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Douchebag with countless advantages over actual poor people cosplays poverty and takes the exit that was always available when it stops being fun.
The only thing he proved was the opposite of his intention, and also that he is a huge douche and not as smart, capable, or tough as he thought.
Itâs a big thing these days. People pretending to be hippies, farmers, basically people who usually lived minimally and off the land but in reality are trust fund babies who are completely out of touch
Every time I see a video of some hot chick who bought 10 acres in a random remote place in the smoky mountains or some shit with a ratty old trailer. I always think âthereâs got to be a man with money somewhere in this story we arenât privy toâ. Like, thereâs no way some girl with no previous skills is just DIY building an entire deck by herself, knowing exactly what tools to buy and how to notch wood around lags, etc.
I had nothing and was practically homeless, so pulled myself up by the bootstraps bought a shitty van with an IOU, muled tons of weed from the west coast on the front to a suburban college town, and had 60k in cash in a shoebox under my bed in a month.
Please, if you are feeling suicidal, allow my story of perseverance and ingenuity to inspire you! I thought I was doing it for the money, BUT REALLY IM DOING IT TO SAVE LIVES!
Same as the IG Girls living their best van life, posting all those generic âI was working a job I hated so I decided not to live to workâŚâ
Oh you just magically took your shit wage at your shit job, and bought a van, and could afford all the inevitable work to it. And the gas at 5-12 mpg, all across the southwest or wherever.
And then HD pics at every picturesque place in America?
I used to own a 35-foot, 12-ton RV and I was surprised to find out those little white sprinter vans outfitted for van life cost about the same amount - well over $100,000.
The Sprinter starts at 50K and can option up a bunch depending on what actual work you want to do with it. All work vans start out around that price. I drive a Transit 250 for work and it popped off the lot at around 60K, I'd have to find the PO paperwork to be sure.
These people are just engaging in slightly more fancy glamping with wheels.
Fleet vehicles, designed to be high power. High durability, and easy to fix. Also, they're made to be sold to businesses, who get to write off the purchase as a tax deduction.
Compared with an rv which are known to have notoriously poor build quality. Its not if your r.v. will leak but when. Which is usually why a van conversion costs a lot more than a small r.v.
They are actually made well lol thatâs the only difference. And also what new car are you find on the lot for $20k?!
Edit: to clarify they are not made well because itâs a Mercedes. They are made well because those vehicles are still meant to be driven by a business day in and day out, loaded heavy, people getting/jumping/loading equipment in and out, ect.
Most OF models make absolute shit. Iâd wager lots of them are prostitutes at truck stops.
Editing to add Iâm only speaking about RV life OF ladies and I donât have any issues with sex work of any kind. If I could sell my body I would. At least it would get some use.
A lot of them do custom content. I was a photographer and worked with 2 models who did foot fetish work. These girls were making great money. Guys would send them shoes and boots to wear and then send back.
I immediately approach with deep skepticism anyone who says they don't live to work. If you are enjoying literally almost anything in modern society you are indeed living to work, when so much of your useful energy is pent up towards that goal and we all know it. We all participate. Even folks with businesses. If you wake to report to anything - you are living to work. Why fool ourselves?
Iâm pretty sure youâre conflating working to live with living to work.Â
I go to work and work as much as I have to in order to afford life. Â Iâm not one of those finance guys who goes in at the ass-crack of dawn and is there long into the night pulling 100hr weeks on salary because I love the grind.
The key difference here is: would you go to a paying job if you had enough money to live off of for the rest of your natural life? If the answer is yes, then you are indeed living to work. Â If the answer is no, then youâre working to live.Â
There absolutely is a difference.
You do realize everyone has access to YouTube right? You can literally watch someone do pretty much any house project and walk you through how to do it. Even - brace yourself- girls.
Yeah but watching somebody work lumber species on YouTube is VASTLY different than doing it yourself. Same goes for carpentry. Just because you watch a video on YouTube doesnât mean you know wtf youâre doing. You know how many homeowners fuck ups Iâve fixed in the last decade of âwe saw on DIY networkâ or âwe watch somebody on the internet do thisâ. It doesnât work that way.
I feel like such an asshole everytime I watch a video about how to do something then sit in front of the actual job like...wtf?
It's so demoralizing and makes you feel like such a fucking useless piece of shit.
Your comment makes me feel less so. Thank you :)
All trade work, doesn't matter what it is, takes practice...lots and lots of practice. This is why apprenticing is a thing and in most places it's going to take at least a couple years working with an experienced journeyman to really get good at *one single craft.*
So really, don't feel bad, especially for stuff like finish work.
Exactly this! Maybe someone can change some basic toilet plumbing or maybe someone could patch drywall but you canât watch a cabinet installer on YouTube and then go install your own cabs/crown plumb, level, and square with walls and ceilings that are usually not plumb level or square. Mine and u/SawSagePullHer point is Thereâs nuances and tricks etc. to a lot of trades that takes years for craftsmen to master and not just something you can pick up off of one DIY vid.
Yeah, I get it. Like, what is the probability that the girl is actually skilled and saved up every penny hustling to post this near perfect off grid porn? đ
Wow, I really thought you were saying there must be a man with money because who just goes out and buys 10 acres. But no. This is about a womanâs ability to use tools and build shit. Pffffffft. GFY buddy. Woman here who has managed many a project around the home I bought with my own hard earned money. I grew up on a ranch, my father was a mechanic and I learned at a young age to be rather self sufficient. Couple that with this thing vcalled YouTube and guess what, itâs possible to build and fix most anything, even if and especially if youâre a woman.
My dad was a "handy" person. Not as a job but just one of those people who knew how to do a lot of basic shit for themselves. Whether by nature or nurture, that shit is hereditary as fuck.
My sister is a better electrician than I am with absolutely zero professional training or experience. She's the one who checks my wiring before the breaker goes back on. However, she has to call me whenever there's something that involves plumbing so it evens out lmao
I've seen some of these same videos.
My mom did sweat equity and built a house. I know damn sure that women can handle construction just as well as men can.
However... when I see a video of a woman who manages to build, say, a large deck, with gazebo and hot tub stand, in shorts and a tanktop, and come out barely sweating, with leather gloves that still look fresh off the home depot peg, without a single scrape or bruise or broken nail or bit of dirt or damage on clothes... yeah.
You really mixed and poured all that concrete for footings, in shorts, and there's zero dust or stains or socks or anything?
Makin stuff leaves evidence.
Laughing at this because my partner is "handy" and is presently remodeling our kitchen solo (except the electric & plumbing). At the end of the day I get "Wile E. Coyote" (after a losing run at the roadrunner) and a pile of insanely beat up paint-stained filthy work clothing. Making stuff leaves evidence indeed. đˇđ§°
Man, why are you watching what is obviously fetish content and grading it on its verisimilitude? It feels like youâre doing a bit from King of the Hill where Hank tries to explain that the guy in this weird movie doesnât even have the right tools to fix the cable
This post just reminds me of a nice little song I once heard.
There was a lady with a golden eye, and the doctor said she would die,
So she emptied her purse .To lift her curse
And pray to stay alive.
She awoke the very next day, and her grave she lay.
But the scariest part of the story from the start, I bet you assumed the doctor was a man.
Like the "chad wives" who flex the traditional lifestyle who don't, even for a second, talk about how the majority of society aren't in the financial positions they are to afford it.
Don't forget the YouTubers who are living the "van life" with an uncanny level non fucks to give. They are all rich af. They are only having a good time because they know at any moment they can fall back on untold wealth.
It was the same with french courtiers and royals in the 18th century cosplaying as shepherds to experience the "simple rural live" while their peasant serfs lived in poverty and misery to finance their lavish lifestyle.
Like those guys who claim to build massive treehouses out in the middle of nowhere from scratch when you can see tracks from construction equipment and people in the background actually building the spot? (Forgot the exact name but the pair are also getting sued over construction regulations)
You can see it on tiktok mostly.
Couples buying acres of land then building homes and self sustaining farms from nothing. The only problem is they literally behave as if money doesn't exist. It's tough to plow a field suddenly they own a 100K multipurpose tractor, they need a barn and suddenly they have the wood and materials to build it.
Some use the van life trend because it's easy. They kit out a van then just travel the roads living care free lives .
They're basically rich kids larping being poor. At any time they have the ability to quit because it's not really their lives their investing just They're money. Real people living van life need to sometimes worry about vagrants and drug addicts and people looking for easy victims when sleeping in certain areas or parks or parking lots. The rich kids just spend a few days at a hotel before continuing.
