“You’ve been searching for the key for years, But the door was never locked.”
Before we are born, society already has a plan carved out for us. They point us in the direction they’ve chosen before asking us what we want to be. And then when they do ask us what we want to be, around 1st grade, they make us wait another twelve years to pursue our dreams. Not to mention the $60k in student loans attached to them.
I went to school to get a job..just to get a job so I can pay for school
-Brandon Alexander Williams
It’s a trap. In school, they spend more time teaching us what to think than how to think. Then one day you wake up. You realize that you shouldn’t have to wait until you're 65 to live the life you want and die at 85. Bussing your ass at a job for 40 years to live freely for 20 doesn’t sit right with you. But you don’t really see another way. You get a check every two weeks. You know your time and effort is worth more and most likely you work harder than your boss to make half the money. But...it’s the most money you’ve ever made in your life. It’s enough to cover all your bills, kick it on weekends and maybe travel a few times a year. It’s enough. Why give “enough” up for the unknown? The world trained you, just like they trained me, to believe the door is locked.
So many of us fear the unknown. We tell ourselves that if we take this risk and start this business, it might fail. Many ppl will tell us to block those thoughts out and think “but what if it works...what if everything goes right?” Easier said than done. But how about this, keep those unsettling thoughts about the unknown. But also think about the known. One thing we know for sure is that if you don’t take that risk, it’s 100% guaranteed that it won’t happen. Taking the risk with the unknown at least gives you a chance. You might make it, you might not. But not trying guarantees the failure of an idea. Now what’s more scary: the known or the unknown?
Let’s break down some more known factors in our lives. Let’s say you have a job making $70k a year, $60k after taxes. $60k brings you $5k a month and $2500 on your check every two weeks. If you work Monday thru Friday, that's a 10 day pay period. Meaning you make $250 a day. Let’s imagine instead of getting paid bi-weekly, you were paid daily. So every day you clock out, your boss is waiting to present you with $250. Great day at work? $250. Bad day at work? $250. Slacked off all day? $250. Bussed your ass like never before? Still…$250. No matter how hard you work, you’ll be paid the same. In what world does that make sense? What makes even less sense is that you’re trading your time, usually 8 hours a day for this $250. It’s an unfair trade. In fair trades, the items are of equal value to the parties involved. So if someone has a change of heart, a cancellation of the trade can be negotiated and items can be returned to the original owner. But if you give that $250 back, your boss can’t give your 8 hours back. He couldn't give it back for a million dollars. Hell, Jeff Bezos couldn’t even buy your 8 hours back. It’s gone forever and most likely that $250 is already gone too. Your gas bill or car note has it accounted for. My point is, time is your most valuable asset, why sell it for a finite amount of money?
Now let's explore the unknown, if you were to sell something, anything, do you think you could make $250 in 8 hours. I sell hoodies for $50. If I sell 5 hoodies a day, I’ll make $60k a year. If you can think of a product you can sell or a skill you can monetize to produce $250 a day there’s no reason you should still be going to work. The best part is there’s no cap on how much money you can make. The harder you work, the more money you’ll make. $250 isn't a huge number. You don’t have to start a huge company to make the living you're currently making at work.
While buying inventory for her store, my friend Denise met a Asain immigrant woman who owned a wholesale clothing store. The woman brought clothes from China for about $10 per item and upcharges $3 on each item. Denise would buy the items at $13 and resell them in her store for $35 or more. I was surprised that the wholesaler didn't charge more. I also assumed the wholesaler was doing well but wasn’t making a ton of money. Until one day my friend went in the store to buy some corsets that just came in. Denise bought the last 50 corsets at 11am and the woman complained that she didn't bring in enough corsets and they had sold so fast. The store had just opened for the day 2 hours ago. Denise asked how many the woman ordered, she said 1,000. When Denise told me that my mind started racing. I couldn’t believe this lady had sold 1,000 corsets in 4 hours. With her $3 upcharge, she had profited $3000 in a few hours, off of just one item. No telling how much she made from the other items in the store. I was wrong, she was making a ton of money. Does what she’s doing require a college degree? Student loan debt? An elite business mind? No. This was simple supply and demand.
The thing about it is immigrant business owners were not trained by the same society Americans are. They can easily recognize opportunities that we would never see. The same way people from Chicago move down south and make a living selling Chicago’s famous Harold’s Chicken. Or Americans export cars to other countries that don’t manufacture their own cars. It’s easier to see opportunity in a foreign land by just noticing differences between your society and the one you're becoming accustomed to. Meanwhile, poor people from that land can’t understand how people from foreign places just seem to show up and get rich. The truth is when we wake up from the financial coma we’ve been in for generations, we wreck our brains thinking of master plans to get rich. Searching for keys to an unlocked door.