I’m 33 years and am beginning to get quite skilled at my current job, which allows me to sneak away and use 60-70% of the day to work on my side biz. It’s a non-scalable engineering job.
Should I keep doing this until my side biz gets profitable or start from scratch in a sales job, having no sales experience?
Easy answer, get the biz up running now
60-70% is basically 100% of a day if you work late. Easy call.
Now that I’m making mad cash, thanks to targeting the right market / Efficiency, I was thinking of improving my hair line to better attract gold diggers. Do you have a preferred method? (Topical / ingestibles / surgical or farming, etc)
We actually don’t know anything about this, haven’t had major hair loss issues just the normal slight fade so we would reach out to an expert.
Got ya. Same thing here. Will talk to a few experts. Thank you.
Any thoughts on buying real estate from Tulum south down to the Belize border…or even into Belize, as DiCaprio did, for the tax benefits?
We haven’t done that, but there is nothing wrong with buying real estate in a foreign country for lowering your taxes. Seems like a strategy for when you’re officially checking out, not sure if you’re at that stage yet
Thanks. Can also work if your IRA is starting to look like Romney’s.
How big is the income multiplier effect of doing black hat affiliate marketing versus white hat? Everything else being the same.
We’re guessing you mean “cheating vs not cheating” in that case at least 10x
If you’re saying a legitimate biz versus illegitimate, legitimate biz doesn’t actually benefit from blackhat since they get recurring customers.
Essentially sketchy practices are only good for sketchy products which makes sense if you think of life time value of customer
Regarding player props…do you guys ever play men’s tennis (futures or live)? A very few guys have it mentally and a large majority of the others often wilt under pressure / can’t close even when on serve and up a set.
Have not, you guys have seen our bets typically around fights, politics and basketball/football.
Unless there are a bunch of regular people with emotions involved, we usually don’t bet. Tennis is one of those where betting isn’t as emotional. Although we are sure some people make a killing on it
Thanks. What was / were the football one(s)?
Agreed on tennis. In rare instances there are premiums for taking the other side against emotional Federer fans (for example), but overall would agree…not a lot of emotion. Maybe because it is a “rich” sport.
We don’t give backward looking wins because they don’t count. If we tell you we made bets in the past 1) we look stupid bragging about things you can’t confirm and 2) we only give forward looking bets so you know we were right/wrong and made/lost money. This is for transparency and credibility.
Edited
We cleared out your question since it gave too much info. Our answer is if you’re not willing to put your name behind it, it’s Not a legitimate product so not worth it
Assuming the evitable economic downturn is coming sooner or later ~2020. How do you prepare to reallocate your different asset types? Many thanks
No change just have more cash if you think there is a recession.
Just FYI: Great advice, stayed on and got promoted after 2 months. Pay bump was massive like what was mentioned in your reply. Thank you!
Hi WSP,
Question 1:
Previously asked you guys about a job offer and you mentioned that it was worth staying for the promotional opportunities. Wanted to ask whether I should also be considering whether I am developing transferable skillsets. The skillsets at my current role are non-transferable and a friend at a competitor had to relocate overseas after her company folded and she couldn’t find a similar job. Thus, should I try to gun for an IB job just to develop transferable skillsets even though it could potentially mean a pay cut?
My greatest fear is that if I get sacked and my e-commerce side gig doesn’t take off then I would have to restart in a new career. Before my current gig I was at a F500 as a financial analyst.
Question 2:
I recently got caught interviewing at other firms and was presented with 2 options (a) stay at my present firm and be committed (b) be given a certain period to look for a job and then I would have to leave. What should I do? Should I pretend to be committed and still search for a job til I get caught and get fired?
Thank you
To be honest this sounds like a nightmare
1) they just gave you a massive raise and you killed all the political capital you built
2) you are searching for jobs that pay less (never do this) online biz always 10000000x better than a career. Careers are jokes that practically never make anyone rich
3) you’re either screwed and have to find a job ASAP or you need to only interview for jobs that are paying more. This is your call, if it was a slap on the wrist we would just focus on the high paying job you have and build an online biz. Jumping around like a pinball machine isn’t gonna make you rich, you’re wasting your own time
Thank you WSP! Also, could you please help remove the link to my previous comment? I forgot to remove it before clicking submit.
First of all, thanks for helping me get this far. 22, work in PE… have access to a fund with GP and LP interest in a top tier PE fund that my company is raising $ for. Does it make sense to get out of stocks with consumer confidence at an all time high and put large amount of that $ in this PE fund? Only thing I’m worried about is the 10 year lockup. Thanks again!
Already covered in triangle investing just depends on the mix of your personal assets.
Background: 3rd year commerce student majoring in info tech and minoring in finance. Strong GPA and really good net-worker. Non-target in Canada.
Internship Offer 1:
Worked at BB in back office in Canada and networked hard in the summer and landed an offer for a product control (MO role).
My GOAL is IB or working in a capacity like venture capital investing/deals in tech sector though and I feel like I would have to re brand with a top-tier MBA as efficiency states.
full-time offer 2:
Landed an Innovation Tech Project Manager role full-time $100k (40 hrs a week) salary for out of school for BB but this is not related to CM.
Options I am thinking:
Take Innovation Tech role and work for 1-2 years make $100 k , work on my web dev skills/internet marketing skills on the side and then use this role to apply for a top MBA to rebrand for IB Associate role. Good idea ?
Horrible idea and all recruiting is already covered in the faq section.
FAQ says to rebrand with MBA. Could you elaborate on how that is still horrible idea ?
I have 2 summers left before I graduate. I could take the Product Control role and network for an IB role for next summer but thats risky and opportunity cost of missing out on the $100k full-time job.
It is a horrible idea because of the ROi… this has been covered quite literally 100x on the blog so we aren’t going to answer anymore. Run the math and you’ll see why it’s a terrible idea.
Working two jobs simultaneously in tech making 200K. Also working on setting up online biz. I am kept busy in the day jobs and have little time to work on business outside of weekend.
