How to Make Money in High School (My $20/Hour Story)

When
I
was
in
high
school,
I
decided
I
wanted
to
get
a
different
job
than
just
working
at
the
pizza
place
near
my
house.

Around
sophomore/junior
year,
I
sat
down
and
found
a
bunch
of
websites
with
horrible
copy…and
emailed
them,
telling
them
I
could
fix
their
website
and
help
them
get
more
sales.

I
emailed
about
50.

20
replies.

I
had
serious
calls
with
3.

And
I
ended
up
going
with
one
company
that
paid
me
$20/hour
and
bought
me
a
cellphone
to
do
sales
calls.
This
was
a
big
deal
for
a
high-school
kid.

And
it
was
eye-opening
to
see
that,
while
I
was
earning
minimum
wage
making
pizza,
I
could
make
$20/hour
doing
something
a
lot
more
fun.

It
all
started
with
a
simple
pitch.
I
noticed
their
problems
(horrible
English
on
their
website),
wrote
them
a
note
telling
them
how
I
could
fix
it,
then
just
clicked
“Send.”

This
is
a
totally
different
way
of
approaching
the
world.
Most
of
us
wait
for
someone
to
tell
us
what
to
do,
what
to
fix,
and
how
to
do
it.

For
the
few
people
who
can
proactively
identify
problems
and
suggest
fixes,
you
will
never
worry
about
doing
interesting
work,
or
being
compensated
extraordinarily
well.

And
today,
I
want
to
show
you.

For
10
years,
I’ve
wanted
to
show
you
how
changing
your
approach
—
zigging
when
others
zag
in
money,
business,
even
relationships
—
can
be
incredibly
liberating.

Interestingly,
when
you
write
about
earning
more,
people’s
reactions
are
reflexively
negative:

“There’s
no
way
anybody
would
hire
me…I
don’t
have
any
skills
that
somebody
would
pay
for.”

Really?
I
point
out
all
the
things
they
already
pay
for:

• Oil
  changes
  (which
  they
  can
  learn
  how
  to
  do
  in
  20
  minutes)
• Restaurants
  (they
  could
  cook,
  themselves)
• A
  nice
  coat
  (why
  not
  just
  get
  the
  1/2
  price
  one
  from
  Wal-Mart?)

But
I
can
give
you
intellectual
arguments
all
day…

…or
I
can
just
show
you.

In
the
past,
I’ve
hired
a
personal
chef,
stylist
for
photo
shoots,
someone
to
help
with
travel/flight
booking,
etc.