Last updated on October 21st, 2021 at 12:29 pm

What are the keys to success?

I’m sure you could read a million different topics and opinions about what ultimately leads to great success and those who achieve it.

I mean, there are entire books, audio tapes, movies, tv shows, and magazines created for this topic. But, I think I’ve narrowed it down. Yes, Harrison Bevins has found the secret formula to success (errr, maybe)…

And it’s really quite simple.

It comes down to two things:

Patience and persistence.

These two characteristics are really the fundamental factor that can make the difference between success and failure. How many successful people do you know who made it big overnight?

Probably not many.

How many of the successful ones spent months or even years before they reaped the rewards from their efforts?

Most likely all of the successful people you know.

Okay, so why are you telling us this?

Well, if you don’t remember, a couple weeks ago I made a post about Taiwan and how awesome it was to visit and how I planned to move there.

In reality, this post gave off the vibe of “I hate China and I’m moving to Taiwan ASAP.” And to be honest, those feelings were real; however, after some hard thinking, I’ve realized that I’ve been a little too harsh on China and haven’t been patient enough to see the real benefits of what me being here can offer.

Furthermore, I noticed that anytime in my life when I’m not completely enthused with where I’m at I tend to make rash decisions, whether that’s quitting my high paying job or pulling all-nighters Hong Kong (okay, all-nighters in HK are actually awesome).

This time I decided to take a step back and look at why I felt like leaving and if I did, what I could potentially be missing out on. My reevaluation on this decision coupled with other exciting opportunities that popped up gave me the idea to stay put. At least for the time being.

And I’d like to share why…

The Mastermind Group

We wish our meetings looked this cool. We’ll get there…

I read this book called Think and Grow Rich. You might’ve heard of it. Maybe you haven’t. Either way, if you are a person who wants to be successful in life then I suggest you stop whatever you’re doing and buy this book now.

I read it twice and it really hit home with everything that is going on in my life right now.

One thing that really clicked is how the author explains that every successful person he came across in his interviews has a “mastermind group” which is essentially a group of your peers, business associates, close friends, or anyone else who can get your ass in motion, that you meet with every week to discuss goals and how you plan to accomplish those goals.

It’s an excellent way to continue pushing yourself while being surrounded in an environment that fosters hard work, creativity, and the desire to achieve anything that you put your mind to.

In the last couple weeks it dawned on me that this is exactly what we have here in China—our own “mastermind group.”

A few guys and myself meet every week and keep each other on track, discussing what we’re working on, where we want to be in the upcoming months, and give critical feedback to ensure that we are all focused and driving forward towards success.

It hit me one day, “If I move from Guangzhou right now, after all I’ve done to get situated here, I’m going to miss out on something big. Plus, finding another group of young guys like me who are all interested in and doing the same things will not be easy. I’ll end up wasting months just trying to get plugged in to the new communities wherever I decide to go.”

Making $$$ on the Interwebs

My “happy face”

Another reason I decided to postpone the move is that some interesting opportunities began to show up. I don’t want to give out too much information yet, but to give you some idea we have a product that we can sell.

Vague right?

Okay here’s some more detail.

Our friend back in the States created a supplement product back in 2013 and has given us free reigns to do whatever we want with it in terms of marketing and advertising.

And the terms are favorable—anything we sell over $300 is ours to keep.

The timing really couldn’t have been better. We’ve all been eating up books and courses on online marketing, copywriting, and social media advertising and now we get to test drive it in real time without any upfront investment or lost time in developing a brand new product from scratch.

Pretty fucking good deal if you ask me.

But, this got us all brainstorming and the dots began to connect.

We are starting to see the value in being in Guangzhou—every product you can think of is manufactured here. What used to look like an non-viable option to make money is now looking more and more possible every day.

All of these things kind of happened at once and I took it as a sign to stay in Guangzhou.

The plan is to bust our asses marketing this product and start to build our own product in the meantime. We understand the sales channels that we can make an impact in and what we need to get it done. If all goes well, there is some insane money to be made.

Let’s run through an example to illustrate:

This product sells for $30 per bottle. Let’s say we reach a targeted audience of 10,000 people per day and maybe 1% of those targeted actually buy. That is $30 x 10,000 x 1% = $3,000.

Pretty damn nice, huh?

Okay but let’s be even more conservative and say that only 0.5% of those who are targeted actually buy. Now we’re looking at $1,500 in sales a day. Still not bad at all.

Now let’s multiply that by 30 days to get our monthly gross profit. $1,500 x 30 = $45,000!

See why the internet is fucking awesome?!

You might be thinking, “This isn’t realistic. How the fuck are you going to do that?”

Well, this is the type of work we’ve been reading up on and trying to implement for other clients since the moment I arrived in December of last year. The other guys I live with have been here even longer. Now we’re just starting to see how we make it work and do it for ourselves.

Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of legwork to be done but the main thing is, we know we can do it with the resources at our disposal. Before, there were too many moving parts and it seemed overly complicated. But it’s like all the pieces of the puzzle have come together in the last few weeks and we are moments away from realizing the big picture.

And this brings me back to that idea that the keys to success include patience and persistence. I know that we’re not going to hit a home run on the first go, or maybe the second, third, or tenth. But, I do know that if we run 100 campaigns or try to market 100 different products, that one of these fuckers is gonna click and when it does, you can scale like a motherfucker… Say hello to $$$.

What Now?

In short, I will not be moving to Taiwan this summer. I feel that I would be throwing away a giant opportunity and I’d end up kicking myself in the ass for it.

With that being said, this blog will probably become more focused on what type of work I’m doing and the progress I’m making. I’ve been struggling to find out what niche I want to serve with this blog but I’m still in the early stages of this adventure so it’s tough to say where I’ll be by the end of the year.

Of course, I’d like to continue writing about traveling and things of that nature; however, I’m learning about the value in branding yourself as an authority figure in whatever it is you are passionate about. As of now that passion for me is learning about online marketing and using those skills to not only build your own business but to help other businesses succeed as well.

Anyway, be prepared for more posts about random thoughts, my personal progress, and some nifty things about Guangzhou!