First of all, thank you for your time and this blog.
I’m 23 years old with no degree. I want to eventually run a long-only fund.
I’m considering two options:
* Get the degree – even though it won’t be from a top 50 school because of poor decisions from 16-18, and I’d have to take on $60k to $75k debt.
* Forget about finance (I’ve been trying to break in for 5 years) and move into another industry.
From your perspective, which option (or any better option you think of) is most likely to yield the highest net worth by 40, considering my strongest intelligence is numerics?
Easy call would ditch and go into sales, time is not on your side and a bad school is not worth the risk
Vast majority don’t get hired from bad schools.
Thank you for the quick response.
I’d really appreciate it if I could ask a follow-up question (feel free to delete my comment if this isn’t okay)…
Which numerics-related fields (that don’t require a degree) would you ditch finance for, as this is by far my strongest intelligence?
Tech
What is the best way to handle small talk for trivial topics like “the big game ” or ” this celebrities new boyfriend” without becoming known as a try hard? Learn the basics about stupid current events and then smile and nod?
Never had this issue, generally try to know the big changes like who wins championships or big event a bit celebrity gossip only comes from women so unless you’re boring to her she’ll never talk about it
Should I invest in logo-design/website for physical products right out the gate, or should I wait until one of my products gains traction in the market (amazon/ebay/shopify) and then build up those elements of the business?
Sell someone else’s product first
If you’re already good at that then definitely make the logo. You’ll already have a feel.
I’m 28
I started a bad business earning around 3k a month.
Trough luck and other stuff I have some real state, it’s going to generate 8k – 10k a month depending on tax. I think I will actually be shy of 1M but I contributed only part.
I’m from Mexico City so it that amount goes farther here
I want to become rich though, so would you start a different business using that to reinvest every month ? At this point I’m unsure, but want to pay the life toll ASAP.
I’ve been an entrepreneur since 22 so no career
Thanks
You’re doing it right, just scale up. Sounds like you’re better at RE so do that.
Try to get into RE sales to fund the Re purchases? Thinking out loud here.
Essentially if the $3K idea has no hope and takes up too much time, sell it and start up something better. If it’s no work (minimal) keep it but look for something new.
You look like you’re in great position, you’ll get to $20K a month and after that it’s basically easy street.
26, 2 years out of school, took CS, now work as an engineer making the avg comp for my city. I’ve realized I’m not in the top 5% of engineers and reluctant to spend every waking hour coding to get there (due to social costs), so I’m looking to transition into enterprise software sales.
1) I’ve noticed in several of your posts that you have suggested that – for Wall St – it makes sense to choosing a job where you will get promoted faster over prestige. I wanted to see whether this still makes sense if you pick Sales as a career as well. Should I focus on
-getting a job at a bigger company where it might take longer to get to the Account Executive role, but the starting biz dev pay will be higher/brand name on the resume (prestige) OR
-focus on getting my foot in the door at a large startup and aim to move up to AE quicker (promotion), after which I can start applying to the large SAAS companies looking for AEs
2) I would love to get your thoughts on how to sell yourself without coming across as self centered, particularly in an interview context. What I usually do is i) understand the pain point or problem they are looking to solve by asking the question ii) highlight an experience/skill I have that deals with the issue iii) and then immediately give credit to a teammate or manager (“I was able to automate process X/Y, leading to benefit Z. To be fair, I can’t claim all the credit for myself. We have a strong product team that was able to help me with X”). How would you approach this?
Long questions but easy answers!
1) always choose the one you think you’ll be best at if you can’t sell your life will be worse than it currently is. Going to larger firms usually make more sense for sales since they usually sell higher ticket priced items which are easier to sell when customers know you’ll be around in the future
2) your structure works, the question is concerning though, if you can’t Sell yourself you definitely will struggle selling expensive products
Thanks for your time / responses.
regarding 2) – I completely understand. I’ve been using the structure with moderate success but I’m new to the whole sales thing, so I want to ask as many questions as I can at this stage to learn where I can get better.
Yeah you should take a class on public speaking, that has good correlation to sales as you ha e to keep an audience entertained.
Will do for sure. thanks again.
I’m a FANG engineer.
It is a myth that being a good engineer makes you not social. The brash truth is that being _bad_ at engineering makes oh not social because you have to spend all your time on the job. If you can find even one basic niche that you can do – Front End, ML – you make more money with _less_ time spent and thus habe more time to socialize. Please don’t turn down the enormous demand of the engineering job market due to (a) the competition and (b) spare time. This market is ridiculously, people are making 250k with 150k signing bonus, 400k total first year comp, working less than 40 hours a week. And that’s nothing, 175-200k base, with bonus upside, is becoming the norm for 21 year olds if you negotiate. Please take advantage of this market
The Wall Street Play
This is a really good comment. Thanks for your advice.
assuming you’re at the beginning of your career and will be doing a “BDR” or “Market Development” role, starting at a start-up is actually a much better bet; the larger firms (Salesforce, Oracle, etc) are usually pretty bad about promoting from within, as it takes forever because they’re more than happy to let you keep grinding on the phones.
try to find somewhere that has purely “inside” closer roles (might be described as the “mid-market” or “SMB” segment, or might just be a company that has smaller deal sizes generally); if you can find one of these, you’ll be closing business as an AE very very soon, possibly even on Day 1 but definitely much sooner than at the big company.
once you have proven closing experience, even at the small level, *then* potentially go somewhere else (and only if it would be closing a tier above where you’re at, I.e going from SMB to Mid-Market, or Mid-Market to Enterprise). but for starters, if you’re just doing lead-gen, I’d go start-up that has a clear path to closing your own deals versus lead-gen at a big company.
Source: am currently a Large Enterprise AE at a company that just made a splashy IPO this week.
That makes sense. Thanks for the reply.
Any idea if Joe Biden has a shot at being Democratic nominee or is it still too early?
Also, you guys were right about the numerology BS. Almost got suckered. Cognitive bias is easy in an echo chamber. Always wait for WSPs picks. Lesson learned.
Think it’s too early, there are good odds on trump so we’re in a little there already.
Hilarious on the numerology part, guessing they said warriors would win (nope, don’t know the sport, only chance they had was if KD was back)
Thanks and yes you guessed it.
That’s hilarious! Using numerology to compete against facts and math. The irony burns.
Side note, for the trump bet we’re “40% size” meaning we didn’t bet our usual amount, only about 40% at current odds
I think it’s Kamala. I have money down that it isn’t Biden, reason being that anti-busing “news” came out. Let’s see if I get burned (haha). At the end of the day politics and MSM is WWE for pseudo intellectuals.
Trump has incumbency and a Democrat party that’s a joke. My only guess why the Playboys are at 40% is because economy can crash. No money down on him yet, still waiting for my other bets to play out (i.e. no impeachment).
1. I’m reaching out to health supplement manufacturers and a lot of them offer to additionally do packaging, design, marketing, website design etc… Is it ever a good idea to take them up on their additional services other than creating your product?
2. If you saw a 22 year old that has passed CFA Level 2 (writing tomorrow lel), would you think they understand finance well enough to work in IB? Planning on selling myself hard when I pass.
1) usually bad because it means you can’t do anything yourself which leads to failure.
