Journey In The Jungle - What I Learned About Real Estate from Amazon

If you happened to read my first blog post, I briefly mentioned my background with e-commerce, specifically selling on Amazon.  In this post, I'll be sharing my story and how surviving the treachery of the e-commerce jungle has better prepared me for success in real estate.

Three years ago I decided to hustle.  I knew I wanted to generate income via a side hustle and two business models seemed alluring.  Real Estate and building a brand on Amazon.  I traveled a lot for work at the time (still do...) and I didn't think it would be possible to build a real estate business from around the world.  So I decided to build an Amazon business.

It was an arduous journey fraught with analysis paralysis, scheming sales gurus, mastermind groups that weren't committed to success and tricky Chinese suppliers.  Essentially, it was a very steep learning curve.  After about 8 months, I finally launched my first product.  I spent $15,000 on initial inventory and I was sure it was going to be the start of me making millions.

My first product that cost me $30,000 :-(

I was wrong, my first product failed miserably.  I was an inexperienced seller in a very competitive niche, competing against experienced sellers with much more knowledge and resources.  After 6 months of frustration, I finally quit on that product and wrote off about $30,000 as a loss.  It stung, but more so it pissed me off.

Taking that loss motivated me like none other to find a way to succeed.  I was close to quitting but was too stubborn to admit defeat.  I doubled down on my learning, reached out to experienced sellers for help and found ways to get funding for my second product.  I took all of the lessons learned and although it wasn't easy, I succeeded with my second and third products.

Amazon sales for the first 3 weeks of April 2020

Now I generate $20,000/month in revenue with a 15% profit margin with only a few hours of work a week.  I achieved what I set out to accomplish.

So what did I learn from it?  Well I learned 4 important lessons:

• 1. I'm not passionate about e-commerce.  I was motivated by anger to succeed with my second product. There's still a lot I could do to grow the brand on and off of Amazon but I really don't enjoy doing the things it would take to build a truly successful brand.  If I want long term success, I need to focus on something I'm passionate about, like Real Estate!
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• 2. Fail early and fast.  If I had focused on taking action rather than having the perfect plan in place, I would have realized the err of my thinking sooner and been able to move past my initial failure faster.  In any new endeavor there will be a learning curve.  The sooner you can take action, make mistakes and learn from them, the sooner you can reach success.
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• 3. Hustle and grit will separate you from the rest of the pack.  I can't tell you how many people I interacted with that wished for success but weren't willing to do what it took to truly succeed.  Have a goal, learn what it takes to get there and here's the hard part, PUT IN THE WORK!
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• 4. Real Estate is the best builder of long term wealth.  I've built a successful amazon business but it can't provide long term wealth and stability like real estate.  My entire business is subject to the whims of Jeff Bezos and the latest Amazon terms of service.  My brand could be attacked by Chinese sellers or suspended by Amazon for no apparent reason.  Amazon is lucrative but risky.

The truly exciting part is that even if I do sell my Amazon brand, I'll still take with me the lessons I learned and skills I've acquired.  So while I might be new to real estate, I'm no stranger to dusting myself off after failure or overcoming obstacles.

I'd love to hear about your adventures outside of real estate, please comment with what you've overcome!

Thanks for reading and see you on the flip side!

Justin