When I was still in school a teacher asked:
"How do you eat a full elephant?"
There were all sorts of silly answers, as we were young and the question itself seemed silly. But the answer struck me so hard the memory still remains in my head.
"One bite at a time".
Its better to do a lot of blog posts that aren't perfect, just to get the ball rolling, than few that are. There is so much I want to say, but I freeze and don't write with embarrassment of not being good enough. Not being good enough for who? for what? So here it comes. My business rambles:
In 2020 we made a shit ton of money with e-commerce. I just assumed that this store was going to keep making me rich, and that I didn't need to work at it hard, and that I was basically sorted for life, and that I was smarter than anyone else. 2021 came around, and then life took charge of bashing some reality and modesty into my head. Let's just say business did not go as planned.
And now? I have many plans, many projects. All great. But all sitting there. Ready to be worked at. And what I am missing is not time, but effort. I need to put in the hours. Its been around 2,5 years since I've worked hard and now it seems like I've lost the habit.
The fact that I am still supporting myself, have lots of savings (more than most people my age) money that was not given to me, but that I earned myself, means that I am still doing some things right. What annoys me is that with the same resources and just a few more hours of effort I could be doing so much better.
Similarly (but changing topics away from me) to how the world is unhappy with all the injustices there are out there. It's not that we don't have the resources or the time, it's not that we are doing badly either. What makes us annoyed is that we could be doing so much better with what we already have. More people die from obesity than from hunger. It's not that we don't have food for everyone, it's just that we can't distribute it well. And same with technology, global warming etc.
This is basically one of those late at night rabbles that shouldn't be published. But I am going to publish it anyways just to get back in the habit of blogging. Because it is something I enjoy doing.
I am now working on more things than I should be. Im trying to not only eat an elephant, but also a zebra, a giraffe, buffalo and white wale at the same time. No wonder I am struggling.
I've started writing my novel, I have around 18k words. Some chapters are hilarious and have gotten great reviews from friends. Others are awful and are still not ready to be shown. I want to have a novel which I am proud of by the end of the year. How many words isn't so important but I am thinking around 50-70k? It's going to be called "some girls and other tales". I think with the tittle its clear what it's going to be about.
I also have my super porject called Stamp-A-File. The beta version is ready, but it still needs lots of touch ups before it can go into the real thing. But, you can check it out here. It's basically a cheap and easy way for authors to protect their copyright by uploading their work to a copyright registry. Stamp a file essentially is a subscription based copyright registry. Pretty cool huh? yeah, now I just need to launch it proper and have it make some money.
More things I am doing? I am launching my own NFT collection: Modern Pirates Club. The roadmap is still not so clear, but hopefully by the time people read this it will all be ready. We want to sell a 10k NFT collection and make a hostel and t-shirt surf brand. If you buy one of the NFTs you would essentially be a part owner. This idea is also super cool. It is also scary because I would need to invest around 70-100k to make the collection sell. If I don't sell it, I wouldn't be broke, but it would be a hard hit at my savings. I would have to start worrying about my future. On the bright side, if it does sell, I'd be a millionaire in 3-4 months. Then I would be "forced" to start at least 1 hostel within 1,5 years. Opening a hostel has always been a dream of mine for some time down the line. This would push me to do it way sooner than I am comfortable with, but thats alright too. Still not sure how to angle this project. The artwork itself is really looking good. In fact, out of the 12 NFTs that have been minted just for testing, some have already been getting likes on open sea randomly. With no marketing or mentions of them anywhere. That must mean something. You can see the collection on opensea here. I think I'd need to do a full blog post only on Modern Pirates Club, but for now lets move on.
I've been invited to partake in a ICO of a new crypto-coin that apparently is better than Ethereum. I could buy the coin for ,24 cents and the public ICO will start at 1 USD (a x4 gain already). But, I'm kind of in need of that money for my NFT collection so that's all up in the air. I had pledged 5k, but I never received the paperwork for it.
Our e-commerce webpage is in a bit of a rut. The bank is holding around 32k of our money which we need to pay our suppliers. This is causing chargebacks and delays and more chargebacks. We are currently applying for loans but its all pretty much up in the air. The last few months rather than it giving money, i've had to put money into it. Also, we just have the 1 store that is working well, the others have been projects that never took of so much. But hey, our niche is good, and this has been the chicken of the golden eggs that made us fortunes in 2020. We need to make it come back alive.
I've been going back and forth to Gibraltar to start the first business I will run with my father. A proper brick and mortar store. I won't tell you much about it yet, but it's also a brilliant project. That one is cool because it is something tangible in the real world. Not so digital. But it's also uncool because it has to be managed physically, not virtually, at least for the first few months. Once it's up and running it can become an easy 50k passive income per year. The problem is that it's not easily scalable like online businesses.
I also want to sell bamboo straws as a substitute to plastic straws or those shitty paper ones. But thats way down in the list. I won't even get into it here.
I am also writing my personal finance e-book which is looking pretty good. Thank god I followed it pretty well myself and now I am chilled about not having a proper income and I know I can afford to do this for at least another 1.5 years before I need to worry. What I have now is the bare skeleton of the ebook. Just the facts. Now I need to make it pretty. The content is all things I have read in many other business books as well as some of the teachings from my father. I've read over 15 business books and I am taking the best parts form all of them. I am thinking of selling it as an ebook the classic marketing way, with its own webpage with upsells and so on, and also publish it on amazon with a different name. It would be the same content, one for 25-35 eur, and the other for 2.5 eur or something. Just to see what happens.
I'd also like to start those e-books that are simply quotes from philosophers and market them through instagram pages. Those things sell like crazy. People are making a killing simply by recycling Seneca and Jung quotes on flimsy amazon print on demand books. That would take only a few days to set up and have it making a little income on the side. It's the type of thing I always would like to delegate to a PA if I had one. I am thinking of getting a V-PA (virtual personal assitant), but wouldn't that just be a waste of money for now?
I'd also enjoy doing business/motivational coaching. I've done some before, but it's not fun unless I'm well paid. I think 100 eur per hour or 80 for 40 minutes would be where I'd start. Any less than that would be a drag.
All of this to say, I am doing well, but I could be doing much much better. I am not following my teachers lesson I remember from back in the day. I am biting more than I can chew and starting to choke.
My younger brother is a true blood musician. He can spend hours playing and listening to music. He's also a true blood hippy and adventurer who just loves to go into the wild with no plan. I never really knew what was my passion. I used to think it was travelling and sleeping around with pretty ladies. But I've been on the road for so long, I just want to be in one place for the moment. I've slept around so much, I am wanting to fall in love. I think I now have a clearer picture of my passion. It's not money either, it's making businesses/projects that make money. I am a true blood entrepreneur. But it's hard to be seen as an example or be as arrogant as I sometimes get when I drink when you are only mildly successful. I know I have the ideas. Now I need the perseverance and consistency to pull it off.
Thank you dear fans for reading my rambles. I know that I am a genius, but until I am not famous or super rich it is going to be hard for you to believe me. But that's fine.
If it's all rambles with no proof reading afterwards, why not just keep it on Evernote for yourself? I've done too much of that. I have over 60 notes on different journals I write to myself on Evernote. I think it needs to be out there to find myself with some sort of responsibility afterwards. Anyways, more rambles coming your way.
Any comments? I love hearing what you think. Even if it's things like "who does this guy think he is!" Thats all good too.
This is me at sunrise after an all night party in Argentina. I've just spent the last 4.5 months there. I'll write about Argentina another time. I'll just tell you it was a beautiful caos.
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