2) no this is covered in the past IB doesn’t need care much about the CFA. Anything past level 1 is overkill. Cfa is more for investment management and research (both in decline)
I don’t have any more business questions, so do you have any other bets to suggest publicly or soon?
I saw you said it’s a bit early to go for Trump.
Have a great weekend!
Right now on trump we’ll wait for a few more boxing fights coming up. See if the odds line up.
Thanks again!
Can you share how much you earned/profited from affiliate marketing. And how long you have been in the space for before moving to ecomm?
No but if you spend time online you can figure out when people usually switch/quit
It’s pretty standard
Thanks for the Q&A!
You have wrote about the future of the street and mentioned before that nothing has changed since your earlier posts. However, there were quite few points about quants so how do you see the future of quants in the street, for example in research or in trading? How about the future of quants in hedge funds?
Seriously nothing has changed from that post at all.
High quality quants still do well.
In the past you’ve hinted at living part of the year in NYC, part outside.
Are there certain months/time periods you find worst here? Can you share where you go?
Leave in winter for miami, many go to Los Angeles as well.
Essentially try to avoid the worst 4 months when possible.
are you going to update your official stance on crypto / the bonus from triangle investing?
No change so no reason to update it.
Only people who have lost money in crypto are fools who didn’t buy monthly and people who are emotional and watch the news/twitter all day without reading any technical work
Thanks for all your content, it has helped me be more efficient!
Situation:
UK based Economist.
Building my own brand of supplements (CBD Oil) for pain relief.
Have two job offers:
Enterprise Sales in UK (Salary $60k Yr 1, fast rise to $130k in Yr 3, potentially could move to US in 3-5 years)
Economist in Philadelphia (Salary $60k, maybe $80k in Yr 3, potentially could move to sales role in 2-3 years)
Both roles have enough time to work on side business.
Would like to move to the US long term.
What would you advise?
Thanks again!
No debate enterprise sales
The other one isn’t even in the three we recommend.
Instead of taking it easy and learning affiliates, I want to go hard and fast and I’m willing to risk it all. I’m planning to burn through 50k+ before graduating to learn selling products online. Already set up a small business selling private label products online but I have a lot to learn. Planning to fly to a bunch of industry events to get contacts and learn about the industry. In the meantime I’ll just keep iterating my product and running ad campaigns.
What else can I do to get rich or learn to get rich by spending all my money? I don’t care how risky it is.
This is the worst troll of the year, all you’re going to do is waste money.
Get skilled at something and scale is the only way to get rich.
Don’t even know why we approved this comment, this is exactly why generational wealth doesn’t work. Always some people trying to get rich by wasting money which never ever works
Background: Im currently trying to break into big tech. I just graduated with a mechanical engineering degree from a good reputable state school (scholarship) with a 3.9 GPA. I probably could have gotten a pretty good job, but I got accepted into a Masters of Computer Engineering program at an elite school that’s probably the worlds best for AI, Robotics and Machine Learning. It will be 1-1.5 years and quite a bit of money (~$65k total), but the return seems to be there since the most of the graduates end up in big Silicon Valley/NYC tech making multiple times what I could make if I got a job now and I have enough savings to cover it without debt. Of course, this is just until a start a business and can transition out of a career so on to the question
Question: For someone talented in numerics and tech like me, would you still recommend the affiliate —> create your own physical product path outlined in Efficiency or should I leverage my abilities in trying to bootstrap a SaaS/software/tech business?
If actually talented go software route. It’s the most scalable business.
I think it’s a good call unless you have better alternatives.
Just make sure you prep hard for the coding interviews. Be 100% commited until you get the job. Then try AM which is what I m doing now
Hey WSP –
So after almost a decade in banking, i got let go and unfortunately got complacent and didn’t start to listen to you guys about selling online into recently. I’ve just started to learn the mechanics of online sales so my question is:
Should i go full force into trying to master online sales or try to find another job quickly just to keep cash flow coming in and do online sales in parallel?
Same answer get new career scale biz on side.
Unless you’re rich this answer will never change. Ever.
Does going out 2x a week still apply to the early 70-hour weeks on the road to $1m?
I’m an active runner (currently training for marathon), is reducing lifting to 3-4 times a week acceptable given that I’m running 6 days a week? Efficiency stresses lifting 6-7 days a week.
(I have a 3 days running, 3 days lifting “maintenance” workout schedule for busy weeks that will prevent losses).
Is a master’s degree in computer science worth it over a bachelor’s given that both will be completed in 5 years (I may be able to graduate 4~ months earlier with just the Bachelor’s)?
You don’t have to party if you don’t want to it’s just a set up that is easy to do
Your degree doesn’t mean anything so don’t see the question there, get a career before you graduate or else you’re just wasting money in school (harsh reality)
I’m the same guy who responded to the incoming Drexel CS major from the last q&a.
I would say go for the Masters given it’s only 4 months’ difference, the pay grade can be higher and for some odd reason I’ve seen more folks with advanced degrees get promotions and management positions. Not sure why though.
But really you should try to graduate in 3 years, top tier CS people can finish their degrees in ~2.5 years easy
Thought I would chime in since I work in the field…
If it’s a matter of 4 months and you are set on coding/tech as the career I would say get the masters. It will give you a leg up on the competition.
You can definitely do it without the master’s degree, but again, if it is really just a matter of 4 months,100% do it.
As WSPs said just make sure you get the career lined up for after school.
Starting out in paid traffic affilaite marketing. Had a few questions:
1) For a total beginner with limited cash would you recommend breaking the learning into different components? (Eg. 1st learning good copywriting through freelance work then moving on to learning about the various components of running an ad- such as bidding, tracking and scaling a campaign)
2) Would you recommend someone with no paid traffic experience to start with FB ads or learn the ropes with a cheaper source? (push traffic /tier 2 etc.) Are the skillsets you learn transferrable between different traffic sources?
3) For FB ads- Any tips on how to identify good WH offers to promote, that aren’t exclusives through people you know? Assuming we have to track these down outside of the usual affiliate networks.
Thanks
All of these have been answered 100x in the past
1) yes that’s fine
2) covered in book on how to build up a site
3) copy your competitors is always the best starting point
I agree, its just hard to turn down US work authorisation, will lock down the sales role this week. Appreciate the quick reply.
1. Question given that their is a huge shift from On-premise software to Software as a service, are these roles at SAP and Oracle as lucrative has they have been in the past?
2. Would it make sense to career change at any point to IB from tech sales?
1) we don’t know, not close enough
2) only if you’re sure you’ll be better at that type of sales (99% of time, no)
1. – no real difference. I sell expensive enterprise software and we’ve moved from on premise to cloud. Cloud is lower up front commission but you get the recurring commission so it works out well. Just make sure:
A) your contract clearly states you keep receiving commission in cloud deals (eg 3 years)
B) the support services department is good at the company. You want your signed accounts to not bail after the first year due to lazy technical issues
What do you think about Ripple XRP as a viable mid-term investment vehicle?
Already covered in book. We don’t make short term predictions or mid term predictions.
1. I know you guys are generally against the Masters/MBA route,
but what about a potential 2x income for a role requiring MS (think low six fig to 200) if I take a year off of full-time work and go for 1 year for total tuition cost of about 20K (total opportunity cost ~120k?).
