Sunday, November 30, 2008

the rabbit hole is seriouslyyy going deeper... i guess the more I think about what i'm doing.. .and how things aren't really producing any results... i get more and more discouraged... i was thinking about my academic youtube site and was wondering.... how long before i actually generate revenue from ads for this site? 6 months? 12 months? and even then... how much revenue would i be able to get?

so i really know that i need to find an outside source of income... my mentor James Han (CEO of Pros for Pros) proposed two new projects with me... one of them is a monitor site.. where we sell refurbished monitors... and the other is a site based off of the woot site where we sell a really cheap item each day hoping to generate high amounts of volume... and the key to each site right now is to limit and minimize the marketing costs... so instead of investing in high PPC costs... we hope that it can become viral... and so hopefully after the site is up... I will be able to generate some passive income.. while working on other things...

the first proof of my regret book came in sometime last week... overall, i am more than impressed with the presentation and look of the book... with a few changes... i think it would genuinely look professional and great... so maybe 1-2 more weeks for changes to take place/me to receive the second proof and then for me to market it.... bummer that i don't think i can get it in time for christmas... o well....i guess it saves me from feeling like even more of a failure if it doesn't even do well in christmas sales... ... but yeah.. after some research.. i plan to send it in to various companies (including urban outfitters, costco, barnes n noble, borders..) we'll see how that goes... hopefully that can generate an OK amount of passive income as well... see with this book.. it can go either of two ways i believe... either it will be a hit and continue to sell throughout the nation... whereupon i can release a second edition of the book.... or.. it can completely flop and no one wants to sell it.... i REALLY hope its the former... but chances are it'll be the latter.. oh well.. it's nice to know i have a book.... but then again... shit... maybe if it flops.. i can send it into publishers... and see if they'll be willing to market it... we'll see...

finally... my job search has really seemed to flop..... blah.. don't really want to get into the details of it.. but i havn't been able to secure a job yet... i guess i'm not necessarily looking VERY hard for one... just sorta/kinda... and i guess if i really put in effort.. i could find one... but i guess i feel like im too busy doing other things in my life...

oh! that reminds me... i sent in a tshirt for threadless to look at.... hopefully it gets picked!

http://www.threadless.com/submission/186779/Food_Fight?streetteam=xpiamchris

so the whole project million thing looks slim right now.. but i'll continue to hustle... and try my best at it...

Friday, November 14, 2008

feeling as discouraged as ever

so apparently... the website that I hired Sumeet to make should be done by next week.. if not by the next two weeks at the latest... I feel that there will still be a lot of things I would need to change around within the website to get it to a point where I am satisfied with it...

but that's the least of my worries... I feel more discouraged than ever now... about the whole idea... to be completely honest with you.. yeah.. i experience times when i wonder... "should i just scrap the idea"?

"should i just take the normal route and work 9-5?"

"wtf am i doing...?"

it is really depressing cause I am living at home right now.. have been for the past couple of months... while I try to get off the ground ... to do my own thing... and... so far... everything looks pretty glim... (is that even a word?)... i have skeptics on both sides of my ear telling me that what I'm doing.. it can't be done. and i'm looking for inspiration. to (as Harold said), being able to create value where others couldn't.

and I'm using examples of people in the past.. where people have told them.. that it can't be done.. but they persevered and succceeded anyways... i guess one of those Rocky stories.. I want this to work.. I see value in it... but when I look at the financial forcast I laid out for myself... I don't even know how I'm going to get there.

So for the next 6 months... I've projected the site alone to cost $35-40,000 to develop full of content. The content I need needs to be premium too... it would be worthless to have 1000 videos full of shitty explanations..

I'm still young. I know that. I'm barely 22.. but I feel like I'm already behind. which is a very selfish viewpoint to have because there are far more people out there that are truly happy with much less than I have...

life is a pretty funny fucking thing.

Friday, November 7, 2008

And so it begins...

And so it begins...

I have always set really pretty high goals for myself in life...now what are they you ask? well, since you asked so politely, let me tell you. I've wanted to: become class president in high school, start on the varsity football team, become an RA for the free housing, walk on to the UCLA football team...

How many of those have I met? All but one. I'll let you decide which one I didn't. All I know is.. there's still the NFL.

All jokes aside (or am I serious..?), I've realized that I want to become president. My end goal in this lifetime.. is to become president.

Why? Because I feel I can do a bombass job as the president. Partly also due to a scene in "Malcolm in the Middle" where the mom is talking to her son about his future.

you can watch it here: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDAxMjU1ODA=.html

mom:
..and then you become president
malcolm: what?
mom: of the united states
malcolm:what if i dont want to be president?
mom: you're going to do it.... what matters is you'll be the only person in that position who will ever give a crap about people.. now you will be president and that's the end of it!
you know what its like to be poor and you know what it's like to work hard
malcolm:this is ridiculous.. you actualyl expect me to be one of the greatest presidents in the history of the united states
mom: you look me in the eye and you tell me you can't do it
malcolm: *silence*

I guess I feel as if this whole government is entirely too corrupt. I hope Barack Obama creates change. It's been high time for change to come.

Well I've been digressing from the entire purpose of this blog.

This blog is to document my progress in my near-future goal. My goal to become a millionaire in two years. How am I going to do it? I'll outline my plan and the progress of each stage in the plan in this blog. If you follow along, you can perhaps see how I am and what I'm doing to get there.

Oh, and just for the skeptics out there.. no I am not starting out with $950,000 and only need to make $50,000 to reach that goal... here.. let me check my bank account to see where I'm at.

*I really am checking at this point*

OK. in my savings account I have *drum roll*
$35.06
And in my checking account *drum roll again please*
$149.95.
Student loans I still need to pay off? *and again..*
$6000

Biweekly paycheck amount? *final drumroll*
$0.

So actually.. financially... I am poorer than the homeless people LA.... Being at -$5814.99 right now... even if I sold every single one of my possessions, I would still be at negative $$$...
But that makes this journey that much more fun...

let it begin!