It Doesn’t Take Money to Make Money.
I guess I always had the entrepreneurial spirit. When I was a kid I lived off a golf course, and I would go into the woods, find lost balls, and walk the opposite direction of the course and sell the balls to golfers. I also lived in an area where there was a lot of construction, and I would go around to the new builds and collect all the aluminum cans in a garbage bag attached to my bicycle, and recycle the cans for cash (back then they paid a lot more for aluminum it seems). By the time I was in high school, I tried various money making schemes, like collecting names, stuffing envelopes, etc. Of course, none of that stuff ever worked and the weight of the world finally got to me and I got a part time job at a grocery store. So I was going to high school and then college all while working in grocery for as many hours as they would give me. While the job really wasn’t that bad I just dreaded going into work every day. I always wanted a way out and finally when I was 21 I figured it out.
This is the story of how I got my start.
Since I was in college I really couldn’t work that much, and my funds were dwindling. I barely had any money and I couldn’t work any more hours because it would have gotten in the way of my studying. I figured there had to be a way to make more than $8 an hour. Working for a wage like that wasn’t going to get me anywhere, and my time (as well as yours) is worth more than that. Way more than that. Anyway, I was a Japanese major in college and I finally gotten to the point where I was poking around on Japanese websites looking for old video games, which I was big into collecting at the time. I found a set that was a really great deal; it was about $600 for nearly 200 games and a system. It seemed like such a steal that I couldn’t pass it up. So with my poor Japanese skills I was able to convince the guy to sell to me. Only problem was, I didn’t have $600 to spare, not to mention the shipping costs which I knew were going to be a ton. Instead of giving up, I contacted a few people and got a game store to buy 120 pieces from me for a total of $1600. The guy fedexed me the check and I used $1000 of that money to wire to the guy in Japan for the 200 games and a system plus shipping. So already I was $600 ahead, and I had 80 games and a system for myself. I eventually sold about half of the games plus the system and I got about $1000 from that alone. And as for the games I sent to the other buyer, he too was very pleased with what he got and the deal we made. So I made about $1600 and kept about 30 games for myself, and my buyer sold his games for a profit in his store. I did all this without a dime of my own money. The secret was offering my financier a great deal that benefitted him greatly. When it comes to money, people take a “what’s in it for me?” stance, which is perfectly understandable. Money is a serious thing and when it comes to investing, people want to be sure that their investment is going to make them money.
The point is, don’t use lack of money as an excuse to not do things. Instead of shutting your mind off, really think and try to figure out how you can raise the funds. The less of your own money you use, the better chance you have of increasing your rate of return, which is quite possibly the most important thing to do if you really want to become rich.