Did I Say Twenty Steps?

February 6, 2012

In its purest form, I imagined this experiment as 20 individual purchases, each selling for double the price I purchased them.  What I'm finding is that my plan may have been financially romantic.

It's appearing very difficult to find an item for sale at just the right moment, at just the right price, just when I have the funds available.  Let's call it The Impossible Trifecta.  

Some items I'm able to make 10% profit and others over 400% profit.  Should I just go with the flow of this thing and truly try to buy something for the exact amount of change I have in my ever bulging piggy bank? Or should I do whatever it takes to attain a certain level of money which will allow me to buy the most lucrative item, even if that means adding supplementary steps in between?

For example, I have an item in mind for my $1,500 level.  But right now I only have $1,250.  I see three choices here: I could offer the seller what I have and see if they accept.  I could sell one or two smaller items to get me to $1,500.  Or I could scrap the $1,500 item and try to buy something now for $1,250.  The problem with that last approach is that I don't know what I could buy for $1,250 right now and double my money on.  Also, I'm not very interested in waiting around for something at that price level that fits within the Trifecta.

It seems that my first attempt at the experiment I should follow the same advice I was given in preparation for The Honolulu Marathon, my first 26.2 mile running event.  The sage words: just go out there, have fun and finish the thing.

While I love the idea of 20 succinct steps (or less) leading to the prize, I don't feel that my first attempt is the place to remain a purist in that number.  "Wow, you earned a million dollars in 65 transactions? That's great."   I don't think I'd have a bad day if that's how I was greeted at a future party.

There's another wrench which has been thrown into the gears: other people are stepping forward to help me with this.  It's a good problem to have, but how could it affect the project? Friends of mine have started getting enthusiastic about my project and have begun giving me items to sell to help me reach my goal.  The items aren't costing me anything since I'm not buying them, yet I get to keep all or half of the profit, depending on the arrangement. Do these items each need to count as separate steps?

Heaven help me get to the first million.  But if I do and I'm not burnt out on this game, I'd like to try a second round of truly pure stepping, Trifecta and all.  But for now, let's get the money.

4 comments:

  1. I completely agree with your decision. Get the money!!

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  2. You made remarkable progress with your project! It reminds me on Double Your Way to a Million System, which was published as free e-book few years ago. There were quite a lot "doublers" (me included) that were trying to follow the system and double their way up. We all had blogs and even one of doublers made a forum where we exchanged ideas and successes. You made once of the best progresses of all the doublers I ever saw online. In this Doubling System you started with nothing and your first step is to find 1 penny. Then double that penny to 2 pennies etc. In 28 steps you reach 1 Million. Steps are fixed by doubling amounts, but the rules highlight that you don't have to complete 1 step in one transaction, but rather you can make more transactions per 1 step. That means your transaction that result in less than doubling are perfectly fine. You just need more transaction on some steps. If you'd like I can send you this e-book with doubling rules.

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  3. Edo, if you get this, it would be fun to read that rule book on doubling. Post a link to it or email it to me. Thanks! runforrestrun@hotmail.com

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  4. Brian, I just emailed you this doubling rule book. All the best for your doubling project!

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