Can you share a short macro‑storyline of your 30‑year financial journey to give context?
I grew up poor; my family immigrated from the Soviet Republic in the 80s‑90s and arrived with no money, connections, or language. They worked hard, and I absorbed their disciplined habits, though I was oblivious as a kid. That experience shaped my view of money and time. In college I initially pursued medicine under family and cultural pressure, but I fell in with open‑minded friends, started a promotions company throwing parties, and reinvigorated my school’s nightlife — making $20‑30k a year and realizing I could impact lives without a degree. After university I became a business owner, faced disappointment and worry, then grinded door‑to‑door sales, cold calling, emailing, and DMing, doing far more outreach than most. That taught me sales and marketing, I launched about ten different businesses, eventually co‑founding 1 Second Copy, an AI‑driven content writing company, found my fit, and scaled it from there.
Started entrepreneurship at 19 by throwing parties and charging entry, hiring a big bouncer. This evolved into a promotions company called Savage Entertainment, which made little money and was mostly for fun. Experimented with Udemy courses, body language training, and various other projects, throwing many ideas at the wall to see what stuck. Began agency work in the early 20s, going door‑to‑door selling local Google My Business marketing services, made no money, took a job at a similar agency to learn how successful businesses operate, then restarted his own agency six months later with far more knowledge and hit the ground running. Took various odd jobs and lived in poor conditions while grinding for about five years before earning enough to stop relying on the bus or thrift stores. Launched several businesses—e‑commerce, dropshipping, SMMA, consultancies—most of which failed. COVID hit and knocked down a business that had been doing okay, prompting a shift to remote work, self‑teaching computer science, and freelancing software engineering gigs. In 2019 began experimenting with AI (GPT‑2), and when GPT‑3 dropped in 2020 he saw a major unlock: using the model’s story mode to generate Fiverr listings proved he could automate freelance writing. Scaled a Fiverr business from 1¢/word to 3¢/word, realized quality limits, partnered with Noah who brought in an admin assistant and built infrastructure, moved to Upwork and other platforms, and began charging ~9‑10¢/word. Hired editors, gained native model access, built training systems that hypercharged writers via AI (4‑5× productivity), grew to $92k in a month and received a buyout offer. After ChatGPT’s release, recognized the competitive advantage of pure AI writing was fading, so he launched an automation agency (Left Click) to implement AI technologies for clients. The agency was profitable from month one, built on a decade of agency and sales skills, and his key lesson is to have started digital work much earlier, which would have left him significantly further ahead.
I love that we're moving to more meaning-based questions — it looks like a lot of people here who've had success following the business and automation content are now at the point of asking 'what the hell is all this for?' The fact that I've helped people get to that point is basically the answer to the question for me. I want to be remembered as the sort of person who helped catalyze people's best selves. The monetization is nice, and yeah, the $500K/month goal is part flashy because it gets clicks — people go 'whoa, isn't that half a million a month' — so it is in my interest, but it doesn't meaningfully impact my life at this point. What meaningfully impacts my life is the meaning of what I'm pursuing; the things I do day to day aren't necessarily financially related. I want to be remembered as somebody who gave far more than they consumed, as a net positive impact on the world, and also as a good partner and a good man — somebody who stood up for the right thing.
I do make a significant amount of money—around $300,000 per month—mainly from the school games (third-party revenue) and another community. I earn far more talking about the stuff than actually doing it, which is typical for an information product: leverage comes from teaching others, allowing them to achieve 100x results while I earn proportionally. What do I do with the money? I don't have guilty pleasures like cars; I invest it. I have friends aiming for tens or hundreds of millions in the S&P 500, but that's never been my primary motivator. When I was broke, an extra $10,000 a year would have dramatically improved my quality of life; now, extra millions don't materially affect it unless you have extreme comfort needs. I'm thankful my family immigrated from Eastern Europe around the fall of communism; they lived frugally, teaching me that a fulfilling life doesn't require a lot of money. Though I now make what most would consider a lot of money, I still find life enjoyable and fulfilling without needing wealth.
More wealth makes it hard to tell if people like you for yourself or just your money; you test with stupid jokes to see their reaction. Many cozy up for the flashy bling, even if you're not flashy yourself. You're not more fulfilled than when you were sleeping in garages and making no money—fulfillment comes from working on stuff you care about, which you did then and do now. Your impact has grown, but your personal fulfillment hasn't, leaving you to wonder what that means for your craving for impact. When broke you could follow curiosity freely; now you constantly weigh financial effectiveness, which can lead to hard days.