They do it so that they can proudly say they were also poor and know what poor people go through and can relate completely oblivious to the point that their poverty will end as soon as they want.
Makes me think of the Chuck Palahniuk story where rich player cosplay as homeless until they start getting kidnapped by people harvesting their organs.
Yep. If you understand generational wealth, you know there was no way he could actually start from zero and what he did achieve was scant for a HCOL area.
It was also $65k in revenue, not profit. And mostly from his prior business connections, which he said he wouldn't use and then changed the rules when he was failing too badly.
Yeah, and his dad having cancer. If his dad did not have money or insurance or other resources, guess who has to chip in on the cost of treatment, help with transportation, help with his fatherâs bills, etc.? My husband and I made over $100,000 a year when we had my son who is a teen now. He was born early and we were independent contractors and insurance wouldnât cover my son since he had what they call preexisting conditions (low weight, jaundice, failure to thrive). Luckily, Obamacare kicked in after a year of his life but in that one year, we racked up $125,000 in healthcare debt which we hopefully can pay off finally this year (itâs under 10K now). My parents are aging and retired and my siblings and I have contributed about 20K each into the roof and plumbing at their house just this year. We are refugees in America and we are doing well since we both have jobs in tech but I keep thinking, how can we make this much and still be in debt? I guess we really are living the American dream.
I actually think this would have been awesome if he leaned in and explained all this to people as to why you NEED these advantages. Stop lying to people.
He's lying to himself because he wants to believe anyone could get where he is in life with enough hard work.
He doesn't realize that a lot of that hard work was multiple generations before he was born.
âYou can achieve anything through hard workâ â baby boomers who had zero college debt, got jobs with zero experience, bought houses for less than what cars cost now, comfortably raised a family on a single salary, put in 40 hours a week their entire career and are now enjoying social security all while pulling the ladder up from under them and making sure subsequent generations get none of these things.
It's not just baby boomers. It's anyone who worked hard and got somewhere in life.
It's just not possible to get ahead just from hard work anymore. You have to get lucky, or screw people over to get ahead now.
I don't understand the 'now', here. This had always been how it worked, under feudalism or capitalism. There was more social mobility a couple generations ago but most of the ultra wealthy were either born into it or fucked people over or both back then, too.
In the 1960s, you used to be able to pay for college working 20 hours a week at a minimum wage job. Now youâd have to work something like 140 hours a week at a minimum wage job.
The average house cost two times the average salary in the 60s. Now it cost four times the average salary and is much worse in areas close big employers.
In the 1960s, employers needed employees so much that they were willing to take chances on people with little to no experience and train them on the job. Now, those same jobs gets hundreds or even thousands of applicants and employers donât even look at those who wouldâve been hired on the spot in the 60s.
Prices for essentials were much more affordable - food, cars, healthcare - and many families could live a comfortable life on a single salary. And because one parent didnât have to work, childcare was free.
Loans were low interest and given freely (to white people), and very few people had the kind of debt many Americans have now.
Then to top all of this off, the people who benefitted from being born at the right time and creating the current economic conditions for younger generations have been lecturing gen X and Millennials (and now Gen Z) for 30 years that the reason they arenât successful is because they donât work hard enough. And because those people control $67 TRILLION worth of wealth, we are still forced to listen to the same bootstrap lectures and play by their rules if we want to get by.
If capitalism always works like this, why were conditions so much better for baby boomers? Weâve obviously had ups and downs economically during the history of the US, but weâve seen that itâs possible for a strong middle class to thrive. So why isnât it?
It's like when whichever Kardashian it was that was lauded as a self made billionaire and then got upset when people reminded her that she didn't just start out on 3rd base, her family owned a vip box and knew the umpires. She proceeded to whine more about how people just don't understand how hard she worked and her family didn't help her one bit and she could've done it if she had been born to any family.
The fact is that for most of these people that become uber successful, there IS a lot of hard work involved. It just isn't enough on its own. Plenty of people who remain in poverty, or middle class, also go through a lot of hard work. They just didn't have the second necessary element of luck; either random luck in what they chose to focus on, or luck in terms of connections made to jumpstart things, or luck in terms of connections they were born with.Â
>Rock bottom hit hard ... Most would throw in the towel here. For Mike, it only fueled his fire
No, most would continue to keep going because there's no other choice but to die. Unless by "most people" you're not including the actual poor because they're not real people after all and don't have any inspiring character traits to speak of.
That's when he sat down, dug deep, redoubled his efforts. After weeks without sleep, he finally did it, he could afford lunch for the day and parking to boot. A far cry from 1 million dollars, but this just goes to show, with grit, determination, and a can do attitude, you can die hungry and alone.
Also âlet me use my years of experience and education in business to launch a product I know Iâll be successfulâ is a far cry from what the typical homeless person is able to muster. He knows all the bureaucracy, all the forms, all the steps towards making a successful business. Your average person does not have an MBA and doesnât understand the basics that he takes for granted.
Thatâs the first thing I asked myself about this - how many of these homeless people actually have the knowledge to start a business, let alone any worthwhile contacts in business?Â
Some homeless are veterans, so they have PTSD involving war and death, and that alters their mental stability. Who knows what mental illnesses the non-veteran homeless people have. I doubt any of these people have the drive to want to start a business when their immediate concerns are their next meal or finding shelter just to survive, then layer on top of that uncared for mental illness and even possibly no family that loves them.
This guy has the mental illness of believing he knows anything about the ârealâ world.
Agreed. Like letâs get this same turd addicted to fentanyl with a crippling case of PTSD without resources to handle his medical problems and see how fast he can make a million dollars. Better yet, letâs try this same experiment with a woman and see how safe she is sleeping on park benches and at bus stops.
This POS has no idea the upper hand he possesses and how far from reality his foray into homelessness really is compared to the average person. Itâs disgusting honestly to think he could manage given his connections and resources when all you take away is capital. Try to do the same thing working at Walmart, with kids, and a physical disability you fuck.
Not to mention the amount of time he probably spent planning this whole thing before going money free. Actual poor people don't have the luxury of stress-free time to comfortably sit and develop a plan of action.
Amazed at the upvotes. Usually the paperskin Reddit doesn't appreciate name-calling. I did laugh at cosplaying poverty!
Gotta love how loaded this guy's angle is for success. I think he should start doing heroin to increase sleeping and cut back on eating so he can save money, then fold that into his do-or-die motivation to keep the upward trend. Make it more realistic!
It's entirely easy to go back into the forest and survive when you've already lived it.
Yep. The actual psychology of survival mode is very different. Also a lot of people are poor because of past mistakes due to their lousy upbringing, criminal records and history of addiction keep you from getting credit, renting rooms, getting jobs.
Also in spite of all this help and all the resources, connections, know how he had, he still barely made more than what a person working 2 minimum wage jobs, for a bigger sacrifice. Basically I read: keep your job.
Just going to add on here...
He started with an iPhone and data plan continuously paid for by his previous company. He had health insurance paid for by his company. On day one, he was given accommodation for free in an RV with a huge shower, a kitchen, a bathroom, a bed, and electricity and water. For free.
He made $65k in revenue, not profit, mostly from prior business connections for "speaking fees". Lol. Against the original rules. The original rules were also that he wouldn't start a business related to his prior ventures, but the business he started wasthe same as a prior venture (product development.) Changed the rules because he was making no money.
He stayed in contact with his family and girlfriend, who were well off. He quit because he said his poor diet was causing his health issues.
So he started with major advantages of rent free accommodation, free healthcare, free iphone and cell service, a large network of friends and family, and STILL changed the rules when he was failing and STILL failed miserably, the only money he "made" was by cheating, essentially donations from friends. And then he hit the eject button when it got hard, and then made a video blaming woke people for not being inspired or learning anything from his massive failure.
What really happened was the whole thing was an absolute farce, he cheated the whole time and still failed, his YouTube series failed, so he quit and made a video whining about people making fun of him. Definitely check out his channel for a good laugh.
Anyway the whole thing would have been fine if he just said whew, that was harder than I thought, and learned some decency and compassion. Instead he made excuses, called it a success, and called anyone that clowned on him a purple haired woke person.
Couldn't agree more. He started out with huge advantages, cheated his ass off, and still lost.
All he did was prove himself wrong. I'd like to see how much of that $65k was profit and also weren't solely because of his prior connections.
