You see headlines about the 22-year-old who raised $10M+ for an app.
Journalists make it sound like a huge achievement even though the company hasn’t made a dollar.
But you never hear about the guy in your city who owns 15 McDonald’s and cleared $4M last year.
There’s a reason for that.
The McDonald’s guy stays quiet. Because the moment he opens his mouth, someone accuses him of paying poverty wages or poisoning kids with processed food.
I’m 38 years old and own 35 auto repair shops. When I talk about building a $50M/year business, people assume I got there by ripping off customers.
The pattern is always the same.
The more real the business, the more visible the owner, the easier it is to villainize them.
Tech founders get celebrated for burning cash. Main Street owners get criticized for actually making money.
So the people who could actually show you a realistic path to wealth just don’t talk.
They have nothing to gain and everything to lose.
Which means there’s an entire world of opportunity that stays invisible.
It’s a shame since their stories should be the most inspirational. They’re the most achievable for the average person.
Almost every rich Main Street owner did it the old-fashioned way. They worked their butt off for a long time. They stayed focused on one thing. They reinvested most of their profits back into the business.
I’ve been in auto repair for 15 years. I didn’t invent anything. I didn’t revolutionize anything. I’ve never even fixed a car in my life.
But I learned how to hire great mechanics and profitably operate shops. Then I learned how to buy locations from 75-year-olds whose kids (and grandkids) didn’t want them.
I met a guy last week who spent 12 years in the military. After retiring, he bought a Sports Clips franchise. Then another. Then another.
22 years later, he owns 70 of them, doing $30M+ in revenue.
What a boring headline. “Man gets rich doing the same thing for 22 years.”
But that’s exactly the point.
The realistic path to wealth isn’t a viral moment. It’s years of compounding in an everyday business.
The opportunity is bigger than ever right now.
You don’t need to invent the next big thing. You don’t need a venture capitalist to believe in your vision. You don’t need to compete with Stanford kids with trust funds and connections.
Thousands of baby boomers are retiring every day in America. Many of them own small businesses that they built over 30 or 40 years.
Their kids don’t want to take over the business because it isn’t cool, or they don’t want to work as hard as their parents did. These owners are tired and want out.
That’s the opportunity. But it’s also where it gets tricky.
All of these small businesses are the owner’s jobs. The business relies 100% on them and will rely on YOU after purchasing.
And that’s okay at first, since you need to learn everything anyway.
But to really get rich in both money and freedom, the business has to grow beyond you.
That means hiring great people, firing the terrible ones, and building systems that remove you from the day-to-day. Then you learn how to copy and paste.
One location becomes two. Two becomes four. Four becomes ten.
Each location might only make $100K per year. When you have one, it’s a job. But if you’ve got 10…..that’s a $1M per year PROFIT business.
So ignore social media. Start looking for opportunities that others don’t see.
Look for boring, dirty, not cool stuff. Also, it may take longer than you’d like.
But that’s ultimately how you win in the end.
Cheers!
Brian
P.S. I’ve got a few seats open for my Austin mastermind event on Feb 19-20. You must own a franchise and be serious about growth. Reply here if interested
