I don't think I've ever told this to anyone.
(it was so long ago I'd basically forgotten)
But my first business was not EGTBasketball.
And it was not a success.
The time is October, 2009.
I've locked myself away in my university dorm room as a party roars outside my door.
My eyes are wide as I sit, hunched over my laptop, waves of excitement washing over me.
I've just stumbled upon the underground world of online business...
...A world that, at the time, was almost entirely unknown.
Twitter and YouTube still felt brand new.
I hadn't even heard of Instagram, yet.
And if someone called you a "creator" you'd assume it was slang for "broke art student."
But as I tumbled down the online marketing rabbit hole...
...Eyes bloodshot, neck straining, frantically clicking through the 17 open tabs on my screen as I maniacally consumed every back-alley blog post, video, interview and e-book I could get my hands on...
...A single question dominated my mind:
"Where the hell do I even start?"
Even back then, the number of opportunities was dizzying.
One expert maintained that blogging was the holy grail.
Another insisted "blogging is dead!"...
...And that eBay reselling was the NEW, cool, so-easy-even-your-dog-could-do-it way to make money from your kitchen table in your underwear.
SEO was the content play-of-the-day.
And selling e-Books and membership sites actually seemed pretty viable.
But of all the options available...
...The one I chose was...
...Wait for it...
(God help me)
...Affiliate marketing.
Yep:
Affiliate marketing.
It seemed easy enough:
Just send traffic to other people's products, and they'll pay you for every sale!
No need to:
- Build your own website
- Create your own course
- Change out of your pyjamas in the morning before going to work.
Fool-proof!
Only, I was a bigger fool than I thought.
Affiliate marketing, it turns out, is like doing math for a living.
Analyzing numbers, data, spreadsheets, CPCs, CTRs, CPMs, CP-holy-sh*t-this-is-not-what-I-signed-up-for.
For a kid who failed 11th grade math...
(turns out skipping class to shoot extra shots in the gym is not a good study strategy)
...Affiliate marketing was about the worst business model I could have chosen:
One that played to all of my weaknesses, and none of my strengths.
Thankfully, the story has a happy ending.
After a few months of failing as an affiliate, and feeling like my head was made of cement...
...A lucky sequence of events led me to launching my own basketball shooting program (Prolific Shooting).
This new model -- online courses -- played to all of my strengths, and none of my weaknesses.
Instead of drowning in data, I was teaching what I already knew, and allowing my natural creativity to flow.
For the first time in my life, work didn't feel like work.
It felt like play:
Like something I'd already been doing my entire life, for free -- but now I was getting paid (and paid well) for it.
The rest, as they say, is history.
15 years and 8 figures in revenue later, that one lesson...
Build a business that matches your natural strengths
...Has been like a shining light, guiding me through the maze of online business:
A labyrinth with endless tunnels, each one shiny and shimmering and full of voices that call to you, insisting their path is the best path...
...The one that will finally lead you through the dark, twisting chaos and into the light of lifetime financial freedom.
This maze was daunting to navigate back in 2009.
But it is exponentially more complex today, in 2025.
The online world has never been noisier, more confusing, or more overwhelming than it is today.
But it has also never been so full of opportunity.
And, those who are able to...
- Cut through the noise and chaos
- Find the business model that matches their unique strengths and personality pattern
- Focus relentlessly on that one business model, blocking all distractions for as long as it takes to break through
...Will gain access to a world of opportunity that has never been seen before in human history.
The question now is:
How do you match your natural business strengths to your best-fit business model and growth strategy, so you can finally achieve real liftoff?
That's exactly what we're going to focus on this week.
Stay tuned.
- T
P.S. This Thursday, I will begin accepting applications for our FounderLab program:
A live, 6-week incubator for early-stage online businesses who want a proven system for scaling to $10k/mo and beyond.
However, please note:
This is not a passive course, this is an incubator.
We aren't window-shopping business opportunities...
We're building in real time, using a combination of personal coaching and proprietary AI tools.
Since I'll be giving everyone one on one attention, I'm only accepting 15 founders.
So please only consider applying if you're committed to building, launching, and scaling a real business:
Now, not someday in the future.
First to apply will get first priority.
If you want to get on our early-invite list, reply with the word "interested" and I'll make sure you get first crack when the doors open.
P.P.S. If you missed yesterday's email, please read it now.
There is an important message in it, and I don't want it to get lost as the excitement builds for FounderLab.