How I Quit My Job to Sell Other People’s Stuff (And Why You Should Follow My Journey) | Unstuff #1
Eight years in a corporate job.
A steady $60,000 salary with security, predictability, and comfort. But it was crushing me — spiritually and emotionally. Last year, I stood in my cluttered storage room — surrounded by things I’d wanted to get rid of for years — and realized: maybe I’m not the only one with the same problem.
So, I quit my job to sell other people’s stuff.
Crazy? Probably. Exciting? Definitely. Worth it?
That’s what I’m here to find out.
My strategy changed with reading the Million Dollar Weekend
I’ve been looking for a way out of the grind since I graduated in 2016.
None of my ideas had worked — an IndieGoGo campaign failed, my jewelry design business hit a wall, and online writing never took off. I felt stuck, putting in hours of work for little reward.
Then, one day, I heard something that changed everything. YouTuber Ali Abdaal said, “You wouldn’t expect to become a physicist without studying physics — so why expect to make money without first learning how?”
That led me to Million Dollar Weekend. The book turned my idea of success on its head. It taught me that you should validate ideas before pouring time and money into them. And, that if you help people solve a real problem, then success can be quick.
The idea of validation wasn’t new to me — after all, I worked as a product manager — but, the authors took it to a whole new level: find paying customers with almost zero investment.
That resonated. All I needed was a problem to solve.
We came up with the idea by admiring our clutter
My wife and I brainstormed.
One day, the problem revealed itself. We stared into our storage that permanently looked like a bomb had gone off. There were plenty of things to get rid of — but many were too valuable to just throw away. The problem was the time and the effort — which don’t come cheap when you work and have two kids.
If only someone could come and sell it for us.
And there it was: the idea.
Next we just needed to validate and see if others would let us sell their things for a share of the revenue. To that end, I posted on Reddit and Facebook.
Not only did it get a lot of attention — I also found a partner who joined the project!
Now I’m a pirate heading out to sea
Fast forward 6 months, and we have more stuff than we can handle. So far, we’ve helped 4 people sell 60+ items for a revenue of around $2,500, which was accomplished with only a couple of hours per week.
We had reached the time for a leap of faith.
And so, here I am: no stable income, no guarantees, just a crazy idea and a lot of hope.
If you’ve ever dreamed of escaping the Matrix, then tag along. I’ll share every lesson and mistake, and maybe even help you start a journey of your own.
Who knows how far we can go?