Do I continue as is (making little progress on biz, but 200k), OR do I quit 1 job, make 115K, but have more time for biz (I have 2 other ideas in the pipeline).
I’m 33. Have only been working for 4 years. (wasted 6 on a Ph.D.)
Thank you for doing what you do.
If you can easily live on 115K and have a lot of savings sure. Otherwise you need to really kill yourself until the online biz is profitable then quit one of the jobs.
Time is running thin at 33, got about 7 years left to make it
Hi would you prioritize prestige or money when it comes to career ?
ie, would you take a job that pays $115K at Google or a blockchain job that pays $180K ?
Choose the one with the lowest hours so you can start a biz. $50K doesn’t matter.
What would you do know if you had to start over – being as old as you are now? What kind of steps would you take first? Would you still choose Wall Street or something else? You usually give advice to younger people so this could be interesting. Thanks!
We would go into M&A or tech sales. That’s really it. Didn’t have the talent to be a coder so that’s the path we would take. Rest would be the same, spend all free time building a side biz since it will account for 80-90% of your success. Careers are rounding errors over 20 year time horizons.
Are you guys still bullish on bitcoin and the top ALT coins and do you see BTC going back up 20k + ? if so timeline?
No change, gonna take 3 years
I have an offer from a top VC firm (through relationship) and a top consulting firm (MBB). I’m trying to optimize for money/health/time (don’t care much about relationships/personality).
What would you go with? Leaning toward the VC firm bc it’s a differentiated trajectory.
VC consulting is too time consuming and doesn’t pay much. At least the VC might be lower hours
If you’re willing to answer –
I have multiple options for middle market PE with strong relationships with GP. Worth doing that instead? Hrs probably similar
Sure they all add up to the same rough amount of money so doesn’t matter which one you choose
I’m in my last year of college, and work as a server trying to improve my selling and social skills. I am an introverted person for the most part, so I have trouble staying in a positive mood and speaking coherently in front of customers. This raises doubt into my mind as to whether or not I can go into sales.
Can I still become a talented salesman if I’m intensely introverted?
Yes. Results are all that matter, most introverted sales people do online sales
Can you please provide a basic guide to get started with Facebook cloaking and whether it would be profitable if your product was priced at a couple of hundred dollars? (Profit margin on each unit is greater than 50%)
Thanks
No we can’t for reasons known by anyone who has done blackhat work before.
What are your thoughts on data science as a career path? (In terms of future proofing)
I think you have previously mentioned that accounting and finance is “dead” and will be automated in 10 or so years through algorithms and code.
Thanks
Same answer in efficiency tech is fine for the next 10-15 years so it’s a good path
DS are the folks that will be automating away many tasks. Broadly there are two types, perceptual and nonperceptual. The former makes vision and voice synthesis solutions (and problems like those, think human senses). The latter builds predictive models on csv like data (think lots of sql queries).
Should be good for 10 years I’d agree.
When you talked about spamming affiliate links, I guess you meant spamming Amazon affiliate links, but how would you go about finding some good places to manually write comments and drop those links?
Thanks!
Go on twitter and find 30daystoX
He wrote the step by step and we won’t steal his content
Just to put the thought in your head – there are far better affiliate links/networks than Amazon. Good luck.
lolololol well played and true.
Profitable on my first online store, stopped it for ethical reasons (not a full sociopath just yet)
Started a marketing service (very profitable kind of copywriting), now making a couple thousand a month in college not working very hard
Is this “talent” or too early to tell? Stay in school til I’m totally self sufficient (10g/month) or quit and try to take off?
Thanks
Focus all effort on this, do minimum to finish college assuming no debt to get a fake white collar job while you continue building.
Same answer as always, if you’re asking if you should quit yet you shouldn’t. When you’re ready to quit you won’t wven ask us! You’ll just quit
Thank you. You guys have helped so many people (and you already know this).
Hopefully never have to get a “job”, going to get this done in the next few months
Hey JP how did you get into that business, if you don’t mind me asking? I’ve been looking into copy-writing services and could always use more peoples’ experiences.
In Efficiency you guys say heavy lifting stunts your growth. Can you elaborate why? Common advice is that it does not.
I’m 19 and have been lifting for the past 2 years. Wondering if I should stop.
Thanks for the all the help.
We are referring to squats, this is why pro athletes don’t do max out numbers until heir body develops. But do what you want
You can lift just dontgo heavy until fully grown
That is largely a myth lifting stunts growth. Higher % lifting of 1RM just stresses nervous system at a disproportionate rate when compared alongside days recovery. That added stress plus any simple error in form increases odds of injury. Just dont break any discs.
The book said stretching becomes a necessity for guys over 30 years old.
What’s a good list of stretches + holding times, especially for guys that are sitting in an office chair all day?
20 minutes a day minimum, can’t tell you which body parts as you have different flexibility versus any specific person. So focus more on your problem areas. Back problems are common in mid-30s so always a good starting point
I’m an options trader in my 20’s. What’s the best path to a hedge fund. Can’t find transaction number since it was awhile ago but I’m sure you can see by email that I purchased both books.
Same stuff, go to hedge fund events and have your returns approved and stamped/signed off. That’s all we can say given your background in this paragraph. All recruiting answers are on this blog.
Finishing up my final semester in college. Found a business idea during my summer internship and validated it by asking the origination team (sales professionals) if they would use this software idea.
Since then, I have built a working prototype and a landing page (with “okay” copywriting + a video demo). My market is B2B (not sure if they buy based on emotion?) for sales professionals, and I have been cold emailing people to introduce them to this idea (to try out, I haven’t asked them to pay). Haven’t gotten much results. Any advice on how I could get traction (the hardest part of building a business imo)?
Go to conferences for your product, the market there is looking for solutions so that should be the easiest sales
Trying to wrap my mind around MVP aspects of a shop as Efficiency explains the eCommerce margin. How many products are you really selling? Is this all white labels (own brand) or as a retailer (other brands)? Regardless, fulfillment has to be outside dropship?
