Today is going to be a little bit different than usual.
So…I randomly wrote the post below about a week ago in the private group for the FB Side Hustle Course. I do my best to inspire people to keep grinding, and since we have a lot of newly minted side hustlers in that group, I figured that people might like a little push.
I don’t know if I’ve told all of you my writing process, but basically, I just try to sit down and start writing whenever I feel inspired.
That’s when my best stuff comes out, you know? The most popular posts I’ve ever written for M$M are based on things that have happened during my journey of getting rid of my student loans, building my business, etc.
I share a lot of my life with all of you here. But I realized that there is one specific part of my story that I’ve never shared before.
Why? I was embarrassed about it at the time. There were several months after I had quit my teaching job that I got to a pretty low point. I thought M$M wasn’t going to make it, and I didn’t know what to do.
One thing I’ve realized though is that the posts where I share my low points are probably some of the best things that I write, because honestly…nobody likes to share that stuff. But we all experience it.
After I wrote this in the FBSH group, I realized that there were probably a lot of you out there right now that are working on your student loans or other debt, trying to get ahead at your job, trying to start a business, or just figure out life in general that could really relate to this.
It’s about entrepreneurship…but it’s really not. It’s about life.
So, enjoy. I think this is really good and hope it helps you in some way today.
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ENTREPRENEURSHIP SUCKS (and I couldn’t afford an office but don’t worry about that now – I’ll get to that later in this post.)
*GASP* Ooooooh yeah. I said it. It sucks.
I’m sure all of you have seen me talk about entrepreneurship with fluffy pillow-like unicorn rainbow terminology at some point on M$M in the past.
“Entrepreneurship can change your life!”
“Working for yourself is incredible!”
“My boss is awesome because it’s MEEEEEE!”
And yeah, while all of those things are true once you’ve “made it”, the reality is that the first few months (or hell, even years) can be mind-numbingly hard.
But due to the wonderful phenomenon of survivorship bias, most people (including me) don’t properly address entrepreneurship the way that we should.
It’s easy to sit up in here and talk about getting clients and making money like it’s not a big deal.
You’ve all seen my income reports. I could buy a pony if I wanted to.
But as funny as it would be for me to ride around on a pony, the reality is that the journey to this point has been so hard. These last three years of building M$M have been the hardest of my entire life.
When I first started out in business, I took a leap of faith that most people are way too smart to even consider.
I legitimately did quit my job after M$M had made $3 in Google ad revenue.
That’s not just some cool thing I made up to sound ballsy. I actually gave up $50k/year teaching for $3.
Who freaking does that? So stupid.
But I did. I had zero sales experience, no discernable skills that I could monetize, and even though I had some mentors…they didn’t understand the online business world at all.
All I had was a really, really crappy blog. It was lonely. I was Millennial Money Man, but without the Money part.
It took me three months to find a client that would pay me, and honestly, finding a marketing client wasn’t even something I wanted to do.
I HAD to do it. I wasn’t making enough money to continue to pursue this website full-time.
So you might be wondering…what the hell did I do for three months while I wasn’t making money from my blog and I didn’t have a marketing client?
I’ve never shared this story before.
My wife and I were still renting a room from my in-laws when I quit to run M$M. It was really cramped and didn’t have enough room for me to have an office after I had quit my job.
Honestly, I didn’t want an office there even if I could have one. My father-in-law was sick at the time, and my mother-in-law stayed home all day to help care for him.
It wasn’t exactly a situation that was conducive to running a business. It wasn’t that bad living with them, but old married couples tend to bicker literally all day long and there was just a lot of stress that surrounded his illness.
There was no way I was going to be able to work there and keep my sanity.
So I talked to my good friend/mentor Mike. He owned a swimming pool company but was in the process of slowly shutting it down so that he could eventually retire.
He had several extra rooms in his building that used to be offices when his business was really going strong, but since he had sold a large chunk of his business…they were just sitting there empty.
I didn’t want a handout, and he didn’t want to give me a handout either. I wanted to rent the room from him, but I wasn’t making enough money to afford it.
