Imagine being 18 again. You've decided this is the summer that you will buy your first car
You need $6k, and you've got three months to get it
How do you go about it?
The answer for most people is to "get a job"
The math is fairly simple here
$20 / hr x 40 hrs / wk = $800 a week.
To keep this exercise simple, let's assume you have 25% withheld for taxes, medicare etc
You're getting $600 a week in the hand
10 weeks and you have your $6k
Work 12 full weeks and you'll have $6k and $100 a week in spending money
I want to go back a few steps, to the default answer
"Getting a job"
This is the standard view of how money is made
You go to work for a predetermined number of hours, do some tasks and get paid at regular intervals
It would be more accurate to say that this is how money is earned
Compare this to the 18 year old who decides that they are going to resell Lego sets over the summer
They buy 10 sets for $50 each, sell each set for $80 each, and after they pay for their various expenses, are left with $600
They rinse and repeat over the next 12 weeks, ending with the exact same amount of money as the person who worked the job
Or maybe they didn't - they bought the wrong inventory, and ended up with -$500 and 10 lego sets that no-one wanted
Or maybe they did far better - they actually made $14,000
They might have worked 60 hours a week, scouring the internet for new opportunities, spending hours working out how to best resell their product
They might have worked 3 hours a week, throwing things up on eBay and waiting for bids to come in
The difference between these two people is that the first person worked
The second person made money (or didn't)
When I was 18, I was the first guy. I worked at a supermarket pushing trolleys and operating the till
If we were really busy, I was really busy, and the company made a lot more revenue that shift
If we were quiet, I stood around and talked to my colleagues, and the company made a lot less revenue that shift
It wasn't my responsibility to "make money"
If you've spent your career working for others, one of the biggest dangers when you start a business is working when you need to be making money
These are not the same thing
I don't know any businesses that have failed because they didn't build an HR handbook or a brand identity
Almost every business fails because it has run out of money
Something to ask yourself today: are you going to work to earn money, or are you going out to make money?