It is pretty amazing that an off the wall idea could work. It is extremely hard to think outside the box and keep pushing it and not feeling like you sound like a crack baby telling people about your idea.
I feel like I have came up with some good ideas in the past but felt it was hard to keep the push going to really make them go. Also feeling like I have been to under capitalized to really make a legit go at stuff has been tough also. Hustle can only go so far in some areas.
One insane idea I had but didn't feel like it could be pulled off properly was back when real estate was really down in 2010, 2011, and 2012 here. Basically it was hard to qualify for properties but there was a lot of inventory on the market here and people were having problems selling their properties. The idea was to do a mirror wrap around mortgage on property after property and then basically get roommate and tell the roommates that "I'm mainly living at my girlfriend's house" But in reality I would be doing the same thing to a bunch of different properties and end up where I was cash flowing on all of them which would be easier to do with multiple people in there instead of renting out the entire house to a family because of the inventory levels....etc.
Ultimately there were issues with trying to pull that plan off. Mainly the issues of having so many different people living in the properties and having roommate issues.....etc. Finding the deals weren't that easy either. I only pulled off the mirror wrap around mortgage once. A lot of people were upside down and their best bet was to do a short sell here in Arizona. Even to this day about 15% of people are upside down here in Arizona on their properties but the inventory is fairly low.
Yeah it's Amazing how some ideas that are really pretty dumb just take off becaue peopel want to support the person or think its funny or creative.
I know what you mean about sometimes having an idea and just being like I feel dumb even telling this to people. My gf generally is pretty supportive but doesn't really think outside the box and she's not super into online stuff so I don't think she realizes the power of the internet, but sometimes I'll have a goofy idea and she'll be like that's so dumb lol.
This guy I talked about in the story that's pretty much his thing is comming up with wierd or quirky ideas. He's not really looking to build some huge longterm business just strike on some trending thing. He's been fairly successful with it.
I suppose if someething can be launched very cheaply and without a ton of effort there's no harm in trying
Onetime I tested a crazy idea on Craigslist. I wrote up a thing about a mountain retreat for dogs to see if people would respond.
I talked about how the dogs would chase rabbits and play in the water and meet other dogs. LOL
I had several responses of people saying how this sounded great for their dogs. I had some super high price on it as well. Like $120 for the experience of a lifetime for their dog. LOL
Of course I wasn't set up to go through with it. I even said silly stuff like, "They will ride in luxury up the mountain and will be in an air conditioned SUV and get dog treats in preparation for their adventure. "
Then there would be photos of their dog on their adventure....etc. lol
Another Craigslist hustle that came about was after Colorado legalized weed people in Chicago were putting together bus trips. They'd charter a bus out to Colorado, put you up in some shitty Motel 6 and take you around to a few dispenseries. They were charging quite a bit of money ie thousands for like a weekend bus trip to stay at a motel 6. Not sure how it did business wise but interesting idea
That is pretty funny. That would be a pretty long haul over to Colorado but I guess it would be good for people wanting to check out the scene. I can imagine some local law force probably tried to plant someone on the bus to become friends and then when they got back to Chicago if anyone kept any of the weed they would then bust them for petty pot possession.
I don't know if you heard about this story but some law force put people under cover at a fast food restaurant for months just to get an ounce of weed or something and "clean up the streets" What a joke.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/undercover-operation-burger-king-marijuana_us_57ee7b91e4b082aad9bad66b
Looks like I was too generous. They netted 5 grams of weed in this bust.
Haha, great article. Yeah that really goes to show how much resources are wasted on petty bullshit. 2 Months of paying a cops salary plus overtime to get a small amount of weed.
It reminds me of reading about prositution stings in the local paper for massage parlors. The article we'll be like "police had been investigating this establishment for 2 years and made 17 visits.
Like fuck how dumb are the police really that they needed 2 years to tell that an obvious jack shack is a jack shack lol. If it has blacked out windows, a neon open sign and a table shower there giving handjobs along with the massages.
We have one place in teh same strip mall as this italian joint I love and the place next door is a 24 hours massage place that says girls girls girls and I believe advertises topless massages openly. You can tell from driving by what these places are.
Personally I don't make any moral judgements on it, it should probably just be legal to get a handy with your massage if its two consenting adults and if its illegal its illegal go make your arrests but seriously that long to investigate?
Sorry for the long handjob jackshack rant.
That article also reminds me of this fascinating documentary called crackhouse usa which was up in Rockford ILlinois. Its been a while since i watched it but the jist of it is gangbangers from Chicago were running drugs up to Rockford. They somehow got an undercover in or setup a house and installed video cameras inside the house and you literally watch what goes down in a traphouse, dudes playing playstation, having conversations about food, women, life, etc. If you like documentaries or true crime type stuff check it out its fascinating.
I ended up using the "jack shack" term a little bit ago at Wal-Mart. THere is this Nail and WAX place that is open at all hours of the night and it looks real dark in there.
I was checking out at the Wal-mart market grocier and I said all wide eyed. "Do you know anything about that nail place? Someone told me it is a JACK Shack!!!!" The check out lady thought it was pretty funny.
haha you'll have to go check it out and report back
Hahha, I had never heard of the term "jack Shack" LOL
That had me laughing.