2. Thoughts on Binance (specifically Binance coin – not mentioned in Triangle investing)
1) still don’t think it’s worth it but run your math. Most people just decide to go and look for validation. The math will give you the real answer.
2) have not looked closely at it.
Due to working visa restrictions, I’m not allowed to start a business while I’m in US territory (I can own a business and hire someone to manage it though)
I’ve been working in top FinTech companies for 3 years as a Software Engineer, What do you think I should do?:
-Open a Business in my country and hire someone to pose as manager while I do all the work behind the scenes
-Quit my current job, go back to my country, search for a remote job and start my business without worries
(Graduated 3 years ago from top school, several years of savings as buffer)
Thank you for your posts, Efficiency changed my life
Same answer use a family member to create the company
Never quit only quit when it’s making 2x your income from career.
You deleted my first question, so I’ll ask another.
Been working in b2b sales for just less than a year now and want to improve closing. Any sales training you’d recommend other than trial and error?
No transaction id no questions.
Comment
Okay we marked this please put your question below this comment. Your older ones were automatically deleted per the protocol
Thank you very much.
Been working in b2b sales for just less than a year now and want to improve closing. Any sales training you’d recommend other than trial and error?
Read 5-6 sales books they are recommended in efficiency
Take a class in public speaking and actually try to get good
Take a class on stand up comedy
Those should sky rocket results when combined with trial and error
(Not sure if my question is still pending or went through, so maybe a repost)
Looking back at the post “Follow your skills, not your dreams”
Specifically 9) Technology (set up websites for people and take a %)
Is this still viable or has it become too commoditized with services like wordpress & shopify?
Still viable vast majority don’t know anything about it especially if you’re good at design.
Design will always be around
First I want to say thanks for helping me so far. I am trying to progress more but not sure what to do.
I’m 27 and discovered you all about a year ago. Super late to the game according to your standards.
I’ve spent this last year in retail sales and with zero experience I got into a cellular sales role. I finished first year in top 5 percent of the company.
I live in a small town and I’m trying to make more money. Only brought in about 65k last year which is okay around here cause cost of living I so low.
Where should I go from here? Should I move to a bigger city such as Pittsburgh? Should I focus on real estate since so cheap to buy here? Should I leave my current job now to pursue better paying sales job? I feel like I am behind. Any insight here would be greatly appreciated, thank you.
Go to another sales job where you sell much more expensive items
Yes leave if you have to move to a new city to secure a higher ticket sales role
Thanks. I have family that is a big wig at a place where they sale payroll solutions to businesses. Said she can get me on. I think I’m going to go that route. Unless you suggest not working for/with family
Go wherever the money is, if you’re over 25 you don’t have time on your side.
Money is needed to start any biz as well
Not sure if you have advice for this but how do i tell which sales jobs pay best? With different commission structures and such it throws me off.
This is your own math, get offers first
Scenarios are a waste of time, then calculate what you think you’ll be able to sell. Keep it logical
Any differences in the advice in Efficiency for females who want to get rich?
The female is question’s talent is sales (she can make anyone her friend and open up to her in a few minutes). However, like most females, she is very emotional (which has led to less than ideal decision making at points), so I was wondering if there are any extra challenges/obstacles a female would have to face.
Thanks!
Quite literally no change, women are better at sales so basically go into enterprise sales and date wealthy guys so you have no costs.
Thanks! And agreed regarding women being better at sales. A sociable girl with a cute face, bubbly personality and good body is basically playing sales on easy mode.
Pretty much
First I want to say thanks for helping me so far. I am trying to progress more but not sure what to do.
I’m 27 and discovered you all about a year ago. Super late to the game according to your standards.
I’ve spent this last year in retail sales. With zero experience I got into a cellular sales role. I finished first year in top 5 percent of the company.
I live in a small town and I’m trying to make more money. Only brought in about 65k last year which is okay around here cause cost of living I so low, But not where I want to be.
Where should I go from here? Should I move to a bigger city such as Pittsburgh? Should I focus on real estate since so cheap to buy here? Should I leave my current job now to pursue better paying sales job? I feel like I am behind. Any insight here would be greatly appreciated, thank you.
Go into enterprise sales if you have to move cities then do it.
Get out of low end consumer sales, should be a natural fit
Glad to be at another Q&A
When reading efficiency you mentioned the career guys (ex. Lifelong Wall Street MD types.) and the entrepreneurial guys (guys who worked for a while, quitting when their business made more than their job.) Besides the presence of a successful business, what criteria would you look at when picking which side to go towards?
Well the math answers it for you
If you get to $2M you’re forced to start something. Working and making $600K or so ($350K after tax) only moves your net worth by around 10% max after living expenses… so it’s not a decision but a forced choice
What would you look for in a business partner?
Nothing either know the person for a decade minimum or you outsource everything.
Partnerships *almost* never work
Any guidelines or tips for hunting on Flippa? I remember reading to focus on “fixing” sites/businesses with bad copy.
Also, you guys make any money on Andy Ruiz? Lol
We answered this too many times here just search the blog
No we didn’t bet on that, never bet on heavyweight fights. One error and the guy can lose.
What are your thoughts on selling “learn to code” type products like video courses, ebooks?
Yes this is viable. It’s a scaled software business.
One more question, feel free to not answer or delete if it violates your rules:
Do you think Miami real estate will go up or down over the next 3-5 years?
We don’t make short term comments
What are some other counter-cylical markets? I know skincare and marketing are more demanded in recessions but what else?
I guess getting into e-commerce is a bad idea for the next couple years…
Just google “market cycles”
There are several counter cyclical industries listed… we’re not going to answer something you could have googled in 5 seconds…
Have received windfall which would allow me to pay off mortgage on house in full (significant amount still outstanding).
Not sure if I should pay off the mortgage in full or pay off a substantial portion and retain some of the money for other investments / uses + general liquidity.
Is paying off the mortgage in full the best use of this money? (particularly given low interest environment)
No right answer
If you plan on living in that city and love it. Feel free to pay it off.
If you plan on leaving… stay liquid and keep the interest rate on the mortgage as low as possible.
Hey – I posted a question a few hours ago; I purchased Efficiency with bitcoin though, so no transaction ID. At the time you mentioned referencing the email used to make the purchase would be sufficient.
Let me know if there’s other proof needed to get an answer (happy to re-send the question in the email chain where I purchased Efficiency).
Thanks,
Dan
Post question here thx
21 year old engineering dropout, passed 1st year & moved countries to start sales career as SDR.
I’ve been working for 1 year & achieved good results. I want to stay in software sales and move up the sales ladder but I’m afraid of corporate filters which will roadblock my career advancement due to an unfinished degree.
Should I
1. obtain an online degree from a low-tier university (20k price, no loss of income but no chance to network with peers at University & less respectable future options) while continuing to work full time.
2. work part-time for 3 years while completing a business related degree from a prestigious university (25k price & networking with talented peers but loss of 120k/year income for 3 years, stunted career progression)
Thank you
Well no way to answer with that.
Calculate how much you’ll make after it. Will it be worth it financially over the course of 5 years when you complete each path?
The more profitable one is the one you choose.
Have commenced career in finance (thanks to WSP Interview Guide). Have ~1 year of experience. Learned that employer pays below market bonuses (received disappointing stub bonus last cycle + colleagues dissatisfied and many recent departures).