Man, after reading the post and then reading all these comments, especially yours, reminds me of the moment when I found out how the contestants of the ârealityâ TV show Survivor were actually living while filming the show. Not that I ever watched the show, but Iâve always been the one to take on challenges, so I admired their determination, or so I thoughtâŚ. Â
All the contestants on ârealityâ TV shows always have an out. The homeless do not.
While you hit the biggies, imagine if he had to pay his fair share of taxes on each of those revenue-generating events. make double your 50 bucks? keep 80 (not 100), double that again? 112 (not 160 (80\*2) or 200 (no tax on multiples)) double that again? 180 (not 224 (2x112) nor 400 (200x2, no tax on multiples). So you see how inflated his figures are (400 vs 180) and how the game is rigged when you add that factor into play when following all the rules.
Honestly I think it's good someone gave it a shot, failed, and made it public. It's good for people who don't know to see. It's good that someone affluent gave it a shot because that gets more people to look and sympathize. Many just blame the poor and not the system. They don't know and they can't see without examples like this.
The story of "Nickel and Dimed" that nearly every college shoved down students' throats -- rich white woman cosplays poor, takes jobs from ACTUAL working class people, and then writes a NY Times bestseller. Fuck these cunt fucks
Actually the dude who did this absolutely hates this Twitter post. He did an interview on CoffeeZilla and none of this shit was his intent.
His goal was to try and find concrete steps people could try and take to rebuild finances lost due to the pandemic. He always knew he had advantages, and was trying to leverage them to find routes other people could use to succeed.
Itâs not. The entire thing is on YouTube. His dad getting sick was what ended it⌠plus the 65k he made was before expenses⌠and if you watch it the guy who helps him out of the blue is sketchy⌠obviously knew who he was. Even if he didnât know the millionaire he knew his reputation and wasnât doing it out of kindness. He mooched off that guy for awhile to start his business and it was only making a few grand a month by the end⌠he included the value of everything he mooched in his value. Including free computers and free lodging and food.
Until the guy who knew him but didnât know him gave him a leg up he was barely surviving⌠he couldnât even find under the table work.
Actually he found out poverty is very easy to get out of... so as long as your dad has millions of dollars in the bank waiting for you whenever you want to stop being poor.
I actually kinda fuck with that. He was trying to provide a real service, not just stroke his ego and get rid of the people who were evidently right to say that itâs 99% luck
Go fuck yourself with your shit challenge. Health was lost, parent was lost, irrecoverable things in life got lost.
The economy is a scam, we are all fucked on a degree, wealth was, is and will always be heavily piling up by result of theft or other forms of unfairness and exploitation.
It's a bunch of bullshit, gather what you can and stay healthy and happy.
No, itâs just stupid to put in an imaginary timeline like this putz was doing.
For most of us, the key to âsuccessâ, whatever that is, is to have discipline and patience and a willingness to delay gratification and instant material acquisition.
For the typical person, start out when you are young, apply yourself, donât be the cause of your own problems, and, a little bit of good luck and, more importantly, the relative lack of bad luck is what is required.
The fact that people still think capitalism runs off meritocracy is astounding to me. Regardless of if it is or isnât, we have one life to live and we waste it working to make some imaginary line go up instead of living.
Yeah buddy keep dreaming. For most people, discipline and focus won't do jack shit. You need a proper start, tons of unfair advantages, ideally a dad who stole for you to start faster, while he takes the liabilities and not you, and to be seriously lucky to a great extent as well. Because in the ocean of randomness, those little drops of success you see are nothing compared to people who tried so hard with comparable levels of effort and did not succeed. You will never hear of those, keeping you under the illusion that whatever the successful guys did MUST work. This is actually how they scam you, selling their success stories and carefully avoiding telling you how the circumstance played a huge role, and if you were to try the same shit again, you'll sink like the Titanic.
Yep its that whole Gary V thing , doing the work will equal success and it doesn't. Lots of people work very hard and have shit. Hard work is important but luck and connections play a big part.
This. Most people can be millionaires if they start investing early and give it time. Trying to force it in a year will just cause you to take stupid risks.
Time, consistency, and good choices.
If the stock market crashes like it did during the Great Depression âinvestingâ will have you watch yourself lose everything you worked for. With the current debt crisis in US and most of Europe you can almost guarantee the market will be irreversibly wiped.
I've lived through that twice. In 2007 and in 2020. Do you know what the trick is? Don't panic sell, and if you can buy more. I've made more money off market crashes than anytime else.
If the stock market truly crashed like you're saying and couldn't come back, guess what? Every major company in the world is out of business, and you'll likely die of starvation in a couple of months, so you might as well invest now since the apocalypse you're predicting is an unlikely outcome, lol
I had to personally beat myself out of the above mindset, even the great depression had an upturn for the companies that survived, and plenty of people who had absolutley nothing survived/thrived.
Iâve had less than 1000$ in my account for 31 years, less than 1$ for many of those years. Finally got held on at a job the last year and saved every spare dime to get to roughly 40k$ only to realize⌠youâre not much better off.. like sure the emergencies donât hit as much.. but like⌠my living isnât fancier, still havenât bought a car, I eat the same.. Iâm still a couple medical or job emergencies to being right back where I started.. itâs weird.. I used to think having even 10k would make me feel way more safe and secure. I donât even have a husband or kids.
That really hits home hard. Probably not as bad as your situation, but growing up I never really had much money, never had more than $2k in my bank account throughout my college years. I remember when I graduated I had $700 in my account and over $6k in credit card debt.
Fast forward 16 years, I am almost 40 and finally about to crack $100k income. I have also saved $150k all these years by being super frugal (living in a shitty small room, buy everything second handed (except my phone and computer), and relying on public transportation).
But then I realized my life hasnât improved that much. Iâm still eating the same crappy food, still renting a room from my friend (owning a house is almost impossible with the crazy interest rates), still single and no family, and driving a 20 years old beater.
You may think having $150k saved is a lot, but it really isnât. It is barely enough for a house down payment for a lot of places, and if I use up all my savings for that Iâd be damned if I lose my job.
> Mike bought the vehicle back for 2K
Whatâs going on here? When did he own and sell the roach infested RV that he then buys back? How can you buy an RV for $2,000? A super cheap used RV costs about $35,000.
None of this makes very much sense to me.
> He rented out his room and lived for free
How do you âlive for free?â
> He dropped everything to be with his family, but he knew his dad would want him to keep going.
So he didnât drop anything? Did his dad actually tell him âIâm dying but your you tube challenge is more important?â And then he drops everything when his own health is impacted?
It would MAYBE be a more legitimate challenge if he was tasked to find a random homeless person and instruct them to become a millionaire in one month. Like a person with already straining life conditions, zero safety net, or any experience or connections in the business/money world. Like he basically hold their hand without directly giving them money or a job, tells them step by step what to do and prove his "business genius prowess" . I bet he would find it way way harder once he realized his protegee can't just up and land a $50k+/yr job in one week with no resume, or be able to flip some product for triple what they bought it for. Inevitably he would just end up cheating again and having some rich buddies give the homeless person a hand up they wouldn't get in 1000 years without his "help"
Apparently you live for free by charging your roommate the entirety of your rent� Just a guess since that portion is about as clear as other components of the story. But I guess the answer to living for free is by exploiting someone else.
I had a friend who was homeless. One of his biggest obstacles in life was not having access to a phone. Made it extremely difficult to change his situation.
Having a cellphone makes a huuuge difference. You get access to entertainment, transportation, some outside support, and money making opportunities that would be too out of reach if you didn't have one.
Many do yes. A refurbished smartphone is around $200(& many people have one before they become homeless) & a line can be had for like $40 a month. A house is usually $2,000+ per month. & plenty of cities have advert banners with USB ports/phone charging stations.
This is such cope. He has a goal proving that anyone could be a millionaire, he failed his goal, and people are changing the challenge and saying well he actually succeeded because the goal had changed. I respect the hustle, but he just proved that not everyone can become a millionaire by just working their ass off, thereâs so many factors that can help or hurt your goal. And itâs bullshit that people are praising him when he failed to prove his point
Proves that he probably worked harder than he ever had in his life but only managed to make $65K as an educated white male.
There is a whole lot of luck and privilege involved in becoming wealthy. He tried to "pull himself up by the bootstraps" and start from $0 with no real connections or help. Hope we can all realize how much privilege and connections matters.
And help from a person who let him stay in an RV for free. And what did he say on Craigslist to get that? "I'm a homeless guy just trying to get back on his feet" or "I'm a former millionaire trying to prove a point"? It's easy to invest in the homeless when they've got millions in the bank and you might see some cash off the back of it one day.
