earn online

A few years ago, I was a senior in college, deep in interview season, and one of the guys in my dorm had been talking about working at a company (let’s call it Company A) for months. It was an awesome company where he would be doing cutting-edge work — IF he could get an offer.

He was OBSESSED with the firm. He spent weeks prepping, doing informational interviews, researching them, talking to alumni who worked there… and put together a phenomenal interview strategy. And FINALLY, after all his hard work, he received a great job offer from them.

…but then he received a job offer from Company B for about $5,000 more.

Company B was basically a financial chop shop where they took elite grads and forced them to work for 16 hours/day doing Excel and Powerpoint. It has a prestigious name, but the work is a joke (and everybody knew it). Yet they pay top dollar and pick off people like my friend year after year.

It was amazing to watch him change overnight. “Yeah, Company A is pretty cool…but B is doing some REALLY interesting things. I could totally see myself working there for a few years, then doing what I really want. Maybe an MBA? Or starting my own firm?”

I’ll never forget thinking that it only cost $5,000 to buy his dream and squash it.

* * *

“Only $5,000?”

That last sentence startles a lot of people.

“Only $5,000″? To a 21-year-old college student (or anyone, actually), sounds like a huge amount.

But it made me really sad to see someone sell out for that much.

Back then, I hadn’t developed my philosophies about Conscious Spending and honestly, I was more judgmental than I am now. So keep that in mind when I tell you what happened.

“Why would you turn down your DREAM JOB for a little extra money?” I asked.

“It’s not just about the money,” he said. “The work is really interesting and I think there are some good opportunities once I finish my two years there. And it is an amazing brand on my resume. Yeah, the money is good, too…”

This was a guy who’d spent months CONSUMED with getting into the other company. He knew exactly what he would do there. We used to joke about these big-name companies that just swoop in and buy the best talent, but then stick them in jobs that a monkey could do. Plus, he essentially had his pick of jobs and was graduating debt-free from Stanford (thanks to his parents). He could work anywhere and not worry about money.

Now this is going to sound a little arrogant, but I said it back then, and I still mean it today.

“Dude, $5,000?” I told him. “In the grand scheme of things, that’s NOTHING. If you make the right moves, you’ll be able to make that in a month…or even a day.”

And in fact, since then, I’ve made twenty times that…in one HOUR.

* * *

“The psychology of turning down $300,000″

But even though he loved this company, and had psychologically committed to working there for MONTHS, when he got slapped in the face with a fat job offer he changed overnight. It’s hard to turn down that amount, even if it only adds up to about $100 per week. It’s difficult to imagine your friends making thousands more than you do… even though you “could” have made that much.

And so he went to work there. He hated the job. But he made money, and now he’s become yet another finance guy.

There’s another way.

I know several friends who could have worked at any of these top firms, but they didn’t. They turned down the easy job offer — the easy money — and hustled their way to success.

I’ve been out of college for 5 years now, and the difference is striking.

For example, I turned down job offers from places like Google, Intuit, and several others to co-found my own company. And then I went full-time on “I Will Teach You To Be Rich,” which has given me some phenomenal opportunities — like writing a New York Times bestseller, traveling to speak around the world, and appearing on TV.

This is not just about turning down job offers. Not everybody graduates debt-free, and most of us would be fools to turn down a $5,000 raise.

But the THOUGHT PROCESS — of when to seize easy money, and when to look beyond the short-term cash — is critical.

Do you have a framework to decide which ideas are worth pursuing? If someone offered you $5,000 to switch jobs tomorrow, would you? What about $10,000?

Here, let me show you what I mean. This is an email I got a few months ago, which could have made me several hundred thousand dollars:

My business is called [REDACTED]. I teach people how to trade stocks according to the trend following methodology…. The strategy focuses on simplicity over complicated mathematical algorithms — it is primarily geared toward using simple “back of the envelope” math to ensnare huge trends and ride them out to fruition…

Of course, I also wouldn’t expect you to recommend my product for free. I have the product (one 215 page book, 4+ hrs of audio, and a 1 hr 53 min backtesting video) on ClickBank for $97, and my affiliates earn a 50% commission for each sale that they generate. According to Feedburner, you have over 210,000 subscribers. If the marketing standard 3% of that list purchases the product, you could earn over $300,000.

This guy is smart. He wrote me a personalized email, calculated the numbers, and showed me how I could basically make several hundred thousand dollars with one email.

So when I ask you what you’d do for $5,000 or $10,000, it’s not a hypothetical question. This is a lot of money we’re talking about.

Unfortunately, I don’t believe in trading systems like this. That’s why I wrote my book, which you can get for about $10 at Amazon, including a full chapter on why “expert” advice about sophisticated trading strategies is overrated — and how you can automatically invest for very low fees.

I’m sure this guy is a nice guy, and maybe his system works…but I’m not willing to promote it. Even for $300,000 of easy money.

That’s because my relationship with my readers (aka you) is worth WAY more than that. I know that, over time, if I give you awesome mater