I keep going back to eCourses high-level (without execution) because they scale “better”. No fulfillment.
1) depends you can do a few skus or a lot depends on market
2) own brand
We can’t answer more than 1 question per transaction ID.
As a male, running an online business an insecurity market selling to women only (35+)… are there any strategies you would use to do podcasts/guest posts and other influencer/content marketing when it’s hard to be the face of the brand? This is the main question now but also just looking for how you handle things that require a face and it’s hard for you to be it. Thanks!
Note:this is not main traffic source, but certain things are hard to do when in this situation
Easy one in that market go with an influencer. Definitely cannot be you, you can be the ceo not the face though
Thanks! That’s what I’m doing now. For clarification in that model, do you typically bring the influencer on as the face of your company or hire a diff influencer for each “engagement” (podcast, video, sponsored post). Face of company seems dangerous – but curious to your thoughts.
Face of company just means promoter was a blanket meaning
Cindy Joseph is the face of the entire organization. But Ezra Firestone (CEO of smartmarketer.com + Zipify) runs the ecommerce + FB ads.
I think he said they are doing over $20m a year when he was on Grant Cardone’s show. They would be a good company to model after
Amazing brand, I have no clue, but imagine you need a big capital base to partner with a great/big name like that. They aren’t going to partner with you if you only have inventory for 2,000 orders. Not to mention ads, press releases, etc.
Of course if you have the relationship locked down, you can pitch for funding but thats another ball game.
Really appreciate the weekly posts. Thank you for sharing your time with us all. Seriously 100% mean that.
Please Only answer 1 or 2 of the 3 choices below:
A) Do you find better investment opportunities that require only Qualified Purchaser investors instead of accredited/qualified client?
(Asking as I’ve only grown my network to now get QP deal-flow recently.)
B) As the health field keeps progressing, anything new that you’ve incorporated or looking to incorporate soon into your weekly lifestyle?
(Currently, I’m already 4x weights, stretching, & intensive cardio, juice daily, blood work semi, & massages weekly)
C) What’s 1-2 things/events/anything that you’re looking forward to in 2019 that we should be aware for as well?
PS. Hoping ya’ll do the lifestyle book!
1) qualified investor deals typically do get better returns but only if you’re willing to wait longer periods of time. Also be careful as most of the ones pitched to you will be junk, takes more work but more upside
2) no change, already in the book. Just stretching more lately.
Question:
I’m a first year analyst at a B.B. bank on the FIG team. I started a month ago and the team has lost a lot of people, down to 4 analysts (2 just started, myself included) run rate for the team is 8-10 analysts.
It’s been a very busy start and I’m not getting a lot of guidance on projects I’m staffed on. I’m working on a lot of things solo or with minimal guidance.
In your experience will this make me a better banker long term or would it be better for my development to have a longer ramp up period, more hand holding?
Thank you!
Not a good situation since your hours go up. You won’t learn much more just going to work long hours.
In short, doesn’t matter so just save your money and look to earn money online ASAP
Advice on cutting small talk short with people you have to work with or see every day?
Sounds stupid but this wastes a lot of time.
Pretend to be stressed out, they will avoid you
Khabib or McGregor and are there any good bets?
Cheers guy, thanks for the excellent content!
No view here
Agree with starting a business vs. focusing on a career and have been exploring business ideas.
By far my best idea so far is an illegal one – selling a legal (normally restricted but not really dangerous) product illegally. Have tested demand and run a financial model and the results make the idea look pretty attractive. Pretty sure that the risk of hitting authorities’ radar and getting caught is low, but obviously it’s not zero.
Do you think I should go ahead and start selling or should I hold out until I can think of something more legal? If I start selling, do you have insight into the best way to receive payment? Must be able take credit card (competitors all do).
well we definitely can’t help since this sounds grey area. You asnwered it yourself “low chance of being caught” so what is the downside? If it’s just a fine, then go for it. If it’s life in prison then you’re nuts to even try.
Heres one you guys might enjoy as its off the beaten path.
You have about $600000 liquid as it gets we are talking paper. No past career and right now hardly any income. The method by which this money was made is now finished and the risk and hustle it took to achieve this were substantial but cant exactly be put on a resume. You must be shrewd with the existence of this capital. You just turnt 29.
How do you turn this situation to set yourself up?
Move to Thailand start internet biz
Or
If you can get a career that pays $100K, do that while doing internet biz. No real change relative to original plans
Things you guys have found to help sleep quality?
Reading until you have to fall asleep
What books do you read? – and don’t say Efficiency.
Gentlemen,
First off, thanks a lot for all the information you give, truly life changing, the more I apply the more I get out of it, there truly are no shortcuts.
My question is regarding juicing vs blending: is juicing far superior? Far superior as in the difference between liquid fish oil vs capsules (which is night and day, thanks again!)
Best regards
No difference and liquid only is our preference
I am currently an analyst in a long only portfolio firm, doing especially sales analytics. Would like to make the transfer to M&A in the next coming years, any advice on how to do it and anything special that should be taken into consideration?
Thanks for holding the Q&A!
No change from the last 6 years, have to start before you’re 25 and try to cold contact all the VPs at banks and spin your resume
See FAQ and all the wall street related posts on recruiting. the industry never changes, hence why it’s going to die ha!
I’m building SaaS B2B for tech teams product as a side gig to my career (remote job in startup, killing it in 1-4h/day so I have a lot of time unlocked). Decent sales results within my personal network, but hitting boundaries now. It’s more difficult to sell when your field doesn’t directly increase $$$ of your customers. Poor results with cold mailing, even if I provide some upfront valuable.
Hints how to scale that? I want to test some marketing agency and sales person to see where I can go with that. I see examples of tremendous networking/sales value when you’re part of Y Combinator and similar, but I’m not very comfortable with giving ownership away to investors.
Unfortunately can’t help we never created a tech product, all of ours is B to C.
I don’t know if you follow politics minus the presidential elections or will be betting on it.