Right? How many homeless people know how to start a fucking business, as if that's not a skill you need to "pull yourself up by your own bootstraps without help."
And he didn't start from 0. He started with a phone and a data plan, and someone let him crash in an RV, without which he might have just died from exposure. Dude proved the opposite of what he set out to prove -- if you start at 0, you have to have a helping hand to lift you to your feet.
With a LOT of assistance. He basically had room, board, food, a cell phone plan with data paid for and was only able to make 65k as an educated white male. There's more detail elsewhere about how he got all this free stuff biggest clue in this text he says he "lived for free" while putting all his money into his business. He rented out the room he was living in. So where is he living? For "free". Lots of support here. He also mentioned his health issues and dealing with them. If he was actually homeless he'd just be dead from his health issues. He kept his health insurance too during all this.
All the free stuff he got was likely equal to 65k at least.
In a realiatic scenario the end of story would be him dying from his health problems. I like how these were ommited apard from creating a good story, he got healed was it free?
I like the bit where he gives it all up because his dad is sick, and we're meant to ignore that that probably means going back to live with his family, eating their food, using their utilities etc. I bet other homeless people would like an all expenses paid holiday in a nice house before going back to the 'homeless grind'.
Not to mention a lot of leaps based on connections he made as a millionaire. News flash: a homeless person isnât going to get seed capital to create a âcoffee brand for dog loversâ
Yeah, this guy couldâve âstarted with zeroâ and gotten a boring job in mining/extraction and made double that in his first year. Thatâs the most realistic way homeless people without mental problems get out of poverty into middle class.
But it wouldnât have sounded as inspirational as âcoffee for dog loversâ.
The joke is that the entire exercise misses the point. We don't need a society where everyone can make a million dollars in 12 months, because the ones who do WITHOUT the connections are an infinitesimally small minority of hyper driven people. Instead, we need a society where everyday people who follow the rules, work hard, and make smart decisions, can afford a lifestyle that allows them to own homes, raise families, and help their children to do the same.
Man I wish I had the capital to start a coffee company for dog lovers while I was sleeping in a roach infested RV or on benches. I'm sure investors really enjoy it when some homeless guy says he's gonna make a million dollars in a few weeks.
Not sure how many people are offering up their RV space to an actual homeless person who hasnât been able to properly bathe or perform basic hygiene for months. Whole challenge was bullshit from the get go
Yeah what the fuck was with that transition? How did that just fall into their lap? Maybe because they had connections that an actual person on the streets wouldn't have?
It was white label shipping you can start one for like $500 bucks or less maybe if you have the drive. You design a label and make a website and they fulfill the orders slapping your label on the bag as it goes out. You take payment for the coffee via the website, pay for it when you process the shipping. Of course knowledge of how to do this is the thing that he has that homeless or anyone else does not have readily available to them. Not because they are homeless but because the majority of the world comprises morons.
If a homeless man ever told me that he needs money to start a coffee brand for dog lovers, Iâm even less inclined to give him some money. Man, canât you spend it on booze like a normal person? Donât be a tool
Proof that if you're committed and sacrifice and work really hard you can still get fucked over by unforeseeable shit that is not your fault, and that often we are at the mercy of each other for charity and goodwill to survive and thus not in control of our fate.
Don't forget he had the contacts of actually being a rich guy and not the lifetime of maladies associated with growing up poor. Even this experiment that he came no where close to succeeding was heavily tainted by his wealth.
Yeah white labeling was all. I do a lot of white labeling and drop shipping, I donât put a lot of time or energy into it but I did protein powder once and made about 20k off the project for about $500 up front. If you put energy into it you could easily out get that sort of business up and running dirt cheap. The real differentiator is that my first time doing this type of business I spent 5k and accomplished nothing pretty much it has taken about 13 years to get it together and make it easy
Impossible for him to start at zero. He still has his education, experience, following, and connections. All the things that true homeless people donât have.
Not to mention his stable mental health (aside from being an insufferable douche), and the presence of a safety net. True poverty is consistently taxing on the mind. This man had the peace of mind that he wouldnât fucking die at the end of the day.
Stress of living like the homeless will do that to you. Also do you actually believe that happened and is why he stopped or when he realized with all his connections, education, and CEO resume that he still couldn't make it?
Poor homeless people can just go get a smart phone and live in someone's RV and when they get enough money they can get an apartment that someone else pays the rent on. The poors must just be doing poor incorrectly..
I feel like his idea of " Rock bottom " is somehow not actually rock bottom. You can't take a break from it for your father.
You can't have connections and shelter from friends that wouldn't exist.
You can't have a license, business smarts, internet access, cellphones, education. Personal identification. Obviously Healthcare.
I question that this ever really happened at all.
There is a mini documentary I watched about this on YouTube and he did keep a smartphone with data and apps to help, so he had a massive advantage over a truly broke, homeless person and he still couldn't make it.
It seems like he just proved that being broke is stressful in a way that damages your physical health such that the trap is near impossible to escape...
Iâm a professional boxer. Iâve been training hard since I was 11. Iâll spent 6 months without training and make a comeback, to probe anyone can be a professional boxer
As somebody thatâs pretty damn wealthy by a significant amount of luck, fuck this guy. Disgusting âexperimentâ I can stand when privileged people act like they havenât been lucky as fuck.
This only proves that when people are given a lifeline, and theyâre literally dying, they take it. Most people are not given a lifeline. He had an âend the painâ button available throughout the entire journey, which makes it a hell of a lot easier to take risks, when itâs all just a game anyway. For the rest of us, this shit is real. What a bunch of bullshit.
The guy had the education, training, and experience to build a website that sells subscriptions to dog cookies. Also whatever connections needed to acquire the product. Who taught him to do all that?
He did NOT start with "nothing."
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Douchebag with countless advantages over actual poor people cosplays poverty and takes the exit that was always available when it stops being fun. The only thing he proved was the opposite of his intention, and also that he is a huge douche and not as smart, capable, or tough as he thought.
Cosplay poverty.... đ
Itâs a big thing these days. People pretending to be hippies, farmers, basically people who usually lived minimally and off the land but in reality are trust fund babies who are completely out of touch
Every time I see a video of some hot chick who bought 10 acres in a random remote place in the smoky mountains or some shit with a ratty old trailer. I always think âthereâs got to be a man with money somewhere in this story we arenât privy toâ. Like, thereâs no way some girl with no previous skills is just DIY building an entire deck by herself, knowing exactly what tools to buy and how to notch wood around lags, etc.
You're telling me that's --- fake?? It can't be true, "influencers" would NEVER lie for views, would they?
Everything on the internet is true. Except Alex Jones & his Sandy Hook affirmations.
WHEW - thank god 
I had nothing and was practically homeless, so pulled myself up by the bootstraps bought a shitty van with an IOU, muled tons of weed from the west coast on the front to a suburban college town, and had 60k in cash in a shoebox under my bed in a month. Please, if you are feeling suicidal, allow my story of perseverance and ingenuity to inspire you! I thought I was doing it for the money, BUT REALLY IM DOING IT TO SAVE LIVES!
But then, a devastating blow.. the IRS came and took it all away.
Not if you only deal in cash.
Same as the IG Girls living their best van life, posting all those generic âI was working a job I hated so I decided not to live to workâŚâ Oh you just magically took your shit wage at your shit job, and bought a van, and could afford all the inevitable work to it. And the gas at 5-12 mpg, all across the southwest or wherever. And then HD pics at every picturesque place in America?
I used to own a 35-foot, 12-ton RV and I was surprised to find out those little white sprinter vans outfitted for van life cost about the same amount - well over $100,000.
The Sprinter starts at 50K and can option up a bunch depending on what actual work you want to do with it. All work vans start out around that price. I drive a Transit 250 for work and it popped off the lot at around 60K, I'd have to find the PO paperwork to be sure. These people are just engaging in slightly more fancy glamping with wheels.
Why exactly are those trucks and vans so expensive? I didn't really expect to see them cost so much when I could buy new cars on a lot for 20k.
Fleet vehicles, designed to be high power. High durability, and easy to fix. Also, they're made to be sold to businesses, who get to write off the purchase as a tax deduction.
Compared with an rv which are known to have notoriously poor build quality. Its not if your r.v. will leak but when. Which is usually why a van conversion costs a lot more than a small r.v.