Fear that differential between employer and market comp will worsen over time as get more experienced, leaving significant money on table. Only positive is hours generally not worst on Street (more time for biz).
1. Is it worth jumping ship to get market comp before opportunity for promo?
2. If jump ship, is optimal timing after next bonus? (~6 months to go / can assess if employer increases bonus to retain employees)
Unless it’s a boutique, no name shop, it makes no sense to leave.
Better to make it to associate at a low end bulge than to stay as an analyst at a high end bulge.
Have to look at earnings over 5 year frames. Almost never makes sense to choose to jump if you’re going to get promoted quickly.
You will want to make this jump as soon as possible if you are at a poor firm with low comp. Coming from a weak MM firm where an associate at a bulge makes more than a VP simply illustrates how this scales as you become more senior. Now that said, if not doing this as a career, doesn’t matter. Unfortunately, prestige also matters in this business. Much easier to go from Goldman downstream versus other way around. Will always have a job if you have experience with the biggest and best deals, versus Joe’s IB. it’s just how this industry works (despite it being the same job).
21 year old dropout. 1 year working in software sales, good results.
Problem: incomplete bachelor’s degree may roadblock career progression.
Question: which one is the best option?
a. go back to a good University and complete 3-year business degree? I can work part-time and won’t accumulate any debt but will lose over 100k a year of gross income from a full-time sales job.
b. complete an online degree from a low-tier University. Won’t accumulate debt either and can continue to work full-time but people will laugh at this degree.
Thanks
Yeah same answer as others, if the online degree is enough then go that direction. If you think it will stunt your career then juggle.
Overall though, if you’re over 25… probably best to take the money and online degree while starting a real biz on the side.
Not an easy call to be honest, ask people in your industry as well.
Just started my new online website selling service as per your advice. How should I go about pricing my service to make sure that I do not over price or under price my service? How do you go about pricing a new service?
Well it depends on your market. Copy your competitors then A/B test with ads to see what price range is most profitable for you.
Do you have any basic recommendation for website design?
Find the best competitor, have a software person copy the code over.
That’s the best starting point.
After that it’s a bunch of tinkering you do yourself to improve conversions
Re: the last post on growth industries, curious why you guys believe “you’re not going to send a robot to take care of an elderly woman.”
Seems like a lot of in home care is low hanging fruit for automation (medication management, laundry service, meal services, etc.)?
What am I missing here?
Ah too much human emotion. It’s similar to having a robot tell you that you have cancer. Just not likely as it’s not personal.
Same with those services
1. How’s fixed income sales as a career option? Originally was looking at equity research/IB since that’s the Wall Street Oasis default answer, but I like the complexity of the fixed income market and think there’s niches that I can carve out for myself. I also like the idea of sales for scalable income, whereas if I’m working for a shitty analyst in ER, I could get held back potentially in terms of advancement.
2. I’m a transitioning military Officer. Go straight for programs like the Goldman Veterans Integration Program, or MBA with my GI Bill? Thinking the former if I can, and then the latter as my backup plan or if the economy tanks between now and then.
1) not worth it stick with the book go into banking m&a
2) yes sounds like a great idea
Made a few sales using paid traffic with ClickBank offers & paid traffic, but I’m running in the red. Looks like at this point I just need to learn how to sell/target insecurity/right audience and a matter of trial/error?
Is there a way to take a more product based site approach toward affiliate marketing as opposed to content based site (my current affiliate set up)? or Have any examples of one?
This is too broad, if you are selling via affiliate you should be on a product offer you know is successful.
Then find people selling the same stuff copy their sales funnel
What are your thoughts on when to trust ‘gut feeling’ when deciding to trust someone?
I have two highly ranked co workers (sales) who say, do and act in almost ‘perfect’ ways. Never get nervous, never feel shy and always say the right thing, super charming etc.
But for some reason I feel super on edge around them and they make my skin crawl.
Im a high performer because of work ethic and organisation (I’m not cut from their cloth).
Am I projecting or are they sociopaths or something?
Don’t see a question here doesn’t seem to be relevant.
None of your coworkers are your friends, so just do your best and play the politics game while working on a biz on the side.
They would screw you in a heart beat so your intuition is right.
1) Currently, work in a fund. I am expected to put money in for carried interest. U guys said before investments do not make sense if your net worth is less than 1mm. If so, how to decline to invest? Perhaps I should say I don’t want carried interest but want more salary – not sure if this sends out a bad signal?
2) Copywriting is hard. Should I pay people to write for my websites instead? I spend endless hours playing with titles to make them have a hook.
Thanks and looking forward to your book.
1) you want the carry of the firm is good so you pretty much have to
2) absolutely not, if you can’t sell your life will be a mess not just money wise but personal life and more.
If you were going to go the doctor path, what would you advise someone starting medical school in terms of specialty choice and building a business? I’m thinking of how to make money asap while living on student loans and what business model endgame would make sense.
Honestly don’t know, all we really know is you have to start your own practice. Beyond that specialization usually leads to higher income in certain areas.
Other than that don’t know
Don’t have a question, but a testimonial. (Feel free to delete if its not inline w the Q&A)
TLDR: Followed Efficiency, made $$$$$ running affiliate offers and transitioning to ecom/brand etc.
Longer version:
I went to ASE, signed up for STM and tried running traffic on a few white hat projects but they weren’t profitable. This doesn’t include the other side projects I’ve worked on that were mildly profitable but not sustainable (eventually died out). Read Efficiency ~2-3 times, specifically the overview on affiliate marketing section, and thats when it finally clicked.
I started + grew the paid acquisition strategy (mostly social/search) for the startup I engineer at and learned how to run traffic on the company’s dime. After a few months of running traffic for the Company, my affiliate friend intro’d me to his contacts in the industry and was able to use those connections to source offers/”profiles”/software mentioned in Efficiency/etc. Profitable the first 2 months, then breakeven/losses for the next 4-5. Eventually became profitable on a consistent basis and eclipsed my w2 income, now transition to a WH product/brand with recurring revenue (consumable). Haven’t quit due to golden handcuffs/not stressed/misc reasons, but I can technically walk away (or get fired) and pay the $ to exercise if I want to and not worry about shit. Stacking cash + flexible schedule is where I’m at right now.
FWIW, I graduated at the bottom of my HS class (almost failed out) and didn’t get into college (went to a community college for a few months then failed out). Kept grinding though and eventually learned how to program on my own. Now that I think about it, the only reason I’ve gotten hired as an engineer is because I’ve shown that I can build/get shit done with limited resources. And do I thrive when people tell me I can’t do something haa.
So just wanna say thanks, keep preaching the capitalist gospel
Sounds about right hahaha, congrats!
In my county, some people have a gov’t investing account that can be used as loan collateral. Do you have any thoughts on a business offering a ‘margin account’ product.
I’m working very long hours (payments startup) as CFO and sales but am getting equity and commission income is starting to rise! Want to start something to funnel all excess $ above basic living expenses.
Pls delete below, just let me know if I’m sane or not:
Absolutely no idea. Based on this post scale up the products to sell to increase commission then try to fund the other venture idea. It’s way beyond the scope here as we have no idea what the biz environment/regulations are where you live
Thanks guys, I will do more research and talk to my network!
