Yes, you read that correctly. You have to get gangster! No, I’m not talking about the narcotics dealing “man child” wearing saggy pants and a crooked hat. Actually, dealing narcotics was a no-no among the real gangsters and they would whack you for it. Drug dealing brought too much heat from the cops. I’m talking about the person in the five thousand dollar sharkskin suit with multiple streams of income.
After watching The Godfather 2, I became intrigued about how an immigrant standing on Ellis Island with nothing but a suitcase ended up with a multi-million dollar empire. So, I decided to investigate. I devoured hundreds of books about real life Godfathers and gangsters. The common thread in everything that I read was that they became rich and powerful by establishing multiple streams of income. Things like alcohol bootlegging, gambling parlors, brothels, the garment industry, cement companies, loan sharking, construction businesses, racketeering, and much more. Men AND women gangsters! The women could be just as scary and deadly. And most of those men and women never even made it past the eighth grade!
Now, I’m not condoning any of these dealings, so don’t worry about having to put Rocco in cement shoes due to non payment. Pursuing a career in businesses like that is risky and could land you in prison for a very long time.
What I am emphasizing here is the multiple streams of income. The hustle! That’s the thing that these gangsters had, hustle. They didn’t whine about “the man” holding them down. They didn’t lay around playing games or watching other people’s dreams come true on television. They went out into the world and threw down! So, that’s what you have to do if you want to build wealth. Get out there and work it! Everybody wants to be gangster until it’s time to do some gangster s#!t!
I’m always prowling around like a lion looking for opportunities to start another drip, another income stream. Back when I was working in student housing as a maintenance technician, rich kids would just move out of their apartment and leave all their stuff! I would go in and gather up everything: TVs, PlayStations, bicycles, furniture…and I would store it all in my tiny apartment. This was before you could sell stuff easily on the internet so I had to put ads in the newspaper to sell the stuff. I made thousands of dollars. My co-workers thought that I was dealing drugs because my phone never stopped ringing. They would see me off in a corner on my lunch break with my trunk open and the buyers trunk open.
So, I had my day job maintenance tech income, my guitar playing/live music income, my selling stuff income, my money market account interest, and mutual fund investment income. That’s 5 things bringing in cash. That’s how I was able to go from $0 in 2006 to $30,000 in 2010. I also cut my expenses down to the bare bones. I only spent money on needs, not wants. I didn’t buy new clothes for years. The only clothes that I needed were work clothes. After I made $500 during a weekend of selling PlayStations and mini fridges, I didn’t run out and buy a gold watch. I put it right into my money market account. That’s the key. You have to sacrifice a few years for decades of freedom.
After you read this, head over to the How To Save Money link on this website to see what you can do right now to start building your empire.
Okay! I hope you’re fired up and ready to get gangster! Below are some ideas on what you can do for multiple streams of income.
- Blow leaves off of peoples roofs. (Be safe about it though!) $40 a roof. 40 x 5 roofs, that’s $200! I’d spend $40.00 to not have a leak due to excessive leaves on my roof.
- Deliver pizzas.
- Drive for UBER. You can set your own hours with UBER. Work whenever is good for you.
- If you have a 24 hour emergency on call service at your day job, take someone else’s week too. I made piles of cash taking on call for my co-workers. While they were out partying, I was stacking money.
- Start a YouTube channel and monetize it. Do you have a special talent that you can teach? Film yourself doing it and put it on YouTube! YouTube places ads on your videos and that’s how you get paid. My YouTube show The Dirty Maintenance Show is a great side hustle.
- If you work or live in a pet friendly apartment complex, advertise that you can walk their dog or feed their pets while they’re out.
- Pick up all the pennies, nickles, dimes, and quarters that all of the broke people are too proud to pick up. My change bucket nets me an extra $250 a year! That’s $250 for just bending over and picking it up. If you’re a maintenance tech and there’s a public car vacuum on your property, look inside the waste bag before you empty it. I find $2.00 to $3.00 in there every week.
- Do side jobs. Do you know how to fix things? Put on Facebook that you do side jobs and if anyone needs something fixed, they can call you.
- Sell stuff. Either around your house or if you’re a maintenance tech, sell stuff that people leave around the property that you work at. I recently made $165 off a bed set someone left behind. With the internet now days, selling is so easy.
- Go to the Dollar Store and buy stuff for $1.00 and then sell it on eBay or Amazon for $3.00 to $5.00.
Alright, that list of side hustles is just to get your juices flowing. I’m sure that if you grabbed a sheet of paper and thought about it, you could come up with many more.
Oh boy…I can already hear some of you. “Oh my gosh he’s recommending that people become murdering mobsters!” No, no, no, and hell no. I’m only recommending that you should adopt a little gangster hustle into your life and go after multiple streams of income. No more whining about being broke in America. Instead of whining, you find what people want or need and start a side hustle by fulfilling that want or need. Like the Irish, Jewish, and Italian immigrants that came here with nothing and built million dollar empires did. Although the wants that the old gangsters fulfilled for people tended to people’s dark side, it was still a want and they fulfilled it. Regular working people wanted to drink, gamble, borrow money, and “look” at beautiful women. So, they started businesses and side hustles that gave people what they wanted. If no one was buying, there would’ve been no business.
You can do this! Especially with the internet now days, a side hustle is not hard to find. Don’t just get one going. Get as many as you’re able to do! “Yea but Lex, I have a wife and kids so I can’t find the time.” Oh really? Me too! And I made $15,000 of side hustle money last year. I put some of that $15,000 right into my money market account and some into my mutual fund. Once you turn off the idiot box (a.k.a. television) and start focusing on you, I promise things will change. I put my kids to bed and do my side hustle between 9:00pm and 12:00pm. Then I wake up at 5:30am and continue until 6:15am.
Now get out there and hustle! And remember, everybody wants to be gangster until it’s time to do some gangster s#!t. Walk away from the 90 percent.
My All Time Favorite Gangster Books:
One of the best books about a rogue gangster named Jon Roberts who made his way to Miami after running into some trouble in New York. His uncle was Carlo Gambino’s consigliere. Fantastic and action packed book! Click on the book or this Amazon link to take you there.
The Ice Man is one of the scariest dudes you’ll ever read about. The Ice Man Confessions of A Mafia Contract Killer book link.
Hear what a real godfather talks about inside his house. Paul Castellano was one of the last of the old school gangsters hanging on to his empire before drug dealing brought the mob down.The Boss of Bosses book link.
My favorite book of all time. Vito Corleone was a quiet, brilliant family man that had to do what he had to do for his family. Before drugs ruined everything that he stood for. The Godfather book link.
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How I Started My Financial Journey
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