Most expensive lesson you've ever learned?

Romac

Romac

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Inspired by this poor dude. I really hope someone knows a way to help him get that all sorted out. Damn. (On the other hand if the site was being spammed and new spam links kept showing up I probably wouldn't want to buy the site either...)

For me it was that rushing into post-secondary to make other people happy was a big mistake. I didn't end up finishing it and never should have started in the first place. I haven't used anything I learned there either. People told me going right into Uni after HS would give me a head start but if I took a year off I would have a lot more money, less debt, I'd be happier, and I'd be a year further ahead in business. Live and learn. (School is great for some people it just wasn't for me.)
 
I can relate on the "off to school" concept, it fucked me over bigtime (maybe).

In the late 1970s (age 12) I was obsessed with mail order. I knew at my age and my availability of resources it was a fairly level playing field living in a ruralish environment in New England. I tried all kinds of sketchy "Enquirer" text ads and made some money but always did better finding things to sell in my local area.

I was a track and field athlete in jr-sr high school and I was doing some cross-country skiing in the woods for some extra training because I was determined to kick everybody's ass when I got back to the track. I found snow getting in my cheesy three-pin cross-country boots and it was pissing me off.

Well being a multi generational Yankee, my irritation caused me to figure out a "gator" from an old pair of snow boots, some rubber cement and some eyelets off on old pair of leather lace-up ski boots. I solved that bullshit problem.

Sort of ADD I kept refining those bastards until I bought an old commercial sewing machine (made in Japan) and made more, better. Scavenged material from some other outdoor freaks who were making there own outdoor gear to deal with the crazy weather.

Well one thing led to another and I started this list of products that some of these other folks were making, my Gators, and a few Mark Twain like words of wisdom to humor the list viewers. I put them in newspaper tubes, car windshields, map boxes in the mountain at trailheads. People would call and write asking questions- and I replied, fucking dark ages no?

Anyhoo- I did an ad in Yankee Magazine after building up some money and KER-SLAM! (In my mind anyway) I was sending orders every week. By the time I was a Junior in High School I was netting almost $3k per month- I was like Trump in my little dick school.

Back to the "Expensive Lesson"

When I went off to college (mind control cult) at the insistance of family even though I wanted to keep growing my business. The university did not allow real mail, only shit filtered through the schools system. I was too stupid to realize that even though I was a freshman and required to live in a dorm, I probably could have rented and office and continued. So like a dumb-ass I let it fizzle.

As time went on and I saw Campmor, REI. L.L.Bean and others rise up from the ranks I knew I fucked up. Lesson is I (almost) never let pressure from others dictate my path (well sometimes a woman- still a mistake though), and keep plowing forward no matter what.

Having that lesson spank me hard at a young age I buckled down and worked like a crazy mf'er every chance I could get and things turn out ok the harder you work it seems.

Anyway, you all just got the better part of a 20oz black coffee on an empty stomach...

P.S. Here's a motivational video about going to college:

 
For me it would be:

Don't invest money you don't have (especially into internet opportunities!).

Some time ago I was in a group that got VERY excited about some online opportunity.

Stupid me, I borrowed some cash to get into the business. That business was really legit, tough and not easy but still legit, and predictions were very good. However, we humans can't control anything to be honest... Shit happened and Google rolled out his first panda update and we were all fucked in seconds.

The perfect plan of ours, countless hours of planning and researching niches, contacting top notch writers, aff networks, and all our websites based on that model went straight to the hell in no time.

So, I had no income, no sites and just nice dept to be paid... soon :smile:

To recap, if you don't have the money to invest into something better let it go. Don't borrow etc. Dept is like poison. Buy only for cash or don't buy at all. Of course, if someone is liquid and have that right backup seating in his bank account than why not. Other ways keep grinding till you got the cash.
 
My most expensive lesson:

Don't hire a remote freelancer, no matter how long you've known him and how many successful projects he's completed, if the price gets above four figures. Hire an agency or someone local you can stay on top of. Was having a SaaS programmed and this guy kept up appearances and did some work along the way in order to keep the money flowing to him. Later, it became obvious he didn't have the skill set and was also lying about the number of hours he was working. Nothing to be done as it was an international deal, not worth pursuing legally.

Even if you do your due diligence, there are scenarios where you're just coming at it from the wrong angle and screwing yourself.
 
Alex VanDavid said:
I can relate on the "off to school" concept, it fucked me over bigtime (maybe).

In the late 1970s (age 12) I was obsessed with mail order. I knew at my age and my availability of resources it was a fairly level playing field living in a ruralish environment in New England. I tried all kinds of sketchy "Enquirer" text ads and made some money but always did better finding things to sell in my local area.

I was a track and field athlete in jr-sr high school and I was doing some cross-country skiing in the woods for some extra training because I was determined to kick everybody's ass when I got back to the track. I found snow getting in my cheesy three-pin cross-country boots and it was pissing me off.

Well being a multi generational Yankee, my irritation caused me to figure out a "gator" from an old pair of snow boots, some rubber cement and some eyelets off on old pair of leather lace-up ski boots. I solved that bullshit problem.

Sort of ADD I kept refining those bastards until I bought an old commercial sewing machine (made in Japan) and made more, better. Scavenged material from some other outdoor freaks who were making there own outdoor gear to deal with the crazy weather.

Well one thing led to another and I started this list of products that some of these other folks were making, my Gators, and a few Mark Twain like words of wisdom to humor the list viewers. I put them in newspaper tubes, car windshields, map boxes in the mountain at trailheads. People would call and write asking questions- and I replied, fucking dark ages no?

Anyhoo- I did an ad in Yankee Magazine after building up some money and KER-SLAM! (In my mind anyway) I was sending orders every week. By the time I was a Junior in High School I was netting almost $3k per month- I was like Trump in my little dick school.

Back to the "Expensive Lesson"

When I went off to college (mind control cult) at the insistance of family even though I wanted to keep growing my business. The university did not allow real mail, only shit filtered through the schools system. I was too stupid to realize that even though I was a freshman and required to live in a dorm, I probably could have rented and office and continued. So like a dumb-ass I let it fizzle.

As time went on and I saw Campmor, REI. L.L.Bean and others rise up from the ranks I knew I fucked up. Lesson is I (almost) never let pressure from others dictate my path (well sometimes a woman- still a mistake though), and keep plowing forward no matter what.

Having that lesson spank me hard at a young age I buckled down and worked like a crazy mf'er every chance I could get and things turn out ok the harder you work it seems.

Anyway, you all just got the better part of a 20oz black coffee on an empty stomach...

P.S. Here's a motivational video about going to college:

Click to expand...

Awesome story! I think I love you.
 
- College is a waste of money.
 
For me, it would be don't fuck around lol

I'm not anything special compared to most of the people here, but I reached a point where I was making enough money to party way too hard every day for 3+ years...this quickly became a habit, and I neglected my business until the point that I lost my customers, my reputation, my affiliate sites, etc...

Basically, it all blew up in my face lol.
 
Respect your ability to control your emotional state. In poker, I let a player much worse than me take me on a five figure ride of a lifetime simply because I couldn't release the emotions I was feeling about how the game was playing out. I eventually was able to win it all back (and then some), but only after:
  • Shattering a bottle of Jack Daniels
  • Kicking a hole through my door
  • Breaking my cellphone
  • Destroying a bag of pistachios
I think the pistachios brought me back to Earth, simply because that is a ridiculous thing to destroy and it pattern-interrupted my tilt. But ever since then I made it a point to understand (and try to extend) the limits of my emotional control.
 
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