But if you had to put money on it, do you see a red wave or blue wave in 2018 midterms?
We have no idea, we’re just waiting to get closer to presidential candidate time. We don’t even know when the mid-terms are so we won’t put any answer out there since its 100% guess work.
Not sure if you guys have much experience working with/for startups, but wondering what sort of questions you’d ask yourselves if you had a little equity and were considering whether to exercise stock options for a future Acquisition or IPO.
Not enough info, all exits are based on the specific company. IE. You shouldnt need to ask other people, you should know what it is worth and if you get a valuation well above what you think the company is worth, then sell. Otherwise hold on longer.
Aged 25, currently working in what you define as a “job”. Been told that I’m very good at it by most of my colleagues. In two years time I’ll have enough experience and the qualifications to start my own consultancy. Am I wasting my time with this i.e. should I switch to a “career” ASAP, or should I stick at the job and have a go at running my own shop first?
If you can turn it into a business then you’re good to go.
If you never start the business then you’re completely stuck. So depends on how you plan on moving forward. You already know our answer!
Ok, thanks.
By that comment I’m presuming you mean move to a career should the business fail?
Not sure what you’re saying.
There is never a change in our recommendation, a career is just to pay bills, unless you get a biz running you’re never “done”
I am 21 and I still have 2 years left in undergraduate. It took me 3 years to transfer from community college to a top 50 school. Due to some poor planning, I’ll have to take a year off. IB has been my goal and it has personal importance. Is it still worth it due to the extended timeline?
Your best bet is to make sure you’re at a target school to get the job. If you’re dead set on IB your best chance in on campus recruiting time period. So yes recruiting time frame extension is the best move.
After that it gets a lot harder as you have to try and “network in” before turning age 26 or so.
If that fails you’re forced down the MBA route.
Deciding whether to move to new country to save $10k tax / year (potential to save greater sum as I earn more). I’m 25, location independent and can run my business in both countries equally efficiently. Only down side is that new location is less physically comfortable (poorer country with worse infrastructure and amenities). Any tips on how I should make this decision?
Have 3 months to decide – I’m British and after Brexit it’ll be much harder to move.
p.s. suggestion – add SSL encryption in blog to protect your user’s emails
Easy only go if there is a 0% chance it hurts your future opportunities.
Nothing else really needs to be considered.
Thanks, as always, for taking the time. Thoughts on high-end headhunting as a career move (performance-based career, plus low-startup costs in the industry if one wanted to open one’s own shop down the road)? Transition would be from a high-paying “job”. Requisite “synthesis” intelligence is there.
Yes this is essentially enterprise sales, one problem is long sales cycles so painful but doable
Do you have experiences with LSD and, if yes, do you think it has any positive influence on brain/thinking? (referring to the recent Silicon Valey microdosing frenzy)
Have not used it
It’s all hype. Not very good for productivity.
It can be a fun experience. Similar to getting a little tipsy and thinking about creative projects, or working while high on weed occasionally (as some may do).
But it does mess with focus and the efficiency of regular tasks.
In Efficiency you advise low-carb. Have you tried keto? If yes, do you think that the benefits outweigh it’s impracticality (requires to be dedicated and consistent)?
Also have not tried
Currently a freshman in college – should I spend all my time taking care of health and getting internship/job as is stated in efficiency, or should I also be putting some time on working on side business/affiliate marketing and partying/picking up girls(currently a kissless virgin)?
Lol not sure if a troll obviously do what is in the book. Unless completely messed up somehow we don’t believe the story since all you’d have to do is go on spring break and get wasted to solve any issues in less than 24 hours
Not trolling. I’m not attractive enough for that(spring break idea) so should I just focus on working now and then girls later or is skipping girls now something that will mess me up for life
We don’t know Becuase we were never in that position, all you have to do is be in shape to pull on spring break so we really doubt this is even possible. Good luck!
Come on! Obviously. Work now
Get in shape, learn social skills, and make money. Overall, this will increase your confidence and value. Also, practice day game whenever you can, and as stated in the book, go out once or twice per week for further practice.
If you still have problems after doing the above for 12 months, get a hooker or go on a holiday (Amsterdam, Philippines) to get it out of your system (you’ll have made some money and have a decent physique by then because of the work you’ve put in)
It’s all about selling $ to in-demand problems and scaling upwards. There’s more demand for building than supply.
In between sales and construction, I intend to get an electrician’s license, save $ working no less than 60 hrs, zero debt, and cater to renewables scaling the business with new trucks/tools with employees catering to niche renewables like wind turbines.
1.) Share ur views on contracting sales businesses in the construction sector
2.) Share ur views on flipping trailers or similar 4 to 5 digit real estate properties
As you know from our books we haven’t done either so we wouldn’t know. Would look at our posts on RE written by guys who did flip homes
Engineering student, currently building niche sites (1k/m passive income) want to eventually make my own recurring revenue source, think SaaS is a good way to go.
Which career path?
High paying tech career (Google/Facebook etc) working as a cog.
or
Medium paying tech career (-20%) working in a SaaS company.
Cog since easier to get another career if shit hits the fan, more money to invest in your own biz
Easy call
We’re planning for a business sale in the high seven figures. We’re looking at CRT and have considered moving to a state with no cap gains tax. Any other strategies that you recommend looking into or references for minimizing taxes?
Sounds like you’re doing the right thing, ideally look to move to a foreign country with zero taxes. We would hire a tax specialist in your situation since it’s a large sum
What factors / metrics determine whether you might throw 1/2 a stick on the GSW by Dec?
https://twitter.com/WallStPlayboys/status/1014015548680593411
Thanks for this awesome breakdown of Westbrook/Harden/Leonard…
http://wallstreetplayboys.com/gambling-like-a-boss-always-bet-on-black/
Basically no chance we would bet that much by December, injuries are real and it’s smarter to wait until the last second for most bets.
Player props are easier because the payouts are so high that the risk reward is positive. We’ll always post our bets on twitter, so far so good!
