Tag: earning

Whoops

I committed a crime when I was younger.I think the statute of limitations is up? I hope so, or else this is the dumbest thing I ever did.(And I have done a lot of dumb things).

What I did, well, is in the title. But, before I get into the story, I want to say how much I like to sell things. The hustle is fun. Building things is fun. Learning how to make that thing into something that someone wants to spend cold hard cash on, is also fun.

I spent a lot of time figuring out how to do that when I was younger. I sold services, I built websites, I tried to flip candy. I always had a job (which I hated) but the job was more of a way to finance my fun. The fun was either the regular kid stuff, or trying to build something.

All of that came to a head in college, when I was just bored in a dorm room.

A Free Room!!!

When I was a second semester freshman, I caught a break. The person who I split a room with dropped out. If you ever lived in a dorm, you understand how exciting this is.

YOUR OWN ROOM!!!!

That leads to all types of opportunity to bring friends over, have the “spot”(which me and my roommate did last semester – that leads to a ton of benefits, but that’s another story for another post),or just have great privacy.

I eschewed all of that, and decided to turn my empty room into a storefront.

I turned my room into the general store(getting into sales)

I went to the local Wal-Mart, picked up as much general “college kid stuff”. The usual suspects: ramen noodles, school supplies, blank CD’s (should let you know the statute is probably up) and put a sign outside my door.

I was doing business, and it was alright. 50 cents here, a dollar there. I made up my investment and I got to learn how to sell stuff. The concept worked, but now it was time to take some risks.

Bootlegs and Passwords

I realized that I had enough stuff to keep a normal business. Now it was time to work on getting the part that made me special.

But first, a quick aside.

I am a normally curious character. When I don’t have money, or when  I don’t want to spend it, I look for ways around. When I turned 14, that landed me straight into the illegal forum culture. It gave me access to almost any game, password or piece of software I wanted.

I was lucky too, as my parents were one of the first in the area with DSL. JACKPOT. I was in, and all it took was a few hours and I had anything I wanted (when everyone had 56k modems, being able to keep a constant connection and not tie up the phone line…as well as get almost 30kb a second was a godsend).

Back to weird

I knew I had this knowledge, a college internet that no one learned how to lock down (good luck trying this today) and a bunch of empty CD’s I bought.  This was an easy thing to put together. It was college, and people needed Microsoft word. They didn’t have 100 dollars, but they certainly had 10.

Time to hustle.

Getting people up to speed all over campus made a few dollars, and word started to spread that I was the guy to see. Made for easy money, and I learned a bunch of business principles I didn’t learn with physical goods. Stuff like digital returns, real customer service and guarantees  . I realized how easy it was for software, but what about the passwords I had?

College Freshmen are lonely (sales opportunity)

Well that isn’t hard to find out, every coming of age movie points to it. I never thought about it so much, being a lonely college freshman.

I didn’t think outside the box, I had other things to do. I had a booming business to run, new friends, and classes I barely attended. The sales were calling.

But one night, I decided to test something.

I always had my price list outside my door. I decided to put down, in small print, porn passwords, just to see if anyone would bite.  And they did.

Slowly but surely, they came by, asking about passwords. Dead of night or when they had other business (Hey man…i’d love some ramen noodles … … … … and one of those passwords) . I knew they had a short shelf life (we are talking a few days, although sometimes you got lucky) and a recurring base of customers (subscriptions!!!) .  They were also a great bartering tool (guess who didn’t have to worry about the RA for ANYTHING)

All good things come to an end

I was in a good place. Product was moving, and of course, I still had the normal general store out the room. Business was good and sales were high.

The only thing I had to worry about was the dean of residence snooping, or one of his agents. I always got word when he would arrive, so I would take off the paper and straighten my room (He was a strict guy, and every once in a while he would inspect).

One day he dropped in, and I had no notice. He saw the paper, and in one fell swoop, went from asking questions (luckily my supply was low so I just lied and said I just got started as an experiment) and threatened expulsion (again he was strict) but the RA went to bat for me and lied (he told him “he’s a business major and thought it would be interesting” when he knew I was in Computer Science)

I got away with just a screaming, but, I knew I was a marked man. I had to let the business go.

Great lessons

I remember this story far more than any class I took in college because I learned more through executing than reading theory (this experience led me pick up a few business classes).  Executing, and learning things like customer service, returns, marketing, subscriptions, and launching new products served me well as I went on to other ventures. I got better at sales.

I still love the idea of selling. Getting my hands dirty, and working out the kinks. I think it’s a way to learn, and I think dealing with the risk gets you an interesting story.

So, as long as the statute is up, enjoy and share this one 🙂 .