I sold my company for over $40 million when I was 31.

Here’s every idea I tried before my big win:

1. In high school I made $2,500 one summer flipping seniors’ used sports gear on eBay.

2. At 20, I launched a hot dog stand called Southern Sam’s: Wieners as Big as a Baby’s Arm. Made up to $1,000 a day. Learned how to sell - and how to blow all my money on beer.

3. That same year, I started an online liquor store selling rare whiskey. It lasted three months before a lawyer told me I wasn't doing things correctly. Still made $10K in profit.

4. In San Francisco, I started a weekly business book club called The Anti-MBA. Couldn't figure out how to monetize it, but met lifelong friends.

...

Hampton has a Slack channel called sh*t i'm f*cked where people tell stories when they nearly failed.

The channel is our most popular channel.

Its honestly pretty awesome seeing super successful people talk about near-business-death experiences.

Also fun to celebrate these f*ck ups and laugh at it all.

A few highlights (anonymized):

1. $140k payroll due in 6 days. $550k in receivables. $7k in the bank.

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