I would say, in the case of these products, they’re not solving any “real” problem. What they’re selling is a dream of a better life through consumption. The graving for this better life through consumption is created by these industries themselves. People are bombarded by ads every day painting a picture of what life should look like, what happiness looks like. Due to the absence of real and healthy pictures of what a happy life actually can look like without consumption, this distorted image is accepted as the social norm, resulting in a craving to fit in, leading to more consumption. Behold, a self-reinforcing system of wants overshadowing your actual needs was created.

Thank you for this share! Incredible journey!

cool project. how does unsplash make money? can’t you do the same?

Fail faster: the more you fail the more you learn, until you find something that sticks. Then sell the shit out of that.

Is there a self-help group for that or do you know people around you that have that problem? If so try to figure out what problems they actually have. You built a product now, but you don’t know if there is a market for it. As you say there are already people using other tools. Why do they use these tools? What problems do they have with these tools? Can you build the same tool but solve this one problem they all have with the other tool?

In another post someone gave really good advice, to first create a wishlist for the product you want to build. And start building it when you have 100 people on that wishlist.

Hope you can make something out of this rumbling.

Wow, that must be a very hard situation you’re in. Hope the infestation is dealt with soon.

On the mental health topic: having a strong vision of my life in the future helped me a lot. Remind yourself every day why you choose to take the path that you’re taking. You’re paying a lot for that apartment, but if you can afford it why not simply move to somewhere else for the month? For example, book an apartment in Bangkok for a month and work from there. use that to focus on your business. Yes, it costs money but if you can afford it, turn it into something that aids you. makes you stronger instead of staying in the situation that you’re in. This will only be pain and nothing will come of it. That is 2300$ lost…how strongly does this impact you on a grander scale compared to enduring the mental terror?

On another note: Sue your landlord, they at least need to give you some sort of reduction of rent. The worst case here is they throw you out for good, which means you get out of the lease as you wanted. :D

Hope this helps you somewhat. :)

I totally agree, can you share how you get people onto a wishlist? do you advertise the new product somewhere or is it more organic?

I’m trying to build a coaching and online course business but struggle with that first customer.

You can build a startup for as little as 500 Bucks. If you’re in the tech or online business that is the cost of all the tools, and services you will need within a year to build something that has value, and you can sell that.

I started with making video games. Now I do coaching for business leaders and entrepreneurs. :)

As many people here already pointed out. If you say you have no skills, then learn some.

You won’t get rich and then change your whole life. You have to change your whole life first and then the riches will come. Make a picture of what this life should look like that you aspire to, and then find someone that already reached that goal. Learn from them. Maybe even reach out to them and see if they would mentor you.

Hope you can find some clarity for what you want, as it is the first step towards your new life. And I believe if you know what you want, you can find a path towards that goal. For sure. :)

What a dream, I love it! I dream of something similar but not been achieved yet. :D I wish I had started my entrepreneurial life at your age.

As u/Glad_Supermarket_450 already said you will fail and over and over again. And that is completely normal and good. The faster you fail the better. Because every failure is a learning.

I would recommend you pick a problem that you see in your life and see if you can build a product for that. Start right away, no need to wait. :)

Or you can also go the route of simply building websites for some small businesses. That is. fairly easy, and you will learn a lot about selling, development, and the business world.

sadly this is not how it works.

Outsourcing is one way, but as the main issue here seems to be increasing profits that would take from this goal again. Additionally creates a dependency that is not really necessary in the beginning.
The basic design can be learned within one week and there are a lot of great free resources out there to learn. So my recommendation is to start there. And if you figure out after that week that it is something that you can’t wrap your head around or you right out despise it, you can still outsource it. :)

🫂🫂 here are two hugs for you u/Gemsix

I prefer to cut the bullshit and I seem to have the ability to call people out on all the fake excuses they make to themselves. Zero tolerance for those here. :D It’s kind of the “bandaid rip-off” method. Might not be the most comfortable, but it will bring you to your goal a lot faster.

Hi, I hear your pain and struggle. You seem to be in a very tough position financially and mentally. First of all, get a big hug from you (I’m a hugger). Can I ask you what you’re passionate about in the jobs and businesses that you run? I believe that having a passion for what you do is one of the most important things when running a business. Your customers will smell when you’re not passionate about it and will run away.