After talking about it for a while, we worked out a deal.
His building sits on a fairly large chunk of land that needed to be mowed regularly. It’s a total pain to mow it, and he didn’t want to do it anymore because it sucked so much and took hours to do.
So in exchange for using the office, I mowed whenever he needed me to. Mowing the property was going to be my rent.
During the summer (which was when I had quit my job), it needed to be done every Saturday.
I hated it. Maybe loathed is the right word.
Here I am, a newly minted business owner, having to mow some other guy’s grass because I can’t afford my own office.
But, I swallowed my pride because I didn’t have any other choice. It was humbling for sure.
So eventually, I set up a desk and my computer (didn’t have any other furniture), and drove to my office every morning at 7:30 am to figure out how I was going to make money.
For weeks, I would literally wait for someone to email me.
Maybe a single M$M reader would reach out to me? Maybe some small financial startup would want to sponsor the site for a few hundred bucks?
But…nothing happened. I wrote content, read articles on Search Engine Optimization and marketing, and just hoped that I would figure out how to make money.
Just to further put this into perspective:
I didn’t have a group of people to talk about online businesses with and wasn’t part of some kind of “mastermind” to collaborate with other entrepreneurs. There was no live training every Thursday like we do in the private group for the FB Side Hustle Course. I didn’t have a community to bounce ideas off of.
It was unbelievably lonely.
And eventually, I got to the point where I was scared.
I started to really believe for the first time that M$M was a terrible idea, I had blown it leaving my job, and…that I was going to fail.
I thought about quitting. Admitting that this whole thing was a failure. I started to wonder if I should start looking for a teaching job.
That’s when I got desperate and decided to reach out to the jeweler that made my wife’s engagement ring.
I stepped 1,000% outside of my comfort zone and asked if they would take a shot on me to run their website.
After a few weeks of back and forth, they did.
And honestly…I don’t really know why. I wasn’t qualified. I hadn’t done marketing work before.
The only thing I can think is that the business owner saw the same fire and determination to succeed that I see from so many M$M readers.
So after they hired me, I got to work. I continued to push through all the thoughts that I wasn’t good enough to make it in business. I ignored the idea that I probably couldn’t be as successful as some of the other bloggers I looked up to so much.
I just…kept going.
Now?
I have an awesome assistant to organize my emails because I’m too busy to do it on my own. I own multiple businesses. M$M will reach 2 million people or more this year. I have a team. The people I never thought I’d match in success are now my peers.
I can afford a pony.
A lot of you are probably feeling discouraged right now with whatever you’re working on. Paying off your student loans, starting a business, building your net worth – it’s all the same.
You might even be experiencing that sick to your stomach feeling when you’re afraid you’ve made a horrible mistake.
What if this path you chose for getting ahead financially wasn’t right for you? What if you just can’t cut it and can’t seem to keep up with the people that you see who are doing so well in life?
What if…you fail?
If that is you – then this is most likely the moment that you’ll look back on in a few years and see it as a turning point in your life like I do with my moment…assuming you’re about to make the correct choice and push through.
The moment that you’re the most scared is the moment that you have to step out of your comfort zone and go do the damn thing.
You don’t have a choice. Failure is not an option if you want to be who you thought you were when you took the leap of faith into what you’re doing now.
So yeah, entrepreneurship sucks.
But…
Entrepreneurship can change your life.
Working for yourself is incredible.
Your boss is awesome because it’s going to be you.
Question for you:
What’s the lowest point you’ve ever had in your financial journey, and how to did you get past it?
Great post !! I can relate to this !!! Thanks for writing
You’re welcome! Hope it helps 🙂
This applies so much to my husband and I right now.
He is quitting his job and we are starting our own businesses. With two young children. Thank you for your encouraging story! It will be tough, but we are ready for it!!
You’re welcome! Don’t give up.
I really appreciate your transparency here. So many underestimate what it actually takes to “succeed” as an entrepreneur, but this is good stuff. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
You’re welcome! Wish I had shared it earlier, but late is better than never right?
