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I believe 'The Millionaire Fastlane ' has been the most enlightening book I've ever read and it is having a profound effect on me, but not a good effect on my psyche. It's been over a month since I finished the book and also 'TGRRE '. Here's a little background about me:
I worked in various unfulfilling jobs from ages 18-21, then transitioned to the yachting industry, earning respectable money compared to my peers. However, at 25, exhausted from working 16-hour days without seeing my family or friends for extended periods, I decided to invest my money and energy into an online business that seemed promising at the time: Self-Publishing. I conducted extensive research and eventually purchased my first-ever course, despite typically being frugal with money, spending $500 for the first time.
After applying what I learned, I faced failure for months and months. I was investing money into book creation, ads, and graphic design, but nothing seemed to work. Gradually, with the support of community members, I began to see some results. After much studying, grinding, working 16 hours per day, and spending a lot, I managed to replace my job with Self-Publishing and have been sustaining myself through this online venture for a year, experiencing ups and downs but maintaining a satisfactory performance overall.
After reading 'The Millionaire Fastlane ', I realized that this business is not ideal because it lacks a barrier to entry (now even more so with AI), and Control, since 99% of the books I sold are on Amazon. Generally, I didn't build a solid brand but rather created some good books here and there with Pen Names that will eventually lose relevance in a matter of months or years. I think I can continue to push, publish new books, and have ample free time and some money for myself while doing this, but I don’t see myself doing this long-term.
Thus, I began exploring other options. Understanding that Amazon won't assist me in the long term, I started from scratch, seeking an online business model that could be an intermediary to something more 'fast lane' while still acquiring useful skills that I could use for freelancing, my own businesses, or potentially returning to employment for a while. My research, which didn’t reveal any pain points or fast lane ideas in my field of interest, led me down a YouTube rabbit hole. I found some business models that piqued my interest but none were convincing enough since I am now evaluating businesses with the CENTS method and see numerous shortcomings, causing me to lose interest in new ventures quite easily.
For instance, I discovered Local Lead Generation (Rank and Rent) on YouTube. Initially, it seemed cool, but I realized it is competitive, lacks control since you are dependent on SEO to rank or Google Ads, and is rapidly growing as many new gurus are emerging with this business. The barrier to entry is not that high since you can outsource a lot of the process, or at least gurus make it seem easy to outsource.
I find it incredibly challenging to invest my time and energy into something that I believe doesn’t have the potential to be long-term. I also said, 'I hate speaking with people on the phone and I would do this in the US since it's not as profitable in my country due to the lower cost of living.' Also, many business owners confuse this with SEO or digital marketing and, after speaking with my uncle who owns a windows repair shop, he told me that people call him every day, so I presume it will be extremely difficult to find clients and differentiate from the competition.
Next, I found Website Flipping, which seemed interesting. I could learn SEO, niche research, affiliate marketing, platforms, tools, and how to improve websites. However, I came across articles stating that AI-generated content is outranking normal websites because they are leveraging computational power to rank with tons of content. So, I became discouraged again.
Then, I discovered no-code SaaS, but I have zero software skills and the thought of learning everything seems too overwhelming. It also seems like you lack the commandment of control since Bubble is changing their payment structure and you can't export the code anymore, so you are tied to a platform.
The CENTS framework has been useful but I've lost meaning because now, I wouldn’t want to invest my time, energy, and money into something that I know won’t get me where I want to be. It seems almost impossible for me at the moment to build a specialized unit.
I feel helpless and even my publishing business is suffering since I can't manage to be as positive, productive, and hardworking as I was before knowing the CENTS Framework.
I am not exactly sure how to approach this and how to move forward. I think I lack clarity in my mind and that I am misinterpreting this idea, but so far, although I feel like I know significantly more than before, my quality of life has drastically decreased because I am far less energetic, positive, and proactive than I was before.
Also, I started to watch some Alex Hormozi content and now it's inevitable to see tons of digital marketing agencies, software, businesses preaching the same things: i.e., they are all working on their offer promising outrageous things such as '90 clients in 30 days or I will give you 5k for your wasted time' or similar. So even new marketing and value-based marketing is becoming saturated, so even the thought of 'ok but people don't know how to sell and market their own stuff' is not true anymore and it is discouraging.
