Hello Everyone! Long time listener, first time caller. Firstly, thank you MJ, for all of the wisdom contained in your books. Both Fastlane and Unscripted are among the best self-help books in the Entrepreneurial space that I’ve read to date.
I’m in an interesting position and would value some feedback. A few years ago I built my son a small roller coaster in our backyard (I’d been gone a lot in the military and wanted a fun project that I could work on with him). It took me a month to engineer and design it and two months to build it (working on the weekends). After testing I let my son ride it (and took a video of him riding it). I posted the video online and it was an overnight viral hit. We were on Good Morning America, Fox and Friends, front page of several newspapers, 4 local news stations, radio stations, and in multiple other news stations across the world. To date, the Youtube video has over 40 million views (I’m not going to link to it because I don't want to violate Forum rules/regs). I’ve monetized the video and that has been a nice trickle of income (but not as much as you’d think).
I’m now very thankful to be in a unique position with somewhat of a Youtube following and have been racking my brain trying to come up with a way to develop my own Productocracy based on the success my video has had. I’d feel foolish for not turning “this” into something, but am beginning to think my ideas may be a dead-end road, as I feel that they violate one or more of the commandments in major ways. I'm very hard working, ambitious, and business minded, but to quote Harry from Dumb and Dumber, I don't want to drive half way across the country in the wrong direction.
My ideas so far:
Idea 1) Create more coasters and take videos of cute kids having fun riding them. Develop and further monetize my Youtube channel. The channel is off to an awesome start. The huge problem with this idea is that it massively violates the commandment of Control. One snippet of music gets misused or too many people make copyright complaints and your channel becomes demonetized overnight (I’ve seen it happen). Algorithm changes, monetization policy changes, etc. People that have built Youtube empires have been decimated literally overnight. Their Youtube empires have vanished with nothing but a weak nonsensical explanation from Youtube. Probably my least favorite idea because my precious "house of cards" would be built entirely upon a Youtube owned/controlled foundation.
Idea 2) Develop, design, manufacture and sell backyard roller coaster kits and components for ambitious DIY parents that want to build roller coasters for their own kids in their backyard. Kits could include the more difficult components of backyard roller coaster construction (CNC’d steel/aluminum cart components, bearings, trucks, entire carts etc). I have two concerns with this. My first concern would be does it violate the commandment of Need? Would I be fishing from a big enough pond? In other words, are there enough parents out there that would want to take on a DIY project of this size (and order my products) to make this a profitable enough venture for me to pursue? And my second concern with this is the liability aspect. If I manufacture and sell a DIY roller coaster component to someone (a cart for example), and it gets installed incorrectly or misused or not maintained, and little Timmy breaks his neck riding a backyard coaster with some of my components, I feel like I’d get my butt sued off. I’d have to consult a lawyer, but feel that there aren’t enough warning labels in the world that could acquit me of all liability.
3) Create a DIY backyard roller coaster construction guide/book. The problem I see with this is again that it may violate the Need commandment. If I sell a book and profit even $20 a copy, will enough people order it to make it a Fastlane opportunity? Is there enough of a need for a DIY backyard roller coaster book? A niche DIY book could command a higher price, but it seems like it’d be TOO niche in this instance.
One neat thing is that my second son is about the age my first son was when I shot that video. I’m designing another coaster (and will be building it soon and posting a video). I’m sure the next video will be somewhat of a hit (probably not as big as the first), so I have a potentially invaluable opportunity approaching to reach and market said Productocracy to millions without spending a dime.
What are your opinions on the above ideas? Are they dead-end roads or am I just not being confident or creative enough? I welcome all of your feedback (good and bad). Are there other ideas here that I haven’t thought of that you can bring to my attention? Thank you, everyone, in advance for your advice and your time.
-NavyFlyer
I’m in an interesting position and would value some feedback. A few years ago I built my son a small roller coaster in our backyard (I’d been gone a lot in the military and wanted a fun project that I could work on with him). It took me a month to engineer and design it and two months to build it (working on the weekends). After testing I let my son ride it (and took a video of him riding it). I posted the video online and it was an overnight viral hit. We were on Good Morning America, Fox and Friends, front page of several newspapers, 4 local news stations, radio stations, and in multiple other news stations across the world. To date, the Youtube video has over 40 million views (I’m not going to link to it because I don't want to violate Forum rules/regs). I’ve monetized the video and that has been a nice trickle of income (but not as much as you’d think).
I’m now very thankful to be in a unique position with somewhat of a Youtube following and have been racking my brain trying to come up with a way to develop my own Productocracy based on the success my video has had. I’d feel foolish for not turning “this” into something, but am beginning to think my ideas may be a dead-end road, as I feel that they violate one or more of the commandments in major ways. I'm very hard working, ambitious, and business minded, but to quote Harry from Dumb and Dumber, I don't want to drive half way across the country in the wrong direction.
My ideas so far:
Idea 1) Create more coasters and take videos of cute kids having fun riding them. Develop and further monetize my Youtube channel. The channel is off to an awesome start. The huge problem with this idea is that it massively violates the commandment of Control. One snippet of music gets misused or too many people make copyright complaints and your channel becomes demonetized overnight (I’ve seen it happen). Algorithm changes, monetization policy changes, etc. People that have built Youtube empires have been decimated literally overnight. Their Youtube empires have vanished with nothing but a weak nonsensical explanation from Youtube. Probably my least favorite idea because my precious "house of cards" would be built entirely upon a Youtube owned/controlled foundation.
Idea 2) Develop, design, manufacture and sell backyard roller coaster kits and components for ambitious DIY parents that want to build roller coasters for their own kids in their backyard. Kits could include the more difficult components of backyard roller coaster construction (CNC’d steel/aluminum cart components, bearings, trucks, entire carts etc). I have two concerns with this. My first concern would be does it violate the commandment of Need? Would I be fishing from a big enough pond? In other words, are there enough parents out there that would want to take on a DIY project of this size (and order my products) to make this a profitable enough venture for me to pursue? And my second concern with this is the liability aspect. If I manufacture and sell a DIY roller coaster component to someone (a cart for example), and it gets installed incorrectly or misused or not maintained, and little Timmy breaks his neck riding a backyard coaster with some of my components, I feel like I’d get my butt sued off. I’d have to consult a lawyer, but feel that there aren’t enough warning labels in the world that could acquit me of all liability.
3) Create a DIY backyard roller coaster construction guide/book. The problem I see with this is again that it may violate the Need commandment. If I sell a book and profit even $20 a copy, will enough people order it to make it a Fastlane opportunity? Is there enough of a need for a DIY backyard roller coaster book? A niche DIY book could command a higher price, but it seems like it’d be TOO niche in this instance.
One neat thing is that my second son is about the age my first son was when I shot that video. I’m designing another coaster (and will be building it soon and posting a video). I’m sure the next video will be somewhat of a hit (probably not as big as the first), so I have a potentially invaluable opportunity approaching to reach and market said Productocracy to millions without spending a dime.
What are your opinions on the above ideas? Are they dead-end roads or am I just not being confident or creative enough? I welcome all of your feedback (good and bad). Are there other ideas here that I haven’t thought of that you can bring to my attention? Thank you, everyone, in advance for your advice and your time.
-NavyFlyer
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