Before the internet, running a business was a rich person’s sport.

• You needed capital.
• You needed connections.
• You needed an office, employees, and a spirit strong enough to survive mountains of paperwork.

But today?

The internet changed everything.

• You don’t need a giant office. 
• You don’t need a warehouse full of products nobody wants.
• You don’t even need to leave your couch.

All you need is an internet connection, a skill, and discipline (the art of showing up even on bad days).

Imagine a caveman traveled through time and saw people making money by making videos or writing online. He’d freak out and whack us with his club. But here we are. We live in a world where people make money teaching Excel, reviewing vacuum cleaners, or explaining the stock market using Minecraft.

Meanwhile, most people still sit at desks for eight hours pretending to work when they could do their actual job in three.

Last year I made $70,000+.

• No ads.
• No employees.
• No fancy office with an espresso machine that makes you feel important.

Just social media.

• I shared what I knew.
• I helped people.
• I reached out.

Brick by brick, I built something that let me escape the 9-5 treadmill.

If you want real freedom, the one where you can take a Wednesday off because you feel like it, you need a business.

Not for the money (though money is nice).

Not for the status (nobody actually cares).

But because owning your time is the real flex.

And if you still think it’s not for you, here are five reasons you should reconsider:

Health: The Modern Burnout Machine

Modern society is addicted to stress. Working 8 to 12-hour days has become the norm. This grind should be for AI, factory robots, and that one dude who volunteers for extra work. Humans need rest. We need space. We need a solid nap.

Let’s put things into perspective. Prehistoric hunter-gatherers worked 2 to 4 hours a day to secure everything they needed to survive. The rest of their time? They relaxed, built tools, and told stories by the fire.

Today’s world is different. It runs on alarms we hate, fast mornings, uncomfortable clothes, crazy traffic, and work that doesn’t matter. We commute home, handle chores, binge-watch something to feel human again, then pass out. Only to do it all over again.

The system isn’t broken. They built it this way. It keeps people tired, drained, and functional enough to show up again tomorrow. No wonder half the population runs on caffeine.

Starting a digital business isn’t just about money. It’s about breaking free from this madness. It removes the 8-12 hours of soul-sucking work, eliminates commuting, and gives you back your time before life slips away.

Starting a digital business while working a job is rough. You’ll be tired. You’ll question everything. You’ll want to quit. But as your business grows, as you learn and start making more money, you get options. First, you replace your job. Then, you hire others to handle repetitive tasks. Or you automate them to robots. And just like that, the weight lifts.

All of a sudden, life stops feeling like a treadmill. You work when you want. You rest when you need. And, for the first time, you experience what our ancestors did…

The ability to wake up without an alarm and exist for a moment.

Leverage: Why the 9-5 is a Rigged Game

Let’s play a game.

Guess how much a customer service rep at a bank in London makes per year (on average).

£21,173. Before taxes.

Alright, let’s look at a bank manager. The big boss. Surely they’re making big money.

£40,462. Before taxes.

But let’s say you’re ambitious. You spend 20-30 years climbing the corporate ladder. You’re outworking your colleagues, surviving office politics, and somehow become CEO.

Your reward?

A salary between £250,000 and £500,000 per year.

Sounds great. Until you realize you’re working 8-12 hour days, drowning in meetings, putting out corporate fires, and constantly managing the expectations of shareholders and the board. Even at the highest level, you’re still someone else’s employee.

See the problem? Corporate jobs have no real leverage. Your income is capped. No matter how hard you work, you’re still trading time for money. And even at the very top, you’re still on a leash. Just a shinier, more expensive one.

Now, let’s compare that to the digital business world.

• Dan Koe scaled to $1M-$2M a year by writing 4 hours a day.
• Iman Gadzhi built a multimillion-dollar marketing agency with a team of 2-4 people.
• Solopreneurs are making more than bank CEOs without ever stepping foot in a boardroom.

That’s leverage.

You don’t need a massive team. You don’t need VC funding. You don’t need to wait 30 years for a promotion that might never come.

• You can become a millionaire by writing 4 hours a day.
• You can build a multimillion-dollar business with 2-4 people.

And if you’re consistent? The average digital entrepreneur can reach six figures in 3–4 years and become a millionaire in 5–6 years. That’s the average. If you’re above average, it can take 1–2 years to hit six figures. It depends on your background and how good you are at building, marketing, and selling products.

If you want to go faster, get a mentor. Buy a course, hire a coach, or learn from someone who’s already done it. That’s how you shrink the gap between idea and execution.

Leverage is the difference between working for a paycheck and building a machine that prints money while you sleep.

Stop playing rigged games when you could build your own.

Network: The Hidden ROI of Doing Business Online

When I first started doing outreach, I thought I was hunting for clients. A way to make money. But I quickly realized I was building long-term relationships with smart people.

They weren’t people handing me money. They were high performers across multiple industries. People who think differently, move differently, and play the game at a higher level.

When you surround yourself with high performers, everything changes:

• New opportunities appear out of nowhere.
• Random conversations turn into collaborations.
• You sponge knowledge that would’ve taken you years to figure out on your own.

These aren’t the kinds of relationships you build when you’re stuck at a 9-5.

Through my work, I’ve connected with professionals in finance, real estate, fitness, personal branding, construction, and more. Every single one of them has expanded my mindset, challenged my thinking, and given me a front-row seat to industries I knew nothing about.

One example is, I didn’t read finance books. I learned from people making millions in real estate. My financial literacy increased from being in the right digital rooms and absorbing knowledge no school or job can teach.