Yes sir! I’m confident you will inspire many with this one. My favorite post yet…
Thank you!
I’ve been following you for over a year now and that was the most inspirational post you’ve made to date. Thank you for writing this. While I’m not an entrepreneur I am hustling to get ahead and have been experiencing many of those same doubts and fears that you describe. That’s just what I needed to hear.
Wow – thank you. That’s one thing I’ve learned…all of this stuff relates to each other. Grinding and paying off my student loans feels a LOT like grinding and building a business. The people that continue to push when everything looks bad are the ones that tend to make it. Glad it helped!
I’m so glad that I’m trying entrepreneurship with the safety net of already being financially independent. Your story is awesome and shows so much perseverance, but I could not have done that and lived through the stress. I know myself.
So now I get to try to build businesses and income streams with a full safety net that can sustain me forever. It’s my version of entrepreneurship that’s way less stressful!
I’m jealous haha. It was a lot of stress – hopefully I won’t have to put myself through that again but who knows?
You must be in my head Bobby. This whole month I’ve been questioning all of my decisions about blogging. It’s been really tough to stay motivated as of late. I just haven’t had the drive…
I got into blogging because I loved it. It was something I enjoyed. Lately it’s felt like more of a chore though.
Could use a bit of motivation. Thanks for sharing the not so glamorous side of things. Love how you keep it real.
No problem! The non-glamourous stuff is where the real information is anyway. 🙂
If I could afford to get you on Skype for an hour, I would book you in a heartbeat. I lasted two weeks at being my own boss before I had a breakdown. Of course, I also threw in an interstate move and moving in with my boyfriend on top of that, so really I was asking for it. I’ve spent about $12k this month and made $1.32. I feel like a big fat failure but I know I will do so much better when I get my feet under me. I would just like that to happen now, not in 3 months. Thanks for the post!
You’re welcome! The reality is that you probably don’t need a Skype call with me. You’re going to be successful in whatever you do; just seems to be the type of person you are. Just doesn’t always happen the way (or as fast) as we want it to. 🙂
Thank you SO much for this post Bobby. This is incredibly timely for me as I’ve had a knot in my chest for the last 4 weeks about whether or not I can make this whole self-employment thing work.
I’ve started to find a bit of a niche (making embedded calculators for other personal finance bloggers for their posts and sites) and am working on a big project with Grant from Millennial Money, but the self-doubt eats at me every day.
I’m hoping I can look back on this point years down the road and see it as the pivot point the same way you have.
Thanks for the encouragement!
You’re welcome Chris! It’s probably timely for all of us – I’m sure that I’ll have to go back and read this thing again someday.
This post hits home and you inspire me so much. I’ve revently laid the groundwork to start up a blog which I’m hoping to take love this week (thanks for the discount code!) I’ve been getting to get back into my side hustle of flipping items online. I want to work for myself so badly. I’ve already failed once at being an entrepreneur which ended me up in the job im in now. As scared as I am to take a leap again, it’s people like you that keep me motivated to chase my dream. Thank you!
Wow thank you, I really appreciate that! Glad the blogging course helped you – I hope you keep going!
This was such an inspirational story in the FBSH group. I’m glad you decided to share it on the blog 😊
Thanks! I wasn’t really expecting the response to be what it was when I originally shared it. That’s pretty par for the course with my better stuff haha.
My first business was a lawn care business. It was awesome. I could see the end product in an hour or less. I made my own hours. It was a physically demanding job.
Congratulations on your perseverance! It is a great story.
Thank you!
I had no idea our stories were so similar (quitting on $0 revenue and showing no signs of being successful, ever). The ones boneheaded enough to make that choice are exactly the type of dudes who are too stubborn to admit defeat haha. Thanks for sharing this!!
Haha that’s a good point! You’re welcome!
This is so raw and pure and incredibly helpful and motivating! You’re absolutely right, most successful bloggers never let us see this side of their journey and it’s hard for a new blogger to feel like they are on the right track without knowing that others before them went through the same mindset and same setbacks. Thanks so much for this Bobby, it truly is one of the best thing you can do for your readers, to let them see the other side and how it is possible to persevere.