First of all, thank you for your time and this blog.
I’m 23 years old with no degree. I want to eventually run a long-only fund.
I’m considering two options:
* Get the degree – even though it won’t be from a top 50 school because of poor decisions from 16-18, and I’d have to take on $60k to $75k debt.
* Forget about finance (I’ve been trying to break in for 5 years) and move into another industry.
From your perspective, which option (or any better option you think of) is most likely to yield the highest net worth by 40, considering my strongest intelligence is numerics?
Easy call would ditch and go into sales, time is not on your side and a bad school is not worth the risk
Vast majority don’t get hired from bad schools.
Thank you for the quick response.
I’d really appreciate it if I could ask a follow-up question (feel free to delete my comment if this isn’t okay)…
Which numerics-related fields (that don’t require a degree) would you ditch finance for, as this is by far my strongest intelligence?
Tech
What is the best way to handle small talk for trivial topics like “the big game ” or ” this celebrities new boyfriend” without becoming known as a try hard? Learn the basics about stupid current events and then smile and nod?
Never had this issue, generally try to know the big changes like who wins championships or big event a bit celebrity gossip only comes from women so unless you’re boring to her she’ll never talk about it
Should I invest in logo-design/website for physical products right out the gate, or should I wait until one of my products gains traction in the market (amazon/ebay/shopify) and then build up those elements of the business?
Sell someone else’s product first
If you’re already good at that then definitely make the logo. You’ll already have a feel.
I’m 28
I started a bad business earning around 3k a month.
Trough luck and other stuff I have some real state, it’s going to generate 8k – 10k a month depending on tax. I think I will actually be shy of 1M but I contributed only part.
I’m from Mexico City so it that amount goes farther here
I want to become rich though, so would you start a different business using that to reinvest every month ? At this point I’m unsure, but want to pay the life toll ASAP.
I’ve been an entrepreneur since 22 so no career
Thanks
You’re doing it right, just scale up. Sounds like you’re better at RE so do that.
Try to get into RE sales to fund the Re purchases? Thinking out loud here.
Essentially if the $3K idea has no hope and takes up too much time, sell it and start up something better. If it’s no work (minimal) keep it but look for something new.
You look like you’re in great position, you’ll get to $20K a month and after that it’s basically easy street.
26, 2 years out of school, took CS, now work as an engineer making the avg comp for my city. I’ve realized I’m not in the top 5% of engineers and reluctant to spend every waking hour coding to get there (due to social costs), so I’m looking to transition into enterprise software sales.
1) I’ve noticed in several of your posts that you have suggested that – for Wall St – it makes sense to choosing a job where you will get promoted faster over prestige. I wanted to see whether this still makes sense if you pick Sales as a career as well. Should I focus on
-getting a job at a bigger company where it might take longer to get to the Account Executive role, but the starting biz dev pay will be higher/brand name on the resume (prestige) OR
-focus on getting my foot in the door at a large startup and aim to move up to AE quicker (promotion), after which I can start applying to the large SAAS companies looking for AEs
2) I would love to get your thoughts on how to sell yourself without coming across as self centered, particularly in an interview context. What I usually do is i) understand the pain point or problem they are looking to solve by asking the question ii) highlight an experience/skill I have that deals with the issue iii) and then immediately give credit to a teammate or manager (“I was able to automate process X/Y, leading to benefit Z. To be fair, I can’t claim all the credit for myself. We have a strong product team that was able to help me with X”). How would you approach this?
Long questions but easy answers!
1) always choose the one you think you’ll be best at if you can’t sell your life will be worse than it currently is. Going to larger firms usually make more sense for sales since they usually sell higher ticket priced items which are easier to sell when customers know you’ll be around in the future
2) your structure works, the question is concerning though, if you can’t Sell yourself you definitely will struggle selling expensive products
Thanks for your time / responses.
regarding 2) – I completely understand. I’ve been using the structure with moderate success but I’m new to the whole sales thing, so I want to ask as many questions as I can at this stage to learn where I can get better.
Yeah you should take a class on public speaking, that has good correlation to sales as you ha e to keep an audience entertained.
Will do for sure. thanks again.
I’m a FANG engineer.
It is a myth that being a good engineer makes you not social. The brash truth is that being _bad_ at engineering makes oh not social because you have to spend all your time on the job. If you can find even one basic niche that you can do – Front End, ML – you make more money with _less_ time spent and thus habe more time to socialize. Please don’t turn down the enormous demand of the engineering job market due to (a) the competition and (b) spare time. This market is ridiculously, people are making 250k with 150k signing bonus, 400k total first year comp, working less than 40 hours a week. And that’s nothing, 175-200k base, with bonus upside, is becoming the norm for 21 year olds if you negotiate. Please take advantage of this market
The Wall Street Play
This is a really good comment. Thanks for your advice.
assuming you’re at the beginning of your career and will be doing a “BDR” or “Market Development” role, starting at a start-up is actually a much better bet; the larger firms (Salesforce, Oracle, etc) are usually pretty bad about promoting from within, as it takes forever because they’re more than happy to let you keep grinding on the phones.
try to find somewhere that has purely “inside” closer roles (might be described as the “mid-market” or “SMB” segment, or might just be a company that has smaller deal sizes generally); if you can find one of these, you’ll be closing business as an AE very very soon, possibly even on Day 1 but definitely much sooner than at the big company.
once you have proven closing experience, even at the small level, *then* potentially go somewhere else (and only if it would be closing a tier above where you’re at, I.e going from SMB to Mid-Market, or Mid-Market to Enterprise). but for starters, if you’re just doing lead-gen, I’d go start-up that has a clear path to closing your own deals versus lead-gen at a big company.
Source: am currently a Large Enterprise AE at a company that just made a splashy IPO this week.
That makes sense. Thanks for the reply.
Any idea if Joe Biden has a shot at being Democratic nominee or is it still too early?
Also, you guys were right about the numerology BS. Almost got suckered. Cognitive bias is easy in an echo chamber. Always wait for WSPs picks. Lesson learned.
Think it’s too early, there are good odds on trump so we’re in a little there already.
Hilarious on the numerology part, guessing they said warriors would win (nope, don’t know the sport, only chance they had was if KD was back)
Thanks and yes you guessed it.
That’s hilarious! Using numerology to compete against facts and math. The irony burns.
Side note, for the trump bet we’re “40% size” meaning we didn’t bet our usual amount, only about 40% at current odds
I think it’s Kamala. I have money down that it isn’t Biden, reason being that anti-busing “news” came out. Let’s see if I get burned (haha). At the end of the day politics and MSM is WWE for pseudo intellectuals.
Trump has incumbency and a Democrat party that’s a joke. My only guess why the Playboys are at 40% is because economy can crash. No money down on him yet, still waiting for my other bets to play out (i.e. no impeachment).
1. I’m reaching out to health supplement manufacturers and a lot of them offer to additionally do packaging, design, marketing, website design etc… Is it ever a good idea to take them up on their additional services other than creating your product?
2. If you saw a 22 year old that has passed CFA Level 2 (writing tomorrow lel), would you think they understand finance well enough to work in IB? Planning on selling myself hard when I pass.
1) usually bad because it means you can’t do anything yourself which leads to failure.
