“Two men looked out from prison bars,
One saw the mud, the other saw stars.”– Dale Carnegie, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living
I was the top Amazon review writer on Fiverr. In three weeks I took an idea and made it into something that earned me more than my 9 to 5 job had. Unfortunately it was a flash in the pan.
While my review writing business made me quite a bit of money, Amazon caught on. My posts got pulled, I received hundreds of angry messages, and I had to refund orders. My golden goose was cooked.
I was supposed to go on vacation to Miraflores and enjoy the weather while posting reviews from my laptop. With my main source of income gone I decided to postpone the trip. I still had the money to go, but I wanted to focus more on making money. I’ve been abroad every year since I was 18. I can sacrifice one trip if it means that I’ll have more of them in the future.
While I could, and have, tried to do more fake reviews, I think that the market isn’t what it used to be. I’m not upset, I just have to find something else. My original business made money, but it was too dependent on outside factors. I had to rely on proxies, different computers, and Amazon’s security. There were a lot of variables.
Oh well, I made my money and learned my lesson.
Why I never lose
I’m sure that someone will gloat about the fact that my Fivver business dried up. I’ll get at least one “I told you so” email. Some of my acquaintances will probably smirk and gossip. “That’s what you get when you think you’re too good for college,” they’ll say. It won’t bother me.
Losing is a state of mind. The only different between being defeated and learning a lesson is the perspective. I basically got paid thousands of dollars to learn not to make something so unreliable. Woe is me.
I took two weeks off. I walked around, went on a few dates, read some books, watched a couple videos, and drew in my notebook. I had to recharge a little. Afterwards I got right back to work.
During my hiatus I watched a video with Jordan Belfort. In it he told a story about his first business, he sold frozen meat and lobsters in New York City. Sales were good, he made ten million dollars. Profits were bad, his ten million wasn’t enough to cover the expenses. Rather than curling up in a ball and crying Belfort moved on to his next project. When that didn’t pan out he moved on again.
Right now I’m concentrating my efforts on freelance writing and producing more eBooks. If either of those don’t work out I’ve already devised another backup plan.I hit gold when I did Fiverr reviews, I can easily come up with something new and make it lucrative.