groover]

Oh man, here we go...

-2-3 months on an Ebay business is not nearly enough time. What kind of margins are you making?
-MMA job- Do your goals involve teaching MMA? If not then why stay there? 30hrs a week? Are they paying you some ridiculous amount of money for what you do? +$20.00-$30.00 an hour? VERY flexible hours? If not then you need to be looking to do something else for the time being. If your not going to school then you need to be working as many hours as you can to explode the Ebay business.
-I have a few requirements when I have to work a day job. (The harder I work the more I get paid, or the harder I work the earlier I get to leave with the same pay) If your getting paid a set rate per hour then you need to find somewhere else for a day job.
-What are you doing with your spare time? Because at 30hrs a week and an Ebay business that is not netting over 3k a month you should have plenty of "spare time".


I could go on but I'll wait a little.

 

[SBS.95]

eBay:

• Currently have 5 products up on eBay. These are all my sample orders. The ones that sell best will be re-ordered in a larger quantity.
• Sold 3 units of one product in the last 10 days. The rest are not selling so far.

You need to get on Amazon yesterday. My sales went up (both in volume and in price sold) after switching. Ebay is a nice supplement, but it's really only a superior selling platform for more "individual" items. If it's mass produced, has a bar code, etc. then Amazon rocks.

I second MJ's question and would like to know how the parents reacted.

 

[AgainstAllOdds]

What Im saying is, is the job actually worth it or is the job a "glory" job? Is he working 30 hours a week for 8.50 an hour but gets to say I'm a badass MMA trainer? If so there are plenty of other less glorious jobs that you can walk in making more (deliver pizza, server, bartender other tipped wages) back to the "the harder you work the more you make or the harder you work the sooner you get off for the same pay) example of the 2nd sooner off for same pay: pest control, pool service, delivery driver, most places like this have a route and are salary pay and you usually get to go home when your done to work on your own thing. If you have to work, at least make it worth while...

You have a flawed perception of trainers. Normal workout trainers will make $20 to $100 an hour with the right setup.

MMA trainers can make a lot more.

For example, let's say he opens up his own studio, and teaches 10 people at a time, $20 each. That's $200 an hour. There's tremendous potential here for a significant income that he can then invest.

 

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[Ben S.]

this is a typical thread that we see every week.. nothing new here... some guy drops out of school talks about "massive action" but is really doing nothing and flaunting e-peen around to whomever will buy his story.

just like every 16 to 25 year old that knows everything.

and then dropping mad quotes "bro bro bro, $17 an hour is not worth my time cause i promised never to trade money for time".

Shame. You're not getting invited to my 2020 yacht party bro.

 

[Almantas]

I would finish the college and find a job that is related to business; possibly marketing assistant, supervisor of some kind, administrator etc. By doing so, you would have a solid 'safety net' - to temporarily fall back, every time your hustling goes tits up.

Study, do some part time work and hustle. Simple. When you finish your degree, get a job that will provide you with relevant experience and hustle. This would be my plan, bro

Yes, it sounds cool reading quotes such as "I never have plan B, because it distracts me from plan A", but in reality, most quotes are crafted with a particular attention to audience and what audience wants to hear, instead of what the reality truly is.

 

[relentlessaction]

Yeah, I would have to agree. Take more action and read later. You can always read later when you need more direction or inspiration.

All content is just rehashed.

Build up your empire, business, whatever. Research and learn every small task which you need to get to your "end goal". This is all you really need. IMO, the act and process of this is what made me semi-successful. Become a complete problem solver.

If you are deadset on promoting MMA Studios.. I would personally reach out to the other competitors in your area. Your current MMA owner screwed you and doesn't value your time. Send your services and help elsewhere. If you can't get the trust and interest of any of the owners then I would probably re-construct a new plan for immediate income. It takes two and if none of them are willing to stick their foot out for you then you're better off doing something which is more easily attainable.

IMO, regardless of what it is.. What I would do is focus on building some business, any business which can generate $3-6k/month which you can work your a$$ off to achieve and you can somewhat automate in the future. Once that's done then you can work on a bigger income business but at least your daily/monthly expenses are covered. At least, that's how I'm doing it.

 

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[ljb7]

I dropped out of college and it was one of the best decisions I've ever made (mind you, I'm only 20). I had a little success with social media marketing prior to university, but when I dropped out I really had nothing. I'll tell you one thing, I'm glad now that I didn't rack up tens of thousands of pounds in debt that come with a university degree here.

As a few others have said, start selling on Amazon now. Not 3 months from now, definitely not a year from now... Now. I began by selling on ebay from July 2014 with little success (aside from learning a shit ton). I moved on to Amazon early 2015, of course like anyone who sells on Amazon I wished I would had done it sooner but that's how things go. Lesson learnt.

The Amazon hype is at an all time high right now so you need to start cashing in now or you'll become a part of the masses that'll be complaining about how 'they never got a piece of the pie' a year or two from now.

Good luck with things.

 

[PTP]

Any updates to report @Ben S. ?

 

[Eli Cohen]

Hi I wanted to comment. So your family has money for you to go to college debt free? They are paying your rent, food, gas, bills, and everything.

Dude I wish I had parents like that..

I'm in a similar situation pursuing fastlane business ideas while in college but I don't come from a background like that. I was fortunate to have loving parents who fed and clothed me but beyond that I was and am on my own.

I dropped out of college to pursue fastlane business ideas and after strings of failures I went back after a year and a half, while living at home that whole time.
I'll tell you honestly it doesn't feel so good at family events, birthday parties, and siblings graduation when people ask what you are up to and you don't have a solid answer.

But that didn't deter me from trying, and while I'm continuing my education I will still pursue my fastlane interests. Going to college does not mean failure, but it is one of many options, fortunately for you it seems like your parents want a bright future for you so they are willing to invest in it for you. The jobs they work that seem to be monotonous to you provide you with a nice future that you can bank on. I see a lot of my friends are like you, they see some results that other people get after years of working on their business/hobby/skill and think they can do that too.

But behind all of that are strings of regrets, failed relationships, whacked credit scores, bankruptcies, and the fundamental question of is it really worth it?

Is it really worth it to you to sacrifice your youth in the pursuit of fastlane business success? I ask myself this everyday and I know my answer because I know my WHY and I know my HOW.

Food for thought, good luck on your journey.

 

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