I worked in various unfulfilling jobs from ages 18-21, then transitioned to the yachting industry, earning respectable money compared to my peers. However, at 25, exhausted from working 16-hour days without seeing my family or friends for extended periods, I decided to invest my money and energy into an online business that seemed promising at the time: Self-Publishing. I conducted extensive research and eventually purchased my first-ever course, despite typically being frugal with money, spending $500 for the first time.
After applying what I learned, I faced failure for months and months. I was investing money into book creation, ads, and graphic design, but nothing seemed to work. Gradually, with the support of community members, I began to see some results. After much studying, grinding, working 16 hours per day, and spending a lot, I managed to replace my job with Self-Publishing and have been sustaining myself through this online venture for a year, experiencing ups and downs but maintaining a satisfactory performance overall.
After reading 'The Millionaire Fastlane ', I realized that this business is not ideal because it lacks a barrier to entry (now even more so with AI), and Control, since 99% of the books I sold are on Amazon. Generally, I didn't build a solid brand but rather created some good books here and there with Pen Names that will eventually lose relevance in a matter of months or years. I think I can continue to push, publish new books, and have ample free time and some money for myself while doing this, but I don’t see myself doing this long-term.
Thus, I began exploring other options. Understanding that Amazon won't assist me in the long term, I started from scratch, seeking an online business model that could be an intermediary to something more 'fast lane' while still acquiring useful skills that I could use for freelancing, my own businesses, or potentially returning to employment for a while. My research, which didn’t reveal any pain points or fast lane ideas in my field of interest, led me down a YouTube rabbit hole. I found some business models that piqued my interest but none were convincing enough since I am now evaluating businesses with the CENTS method and see numerous shortcomings, causing me to lose interest in new ventures quite easily.
For instance, I discovered Local Lead Generation (Rank and Rent) on YouTube. Initially, it seemed cool, but I realized it is competitive, lacks control since you are dependent on SEO to rank or Google Ads, and is rapidly growing as many new gurus are emerging with this business. The barrier to entry is not that high since you can outsource a lot of the process, or at least gurus make it seem easy to outsource.
I find it incredibly challenging to invest my time and energy into something that I believe doesn’t have the potential to be long-term. I also said, 'I hate speaking with people on the phone and I would do this in the US since it's not as profitable in my country due to the lower cost of living.' Also, many business owners confuse this with SEO or digital marketing and, after speaking with my uncle who owns a windows repair shop, he told me that people call him every day, so I presume it will be extremely difficult to find clients and differentiate from the competition.
Next, I found Website Flipping, which seemed interesting. I could learn SEO, niche research, affiliate marketing, platforms, tools, and how to improve websites. However, I came across articles stating that AI-generated content is outranking normal websites because they are leveraging computational power to rank with tons of content. So, I became discouraged again.
Then, I discovered no-code SaaS, but I have zero software skills and the thought of learning everything seems too overwhelming. It also seems like you lack the commandment of control since Bubble is changing their payment structure and you can't export the code anymore, so you are tied to a platform.
The CENTS framework has been useful but I've lost meaning because now, I wouldn’t want to invest my time, energy, and money into something that I know won’t get me where I want to be. It seems almost impossible for me at the moment to build a specialized unit.
I feel helpless and even my publishing business is suffering since I can't manage to be as positive, productive, and hardworking as I was before knowing the CENTS Framework.
I am not exactly sure how to approach this and how to move forward. I think I lack clarity in my mind and that I am misinterpreting this idea, but so far, although I feel like I know significantly more than before, my quality of life has drastically decreased because I am far less energetic, positive, and proactive than I was before.
Also, I started to watch some Alex Hormozi content and now it's inevitable to see tons of digital marketing agencies, software, businesses preaching the same things: i.e., they are all working on their offer promising outrageous things such as '90 clients in 30 days or I will give you 5k for your wasted time' or similar. So even new marketing and value-based marketing is becoming saturated, so even the thought of 'ok but people don't know how to sell and market their own stuff' is not true anymore and it is discouraging.
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