I always knew I wanted multiple businesses. I just didn't know what that looked like.
Back in school, I had a vision. Not a job. Not a career. A headquarters — a place I ran multiple businesses from. I couldn't explain how. I just knew that was what I was building toward.
After school I wanted to work in construction. But I couldn't get in without up-to-date, relevant experience, and the only way to get it was university. I didn't want the debt. I went anyway. Six years. Moved to the city.
On my placement year I couldn't get the hours doing the thing I'd trained for. I kept getting redirected to odd jobs that gave me none of the experience I needed. So I worked shifts as a chef and handed out free papers at the train station to make up the money. I was fed up. I just wanted to focus on my main thing.
Six years to get close, and I found out it wasn't what I enjoyed. What I wanted was the headquarters. I'd gone to university thinking a degree was how you got there.
Turns out you don't need a degree to start a business. You just need a customer. That's when I started looking online.
Crypto came first. I invested, and then it went down. Around the same time I noticed Amazon parcels arriving at the office every day, and a guy on Snapchat was talking about Amazon arbitrage — buying cheap, selling for profit. I bought his course. It worked.
Then I found dropshipping. Then affiliates. Then ranking websites. Each one taught me something. Each one gave me a slice of income.
And then I looked at my week and realised something uncomfortable.
"I hadn't built multiple income streams. I'd built multiple jobs."
Crypto required daily attention. Amazon required sourcing and shipping. The Shopify store needed constant management. Each one demanded time to stay alive. None of them compounded without me in them.
Something had to give.
