the last time i had a job was in 2022.

i worked at a clearance shoe store for minimum wage, & it sucked.

since our prices were so cheap, we had a bunch of regulars who would come in, buy 50+ pairs of shoes at once, & then resell them at a profit on their own.

one of those regulars was Roger.

Roger was a short, frail man who was probably ~40 y/o, but he looked closer to 70 because he smoked a ton. he never really smiled, & he didn’t like making small talk. he only paid in cash.

i don’t think Roger liked any of us, but he tolerated me, so he’d only ever come to my register. over time, we started chatting a little bit here & there.

one day, i was having a rough shift after a customer shit themselves in the changeroom (can’t make this stuff up).

then Roger came in.

he was in a chattier mood than usual, so i just let him talk.

somehow, he ended up telling me about his rich friend who had so much money, he could own 2 waterfront mansions in 2 cities, & fly between them on his private floatplane whenever he pleased.

“what does he do for a living?” i asked, almost out of desperation.

Roger responded with 8 words that changed my life:

“he works no harder than you & i.”

hearing those words while at the same time, getting paid minimum wage to smell a stranger’s literal ass all day, i felt a jealousy that i had never felt before.

as my shift went on, i did the math.

i was being paid $15/hour, which is equal to $0.25/minute.

would i be willing to stand in a room all day if someone just handed me 1 quarter every minute?

hell no.

so why was i doing it 4 days a week?

or, a better question:

how do i get out of doing it 4 days a week?

there had to be a better way — & there was.

i just didn’t realize it was right in front of me.

at the end of my shift that day, i took pictures of our bestselling shoes when my boss wasn’t looking, & i listed them on Marketplace for double the price.

i figured it was a safe bet — if nobody wanted to buy them, i wouldn’t waste my money buying them first.

the next morning, i couldn’t believe what i woke up to:

i had over 100 messages from people asking to buy them.

by the afternoon, i made my first sale, doubling the money i spent on them.

then i made another sale.

& another one.

& another.

i quit my job, & this is what my bedroom looked like for the next several months:

it wasn’t crazy money, but it felt like i found a glitch in the system.

how was i working less than before, & making more money?

Roger (& his rich friend) had accidentally helped me take my first big step on the path of entrepreneurship — & i’m still walking along that path today.

so next time you see some guy living a life that looks way better than yours, i want you to consider that maybe,

“he works no harder than you & i.”

if you were the person who shit their pants in the changeroom, don’t subscribe. everyone else is allowed to stay.

some things i learned

  1. the difference between addiction & happiness

  2. you can do anything you want, but not everything you want
    the hard part of doing big things is figuring out what you want most, & then saying no to everything else for as long as it takes. i have to remind myself of this all the time.

  3. we’re only a few years away from supersonic flights
    my buddy sent me this interesting podcast with Blake Scholl, the founder of Boom Supersonic. i learned a lot about the industry, & now i’m looking forward to flying supersonic in the relatively near future. several airlines have already placed orders for ~2030. take a look:

cool stuff i found

  1. a video of one of the prettiest sunsets i’ve seen
    it looks so good that part of me still thinks it’s fake.

  2. a fiction book that i actually like (so far)
    i almost exclusively read nonfiction — not because i’m anti-fiction or anything, i just usually like nonfiction wayyyyy more. but book 1 of the Red Rising series is one of the few fiction books that sucked me in, & i’ve had a few nights where i stayed up too late because i couldn’t put it down. give it a shot.

  3. a website that shows you the history of every food ever??
    this is a fun rabbit hole to go down. just take a look & see what you can learn.

that’s all for now!

i had some technical difficulties with my video (basically i have to redo most of my footage from scratch) but i’m close to hitting the upload button. BS excuse, but all i can do now is finish & improve next time.

i think it might be my best video yet. hopefully you agree!

i’m travelling for the next 10 days, but you can still expect morning wood in your inbox next week as usual.

thank you for giving me some of your time — i hope this made your day better!

go make yourself proud this week.

~ liam (:

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PS - if you’re still here, i’d love to work with you for free to help you build a life you love. just take this survey, & if it seems like we’ll be a good fit, i’ll reach out to you ASAP.