I was humiliated

One trait every successful entrepreneur has in common is a willingness to “look stupid” in front of others.

For example…

Back when I was in college in 2003, I got into affiliate marketing when poker started booming.

I was a big poker player myself…

So I figured I could make a few hundred bucks a month referring people to sites like Party Poker and Poker Stars.

In the beginning, I didn’t have much money to spend…

I was a broke college kid.

And I barely knew anything about building a website (this was long before WordPress and Clickfunnels made it easy).

So what did I do?

I had the bright idea to do “guerilla marketing”.

I was going to find cheap, out-of-the-box ways to be an affiliate.

So one of my first out-of-the-box ideas was to drive to Kentucky for the Kentucky Derby and hand-out promo cards for all the poker sites I was an affiliate for. 

I figured there would be 50,000+ people at the Derby…

And most of them were gamblers…

So I figured worst case scenario, if I handed out 10,000 cards I would probably get 100 people to sign up.

And if I was getting paid $150 per sign-up…

I’d make $15,000.

It seemed like easy money to me.

So after drinking Jagermeister till 3 in the morning the night before the Derby…

Me and two buddies packed up my little Ford Ranger and drove six hours from Columbus to Lexington the next morning to go to the Derby. 

When we got there, the plan was simple…

We were gonna stand outside the entrance and hand my cards to everyone who was going to the Derby.

It was a total spray-and-pray approach.

But that’s exactly what we did…

We stood outside the gates for nearly five hours handing out cards with my referral codes on them.

With every card we handed out, I got more and more excited. 

I was already tallying up the money in my head.

I was dreaming of the new TV I was gonna buy…

And the big kegger I was gonna throw.

I was all smiles.

However…

In the days that followed, my excitement quickly turned to disappointment. 

Why?

Cause each day when I logged in to check my affiliate stats, they didn’t change.

Party Poker: 0

Poker Stars: 0

Bodog: 0

It was 0’s across the board.

I figured something had to be wrong with the stats, so I emailed all my affiliate managers asking them to look into it.  

But they all came back saying the exact same thing…

“The stats are working perfectly fine”.

After a week went by, I still had 0 sales.

This is when it finally hit me. 

This Kentucky Derby trip was a total flop.

I was crushed.

We drove 6 hours each way, and handed out thousands and thousands of cards in the blistering 100 degree heat…and it was all for nothing.  

Talk about a kick in the nuts.

And being 20 years old, my buddies only made it worse…

Cause when they found out the whole thing actually LOST me money…

I didn’t hear the end of it. 

Every party I was at they made jokes about it.

Even one of the girls I liked (Mal) teased me about it when she was drunk.

It was brutal.

I wanted to curl up in the corner and die.

But looking back on the whole thing now, I’m glad went through that. 

Cause it made me realize that I was willing to look like an idiot to be successful. 

I can tell you this is a very common trait among successful entrepreneurs.

Being willing to be an outcast…

And to look like an idiot in front of others…

Will serve you well.

It’s obviously not easy to do.

And not everyone can handle it.

But if you can endure people making fun of you and thinking you’re an idiot, you’ll have a huge advantage over everyone else.

Cause most people aren’t willing to do this.

They aren’t willing to risk the humiliation…

And to step out of their safe bubble.

But if you are willing to do it…

The rewards for you can be far greater than they are for someone who plays it safe.

That’s all I got for ya today.

Enjoy your Friday,

– Justin