Thanks. And thanks for Alvarez, Mayweather, Westbrook, and Trump!
Any time! We’ll always put it on Twitter, if it’s high belief one.
Are you referring to “Hunting El Chapo” by Hogan and Century in this tweet?
https://twitter.com/WallStPlayboys/status/1036687423202156544
Also thanks for the Pablo Escobar recommendation in this post…
http://wallstreetplayboys.com/international-playboy-preparation-and-destinations/
Yes we are. You are correct
Thanks.
I’m 33 years and am beginning to get quite skilled at my current job, which allows me to sneak away and use 60-70% of the day to work on my side biz. It’s a non-scalable engineering job.
Should I keep doing this until my side biz gets profitable or start from scratch in a sales job, having no sales experience?
Easy answer, get the biz up running now
60-70% is basically 100% of a day if you work late. Easy call.
Now that I’m making mad cash, thanks to targeting the right market / Efficiency, I was thinking of improving my hair line to better attract gold diggers. Do you have a preferred method? (Topical / ingestibles / surgical or farming, etc)
We actually don’t know anything about this, haven’t had major hair loss issues just the normal slight fade so we would reach out to an expert.
Got ya. Same thing here. Will talk to a few experts. Thank you.
Any thoughts on buying real estate from Tulum south down to the Belize border…or even into Belize, as DiCaprio did, for the tax benefits?
We haven’t done that, but there is nothing wrong with buying real estate in a foreign country for lowering your taxes. Seems like a strategy for when you’re officially checking out, not sure if you’re at that stage yet
Thanks. Can also work if your IRA is starting to look like Romney’s.
How big is the income multiplier effect of doing black hat affiliate marketing versus white hat? Everything else being the same.
We’re guessing you mean “cheating vs not cheating” in that case at least 10x
If you’re saying a legitimate biz versus illegitimate, legitimate biz doesn’t actually benefit from blackhat since they get recurring customers.
Essentially sketchy practices are only good for sketchy products which makes sense if you think of life time value of customer
Regarding player props…do you guys ever play men’s tennis (futures or live)? A very few guys have it mentally and a large majority of the others often wilt under pressure / can’t close even when on serve and up a set.
Have not, you guys have seen our bets typically around fights, politics and basketball/football.
Unless there are a bunch of regular people with emotions involved, we usually don’t bet. Tennis is one of those where betting isn’t as emotional. Although we are sure some people make a killing on it
Thanks. What was / were the football one(s)?
Agreed on tennis. In rare instances there are premiums for taking the other side against emotional Federer fans (for example), but overall would agree…not a lot of emotion. Maybe because it is a “rich” sport.
We don’t give backward looking wins because they don’t count. If we tell you we made bets in the past 1) we look stupid bragging about things you can’t confirm and 2) we only give forward looking bets so you know we were right/wrong and made/lost money. This is for transparency and credibility.
Edited
We cleared out your question since it gave too much info. Our answer is if you’re not willing to put your name behind it, it’s Not a legitimate product so not worth it
Assuming the evitable economic downturn is coming sooner or later ~2020. How do you prepare to reallocate your different asset types? Many thanks
No change just have more cash if you think there is a recession.
Just FYI: Great advice, stayed on and got promoted after 2 months. Pay bump was massive like what was mentioned in your reply. Thank you!
Hi WSP,
Question 1:
Previously asked you guys about a job offer and you mentioned that it was worth staying for the promotional opportunities. Wanted to ask whether I should also be considering whether I am developing transferable skillsets. The skillsets at my current role are non-transferable and a friend at a competitor had to relocate overseas after her company folded and she couldn’t find a similar job. Thus, should I try to gun for an IB job just to develop transferable skillsets even though it could potentially mean a pay cut?
My greatest fear is that if I get sacked and my e-commerce side gig doesn’t take off then I would have to restart in a new career. Before my current gig I was at a F500 as a financial analyst.
Question 2:
I recently got caught interviewing at other firms and was presented with 2 options (a) stay at my present firm and be committed (b) be given a certain period to look for a job and then I would have to leave. What should I do? Should I pretend to be committed and still search for a job til I get caught and get fired?
Thank you
To be honest this sounds like a nightmare
1) they just gave you a massive raise and you killed all the political capital you built
2) you are searching for jobs that pay less (never do this) online biz always 10000000x better than a career. Careers are jokes that practically never make anyone rich
3) you’re either screwed and have to find a job ASAP or you need to only interview for jobs that are paying more. This is your call, if it was a slap on the wrist we would just focus on the high paying job you have and build an online biz. Jumping around like a pinball machine isn’t gonna make you rich, you’re wasting your own time
Thank you WSP! Also, could you please help remove the link to my previous comment? I forgot to remove it before clicking submit.
First of all, thanks for helping me get this far. 22, work in PE… have access to a fund with GP and LP interest in a top tier PE fund that my company is raising $ for. Does it make sense to get out of stocks with consumer confidence at an all time high and put large amount of that $ in this PE fund? Only thing I’m worried about is the 10 year lockup. Thanks again!
Already covered in triangle investing just depends on the mix of your personal assets.
Background: 3rd year commerce student majoring in info tech and minoring in finance. Strong GPA and really good net-worker. Non-target in Canada.
Internship Offer 1:
Worked at BB in back office in Canada and networked hard in the summer and landed an offer for a product control (MO role).
My GOAL is IB or working in a capacity like venture capital investing/deals in tech sector though and I feel like I would have to re brand with a top-tier MBA as efficiency states.
full-time offer 2:
Landed an Innovation Tech Project Manager role full-time $100k (40 hrs a week) salary for out of school for BB but this is not related to CM.
Options I am thinking:
Take Innovation Tech role and work for 1-2 years make $100 k , work on my web dev skills/internet marketing skills on the side and then use this role to apply for a top MBA to rebrand for IB Associate role. Good idea ?
Horrible idea and all recruiting is already covered in the faq section.
FAQ says to rebrand with MBA. Could you elaborate on how that is still horrible idea ?