To your questions:

1. The pricing. I don’t even know yet what you’re selling me. You seem to be selling a product (the website) instead of results that I get from paying you (e.g. ease of mind, constant influx of customers, etc.). So if you’re not clear about your value proposition, sit down and figure this out first. Before that, you don’t need to do anything else because they will only waste your time and money.
2. On the websites: My honest answer is that I wouldn’t hire you if that is your best work.
   1. The design is completely outdated. My eyes are offended, and I don’t know where to look. Things are hard to read, and images are in a bad resolution so everything is pixelated on my screen.
   2. Spacing and wireframe aid in my confusion, as they don’t lead me through the page. I recommend learning the basics of UI/UX design before offering this as a product. Start with things like the Gestalt Principles, and the 60/30/10 rule of color palettes.
   3. Way too much text. Why do I need to read so much to understand what you’re offering? Be clear, precise, and concise in your copywriting. “If you confuse you lose.” Make it as easy for me as you can to say yes to whatever you’re offering.
   4. No clear CTAs (call to action): you got a button in the hero section…that is not recognizable as such. Follow the design principle of affordance. Something needs to look like I can do the action with it that I want to do (e.g. a button looks like you can press it).

My recommendations in general are:

• Figure out what your vision for your life is.
• If you know that, think of ways how to achieve this vision.
• Then create an action plan in detail that leads you towards your vision and execute it.
• Find someone who did what you want to do and learn from them. u/General-Lobster-4837 recommended Alex Hormozi for example. If your goal is to build businesses with the sole purpose of returning more money and getting very rich, this is a great spot to start. If your vision is another one find someone that aligns with your vision.
• Learn everything you can about the path you chose and that can help you reach your goal faster. Learning is a thing you do for your whole life not just when you’re young. It is awesome that you reach out to this community to improve on what you’re doing. You’re doing great!

I’m open to chatting more if you’d like to get more input. :)

I really like the tip given about the book lists of people that inspire you. I personally should do that more. when it comes to good books I can really recommend the following.

1. The art of happiness
2. 4-hour work week
3. Essentialism
4. Ultralearning
5. 12-week year
6. The total money makeover
7. Polysecure
8. Atomic Habits

You will find that there are concepts that are overlapping in these books. And each puts these a bit into another light. This is because there is only a finite amount of really valuable concepts to learn. And they apply to everyone who wants to live a productive and happy life. I think it is still valuable to see these concepts from different lenses. For example, 4-hour work week approaches these concepts from the direction of building a business that frees up as much time as possible for you to go and do what you’re passionate about. And Essentialism comes from the standpoint of only spending your time on the essential things that you’re passionate about. Both are very valuable viewpoints, and the more viewpoints you know and understand the easier it will be for you to create your own individual approach and view on things. :)

Yes definitely. One example I have of that is when I was in university I dreamed of going to Japan for an exchange year. But I was scared of it being too expensive for me to be able to pay for it. This fear held me back for 3 years not doing it. Until I actually checked for the first time how much it would cost instead of just following the vague “oh it will be too expensive” mantra I had until then. And turned out that it wasn’t that expensive at all. So I postponed an incredible life-changing experience, for 3 years, just because I didn’t evaluate the factual basis of my fears.

Great job cutting those nasty expenses!

I’m sorry to hear that the course you took wasn’t satisfying. I’m building my own course for business leaders right now, and I would love to hear what you didn’t like in particular. I would like to learn and don’t make the same mistakes as those seem to have made.

Congrats on the money!
You can ask yourself what is holding you back. It usually is some fears that are lingering inside you. You can do a fear-conquering exercise with these fears to make more objective decisions on them.

1. Write your fears down. The worst-case scenario that could happen when you make the jump.
2. Rate the impact on your life of this worst-case scenario on a scale of 1-10.
3. Specify the steps that you would need to take to get back up after this worst-case scenario struck.
4. Write down the other possible outcomes that are more likely than the worst-case scenario. And rate them on a scale of 1-10.
5. Write down what it costs you currently to not take the jump. In terms of money, and fulfillment of your other needs like passion, meaning, appreciation, etc.
6. Rate the current cost on a scale of 1-10.
7. Now review the data you collected. Chances are that the worst-case scenario isn’t as bad as you imagined first, and you know how to fix it when it should occur. Is that impact worse than what it costs you right now to not make the jump?

This should help you make a bit more objective decision. If you’d like more input DM me, maybe I can help you with the experience I collected over the years.