Why Are You Here?

How bad do you want it?

Today’s post will be a little bit different.

As many of you have already seen on Twitter / BTB’s Substack, I am now a full-time Amazon seller.

I have left behind the corporate world to work for myself, which has brought it’s own set of challenges but is more than worth it - I can fill my schedule with things I actually enjoy doing as opposed to doing a bunch of calls on shit I don’t care about.

Throughout these last two and a half years, I’ve been approached by many people in DMs. A few of you ask good, specific questions which I happily answer - but the majority ask the same 3 questions over and over:

• “How long does it take to reach x per month?”

• “How much time do I need to put in?”

• “This seems like a lot of work, can I just hire VAs?”

These people almost always disappear after a couple months because they weren’t serious about building a real business.

I’ve put out a lot of content to help get people off the ground, and posted my progress in real time. I was able to put the work in for almost 3 years straight and quit my job because I had a reason to.

I despised sitting in meetings all day with two-faced dickheads who thought they were important.

I hated the fact that someone else decided how much money I made, and when I would have to be on the phone to work with “customers”.

I feared that I wouldn’t be there for my future family because I had to work extra hours to finish the current sprint.

I recall seeing a video where a 40 year old man making 250k a year had to ask his boss permission to leave work at 5pm instead of 7pm so he could go to his son’s little league game - his boss told him no.

Then what’s the point of making all that money?

With all of these things stacked up against each other, I didn’t have a choice - if I wanted to rid myself of this bullshit, I was going to have to drag myself out. I spent hours every single day sourcing products, labelling products in my bedroom at 10PM and dropping them off at the UPS Store the next day before my morning meetings.

It wasn’t easy.

It took a lot of hours.

But I was able to put the time in every day because I had my reasons for making it work.

Finding Your “Why”

Why do you want to start a business and achieve financial independence?

Do you want to make more money?

Do you want to spend more time with your family?

Do you have a hobby that you can’t put time into because you spend too much time at your job?

Do you want to travel more?

If you don’t have a good reason, you aren’t going to get very far. It’s very obvious that the people who ask questions like “How long does it take to reach x” aren’t serious about growing their business because if it mattered that much to them, they would shut the fuck up and get to work.

It’s not easy, and it does take time - but if you want it bad enough, if your “why” is strong enough, you’ll make it happen. There’s plenty of older guys who started selling on Amazon with kids and a 9 to 5 and created a second income stream - you’re not special.

Just like when it comes to going to the gym, as much as you don’t want to admit it, you do have time - you just aren’t willing to give it up.

Taking Action

This is the second hurdle for most people - they decide they should start a business, but never start a business.

People spend too much time planning, and never make any real progress - a logo, a website, an LLC, a “business plan”, you get the idea.

Doing it yourself and learning as you go will get you much further than any sort of planning. Using myself as an example, I spent 2 weeks sourcing books for my first FBA shipment and came out of it with a whole $60 in profit.

That sounds pretty bad, but the experience itself taught me a lot and I was able to improve because of it - my very next shipment I made that much profit off a single sale.

You need to fail.

You need to make mistakes.

You need to figure out what works, what doesn’t work, and adjust - that’s what running a business is all about.

It won’t be easy, and you’ll certainly get frustrated along the way - but if you really want to escape your 9-5, you’ll make it happen.

Just. Get. Started.

Dickhead.