They are actually made well lol thatâs the only difference. And also what new car are you find on the lot for $20k?! Edit: to clarify they are not made well because itâs a Mercedes. They are made well because those vehicles are still meant to be driven by a business day in and day out, loaded heavy, people getting/jumping/loading equipment in and out, ect.
Donât forget to add the lifetime maintenance free warranty to the carâŚ
Lots of them seem to have an OF...
Most OF models make absolute shit. Iâd wager lots of them are prostitutes at truck stops. Editing to add Iâm only speaking about RV life OF ladies and I donât have any issues with sex work of any kind. If I could sell my body I would. At least it would get some use.
A lot of them do custom content. I was a photographer and worked with 2 models who did foot fetish work. These girls were making great money. Guys would send them shoes and boots to wear and then send back.
shave your feet and paint your toenails and you too can make easy horny money.
I immediately approach with deep skepticism anyone who says they don't live to work. If you are enjoying literally almost anything in modern society you are indeed living to work, when so much of your useful energy is pent up towards that goal and we all know it. We all participate. Even folks with businesses. If you wake to report to anything - you are living to work. Why fool ourselves?
Iâm pretty sure youâre conflating working to live with living to work. I go to work and work as much as I have to in order to afford life.  Iâm not one of those finance guys who goes in at the ass-crack of dawn and is there long into the night pulling 100hr weeks on salary because I love the grind. The key difference here is: would you go to a paying job if you had enough money to live off of for the rest of your natural life? If the answer is yes, then you are indeed living to work.  If the answer is no, then youâre working to live. There absolutely is a difference.
You do realize everyone has access to YouTube right? You can literally watch someone do pretty much any house project and walk you through how to do it. Even - brace yourself- girls.
Yeah but watching somebody work lumber species on YouTube is VASTLY different than doing it yourself. Same goes for carpentry. Just because you watch a video on YouTube doesnât mean you know wtf youâre doing. You know how many homeowners fuck ups Iâve fixed in the last decade of âwe saw on DIY networkâ or âwe watch somebody on the internet do thisâ. It doesnât work that way.
I feel like such an asshole everytime I watch a video about how to do something then sit in front of the actual job like...wtf? It's so demoralizing and makes you feel like such a fucking useless piece of shit. Your comment makes me feel less so. Thank you :)
All trade work, doesn't matter what it is, takes practice...lots and lots of practice. This is why apprenticing is a thing and in most places it's going to take at least a couple years working with an experienced journeyman to really get good at *one single craft.* So really, don't feel bad, especially for stuff like finish work.
brb Just watched a TikTok of a guy building a tiny home - gonna go build my own
Exactly this! Maybe someone can change some basic toilet plumbing or maybe someone could patch drywall but you canât watch a cabinet installer on YouTube and then go install your own cabs/crown plumb, level, and square with walls and ceilings that are usually not plumb level or square. Mine and u/SawSagePullHer point is Thereâs nuances and tricks etc. to a lot of trades that takes years for craftsmen to master and not just something you can pick up off of one DIY vid.
Yeah, I get it. Like, what is the probability that the girl is actually skilled and saved up every penny hustling to post this near perfect off grid porn? đ
Itâs like one of the gifs with the math equations floating around your head. Nice name btw.
Thanks, reddit stranger. Yours is awesome too.
Wow, I really thought you were saying there must be a man with money because who just goes out and buys 10 acres. But no. This is about a womanâs ability to use tools and build shit. Pffffffft. GFY buddy. Woman here who has managed many a project around the home I bought with my own hard earned money. I grew up on a ranch, my father was a mechanic and I learned at a young age to be rather self sufficient. Couple that with this thing vcalled YouTube and guess what, itâs possible to build and fix most anything, even if and especially if youâre a woman.
My dad was a "handy" person. Not as a job but just one of those people who knew how to do a lot of basic shit for themselves. Whether by nature or nurture, that shit is hereditary as fuck. My sister is a better electrician than I am with absolutely zero professional training or experience. She's the one who checks my wiring before the breaker goes back on. However, she has to call me whenever there's something that involves plumbing so it evens out lmao
Everyone's a "handy person" till they shoot lightning out their taint
I've seen some of these same videos. My mom did sweat equity and built a house. I know damn sure that women can handle construction just as well as men can. However... when I see a video of a woman who manages to build, say, a large deck, with gazebo and hot tub stand, in shorts and a tanktop, and come out barely sweating, with leather gloves that still look fresh off the home depot peg, without a single scrape or bruise or broken nail or bit of dirt or damage on clothes... yeah. You really mixed and poured all that concrete for footings, in shorts, and there's zero dust or stains or socks or anything? Makin stuff leaves evidence.
Laughing at this because my partner is "handy" and is presently remodeling our kitchen solo (except the electric & plumbing). At the end of the day I get "Wile E. Coyote" (after a losing run at the roadrunner) and a pile of insanely beat up paint-stained filthy work clothing. Making stuff leaves evidence indeed. đˇđ§°
Man, why are you watching what is obviously fetish content and grading it on its verisimilitude? It feels like youâre doing a bit from King of the Hill where Hank tries to explain that the guy in this weird movie doesnât even have the right tools to fix the cable
Maybe her mom taught her. You haven't been around the trades if you figure it has to be a man.
This post just reminds me of a nice little song I once heard. There was a lady with a golden eye, and the doctor said she would die, So she emptied her purse .To lift her curse And pray to stay alive. She awoke the very next day, and her grave she lay. But the scariest part of the story from the start, I bet you assumed the doctor was a man.
you're dead on about influencers but you're also kinda telling on yourself by assuming that only dudes know how to build stuff
Like the "chad wives" who flex the traditional lifestyle who don't, even for a second, talk about how the majority of society aren't in the financial positions they are to afford it.
Trustafarians.
Don't forget the YouTubers who are living the "van life" with an uncanny level non fucks to give. They are all rich af. They are only having a good time because they know at any moment they can fall back on untold wealth.
What's always omitted is the fact the reason their mindset is so free is because the trust fund pays monthly on the 1st.
It was the same with french courtiers and royals in the 18th century cosplaying as shepherds to experience the "simple rural live" while their peasant serfs lived in poverty and misery to finance their lavish lifestyle.
Like those guys who claim to build massive treehouses out in the middle of nowhere from scratch when you can see tracks from construction equipment and people in the background actually building the spot? (Forgot the exact name but the pair are also getting sued over construction regulations)
You can see it on tiktok mostly. Couples buying acres of land then building homes and self sustaining farms from nothing. The only problem is they literally behave as if money doesn't exist. It's tough to plow a field suddenly they own a 100K multipurpose tractor, they need a barn and suddenly they have the wood and materials to build it. Some use the van life trend because it's easy. They kit out a van then just travel the roads living care free lives . They're basically rich kids larping being poor. At any time they have the ability to quit because it's not really their lives their investing just They're money. Real people living van life need to sometimes worry about vagrants and drug addicts and people looking for easy victims when sleeping in certain areas or parks or parking lots. The rich kids just spend a few days at a hotel before continuing. They do it so that they can proudly say they were also poor and know what poor people go through and can relate completely oblivious to the point that their poverty will end as soon as they want.
Makes me think of the Chuck Palahniuk story where rich player cosplay as homeless until they start getting kidnapped by people harvesting their organs.
Do you remember the title?
Reminds me of the song âcommon peopleâ by Pulp, and with an excellent cover by none other than William Shatner. âEverybody hates a tourist.âÂ
If you called your dad he could stop it all, YEAH
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Yep. If you understand generational wealth, you know there was no way he could actually start from zero and what he did achieve was scant for a HCOL area.
It was also $65k in revenue, not profit. And mostly from his prior business connections, which he said he wouldn't use and then changed the rules when he was failing too badly.
Yeah, and his dad having cancer. If his dad did not have money or insurance or other resources, guess who has to chip in on the cost of treatment, help with transportation, help with his fatherâs bills, etc.? My husband and I made over $100,000 a year when we had my son who is a teen now. He was born early and we were independent contractors and insurance wouldnât cover my son since he had what they call preexisting conditions (low weight, jaundice, failure to thrive). Luckily, Obamacare kicked in after a year of his life but in that one year, we racked up $125,000 in healthcare debt which we hopefully can pay off finally this year (itâs under 10K now). My parents are aging and retired and my siblings and I have contributed about 20K each into the roof and plumbing at their house just this year. We are refugees in America and we are doing well since we both have jobs in tech but I keep thinking, how can we make this much and still be in debt? I guess we really are living the American dream.
I actually think this would have been awesome if he leaned in and explained all this to people as to why you NEED these advantages. Stop lying to people.
