Million Dollar Challenge

A while back, I Tweeted about starting a million dollar challenge. And that would start by the end of this week.

And here is a full explanation in what this entails and what limitations or restrictions I have.

Starting point

You might think, that it’s easy. But it’s not.

I placed enormous restrictions on my challenge. And those include:

• I am not allowed to use current paid tools or premium platforms
• I literally start from zero. Which means I need to get creative
• I am not allowed to use existing team members or various assets to assist me. This includes domains already bought, cash, etc.
• I am allowed to sell old stuff such as hardware, phones or laptops but the chances are slim to even pull that off.
• I am allowed to take donations such as “Buy me a coffee” or gifts from others that might want to support me during this challenge in an early stage. (see it as a hustle mentality)

In other words, I have to start from ZERO. 

It feels like being punished, and they took away all the toys and luxury goods.

But that’s the challenging part isn’t it? Being forced to find different ways and push limits to a level you never experienced? Or might have but completely forgotten about it?

Time limit

At this very moment, the time limit is open ended. I do not want to pressure myself into a timeframe, but I might once I have enough traction and can forecast/predict more or less the outcomes a bit better.

Skills

Going back and forth, I was listing a map of skills I could use during this challenge and the ones I am totally lacking.

The idea for the challenge was also to maybe force myself learning a skill, even if I don’t use it anymore in the future. 

Questioning, if it would be the optimal use of time for me: In my normal life and ongoing business, absolutely not. For the MDC (Million Dollar Challenge): probably yes.

So let’s start with the major ones I lack:

• Coding: I know nothing about it. I can’t code nor program. I do understand the gists of it, but that’s where it ends.
• Design: If there was ever an award for drawing the most ugly things in Sigma or a piece of paper, it will be me. I have no knowledge about design in terms of using tools like Figma etc.
• GPT Prompting and ChatGPT: Yes. I have no clue how. And I have usually other people helping me to figure out prompts. Which is how I created in the background OSE AI. A keyword tool that is now in build phase. 

Whilst those 3 skills are often a starter kit amongst solopreneurs or Indies, I never learned them because I usually have others to execute my visions and instructions. 

Which I now realize can be completely painful for this challenge. 

That said, it’s still balanced with the the list of things I can do, did or fields I am active in today:

• Media & niche blogging: I am not a copywriter but I had my fair share over the years in editing, or reviewing content for my niche blogs.
• Day Trading & Capital Markets: I actively trade for 17 years almost all asset classes. Since I run a private fund and hedge fund, day trading was always part of my routine
• Private equity: Whilst not useful directly, if the challenge goes right, I plan to acquire micro projects to accelerate growth. Plus that my PE insights and skills will help me streamline processes, or turn an abandoned or zero MRR business into a thriving one. (hopefully)
• Corporate fixing & consulting : I used to consult in my very early days for C-suite levels and SME’s. And often sprinkled with a pinch of corporate fixing in grey areas for individuals. I also helped plenty of start-ups to go from growth to scale, identifying bottlenecks and help them find their corporate DNA.
• SEO: Sigh…. whilst I found SEO utterly boring af and inanely tedious, I am listing it as a skill. I had my fair share of SEO over the years for my media network. And for those who wonder: I wrote this guide in 4 hours focusing on Keyword Golden Ratio.
• Marketing & Sales: Whilst I am no marketeer, I have racked up plenty of experience in my ongoing ventures that made me one.
• E-commerce & Retail: I have been in e-commerce and retail for over a decade. As my wife and I run 3 stores, including our own retail products.
• Poker: I play for 2 decades mid to high stakes cash and tournaments. PLO and NLHE So I hope this can be helpful for fueling my roll.
• Various: Idk what to list but I believe the ones listed will help me the most starting this challenge.

$200-$500 bankroll

Now, going over the list, and knowing what I look for today is harder than I thought it would be.

Ideally I would build a small bankroll that would grant me some essentials. With this amount of capital, I could:

• buy a domain for a niche blog
• buy a domain for offering a small service (TBD)
• buy a subscription from an AI copywriting tool to spin up content asap that I can edit
• Get 1 month access to a keyword tool to dig up an entire list of keywords, which I can then fine-tune according to my own KGR strategy

And take it from there.

The plan?

Consulting first. I see currently no other option than to provide consulting services on a serious level to people I hopefully can convince via Twitter?

Because I see no other option than to provide this service first at a low rate. Probably about $75-$100 per hour and maybe do 2-3 sessions for a few people?

This is my initial plan.

How do I go on and sell that on Twitter when my entire feed was never about selling services or consulting? 

No fucking clue just yet.

But in any case any of the readers are looking for some consulting, well here it is.

And to make it even more shameless, here is a Stripe link with a $75/per hour rate.

Short term goals

• Hoping to crawl out of the hole when starting from zero and build up the initial bankroll
• Move a portion to day trading, since that is where my core strength is
• Build more liquidity with maybe more consulting
• Buy an abandoned blog with money earned in trades and capital markets
• Think again if I made any poor decision to reach the first milestones.

Can I do it?

I think I can. I have no problems trying it and pushing myself to the limits. And even with short term goals, that might look good on paper, I always need to account for variance and bad beats along the way. (aka losses). 

Which is why I will most likely start to study programming or coding along with ChatGTP to build microsaas, or WP plugins for example and see how that fits my challenge.

It is more of an opportunity for me to figure out if my current skillset will be bulletproof for the next 20 years or I am forced to adapt to upcoming shifts and fundamental changes.

What happens if?

If I fail, I want to try again with a maximum of three attempts. 

If I succeed, I will keep 25% of the earnings in total to myself. Use 25% percent to donate back on Twitter in various forms. And spend 50% of the money on building a platform for free educational resources in a more stylish way just like my SEO blog or cold email strategy. 

I truly believe that most of the education should be free in the form of a structured guide so regardless what tier of a country you are living in, you can pave a path for yourself.

Closing

I will document the entire journey from A to Z on my blog and on Twitter.

This will also be carefully crafted in my newsletter and finally deliver the first e-mail soon to a growing list of subs.

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So who’s with me? 

Expect failures, experiments, disbelief, successes and plenty of pivots.

Now it’s time for me to hunt for a client that requires consulting services or is willing to donate coffees to get me started to buy a domain 😀

Current bankroll: $0