I remember the feeling I had when I found out how much money my friend’s little brother made selling ________ on Amazon.
$103,000 in 30 days.
I’ll admit it: I felt a little jealous. For a second, greed kicked in and I thought, Screw MY business. I’ll just copy what he’s doing and make $103K a month too.
Then I caught myself.
Good for him.
And I moved on.
He Even Showed Me How He Did It
Here’s what makes the story more interesting: he actually told me how he did it. He explained the business model and even showed me the AI tools he used to make it happen. I had the blueprint sitting right in front of me. I could’ve copied what he was doing and tried to replicate his results.
So why didn’t I?
Because I know myself. I know what lights me up and what drains me. I don’t want to be an Amazon seller. I don’t give a shit about the product he sells. I don’t want to spend my days thinking about it, marketing it, optimizing it, or building a business around it.
Even if copying him made me a lot of money, what would be the point if I didn’t actually want to do it?
Money Motivates Me, But It Doesn’t Own Me
Let me be clear: I like money. I need money to survive. I want more of it. But I’m not that motivated by money. Meaning, I won’t sell my soul to get it.
I know what I want to do with my time. I know what kind of work I enjoy doing. And, more importantly, I know what I want people to eventually say about me and my work. I could never be happy turning my back on Uncle Blayde, Inc. just because somebody showed me a faster way to make money.
So that’s what I’m going to build.
If the universe wants me to make $103K in a month, it’ll have to find a way to make it happen my way. And if I never make anything close to that because of the path I’ve chosen? That’s fine too. I’ll take the consequences of my decision.
I’ve Let Greed Lead Before
This isn’t some moral stance against wanting money. I’m not pretending money doesn’t matter or that poverty is somehow noble. I refuse to let greed dictate my decisions for a much simpler reason:
I’ve tried it before.
I’ve made decisions based on money instead of passion, and I know what happens to me. I burn out. I become obsessed with outcomes. I stop enjoying what I’m doing. And eventually, I turn into a real prick.
I’m happier—and a much better friend and family member—when I do the work I believe I’m supposed to be doing and let the universe take care of the rest.
That doesn’t mean sitting around waiting for money to fall out of the sky. I still have to work. I still have to build. I still have to become better at what I do. It just means I’m not going to abandon my path every time I see somebody getting rich faster on another one.
Because there will always be another one.
Another business model. Another investment. Another trend. Another guy on the internet making more money than you.
There will always be someone making more money than you. If you let that change what you’re doing, you’ll never stay focused long enough to build anything worthwhile.
There Are Things More Important Than Money
Many years ago, I worked in a hospital as an electrician. I watched people enter that hospital and never return home. I saw fear and regret on people’s faces near the end of their lives.
That stayed with me.
Life can end at any time. Today could genuinely be my last day. And if that’s true, maximizing the amount of money I can extract from every hour of my life seems like a pretty shitty way to decide how those hours should be spent.
There’s something I care about more.
Legacy.
When I’m gone, I want people to say good things about me. More importantly, I want my work to remain useful after I’m no longer here to create it.
Leaving behind a pile of money might improve the lives of a few people. Leaving behind a philosophy has the potential to improve the lives of thousands. Maybe more.
That’s worth more to me.
Build Something You Actually Want to Build
Don’t get it mixed up: I’m not claiming to be some selfless saint. I’m not. I put my own needs first.
I’ve just been fortunate enough to discover a purpose that can benefit me and other people at the same time. I get to spend my life doing work I find meaningful. If I do it well, somebody else gets something valuable from it. And if I build the business correctly, I get paid too.
The buyer wins. The producer wins.
That sounds like a pretty damn good business to me.
And that’s really the point.
I’m not telling you to ignore money. I’m telling you not to let money make your decisions for you.
Know what you actually want. Because if you don’t, every person making more money than you becomes a potential distraction. Once you know what you want, it gets a lot easier to see someone else succeeding without thinking you need to do what they’re doing.
So congratulations to my friend’s little brother. Seriously.
I hope he makes $206,000 next month.
But I’m not going to copy him.
That’s his thing. It’s not mine.
I’ve got something else to build.
Your man,
Uncle Blayde