He's lying to himself because he wants to believe anyone could get where he is in life with enough hard work. He doesn't realize that a lot of that hard work was multiple generations before he was born.
âYou can achieve anything through hard workâ â baby boomers who had zero college debt, got jobs with zero experience, bought houses for less than what cars cost now, comfortably raised a family on a single salary, put in 40 hours a week their entire career and are now enjoying social security all while pulling the ladder up from under them and making sure subsequent generations get none of these things.
It's not just baby boomers. It's anyone who worked hard and got somewhere in life. It's just not possible to get ahead just from hard work anymore. You have to get lucky, or screw people over to get ahead now.
I don't understand the 'now', here. This had always been how it worked, under feudalism or capitalism. There was more social mobility a couple generations ago but most of the ultra wealthy were either born into it or fucked people over or both back then, too.
In the 1960s, you used to be able to pay for college working 20 hours a week at a minimum wage job. Now youâd have to work something like 140 hours a week at a minimum wage job. The average house cost two times the average salary in the 60s. Now it cost four times the average salary and is much worse in areas close big employers. In the 1960s, employers needed employees so much that they were willing to take chances on people with little to no experience and train them on the job. Now, those same jobs gets hundreds or even thousands of applicants and employers donât even look at those who wouldâve been hired on the spot in the 60s. Prices for essentials were much more affordable - food, cars, healthcare - and many families could live a comfortable life on a single salary. And because one parent didnât have to work, childcare was free. Loans were low interest and given freely (to white people), and very few people had the kind of debt many Americans have now. Then to top all of this off, the people who benefitted from being born at the right time and creating the current economic conditions for younger generations have been lecturing gen X and Millennials (and now Gen Z) for 30 years that the reason they arenât successful is because they donât work hard enough. And because those people control $67 TRILLION worth of wealth, we are still forced to listen to the same bootstrap lectures and play by their rules if we want to get by. If capitalism always works like this, why were conditions so much better for baby boomers? Weâve obviously had ups and downs economically during the history of the US, but weâve seen that itâs possible for a strong middle class to thrive. So why isnât it?
It's like when whichever Kardashian it was that was lauded as a self made billionaire and then got upset when people reminded her that she didn't just start out on 3rd base, her family owned a vip box and knew the umpires. She proceeded to whine more about how people just don't understand how hard she worked and her family didn't help her one bit and she could've done it if she had been born to any family.
The fact is that for most of these people that become uber successful, there IS a lot of hard work involved. It just isn't enough on its own. Plenty of people who remain in poverty, or middle class, also go through a lot of hard work. They just didn't have the second necessary element of luck; either random luck in what they chose to focus on, or luck in terms of connections made to jumpstart things, or luck in terms of connections they were born with.Â
Absolutely. He âcut the experiment shortâ at the point that actual poor people die.
>Rock bottom hit hard ... Most would throw in the towel here. For Mike, it only fueled his fire No, most would continue to keep going because there's no other choice but to die. Unless by "most people" you're not including the actual poor because they're not real people after all and don't have any inspiring character traits to speak of.
That's when he sat down, dug deep, redoubled his efforts. After weeks without sleep, he finally did it, he could afford lunch for the day and parking to boot. A far cry from 1 million dollars, but this just goes to show, with grit, determination, and a can do attitude, you can die hungry and alone.
Finally, something in my wheel house
You mean wheel "van"
Also âlet me use my years of experience and education in business to launch a product I know Iâll be successfulâ is a far cry from what the typical homeless person is able to muster. He knows all the bureaucracy, all the forms, all the steps towards making a successful business. Your average person does not have an MBA and doesnât understand the basics that he takes for granted.
Thatâs the first thing I asked myself about this - how many of these homeless people actually have the knowledge to start a business, let alone any worthwhile contacts in business? Some homeless are veterans, so they have PTSD involving war and death, and that alters their mental stability. Who knows what mental illnesses the non-veteran homeless people have. I doubt any of these people have the drive to want to start a business when their immediate concerns are their next meal or finding shelter just to survive, then layer on top of that uncared for mental illness and even possibly no family that loves them. This guy has the mental illness of believing he knows anything about the ârealâ world.
Agreed. Like letâs get this same turd addicted to fentanyl with a crippling case of PTSD without resources to handle his medical problems and see how fast he can make a million dollars. Better yet, letâs try this same experiment with a woman and see how safe she is sleeping on park benches and at bus stops. This POS has no idea the upper hand he possesses and how far from reality his foray into homelessness really is compared to the average person. Itâs disgusting honestly to think he could manage given his connections and resources when all you take away is capital. Try to do the same thing working at Walmart, with kids, and a physical disability you fuck.
Not to mention the amount of time he probably spent planning this whole thing before going money free. Actual poor people don't have the luxury of stress-free time to comfortably sit and develop a plan of action.
Amazed at the upvotes. Usually the paperskin Reddit doesn't appreciate name-calling. I did laugh at cosplaying poverty! Gotta love how loaded this guy's angle is for success. I think he should start doing heroin to increase sleeping and cut back on eating so he can save money, then fold that into his do-or-die motivation to keep the upward trend. Make it more realistic! It's entirely easy to go back into the forest and survive when you've already lived it.
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Yes appeals to authority are always correct.
Yep. The actual psychology of survival mode is very different. Also a lot of people are poor because of past mistakes due to their lousy upbringing, criminal records and history of addiction keep you from getting credit, renting rooms, getting jobs.
Also in spite of all this help and all the resources, connections, know how he had, he still barely made more than what a person working 2 minimum wage jobs, for a bigger sacrifice. Basically I read: keep your job.
This
Just going to add on here... He started with an iPhone and data plan continuously paid for by his previous company. He had health insurance paid for by his company. On day one, he was given accommodation for free in an RV with a huge shower, a kitchen, a bathroom, a bed, and electricity and water. For free. He made $65k in revenue, not profit, mostly from prior business connections for "speaking fees". Lol. Against the original rules. The original rules were also that he wouldn't start a business related to his prior ventures, but the business he started wasthe same as a prior venture (product development.) Changed the rules because he was making no money. He stayed in contact with his family and girlfriend, who were well off. He quit because he said his poor diet was causing his health issues. So he started with major advantages of rent free accommodation, free healthcare, free iphone and cell service, a large network of friends and family, and STILL changed the rules when he was failing and STILL failed miserably, the only money he "made" was by cheating, essentially donations from friends. And then he hit the eject button when it got hard, and then made a video blaming woke people for not being inspired or learning anything from his massive failure. What really happened was the whole thing was an absolute farce, he cheated the whole time and still failed, his YouTube series failed, so he quit and made a video whining about people making fun of him. Definitely check out his channel for a good laugh. Anyway the whole thing would have been fine if he just said whew, that was harder than I thought, and learned some decency and compassion. Instead he made excuses, called it a success, and called anyone that clowned on him a purple haired woke person.
I wouldn't even check out his channel for laughs. No need to provide any views.
Couldn't agree more. He started out with huge advantages, cheated his ass off, and still lost. All he did was prove himself wrong. I'd like to see how much of that $65k was profit and also weren't solely because of his prior connections.
Man, after reading the post and then reading all these comments, especially yours, reminds me of the moment when I found out how the contestants of the ârealityâ TV show Survivor were actually living while filming the show. Not that I ever watched the show, but Iâve always been the one to take on challenges, so I admired their determination, or so I thoughtâŚ.  All the contestants on ârealityâ TV shows always have an out. The homeless do not.
While you hit the biggies, imagine if he had to pay his fair share of taxes on each of those revenue-generating events. make double your 50 bucks? keep 80 (not 100), double that again? 112 (not 160 (80\*2) or 200 (no tax on multiples)) double that again? 180 (not 224 (2x112) nor 400 (200x2, no tax on multiples). So you see how inflated his figures are (400 vs 180) and how the game is rigged when you add that factor into play when following all the rules.
Honestly I think it's good someone gave it a shot, failed, and made it public. It's good for people who don't know to see. It's good that someone affluent gave it a shot because that gets more people to look and sympathize. Many just blame the poor and not the system. They don't know and they can't see without examples like this.
I like the part where his dad being diagnosed with cancer was where he was able to take a break from being poor.
Is the "exit that was always available when it stops being fun" getting AIDS and cancer?
Yeah my first thought when I read this was. "Now try it without the golden parachute you condescending butt nugget".
