Principle: 99 ventures will make you rich and miserable
You can see the Shopify revenue screenshot: the guy made $80k dropshipping this month.
This girl’s got 435k followers, and her last video did 5.2M views with brands begging for a collab in the comments. She probably makes $100k/mo.
We all know the output. And it’s sexy, no doubt.
What we don’t see is the garage full of garbage products, the trashcan full of Monster Energy’s causing stomach ulcers, the content-idea board sucking the life out of the creator while her marriage turns to crap because she’s filming and performing every second of every day.
When it comes to output, we all know what we want.
What you should really look for, though, is the input that gets you there, AND keeps your soul intact.
Tactics
Looking for a business idea?
Set a minimum threshold of financial freedom you’d need have a 10/10 life.
Find 20 people above that threshold.
Find out what they do, on a daily basis. Have a genuine conversation with the ones who seem most up your alley by adding value and asking an easy-reply question via DM/email:
“I’m a budding entrepreneur looking for direction. If I sent you a 1-page teardown of your site/offer/flow, which would be most valuable? I’d love to trade that for a 5-bullet description of what your actual day looks like. Doing this with some other high-performers, too, and would be happy to share their bullets.”
When you’ve found a day that wouldn’t suck your soul dry, lean in. Start practicing those skills.
Have a business already? Your soul is likely already being sucked.
List the relevant skills you find give you energy (writing, filming, networking, making deals, etc.)
Make a list of soul-sucking skills
First question always: can AI do this? If so, there’s likely a tool for it, and you should be capitalizing
Second question: could someone in the Philippines do this for a tenth the cost?
Support Shepherd can find you that person
Change your day-to-day until you are doing only the tasks that 1) grow revenue, 2) are in your domain of expertise
Habits
Start a note on your phone titled, “Energy-Giving Skills” and whenever you feel energetic while doing something, note it down.
God speed,
Mike
Today’s inspiration: Be Jealous of Input, Not Output - minute 1:11+