And what’s wild? All of this started because I decided to edit short-form videos. That’s the power of building a digital business. You don’t just make money. You expand your world.

Time: The Ultimate Flex

Let me ask you something.

Do you want to wake up one day, look in the mirror, and realize you spent your best years stuck in the same loop:

• Wake up
• Work, eat, sleep
• Repeat

Until decades have vanished?

• More emails than memories.
• More meetings than time with family.
• More pretending to be busy than living.

People chase promotions and titles like they mean something. But does “Senior Director of Whatever” feel like success if it means more Zoom calls and less freedom?

The biggest flex isn’t a fancy car or a corner office.

The biggest flex is owning your time. Waking up when you want. Working because you choose to. Taking a random Wednesday off because the sun is shining.

Kids get it. They wake up excited, do what makes them happy, and refuse to waste time on things they hate. Adults? They trade their best years for a paycheck and schedule joy for the weekend (if they’re not too tired to enjoy it).

And the scariest part?

Most don’t realize it until it’s too late.

There’s no perfect moment to start living. No email saying, “Hey, you’re finally ready to chase your dreams.”

You just have to do it.

Because the greatest gift you can give yourself, and the people you love, is your time.

Family: The Real Reward

Your parents, the ones who raised you, supported you, and always had your back, are aging. Not a comfortable thought but a real one. The time to create lasting memories with them is running out.

Your siblings, the ones you grew up with, fought with, and made ridiculous inside jokes with, are building their own lives. Their own families. Their own stories.

Your friends, the ones who made life fun, are getting older too.

Everyone is moving forward.

And the window for shared experiences?

Shrinking every single day.

And what are most people doing?

Sitting in an office, staring at a screen, breathing in recycled air, praying the AC works. Or spending years in a warehouse, grinding their bodies down one shift at a time.

Is that how you want to spend your one shot at life?

Or do you want to be present? Not just physically, but fully there. With the people who make life meaningful? Traveling, laughing, making memories that won’t fade in a pile of unread emails?

Money comes and goes. Time only goes. The choice is yours. But just know this…

Time waits for no one.

Best Strategy to Start a Digital Business (Without Wasting Years Chasing the Wrong Things)

Most people want to make money, but instead of learning skills, they’re out here gambling on memecoins, hoping to “get lucky.”

Let’s be clear. Luck is not a strategy. If you want real, repeatable success, you need a high-income skill. Something that businesses and people will always pay for.

I started with video editing as a freelancer because I was good at it. It paid well, gave me control over my time, and was my first step toward financial freedom.

When you’re starting out, trading time for money is the fastest way to make it online so you can leave your 9-5 and build freedom.

Some people say freelancing and coaching aren’t worth it. Wrong. You only need 2–5 clients paying you $2,000/month to quit your 9–5 and live like royalty.

Here’s the path I took (and the one I’m still on):

Step 1: Trade time for money (start a service-business)

You can pick coaching or freelancing. Both work. I picked freelancing because done-for-you services command higher prices than done-with-you services. More money, faster.

Step 2: Learn what works (work with clients, solve problems)

When you work directly with people, you figure out what they need, and what they’ll pay for.

Step 3: Turn that knowledge into a product

Once you know what works, you build a product once and sell it forever. That’s where I am now. I’m creating products to help you duplicate my success (I’ll be releasing a product this month.. how to grow an audience and monetize your skills online)

“Can I jump straight into selling products?”

Yes, you can.

If you have skills or expertise.

If you’re a fitness coach who has helped 5+ people lose weight, document your process, package it into a product, build a lean sales page, and post content daily to market it. You can skip trading time for money.

Another example: If you’re a marketer who helped e-commerce businesses increase their landing page conversions by 1-3%. Write down your process, package it, market it, and sell it.

But if you have no skills or expertise, here’s how to start a service-based business from scratch:

1) Pick a skill and build your personal brand

If you have no idea where to start, writing is one of the best options.

• Blog writing
• Ghostwriting
• Email writing

Anything that helps businesses communicate better.

And if you pick ghostwriting, you’ve got a serious advantage.

Why?

You can start writing on Threads and grow 10x faster than on other platforms. Growth is faster than TikTok.

If you get quick results (hitting 500 followers in 60 days), you can turn that into an offer. Helping others get out of beginner’s hell (0-500 followers).

And boom, now you have a product and a ghostwriting service.

2) Start doing outreach

Most people fail here. Not because they don’t have potential, but because they’re too scared to sell.

If you want to win fast, send 30 DMs a day for 30 days. That’s 900 people. You’ll get at least 9 people interested in what you offer. That’s 1%.

That’s not an exaggeration. Clients don’t magically appear.

You have to hunt and knock on doors (virtually). If you can’t handle rejection, you’re not ready for success.

Make sure to include “I would love to (do X)” in your DMs. “Love” is powerful. Use it.

3) Keep marketing yourself

The better you get at marketing, the less you’ll have to chase clients in the future.

They’ll start coming to you.

Write. Post. Share ideas.

Build demand around what you do.

If nobody knows you exist, they can’t hire you.

4) Play the long game

You don’t need to win every day.

You only need to win once to change your life forever.

You only need to sign one client to snowball the whole thing.

The biggest mistake you can make is quitting too soon.

The second biggest mistake you can make is to never start.

If you commit to this simple plan:

• Pick and learn a high income skill (start today)
• Build your personal brand (start writing on Threads)
• Do cold outreach daily (30 DMs a day)
• Market yourself with content (daily)
• Be patient with results

2025 will be the year you escape the 9-5 prison and build a life of freedom and meaning.

I guarantee you.

Thank you for reading!

J