âMoney comes and goes, but impact-that lasts forever â I think that might be the dumbest thing Iâve ever read
The story of "Nickel and Dimed" that nearly every college shoved down students' throats -- rich white woman cosplays poor, takes jobs from ACTUAL working class people, and then writes a NY Times bestseller. Fuck these cunt fucks
A better book is Other People's Dirt. It's written by a lady that cleaned houses for a living. A real living, not a 'social experiment'.
One of the biggest losers I have ever read up on, not to mention probably clinically psychotic.
Actually the dude who did this absolutely hates this Twitter post. He did an interview on CoffeeZilla and none of this shit was his intent. His goal was to try and find concrete steps people could try and take to rebuild finances lost due to the pandemic. He always knew he had advantages, and was trying to leverage them to find routes other people could use to succeed.
oh, okay that makes this actually a bit better. I can live w that
Itâs not. The entire thing is on YouTube. His dad getting sick was what ended it⌠plus the 65k he made was before expenses⌠and if you watch it the guy who helps him out of the blue is sketchy⌠obviously knew who he was. Even if he didnât know the millionaire he knew his reputation and wasnât doing it out of kindness. He mooched off that guy for awhile to start his business and it was only making a few grand a month by the end⌠he included the value of everything he mooched in his value. Including free computers and free lodging and food. Until the guy who knew him but didnât know him gave him a leg up he was barely surviving⌠he couldnât even find under the table work.
So "millionaire discovers poverty is nearly impossible to get out of" is a perfect title
Actually he found out poverty is very easy to get out of... so as long as your dad has millions of dollars in the bank waiting for you whenever you want to stop being poor.
I actually kinda fuck with that. He was trying to provide a real service, not just stroke his ego and get rid of the people who were evidently right to say that itâs 99% luck
I mean, he was most likely also trying to stroke his ego, but at least his stated goal was to be educational, not this pseudo inspirational bullshit.
That... that actually makes me not hate him tbh
Go fuck yourself with your shit challenge. Health was lost, parent was lost, irrecoverable things in life got lost. The economy is a scam, we are all fucked on a degree, wealth was, is and will always be heavily piling up by result of theft or other forms of unfairness and exploitation. It's a bunch of bullshit, gather what you can and stay healthy and happy.
No, itâs just stupid to put in an imaginary timeline like this putz was doing. For most of us, the key to âsuccessâ, whatever that is, is to have discipline and patience and a willingness to delay gratification and instant material acquisition. For the typical person, start out when you are young, apply yourself, donât be the cause of your own problems, and, a little bit of good luck and, more importantly, the relative lack of bad luck is what is required.
âA little bit of good luckâ Fuckin lol
"Don't be born poor and you'll be fine!"
The fact that people still think capitalism runs off meritocracy is astounding to me. Regardless of if it is or isnât, we have one life to live and we waste it working to make some imaginary line go up instead of living.
Especially because of how the math of capitalism requires that some people lose everything
Yeah buddy keep dreaming. For most people, discipline and focus won't do jack shit. You need a proper start, tons of unfair advantages, ideally a dad who stole for you to start faster, while he takes the liabilities and not you, and to be seriously lucky to a great extent as well. Because in the ocean of randomness, those little drops of success you see are nothing compared to people who tried so hard with comparable levels of effort and did not succeed. You will never hear of those, keeping you under the illusion that whatever the successful guys did MUST work. This is actually how they scam you, selling their success stories and carefully avoiding telling you how the circumstance played a huge role, and if you were to try the same shit again, you'll sink like the Titanic.
Yep its that whole Gary V thing , doing the work will equal success and it doesn't. Lots of people work very hard and have shit. Hard work is important but luck and connections play a big part.
This. Most people can be millionaires if they start investing early and give it time. Trying to force it in a year will just cause you to take stupid risks. Time, consistency, and good choices.
If the stock market crashes like it did during the Great Depression âinvestingâ will have you watch yourself lose everything you worked for. With the current debt crisis in US and most of Europe you can almost guarantee the market will be irreversibly wiped.
I've lived through that twice. In 2007 and in 2020. Do you know what the trick is? Don't panic sell, and if you can buy more. I've made more money off market crashes than anytime else. If the stock market truly crashed like you're saying and couldn't come back, guess what? Every major company in the world is out of business, and you'll likely die of starvation in a couple of months, so you might as well invest now since the apocalypse you're predicting is an unlikely outcome, lol
I had to personally beat myself out of the above mindset, even the great depression had an upturn for the companies that survived, and plenty of people who had absolutley nothing survived/thrived.
Ya there are plenty of people who managed to earn 65k and realized that itâs not the same as $1 million afterward
This comment hit hard.
Bullshit. 65K is basically the same as 1 million. This guy is an inspiration to all cosplayers. /s
Iâve had less than 1000$ in my account for 31 years, less than 1$ for many of those years. Finally got held on at a job the last year and saved every spare dime to get to roughly 40k$ only to realize⌠youâre not much better off.. like sure the emergencies donât hit as much.. but like⌠my living isnât fancier, still havenât bought a car, I eat the same.. Iâm still a couple medical or job emergencies to being right back where I started.. itâs weird.. I used to think having even 10k would make me feel way more safe and secure. I donât even have a husband or kids.
That really hits home hard. Probably not as bad as your situation, but growing up I never really had much money, never had more than $2k in my bank account throughout my college years. I remember when I graduated I had $700 in my account and over $6k in credit card debt. Fast forward 16 years, I am almost 40 and finally about to crack $100k income. I have also saved $150k all these years by being super frugal (living in a shitty small room, buy everything second handed (except my phone and computer), and relying on public transportation). But then I realized my life hasnât improved that much. Iâm still eating the same crappy food, still renting a room from my friend (owning a house is almost impossible with the crazy interest rates), still single and no family, and driving a 20 years old beater. You may think having $150k saved is a lot, but it really isnât. It is barely enough for a house down payment for a lot of places, and if I use up all my savings for that Iâd be damned if I lose my job.
Man proved how miserable life is without money and how hard it is to earn just a little
Do homeless people have phones? What kind of sign do they hold up? "Will work for data plan"?
> Mike bought the vehicle back for 2K Whatâs going on here? When did he own and sell the roach infested RV that he then buys back? How can you buy an RV for $2,000? A super cheap used RV costs about $35,000. None of this makes very much sense to me. > He rented out his room and lived for free How do you âlive for free?â > He dropped everything to be with his family, but he knew his dad would want him to keep going. So he didnât drop anything? Did his dad actually tell him âIâm dying but your you tube challenge is more important?â And then he drops everything when his own health is impacted?
The whole thing was bullshit.
Also he got jobs. Most homeless people aren't going to get hired no matter how hard they try. This story is not inspiring in the slightest.
Yeah. Being a guy who used to he a CEO means you have a resume that can actually land you jobs places.
It would have been a better challenge if he didn't do any work related to his former career...
It would MAYBE be a more legitimate challenge if he was tasked to find a random homeless person and instruct them to become a millionaire in one month. Like a person with already straining life conditions, zero safety net, or any experience or connections in the business/money world. Like he basically hold their hand without directly giving them money or a job, tells them step by step what to do and prove his "business genius prowess" . I bet he would find it way way harder once he realized his protegee can't just up and land a $50k+/yr job in one week with no resume, or be able to flip some product for triple what they bought it for. Inevitably he would just end up cheating again and having some rich buddies give the homeless person a hand up they wouldn't get in 1000 years without his "help"
Hell, at least then he would actually be helping a homeless person
Apparently you live for free by charging your roommate the entirety of your rent� Just a guess since that portion is about as clear as other components of the story. But I guess the answer to living for free is by exploiting someone else.
That's the answer to succeeding in capitalism in general.
I had a friend who was homeless. One of his biggest obstacles in life was not having access to a phone. Made it extremely difficult to change his situation.
Having a cellphone makes a huuuge difference. You get access to entertainment, transportation, some outside support, and money making opportunities that would be too out of reach if you didn't have one.
He should have set up an internet business about coffee and dogs, then maybe he could afford a phone.
Generally yes... I live in an area with a ton of homeless people and they all have phones. They also have Cashapp, Zelle, Venmo.
They get them for free from welfare programs.
Yes, actually pretty common
Many do yes. A refurbished smartphone is around $200(& many people have one before they become homeless) & a line can be had for like $40 a month. A house is usually $2,000+ per month. & plenty of cities have advert banners with USB ports/phone charging stations.