I have 2 summers left before I graduate. I could take the Product Control role and network for an IB role for next summer but thats risky and opportunity cost of missing out on the $100k full-time job.
It is a horrible idea because of the ROi… this has been covered quite literally 100x on the blog so we aren’t going to answer anymore. Run the math and you’ll see why it’s a terrible idea.
Working two jobs simultaneously in tech making 200K. Also working on setting up online biz. I am kept busy in the day jobs and have little time to work on business outside of weekend.
Do I continue as is (making little progress on biz, but 200k), OR do I quit 1 job, make 115K, but have more time for biz (I have 2 other ideas in the pipeline).
I’m 33. Have only been working for 4 years. (wasted 6 on a Ph.D.)
Thank you for doing what you do.
If you can easily live on 115K and have a lot of savings sure. Otherwise you need to really kill yourself until the online biz is profitable then quit one of the jobs.
Time is running thin at 33, got about 7 years left to make it
Hi would you prioritize prestige or money when it comes to career ?
ie, would you take a job that pays $115K at Google or a blockchain job that pays $180K ?
Choose the one with the lowest hours so you can start a biz. $50K doesn’t matter.
What would you do know if you had to start over – being as old as you are now? What kind of steps would you take first? Would you still choose Wall Street or something else? You usually give advice to younger people so this could be interesting. Thanks!
We would go into M&A or tech sales. That’s really it. Didn’t have the talent to be a coder so that’s the path we would take. Rest would be the same, spend all free time building a side biz since it will account for 80-90% of your success. Careers are rounding errors over 20 year time horizons.
Are you guys still bullish on bitcoin and the top ALT coins and do you see BTC going back up 20k + ? if so timeline?
No change, gonna take 3 years
I have an offer from a top VC firm (through relationship) and a top consulting firm (MBB). I’m trying to optimize for money/health/time (don’t care much about relationships/personality).
What would you go with? Leaning toward the VC firm bc it’s a differentiated trajectory.
VC consulting is too time consuming and doesn’t pay much. At least the VC might be lower hours
If you’re willing to answer –
I have multiple options for middle market PE with strong relationships with GP. Worth doing that instead? Hrs probably similar
Sure they all add up to the same rough amount of money so doesn’t matter which one you choose
I’m in my last year of college, and work as a server trying to improve my selling and social skills. I am an introverted person for the most part, so I have trouble staying in a positive mood and speaking coherently in front of customers. This raises doubt into my mind as to whether or not I can go into sales.
Can I still become a talented salesman if I’m intensely introverted?
Yes. Results are all that matter, most introverted sales people do online sales
Can you please provide a basic guide to get started with Facebook cloaking and whether it would be profitable if your product was priced at a couple of hundred dollars? (Profit margin on each unit is greater than 50%)
Thanks
No we can’t for reasons known by anyone who has done blackhat work before.
What are your thoughts on data science as a career path? (In terms of future proofing)
I think you have previously mentioned that accounting and finance is “dead” and will be automated in 10 or so years through algorithms and code.
Thanks
Same answer in efficiency tech is fine for the next 10-15 years so it’s a good path
DS are the folks that will be automating away many tasks. Broadly there are two types, perceptual and nonperceptual. The former makes vision and voice synthesis solutions (and problems like those, think human senses). The latter builds predictive models on csv like data (think lots of sql queries).
Should be good for 10 years I’d agree.
When you talked about spamming affiliate links, I guess you meant spamming Amazon affiliate links, but how would you go about finding some good places to manually write comments and drop those links?
Thanks!
Go on twitter and find 30daystoX
He wrote the step by step and we won’t steal his content
Just to put the thought in your head – there are far better affiliate links/networks than Amazon. Good luck.
lolololol well played and true.
Profitable on my first online store, stopped it for ethical reasons (not a full sociopath just yet)
Started a marketing service (very profitable kind of copywriting), now making a couple thousand a month in college not working very hard
Is this “talent” or too early to tell? Stay in school til I’m totally self sufficient (10g/month) or quit and try to take off?
Thanks
Focus all effort on this, do minimum to finish college assuming no debt to get a fake white collar job while you continue building.
Same answer as always, if you’re asking if you should quit yet you shouldn’t. When you’re ready to quit you won’t wven ask us! You’ll just quit
Thank you. You guys have helped so many people (and you already know this).
Hopefully never have to get a “job”, going to get this done in the next few months
Hey JP how did you get into that business, if you don’t mind me asking? I’ve been looking into copy-writing services and could always use more peoples’ experiences.
In Efficiency you guys say heavy lifting stunts your growth. Can you elaborate why? Common advice is that it does not.
I’m 19 and have been lifting for the past 2 years. Wondering if I should stop.
Thanks for the all the help.
We are referring to squats, this is why pro athletes don’t do max out numbers until heir body develops. But do what you want
You can lift just dontgo heavy until fully grown
That is largely a myth lifting stunts growth. Higher % lifting of 1RM just stresses nervous system at a disproportionate rate when compared alongside days recovery. That added stress plus any simple error in form increases odds of injury. Just dont break any discs.
The book said stretching becomes a necessity for guys over 30 years old.
What’s a good list of stretches + holding times, especially for guys that are sitting in an office chair all day?
20 minutes a day minimum, can’t tell you which body parts as you have different flexibility versus any specific person. So focus more on your problem areas. Back problems are common in mid-30s so always a good starting point
I’m an options trader in my 20’s. What’s the best path to a hedge fund. Can’t find transaction number since it was awhile ago but I’m sure you can see by email that I purchased both books.
Same stuff, go to hedge fund events and have your returns approved and stamped/signed off. That’s all we can say given your background in this paragraph. All recruiting answers are on this blog.
Finishing up my final semester in college. Found a business idea during my summer internship and validated it by asking the origination team (sales professionals) if they would use this software idea.
