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It’s not the hustle, it’s the person behind the hustle that makes the difference. People ask me, Is Craigslist still a good hustle? Is Amazon? Is eBay? Out of all of these things, what is the best hustle? What should I do?
In everything I just mentioned, there is someone making a shitload of money right now. You have got to wrap your mind around your abilities and stop looking at what other people are doing.
When I got in the storage auction business, it was commonly believed that storage auctions were not the way to make a full-time living. A guy warned me not to expect too much and that I shouldn’t make this a full-time living because it would break my heart. I said, “Thank you” to the guy and went on to make it a full-time living.
If there are many people doing what you’re doing and they’re saying things like, this is hard. I can’t make enough money. I don’t have enough sales. I guarantee you if you look up under the skirt, you’re going to see some panties with some holes in it. The holes are about the infrastructure being too small. They don’t really buy the proper items. There are so many variables that go into why seller A is making money and seller B is losing his shirt.
It goes back to experience, expectations and a belief in self. I mean I was making more money per week in eBay than some folks are making in one month. I can listen to people and tell they haven’t gotten there yet. If you are pushing your business, there are certain things that are going to happen.
Number 1 – you ae going to realize at some point that what you are doing is not going to get you where you want to be. At that point, you are either going to leave that business or you are going to start to implement policies and procedures and do whatever you need to do to make that business the vehicle for your destination.
I have only seen a handful of people who have figured out that Amazon and eBay is not their business. The real deal is you have to make your hustle shine. It’s up to you. I don’t care what it is.
Mistake number 1 is I’m going to go into it with no skin in the game. Everybody tries to do this stuff with the least amount of money possible in case things go wrong. On the surface, that strategy is very smart. On the experience level, it is very stupid because you are not going to get that experience. You can put your big toe in the water all day long to test the water whereas the person who goes off the diving board figures out the real deal very quickly and can make better decisions than you can.
I don’t understand why so many people want to follow someone else versus charting their own path. That is something I’ve always wanted to do. I think part of the reason this is so is because the educational system prepares you to work for someone versus working for yourself.
There are two phases where you get screwed. The first phase is when you are told as a kid, “You can be anything you want to be Little Johnny.” You are told to dream large and dream big. That kind of encouragement goes on from about kindergarten to about the sixth grade. Then from about the seventh grade to the twelve grade, you are told, “You’ve got to figure some shit out and be realistic. You’ve got to get a real job.”
Then you go to college and it gets worse. Sure, paying $80K for this philosophy degree is a good bet. For the most part, you were not fed the Kool Aid, but you had a large IV in your arm and it was on full blast.
Let me tell you the difference between a hustle and a business. A business makes money while you sleep and you can sell it. If you have to go in and stoke the fires every day and when you go on vacation you make no money, you have a hustle. I don’t care if it’s eBay, Amazon or whatever. A hustle is not scalable.
As long as you continue to suck on the tit of third-party websites, you’re going to temporarily if not permanently delay your growth and ability to learn how to start your own business from scratch. It’s hard. It’s very hard. But, I think it’s a worthwhile pursuit because those skill sets you learn are going to be so valuable in so many areas of your life, it is ridiculous.
There’s another reason I think people are confused. It goes back to your upbringing. If you grew up in an environment that was risk averse, or with a single parent who was always warning you to be afraid and not do this or that, then it is harder for you to take risks.
There was a scientific study that said that kids who had the most freedom as a child were the most creative and their self-esteem came in much earlier. Now, if you are over 40, you remember those days of getting on your bike and riding over to the next neighborhood. You had a lot of freedom and it forced you to mature faster.
We live in a world where people are in their 20s and bringing their parents to job interviews. I would laugh my ass off at anyone that showed up at a job interview with mom or dad. I would crack up.
What people don’t realize is that everyone is being put in the position of being fucked. This new system is fucking everybody. The only way out is to start a business for most people. You need to have the ability to produce income without a job. Good jobs are disappearing.
Having a business saved my ass. By having a business, I had a place to go that was mine and I was able to control. I can bring in people into the sphere or kick them out with a level of authority that you will just not get anywhere else.
I think having that sense of pride of ownership and accomplishment is something everyone should experience. Create your own hustle. Try something new. It’s not so much about the hustle you choose, but it’s about the technique and the person behind the technique that counts.
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