Look around, there’s money all around you. You might not see it yet but it’s there.
It’s just sitting around waiting for you to find it. If you call for it, it will show you where it is.
But most of us don’t know where to look. We are conditioned to think that the only place we can make money is at a job working for somebody else.
But what if we condition our minds and start to notice where the holes are in the market?
Then we begin to notice money making opportunities everywhere. It’s when we develop a money making mindset that we realize the only limit to our income all these years has been ourselves. Now the sky is the limit, because we aren’t dependant on our boss giving us work anymore.
I first heard this concept in high school.
I’m sure you knew a kid at school that sold candy at lunch.
And it’s likely that you bought their candy. But why, when they likely already sold candy at the school cafeteria?
It’s because that kid found a hole in the market.
There’s a good chance the candy sold at the cafeteria was either expensive or the kid offered varieties that were not otherwise available.
If he sold the same candy at a lower price he was undercutting the competition. It’s done so that consumers are motivated to buy from Jack instead of Joe.
At my school we had one kid that sold G-Shock watches and Beats by Dr. Dre headphones. We knew his products were knockoffs, but we didn’t care. We were kids and couldn’t afford to pay premium prices for these luxuries.
They worked great, and looked like the real deal so they sold and flew out of his backpack.
That kid found a hole in the market and profited from it. He didn’t even have a “real” part-time job either. What he had was his own business and his work hours were in between classes. That meant he had more free time after school when the rest of us were working at our part time jobs.
This is where it starts and how we get conditioned. We go to school where we are told to learn this and that so we can land a real job. And then when we need money, we graduate from a chore allowance (if you had one) to a part time job. We were taught that it’s the right thing to do, and we fit in with our friends who were doing it too…
Years later, when I worked at a retail clothing store I met a co-worker who was some years older than me. I thought this guy was so cool and wanted to talk to him but he only seemed to work a few days a month. I had no idea how he was able to keep that job when he barely showed up but somewhere in me I idolized him.
There was something different about him so I asked.
I asked why I hadn’t seen him around at work much. All of us had to take every extra hour we could get but he was a ghost – and seemed to be doing much better than us, often showing up to work well put together in nicer clothes.
I asked him how he did it.
The funny thing is he never really gave me a straight answer. It seemed like he wanted me to put the pieces together for myself. He went on to explain what he did without actually telling me what he did exactly, and by the end I had a better idea.
He went on to say that he had other jobs that made him more money. I was so interested in this other life he had. For all I know he was a sketchy drug dealer but he seemed too classy, intelligent and clean cut to be a dealer. Maybe he came from a wealthy family?
Ironically, he began to remind me that April 20th (4/20) was around the corner and a ton of people were downtown Toronto celebrating which meant a ton of stoned and hungry people. He said if I wanted to make money, I could buy pizza and pop, set up a stand, and sell out of the back of my car.
Then sell my pizza for a premium – more than what I paid for them. I’d be the closest place for them to find food, so they would buy from me despite my eye-gouging prices. Easy money.
The only reason this works is because there is a hole in the market. Setting up a stand nearby provides convince. People wouldn’t need to leave when they got hungry, which meant they could continue partying.
This happens at sporting events and theme parks all the time. Because they don’t let you bring in outside food or come and go as you please, they know you’ll get hungry. Then when you’re hungry and the only food available is what their selling you’ll pay whatever the price.
Find the hole in the market and provide a solution to the public. If there’s something you notice that’s annoying that makes you wonder “Why isn’t anyone selling this?” or “Why don’t they have a product that solves this problem yet?” Start there.
There’s a good chance that if you have a problem – everybody else has that same problem as well.
And if you’ve figured it out, you found the money making opportunity hiding in plain sight.
Looking back, I wish I knew where that guy ended up because after that we never saw him again and I still don’t know what he was doing there. So I figure the only reason was to hit on girls because clearly he didn’t need that job.
To conclude, if you want to be wealthy, you need to forget about the idea of a JOB.
It sucks away your time, leaves you just enough to get by, tells you what to do, and fires you if you take too much time off.
If you want to be free you need to be a hustler. Look at everything as a money making opportunity. Ask yourself “How can I make money out of this situation?”
Then you’ll start to condition your mind to find solutions and you’ll realize that money is just sitting around waiting for you to find it. If you call for it, it will show you where it is.
Your JOB isn’t safe if you can be let go at any moment – but neither is hustling.
There’s no guarantee that you’ll make money this week but the reward when you do is enormous. Especially after you’ve built a nice reputation where your customers come running for the solution you provide, that has them dying to give you their money.
Now you have all the time and money to do whatever you want.
Work on your own terms and let the pressure fire you up and force you to make life incredible.
Sometimes the only way to learn to swim is by jumping in feet first without a lifejacket.
Your friend,
Jamie.