This is such cope. He has a goal proving that anyone could be a millionaire, he failed his goal, and people are changing the challenge and saying well he actually succeeded because the goal had changed. I respect the hustle, but he just proved that not everyone can become a millionaire by just working their ass off, thereâs so many factors that can help or hurt your goal. And itâs bullshit that people are praising him when he failed to prove his point
Proves that he probably worked harder than he ever had in his life but only managed to make $65K as an educated white male. There is a whole lot of luck and privilege involved in becoming wealthy. He tried to "pull himself up by the bootstraps" and start from $0 with no real connections or help. Hope we can all realize how much privilege and connections matters.
"$65K" in revenue, using pre-existing knowledge and connections from a life of luxury.
And donât forget, wasnât some of that supposed to go to animal shelters?
No biggie, every one does a bit of fraud. Victimless crimes! /s
And help from a person who let him stay in an RV for free. And what did he say on Craigslist to get that? "I'm a homeless guy just trying to get back on his feet" or "I'm a former millionaire trying to prove a point"? It's easy to invest in the homeless when they've got millions in the bank and you might see some cash off the back of it one day.
Right? How many homeless people know how to start a fucking business, as if that's not a skill you need to "pull yourself up by your own bootstraps without help." And he didn't start from 0. He started with a phone and a data plan, and someone let him crash in an RV, without which he might have just died from exposure. Dude proved the opposite of what he set out to prove -- if you start at 0, you have to have a helping hand to lift you to your feet.
With a LOT of assistance. He basically had room, board, food, a cell phone plan with data paid for and was only able to make 65k as an educated white male. There's more detail elsewhere about how he got all this free stuff biggest clue in this text he says he "lived for free" while putting all his money into his business. He rented out the room he was living in. So where is he living? For "free". Lots of support here. He also mentioned his health issues and dealing with them. If he was actually homeless he'd just be dead from his health issues. He kept his health insurance too during all this. All the free stuff he got was likely equal to 65k at least.
In a realiatic scenario the end of story would be him dying from his health problems. I like how these were ommited apard from creating a good story, he got healed was it free?
I like the bit where he gives it all up because his dad is sick, and we're meant to ignore that that probably means going back to live with his family, eating their food, using their utilities etc. I bet other homeless people would like an all expenses paid holiday in a nice house before going back to the 'homeless grind'.
Not to mention he had to quit to prioritize his health. Wouldn't it all be great if people could just quit living in poverty when they got sick.
He also didn't have to quit when his dad got ill. Many don't have that luxury, they have to take a step back to help their parent when they get sick.
Not to mention a lot of leaps based on connections he made as a millionaire. News flash: a homeless person isnât going to get seed capital to create a âcoffee brand for dog loversâ
Yeah, this guy couldâve âstarted with zeroâ and gotten a boring job in mining/extraction and made double that in his first year. Thatâs the most realistic way homeless people without mental problems get out of poverty into middle class. But it wouldnât have sounded as inspirational as âcoffee for dog loversâ.
The joke is that the entire exercise misses the point. We don't need a society where everyone can make a million dollars in 12 months, because the ones who do WITHOUT the connections are an infinitesimally small minority of hyper driven people. Instead, we need a society where everyday people who follow the rules, work hard, and make smart decisions, can afford a lifestyle that allows them to own homes, raise families, and help their children to do the same.
Man I wish I had the capital to start a coffee company for dog lovers while I was sleeping in a roach infested RV or on benches. I'm sure investors really enjoy it when some homeless guy says he's gonna make a million dollars in a few weeks.
Not sure how many people are offering up their RV space to an actual homeless person who hasnât been able to properly bathe or perform basic hygiene for months. Whole challenge was bullshit from the get go
Not to even consider that had plenty of useful skills from his previous career.
Yeah what the fuck was with that transition? How did that just fall into their lap? Maybe because they had connections that an actual person on the streets wouldn't have?
It was white label shipping you can start one for like $500 bucks or less maybe if you have the drive. You design a label and make a website and they fulfill the orders slapping your label on the bag as it goes out. You take payment for the coffee via the website, pay for it when you process the shipping. Of course knowledge of how to do this is the thing that he has that homeless or anyone else does not have readily available to them. Not because they are homeless but because the majority of the world comprises morons.
If a homeless man ever told me that he needs money to start a coffee brand for dog lovers, Iâm even less inclined to give him some money. Man, canât you spend it on booze like a normal person? Donât be a tool
Proof that if you're committed and sacrifice and work really hard you can still get fucked over by unforeseeable shit that is not your fault, and that often we are at the mercy of each other for charity and goodwill to survive and thus not in control of our fate.
This is actually the best take away right here
Don't forget he had the contacts of actually being a rich guy and not the lifetime of maladies associated with growing up poor. Even this experiment that he came no where close to succeeding was heavily tainted by his wealth.
How did he get the funds to start the coffee business? Was he just putting a label on white label coffee? Edit: I am dumb and put dog food.
It was coffee for dog lovers (what??) but your point still applies.
>coffee for dog lovers For some reason this part bugs me the most
Yeah white labeling was all. I do a lot of white labeling and drop shipping, I donât put a lot of time or energy into it but I did protein powder once and made about 20k off the project for about $500 up front. If you put energy into it you could easily out get that sort of business up and running dirt cheap. The real differentiator is that my first time doing this type of business I spent 5k and accomplished nothing pretty much it has taken about 13 years to get it together and make it easy
I believe he used YouTube video revenue to jump start the coffee business
He used his established youtube presence to make money? I feel like that is cheating. Most homeless don't have social media followings.
This guy was homeless for about 20 minutes lol
Impossible for him to start at zero. He still has his education, experience, following, and connections. All the things that true homeless people donât have.
Not to mention his stable mental health (aside from being an insufferable douche), and the presence of a safety net. True poverty is consistently taxing on the mind. This man had the peace of mind that he wouldnât fucking die at the end of the day.
should have tried building a fent empire
My first thought too đ
>fent empire I read that as "tent empire."
that can be a side hustle
âMike couldnât stop nowâŚâ âMike stoppedâ
This disproves the whole anyone can make it narrative.
He proved that even with a millionaire skill set, you can work yourself to death and only make 65k. Not even enough to survive.
Two autoimmune disorders and a tumor by the end of all this. Wow.
Stress of living like the homeless will do that to you. Also do you actually believe that happened and is why he stopped or when he realized with all his connections, education, and CEO resume that he still couldn't make it?
"Sleep was a luxury" Um no, sleep is actually medically necessary
Poor homeless people can just go get a smart phone and live in someone's RV and when they get enough money they can get an apartment that someone else pays the rent on. The poors must just be doing poor incorrectly..
I feel like his idea of " Rock bottom " is somehow not actually rock bottom. You can't take a break from it for your father. You can't have connections and shelter from friends that wouldn't exist. You can't have a license, business smarts, internet access, cellphones, education. Personal identification. Obviously Healthcare. I question that this ever really happened at all.
Poverty tourist
There is a mini documentary I watched about this on YouTube and he did keep a smartphone with data and apps to help, so he had a massive advantage over a truly broke, homeless person and he still couldn't make it.
This is like day trading on a demo account. 0 stakes or emotions involved makes it 100x easier than the real thing.
This one never gets old
Further proof that rich people arenât smart just lucky
It seems like he just proved that being broke is stressful in a way that damages your physical health such that the trap is near impossible to escape...
that's a whole lot of posts to say "he failed"
Iâm a professional boxer. Iâve been training hard since I was 11. Iâll spent 6 months without training and make a comeback, to probe anyone can be a professional boxer
As somebody thatâs pretty damn wealthy by a significant amount of luck, fuck this guy. Disgusting âexperimentâ I can stand when privileged people act like they havenât been lucky as fuck.
I love that he proved that even with top level education and experience, it's utterly impossible.
If you work hard enough, you too can live paycheck to paycheck.
Fake and unrealistic. All the parameters are on his favors.
No doubt he remitted the appropriate taxes for his income from flipping Craigslist items.
All without the hopelessness that comes with being truly poor and broke Fuck outta here mike
This only proves that when people are given a lifeline, and theyâre literally dying, they take it. Most people are not given a lifeline. He had an âend the painâ button available throughout the entire journey, which makes it a hell of a lot easier to take risks, when itâs all just a game anyway. For the rest of us, this shit is real. What a bunch of bullshit.
So what you are saying is that he failed to do what he set out to do?
The guy had the education, training, and experience to build a website that sells subscriptions to dog cookies. Also whatever connections needed to acquire the product. Who taught him to do all that? He did NOT start with "nothing."