“Alex”, three hustles, two years

Dropshipping store (4 months), crypto signals group (7 months), faceless YouTube automation course (ongoing). Chosen from ads and a friend’s screenshot. Stopped after money ran low or the next opportunity appeared.

Spent

€4,730

Earned

€310

Hours invested

~380

Net loss

€4,420

€2,180

Courses €1,490 · signals subscription €490 · “mentorship call” €200. Confirmed purchases only.

Renewing the signals subscription for a second quarter after it had already underperformed a savings account for the first one. Sunk cost

• Buying instead of executing. Three educational purchases, zero products shipped to a real customer. Counterevidence: the store did go live, execution wasn’t zero, distribution was.
• No demand evidence before spending. First customer conversation: never. First ad spend: week one.

Whether the store niche could have worked with distribution, traffic never reached significance. Unknowns stay unknowns; we don’t fill them with vibes. Evidence missing

• Stop: paying for certainty when what’s missing is evidence.
• Start: three customer conversations before any spend over €50.
• Keep: the bookkeeping habit, these receipts made this report possible.

“I don’t buy education until I’ve spent 10 hours using free material and talked to one person doing the real thing.”