2) no this is covered in the past IB doesn’t need care much about the CFA. Anything past level 1 is overkill. Cfa is more for investment management and research (both in decline)
I don’t have any more business questions, so do you have any other bets to suggest publicly or soon?
I saw you said it’s a bit early to go for Trump.
Have a great weekend!
Right now on trump we’ll wait for a few more boxing fights coming up. See if the odds line up.
Thanks again!
Can you share how much you earned/profited from affiliate marketing. And how long you have been in the space for before moving to ecomm?
No but if you spend time online you can figure out when people usually switch/quit
It’s pretty standard
Thanks for the Q&A!
You have wrote about the future of the street and mentioned before that nothing has changed since your earlier posts. However, there were quite few points about quants so how do you see the future of quants in the street, for example in research or in trading? How about the future of quants in hedge funds?
Seriously nothing has changed from that post at all.
High quality quants still do well.
In the past you’ve hinted at living part of the year in NYC, part outside.
Are there certain months/time periods you find worst here? Can you share where you go?
Leave in winter for miami, many go to Los Angeles as well.
Essentially try to avoid the worst 4 months when possible.
are you going to update your official stance on crypto / the bonus from triangle investing?
No change so no reason to update it.
Only people who have lost money in crypto are fools who didn’t buy monthly and people who are emotional and watch the news/twitter all day without reading any technical work
Thanks for all your content, it has helped me be more efficient!
Situation:
UK based Economist.
Building my own brand of supplements (CBD Oil) for pain relief.
Have two job offers:
Enterprise Sales in UK (Salary $60k Yr 1, fast rise to $130k in Yr 3, potentially could move to US in 3-5 years)
Economist in Philadelphia (Salary $60k, maybe $80k in Yr 3, potentially could move to sales role in 2-3 years)
Both roles have enough time to work on side business.
Would like to move to the US long term.
What would you advise?
Thanks again!
No debate enterprise sales
The other one isn’t even in the three we recommend.
Instead of taking it easy and learning affiliates, I want to go hard and fast and I’m willing to risk it all. I’m planning to burn through 50k+ before graduating to learn selling products online. Already set up a small business selling private label products online but I have a lot to learn. Planning to fly to a bunch of industry events to get contacts and learn about the industry. In the meantime I’ll just keep iterating my product and running ad campaigns.
What else can I do to get rich or learn to get rich by spending all my money? I don’t care how risky it is.
This is the worst troll of the year, all you’re going to do is waste money.
Get skilled at something and scale is the only way to get rich.
Don’t even know why we approved this comment, this is exactly why generational wealth doesn’t work. Always some people trying to get rich by wasting money which never ever works
Background: Im currently trying to break into big tech. I just graduated with a mechanical engineering degree from a good reputable state school (scholarship) with a 3.9 GPA. I probably could have gotten a pretty good job, but I got accepted into a Masters of Computer Engineering program at an elite school that’s probably the worlds best for AI, Robotics and Machine Learning. It will be 1-1.5 years and quite a bit of money (~$65k total), but the return seems to be there since the most of the graduates end up in big Silicon Valley/NYC tech making multiple times what I could make if I got a job now and I have enough savings to cover it without debt. Of course, this is just until a start a business and can transition out of a career so on to the question
Question: For someone talented in numerics and tech like me, would you still recommend the affiliate —> create your own physical product path outlined in Efficiency or should I leverage my abilities in trying to bootstrap a SaaS/software/tech business?
If actually talented go software route. It’s the most scalable business.
I think it’s a good call unless you have better alternatives.
Just make sure you prep hard for the coding interviews. Be 100% commited until you get the job. Then try AM which is what I m doing now
Hey WSP –
So after almost a decade in banking, i got let go and unfortunately got complacent and didn’t start to listen to you guys about selling online into recently. I’ve just started to learn the mechanics of online sales so my question is:
Should i go full force into trying to master online sales or try to find another job quickly just to keep cash flow coming in and do online sales in parallel?
Same answer get new career scale biz on side.
Unless you’re rich this answer will never change. Ever.
Does going out 2x a week still apply to the early 70-hour weeks on the road to $1m?
I’m an active runner (currently training for marathon), is reducing lifting to 3-4 times a week acceptable given that I’m running 6 days a week? Efficiency stresses lifting 6-7 days a week.
(I have a 3 days running, 3 days lifting “maintenance” workout schedule for busy weeks that will prevent losses).
Is a master’s degree in computer science worth it over a bachelor’s given that both will be completed in 5 years (I may be able to graduate 4~ months earlier with just the Bachelor’s)?
You don’t have to party if you don’t want to it’s just a set up that is easy to do
Your degree doesn’t mean anything so don’t see the question there, get a career before you graduate or else you’re just wasting money in school (harsh reality)
I’m the same guy who responded to the incoming Drexel CS major from the last q&a.
I would say go for the Masters given it’s only 4 months’ difference, the pay grade can be higher and for some odd reason I’ve seen more folks with advanced degrees get promotions and management positions. Not sure why though.
But really you should try to graduate in 3 years, top tier CS people can finish their degrees in ~2.5 years easy
Thought I would chime in since I work in the field…
If it’s a matter of 4 months and you are set on coding/tech as the career I would say get the masters. It will give you a leg up on the competition.
You can definitely do it without the master’s degree, but again, if it is really just a matter of 4 months,100% do it.
As WSPs said just make sure you get the career lined up for after school.
Starting out in paid traffic affilaite marketing. Had a few questions:
1) For a total beginner with limited cash would you recommend breaking the learning into different components? (Eg. 1st learning good copywriting through freelance work then moving on to learning about the various components of running an ad- such as bidding, tracking and scaling a campaign)
2) Would you recommend someone with no paid traffic experience to start with FB ads or learn the ropes with a cheaper source? (push traffic /tier 2 etc.) Are the skillsets you learn transferrable between different traffic sources?
3) For FB ads- Any tips on how to identify good WH offers to promote, that aren’t exclusives through people you know? Assuming we have to track these down outside of the usual affiliate networks.
Thanks
All of these have been answered 100x in the past
1) yes that’s fine
2) covered in book on how to build up a site
3) copy your competitors is always the best starting point
I agree, its just hard to turn down US work authorisation, will lock down the sales role this week. Appreciate the quick reply.
1. Question given that their is a huge shift from On-premise software to Software as a service, are these roles at SAP and Oracle as lucrative has they have been in the past?
2. Would it make sense to career change at any point to IB from tech sales?
1) we don’t know, not close enough
2) only if you’re sure you’ll be better at that type of sales (99% of time, no)
1. – no real difference. I sell expensive enterprise software and we’ve moved from on premise to cloud. Cloud is lower up front commission but you get the recurring commission so it works out well. Just make sure:
A) your contract clearly states you keep receiving commission in cloud deals (eg 3 years)
B) the support services department is good at the company. You want your signed accounts to not bail after the first year due to lazy technical issues
What do you think about Ripple XRP as a viable mid-term investment vehicle?
Already covered in book. We don’t make short term predictions or mid term predictions.
1. I know you guys are generally against the Masters/MBA route,
but what about a potential 2x income for a role requiring MS (think low six fig to 200) if I take a year off of full-time work and go for 1 year for total tuition cost of about 20K (total opportunity cost ~120k?).
