On Business: My Brother is Kicking My Ass at Ecommerce

photo

It has been well over 2 months since I have started my business experiment. Each day that passes by I get a clearer view of the next step with it. The post isn’t about me and the struggles I’m having to sell vintage wear (4), but about my bro, so here it is.

I didn’t think I would be saying this, but my youngest brother is kicking my ass at the ecommerce business of etsy.com. I don’t know how to explain it, but it is actually bitter-sweet at the same time. When I started, he was at 40 or so sells. I told him that I would catch him in no time—now he is well over 100 and making over a sell a day.

I didn’t know if he truly had it in him, I have been the one talking about business and expressing what I’ve done in the past, but just sitting back and watching him operate is quite amazing.

Continue reading

Outliers Reviewed, What Did I Learn?

DSC_0245

I have done plenty of math and realize it is going to take me a total of 10 years to be an expert at my writing, 8 more years left! I have been writing for the past couple of years, but haven’t put in the amount of time to warrant even 1000 hours per year. In a year it is 8,760 hours. We spend 20% sleeping, another 25% working in order to pay bills, 20% bullshitting around, 10-15% with family and friends, and leaves about 20% of doing whatever else one wants to do. 20% of time in a year is equivalent to 34 hours per week. That is like adding another full-time job without necessarily getting paid from it, so what are our priorities?

Thoughts After Reading Outliers

I didn’t want to think about what I thought of the book until this morning. I was thinking all of it was the 10k hours and finding opportunity wherever and whenever it came around. But it is more than that, it has to deal with my past, where I was raised, and the lucky breaks I got throughout my life. As I kept reading I started to understand the shape of the world and how the majority of us are fucked, just by coming out the womb of a mother whose background warranted failure. The mother and probably the father were going to do what they were taught and through their life experience help their children with living a life of the past.

Continue reading