Whenever I'm trying to make a certain amount of money, I draw a variation of this table -
1 x 1,000,000
10 x 100,000
100 x 10,000
1,000 x 1,000
10,000 x 100
100,000 x 10
1,000,000 x 1
Where's the easiest place to hit on the chart? Depends on your skills, your industry, lots of things. But you start noticing interesting trends.
I reckon the $10,000 and $100,000 part of the spectrum is the one most overlooked today... five $100,000 contracts is $500,000.
But again, depends on your skills. A million sales of $1 apps isn't so crazy either.
The chart works more accurately when doing net profit than gross profit, but of course, net profit is harder to figure out upfront. Doesn't include taxes, so if you want to keep the money you've got to figure that too.
But overall, I like drawing those tables and thinking this way. Here's a few ways to make $30,000 for instance -
1 x $30,000
3 x $10,000
6 x $5,000
10 x $3,000
100 x $300
1,000 x $30
10,000 x $3
30,000 x $1
Play around with it. It's a lot of fun.
I. This post outlines Patrick McKenzie - a brilliant technologist and entrepreneur - how he's done such amazing things and learned so much, and why he's getting drastically underpaid and how it's his own fault. This post will be most valuable for technologists who underestimate themselves and undervalue themselves.
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I had never gambled before and knew nothing about it, but I'd gotten too many e-mails like it. I was at my parents house for winter break during my first year at UT, and I was bored.
"Free $50 just for downloading our casino!"
Hmm. That doesn't seem very risky. I might as well download to see what it's all about.