Since then, I have built a working prototype and a landing page (with “okay” copywriting + a video demo). My market is B2B (not sure if they buy based on emotion?) for sales professionals, and I have been cold emailing people to introduce them to this idea (to try out, I haven’t asked them to pay). Haven’t gotten much results. Any advice on how I could get traction (the hardest part of building a business imo)?
Go to conferences for your product, the market there is looking for solutions so that should be the easiest sales
Trying to wrap my mind around MVP aspects of a shop as Efficiency explains the eCommerce margin. How many products are you really selling? Is this all white labels (own brand) or as a retailer (other brands)? Regardless, fulfillment has to be outside dropship?
I keep going back to eCourses high-level (without execution) because they scale “better”. No fulfillment.
1) depends you can do a few skus or a lot depends on market
2) own brand
We can’t answer more than 1 question per transaction ID.
As a male, running an online business an insecurity market selling to women only (35+)… are there any strategies you would use to do podcasts/guest posts and other influencer/content marketing when it’s hard to be the face of the brand? This is the main question now but also just looking for how you handle things that require a face and it’s hard for you to be it. Thanks!
Note:this is not main traffic source, but certain things are hard to do when in this situation
Easy one in that market go with an influencer. Definitely cannot be you, you can be the ceo not the face though
Thanks! That’s what I’m doing now. For clarification in that model, do you typically bring the influencer on as the face of your company or hire a diff influencer for each “engagement” (podcast, video, sponsored post). Face of company seems dangerous – but curious to your thoughts.
Face of company just means promoter was a blanket meaning
a great example of a brand that does that is:
https://www.boombycindyjoseph.com/
Cindy Joseph is the face of the entire organization. But Ezra Firestone (CEO of smartmarketer.com + Zipify) runs the ecommerce + FB ads.
I think he said they are doing over $20m a year when he was on Grant Cardone’s show. They would be a good company to model after
Amazing brand, I have no clue, but imagine you need a big capital base to partner with a great/big name like that. They aren’t going to partner with you if you only have inventory for 2,000 orders. Not to mention ads, press releases, etc.
Of course if you have the relationship locked down, you can pitch for funding but thats another ball game.
Really appreciate the weekly posts. Thank you for sharing your time with us all. Seriously 100% mean that.
Please Only answer 1 or 2 of the 3 choices below:
A) Do you find better investment opportunities that require only Qualified Purchaser investors instead of accredited/qualified client?
(Asking as I’ve only grown my network to now get QP deal-flow recently.)
B) As the health field keeps progressing, anything new that you’ve incorporated or looking to incorporate soon into your weekly lifestyle?
(Currently, I’m already 4x weights, stretching, & intensive cardio, juice daily, blood work semi, & massages weekly)
C) What’s 1-2 things/events/anything that you’re looking forward to in 2019 that we should be aware for as well?
PS. Hoping ya’ll do the lifestyle book!
1) qualified investor deals typically do get better returns but only if you’re willing to wait longer periods of time. Also be careful as most of the ones pitched to you will be junk, takes more work but more upside
2) no change, already in the book. Just stretching more lately.
Question:
I’m a first year analyst at a B.B. bank on the FIG team. I started a month ago and the team has lost a lot of people, down to 4 analysts (2 just started, myself included) run rate for the team is 8-10 analysts.
It’s been a very busy start and I’m not getting a lot of guidance on projects I’m staffed on. I’m working on a lot of things solo or with minimal guidance.
In your experience will this make me a better banker long term or would it be better for my development to have a longer ramp up period, more hand holding?
Thank you!
Not a good situation since your hours go up. You won’t learn much more just going to work long hours.
In short, doesn’t matter so just save your money and look to earn money online ASAP
Advice on cutting small talk short with people you have to work with or see every day?
Sounds stupid but this wastes a lot of time.
Pretend to be stressed out, they will avoid you
Khabib or McGregor and are there any good bets?
Cheers guy, thanks for the excellent content!
No view here
Agree with starting a business vs. focusing on a career and have been exploring business ideas.
By far my best idea so far is an illegal one – selling a legal (normally restricted but not really dangerous) product illegally. Have tested demand and run a financial model and the results make the idea look pretty attractive. Pretty sure that the risk of hitting authorities’ radar and getting caught is low, but obviously it’s not zero.
Do you think I should go ahead and start selling or should I hold out until I can think of something more legal? If I start selling, do you have insight into the best way to receive payment? Must be able take credit card (competitors all do).
well we definitely can’t help since this sounds grey area. You asnwered it yourself “low chance of being caught” so what is the downside? If it’s just a fine, then go for it. If it’s life in prison then you’re nuts to even try.
Heres one you guys might enjoy as its off the beaten path.
You have about $600000 liquid as it gets we are talking paper. No past career and right now hardly any income. The method by which this money was made is now finished and the risk and hustle it took to achieve this were substantial but cant exactly be put on a resume. You must be shrewd with the existence of this capital. You just turnt 29.
How do you turn this situation to set yourself up?
Move to Thailand start internet biz
Or
If you can get a career that pays $100K, do that while doing internet biz. No real change relative to original plans
Things you guys have found to help sleep quality?
Reading until you have to fall asleep
What books do you read? – and don’t say Efficiency.
Gentlemen,
First off, thanks a lot for all the information you give, truly life changing, the more I apply the more I get out of it, there truly are no shortcuts.
My question is regarding juicing vs blending: is juicing far superior? Far superior as in the difference between liquid fish oil vs capsules (which is night and day, thanks again!)
Best regards
No difference and liquid only is our preference
I am currently an analyst in a long only portfolio firm, doing especially sales analytics. Would like to make the transfer to M&A in the next coming years, any advice on how to do it and anything special that should be taken into consideration?
Thanks for holding the Q&A!
No change from the last 6 years, have to start before you’re 25 and try to cold contact all the VPs at banks and spin your resume
See FAQ and all the wall street related posts on recruiting. the industry never changes, hence why it’s going to die ha!
