The Secret of a Colleague's First Fortune

The first fortune is always a hard nut to crack, not because you're not working hard enough, but because you haven't grasped the underlying logic. A former colleague who now earns over a million annually shared his insights, debunking the common misconceptions about making money. It's not about slaving away for long hours; it's about 'targeted efforts' instead of 'blind hard work'. These three counterintuitive logics enabled him to amass startup capital in just three years.

The narrower the pain point, the fewer the competitors

Most people pursuing financial success focus on the 'big markets,' trying their hands at e-commerce and services simultaneously. As a result, they spread their energy too thin and end up mediocre across all areas. Our colleague also initially made this mistake. Later, he discovered that the key lies in finding 'narrow pain points'. Instead of offering comprehensive solutions for e-commerce sellers, he focused solely on the issue of " slow cross-border customs clearance'.

The method is straightforward: spend a week chatting with 100 cross-border sellers, note their most frequent complaints, identify the one that occurs most often and for which no one is willing to guarantee a solution, and then go all out. The more specific the pain point, the less competition there is, and the more willing customers are to pay.

Putting results first naturally builds trust.

Novices often think, 'Let's build a good reputation first and then charge fees.' However, the reputation-building period is so long that they often give up halfway. Our colleague did the opposite. He promised results first and then earned trust. He once offered free customs clearance services to three sellers, stating, 'I'll ensure clearance within seven days; otherwise, I'll bear the losses.' Relying on these three successful cases, subsequent customers came to him voluntarily.

The core of this approach is to avoid vague promises, specify deliverables, and use small-scale trials to build a reputation that others might take years to build.

Replicate value, rather than sell time.

Working a regular job means selling your time hour by hour, and it's impossible to earn your first fortune this way. The crucial step for our colleague was to shift from 'doing it all himself' to 'letting a process do it'. He broke down the core steps of customs clearance into 12 standardised processes, trained two fresh graduates to take over, and focused only on client acquisition and process optimisation. This is equivalent to selling the same value to multiple customers repeatedly.

The method is simple: identify your core revenue-generating activities, find someone to replace you, free yourself from repetitive tasks, and focus on more valuable activities.

The Importance of Focus and Precision

Many people fail to build their first fortune because they try to be all things to all people. They aim to serve more customers and solve more problems, but end up doing everything poorly. When choosing services, customers don't pick the ones that 'do everything'; they choose the ones that 'best solve their pain points'. Focusing on narrow pain points doesn't mean giving up the big market. It's about making a precise entry, establishing a foothold, and then expanding.

The Power of Promising Results

People hesitate to commit to results because they lack confidence. But confidence isn't inborn; it's gained through small-scale verification. When our colleague offered his first free service, he was also worried about failure and made double the preparations. Putting results first isn't a risky move; it's about using 'bearable losses' to gain 'opportunities for rapid breakthroughs', which is ten times more efficient than slow-paced accumulation.

Breaking the Earnings Ceiling

Selling time sets a ceiling on your earnings. A person only has 24 hours a day, and no matter how hard they work, they can't earn much. The key to earning the first fortune is to turn 'one-off labour ' into' replicable value'. Even if you only have one standardised process at the beginning, as long as someone else can take it over, you'll have time to pursue larger deals and improve services, which will naturally double your income.

Implementing the Three Logics

Implementing this logic is a simple three-step process.

- First, identify the pain point: ask ten target customers to find out the specific problem they're most willing to pay to solve and focus on it.

- Second, earn trust: offer free services to two or three customers to achieve results and get real-life case studies.

- Third, replicate: document the core processes, train new people, step away from execution, and focus on customer acquisition and process optimisation.

Against Over - Accumulation

Don't be overly reliant on the idea of 'earning money after sufficient accumulation'. By the time most people think they've accumulated enough, either their enthusiasm has waned or the market has changed. Earning the first fortune requires 'rapid verification' rather than 'perfect preparation'. If our colleague had waited until he 'fully understood the business', others would have seized the opportunity long ago.

The Logic of Value Matching

The underlying logic of making money is 'value matching'. The more acute the pain points you can solve, the more tangible the results you can provide, and the higher the replication efficiency, the easier it is to make money. Those who can't earn their first fortune aren't lacking in value; they just haven't focused on, validated, and replicated it.

The First Fortune as a Mindset Shift

The first fortune isn't the end of the journey; it's the starting point of a new mindset. It teaches you not just how to make money, but how to replace blind hard work with logical thinking. Our colleague said that he has applied these three logics to other projects and has never failed.

The Core Points of Earning the First Fortune

The core of building the first fortune comes down to three points: focusing on narrow pain points, earning trust through results, and improving efficiency through replication. Hard work is essential, but finding the right approach can make it much easier for you to use. The difficulty of earning the first fortune lies in the fact that no one tells you it's about the density of value, not the length of time you put in.