It’s true. My older two are so completely different. My 12 year old is always making crafts to sell at school or buys boxes of twinkies and sells them. I was going through storage had a huge bin of beanie babies that I saw were only going for about $3 each on eBay. Wasn’t worth it for me to try and spend time and I was going to dump them off at goodwill but she wanted to try and sell them outside. I said go for it…she put up a sign sat outside trying to sell them for $3. Turns out people don’t usually have that low amount and either paid her $5 or paid her a $20 telling her to keep the change…she ended up making close to $200 after a couple of days. Meanwhile her 14 year old brother is grumpy that he doesn’t have money…. I had told him he could sell them too since he always complained about her making money selling crafts…but he didn’t want to lol. He has no hustle and I’m hoping he will get it someday. They are both very smart kids. She is at the top of her class, straight As in honors classes, while even though he is very smart and does his work he forgets to turn it in netting him Cs. He got As on several of his finals, just doesn’t turn in his work so he gets Cs. It’s just a lack of drive.
So really the formula to success is “access to resources” + “drive”.
This is where parenting comes into play. Some parents will fold and just give them money and 20 years later wonder why their adult kid is still mooching off them.
Others think child education starts when they enter the school campus in the morning and ends when the bell rings, then blame schools for societal their problems. Lazy parents are the core issue there. Then there is the whole two working parent economic/child care problem not to mention the one parent problem that continues to grow… but this rant is going off topic so rant over.
Parenting is an art, not a science and sometimes poor parenting can lead the child to strive to exceed their parents in success in many areas of life.
Sometimes, children who appear to be slackards find someone or something which motivates them to make more effort. Sometimes that is a person and sometimes that is an interesting opportunity.
Sometimes it can be base, like envy.
Even when one succeeds in life, they can fail at parenting because they have no idea what a good parent is, and sometimes they try but cannot overcome outside influences on their children.
There is little doubt that two decent parents is an advantage for a child but that guarantees very little for some.
Whatever success I have had as a parent or grandparent has been encouraging efforts my children have initiated which merited encouragement.
I recently received the usual proxy statements from some companies whose stock I own. I actually read the bios of the directors who were on the company slate, and it was evident that many were worthless. Their “accomplishments” were thin and would not benefit the company. The young lady in the story could easily grow up to be one of those I chose not to vote for.
3 things I repeated to the our kids as needed as many times as needed …
Tomorrow, tomorrow not today … that’s what all the children say. (Said it to them in German as it is a German proverb … meaning translation = don’t put off till tomorrow what you should be doing today)
Giving 100% when you are doing something will beat 90% of the competition 100% of the time. (don’t do something half a** and expect to get results)
You have 2 ears, 2 eyes and one mouth. (use them in the correct proportion … listen and watch twice as much as you talk)
They all learned to work for what they wanted and have all been employed.
Millionaires … no …
Stable … yes …
We taught them to fish instead of providing the fish …
This will be a success story when it DOESN’T follow the same path as her first foray into Amazon, where she developed a product, then got undercut by sellers (some shady, some not), and found she was working for sub-minimum wage. At the point where the time gap between launching a new successful product and having that product knocked-off and undercut gets small enough, the platform will no longer feature innovation, but simply races to the bottom. Personally, I think we’re 87% of the way there already.
It might be more broadly because Facebook “knows” you are interested in Amazon lol.
A friend has been researching flat earther info and told me yesterday that now flat earther posts and stories are popping up in his FB feed with increasing frequency, which he keeps clicking, which feeds the algorithm, in an endless loop.
Some people celebrate that as “healthy competition”. That any business is entitled to take someone else’s idea and making it better, faster, and/or cheaper (choose two!)–ethically, legally, or not–and that’s innovation.
In 1924, maybe it was–but two businesses could survive at the same time, even within the same region, simultaneously producing and improving the same thing.
In 2024, innovation a business killer.
A good idea is bad business.
The secret is to not be so successful that it attracts attention. I want all my products to be mediocre sellers. Having a bunch of products that each add a little to the pot is better than having one blockbuster. That also helps spread the risk.
That is only a single variable, and in biology one would say, things are not based on a single surrogate marker, especially health.
The issue with this approach is the point of sale. IF a private equity firm or any buyer is interested in a brand they want sustainable volume at higher than 10% net margins post advertising. Anything below, will dissuade a high multiple on earnings. Volume is a consideration as CF is tied to specific volume tiers. A brand aggregator wants to manage less and sell more thus contributing to top line and bottom line proportionately.
Recently, I’ve done internet searches for: 1) a clothing item, and 2) a furniture item. Not ready to purchase yet, just browsing. But almost immediately ads for these items started showing up on other sites that I visit regularly including Facebook.
If she has family there to help out it IS very possible for $2k. We have family there and getting things done and shipped over is not as expensive as you might think. it runs about $5. a kilo is all when you have the right freight consolidator or friends/family flying back and forth (like SIL does a few times a year) - so not impossible in my mind
Yeah, but just paying to set up the entity, get the equipment, etc. It may be cheap, but it adds up. My stuff costs next to nothing and eyeballing it, I’d have said I could do it for under $1K, but at the end of the day, it really took much more than that. I’d say $2K if she did not count the machinery, office equipment, licenses, etc., as startup costs.
With Amazon, you’d need enough after the initial outlay to buy/make more inventory while they keep your initial sales in reserve.
I suspect that she’s using a lot of stuff she already had, but not accounting for it as a “cost”.
“I already have a computer, I don’t need to buy one” (yeah, but it’s now part of the business; that’s a cost you didn’t account for. And if it dies, you need a new one NOW).
“I already have a printer”. See above. And good chance that it’s a cheapo inkjet, that cost next to nothing to buy, but a lot to use. Better off dropping a few hundred to get a good laser printer.
“Mom and Dad let me use their internet”. More of the same; if you pay for it, guess what; it’s partially deductable!
Probably never counts gas used to drop off packages, or to source items, either.
(and that’s not an issue only with youngsters starting out; I see a lot of people who should know better wondering why they have no money, when their business is “so profitable”)
This exact thought was formulating as I was reading your post! Plus, wondering if anyone out there would read it and go “oh yeah, internet! ” or similar.
Heck, there are even some people who have been running businesses with a profit for years who still will say things like “not worth my time tracking mileage; it’s only a few thousand miles anyway”.
Lots of people don’t realize that for most vehicles, gas cost is not even the majority of the cost of travel. Something as simple as a travel log can save hundreds at tax time, plus give a more accurate measure of your business.
If you aggressively deduct everything you can, it’s a lot more than hundreds.
Having a business is one of the best things you can have for tax avoidance. No reason not to use it. There’s limitations and restrictions on some deductions, but as long as you follow the rules and do things within reason you won’t have a problem.
For example, “food items for the office,” has a limitation. The IRS knows that’s more or less personal use, so they only allow you to deduct half. If you work at home (your “home office”), you can deduct part of your groceries. Say 50% of your grocery bill is for “office” use and 50% personal, you can deduct half of the office portion, so 25% of your grocery bill.
It might be more broadly because Facebook “knows” you are interested in Amazon lol.
Plus, wondering if anyone out there would read it and go “oh yeah, internet! 
” or similar.