I’m building SaaS B2B for tech teams product as a side gig to my career (remote job in startup, killing it in 1-4h/day so I have a lot of time unlocked). Decent sales results within my personal network, but hitting boundaries now. It’s more difficult to sell when your field doesn’t directly increase $$$ of your customers. Poor results with cold mailing, even if I provide some upfront valuable.
Hints how to scale that? I want to test some marketing agency and sales person to see where I can go with that. I see examples of tremendous networking/sales value when you’re part of Y Combinator and similar, but I’m not very comfortable with giving ownership away to investors.
Unfortunately can’t help we never created a tech product, all of ours is B to C.
I don’t know if you follow politics minus the presidential elections or will be betting on it.
But if you had to put money on it, do you see a red wave or blue wave in 2018 midterms?
We have no idea, we’re just waiting to get closer to presidential candidate time. We don’t even know when the mid-terms are so we won’t put any answer out there since its 100% guess work.
Not sure if you guys have much experience working with/for startups, but wondering what sort of questions you’d ask yourselves if you had a little equity and were considering whether to exercise stock options for a future Acquisition or IPO.
Not enough info, all exits are based on the specific company. IE. You shouldnt need to ask other people, you should know what it is worth and if you get a valuation well above what you think the company is worth, then sell. Otherwise hold on longer.
Aged 25, currently working in what you define as a “job”. Been told that I’m very good at it by most of my colleagues. In two years time I’ll have enough experience and the qualifications to start my own consultancy. Am I wasting my time with this i.e. should I switch to a “career” ASAP, or should I stick at the job and have a go at running my own shop first?
If you can turn it into a business then you’re good to go.
If you never start the business then you’re completely stuck. So depends on how you plan on moving forward. You already know our answer!
Ok, thanks.
By that comment I’m presuming you mean move to a career should the business fail?
Not sure what you’re saying.
There is never a change in our recommendation, a career is just to pay bills, unless you get a biz running you’re never “done”
I am 21 and I still have 2 years left in undergraduate. It took me 3 years to transfer from community college to a top 50 school. Due to some poor planning, I’ll have to take a year off. IB has been my goal and it has personal importance. Is it still worth it due to the extended timeline?
Your best bet is to make sure you’re at a target school to get the job. If you’re dead set on IB your best chance in on campus recruiting time period. So yes recruiting time frame extension is the best move.
After that it gets a lot harder as you have to try and “network in” before turning age 26 or so.
If that fails you’re forced down the MBA route.
Deciding whether to move to new country to save $10k tax / year (potential to save greater sum as I earn more). I’m 25, location independent and can run my business in both countries equally efficiently. Only down side is that new location is less physically comfortable (poorer country with worse infrastructure and amenities). Any tips on how I should make this decision?
Have 3 months to decide – I’m British and after Brexit it’ll be much harder to move.
p.s. suggestion – add SSL encryption in blog to protect your user’s emails
Easy only go if there is a 0% chance it hurts your future opportunities.
Nothing else really needs to be considered.
Thanks, as always, for taking the time. Thoughts on high-end headhunting as a career move (performance-based career, plus low-startup costs in the industry if one wanted to open one’s own shop down the road)? Transition would be from a high-paying “job”. Requisite “synthesis” intelligence is there.
Yes this is essentially enterprise sales, one problem is long sales cycles so painful but doable
Do you have experiences with LSD and, if yes, do you think it has any positive influence on brain/thinking? (referring to the recent Silicon Valey microdosing frenzy)
Have not used it
It’s all hype. Not very good for productivity.
It can be a fun experience. Similar to getting a little tipsy and thinking about creative projects, or working while high on weed occasionally (as some may do).
But it does mess with focus and the efficiency of regular tasks.
In Efficiency you advise low-carb. Have you tried keto? If yes, do you think that the benefits outweigh it’s impracticality (requires to be dedicated and consistent)?
Also have not tried
Currently a freshman in college – should I spend all my time taking care of health and getting internship/job as is stated in efficiency, or should I also be putting some time on working on side business/affiliate marketing and partying/picking up girls(currently a kissless virgin)?
Lol not sure if a troll obviously do what is in the book. Unless completely messed up somehow we don’t believe the story since all you’d have to do is go on spring break and get wasted to solve any issues in less than 24 hours
Not trolling. I’m not attractive enough for that(spring break idea) so should I just focus on working now and then girls later or is skipping girls now something that will mess me up for life
We don’t know Becuase we were never in that position, all you have to do is be in shape to pull on spring break so we really doubt this is even possible. Good luck!
Come on! Obviously. Work now
Get in shape, learn social skills, and make money. Overall, this will increase your confidence and value. Also, practice day game whenever you can, and as stated in the book, go out once or twice per week for further practice.
If you still have problems after doing the above for 12 months, get a hooker or go on a holiday (Amsterdam, Philippines) to get it out of your system (you’ll have made some money and have a decent physique by then because of the work you’ve put in)
It’s all about selling $ to in-demand problems and scaling upwards. There’s more demand for building than supply.
In between sales and construction, I intend to get an electrician’s license, save $ working no less than 60 hrs, zero debt, and cater to renewables scaling the business with new trucks/tools with employees catering to niche renewables like wind turbines.
1.) Share ur views on contracting sales businesses in the construction sector
2.) Share ur views on flipping trailers or similar 4 to 5 digit real estate properties
As you know from our books we haven’t done either so we wouldn’t know. Would look at our posts on RE written by guys who did flip homes
Engineering student, currently building niche sites (1k/m passive income) want to eventually make my own recurring revenue source, think SaaS is a good way to go.
Which career path?
High paying tech career (Google/Facebook etc) working as a cog.
or
Medium paying tech career (-20%) working in a SaaS company.
Cog since easier to get another career if shit hits the fan, more money to invest in your own biz
Easy call
We’re planning for a business sale in the high seven figures. We’re looking at CRT and have considered moving to a state with no cap gains tax. Any other strategies that you recommend looking into or references for minimizing taxes?
Sounds like you’re doing the right thing, ideally look to move to a foreign country with zero taxes. We would hire a tax specialist in your situation since it’s a large sum