2. Thoughts on Binance (specifically Binance coin – not mentioned in Triangle investing)
1) still don’t think it’s worth it but run your math. Most people just decide to go and look for validation. The math will give you the real answer.
2) have not looked closely at it.
Due to working visa restrictions, I’m not allowed to start a business while I’m in US territory (I can own a business and hire someone to manage it though)
I’ve been working in top FinTech companies for 3 years as a Software Engineer, What do you think I should do?:
-Open a Business in my country and hire someone to pose as manager while I do all the work behind the scenes
-Quit my current job, go back to my country, search for a remote job and start my business without worries
(Graduated 3 years ago from top school, several years of savings as buffer)
Thank you for your posts, Efficiency changed my life
Same answer use a family member to create the company
Never quit only quit when it’s making 2x your income from career.
You deleted my first question, so I’ll ask another.
Been working in b2b sales for just less than a year now and want to improve closing. Any sales training you’d recommend other than trial and error?
No transaction id no questions.
Comment
Okay we marked this please put your question below this comment. Your older ones were automatically deleted per the protocol
Thank you very much.
Been working in b2b sales for just less than a year now and want to improve closing. Any sales training you’d recommend other than trial and error?
Read 5-6 sales books they are recommended in efficiency
Take a class in public speaking and actually try to get good
Take a class on stand up comedy
Those should sky rocket results when combined with trial and error
(Not sure if my question is still pending or went through, so maybe a repost)
Looking back at the post “Follow your skills, not your dreams”
Specifically 9) Technology (set up websites for people and take a %)
Is this still viable or has it become too commoditized with services like wordpress & shopify?
Still viable vast majority don’t know anything about it especially if you’re good at design.
Design will always be around
First I want to say thanks for helping me so far. I am trying to progress more but not sure what to do.
I’m 27 and discovered you all about a year ago. Super late to the game according to your standards.
I’ve spent this last year in retail sales and with zero experience I got into a cellular sales role. I finished first year in top 5 percent of the company.
I live in a small town and I’m trying to make more money. Only brought in about 65k last year which is okay around here cause cost of living I so low.
Where should I go from here? Should I move to a bigger city such as Pittsburgh? Should I focus on real estate since so cheap to buy here? Should I leave my current job now to pursue better paying sales job? I feel like I am behind. Any insight here would be greatly appreciated, thank you.
Go to another sales job where you sell much more expensive items
Yes leave if you have to move to a new city to secure a higher ticket sales role
Thanks. I have family that is a big wig at a place where they sale payroll solutions to businesses. Said she can get me on. I think I’m going to go that route. Unless you suggest not working for/with family
Go wherever the money is, if you’re over 25 you don’t have time on your side.
Money is needed to start any biz as well
Not sure if you have advice for this but how do i tell which sales jobs pay best? With different commission structures and such it throws me off.
This is your own math, get offers first
Scenarios are a waste of time, then calculate what you think you’ll be able to sell. Keep it logical
Any differences in the advice in Efficiency for females who want to get rich?
The female is question’s talent is sales (she can make anyone her friend and open up to her in a few minutes). However, like most females, she is very emotional (which has led to less than ideal decision making at points), so I was wondering if there are any extra challenges/obstacles a female would have to face.
Thanks!
Quite literally no change, women are better at sales so basically go into enterprise sales and date wealthy guys so you have no costs.
Thanks! And agreed regarding women being better at sales. A sociable girl with a cute face, bubbly personality and good body is basically playing sales on easy mode.
Pretty much
First I want to say thanks for helping me so far. I am trying to progress more but not sure what to do.
I’m 27 and discovered you all about a year ago. Super late to the game according to your standards.
I’ve spent this last year in retail sales. With zero experience I got into a cellular sales role. I finished first year in top 5 percent of the company.
I live in a small town and I’m trying to make more money. Only brought in about 65k last year which is okay around here cause cost of living I so low, But not where I want to be.
Where should I go from here? Should I move to a bigger city such as Pittsburgh? Should I focus on real estate since so cheap to buy here? Should I leave my current job now to pursue better paying sales job? I feel like I am behind. Any insight here would be greatly appreciated, thank you.
Go into enterprise sales if you have to move cities then do it.
Get out of low end consumer sales, should be a natural fit
Glad to be at another Q&A
When reading efficiency you mentioned the career guys (ex. Lifelong Wall Street MD types.) and the entrepreneurial guys (guys who worked for a while, quitting when their business made more than their job.) Besides the presence of a successful business, what criteria would you look at when picking which side to go towards?
Well the math answers it for you
If you get to $2M you’re forced to start something. Working and making $600K or so ($350K after tax) only moves your net worth by around 10% max after living expenses… so it’s not a decision but a forced choice
What would you look for in a business partner?
Nothing either know the person for a decade minimum or you outsource everything.
Partnerships *almost* never work
Any guidelines or tips for hunting on Flippa? I remember reading to focus on “fixing” sites/businesses with bad copy.
Also, you guys make any money on Andy Ruiz? Lol
We answered this too many times here just search the blog
No we didn’t bet on that, never bet on heavyweight fights. One error and the guy can lose.
What are your thoughts on selling “learn to code” type products like video courses, ebooks?
Yes this is viable. It’s a scaled software business.
One more question, feel free to not answer or delete if it violates your rules:
Do you think Miami real estate will go up or down over the next 3-5 years?
We don’t make short term comments
What are some other counter-cylical markets? I know skincare and marketing are more demanded in recessions but what else?
I guess getting into e-commerce is a bad idea for the next couple years…
Just google “market cycles”
There are several counter cyclical industries listed… we’re not going to answer something you could have googled in 5 seconds…
Have received windfall which would allow me to pay off mortgage on house in full (significant amount still outstanding).
Not sure if I should pay off the mortgage in full or pay off a substantial portion and retain some of the money for other investments / uses + general liquidity.
Is paying off the mortgage in full the best use of this money? (particularly given low interest environment)
No right answer
If you plan on living in that city and love it. Feel free to pay it off.
If you plan on leaving… stay liquid and keep the interest rate on the mortgage as low as possible.
Hey – I posted a question a few hours ago; I purchased Efficiency with bitcoin though, so no transaction ID. At the time you mentioned referencing the email used to make the purchase would be sufficient.
Let me know if there’s other proof needed to get an answer (happy to re-send the question in the email chain where I purchased Efficiency).
Thanks,
Dan
Post question here thx
21 year old engineering dropout, passed 1st year & moved countries to start sales career as SDR.
I’ve been working for 1 year & achieved good results. I want to stay in software sales and move up the sales ladder but I’m afraid of corporate filters which will roadblock my career advancement due to an unfinished degree.
Should I
1. obtain an online degree from a low-tier university (20k price, no loss of income but no chance to network with peers at University & less respectable future options) while continuing to work full time.
2. work part-time for 3 years while completing a business related degree from a prestigious university (25k price & networking with talented peers but loss of 120k/year income for 3 years, stunted career progression)
Thank you
Well no way to answer with that.
Calculate how much you’ll make after it. Will it be worth it financially over the course of 5 years when you complete each path?
The more profitable one is the one you choose.
Have commenced career in finance (thanks to WSP Interview Guide). Have ~1 year of experience. Learned that employer pays below market bonuses (received disappointing stub bonus last cycle + colleagues dissatisfied and many recent departures).
