Hello Folks!

My name is Jerry X and I have been living off income produced by sharing economy apps ever since I graduated high school. I’m starting this blog to help entrepreneurial minded people develop a foundation upon which they can make money in a nontraditional manner. Over the next few weeks I will be posting my journey: from the moment I made my first dollar on the internet to now. I hope that by spreading this knowledge and teaching others of my mistakes I can help anyone that’s just started. I want to see everyone succeed – by doing so the overall experience and popularity of my current income streams will see continued growth.

A little about myself:

• Ohio State University 2015
• Real estate agent in Ohio
• Run 4 AirBnBs in Columbus, OH – Look at my listings here!
• Owner of a fleet of 10 cars on Turo – Check out my cars in LA!
• Auto Broker – JP Auto Brokers
• Uber/Lyft Driver
• Prospective law school student

My story:

I grew up in a Suburban area in Knoxville, TN as a first generation Asian American. My parents both came from China to pursue further education and better opportunities – this allowed me and my brother to grow up in a household that focused on academic success and have access to tools that helped us dev

elop. Contrary to my parents, I had a knack for entrepreneurial ventures. I still remember when I first started selling lemonade and snacks in front of our house on the weekends. The excitement of never knowing when the next sale was coming followed by the injection of adrenaline when you made a sale was something that really captured my attention. As I grew up, whenever I found a way to replicate that feeling I always found a way to experience it. Yard sales, school coupon book fundraisers, and selling candy at school were some of the few things that enabled me to quench my entrepreneurial thirst. As I finished high school, I simply shuttled off to college. This was the path that was set out by my parents so even though I didn’t have an idea of what I truly wanted to do I went to satisfy the obligation that I perceived I had to my parents.

As I moved into my dorm I was excited about what the future would bring. I had decided to go to a university that was out of state to experience life where I had no roots or connections. As school begin it quickly became apparent that I still did not know exactly what I wanted to do. Each general education class was a drag and I found myself finding escape in video games. Since I was spending so much time playing games and whenever I called back home my parents would always wonder if I was going to get a part time job to sustain myself. This got me thinking, what can I do to earn myself enough money to pay for my expenses but also not have to be subject to the hours of a traditional job? I needed to find a plan quick. My parents made it clear that they wanted me to make some money just to start learning about responsibility.

League of Legends – A job?

Months went by without me finding a job. One day I was playing League of Legends and was chatting with my friends on Skype. They mentioned something about “boosting” other people’s account in exchange for money. At the time I was a decent player so I had the aptitude to easily increase other players’ rank but never considered providing coaching and boosting services to others. I quickly asked a friend that had experience doing so and they gave me a rundown on what their experience had been like. Knowing I had to make some money quickly, I asked if I could work with them on a few jobs. Since we had known each other for a long time, it wasn’t a problem. They gave me my first job and I completed it within a day. I made a PayPal account and they sent me the money (minus their cut) immediately. This had me so excited! I had found a way to make money and I quickly started doing research and found myself back at an online forum called Sythe that I had used to purchase RuneScape gold in the past. I started a thread with prices that undercut the competition and was focused on providing fast and reliable service. Within months I had amassed dozens of vouches and established myself in the boosting community. Although the initial money was pretty bad (I th

ink it was averaging out to be 3$-4$ per hour) I knew that it was a temporary problem. Once I had the trust established, I could charge premium rates. I soon found myself to have more customers than time even though my new prices were significantly higher than my starting prices. Realizing this, I now knew I had an opportunity to expand. I hired a few of my friends and started to distribute jobs to them for a cut of the overall order price. After a few months of continued success I realized that in order to fully capture the opportunities that this market was generating I needed to create a website. I had zero experience in development so I had to ask around in order to find a developer. Once I found a developer I invested a significant portion of the money I had saved from the beginning in creating a site. After the site was finished I went on a forum called Blackhatworld to learn about Search Engine Optimization.

Release of Old School Runescape

In 2013 the re-release of one of my favorite childhood games was announced. Having established a reputation from my elo boosting ventures, I was able to quickly start a gold selling business, you can still see it today. RSgoldstop.com was created and I became one of the top sellers on that forum. Eventually my studies at OSU required the bulk of my attention and my e-commerce ventures whittle away although at one point the rs gold site was generating almost $8k in profits per monthThe next step of my journey was when I acquired a fixer upper rental property near OSU. Having finished my first year of school, I needed to find a place to stay for the next three years. I decided that it was optimal to invest the funds I saved while operating my e-commerce sites into a down payment on a campus property. Since the economy was still recovering from the recession, I was able to find a property within 2 miles of campus for $82,000. With the help of my parents I was able to get a loan under the condition I was responsible for all of the renovation costs. I poured my entire savings I had from my online ventures into the property and fully renovated the property. After work was complete at the house, I was able to rent the spare rooms in the house to international students on a month to month basis. The income generated was more than enough to sustain my lifestyle during college.

First job: Aldi

In Dec 2015 I graduated from the Fisher College of Business. Upon graduation I was scheduled to start my job as a District Manager Trainee at Aldi (I highly recommend shopping there if you’ve never tried it out, it’s great value for the same produce that other grocery stores receive). Within 7 months I know the job wasn’t the right fit for me and I moved on. Although my tenure at Aldi was short, it provided great experience in real world responsibilities and for that I am thankful. Before I submit my resignation letter I was able to use the W-2 income to acquire another property in the university district.

Where I am today

The property that I acquired was quickly converted into an AirBnB. For the next year I cleaned the property and managed the entire process while playing poker in Columbus. The entire year was really fun but soon I realized that I wanted to experience a more meaningful career. After traveling to Vegas for the World Series of Poker I decided I wanted to move out to California and start a business with my friend. I quickly packed up my bags and started my road trip on the historic Route 66 towards Los Angeles. I was there within a week, and since then I have worked in the car industry as a salesperson, created a Turo fleet in LA, and have opened up an Auto Brokerage to help

others find cars at great prices. That’s basically my story – if you are curious in any regards to the various aspects, I’m happy to talk! If you do need help in anything that falls under my expertise I am willing to provide guidance the best I can. Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope my future articles will be of use to you and your development as an entrepreneur.

Regards,

Jerry