TIE #062: Your Time is Being Stolen From You
Act now or accept your lifelong prison sentence.
Your first step to escaping the rat race is making your first $1,000 online.
I don’t care what anyone else says, the best way to accomplish this as a beginner is with a simple Amazon business where you sell other people’s products.
It worked for me 10 years ago and it’s what I would do if I had to start over from scratch today.
You can attempt to figure that out on your own or you can become a paid subscriber and get free access to my private mentorship group on Discord:
Choice is yours.
Astute observers of my newsletter schedule will recognize that this post feels a bit out of place.
I haven’t published something theoretical like this in a long time.
Truth is, this is the slot I was using to post about how much money I make via digital products and consulting:
However, last week I made the change to bundle everything I have to offer and give it to new paid subscribers of the newsletter.
Therefore, tracking newsletter performance is the only metric worth observing moving forward.
So for now, let’s brush up on why we’re all here.
When our parents and grandparents grew up, working a 9-5 job made a lot of sense.
I mean, what other options were there?
Starting a business was a lot more expensive and required information that you couldn’t just look up on your phone.
There was also less of a reason to dislike 9-5 jobs, because your money went twice as far:
For this reason alone, I don’t blame people older than 50-60 for questioning young adults who dislike at the “traditional” career path in 2024.
They just aren’t up to speed on how horrible the trade-off is.
Look at this:
Number Runner is a bit over-zealous by saying an internet business will get you there in 1-2 years, but the point stands:
A job is too slow and they’re getting slower every day
Even if you somehow:
Land a $200,000 salary right out of college (not happening)
Get a 10% wage increase EVERY YEAR (not happening)
Save 20% of your PRE-TAX income
It will still take you 20 years to amass a $3 million net worth.
Will that even be enough to live on if inflation continues on its current trajectory?
No one knows.
There are two kinds of people:
The type that reads this and goes “I don’t mind working. As long as I can afford to pay my bills, it’s whatever.”
The type that reads this goes “WTF. This is modern day slavery. I want to own my time and do something I enjoy for most of my life”
The post and my entire newsletter is aimed at type 2.
If you are type 1, you’re in the wrong place and you should probably unsubscribe.
My last job was an aerospace engineer for the VC-25B presidential aircraft and my salary was under $100,000 and I never got an annual wage increase over 10%.
Despite having what many around me described as a “dream job”, it would have taken me at least 30 years to hit my escape number.
I am a type 2 individual so no amount of “stability” is worth three decades of:
Waking up to an alarm you’d rather not set
Commuting to a place you’d rather not go to
Listening to someone you’d rather not listen to
Spending 40-50 hours/week away from the people you love most
You’re probably thinking:
“Great, so what is the solution?”
The answer:
You need to make a lot of money and you need to make some of it while you sleep
Terrible answer, I know.
I wish it wasn’t the way things worked.
However, this is reality if you don’t like the traditional options available to us.
It is what it is.
There are a million ways to accomplish this and none of them are easy or quick.
What did I do?
I started an Amazon business in college (because I realized how terrible the traditional model was) after failing at like 5 other ideas.
An ecommerce business like this takes a lot of work but once it is running, it operates 24 hours/day.
It doesn’t just make money while you’re “clocked in” and it makes more money if you put more effort into it.
Do you know a job that rewards you that way? I sure don’t.
It is still the same thing I would start with today because that same business clears six figures in profit every year:
I then used the skills I learned from this to start several other businesses.
One of them sold for heavy six figures in 2020, which gave me an incredible head start.
You can use this to your advantage like Carl (a paid subscriber and Discord member) and many others have:
Or you can continue to give away hours of your time to a business that doesn’t care about you.
That choice is yours and I can’t make it for you.
When you are ready, there is one way I can help you:
Join 600+ people in becoming a paid subscriber to this newsletter
In doing so, you get FREE access to:
My private mentorship group on Discord (this used to be $329)
My LEGO Investing Mastery Guide (this used to be $169)
My Textbook Flipping Mastery Guide (this used to be $169)
Buy/Sell alerts for LEGO (these will make you money)
These resources will show you how make your first $1,000 on the internet using the same methods I used to escape the rat race.
"Despite having what many around me described as a “dream job”, it would have taken me at least 30 years to hit my escape number." Excellent insight. Success only comes from taking things into your own hands.