Fear that differential between employer and market comp will worsen over time as get more experienced, leaving significant money on table. Only positive is hours generally not worst on Street (more time for biz).
1. Is it worth jumping ship to get market comp before opportunity for promo?
2. If jump ship, is optimal timing after next bonus? (~6 months to go / can assess if employer increases bonus to retain employees)
Unless it’s a boutique, no name shop, it makes no sense to leave.
Better to make it to associate at a low end bulge than to stay as an analyst at a high end bulge.
Have to look at earnings over 5 year frames. Almost never makes sense to choose to jump if you’re going to get promoted quickly.
You will want to make this jump as soon as possible if you are at a poor firm with low comp. Coming from a weak MM firm where an associate at a bulge makes more than a VP simply illustrates how this scales as you become more senior. Now that said, if not doing this as a career, doesn’t matter. Unfortunately, prestige also matters in this business. Much easier to go from Goldman downstream versus other way around. Will always have a job if you have experience with the biggest and best deals, versus Joe’s IB. it’s just how this industry works (despite it being the same job).
21 year old dropout. 1 year working in software sales, good results.
Problem: incomplete bachelor’s degree may roadblock career progression.
Question: which one is the best option?
a. go back to a good University and complete 3-year business degree? I can work part-time and won’t accumulate any debt but will lose over 100k a year of gross income from a full-time sales job.
b. complete an online degree from a low-tier University. Won’t accumulate debt either and can continue to work full-time but people will laugh at this degree.
Thanks
Yeah same answer as others, if the online degree is enough then go that direction. If you think it will stunt your career then juggle.
Overall though, if you’re over 25… probably best to take the money and online degree while starting a real biz on the side.
Not an easy call to be honest, ask people in your industry as well.
Just started my new online website selling service as per your advice. How should I go about pricing my service to make sure that I do not over price or under price my service? How do you go about pricing a new service?
Well it depends on your market. Copy your competitors then A/B test with ads to see what price range is most profitable for you.
Do you have any basic recommendation for website design?
Find the best competitor, have a software person copy the code over.
That’s the best starting point.
After that it’s a bunch of tinkering you do yourself to improve conversions
Re: the last post on growth industries, curious why you guys believe “you’re not going to send a robot to take care of an elderly woman.”
Seems like a lot of in home care is low hanging fruit for automation (medication management, laundry service, meal services, etc.)?
What am I missing here?
Ah too much human emotion. It’s similar to having a robot tell you that you have cancer. Just not likely as it’s not personal.
Same with those services
1. How’s fixed income sales as a career option? Originally was looking at equity research/IB since that’s the Wall Street Oasis default answer, but I like the complexity of the fixed income market and think there’s niches that I can carve out for myself. I also like the idea of sales for scalable income, whereas if I’m working for a shitty analyst in ER, I could get held back potentially in terms of advancement.
2. I’m a transitioning military Officer. Go straight for programs like the Goldman Veterans Integration Program, or MBA with my GI Bill? Thinking the former if I can, and then the latter as my backup plan or if the economy tanks between now and then.
1) not worth it stick with the book go into banking m&a
2) yes sounds like a great idea
Made a few sales using paid traffic with ClickBank offers & paid traffic, but I’m running in the red. Looks like at this point I just need to learn how to sell/target insecurity/right audience and a matter of trial/error?
Is there a way to take a more product based site approach toward affiliate marketing as opposed to content based site (my current affiliate set up)? or Have any examples of one?
This is too broad, if you are selling via affiliate you should be on a product offer you know is successful.
Then find people selling the same stuff copy their sales funnel
What are your thoughts on when to trust ‘gut feeling’ when deciding to trust someone?
I have two highly ranked co workers (sales) who say, do and act in almost ‘perfect’ ways. Never get nervous, never feel shy and always say the right thing, super charming etc.
But for some reason I feel super on edge around them and they make my skin crawl.
Im a high performer because of work ethic and organisation (I’m not cut from their cloth).
Am I projecting or are they sociopaths or something?
Don’t see a question here doesn’t seem to be relevant.
None of your coworkers are your friends, so just do your best and play the politics game while working on a biz on the side.
They would screw you in a heart beat so your intuition is right.
1) Currently, work in a fund. I am expected to put money in for carried interest. U guys said before investments do not make sense if your net worth is less than 1mm. If so, how to decline to invest? Perhaps I should say I don’t want carried interest but want more salary – not sure if this sends out a bad signal?
2) Copywriting is hard. Should I pay people to write for my websites instead? I spend endless hours playing with titles to make them have a hook.
Thanks and looking forward to your book.
1) you want the carry of the firm is good so you pretty much have to
2) absolutely not, if you can’t sell your life will be a mess not just money wise but personal life and more.
If you were going to go the doctor path, what would you advise someone starting medical school in terms of specialty choice and building a business? I’m thinking of how to make money asap while living on student loans and what business model endgame would make sense.
Honestly don’t know, all we really know is you have to start your own practice. Beyond that specialization usually leads to higher income in certain areas.
Other than that don’t know
Don’t have a question, but a testimonial. (Feel free to delete if its not inline w the Q&A)
TLDR: Followed Efficiency, made $$$$$ running affiliate offers and transitioning to ecom/brand etc.
Longer version:
I went to ASE, signed up for STM and tried running traffic on a few white hat projects but they weren’t profitable. This doesn’t include the other side projects I’ve worked on that were mildly profitable but not sustainable (eventually died out). Read Efficiency ~2-3 times, specifically the overview on affiliate marketing section, and thats when it finally clicked.
I started + grew the paid acquisition strategy (mostly social/search) for the startup I engineer at and learned how to run traffic on the company’s dime. After a few months of running traffic for the Company, my affiliate friend intro’d me to his contacts in the industry and was able to use those connections to source offers/”profiles”/software mentioned in Efficiency/etc. Profitable the first 2 months, then breakeven/losses for the next 4-5. Eventually became profitable on a consistent basis and eclipsed my w2 income, now transition to a WH product/brand with recurring revenue (consumable). Haven’t quit due to golden handcuffs/not stressed/misc reasons, but I can technically walk away (or get fired) and pay the $ to exercise if I want to and not worry about shit. Stacking cash + flexible schedule is where I’m at right now.
FWIW, I graduated at the bottom of my HS class (almost failed out) and didn’t get into college (went to a community college for a few months then failed out). Kept grinding though and eventually learned how to program on my own. Now that I think about it, the only reason I’ve gotten hired as an engineer is because I’ve shown that I can build/get shit done with limited resources. And do I thrive when people tell me I can’t do something haa.
So just wanna say thanks, keep preaching the capitalist gospel
Sounds about right hahaha, congrats!
In my county, some people have a gov’t investing account that can be used as loan collateral. Do you have any thoughts on a business offering a ‘margin account’ product.
I’m working very long hours (payments startup) as CFO and sales but am getting equity and commission income is starting to rise! Want to start something to funnel all excess $ above basic living expenses.
Pls delete below, just let me know if I’m sane or not:
Absolutely no idea. Based on this post scale up the products to sell to increase commission then try to fund the other venture idea. It’s way beyond the scope here as we have no idea what the biz environment/regulations are where you live
Thanks guys, I will do more research and talk to my network!