Question for MJ DeMarco

[bpere11]

Hey MJ,

In 'The Millionaire Fastlane ', you write about the risks, downsides and perils of "hitchhiking" on someone else's business.

I understand that it's not wise to ride on the coat tails of someone else's business as it means you're at their mercy and they can change the rules or switch off your income at a moment's notice.

This leads me to my question: Do you regard selling via Amazon as hitchhiking?

When over 50% of ecommerce sales in USA are conducted on Amazon, I feel like less of a guppy and more of a shark, swimming in the vast Amazonian waters.

Or, do you advocate for entrepreneurs to hitchhike their way into the fastlane? E.G Testing a product's viability on Amazon and then expanding into their own websites and using another third party fulfilment service like shipbob.com?

Look forward to hearing your thoughts.

 

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[TheFrancophile]

Hey MJ,

In 'The Millionaire Fastlane ', you write about the risks, downsides and perils of "hitchhiking" on someone else's business.

I understand that it's not wise to ride on the coat tails of someone else's business as it means you're at their mercy and they can change the rules or switch off your income at a moment's notice.

This leads me to my question: Do you regard selling via Amazon as hitchhiking?

When over 50% of ecommerce sales in USA are conducted on Amazon, I feel like less of a guppy and more of a shark, swimming in the vast Amazonian waters.

Or, do you advocate for entrepreneurs to hitchhike their way into the fastlane? E.G Testing a product's viability on Amazon and then expanding into their own websites and using another third party fulfilment service like shipbob.com?

Look forward to hearing your thoughts.

I know this question is addressed to MJ DeMarco and not myself, but as an experienced Amazon Third Party Seller, I thought I'd contribute.

And the brutal truth is...

If you're selling on Amazon (or any other platform that you don't control), you are DEFINITELY not a shark. You're still a guppy in someone else's ocean.

Amazon can:
- close your account arbitrarily at any time, for any reason (or for no reason at all);
- set maximum prices to a level where you're not profitable;
- impose ridiculously high fees/commissions on you, effectively taking all your profits away;
- arbitrarily and unjustly refund, at your expense, lying customers who fraudulently claim they haven't received their product (which happens quite often here in Europe);

... and you can do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about it. You're at Amazon's mercy. They can close your account and kill your business at any moment, with a single decision - and you can do NOTHING about it.

And, as MJ DeMarco wrote in his books, that is exactly a definition of depending on someone else.

Doesn't matter if Amazon controls over half of the US e-commerce market or not. If that's true, it only proves what a big, indomitable shark they are.

 

[jclean]

Hey MJ,

In 'The Millionaire Fastlane ', you write about the risks, downsides and perils of "hitchhiking" on someone else's business.

I understand that it's not wise to ride on the coat tails of someone else's business as it means you're at their mercy and they can change the rules or switch off your income at a moment's notice.

This leads me to my question: Do you regard selling via Amazon as hitchhiking?

When over 50% of ecommerce sales in USA are conducted on Amazon, I feel like less of a guppy and more of a shark, swimming in the vast Amazonian waters.

Or, do you advocate for entrepreneurs to hitchhike their way into the fastlane? E.G Testing a product's viability on Amazon and then expanding into their own websites and using another third party fulfilment service like shipbob.com?

Look forward to hearing your thoughts.

I google searched commandment of control you inmediate come to a post of MJ DeMarco

The Commandment of Control requires that your entire operation, from product development, to marketing, to distribution, to other operational components, be within your sphere of influence, or diversified from influence. It’s owning what you build, effectively giving you black-swan insurance. It’s immunity against catastrophic events that can derail your gig overnight.

The short answer is yes you are hitchhiking.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Do you regard selling via Amazon as hitchhiking?

Amazon is a channel and is a dominant aspect of culture.

If Amazon is your ONLY channel, that technically that would be considered a Control violation and a hitchhiking relationship.

If Amazon goes out of business, so are you. Of course, there is no threat of Amazon disappearing anytime soon so the risks of this violation are more related to your product. A sketchy product or a product that Amazon can copy, high risk. A product like mine (a book I wrote) extremely low risk.

 

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