🙂 I’m so glad you like it Gina! I think a lot of bloggers just get caught up in talking about the success because it makes it easier to sell stuff about blogs. One of the things that kinda sucks about the industry, but it is what it is.
I appreciate your honesty. I am working nonstop right now because I didn’t quite my job and between that and moving forward with a business, I am never “not tired.” And by the way, my husband and I have been married for a long time but we never bicker, most likely because he is a retired band director. LOL.
Haha that’s awesome that he’s a retired band director! Small world. 🙂
Love love love this. This aspect of entrepreneurship is not talked about as often as it should be. Thank you for sharing!
You’re welcome Mary!
Entrepreneurship is all rainbows and unicorns until we remember how many businesses fail and how much effort it really takrs. My hats off to your continued success.
As for my lowest point, right after college I couldn’t find a job for the first six months despite 60k in debt. That was pretty humbling for someone that had just made things happen for himself by sheer will alone up to that point. Worked out in the end though. Had one of my other job opportunities I was passed up for hit I would be in a completely different career by now.
So true, and thank you! I was in a similar situation since I graduated in the middle of the school year. There weren’t any teaching jobs available! That sucked haha.
Really appreciate you sharing this part of your story Bobby. So often we focus on how much others have accomplished and forget that those who have ‘made it’ have gone through hard times to get there.
No problem! Unfortunately, a lot of people leave out the hard parts of their story because they want to sell stuff. I think you can do both. 🙂
Thank you for your transparency. I think more bloggers need to show this side. We all love to hear about “how to,” but I think what is even more relatable is “I’ve been there.” Thanks again for sharing.
You’re welcome and I agree!
When I first heard your story about quitting your job with no blog income I thought it was crazy. Sometimes it takes a little crazy and the associated pressure to succeed. I’m so glad you got through that phase. You’ve built M$M into such a great resource to improve people’s lives. The world is a better place because you pushed through your struggles.
Thanks for sharing your story. It really helps show that successful people don’t get there overnight. Knowing you had to struggle on your way to the top is information that those struggling today can really lean on.
Ha it was crazy – I definitely don’t recommend that for anyone else. I really appreciate the kind words Jason. 🙂
Yes to all of this! People who only show the good parts of entrepreneurship irk me. Because it’s a lot of ups and downs, frustration, a few tears, and so much more. Yes, it’s possible to make a living as an entrepreneur. Yes, it’s possible to become the next big thing. Yes, it’s possible to earn 6+ figures a month. But it’s not a one size fits all and it does NOT happen overnight. Thanks for sharing this, it just shows how awesome you really are!
They irk me too! I think it’s dishonest if we’re being real here.
Great blog! i believe behind every successful person is a humbling beginning or a low point (or a few lows). There is no substitute for perseverance and hard work. My 1st job paid $1.85/hr in 1978. Then I graduated medical school in 1993 having borrowed $185,000 in loans (parents didn’t help with any college costs). Still working hard…$105,000 still in loans after paying over $200,000 back! Looking forward to meeting you Bobby. I was just chatting with Jim today. I am inspired by both of you!
Looking forward to meeting you too Emmie 🙂
Great post- it is a lonely road and takes so much out of you, really important to share …. I could never work strictly for myself, super impressed by anyone who can do it- and I think the hardest part of sidehustling is figuring out marketing which is 85% of the job of a business owner. I have an new MBA in marketing I’m not using in my job, so my sidehustle is going to be…. teaching digital/social marketing. It’s what puts food on the table….
You’re awesome for keeping it real with your readers. I learn something new from every new blog post you share! Keep up the good work, fellow blogger. 🙂
I went from six figures a year, $65k company vehicle and retirement account to working for myself. MANY times my wife and I looked at each other wondering how we were going to make it. Now the “plane is in the air” and I can honestly say I couldn’t have done it without God providing. I believe spirituality plays a factor in many entrepreneurs. We are like that old horse on the farm, we may slow down when the load gets heavy but we never stop.